A modern challenge is for solar cell materials to enable the highest solar energy conversion efficiencies, at costs as low as possible, and at an energy balance as sustainable as necessary in the future. This textbook explains the principles, concepts and materials used in solar cells. It combines basic knowledge about solar cells and the demanded criteria for the materials with a comprehensive introduction into each of the four classes of materials for solar cells, i.e. solar cells based on crystalline silicon, epitaxial layer systems of III-V semiconductors, thin-film absorbers on foreign substrates, and nano-composite absorbers. In this sense, it bridges a gap between basic literature on the physics of solar cells and books specialized on certain types of solar cells.The last five years had several breakthroughs in photovoltaics and in the research on solar cells and solar cell materials. We consider them in this second edition. For example, the high potential of crystalline silicon with charge-selective hetero-junctions and alkaline treatments of thin-film absorbers, based on chalcopyrite, enabled new records. Research activities were boosted by the class of hybrid organic-inorganic metal halide perovskites, a promising newcomer in the field.This is essential reading for students interested in solar cells and materials for solar cells. It encourages students to solve tasks at the end of each chapter. It has been well applied for postgraduate students with background in materials science, engineering, chemistry or physics.

Heterogeneous integration uses packaging technology to integrate dissimilar chips, LED, MEMS, VCSEL, etc. from different fabless houses and with different functions and wafer sizes into a single system or subsystem. How are these dissimilar chips and optical components supposed to talk to each other? The answer is redistribution layers (RDLs). This book addresses the fabrication of RDLs for heterogeneous integrations, and especially focuses on RDLs on: A) organic substrates, B) silicon substrates (through-silicon via (TSV)-interposers), C) silicon substrates (bridges), D) fan-out substrates, and E) ASIC, memory, LED, MEMS, and VCSEL systems. The book offers a valuable asset for researchers, engineers, and graduate students in the fields of semiconductor packaging, materials sciences, mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, telecommunications, networking, etc.

A modern challenge is for solar cell materials to enable the highest solar energy conversion efficiencies, at costs as low as possible, and at an energy balance as sustainable as necessary in the future. This textbook explains the principles, concepts and materials used in solar cells. It combines basic knowledge about solar cells and the demanded criteria for the materials with a comprehensive introduction into each of the four classes of materials for solar cells, i.e. solar cells based on crystalline silicon, epitaxial layer systems of III-V semiconductors, thin-film absorbers on foreign substrates, and nano-composite absorbers. In this sense, it bridges a gap between basic literature on the physics of solar cells and books specialized on certain types of solar cells.The last five years had several breakthroughs in photovoltaics and in the research on solar cells and solar cell materials. We consider them in this second edition. For example, the high potential of crystalline silicon with charge-selective hetero-junctions and alkaline treatments of thin-film absorbers, based on chalcopyrite, enabled new records. Research activities were boosted by the class of hybrid organic-inorganic metal halide perovskites, a promising newcomer in the field.This is essential reading for students interested in solar cells and materials for solar cells. It encourages students to solve tasks at the end of each chapter. It has been well applied for postgraduate students with background in materials science, engineering, chemistry or physics.

Semiconductors for Photocatalysis, Volume 97 covers the latest breakthrough research and exciting developments in semiconductor photocatalysts and electrodes for water splitting and CO2 reduction. It includes a broad range of materials such as metal-oxides, metal-nitrides, silicon, III-V semiconductors, and the emerging layered compounds. New to this volume are chapters covering the Fundamentals of Semiconductor Photoelectrodes, Charge Carrier Dynamics in Metal Oxide Photoelectrodes for Water Oxidation, Photophysics and Photochemistry at the Semiconductor/Electrolyte Interface for Solar Water Splitting, V Semiconductor Photoelectrodes, III-Nitride Semiconductor Photoelectrodes, and Rare Earth Containing Materials for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting Applications. In addition, the design and modeling of photocatalysts and photoelectrodes and the fundamental mechanisms of water splitting and CO2 reduction is also discussed.

This book summarizes the current knowledge of two-dimensional oxide materials. The fundamental properties of 2-D oxide systems are explored in terms of atomic structure, electronic behavior and surface chemistry. The concept of polarity in determining the stability of 2-D oxide layers is examined, charge transfer effects in ultrathin oxide films are reviewed as well as the role of defects in 2-D oxide films. The novel structure concepts that apply in oxide systems of low dimensionality are addressed, and a chapter giving an overview of state-of-the-art theoretical methods for electronic structure determination of nanostructured oxides is included. Special emphasis is given to a balanced view from the experimental and the theoretical side. Two-dimensional materials, and 2-D oxides in particular, have outstanding behavior due to dimensionality and proximity effects. Several chapters treat prototypical model systems as illustrative examples to discuss the peculiar physical and chemical properties of 2-D oxide systems. The chapters are written by renowned experts in the field.

This book provides a unique review of various aspects of metallic contamination in Si and Ge-based semiconductors. It discusses all of the important metals including their origin during crystal and/or device manufacturing, their fundamental properties, their characterization techniques and their impact on electrical devices' performance. Several control and possible gettering approaches are addressed. The book offers a valuable reference guide for all researchers and engineers studying advanced and state-of-the-art micro- and nano-electronic semiconductor devices and circuits. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, it combines perspectives from e.g. material science, defect engineering, device processing, defect and device characterization, and device physics and engineering.

This book provides in-depth coverage of smart materials, including electroactive polymers (EAPs), synthetic muscle, pneumatic artificial muscle, soft pneumatics, hydro-muscle, and other cutting-edge transformational smart material technologies. It looks at ways smart materials respond to stimuli, such as electricity, pressure, temperature, magnetism, or light. State-of-the-art developments in EAP based actuation and pneumatics are covered, including nanotechnology, soft robotics, EAP considerations for NASA applications and thermal control of satellites, control of mirrors using dielectric elastomeric actuators, and biomimetic design and function in robotics and prosthetics. A detailed analysis of the challenges of smart materials on Earth and in space is included, with an interview about considerations and training for Missions to Moon and Mars. This book is a must-read within the smart material and space communities, from tech savvy students to industry professionals.

This book is an introduction to quantum states and of their scattering in semiconductor nanostructures. Written with exercises and detailed solutions, it is designed to enable readers to start modelling actual electron states and scattering in nanostructures. It first looks at practical aspects of quantum states and emphasises the variational and perturbation approaches. Following this there is analysis of quasi two-dimensional materials, including discussion of the eigenstates of nanostructures, scattering mechanisms and their numerical results.Focussing on practical applications, this book moves away from standard discourse on theory and provides students of physics, nanotechnology and materials science with the opportunity to fully understand the electronic properties of nanostructures.

This book is an introduction to quantum states and of their scattering in semiconductor nanostructures. Written with exercises and detailed solutions, it is designed to enable readers to start modelling actual electron states and scattering in nanostructures. It first looks at practical aspects of quantum states and emphasises the variational and perturbation approaches. Following this there is analysis of quasi two-dimensional materials, including discussion of the eigenstates of nanostructures, scattering mechanisms and their numerical results.Focussing on practical applications, this book moves away from standard discourse on theory and provides students of physics, nanotechnology and materials science with the opportunity to fully understand the electronic properties of nanostructures.

This book covers device design fundamentals and system applications in optical MEMS and nanophotonics. Expert authors showcase examples of how fusion of nanoelectromechanical (NEMS) with nanophotonic elements is creating powerful new photonic devices and systems including MEMS micromirrors, MEMS tunable filters, MEMS-based adjustable lenses and apertures, NEMS-driven variable silicon nanowire waveguide couplers, and NEMS tunable photonic crystal nanocavities. The book also addresses system applications in laser scanning displays, endoscopic systems, space telescopes, optical telecommunication systems, and biomedical implantable systems. Presents efforts to scale down mechanical and photonic elements into the nano regime for enhanced performance, faster operational speed, greater bandwidth, and higher level of integration. Showcases the integration of MEMS and optical/photonic devices into real commercial products. Addresses applications in optical telecommunication, sensing, imaging, and biomedical systems. Prof. Vincent C. Lee is Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore. Prof. Guangya Zhou is Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at National University of Singapore.

This edited book designs the Cognitive Computing in Human Cognition to analyze to improve the efficiency of decision making by cognitive intelligence. The book is also intended to attract the audience who work in brain computing, deep learning, transportation, and solar cell energy. Due to this in the recent era, smart methods with human touch called as human cognition is adopted by many researchers in the field of information technology with the Cognitive Computing.

This book presents an overview of the science of superconducting materials. It covers the fundamentals and theories of superconductivity. Subjects of special interest involving mechanisms of high temperature superconductors, tunneling, transport properties, magnetic properties, critical states, vortex dynamics, etc. are present in the book. It assists as a fundamental resource on the developed methodologies and techniques involved in the synthesis, processing, and characterization of superconducting materials. The book covers numerous classes of superconducting materials including fullerenes, borides, pnictides or iron-based chalcogen superconductors ides, alloys and cuprate oxides. Their crystal structures and properties are described. Thereafter, the book focuses on the progress of the applications of superconducting materials into superconducting magnets, fusion reactors, and accelerators and other superconducting magnets. The applications also cover recent progress in superconducting wires, power generators, powerful energy storage devices, sensitive magnetometers, RF and microwave filters, fast fault current limiters, fast digital circuits, transport vehicles, and medical applications.

In recent years, there has been a considerable amount of effort, both in industry and academia, focusing on the design, implementation, performance analysis, evaluation and prediction of silicon photonic interconnects for inter- and intra-chip communication, paving the way for the design and dimensioning of the next and future generation of high-performance computing systems. Photonic Interconnects for Computing Systems provides a comprehensive overview of the current state-of-the-art technology and research achievements in employing silicon photonics for interconnection networks and high-performance computing, summarizing main opportunities and some challenges. The majority of the chapters were collected from presentations made at the International Workshop on Optical/Photonic Interconnects for Computing Systems (OPTICS) held over the past two years. The workshop invites internationally recognized speakers on the range of topics relevant to silicon photonics and computing systems. Technical topics discussed in the book include: Design and Implementation of Chip-Scale Photonic Interconnects; Developing Design Automation Solutions for Chip-Scale Photonic Interconnects; Design Space Exploration in Chip-Scale Photonic Interconnects; Thermal Analysis and Modeling in Photonic Interconnects; Design for Reliability; Fabrication Non-Uniformity in Photonic Interconnects; Photonic Interconnects for Computing Systems presents a compilation of outstanding contributions from leading research groups in the field. It presents a comprehensive overview of the design, advantages, challenges, and requirements of photonic interconnects for computing systems. The selected contributions present important discussions and approaches related to the design and development of novel photonic interconnect architectures, as well as various design solutions to improve the performance of such systems while considering different challenges. The book is ideal for personnel in computer/photonic industries as well as academic staff and master/graduate students in computer science and engineering, electronic engineering, electrical engineering and photonics.

The transistor is the key enabler of modern electronics. Progress in transistor scaling has pushed channel lengths to the nanometer regime where traditional approaches to device physics are less and less suitable. These lectures describe a way of understanding MOSFETs and other transistors that is much more suitable than traditional approaches when the critical dimensions are measured in nanometers. It uses a novel, "bottom-up approach" that agrees with traditional methods when devices are large, but that also works for nano-devices. Surprisingly, the final result looks much like the traditional, textbook, transistor models, but the parameters in the equations have simple, clear interpretations at the nanoscale. The objective is to provide readers with an understanding of the essential physics of nanoscale transistors as well as some of the practical technological considerations and fundamental limits. This book is written in a way that is broadly accessible to students with only a very basic knowledge of semiconductor physics and electronic circuits.

The transistor is the key enabler of modern electronics. Progress in transistor scaling has pushed channel lengths to the nanometer regime where traditional approaches to device physics are less and less suitable. These lectures describe a way of understanding MOSFETs and other transistors that is much more suitable than traditional approaches when the critical dimensions are measured in nanometers. It uses a novel, "bottom-up approach" that agrees with traditional methods when devices are large, but that also works for nano-devices. Surprisingly, the final result looks much like the traditional, textbook, transistor models, but the parameters in the equations have simple, clear interpretations at the nanoscale. The objective is to provide readers with an understanding of the essential physics of nanoscale transistors as well as some of the practical technological considerations and fundamental limits. This book is written in a way that is broadly accessible to students with only a very basic knowledge of semiconductor physics and electronic circuits.

The Future of Semiconductor Oxides in Next-Generation Solar Cells begins with several chapters covering the synthesis of semiconductor oxides for NGSCs. Part II goes on to cover the types and applications of NGSCs currently under development, while Part III brings the two together, covering specific processing techniques for NGSC construction. Finally, Part IV discusses the stability of SO solar cells compared to organic solar cells, and the possibilities offered by hybrid technologies. This comprehensive book is an essential reference for all those academics and professionals who require thorough knowledge of recent and future developments in the role of semiconductor oxides in next generation solar cells.

This volume contains most of the invited talks of the 2001 meeting of the Solid State Physics Section of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft held from March 26 to 30 in Hamburg, Germany. The topics covered reflect the present activities in this lively domain of modern physics and are thus supposed to flashlight the state-of-the-art in condensed matter physics in Germany in the year 2001.

Throughout their college career, most engineering students have done problems and studies that are basically situated in the classical world. Some may have taken quantum mechanics as their chosen field of study. This book moves beyond the basics to highlight the full quantum mechanical nature of the transport of carriers through nanoelectronic structures. The book is unique in that addresses quantum transport only in the materials that are of interest to microelectronics-semiconductors, with their variable densities and effective masses. The author develops Green's functions starting from equilibrium Green's functions and going through modern time-dependent approaches to non-equilibrium Green's functions, introduces relativistic bands for graphene and topological insulators and discusses the quantum transport changes that these bands induce, and discusses applications such as weak localization and phase breaking processes, resonant tunneling diodes, single-electron tunneling, and entanglement. Furthermore, he also explains modern ensemble Monte Carlo approaches to simulation of various approaches to quantum transport and the hydrodynamic approaches to quantum transport. All in all, the book describes all approaches to quantum transport in semiconductors, thus becoming an essential textbook for advanced graduate students in electrical engineering or physics.

Multilevel Inverters: Conventional and Emerging Topologies and Their Control is written with two primary objectives: (a) explanation of fundamentals of multilevel inverters (MLIs) with reference to the general philosophy of power electronics; and (b) enabling the reader to systematically analyze a given topology with the possibility of contributing towards the ongoing evolution of topologies. The authors also present an updated status of current research in the field of MLIs with an emphasis on the evolution of newer topologies. In addition, the work includes a universal control scheme, with which any given topology can be modulated. Extensive qualitative and quantitative evaluations of emerging topologies give researchers and industry professionals suitable solutions for specific applications with a systematic presentation of software-based modeling and simulation, and an exploration of key issues. Topics covered also include power distribution among sources, voltage balancing, optimization switching frequency and asymmetric source configuration. This valuable reference further provides tools to model and simulate conventional and emerging topologies using MATLAB (R)/Simulink (R) and discusses execution of experimental set-up using popular interfacing tools. The book includes a Foreword by Dr. Frede Blaabjerg, Fellow IEEE, Professor and VILLUM Investigator, Aalborg University, Denmark.

This book is an up-to-date survey of the major optical characterization techniques for thin solid films. Emphasis is placed on practicability of the various approaches. Relevant fundamentals are briefly reviewed before demonstrating the application of these techniques to practically relevant research and development topics. The book is written by international top experts, all of whom are involved in industrial research and development projects.

This book reviews the most significant advances in concepts, methods, and applications of quantum systems in a broad variety of problems in modern chemistry, physics, and biology. In particular, it discusses atomic, molecular, and solid structure, dynamics and spectroscopy, relativistic and correlation effects in quantum chemistry, topics of computational chemistry, physics and biology, as well as applications of theoretical chemistry and physics in advanced molecular and nano-materials and biochemical systems. The book contains peer-reviewed contributions written by leading experts in the fields and based on the presentations given at the Twenty-Fourth International Workshop on Quantum Systems in Chemistry, Physics, and Biology held in Odessa, Ukraine, in August 2019. This book is aimed at advanced graduate students, academics, and researchers, both in university and corporation laboratories, interested in state-of-the-art and novel trends in quantum chemistry, physics, biology, and their applications.

Nitride Semiconductor Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs): Materials, Technologies, and Applications, Second Edition reviews the fabrication, performance and applications of the technology, encompassing the state-of-the-art material and device development, along with considerations regarding nitride-based LED design. This updated edition is based on the latest research and advances, including two new chapters on LEDs for large displays and laser lighting. Chapters cover molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth of nitride semiconductors, modern metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) techniques, the growth of nitride-based materials, and gallium nitride (GaN)-on-sapphire and GaN-on-silicon technologies for LEDs. Nanostructured, non-polar and semi-polar nitride-based LEDs, as well as phosphor-coated nitride LEDs, are also discussed. The book also addresses the performance of nitride LEDs, including photonic crystal LEDs, surface plasmon enhanced LEDs, color tuneable LEDs, and LEDs based on quantum wells and quantum dots. Further chapters discuss the development of LED encapsulation technology and fundamental efficiency droop issues in gallium indium nitride (GaInN) LEDs. It is a technical resource for academics, physicists, materials scientists, electrical engineers, and those working in the lighting, consumer electronics, automotive, aviation, and communications sectors.

This book provides an overview of compound semiconductor materials and their technology. After presenting a theoretical background, it describes the relevant material preparation technologies for bulk and thin-layer epitaxial growth. It then briefly discusses the electrical, optical, and structural properties of semiconductors, complemented by a description of the most popular characterization tools, before more complex hetero- and low-dimensional structures are discussed. A special chapter is devoted to GaN and related materials, owing to their huge importance in modern optoelectronic and electronic devices, on the one hand, and their particular properties compared to other compound semiconductors, on the other. In the last part of the book, the physics and functionality of optoelectronic and electronic device structures (LEDs, laser diodes, solar cells, field-effect and heterojunction bipolar transistors) are discussed on the basis of the specific properties of compound semiconductors presented in the preceding chapters of the book. Compound semiconductors form the back-bone of all opto-electronic and electronic devices besides the classical Si electronics. Currently the most important field is solid state lighting with highly efficient LEDs emitting visible light. Also laser diodes of all wavelength ranges between mid-infrared and near ultraviolet have been the enabler for a huge number of unprecedented applications like CDs and DVDs for entertainment and data storage, not to speak about the internet, which would be impossible without optical data communications with infrared laser diodes as key elements. This book provides a concise overview over this class of materials, including the most important technological aspects for their fabrication and characterisation, also covering the most relevant devices based on compound semiconductors. It presents therefore an excellent introduction into this subject not only for students, but also for engineers and scientist who intend to put their focus on this field of science.

'This is an excellent reference book for graduates or undergraduates studying semiconductor technology, or for working professionals who need a reference for detailed theory and working knowledge of processes in the field of power semiconductor devices.'IEEE Electrical Insulation MagazineThis descriptive textbook provides a clear look at the theories and process technologies necessary for understanding the modern power semiconductor devices, i.e. from the fundamentals of p-n junction electrostatics, unipolar MOSFET and superjunction structures, bipolar IGBT, to the most recent wide bandgap SiC and GaN devices. It also covers their associated semiconductor process technologies. Real examples based on actual fabricated devices, with the process steps described in clear detail are especially useful. This book is suitable for university courses on power semiconductor or power electronic devices. Device designers and researchers will also find this book a good reference in their work, especially for those focusing on the advanced device development and design aspects.