Sharif Digital Repository

In order to improve the performance of thin film devices, it is necessary to characterize their mechanical, as well as electrical, properties. In this work, a model is developed for analysis of the mechanical and electrical properties and the prediction of residual stresses in thin films of silver nanoparticles deposited on silicon substrates. The model is based on inter-particle diffusion modeling and finite element analysis. Through simulation of the sintering process, it is shown how the geometry, density, and electrical resistance of the thin film layers are changed by sintering conditions. The model is also used to approximate the values of Young's modulus and the generated residual... 

The goal of this paper is to describe a simple method for the automated data acquisition and analysis of data taken by programmable instruments. Device controls and communication method are explained and some typical illustrative examples showing the potential applications of the method in real experiments are presented. This method offers a quick and flexible way to control many instruments by using a multi-device arrangement of a stacking method in a parallel operation. The General-Purpose Interface Bus (GPIB) is used here for remote control of the devices. By using Excel and Visa interactive programs and using GPIB interface, easy communication and data transfer between instruments and a... 

In this paper, we introduce the sequential deposition method for enhancing the performance of nanocomposite counter electrodes (CEs) in quantum dot sensitized solar cells (QDSCs). Here, various CEs are made by the deposition of CuS, PbS, and CuS/PbS nanocomposite layers on an FTO (fluorine doped tin oxide) coated glass substrate by a simple successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method. The result indicates that the efficiency of the cells with CuS/PbS CEs is enhanced by 2.65% compared with the bare CuS (0.99%) or PbS (1.47%) CEs. Also, no considerable improvement is observed for PbS/CuS CEs (1.09%), which indicates that the order of PbS and CuS deposition is critical for... 

Gas permeation through nanoscale pores is ubiquitous in nature and has an important role in many technologies 1,2 . Because the pore size is typically smaller than the mean free path of gas molecules, the flow of the gas molecules is conventionally described by Knudsen theory, which assumes diffuse reflection (random-angle scattering) at confining walls 3-7 . This assumption holds surprisingly well in experiments, with only a few cases of partially specular (mirror-like) reflection known 5,8-11 . Here we report gas transport through ångström-scale channels with atomically flat walls 12,13 and show that surface scattering can be either diffuse or specular, depending on the fine details of the... 

So-called negative capacitance seems to remain an obscure feature in the analysis of the frequency-dependent impedance of perovskite solar cells. It belongs to one of the puzzling peculiarities arising from the mixed ionic-electronic conductivity of this class of semiconductor. Here we show that apparently high capacitances in general (positive and negative) are not related to any capacitive feature in the sense of a corresponding charge accumulation. Instead, they are a natural consequence of slow transients mainly in forward current of the diode upon ion displacement when changing voltage. The transient current leads to a positive or negative ‘capacitance’ dependent on the sign of its... 

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are rapidly becoming recognized as a new alternative to traditional energy conversion systems because of their high energy efficiency. From an ecological perspective, this environmentally friendly technology, which produces clean energy, is likely to be implemented more frequently in the future. However, the current SOFC technology still cannot meet the demands of commercial applications due to temperature constraints and high cost. To develop a marketable SOFC, suppliers have tended to reduce the operating temperatures by a few hundred degrees. The overall trend for SOFC materials is to reduce their service temperature of electrolyte. Meanwhile, it is... 

Organ-on-chip devices have provided the pharmaceutical and tissue engineering worlds much hope since they arrived and began to grow in sophistication. However, limitations for their applicability were soon realized as they lacked real-time monitoring and sensing capabilities. The users of these devices relied solely on endpoint analysis for the results of their tests, which created a chasm in the understanding of life between the lab the natural world. However, this gap is being bridged with sensors that are integrated into organ-on-chip devices. This review goes in-depth on different sensing methods, giving examples for various research on mechanical, electrical resistance, and bead-based... 

Planar superstrate CuInS2 (CIS) solar cell devices are fabricated using totally solution-processed deposition methods. These Cd-free devices are structured by FTO/TiO2/In2S3/CIS/carbon, where TiO2 and In2S3 are deposited by spray pyrolysis, and a CIS film is deposited using spin-coating followed by annealing at 250 °C. The pasted carbon layer is utilized as the anode. No further sulfurization or selenization is employed. The Cu/In ratio in the ink is found as a critical factor affecting the morphology and crystallinity of the film as well as the photovoltaic performance of the device. An optimum Cu/In = 1.05 results in large-grain films with sharp diffraction peaks and, subsequently, optimal... 

Effects of graphene, tool rotational speed and pass number were studied on the reliability and electrical resistance of the aluminum to copper friction stir welds. Addition of graphene was an effective solution to overcome the increase in the electrical resistance of the aluminum/copper joints. Indeed, presence of graphene decreased the electrical resistance of the joints to the values comparable with that of the copper base metal. However, joint tensile strength was not affected significantly by graphene. Decrease in the tool rotational speed improved the dispersion of the graphene particles and tensile strength, while reduced the electrical resistance. Tensile strength of the joint reached... 

Nonlinear transmission lines (NLTLs) are passive networks with the capability of modulating baseband pulses. These networks are used for generating RF pulses at high-power levels. NLTLs have a unique performance in high-power RF pulse generation among all the generators based on the solid-state technology. A high-power rectangular pulse is injected to the line, gradually evolved into an oscillatory pulse while propagating through the network, and finally, in the form of a high-power RF pulse, is delivered to the load. Properly terminating an NLTL, in order to transfer the maximum available RF power to the load, is an important problem. In this paper, an accurate analysis is presented, which... 

In this brief, a design technique for tapered distributed low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) is presented. A circuit model is developed for gain and noise analysis of a nonuniform distributed amplifier (DA). It is shown that by optimal tapering of gate and drain transmission lines and transistors, the tapered distributed LNA can provide lower broadband average noise figure (NF) compared to a uniform DA. A proof-of-concept integrated circuit is implemented using a 0.1-μm GaAs pHEMT process. The amplifier provides average gain of 15.2 dB and 3-dB bandwidth of 43.3 GHz. The average NF of 2.3 dB and minimum NF of 2.0 dB are achieved over 2-40 GHz. The chip consumes 55 mA current from a 2-V supply. ©... 

Despite the considerable effort has been put on the application of Non-Volatile Memories (NVMs) in Field-Programmable Gate Arrays FPGAs, previously suggested designs are not mature enough to substitute the state of-the-art SRAM-based counterparts mainly due to the inefficient building blocks and/or the overhead of programming structure which can impair their potential benefits. In this paper, we present a Resistive Random Access Memory RRAM-based FPGA architecture employing efficient Switch Box (SB) and Look-Up Table (LUT) designs with programming circuitry integrated in both SB and LUT designs that creates area and power efficient programmable components while precluding performance... 

Drift step recovery diodes (DSRDs) have a special place in high-power short-pulse generation. In this paper, a cascaded configuration of two DSRD-based high-power short-pulse generators with gas discharge switches was used. The high-power pulses generated in the first stage feed the second stage in order to generate shorter pulses with higher peak powers. A prototype was implemented based on this idea. In the first stage, 1.2-kV pulses were generated from a 50-V power supply. At the output of the second stage, 2.1-kV pulses with a repetition rate of more than 50 Hz were obtained. The output peak voltage was limited by the breakdown voltage of the used DSRD. Repetitive pulses with 4-ns rise... 

In this paper, acoustic energy harvesting using a tunable Helmholtz Resonator (HR) is investigated. The frequency of resonator can be changed by varying the radial force in a membrane which is used in one of its face. Applying acoustic pressure, vibrates the air inside HR neck and therefore changes pressure in HR chamber which results in membrane vibration. Attached magnet to the membrane will vibrate and its relative motion to a fixed coil generates voltage on the basis of Faraday's law of induction. Modeling approach is developed considering equivalent nonlinear membrane stiffness and coupling of electrical circuit and mechanical device. At the end, system behavior is studied numerically... 

Metal-oxide gas sensors are widely used for detection of detrimental H2S gas. Among them, SnO2-CuO system has been proved to be an excellent candidate. The previous theoretical 2D thin bilayer model was able to explain some aspects of H2S sensing performance of this promising system. However, experimental researches have indicated that response values for this system are very diverse and various SnO2-CuO multicomponent heterostructures such as rods, wires and particles have much higher response than their thin bilayer counterparts. Understanding the reason behind this differences would help fabrication of optimized sensor element. However, the previous model cannot address this issue mainly... 

A novel cascode configuration previously presented as a high output resistance load (Fujimori and Sugimoto, 1998) has been investigated and utilized for amplification to achieve higher gain and bandwidth by the authors (Lofti and Atarodi, Proc. ICEE'00, vol.1, pp.83-8, 2000). A low-voltage single-stage opamp using this configuration is designed. Finally, based on this idea a 1.5-V offset- and gain-compensated 5th order switched-capacitor low pass filter with only 150 μA current consumption in a 0.8 μm process is designed. © 2000 IEEE  

We compare Cu/M/SiO2 (M=Cr,V and Ta) multilayers that were deposited on Si substrates. Sample resistance measurements were carried out during annealing in 80% N2+20% H2, N2 and Ar environments. Resistivity measurements, SEM observations, RBS and AES spectroscopies from annealed samples showed good diffusion barrier properties for Cr and V but rather poor properties for Ta buffer layers. This is due to the amorphous nature of Cr films and formation of a continuous Cu overlayer. SEM observation also showed granular structure for Cu/V and Cu/Ta with grain sizes of about 500 and 1000 Å respectively. However, shallow nitrogen implantation in Cu/V samples and DC biasing for Cu/Ta layers during... 

A double-layer SnO2/ZnO gas sensor was produced by utilisation of SnOSUB align=right2 and ZnO thin films. Top layer consisted of SnOSUB align=right2 produced by a sol gel-controlled annealing technique. Bottom coating consisted of ZnO thin film precipitated by Two-Stage Chemical Deposition (TSCD) from an aqueous zinc-containing solution. Both top and bottom coatings were analysed by SEM, XRD, EDAX and AAS. Gas sensitivity of the SnO2/ZnO double layer was determined by electrical resistance measurements. Although sensitivity was slightly reduced by double-layer formation, selectivity and stability were considerably improved by combination of the two thin layers. The existence of an... 

It has been proven that tapering the piezoelectric beam through its length optimizes the power extracted from vibration based energy harvesting. This phenomenon has been investigated by some researchers using semianalytical, finite element and experimental methods. In this paper, an exact analytical solution is presented to calculate the power generated from vibration of exponentially tapered unimorph and bimorph with series and parallel connections. The mass normalized mode shapes of the exponentially tapered piezoelectric beam with tip mass are implemented to transfer the proposed electromechanical coupled equations into modal coordinates. The steady states harmonic solution results are... 

Proper functioning of electrical connectors used in high oscillation is of great importance. Vibrations in connector pins cause stress and electrical resistance variations in the contact surface. In the present paper, the impacts of vibrational loads on electrical connectors is being modeled using the finite element method, and the electrical resistance oscillations of the connectors will be examined. Ultimately, the parameters affecting the electrical resistance oscillations of contacts will be determined and their relations with oscillations in electrical resistance are specified as well. © 2018 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada, 2018 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved...