I-Corps: Ultra-Sensitive and Fast-Response Zinc Oxide Schottky-Contact Ultraviolet Nanosensor

I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是提供一种新的方法来生产高灵敏度、快速响应、超低功耗、低成本和高度热稳定的紫外线传感器。UV传感器具有广泛的市场，从工业、制造、健康到消费应用，因此具有重大的社会和经济影响潜力。这项创新将大大减少紫外线传感器技术的资金和经常性成本，公众将从中受益。该技术通过提供更低的功耗、更宽的工作温度范围以及灵活的设备实施方案的潜力，有可能影响紫外线传感器行业。I-Corps项目将帮助客户发现一项核心技术，该技术可能会影响紫外线（UV）传感器行业。由于氧化锌（ZnO）纳米结构具有较大的表面体积比和减小的活性区尺寸，因此具有较高的光子电导，从而使器件性能具有较高的灵敏度。利用肖特基触点代替传统的欧姆触点，大大提高了ZnO紫外纳米传感器的灵敏度和响应时间。此外，该器件可以沉积在硅以及柔性衬底上。ZnO UV纳米传感器的特性（即性能指标，系统集成，封装，外形因素等）将与当前和未来的客户需求保持一致，同时，将探索这种新技术的商业模式。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to provide a novel approach towards producing high sensitivity, fast response, ultra-low power consumption, low cost, and highly thermal stable UV sensors. UV sensors have wide ranging markets from industrial, manufacturing, health, to consumer applications, and therefore have significant potential for societal and economic impact. The general public will benefit from the significant reduction in the capital and recurring cost of UV sensor technologies brought by the innovation. The technology has the potential to impact the UV sensor industry by providing lower power consumption, wider operation temperature ranges, and the potential for flexible device embodiments.This I-Corps project will enable customer discovery for a core technology that could potentially impact the ultraviolet (UV) sensor industry. Due to large surface-to-volume ratio and reduced dimensionality of the active area, Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nanostructures have been shown to have high photon conductance, which leads to high sensitivity of the device performance. Utilizing the Schottky contact instead of conventional Ohmic contact in device fabrication, the sensitivity and response time of ZnO UV nanosensors have been greatly improved. In addition, the device can be deposited on silicon as well as flexible substrates. The characteristics of the ZnO UV nanosensor (i.e. performance metrics, system integration, packaging, form factors, etc.) will be aligned with current and future customer needs, while at the same time, a business model will be explored for this novel technology.