Advanced silicon based nanofibrous materials for Infrared (IR) Emitter Fabrication

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In the first phase of this project, Dr. Kiani's team, in collaboration with Kennedy Labs, developed effective and inexpensive methods for nanofibrous silicon (NfSi) fabrication with hybrid nano structured surface consisting of nanofibers or nano particles and in some cases, a combination of both. In addition, commercialization of such structures was successfully done by Kennedy Labs along with their marketing partner, DigiKey Corporation. Upon being approached by current collaborator, Kennedy Labs and Dr. Kiani's teams have aimed to explore possibilities to use NfSi for Infra-Red (IR) emitters. Considering available knowledge with series of experiments and promising initial emissivity results of the fabricated NfSi, in the second phased of this project, a novel method for fabrication of NfSi-based IR emitters, will be developed.**When compared to contemporary nano and micro fabrication processes, employing a laser approach will decrease the complexity of fabrication significantly. Furthermore, fabrication of IR emitters using silicon wafer would enable easy miniaturization with no requirement of tungsten wires resulting in a less complicated and smoother fabrication process. Such in-house developed NfSi structure developed by Dr. Kiani's team, will provide unique advantage to Kennedy Labs of having knowledge to introduce novelty, reduce cost, grow and thrive in adjacent competitive market. Also, such achievement will establish UOIT as a leader in nano processing technology using laser, attracting attention from potential investors and collaborators. Overall, the proposed research will enable clean and green micro and nano manufacturing along with fabrication of effective and miniaturized IR emitters in Ontario and Canada. In addition, the technology developed through this research project can be used for production of commercial quality sensors & detectors for IoT applications including health monitoring and in data-center interconnect with optical devices.**