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The reliability of additively manufactured flexible electronics or so-called printed electronics is defined as mean time to failure under service conditions, which often involve mechanical loads. It is thus important to understand the mechanical behavior of the printed materials under such conditions to ensure their applicational reliability in, for example, sensors, biomedical devices, battery and storage, and flexible hybrid electronics. In this article, a testing protocol to examine the print quality of additively nanomanufactured electronics is presented. The print quality is assessed by both tensile and electrical resistivity responses during in-situ tension tests. A laser based additive nanomanufacturing method is used to print conductive silver lines on polyimide substrates, which is then tested in-situ under tension inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The surface morphology of the printed lines is continuously monitored via the SEM until failure. In addition, the real-time electrical resistance variations of the printed silver lines are measured in-situ with a multimeter during tensile tests conducted outside of the SEM. The protocol is shown to be effective in assessing print quality and aiding process tuning. Finally, it is revealed that samples appearing identical under the SEM can have significant different tendencies to delaminate. 

Printed electronics are gaining significant interest due to their design flexibility, low fabrication cost, and rapid design-to-manufacturing turnaround. Conventional substrates for printed electronics are often based on nonbiodegradable polymers such as polyimide that pose high environmental challenges by creating massive e-waste and pollution. As the demand for printed electronics and sensors increases, the ability to print such devices on biodegradable substrates can provide a solution to such environmental problems. However, current printing technologies are based on liquids and inks that are incompatible with biodegradable substrates, such as paper. Here, we present a dry-printing process, namely, a dry additive nanomanufacturing (Dry-ANM) technique, for printing conductive silver lines and patterns on biodegradable papers for flexible hybrid papertronics. Pure and dry nanoparticles are generated by pulsed laser ablation of a silver target that is then transported through a nozzle and directed onto paper substrates, where they are deposited and laser-sintered in real time to form the desired pattern without damaging the paper. The effects of different printing parameters on the paper-burning threshold are investigated, and the electrical properties of the lines are characterized by using different line thicknesses and sintering laser power densities. In addition, the mechanical and electrical properties of the printed lines and patterns are evaluated by bending and twisting tests. Furthermore, the feasibility of printing silver on different paper types is demonstrated. This research can potentially lead to biodegradable and environmentally friendly printed electronics and sensors. 

Additively manufactured electronics (AMEs), also known as printed electronics, are becoming increasingly important for the anticipated Internet of Things (IoT). This requires manufacturing technologies that allow the integration of various pure functional materials and devices onto different flexible and rigid surfaces. However, the current ink-based technologies suffer from complex and expensive ink formulation, ink-associated contaminations (additives/solvents), and limited sources of printing materials. Thus, printing contamination-free and multimaterial structures and devices is challenging. Here, a multimaterial additive nanomanufacturing (M-ANM) technique utilizing directed laser deposition at the nano and microscale is demonstrated, allowing the printing of lateral and vertical hybrid structures and devices. This M-ANM technique involves pulsed laser ablation of solid targets placed on a target carousel inside the printer head for in-situ generation of contamination-free nanoparticles, which are then guided via a carrier gas toward the nozzle and onto the surface of the substrate, where they are sintered and printed in real-time by a second laser. The target carousel brings a particular target in engagement with the ablation laser beam in predetermined sequences to print multiple materials, including metals, semiconductors, and insulators, in a single process. Using this M-ANM technique, various multimaterial devices such as silver/zinc oxide (Ag/ZnO) photodetector and hybrid silver/aluminum oxide (Ag/Al2O3) circuits are printed and characterized. The quality and versatility of our M-ANM technique offer a potential manufacturing option for emerging IoT. 

This work presents a novel, to the best of our knowledge, cross correlation technique for determining the laser heating-induced Raman shift laser power coefficientψrequired for energy transport state-resolved Raman (ET-Raman) methods. The cross correlation method determines the measure of similarity between the experimental intensity data and a varying test Gaussian signal. By circumventing the errors inherent in any curve fittings, the cross correlation method quickly and accurately determines the location where the test Gaussian signal peak is most like the Raman peak, thereby revealing the peak location and ultimately the value ofψ. This method improves the reliability of optothermal Raman-based methods for micro/nanoscale thermal measurements and offers a robust approach to data processing through a global treatment of Raman spectra.

 

Phonons are important lattice vibrations that affect the thermal, electronic, and optical properties of materials. In this work, we studied infrared phonon resonance in a prototype van der Waals (vdW) material—hexagonal boron nitride (hBN)—with the thickness ranging from monolayers to bulk, especially on ultra-thin crystals with atomic layers smaller than 20. Our combined experimental and modeling results show a systematic increase in the intensity of in-plane phonon resonance at the increasing number of layers in hBN, with a sensitivity down to one atomic layer. While the thickness-dependence of the phonon resonance reveals the antenna nature of our nanoscope, the linear thickness-scaling of the phonon polariton wavelength indicates the preservation of electromagnetic hyperbolicity in ultra-thin hBN layers. Our conclusions should be generic for fundamental resonances in vdW materials and heterostructures where the number of constituent layers can be conveniently controlled. The thickness-dependent phonon resonance and phonon polaritons revealed in our work also suggest vdW engineering opportunities for desired thermal and nanophotonic functionalities. 

Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (2D-TMDs) hold a great potential to platform future flexible optoelectronics. The beating hearts of these materials are their excitons known as XA and XB, which arise from transitions between spin-orbit split (SOS) levels in the conduction and valence bands at the K-point. The functionality of 2D-TMD-based devices is determined by the dynamics of these excitons. One of the most consequential channels of exciton decay on the device functionality is the defect-assisted recombination (DAR). Here, we employ steady-state absorption and emission spectroscopies, and pump density-dependent femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy to report on the effect of DAR on the lifetime of excitons in monolayers of tungsten disulfide (2D-WS2) and diselenide (2D-WSe2). These pump-probe measurements suggested that while exciton decay dynamics in both monolayers are driven by DAR, in 2D-WS2, defect states near the XB exciton fill up before those near the XA exciton. However, in the 2D-WSe2 monolayer, the defect states fill up similarly. Understanding the contribution of DAR on the lifetime of excitons and the partition of this decay channel between XA and XB excitons may open new horizons for the incorporation of 2D-TMD materials in future optoelectronics.