Investigation of new advanced materials and structures for development of energy harvesting devices

背景通过在小型设备(智能手表、智能手机、平板电脑)和大型设备(无人机、电动汽车、机器人)中嵌入无数光电/电子元件和传感器，智能生活的健康概念令人着迷，并受到时代的驱动。然而，这些电子设备遇到的一个主要问题是它们对联网电源的依赖，阻碍了它们在健康监测/保健、国防、通信、物联网和智能城市/建筑方面的适用性。这造成了对能源生产的巨大需求，因此提高了能源的价格，并使用非环境友好的生产路线来满足需求。为了克服这一挑战，能够从周围环境中收集废弃能源的成本效益更高的绿色能源解决方案将使城市更可持续(SDG11)，并通过改善空气质量(SDG13)减少对气候的影响(SDG13)还有助于实现更负担得起的、更清洁的能源(SDG7)给传感平台和电子设备，同时减少它们的停机时间。目的本项目旨在研究通过物理气相沉积(PVD)方法沉积的新型先进材料，开发能够为小型电子设备和传感器供电的能量收集设备。项目描述该项目将利用詹姆斯瓦特纳米加工中心(JWNC)提供的最先进的PVD技术，在洁净室环境中沉积介质薄膜材料。材料性能将得到优化(结晶度、表面电荷密度、介电常数、粗糙度、本征应力、硬度等)。利用所得薄膜作为活性材料开发摩擦电动和压电纳米发电机(Teng和Peng)。为此，将使用先进的材料表征技术(SEM、EDX、拉曼、应力、AFM、光学轮廓术、椭圆偏振光谱和CPD)对得到的半导体薄膜进行表征，并将对其进行后处理(在受控气体环境下进行热退火和RTA)，以进一步优化材料性能。此外，该项目还将包括使用JWNC最先进的光刻工具对Teng/Peng进行微型化，使Teng/Peng与便携式应用(例如，为智能手机和可穿戴电子设备供电)兼容。由此产生的能量收集设备将通过电源管理模块(PMM)设计与能量存储设备(即超级电容器)集成在一起，以优化设备的输出功率。此外，为了通过理论距离相关模型(DDM)模拟Teng/Peng的功率输出，使用Python将是必不可少的。能源系统的有效性将在各种传感平台上进行测试，包括用于健康监测和污染监测(即二氧化碳和NO检测)的化学传感器和光电探测器，以及小型机器人和无人机的能源。

Background The wholesome concept of smart life by the embedment of innumerable optoelectronic/electronic components and sensors in small devices (smart-watches, smart-phones, tablet) and larger ones (drones, electric-vehicles, robots) is fascinating and era-driven. However, a major issue encountered to these electronic devices is their dependence on a connected power source, hindering their applicability in health-monitoring/care, defence, communication, internet-of-things, and smart-cities/buildings. This has put an immense demand for energy generation which has consequently increased its price and use of non-environmentally friendly production routes to cope with the demand. To overcome this challenge, a cost-effective "greener" energy solution capable of harvesting wasted energy from surrounding environment will make cities to be more sustainable (SDG11) and less impactful on the climate through the improvement of the air quality (SDG13) also contributing to achieve more affordable and clean energy (SDG7) to power sensing platforms and electronics while reducing their downtimes.AimsThis project is aimed at investigating novel advanced materials deposited by physical vapor deposition (PVD) methods, to develop energy harvesting devices capable to power small electric devices and sensors.Project descriptionThe project will utilise state-of-the-art PVD technology available at James Watt Nanofabrication Centre (JWNC) for deposition of dielectric thin films materials at clean-room environment. Material properties will be optimised (crystallinity, surface charge density, dielectric permittivity, roughness, intrinsic stress, hardness, etc.) to use resulting films as active materials for the development of triboelectric and piezoelectric nanogenerators (TENG and PENG). For that, resulting semiconductor thin films will be characterised using techniques advanced material characterisation techniques (SEM, EDX, Raman, stress, AFM, optical profilometry, spectroscopic ellipsometry, and CPD) and will be post-treated (thermal annealing and RTA under controlled gas environment) to further optimise material properties, also at JWNC. Moreover, the project will also comprise the miniaturisation of the TENG/PENG using state-of-the-art lithography tools at JWNC to make the compatible with portable applications (e.g., powering smart phones, and wearable electronic devices). Resulting energy harvesting devices will be integrated with energy storage devices (i.e., supercapacitors) through power management modules (PMM) design to optimise the output power of the devices. Moreover, the use of Python will be essential to simulate TENG/PENG power output through the theoretical distance dependent model (DDM). Validity of the energy system will be tested in various sensing platforms, including chemical sensors, and photodetectors utilised in applications such as health monitoring and pollution monitoring (i.e., CO2 and NO detection), as well as energy sources for small robots and drones.