P-Type Silicon Strip Sensors for the new CMS Tracker at HL-LHC

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Adam, W.; Bergauer, T.; Brondolin, E.

The upgrade of the LHC to the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) is expected to increase the LHC design luminosity by an order of magnitude. This will require silicon tracking detectors with a significantly higher radiation hardness. The CMS Tracker Collaboration has conducted an irradiation and measurement campaign to identify suitable silicon sensor materials and strip designs for the future outer tracker at the CMS experiment. Based on these results, the collaboration has chosen to use n-in-p type silicon sensors and focus further investigations on the optimization of that sensor type. Furthermore, this paper describes the main measurement results and conclusions thatmore » motivated this decision.« less

Solar concentrator modules with silicone-on-glass Fresnel lens panels and multijunction cells.

PubMed

Rumyantsev, Valery D

2010-04-26

High-efficiency multijunction (MJ) solar cells, being very expensive to manufacture, should only be used in combination with solar concentrators in terrestrial applications. An essential cost reduction of electric power produced by photovoltaic (PV) installations with MJ cells, may be expected by the creation of highly-effective, but inexpensive, elements for optical concentration and sun tracking. This article is an overview of the corresponding approach under development at the Ioffe Physical Technical Institute. The approach to R&D of the solar PV modules is based on the concepts of sunlight concentration by small-aperture area Fresnel lenses and "all-glass" module design. The small-aperture area lenses are arranged as a panel with silicone-on-glass structure where the glass plate serves as the front surface of a module. In turn, high-efficiency InGaP/(In)GaAs/Ge cells are arranged on a rear module panel mounted on a glass plate which functions as a heat sink and integrated protective cover for the cells. The developed PV modules and sun trackers are characterized by simple design, and are regarded as the prototypes for further commercialization.

Module and electronics developments for the ATLAS ITk pixel system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Muñoz, F. J.

2018-03-01

The ATLAS experiment is preparing for an extensive modification of its detectors in the course of the planned HL-LHC accelerator upgrade around 2025. The ATLAS upgrade includes the replacement of the entire tracking system by an all-silicon detector (Inner Tracker, ITk). The five innermost layers of ITk will be a pixel detector built of new sensor and readout electronics technologies to improve the tracking performance and cope with the severe HL-LHC environment in terms of occupancy and radiation. The total area of the new pixel system could measure up to 14 m2, depending on the final layout choice, which is expected to take place in 2018. In this paper an overview of the ongoing R&D activities on modules and electronics for the ATLAS ITk is given including the main developments and achievements in silicon planar and 3D sensor technologies, readout and power challenges.

Internal alignment and position resolution of the silicon tracker of DAMPE determined with orbit data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tykhonov, A.; Ambrosi, G.; Asfandiyarov, R.; Azzarello, P.; Bernardini, P.; Bertucci, B.; Bolognini, A.; Cadoux, F.; D'Amone, A.; De Benedittis, A.; De Mitri, I.; Di Santo, M.; Dong, Y. F.; Duranti, M.; D'Urso, D.; Fan, R. R.; Fusco, P.; Gallo, V.; Gao, M.; Gargano, F.; Garrappa, S.; Gong, K.; Ionica, M.; La Marra, D.; Lei, S. J.; Li, X.; Loparco, F.; Marsella, G.; Mazziotta, M. N.; Peng, W. X.; Qiao, R.; Salinas, M. M.; Surdo, A.; Vagelli, V.; Vitillo, S.; Wang, H. Y.; Wang, J. Z.; Wang, Z. M.; Wu, D.; Wu, X.; Zhang, F.; Zhang, J. Y.; Zhao, H.; Zimmer, S.

2018-06-01

The DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) is a space-borne particle detector designed to probe electrons and gamma-rays in the few GeV to 10 TeV energy range, as well as cosmic-ray proton and nuclei components between 10 GeV and 100 TeV. The silicon-tungsten tracker-converter is a crucial component of DAMPE. It allows the direction of incoming photons converting into electron-positron pairs to be estimated, and the trajectory and charge (Z) of cosmic-ray particles to be identified. It consists of 768 silicon micro-strip sensors assembled in 6 double layers with a total active area of 6.6 m2. Silicon planes are interleaved with three layers of tungsten plates, resulting in about one radiation length of material in the tracker. Internal alignment parameters of the tracker have been determined on orbit, with non-showering protons and helium nuclei. We describe the alignment procedure and present the position resolution and alignment stability measurements.

The CMS tracker control system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dierlamm, A.; Dirkes, G. H.; Fahrer, M.; Frey, M.; Hartmann, F.; Masetti, L.; Militaru, O.; Shah, S. Y.; Stringer, R.; Tsirou, A.

2008-07-01

The Tracker Control System (TCS) is a distributed control software to operate about 2000 power supplies for the silicon modules of the CMS Tracker and monitor its environmental sensors. TCS must thus be able to handle about 104 power supply parameters, about 103 environmental probes from the Programmable Logic Controllers of the Tracker Safety System (TSS), about 105 parameters read via DAQ from the DCUs in all front end hybrids and from CCUs in all control groups. TCS is built on top of an industrial SCADA program (PVSS) extended with a framework developed at CERN (JCOP) and used by all LHC experiments. The logical partitioning of the detector is reflected in the hierarchical structure of the TCS, where commands move down to the individual hardware devices, while states are reported up to the root which is interfaced to the broader CMS control system. The system computes and continuously monitors the mean and maximum values of critical parameters and updates the percentage of currently operating hardware. Automatic procedures switch off selected parts of the detector using detailed granularity and avoiding widespread TSS intervention.

The AMS-02 Silicon Tracker

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haino, S.

2011-06-01

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) is a large acceptance cosmic-ray detector which will be installed as an independent module on the International Space Station (ISS). The instrument will provide a precise measurement of the cosmic-ray energy spectra and extensive antimatter search up to several TeV for particle charges up to Z = 26. The spectrometer will be delivered to the ISS by STS-134 flight in February 2011. In August 2010 the calibration and performance evaluation of the spectrometer were performed with test beam at CERN.

tkLayout: a design tool for innovative silicon tracking detectors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bianchi, G.

2014-03-01

A new CMS tracker is scheduled to become operational for the LHC Phase 2 upgrade in the early 2020's. tkLayout is a software package developed to create 3d models for the design of the CMS tracker and to evaluate its fundamental performance figures. The new tracker will have to cope with much higher luminosity conditions, resulting in increased track density, harsher radiation exposure and, especially, much higher data acquisition bandwidth, such that equipping the tracker with triggering capabilities is envisaged. The design of an innovative detector involves deciding on an architecture offering the best trade-off among many figures of merit, such as tracking resolution, power dissipation, bandwidth, cost and so on. Quantitatively evaluating these figures of merit as early as possible in the design phase is of capital importance and it is best done with the aid of software models. tkLayout is a flexible modeling tool: new performance estimates and support for different detector geometries can be quickly added, thanks to its modular structure. Besides, the software executes very quickly (about two minutes), so that many possible architectural variations can be rapidly modeled and compared, to help in the choice of a viable detector layout and then to optimize it. A tracker geometry is generated from simple configuration files, defining the module types, layout and materials. Support structures are automatically added and services routed to provide a realistic tracker description. The tracker geometries thus generated can be exported to the standard CMS simulation framework (CMSSW) for full Monte Carlo studies. tkLayout has proven essential in giving guidance to CMS in studying different detector layouts and exploring the feasibility of innovative solutions for tracking detectors, in terms of design, performance and projected costs. This tool has been one of the keys to making important design decisions for over five years now and has also enabled project engineers and simulation experts to focus their efforts on other important or specific issues. Even if tkLayout was designed for the CMS tracker upgrade project, its flexibility makes it experiment-agnostic, so that it could be easily adapted to model other tracking detectors. The technology behind tkLayout is presented, as well as some of the results obtained in the context of the CMS silicon tracker design studies.

Development and Testing of the AMEGO Silicon Tracker System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Griffin, Sean; Amego Team

2018-01-01

The All-sky Medium Energy Gamma-ray Observatory (AMEGO) is a probe-class mission in consideration for the 2020 decadal review designed to operate at energies from ˜ 200 keV to > 10 GeV. Operating a detector in this energy regime is challenging due to the crossover in the interaction cross-section for Compton scattering and pair production. AMEGO is made of four major subsystems: a plastic anticoincidence detector for rejecting cosmic-ray events, a silicon tracker for measuring the energies of Compton scattered electrons and pair-production products, a CZT calorimeter for measuring the energy and location of Compton scattered photons, and a CsI calorimeter for measuring the energy of the pair-production products at high energies. The tracker comprises layers of dual-sided silicon strip detectors which provide energy and localization information for Compton scattering and pair-production events. A prototype tracker system is under development at GSFC; in this contribution we provide details on the verification, packaging, and testing of the prototype tracker, as well as present plans for the development of the front-end electronics, beam tests, and a balloon flight.

Tracking Efficiency And Charge Sharing of 3D Silicon Sensors at Different Angles in a 1.4T Magnetic Field

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gjersdal, H.; /Oslo U.; Bolle, E.

2012-05-07

A 3D silicon sensor fabricated at Stanford with electrodes penetrating throughout the entire silicon wafer and with active edges was tested in a 1.4 T magnetic field with a 180 GeV/c pion beam at the CERN SPS in May 2009. The device under test was bump-bonded to the ATLAS pixel FE-I3 readout electronics chip. Three readout electrodes were used to cover the 400 {micro}m long pixel side, this resulting in a p-n inter-electrode distance of {approx} 71 {micro}m. Its behavior was confronted with a planar sensor of the type presently installed in the ATLAS inner tracker. Time over threshold, chargemore » sharing and tracking efficiency data were collected at zero and 15{sup o} angles with and without magnetic field. The latest is the angular configuration expected for the modules of the Insertable B-Layer (IBL) currently under study for the LHC phase 1 upgrade expected in 2014.« less

Reconstruction software of the silicon tracker of DAMPE mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tykhonov, A.; Gallo, V.; Wu, X.; Zimmer, S.

2017-10-01

DAMPE is a satellite-borne experiment aimed to probe astroparticle physics in the GeV-TeV energy range. The Silicon tracker (STK) is one of the key components of DAMPE, which allows the reconstruction of trajectories (tracks) of detected particles. The non-negligible amount of material in the tracker poses a challenge to its reconstruction and alignment. In this paper we describe methods to address this challenge. We present the track reconstruction algorithm and give insight into the alignment algorithm. We also present our CAD-to-GDML converter, an in-house tool for implementing detector geometry in the software from the CAD drawings of the detector.

Practical Efficiency of Photovoltaic Panel Used for Solar Vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koyuncu, T.

2017-08-01

In this experimental investigation, practical efficiency of semi-flexible monocrystalline silicon solar panel used for a solar powered car called “Firat Force” and a solar powered minibus called “Commagene” was determined. Firat Force has 6 solar PV modules, a maintenance free long life gel battery pack, a regenerative brushless DC electric motor and Commagene has 12 solar PV modules, a maintenance free long life gel battery pack, a regenerative brushless DC electric motor. In addition, both solar vehicles have MPPT (Maximum power point tracker), ECU (Electronic control unit), differential, instrument panel, steering system, brake system, brake and gas pedals, mechanical equipments, chassis and frame. These two solar vehicles were used for people transportation in Adiyaman city, Turkey, during one year (June 2010-May 2011) of test. As a result, the practical efficiency of semi-flexible monocrystalline silicon solar panel used for Firat Force and Commagene was determined as 13 % in despite of efficiency value of 18% (at 1000 W/m2 and 25 °C ) given by the producer company. Besides, the total efficiency (from PV panels to vehicle wheel) of the system was also defined as 9%.

Construction and performance of a silicon photomultiplier/extruded scintillator tail-catcher and muon-tracker

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adloff, C.; Blaha, J.; Blaising, J.-J.; Drancourt, C.; Espargilière, A.; Gaglione, R.; Geffroy, N.; Karyotakis, Y.; Prast, J.; Vouters, G.; Bilki, B.; Francis, K.; Repond, J.; Smith, J.; Xia, L.; Baldolemar, E.; Li, J.; Park, S. T.; Sosebee, M.; White, A. P.; Yu, J.; Buanes, T.; Eigen, G.; Mikami, Y.; Watson, N. K.; Mavromanolakis, G.; Thomson, M. A.; Ward, D. R.; Yan, W.; Benchekroun, D.; Hoummada, A.; Khoulaki, Y.; Benyamna, M.; Cârloganu, C.; Fehr, F.; Gay, P.; Manen, S.; Royer, L.; Blazey, G. C.; Boona, S.; Chakraborty, D.; Dyshkant, A.; Hedin, D.; Lima, J. G. R.; Powell, J.; Rykalin, V.; Scurti, N.; Smith, M.; Tran, N.; Zutshi, V.; Hostachy, J.-Y.; Morin, L.; Cornett, U.; David, D.; Dietrich, J.; Falley, G.; Gadow, K.; Göttlicher, P.; Günter, C.; Hermberg, B.; Karstensen, S.; Krivan, F.; Lucaci-Timoce, A.-I.; Lu, S.; Lutz, B.; Marchesini, I.; Morozov, S.; Morgunov, V.; Reinecke, M.; Sefkow, F.; Smirnov, P.; Terwort, M.; Vargas-Trevino, A.; Feege, N.; Garutti, E.; Eckert, P.; Kaplan, A.; Schultz-Coulon, H.-Ch; Shen, W.; Stamen, R.; Tadday, A.; Norbeck, E.; Onel, Y.; Wilson, G. W.; Kawagoe, K.; Uozumi, S.; Dauncey, P. D.; Magnan, A.-M.; Bartsch, V.; Wing, M.; Salvatore, F.; Calvo Alamillo, E.; Fouz, M.-C.; Puerta-Pelayo, J.; Bobchenko, B.; Chadeeva, M.; Danilov, M.; Epifantsev, A.; Markin, O.; Mizuk, R.; Novikov, E.; Rusinov, V.; Tarkovsky, E.; Kirikova, N.; Kozlov, V.; Soloviev, Y.; Buzhan, P.; Dolgoshein, B.; Ilyin, A.; Kantserov, V.; Kaplin, V.; Karakash, A.; Popova, E.; Smirnov, S.; Frey, A.; Kiesling, C.; Seidel, K.; Simon, F.; Soldner, C.; Weuste, L.; Bonis, J.; Bouquet, B.; Callier, S.; Cornebise, P.; Doublet, Ph; Dulucq, F.; Faucci Giannelli, M.; Fleury, J.; Li, H.; Martin-Chassard, G.; Richard, F.; de la Taille, Ch; Pöschl, R.; Raux, L.; Seguin-Moreau, N.; Wicek, F.; Anduze, M.; Boudry, V.; Brient, J.-C.; Jeans, D.; Mora de Freitas, P.; Musat, G.; Reinhard, M.; Ruan, M.; Videau, H.; Bulanek, B.; Zacek, J.; Cvach, J.; Gallus, P.; Havranek, M.; Janata, M.; Kvasnicka, J.; Lednicky, D.; Marcisovsky, M.; Polak, I.; Popule, J.; Tomasek, L.; Tomasek, M.; Ruzicka, P.; Sicho, P.; Smolik, J.; Vrba, V.; Zalesak, J.; Belhorma, B.; Ghazlane, H.; Takeshita, T.

2012-04-01

A prototype module for an International Linear Collider (ILC) detector was built, installed, and tested between 2006 and 2009 at CERN and Fermilab as part of the CALICE test beam program, in order to study the possibilities of extending energy sampling behind a hadronic calorimeter and to study the possibilities of providing muon tracking. The ``tail catcher/muon tracker'' (TCMT) is composed of 320 extruded scintillator strips (dimensions 1000 × 50 × 5 mm3) packaged in 16 one-meter square planes interleaved between steel plates. The scintillator strips were read out with wavelength shifting fibers and silicon photomultipliers. The planes were arranged with alternating horizontal and vertical strip orientations. Data were collected for muons and pions in the energy range 6 GeV to 80 GeV. Utilizing data taken in 2006, this paper describes the design and construction of the TCMT, performance characteristics, and a beam-based evaluation of the ability of the TCMT to improve hadronic energy resolution in a prototype ILC detector. For a typical configuration of an ILC detector with a coil situated outside a calorimeter system with a thickness of 5.5 nuclear interaction lengths, a TCMT would improve relative energy resolution by 6-16% for pions between 20 and 80 GeV.

The AGILE silicon tracker: testbeam results of the prototype silicon detector

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barbiellini, G.; Fedel, G.; Liello, F.; Longo, F.; Pontoni, C.; Prest, M.; Tavani, M.; Vallazza, E.

2002-09-01

AGILE (Light Imager for Gamma-ray Astrophysics) is a small scientific satellite for the detection of cosmic γ-ray sources in the energy range 30MeV-50GeV with a very large field of view (1/4 of the sky). It is planned to be operational in the years 2003-2006, a period in which no other γ-ray mission in the same energy range is foreseen. The heart of the AGILE scientific instrument is a silicon-tungsten tracker made of 14 planes of single sided silicon detectors for a total of 43000 readout channels. Each detector has a dimension of 9.5×9.5cm2 and a thickness of 410μm. We present here a detailed description of the performance of the detector prototype during a testbeam period at the CERN PS in May 2000. The Tracker performance is described in terms of position resolution and signal-to-noise ratio for on and off-axis incident charged particles. The measured 40μm resolution for a large range of incident angles will provide an excellent angular resolution for cosmic γ-ray imaging.

A MOdular System for Acquisition, Interface and Control (MOSAIC) of detectors and their related electronics for high energy physics experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Robertis, G. De; Fanizzi, G.; Loddo, F.; Manzari, V.; Rizzi, M.

2018-02-01

In this work the MOSAIC ("MOdular System for Acquisition, Interface and Control") board, designed for the readout and testing of the pixel modules for the silicon tracker upgrade of the ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) experiment at teh CERN LHC, is described. It is based on an Artix7 Field Programmable Gate Array device by Xilinx and is compliant with the six unit "Versa Modular Eurocard" standard (6U-VME) for easy housing in a standard VMEbus crate from which it takes only power supplies and cooling.

The Muon Portal Double Tracker for the Inspection of Travelling Containers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pugliatti, C.; Antonuccio, V.; Bandieramonte, M.; Becciani, U.; Belluomo, F.; Blancato, A.; Bonanno, G.; Costa, A.; Fallica, P. G.; Garozzo, S.; Grillo, A.; Indelicato, V.; La Rocca, P.; Leonora, E.; Longhitano, F.; Longo, S.; Lo Presti, D.; Marano, D.; Massimino, P.; Petta, C.; Pistagna, C.; Puglisi, M.; Randazzo, N.; Riggi, F.; Riggi, S.; Romeo, G.; Russo, G. V.; Santagati, G.; Timpanaro, M. C.; Valvo, G.; Vitello, F.; Zaia, A.

2015-12-01

The Muon Portal Project has as its goal the design and construction of a real-size working detector prototype in scale 1:1, to inspect the content of travelling containers by means of the secondary cosmic-ray muon radiation and to recognize high-Z hidden materials (i.e. U, Pu). The tomographic image is obtained by reconstructing the input and output trajectories of each muon when it crosses the container and, consequently, the scattering angle, making use of two trackers placed above and below the container. The scan is performed without adding any external radiation, in a reasonable time (few minutes) and with a good spatial and angular resolution. The detector consists of 8 planes each segmented in 6 identical modules. Each module is made of scintillating strips with two WaveLength Shifting fibers (WLS) inside, coupled to Silicon photomultipliers. The customized read-out electronics employs programmable boards. Thanks to a smart read-out system, the number of output channels is reduced by a factor 10. The signals from the front-end modules are sent to the read-out boards, in order to convert analog signals to digital ones, by comparison with a threshold. The data are pre-analyzed and stored into a data acquisition PC. After an intense measurement and simulation campaign to carefully characterize the detector components, the first detection modules ( 1 ×3 m2) have been already built. In this paper the detector architecture, particularly focusing on the used electronics and the main preliminary results will be presented.

Prototyping of petalets for the Phase-II upgrade of the silicon strip tracking detector of the ATLAS experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuehn, S.; Benítez, V.; Fernández-Tejero, J.; Fleta, C.; Lozano, M.; Ullán, M.; Lacker, H.; Rehnisch, L.; Sperlich, D.; Ariza, D.; Bloch, I.; Díez, S.; Gregor, I.; Keller, J.; Lohwasser, K.; Poley, L.; Prahl, V.; Zakharchuk, N.; Hauser, M.; Jakobs, K.; Mahboubi, K.; Mori, R.; Parzefall, U.; Bernabéu, J.; Lacasta, C.; Marco-Hernandez, R.; Rodriguez Rodriguez, D.; Santoyo, D.; Solaz Contell, C.; Soldevila Serrano, U.; Affolder, T.; Greenall, A.; Gallop, B.; Phillips, P. W.; Cindro, V.

2018-03-01

In the high luminosity era of the Large Hadron Collider, the instantaneous luminosity is expected to reach unprecedented values, resulting in about 200 proton-proton interactions in a typical bunch crossing. To cope with the resultant increase in occupancy, bandwidth and radiation damage, the ATLAS Inner Detector will be replaced by an all-silicon system, the Inner Tracker (ITk). The ITk consists of a silicon pixel and a strip detector and exploits the concept of modularity. Prototyping and testing of various strip detector components has been carried out. This paper presents the developments and results obtained with reduced-size structures equivalent to those foreseen to be used in the forward region of the silicon strip detector. Referred to as petalets, these structures are built around a composite sandwich with embedded cooling pipes and electrical tapes for routing the signals and power. Detector modules built using electronic flex boards and silicon strip sensors are glued on both the front and back side surfaces of the carbon structure. Details are given on the assembly, testing and evaluation of several petalets. Measurement results of both mechanical and electrical quantities are shown. Moreover, an outlook is given for improved prototyping plans for large structures.

Evaluation of the electro-optic direction sensor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, A. R.; Salomon, P. M.

1973-01-01

Evaluation of a no-moving-parts single-axis star tracker called an electro-optic direction sensor (EODS) concept is described and the results are given in detail. The work involved experimental evaluation of a breadboard sensor yielding results which would permit design of a prototype sensor for a specific application. The laboratory work included evaluation of the noise equivalent input angle of the sensor, demonstration of a technique for producing an acquisition signal, constraints on the useful field-of-view, and a qualitative evaluation of the effects of stray light. In addition, the potential of the silicon avalanche-type photodiode for this application was investigated. No benefit in noise figure was found, but the easily adjustable gain of the avalanche device was useful. The use of mechanical tuning of the modulating element to reduce voltage requirements was also explored. The predicted performance of EODS in both photomultiplier and solid state detector configurations was compared to an existing state-of-the-art star tracker.

A bipolar analog front-end integrated circuit for the SDC silicon tracker

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kipnis, I.; Spieler, H.; Collins, T.

1993-11-01

A low noise, low power, high bandwidth, radiation hard, silicon bipolar transistor full-custom integrated circuit (IC) containing 64 channels of analog signal processing has been developed for the SDC silicon tracker. The IC was designed and tested at LBL and was fabricated using CBIC-U2, 4 GHz f(sub T) complementary bipolar technology. Each channel contains the following functions: low noise preamplification, pulse shaping, and threshold discrimination. This is the first iteration of the production analog IC for the SDC silicon tracker. The IC is laid out to directly match the 50 micron pitch double-sided silicon strip detector. The chip measures 6.8 mm by 3.1 mm and contains 3,600 transistors. Three stages of amplification provide 180 mV/fC of gain with a 35 nsec peaking time at the comparator input. For a 14 pF detector capacitance, the equivalent noise charge is 1300 el. rms at a power consumption of 1 mW/channel from a single 3.5 V supply. With the discriminator threshold set to four times the noise level, a 16 nsec time-walk for 1.25 to 10 fC signals is achieved using a time-walk compensation network. Irradiation tests at TRIUMF to a Phi = 10(exp 14) protons/sq cm have been performed on the IC, demonstrating the radiation hardness of the complementary bipolar process.

The AGILE silicon tracker: an innovative /γ-ray instrument for space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prest, M.; Barbiellini, G.; Bordignon, G.; Fedel, G.; Liello, F.; Longo, F.; Pontoni, C.; Vallazza, E.

2003-03-01

AGILE (Light Imager for Gamma-ray Astrophysics) is the first small scientific mission of ASI, the Italian Space Agency. It is a light (100kg for the scientific instrument) satellite for the detection of /γ-ray sources in the energy range 30MeV-50GeV within a large field of view (1/4 of the sky). It is planned to be operational in the years 2003-2006, a period in which no other gamma-ray mission in the same energy range is foreseen. AGILE is made of a silicon tungsten tracker, a CsI(Tl) minicalorimeter (1.5X0), an anticoincidence system of segmented plastic scintillators and a X-ray imaging detector sensitive in the 10-40keV range. The tracker consists of 14 planes, each of them made of two layers of 16 single-sided, AC coupled, 410μm thick, 9.5×9.5cm2 silicon detectors with a readout pitch of 242μm and a floating strip. The readout ASIC is the TAA1, an analog-digital, low noise, self-triggering ASIC used in a very low power configuration (<400μW/channel) with full analog readout. The trigger of the satellite is given by the tracker. The total number of readout channels is around 43000. We present a detailed description of the tracker, its trigger and readout logic, its assembly procedures and the prototype performance in several testbeam periods at the CERN PS.

Wafer integrated micro-scale concentrating photovoltaics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gu, Tian; Li, Duanhui; Li, Lan; Jared, Bradley; Keeler, Gordon; Miller, Bill; Sweatt, William; Paap, Scott; Saavedra, Michael; Das, Ujjwal; Hegedus, Steve; Tauke-Pedretti, Anna; Hu, Juejun

2017-09-01

Recent development of a novel micro-scale PV/CPV technology is presented. The Wafer Integrated Micro-scale PV approach (WPV) seamlessly integrates multijunction micro-cells with a multi-functional silicon platform that provides optical micro-concentration, hybrid photovoltaic, and mechanical micro-assembly. The wafer-embedded micro-concentrating elements is shown to considerably improve the concentration-acceptance-angle product, potentially leading to dramatically reduced module materials and fabrication costs, sufficient angular tolerance for low-cost trackers, and an ultra-compact optical architecture, which makes the WPV module compatible with commercial flat panel infrastructures. The PV/CPV hybrid architecture further allows the collection of both direct and diffuse sunlight, thus extending the geographic and market domains for cost-effective PV system deployment. The WPV approach can potentially benefits from both the high performance of multijunction cells and the low cost of flat plate Si PV systems.

Radiation Hard Silicon Particle Detectors for Phase-II LHC Trackers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oblakowska-Mucha, A.

2017-02-01

The major LHC upgrade is planned after ten years of accelerator operation. It is foreseen to significantly increase the luminosity of the current machine up to 1035 cm-2s-1 and operate as the upcoming High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) . The major detectors upgrade, called the Phase-II Upgrade, is also planned, a main reason being the aging processes caused by severe particle radiation. Within the RD50 Collaboration, a large Research and Development program has been underway to develop silicon sensors with sufficient radiation tolerance for HL-LHC trackers. In this summary, several results obtained during the testing of the devices after irradiation to HL-LHC levels are presented. Among the studied structures, one can find advanced sensors types like 3D silicon detectors, High-Voltage CMOS technologies, or sensors with intrinsic gain (LGAD). Based on these results, the RD50 Collaboration gives recommendation for the silicon detectors to be used in the detector upgrade.

An analog front-end bipolar-transistor integrated circuit for the SDC silicon tracker

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kipnis, I.; Spieler, H.; Collins, T.

1994-08-01

A low-noise, low-power, high-bandwidth, radiation hard, silicon bipolar-transistor full-custom integrated circuit (IC) containing 64 channels of analog signal processing has been developed for the SDC silicon tracker The IC was designed and tested at LBL and was fabricated using AT&T's CBIC-U2, 4 GHz f/sub /spl tau// complementary bipolar technology. Each channel contains the following functions: low-noise preamplification, pulse shaping and threshold discrimination. This is the first iteration of the production analog IC for the SDC silicon tracker. The IC is laid out to directly match the 50 /spl mu/m pitch double-sided silicon strip detector. The chip measures 6.8 mm/spl times/3.1 mm and contains 3,600 transistors. Three stages of amplification provide 180 mV/fC of gain with a 35 nsec peaking time at the comparator input. For a 14 pF detector capacitance, the equivalent noise charge is 1300 el. RMS at a power consumption of 1 mW/channel from a single 3.5 V supply. With the discriminator threshold set to 4 times the noise level, a 16 nsec time-walk for 1.25 to 10 fC signals is achieved using a time-walk compensation network. Irradiation tests at TRIUMF to a /spl Phi/=10/sup 14/ protons/cm/sup 2/ have been performed on the IC, demonstrating the radiation hardness of the complementary bipolar process.

Online SVT Commissioning and Monitoring using a Service-Oriented Architecture Framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ruger, Justin; Gotra, Yuri; Weygand, Dennis; Ziegler, Veronique; Heddle, David; Gore, David

2014-03-01

Silicon Vertex Tracker detectors are devices used in high energy experiments for precision measurement of charged tracks close to the collision point. Early detection of faulty hardware is essential and therefore code development of monitoring and commissioning software is essential. The computing framework for the CLAS12 experiment at Jefferson Lab is a service-oriented architecture that allows efficient data-flow from one service to another through loose coupling. I will present the strategy and development of services for the CLAS12 Silicon Tracker data monitoring and commissioning within this framework, as well as preliminary results using test data.

Beam test results of STS prototype modules for the future accelerator experiments FAIR/CBM and NICA/MPD projects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kharlamov, Petr; Dementev, Dmitrii; Shitenkov, Mikhail

2017-10-01

High-energy heavy-ion collision experiments provide the unique possibility to create and investigate extreme states of strongly-interacted matter and address the fundamental aspects of QCD. The experimental investigation the QCD phase diagram would be a major breakthrough in our understanding of the properties of nuclear matter. The reconstruction of the charged particles created in the nuclear collisions, including the determination of their momenta, is the central detection task in high-energy heavy-ion experiments. It is taken up by the Silicon Tracking System in CBM@FAIR and by Inner Tracker in MPD@NICA currently under development. These experiments requires very fast and radiation hard detectors, a novel data read-out and analysis concept including free streaming front-end electronics. Thermal and beam tests of prototype detector modules for these tracking systems showed the stability of sensors and readout electronics operation.

Search for WW and WZ production in lepton, neutrino plus jets final states at CDF Run II and Silicon module production and detector control system for the ATLAS SemiConductor Tracker

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sfyrla, Anna

2008-03-10

In the first part of this work, we present a search for WW and WZ production in charged lepton, neutrino plus jets final states produced in pmore » $$\\bar{p}$$ collisions with √s = 1.96 TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron, using 1.2 fb -1 of data accumulated with the CDF II detector. This channel is yet to be observed in hadron colliders due to the large singleWplus jets background. However, this decay mode has a much larger branching fraction than the cleaner fully leptonic mode making it more sensitive to anomalous triple gauge couplings that manifest themselves at higher transverse W momentum. Because the final state is topologically similar to associated production of a Higgs boson with a W, the techniques developed in this analysis are also applicable in that search. An Artificial Neural Network has been used for the event selection optimization. The theoretical prediction for the cross section is σ WW/WZ theory x Br(W → ℓv; W/Z → jj) = 2.09 ± 0.14 pb. They measured N Signal = 410 ± 212(stat) ± 102(sys) signal events that correspond to a cross section σ WW/WZ x Br(W → ℓv; W/Z → jj) = 1.47 ± 0.77(stat) ± 0.38(sys) pb. The 95% CL upper limit to the cross section is estimated to be σ x Br(W → ℓv; W/Z → jj) < 2.88 pb. The second part of the present work is technical and concerns the ATLAS SemiConductor Tracker (SCT) assembly phase. Although technical, the work in the SCT assembly phase is of prime importance for the good performance of the detector during data taking. The production at the University of Geneva of approximately one third of the silicon microstrip end-cap modules is presented. This collaborative effort of the university of Geneva group that lasted two years, resulted in 655 produced modules, 97% of which were good modules, constructed within the mechanical and electrical specifications and delivered in the SCT collaboration for assembly on the end-cap disks. The SCT end-caps and barrels consist of 4088 silicon modules, with a total of 6.3 million readout channels. The coherent and safe operation of the SCT during commissioning and subsequent operation is the essential task of the Detector Control System (DCS). The main building blocks of the DCS are the cooling system, the power supplies and the environmental system. The DCS has been initially developed for the SCT assembly phase and this system is described in the present work. Particular emphasis is given in the environmental hardware and software components, that were my major contributions. Results from the DCS testing during the assembly phase are also reported.« less

Charge reconstruction of the DAMPE Silicon-Tungsten Tracker: A preliminary study with ion beams

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qiao, Rui; Peng, Wen-Xi; Guo, Dong-Ya; Zhao, Hao; Wang, Huan-Yu; Gong, Ke; Zhang, Fei; Wu, Xin; Azzarello, Phillip; Tykhonov, Andrii; Asfandiyarov, Ruslan; Gallo, Valentina; Ambrosi, Giovanni

2018-04-01

The DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) is one of the four satellites within Strategic Pioneer Research Program in Space Science of the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS). DAMPE can detect electrons, photons in a wide energy range (5 GeV to 10 TeV) and ions up to iron (100 GeV to 100 TeV). The silicon-Tungsten Tracker (STK) is one of the four subdetectors in DAMPE, providing photon-electron conversion, track reconstruction and charge identification for ions. An ion beam test was carried out in CERN with 60 GeV/u Lead primary beams. Charge reconstruction and charge resolution of the STK detectors were investigated.

Silicon Drift Detectors - A Novel Technology for Vertex Detectors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lynn, D.

1996-10-01

Silicon Drift Detectors (SDD) are novel position sensing silicon detectors which operate in a manner analogous to gas drift detectors. Single SDD's were shown in the CERN NA45 experiment to permit excellent spatial resolution (< 10 μm), to handle large particle occupancy, and to require a small fraction of the number of electronic channels of an equivalent pixel detector. The Silicon Vertex Tracker (SVT) for the STAR experiment at RHIC is based on this new technology. The SVT will consist of 216 SDD's, each 6.3 cm by 6.3 cm, arranged in a three layer barrel design, covering 2 π in azimuth and ±1 in pseudo-rapidity. Over the last three years we undertook a concentrated R+D effort to optimize the performance of the detector by minimizing the inactive area, the operating voltage and the data volume. We will present test results from several wafer prototypes. The charge produced by the passage of ionizing particles through the bulk of the detectors is collected on segmented anodes, with a pitch of 250 μm, on the far edges of the detector. The anodes are wire-bonded to a thick film multi-chip module which contains preamplifier/shaper chips and CMOS based switched capacitor arrays used as an analog memory pipeline. The ADC is located off-detector. The complete readout chain from the wafer to the DAQ will be presented. Finally we will show physics performance simulations based on the resolution achieved by the SVT prototypes.

76 FR 78313 - Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells and Modules From China

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-12-16

...)] Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells and Modules From China Determinations On the basis of the record \\1... injured by reason of imports from China of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells and modules, provided... imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells and modules from China. Accordingly, effective October...

Electronic band-gap modified passive silicon optical modulator at telecommunications wavelengths.

PubMed

Zhang, Rui; Yu, Haohai; Zhang, Huaijin; Liu, Xiangdong; Lu, Qingming; Wang, Jiyang

2015-11-13

The silicon optical modulator is considered to be the workhorse of a revolution in communications. In recent years, the capabilities of externally driven active silicon optical modulators have dramatically improved. Self-driven passive modulators, especially passive silicon modulators, possess advantages in compactness, integration, low-cost, etc. Constrained by a large indirect band-gap and sensitivity-related loss, the passive silicon optical modulator is scarce and has been not advancing, especially at telecommunications wavelengths. Here, a passive silicon optical modulator is fabricated by introducing an impurity band in the electronic band-gap, and its nonlinear optics and applications in the telecommunications-wavelength lasers are investigated. The saturable absorption properties at the wavelength of 1.55 μm was measured and indicates that the sample is quite sensitive to light intensity and has negligible absorption loss. With a passive silicon modulator, pulsed lasers were constructed at wavelengths at 1.34 and 1.42 μm. It is concluded that the sensitive self-driven passive silicon optical modulator is a viable candidate for photonics applications out to 2.5 μm.

Durable crystalline Si photovoltaic modules based on silicone-sheet encapsulants

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hara, Kohjiro; Ohwada, Hiroto; Furihata, Tomoyoshi; Masuda, Atsushi

2018-02-01

Crystalline Si photovoltaic (PV) modules were fabricated with sheets of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (silicone) as an encapsulant. The long-term durability of the silicone-encapsulated PV modules was experimentally investigated. The silicone-based modules enhanced the long-term durability against potential-induced degradation (PID) and a damp-heat (DH) condition at 85 °C with 85% relative humidity (RH). In addition, we designed and fabricated substrate-type Si PV modules based on the silicone encapsulant and an Al-alloy plate as the substratum, which demonstrated high impact resistance and high incombustible performance. The high chemical stability, high volume resistivity, rubber-like elasticity, and incombustibility of the silicone encapsulant resulted in the high durability of the modules. Our results indicate that silicone is an attractive encapsulation material, as it improves the long-term durability of crystalline Si PV modules.

77 FR 72884 - Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells and Modules From China

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-12-06

... Silicon Photovoltaic Cells and Modules From China Determinations On the basis of the record \\1\\ developed... imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells and modules from China, provided for in subheadings 8501... silicon photovoltaic cells and modules from China. Chairman Irving A. Williamson and Commissioner Dean A...

77 FR 35425 - Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells and Modules From China; Scheduling of the Final Phase of...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-06-13

... Silicon Photovoltaic Cells and Modules From China; Scheduling of the Final Phase of Countervailing Duty... silicon photovoltaic cells and modules, provided for in subheadings 8501.31.80, 8501.61.00, 8507.20.80... photovoltaic cells, and modules, laminates, and panels, consisting of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells...

Silicon pixel R&D for CLIC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Munker, M.

2017-01-01

Challenging detector requirements are imposed by the physics goals at the future multi-TeV e+ e- Compact Linear Collider (CLIC). A single point resolution of 3 μm for the vertex detector and 7 μm for the tracker is required. Moreover, the CLIC vertex detector and tracker need to be extremely light weighted with a material budget of 0.2% X0 per layer in the vertex detector and 1-2% X0 in the tracker. A fast time slicing of 10 ns is further required to suppress background from beam-beam interactions. A wide range of sensor and readout ASIC technologies are investigated within the CLIC silicon pixel R&D effort. Various hybrid planar sensor assemblies with a pixel size of 25×25 μm2 and 55×55 μm2 have been produced and characterised by laboratory measurements and during test-beam campaigns. Experimental and simulation results for thin (50 μm-500 μm) slim edge and active-edge planar, and High-Voltage CMOS sensors hybridised to various readout ASICs (Timepix, Timepix3, CLICpix) are presented.

Mechanical stability of the CMS strip tracker measured with a laser alignment system

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sirunyan, A. M.; Tumasyan, A.; Adam, W.

Here, the CMS tracker consists of 206 m 2 of silicon strip sensors assembled on carbon fibre composite structures and is designed for operation in the temperature range from –25 to +25°C. The mechanical stability of tracker components during physics operation was monitored with a few μm resolution using a dedicated laser alignment system as well as particle tracks from cosmic rays and hadron-hadron collisions. During the LHC operational period of 2011–2013 at stable temperatures, the components of the tracker were observed to experience relative movements of less than 30μm. In addition, temperature variations were found to cause displacements ofmore » tracker structures of about 2μm°C, which largely revert to their initial positions when the temperature is restored to its original value.« less

Mechanical stability of the CMS strip tracker measured with a laser alignment system

DOE PAGES

Sirunyan, A. M.; Tumasyan, A.; Adam, W.; ...

2017-04-21

Here, the CMS tracker consists of 206 m 2 of silicon strip sensors assembled on carbon fibre composite structures and is designed for operation in the temperature range from –25 to +25°C. The mechanical stability of tracker components during physics operation was monitored with a few μm resolution using a dedicated laser alignment system as well as particle tracks from cosmic rays and hadron-hadron collisions. During the LHC operational period of 2011–2013 at stable temperatures, the components of the tracker were observed to experience relative movements of less than 30μm. In addition, temperature variations were found to cause displacements ofmore » tracker structures of about 2μm°C, which largely revert to their initial positions when the temperature is restored to its original value.« less

Demonstration of low power penalty of silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator in long-haul transmission.

PubMed

Yi, Huaxiang; Long, Qifeng; Tan, Wei; Li, Li; Wang, Xingjun; Zhou, Zhiping

2012-12-03

We demonstrate error-free 80km transmission by a silicon carrier-depletion Mach-Zehnder modulator at 10Gbps and the power penalty is as low as 1.15dB. The devices were evaluated through the bit-error-rate characterizations under the system-level analysis. The silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator was also analyzed comparatively with a lithium niobate Mach-Zehnder modulator in back-to-back transmission and long-haul transmission, respectively, and verified the negative chirp parameter of the silicon modulator through the experiment. The result of low power penalty indicates a practical application for the silicon modulator in the middle- or long-distance transmission systems.

Silicon photomultipliers for scintillating trackers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rabaioli, S.; Berra, A.; Bolognini, D.; Bonvicini, V.; Bosisio, L.; Ciano, S.; Iugovaz, D.; Lietti, D.; Penzo, A.; Prest, M.; Rashevskaya, I.; Reia, S.; Stoppani, L.; Vallazza, E.

2012-12-01

In recent years, silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) have been proposed as a new kind of readout device for scintillating detectors in many experiments. A SiPM consists of a matrix of parallel-connected pixels, which are independent photon counters working in Geiger mode with very high gain (∼106). This contribution presents the use of an array of eight SiPMs (manufactured by FBK-irst) for the readout of a scintillating bar tracker (a small size prototype of the Electron Muon Ranger detector for the MICE experiment). The performances of the SiPMs in terms of signal to noise ratio, efficiency and time resolution will be compared to the ones of a multi-anode photomultiplier tube (MAPMT) connected to the same bars. Both the SiPMs and the MAPMT are interfaced to a VME system through a 64 channel MAROC ASIC.

Readout Electronics for the Forward Vertex Detector at PHENIX

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Phillips, Michael

2010-11-01

The PHENIX experiment at RHIC at Brookhaven National Laboratory has been providing high quality physics data for over 10 years. The current PHENIX physics program will be significantly enhanced by addition of the Forward Silicon Vertex upgrade detector (FVTX) in the acceptance of existing muon arm detectors. The proposed tracker is planned to be put into operation in 2012. Each arm of the FVTX detector consist of 4 discs of silicon strip sensors combined with FPHX readout chips, designed at FNAL. The full detector consists of over 1 million active mini-strip channels with instantaneous bandwidth topping 3.4 Tb/s. The FPHX chip utilizes data push architecture with 2 serial output streams at 200 MHz. The readout electronics design consists of Read-Out Cards (ROC) located in the vicinity of the detector and Front End Modules (FEM) located in the Counting House. ROC boards combine the data from several chips, synchronizes data streams and send them to FEM over a Fiber Optics Link. The data are buffered in the FEM and then sent to a standard PHENIX DAQ interface upon Level-1 trigger request. We will present the current status of the readout electronics development and testing, including tests with data from production wedges.

Induced radioactivity in the forward shielding and semiconductor tracker of the ATLAS detector.

PubMed

Bĕdajánek, I; Linhart, V; Stekl, I; Pospísil, S; Kolros, A; Kovalenko, V

2005-01-01

The radioactivity induced in the forward shielding, copper collimator and semiconductor tracker modules of the ATLAS detector has been studied. The ATLAS detector is a long-term experiment which, during operation, will require to have service and access to all of its parts and components. The radioactivity induced in the forward shielding was calculated by Monte Carlo methods based on GEANT3 software tool. The results show that the equivalent dose rates on the outer surface of the forward shielding are very low (at most 0.038 microSv h(-1)). On the other hand, the equivalent dose rates are significantly higher on the inner surface of the forward shielding (up to 661 microSv h(-1)) and, especially, at the copper collimator close to the beampipe (up to 60 mSv h(-1)). The radioactivity induced in the semiconductor tracker modules was studied experimentally. The module was activated by neutrons in a training nuclear reactor and the delayed gamma ray spectra were measured. From these measurements, the equivalent dose rate on the surface of the semiconductor tracker module was estimated to be < 100 microSv h(-1) after 100 d of Large Hadron Collider (LHC) operation and 10 d of cooling.

76 FR 81914 - Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules, From the People's...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-12-29

... Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules, From the People's Republic of China: Postponement of... investigation of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells, whether or not assembled into modules, from the People..., 2012. \\1\\ See Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules, From the...

Silicon optical modulators for optical digital and analog communications (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Lin; Ding, Jianfeng; Zhang, Lei; Shao, Sizu

2017-02-01

Silicon photonics is considered as a promising technology to overcome the difficulties of the existing digital and analog optical communication systems, such as low integration, high cost, and high power consumption. Silicon optical modulator, as a component to transfer data from electronic domain to optical one, has attracted extensive attentions in the past decade. In this paper, we review the statuses of the silicon optical modulators for digital and analog optical communications and introduce our efforts on these topics. We analyze the relationship between the performance and the structural parameters of the silicon optical modulator and present how to optimize its performance including electro-optical bandwidth, modulation efficiency, optical bandwidth and insertion loss. The fabricated silicon optical modulator has an electro-optical bandwidth of 30 GHz. Its extinction ratios are 14.0 dB, 11.2 dB and 9.0 dB at the speeds of 40 Gbps, 50 Gbps and 64 Gbps for OOK modulation. The high extinction ratio of the silicon optical modulator at the high speed makes it very appropriate for the application of optical coherent modulation, such as QPSK and 16-QAM. The fabricated silicon optical modulator also can be utilized for analog optical communication. With respect to a noise floor of -165 dBc, the dynamic ranges for the second-order harmonic and the third-order intermodulation distortion are 90.8 dB and 110.5 dB respectively. By adopting a differential driving structure, the dynamic range for the second-order harmonic can be further improved to 100.0 dB while the third-order intermodulation distortion remains the same level.

SALT, a dedicated readout chip for high precision tracking silicon strip detectors at the LHCb Upgrade

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bugiel, Sz.; Dasgupta, R.; Firlej, M.; Fiutowski, T.; Idzik, M.; Kuczynska, M.; Moron, J.; Swientek, K.; Szumlak, T.

2016-02-01

The Upstream Tracker (UT) silicon strip detector, one of the central parts of the tracker system of the modernised LHCb experiment, will use a new 128-channel readout ASIC called SALT. It will extract and digitise analogue signals from the UT sensors, perform digital signal processing and transmit a serial output data. The SALT is being designed in CMOS 130 nm process and uses a novel architecture comprising of analog front-end and fast (40 MSps) ultra-low power (<0.5 mW) 6-bit ADC in each channel. The prototype ASICs of important functional blocks, like analogue front-end, 6-bit SAR ADC, PLL, and DLL, were designed, fabricated and tested. A prototype of an 8-channel version of the SALT chip, comprising all important functionalities was also designed and fabricated. The architecture and design of the SALT, together with the selected preliminary tests results, are presented.

Silicon Modulators, Switches and Sub-systems for Optical Interconnect

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Qi

Silicon photonics is emerging as a promising platform for manufacturing and integrating photonic devices for light generation, modulation, switching and detection. The compatibility with existing CMOS microelectronic foundries and high index contrast in silicon could enable low cost and high performance photonic systems, which find many applications in optical communication, data center networking and photonic network-on-chip. This thesis first develops and demonstrates several experimental work on high speed silicon modulators and switches with record performance and novel functionality. A 8x40 Gb/s transmitter based on silicon microrings is first presented. Then an end-to-end link using microrings for Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) modulation and demodulation is shown, and its performance with conventional BPSK modulation/ demodulation techniques is compared. Next, a silicon traveling-wave Mach- Zehnder modulator is demonstrated at data rate up to 56 Gb/s for OOK modulation and 48 Gb/s for BPSK modulation, showing its capability at high speed communication systems. Then a single silicon microring is shown with 2x2 full crossbar switching functionality, enabling optical interconnects with ultra small footprint. Then several other experiments in the silicon platform are presented, including a fully integrated in-band Optical Signal to Noise Ratio (OSNR) monitor, characterization of optical power upper bound in a silicon microring modulator, and wavelength conversion in a dispersion-engineered waveguide. The last part of this thesis is on network-level application of photonics, specically a broadcast-and-select network based on star coupler is introduced, and its scalability performance is studied. Finally a novel switch architecture for data center networks is discussed, and its benefits as a disaggregated network are presented.

Passive Sun seeker/tracker and a thermally activated power module

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Siebert, C. J.; Morris, F. A.

1984-01-01

Development and testing of two mechanisms using a shape memory alloy metal (NITINOL) as the power source are described. The two mechanisms developed are a passive Sun Seeker/Tracker and a generic type power module. These mechanisms use NITINOL wire initially strained in pure torsion which provides the greatest mechanical work capacity upon recovery, as compared to other deformation modes (i.e., tension, helical springs, and bending).

Trapping in irradiated p +-n-n - silicon sensors at fluences anticipated at the HL-LHC outer tracker

DOE PAGES

Adam, W.

2016-04-22

The degradation of signal in silicon sensors is studied under conditions expected at the CERN High-Luminosity LHC. 200μm thick n-type silicon sensors are irradiated with protons of different energies to fluences of up to 3 x 10 15 neq/cm 2. Pulsed red laser light with a wavelength of 672 nm is used to generate electron-hole pairs in the sensors. The induced signals are used to determine the charge collection efficiencies separately for electrons and holes drifting through the sensor. The effective trapping rates are extracted by comparing the results to simulation. The electric field is simulated using Synopsys device simulationmore » assuming two effective defects. The generation and drift of charge carriers are simulated in an independent simulation based on PixelAV. The effective trapping rates are determined from the measured charge collection efficiencies and the simulated and measured time-resolved current pulses are compared. Furthermore, the effective trapping rates determined for both electrons and holes are about 50% smaller than those obtained using standard extrapolations of studies at low fluences and suggests an improved tracker performance over initial expectations.« less

77 FR 4764 - Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules, From the People's...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-01-31

... Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules, From the People's Republic of China: Second... preliminary determination of the countervailing duty investigation of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells... February 13, 2012.\\1\\ \\1\\ See Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules...

First results of the silicon telescope using an 'artificial retina' for fast track finding

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Neri, N.; Abba, A.; Caponio, F.

We present the first results of the prototype of a silicon tracker with trigger capabilities based on a novel approach for fast track finding. The working principle of the 'artificial retina' is inspired by the processing of visual images by the brain and it is based on extensive parallelization of data distribution and pattern recognition. The algorithm has been implemented in commercial FPGAs in three main logic modules: a switch for the routing of the detector hits, a pool of engines for the digital processing of the hits, and a block for the calculation of the track parameters. The architecturemore » is fully pipelined and allows the reconstruction of real-time tracks with a latency less then 100 clock cycles, corresponding to 0.25 microsecond at 400 MHz clock. The silicon telescope consists of 8 layers of single-sided silicon strip detectors with 512 strips each. The detector size is about 10 cm x 10 cm and the strip pitch is 183 μm. The detectors are read out by the Beetle chip, a custom ASICs developed for LHCb, which provides the measurement of the hit position and pulse height of 128 channels. The 'artificial retina' algorithm has been implemented on custom data acquisition boards based on FPGAs Xilinx Kintex 7 lx160. The parameters of the tracks detected are finally transferred to host PC via USB 3.0. The boards manage the read-out ASICs and the sampling of the analog channels. The read-out is performed at 40 MHz on 4 channels for each ASIC that corresponds to a decoding of the telescope information at 1.1 MHz. We report on the first results of the fast tracking device and compare with simulations. (authors)« less

Surface plasmons based terahertz modulator consisting of silicon-air-metal-dielectric-metal layers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Wei; Yang, Dongxiao; Qian, Zhenhai

2018-05-01

An optically controlled modulator of the terahertz wave, which is composed of a metal-dielectric-metal structure etched with circular loop arrays on both the metal layers and a photoexcited silicon wafer separated by an air layer, is proposed. Simulation results based on experimentally measured complex permittivities predict that modification of complex permittivity of the silicon wafer through excitation laser leads to a significant tuning of transmission characteristics of the modulator, forming the modulation depths of 59.62% and 96.64% based on localized surface plasmon peak and propagating surface plasmon peak, respectively. The influences of the complex permittivity of the silicon wafer and the thicknesses of both the air layer and the silicon wafer are numerically studied for better understanding the modulation mechanism. This study proposes a feasible methodology to design an optically controlled terahertz modulator with large modulation depth, high speed and suitable insertion loss, which is useful for terahertz applications in the future.

Seventh workshop on the role of impurities and defects in silicon device processing

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

NONE

1997-08-01

This workshop is the latest in a series which has looked at technological issues related to the commercial development and success of silicon based photovoltaic (PV) modules. PV modules based on silicon are the most common at present, but face pressure from other technologies in terms of cell performance and cell cost. This workshop addresses a problem which is a factor in the production costs of silicon based PV modules.

An experimental demonstration of a new type of proton computed tomography using a novel silicon tracking detector.

PubMed

Taylor, J T; Poludniowski, G; Price, T; Waltham, C; Allport, P P; Casse, G L; Esposito, M; Evans, P M; Green, S; Manger, S; Manolopoulos, S; Nieto-Camero, J; Parker, D J; Symons, J; Allinson, N M

2016-11-01

Radiography and tomography using proton beams promise benefit to image guidance and treatment planning for proton therapy. A novel proton tracking detector is described and experimental demonstrations at a therapy facility are reported. A new type of proton CT reconstructing relative "scattering power" rather than "stopping power" is also demonstrated. Notably, this new type of imaging does not require the measurement of the residual energies of the protons. A large area, silicon microstrip tracker with high spatial and temporal resolution has been developed by the Proton Radiotherapy Verification and Dosimetry Applications consortium and commissioned using beams of protons at iThemba LABS, Medical Radiation Department, South Africa. The tracker comprises twelve planes of silicon developed using technology from high energy physics with each plane having an active area of ∼10 × 10 cm segmented into 2048 microstrips. The tracker is organized into four separate units each containing three detectors at 60° to one another creating an x-u-v coordinate system. Pairs of tracking units are used to reconstruct vertices for protons entering and exiting a phantom containing tissue equivalent inserts. By measuring the position and direction of each proton before and after the phantom, the nonlinear path for each proton through an object can be reconstructed. Experimental results are reported for tracking the path of protons with initial energies of 125 and 191 MeV. A spherical phantom of 75 mm diameter was imaged by positioning it between the entrance and exit detectors of the tracker. Positions and directions of individual protons were used to create angular distributions and 2D fluence maps of the beam. These results were acquired for 36 equally spaced projections spanning 180°, allowing, for the first time, an experimental CT image based upon the relative scattering power of protons to be reconstructed. Successful tracking of protons through a thick target (phantom) has demonstrated that the tracker discussed in this paper can provide the precise directional information needed to perform proton radiography and tomography. When synchronized with a range telescope, this could enable the reconstruction of proton CT images of stopping power. Furthermore, by measuring the deflection of many protons through a phantom, it was demonstrated that it is possible to reconstruct a new kind of CT image (scattering power) based upon this tracking information alone.

Research and development of the laser tracker measurement system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Z. L.; Zhou, W. H.; Lao, D. B.; Yuan, J.; Dong, D. F. F.; Ji, R. Y. Y.

2013-01-01

The working principle and system design of the laser tracker measurement system are introduced, as well as the key technologies and solutions in the implementation of the system. The design and implementation of the hardware and configuration of the software are mainly researched. The components of the hardware include distance measuring unit, angle measuring unit, tracking and servo control unit and electronic control unit. The distance measuring devices include the relative distance measuring device (IFM) and the absolute distance measuring device (ADM). The main component of the angle measuring device, the precision rotating stage, is mainly comprised of the precision axis and the encoders which are both set in the tracking head. The data processing unit, tracking and control unit and power supply unit are all set in the control box. The software module is comprised of the communication module, calibration and error compensation module, data analysis module, database management module, 3D display module and the man-machine interface module. The prototype of the laser tracker system has been accomplished and experiments have been carried out to verify the proposed strategies of the hardware and software modules. The experiments showed that the IFM distance measuring error is within 0.15mm, the ADM distance measuring error is within 3.5mm and the angle measuring error is within 3" which demonstrates that the preliminary prototype can realize fundamental measurement tasks.

77 FR 10478 - Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules, From the People's...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-02-22

... Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules, From the People's Republic of China: Postponement of... determination in the countervailing duty investigation of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells, whether or not... Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules, From the People's Republic of...

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Drake, G.; Garcia-Scivres, M.; Paramonov, A.

We propose to use silicon photonics technology to build radiation-hard fiber-optic links for high-bandwidth readout of tracking detectors. The CMOS integrated silicon photonics was developed by Luxtera and commercialized by Molex. The commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) fiber-optic links feature moderate radiation tolerance insufficient for trackers. A transceiver contains four RX and four TX channels operating at 10 Gbps each. The next generation will likely operate at 25 Gbps per channel. The approach uses a standard CMOS process and single-mode fibers, providing low power consumption and good scalability and reliability.

Highly linear ring modulator from hybrid silicon and lithium niobate.

PubMed

Chen, Li; Chen, Jiahong; Nagy, Jonathan; Reano, Ronald M

2015-05-18

We present a highly linear ring modulator from the bonding of ion-sliced x-cut lithium niobate onto a silicon ring resonator. The third order intermodulation distortion spurious free dynamic range is measured to be 98.1 dB Hz(2/3) and 87.6 dB Hz(2/3) at 1 GHz and 10 GHz, respectively. The linearity is comparable to a reference lithium niobate Mach-Zehnder interferometer modulator operating at quadrature and over an order of magnitude greater than silicon ring modulators based on plasma dispersion effect. Compact modulators for analog optical links that exploit the second order susceptibility of lithium niobate on the silicon platform are envisioned.

Prototyping of Silicon Strip Detectors for the Inner Tracker of the ALICE Experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sokolov, Oleksiy

2006-04-01

The ALICE experiment at CERN will study heavy ion collisions at a center-of-mass energy 5.5˜TeV per nucleon. Particle tracking around the interaction region at radii r<45 cm is done by the Inner Tracking System (ITS), consisting of six cylindrical layers of silicon detectors. The outer two layers of the ITS use double-sided silicon strip detectors. This thesis focuses on testing of these detectors and performance studies of the detector module prototypes at the beam test. Silicon strip detector layers will require about 20 thousand HAL25 front-end readout chips and about 3.5 thousand hybrids each containing 6 HAL25 chips. During the assembly procedure, chips are bonded on a patterned TAB aluminium microcables which connect to all the chip input and output pads, and then the chips are assembled on the hybrids. Bonding failures at the chip or hybrid level may either render the component non-functional or deteriorate its the performance such that it can not be used for the module production. After each bonding operation, the component testing is done to reject the non-functional or poorly performing chips and hybrids. The LabView-controlled test station for this operation has been built at Utrecht University and was successfully used for mass production acceptance tests of chips and hybrids at three production labs. The functionality of the chip registers, bonding quality and analogue functionality of the chips and hybrids are addressed in the test. The test routines were optimized to minimize the testing time to make sure that testing is not a bottleneck of the mass production. For testing of complete modules the laser scanning station with 1060 nm diode laser has been assembled at Utrecht University. The testing method relies of the fact that a response of the detector module to a short collimated laser beam pulse resembles a response to a minimum ionizing particle. A small beam spot size (˜7 μm ) allows to deposit the charge in a narrow region and measure the response of individual detector channels. First several module prototypes have been studied with this setup, the strip gain and charge sharing function have been measured, the later is compared with the model predictions. It was also shown that for a laser beam of a high monochromaticity, interference in the sensor bulk significantly modulates the deposited charge and introduces a systematic error of the gain measurement. Signatures of disconnected strips and pinholes defects have been observed, the response of the disconnected strips to the laser beam has been correlated with the noise measurements. Beam test of four prototype modules have been carried out at PS accelerator at CERN using 7 GeV/c pions. It was demonstrated that the modules provide an excellent signal-to-noise ratio in the range 40-75. The estimated spatial resolution for the normally incident tracks is about 18 μm using the center-of-gravity cluster reconstruction method. A non-iterative method for spatial resolution determination was developed, it was shown that in order to determine the resolution of each individual detector in the telescope, the telescope should consist of at least 5 detectors. The detectors showed high detection efficiency, in the order 99%. It was shown that the particle loss occurs mostly in the defected regions near the noisy strips or strips with a very low gain. The efficiency of the sensor area with nominal characteristics is consistent with 100%.

Monolithically interconnected silicon-film™ module technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

DelleDonne, E. J.; Ford, D. H.; Hall, R. B.; Ingram, A. E.; Rand, J. A.; Barnett, A. M.

1999-03-01

AstroPower is developing an advanced thin-silicon-based, photovoltaic module product. A low-cost monolithic interconnected device is being integrated into a module that combines the design and process features of advanced light trapped, thin-silicon solar cells. This advanced product incorporates a low-cost substrate, a nominally 50-μm thick grown silicon layer with minority carrier diffusion lengths exceeding the active layer thickness, light trapping due to back-surface reflection, and back-surface passivation. The thin silicon layer enables high solar cell performance and can lead to a module conversion efficiency as high as 19%. These performance design features, combined with low-cost manufacturing using relatively low-cost capital equipment, continuous processing and a low-cost substrate, will lead to high-performance, low-cost photovoltaic panels.

An on-line acoustic fluorocarbon coolant mixture analyzer for the ATLAS silicon tracker

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bates, R.; Battistin, M.; Berry, S.

2011-07-01

The ATLAS silicon tracker community foresees an upgrade from the present octafluoro-propane (C{sub 3}F{sub 8}) evaporative cooling fluid - to a composite fluid with a probable 10-20% admixture of hexafluoro-ethane (C{sub 2}F{sub 6}). Such a fluid will allow a lower evaporation temperature and will afford the tracker silicon substrates a better safety margin against leakage current-induced thermal runaway caused by cumulative radiation damage as the luminosity profile at the CERN Large Hadron Collider increases. Central to the use of this new fluid is a new custom-developed speed-of-sound instrument for continuous real-time measurement of the C{sub 3}F{sub 8}/C{sub 2}F{sub 6} mixturemore » ratio and flow. An acoustic vapour mixture analyzer/flow meter with new custom electronics allowing ultrasonic frequency transmission through gas mixtures has been developed for this application. Synchronous with the emission of an ultrasound 'chirp' from an acoustic transmitter, a fast readout clock (40 MHz) is started. The clock is stopped on receipt of an above threshold sound pulse at the receiver. Sound is alternately transmitted parallel and anti-parallel with the vapour flow for volume flow measurement from transducers that can serve as acoustic transmitters or receivers. In the development version, continuous real-time measurement of C{sub 3}F{sub 8}/C{sub 2}F{sub 6} flow and calculation of the mixture ratio is performed within a graphical user interface developed in PVSS-II, the Supervisory, Control and Data Acquisition standard chosen for LHC and its experiments at CERN. The described instrument has numerous potential applications - including refrigerant leak detection, the analysis of hydrocarbons, vapour mixtures for semiconductor manufacture and anesthetic gas mixtures. (authors)« less

An On-Line Acoustic Fluorocarbon Coolant Mixture Analyzer for the ATLAS Silicon Tracker

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bates, R.; Battistin, M.; Berry, S.; Bitadze, A.; Bonneau, P.; Bousson, N.; Boyd, G.; Botelho-Direito, J.; DiGirolamo, B.; Doubek, M.; Egorov, K.; Godlewski, J.; Hallewell, G.; Katunin, S.; Mathieu, M.; McMahon, S.; Nagai, K.; Perez-Rodriguez, E.; Rozanov, A.; Vacek, V.; Vitek, M.

2012-10-01

The ATLAS silicon tracker community foresees an upgrade from the present octafluoropropane (C3F8) evaporative cooling fluid to a composite fluid with a probable 10-20% admixture of hexafluoroethane (C2F6). Such a fluid will allow a lower evaporation temperature and will afford the tracker silicon substrates a better safety margin against leakage current-induced thermal runaway caused by cumulative radiation damage as the luminosity profile at the CERN Large Hadron Collider increases. Central to the use of this new fluid is a new custom-developed speed-of-sound instrument for continuous real-time measurement of the C3F8/C2F6 mixture ratio and flow. An acoustic vapour mixture analyzer/flow meter with new custom electronics allowing ultrasonic frequency transmission through gas mixtures has been developed for this application. Synchronous with the emission of an ultrasound `chirp' from an acoustic transmitter, a fast readout clock (40 MHz) is started. The clock is stopped on receipt of an above threshold sound pulse at the receiver. Sound is alternately transmitted parallel and anti-parallel with the vapour flow for volume flow measurement from transducers that can serve as acoustic transmitters or receivers. In the development version, continuous real-time measurement of C3F8/C2F6 flow and calculation of the mixture ratio is performed within a graphical user interface developed in PVSS-II, the Supervisory, Control and Data Acquisition standard chosen for LHC and its experiments at CERN. The described instrument has numerous potential applications - including refrigerant leak detection, the analysis of hydrocarbons, vapour mixtures for semi-conductor manufacture and anesthetic gas mixtures.

Flip-chip integrated silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator with a 28nm fully depleted silicon-on-insulator CMOS driver.

PubMed

Yong, Zheng; Shopov, Stefan; Mikkelsen, Jared C; Mallard, Robert; Mak, Jason C C; Voinigescu, Sorin P; Poon, Joyce K S

2017-03-20

We present a silicon electro-optic transmitter consisting of a 28nm ultra-thin body and buried oxide fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (UTBB FD-SOI) CMOS driver flip-chip integrated onto a Mach-Zehnder modulator. The Mach-Zehnder silicon optical modulator was optimized to have a 3dB bandwidth of around 25 GHz at -1V bias and a 50 Ω impedance. The UTBB FD-SOI CMOS driver provided a large output voltage swing around 5 V_pp to enable a high dynamic extinction ratio and a low device insertion loss. At 44 Gbps, the transmitter achieved a high extinction ratio of 6.4 dB at the modulator quadrature operation point. This result shows open eye diagrams at the highest bit rates and with the largest extinction ratios for silicon electro-optic transmitter using a CMOS driver.

Sun-Relative Pointing for Dual-Axis Solar Trackers Employing Azimuth and Elevation Rotations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Riley, Daniel; Hansen, Clifford W.

Dual axis trackers employing azimuth and elevation rotations are common in the field of photovoltaic (PV) energy generation. Accurate sun-tracking algorithms are widely available. However, a steering algorithm has not been available to accurately point the tracker away from the sun such that a vector projection of the sun beam onto the tracker face falls along a desired path relative to the tracker face. We have developed an algorithm which produces the appropriate azimuth and elevation angles for a dual axis tracker when given the sun position, desired angle of incidence, and the desired projection of the sun beam ontomore » the tracker face. Development of this algorithm was inspired by the need to accurately steer a tracker to desired sun-relative positions in order to better characterize the electro-optical properties of PV and CPV modules.« less

Remote control radioactive-waste removal system uses modulated laser transmitter

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burcher, E. E.; Kopia, L. P.; Rowland, C. W.; Sinclair, A. R.

1971-01-01

Laser remote control system consists of transmitter, auto tracker, and receiver. Transmitter and tracker, packaged together and bore sighted, constitute control station, receiver is slave station. Model has five command channels and optical link operating range of 110 m.

Modulation Doping of Silicon using Aluminium-induced Acceptor States in Silicon Dioxide

PubMed Central

König, Dirk; Hiller, Daniel; Gutsch, Sebastian; Zacharias, Margit; Smith, Sean

2017-01-01

All electronic, optoelectronic or photovoltaic applications of silicon depend on controlling majority charge carriers via doping with impurity atoms. Nanoscale silicon is omnipresent in fundamental research (quantum dots, nanowires) but also approached in future technology nodes of the microelectronics industry. In general, silicon nanovolumes, irrespective of their intended purpose, suffer from effects that impede conventional doping due to fundamental physical principles such as out-diffusion, statistics of small numbers, quantum- or dielectric confinement. In analogy to the concept of modulation doping, originally invented for III-V semiconductors, we demonstrate a heterostructure modulation doping method for silicon. Our approach utilizes a specific acceptor state of aluminium atoms in silicon dioxide to generate holes as majority carriers in adjacent silicon. By relocating the dopants from silicon to silicon dioxide, Si nanoscale doping problems are circumvented. In addition, the concept of aluminium-induced acceptor states for passivating hole selective tunnelling contacts as required for high-efficiency photovoltaics is presented and corroborated by first carrier lifetime and tunnelling current measurements. PMID:28425460

Silicon photonic Mach Zehnder modulators for next-generation short-reach optical communication networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lacava, C.; Liu, Z.; Thomson, D.; Ke, Li; Fedeli, J. M.; Richardson, D. J.; Reed, G. T.; Petropoulos, P.

2016-02-01

Communication traffic grows relentlessly in today's networks, and with ever more machines connected to the network, this trend is set to continue for the foreseeable future. It is widely accepted that increasingly faster communications are required at the point of the end users, and consequently optical transmission plays a progressively greater role even in short- and medium-reach networks. Silicon photonic technologies are becoming increasingly attractive for such networks, due to their potential for low cost, energetically efficient, high-speed optical components. A representative example is the silicon-based optical modulator, which has been actively studied. Researchers have demonstrated silicon modulators in different types of structures, such as ring resonators or slow light based devices. These approaches have shown remarkably good performance in terms of modulation efficiency, however their operation could be severely affected by temperature drifts or fabrication errors. Mach-Zehnder modulators (MZM), on the other hand, show good performance and resilience to different environmental conditions. In this paper we present a CMOS-compatible compact silicon MZM. We study the application of the modulator to short-reach interconnects by realizing data modulation using some relevant advanced modulation formats, such as 4-level Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM-4) and Discrete Multi-Tone (DMT) modulation and compare the performance of the different systems in transmission.

Graphene optical modulator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Ming; Yin, Xiaobo; Wang, Feng; Zhang, Xiang

2011-10-01

Data communications have been growing at a speed even faster than Moore's Law, with a 44-fold increase expected within the next 10 years. Data Transfer on such scale would have to recruit optical communication technology and inspire new designs of light sources, modulators, and photodetectors. An ideal optical modulator will require high modulation speed, small device footprint and large operating bandwidth. Silicon modulators based on free carrier plasma dispersion effect and compound semiconductors utilizing direct bandgap transition have seen rapid improvement over the past decade. One of the key limitations for using silicon as modulator material is its weak refractive index change, which limits the footprint of silicon Mach-Zehnder interferometer modulators to millimeters. Other approaches such as silicon microring modulators reduce the operation wavelength range to around 100 pm and are highly sensitive to typical fabrication tolerances and temperature fluctuations. Growing large, high quality wafers of compound semiconductors, and integrating them on silicon or other substrates is expensive, which also restricts their commercialization. In this work, we demonstrate that graphene can be used as the active media for electroabsorption modulators. By tuning the Fermi energy level of the graphene layer, we induced changes in the absorption coefficient of graphene at communication wavelength and achieve a modulation depth above 3 dB. This integrated device also has the potential of working at high speed.

Micrometer size polarization independent depletion-type photonic modulator in Silicon On Insulator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gardes, F. Y.; Tsakmakidis, K. L.; Thomson, D.; Reed, G. T.; Mashanovich, G. Z.; Hess, O.; Avitabile, D.

2007-04-01

The trend in silicon photonics, in the last few years has been to reduce waveguide size to obtain maximum gain in the real estate of devices as well as to increase the performance of active devices. Using different methods for the modulation, optical modulators in silicon have seen their bandwidth increased to reach multi GHz frequencies. In order to simplify fabrication, one requirement for a waveguide, as well as for a modulator, is to retain polarisation independence in any state of operation and to be as small as possible. In this paper we provide a way to obtain polarization independence and improve the efficiency of an optical modulator using a V-shaped pn junction base on the natural etch angle of silicon, 54.7 deg. This modulator is compared to a flat junction depletion type modulator of the same size and doping concentration.

Optical modulator based on silicon nanowires racetrack resonator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sherif, S. M.; Shahada, L.; Swillam, M.

2018-02-01

An optical modulator based on the racetrack resonator configuration is introduced. The structure of the resonator modulator is built from silicon nanowires on silica. The cladding and voids between the silicon nanowires are filled with an electro-optic polymer. The proposed modulator is fully CMOS compatible. When the resonance is tuned to the 1.55μm wavelength, it experiences a wavelength shift upon voltage application, which is measured at the output as a change in the power level.

Evaluation of the performance of irradiated silicon strip sensors for the forward detector of the ATLAS Inner Tracker Upgrade

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mori, R.; Allport, P. P.; Baca, M.; Broughton, J.; Chisholm, A.; Nikolopoulos, K.; Pyatt, S.; Thomas, J. P.; Wilson, J. A.; Kierstead, J.; Kuczewski, P.; Lynn, D.; Arratia-Munoz, M. I.; Hommels, L. B. A.; Ullan, M.; Fleta, C.; Fernandez-Tejero, J.; Bloch, I.; Gregor, I. M.; Lohwasser, K.; Poley, L.; Tackmann, K.; Trofimov, A.; Yildirim, E.; Hauser, M.; Jakobs, K.; Kuehn, S.; Mahboubi, K.; Parzefall, U.; Clark, A.; Ferrere, D.; Sevilla, S. Gonzalez; Ashby, J.; Blue, A.; Bates, R.; Buttar, C.; Doherty, F.; McMullen, T.; McEwan, F.; O'Shea, V.; Kamada, S.; Yamamura, K.; Ikegami, Y.; Nakamura, K.; Takubo, Y.; Unno, Y.; Takashima, R.; Chilingarov, A.; Fox, H.; Affolder, A. A.; Casse, G.; Dervan, P.; Forshaw, D.; Greenall, A.; Wonsak, S.; Wormald, M.; Cindro, V.; Kramberger, G.; Mandić, I.; Mikuž, M.; Gorelov, I.; Hoeferkamp, M.; Palni, P.; Seidel, S.; Taylor, A.; Toms, K.; Wang, R.; Hessey, N. P.; Valencic, N.; Hanagaki, K.; Dolezal, Z.; Kodys, P.; Bohm, J.; Stastny, J.; Mikestikova, M.; Bevan, A.; Beck, G.; Milke, C.; Domingo, M.; Fadeyev, V.; Galloway, Z.; Hibbard-Lubow, D.; Liang, Z.; Sadrozinski, H. F.-W.; Seiden, A.; To, K.; French, R.; Hodgson, P.; Marin-Reyes, H.; Parker, K.; Jinnouchi, O.; Hara, K.; Sato, K.; Sato, K.; Hagihara, M.; Iwabuchi, S.; Bernabeu, J.; Civera, J. V.; Garcia, C.; Lacasta, C.; Garcia, S. Marti i.; Rodriguez, D.; Santoyo, D.; Solaz, C.; Soldevila, U.

2016-09-01

The upgrade to the High-Luminosity LHC foreseen in about ten years represents a great challenge for the ATLAS inner tracker and the silicon strip sensors in the forward region. Several strip sensor designs were developed by the ATLAS collaboration and fabricated by Hamamatsu in order to maintain enough performance in terms of charge collection efficiency and its uniformity throughout the active region. Of particular attention, in the case of a stereo-strip sensor, is the area near the sensor edge where shorter strips were ganged to the complete ones. In this work the electrical and charge collection test results on irradiated miniature sensors with forward geometry are presented. Results from charge collection efficiency measurements show that at the maximum expected fluence, the collected charge is roughly halved with respect to the one obtained prior to irradiation. Laser measurements show a good signal uniformity over the sensor. Ganged strips have a similar efficiency as standard strips.

The Gamma Ray Imaging Detector of the AGILE satellite: A novel application of silicon trackers for detection of astrophysics high-energy photons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rappoldi, Andrea; AGILE Collaboration

2009-10-01

AGILE is a project of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) Scientific Program dedicated to Gamma ray astrophysics. It is designed to be a very light and compact instrument, capable of photon detections and imaging in both the 30 MeV-50 GeV and 18-60 keV energy ranges, with a large field of view (FOV is ˜3 and ˜1 sr, respectively). The core of the instrument (launched on April 23, 2007 from the Indian Space Research Organization's launch facility) is represented by the Gamma Ray Imaging Detector (GRID), which is a silicon tracker developed by the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), with a spatial resolution of ˜40 μm. The GRID performances have been studied by means of a GEANT Montecarlo, and tested with a dedicated calibration campaign using the tagged gamma beam available at Beam Test Facility (BTF) of INFN Frascati Laboratory.

Demonstration of in-vivo Multi-Probe Tracker Based on a Si/CdTe Semiconductor Compton Camera

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takeda, Shin'ichiro; Odaka, Hirokazu; Ishikawa, Shin-nosuke; Watanabe, Shin; Aono, Hiroyuki; Takahashi, Tadayuki; Kanayama, Yousuke; Hiromura, Makoto; Enomoto, Shuichi

2012-02-01

By using a prototype Compton camera consisting of silicon (Si) and cadmium telluride (CdTe) semiconductor detectors, originally developed for the ASTRO-H satellite mission, an experiment involving imaging multiple radiopharmaceuticals injected into a living mouse was conducted to study its feasibility for medical imaging. The accumulation of both iodinated (131I) methylnorcholestenol and 85Sr into the mouse's organs was simultaneously imaged by the prototype. This result implies that the Compton camera is expected to become a multi-probe tracker available in nuclear medicine and small animal imaging.

On-ground calibration of AGILE-GRID with a photon beam: results and lessons for the future

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cattaneo, P. W.; Rappoldi, A.

2013-06-01

On the AGILE satellite, there is the Gamma Ray Imaging Detector (GRID) consisting of a Silicon Tracker (ST), a Cesium Iodide Mini-Calorimeter and an Anti-Coincidence system of plastic scintillator bars. The ST needs a calibration with a γ-ray beam to validate the simulation used to calculate the detector response versus the energy and the direction of the γ rays. A tagged γ-ray beam line was designed at the Beam Test Facility of the Laboratori Nazionali of Frascati, generated by an electron beam through bremsstrahlung in a position-sensitive target. The γ-ray energy is deduced by the difference with the post-bremsstrahlung electron energy [P. W. Cattaneo, et al., Characterization of a tagged γ-ray beam line at the daΦne beam test facility, Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 674 (2012) 55-66; P. W. Cattaneo, et al., First results about on-ground calibration of the silicon tracker for the agile satellite, Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 630(1) (2011) 251-257.]. The electron energy is measured by a spectrometer consisting of a dipole magnet and an array of position sensitive silicon strip detectors, the Photon Tagging System (PTS). In this paper the setup and the calibration of AGILE performed in 2005 are described.

Development of semiconductor tracking: The future linear collider case

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Savoy-Navarro, Aurore

2011-04-01

An active R&D on silicon tracking for the linear collider, SiLC, is pursued since several years to develop the new generation of large area silicon trackers for the future linear collider(s). The R&D objectives on new sensors, new front end processing of the signal, and the related mechanical and integration challenges for building such large detectors within the proposed detector concepts are described. Synergies and differences with the LHC construction and upgrades are explained. The differences between the linear collider projects, namely the international linear collider, ILC, and the compact linear collider, CLIC, are discussed as well. Two final objectives are presented for the construction of this important sub-detector for the future linear collider experiments: a relatively short term design based on micro-strips combined or not with a gaseous central tracker and a longer term design based on an all-pixel tracker.The R&D objectives on sensors include single sided micro-strips as baseline for the shorter term with the strips from large wafers (at least 6 in), 200 μm thick, 50 μm pitch and the edgeless and alignment friendly options. This work is conducted by SiLC in collaboration with three technical research centers in Italy, Finland, and Spain and HPK. SiLC is studied as well, using advanced Si sensor technologies for higher granularity trackers especially short strips and pixels all based on 3D technology. New Deep Sub-Micron CMOS mix mode (analog and digital) FE and readout electronics are developed to fully process the detector signals currently adapted to the ILC cycle. It is a high-level processing and a fully programmable ASIC; highly fault tolerant. In its latest version, handling 128 channels will equip these next coming years larger size silicon tracking prototypes at test beams. Connection of the FEE chip on the silicon detector especially in the strip case is a major issue. Very preliminary results with inline pitch adapter based on wiring were just achieved. Bump-bonding or 3D vertical interconnect is the other SiLC R&D objective. The goal is to simplify the overall architecture and decrease the material budget of these devices. Three tracking concepts are briefly discussed, two of which are part of the ILC Letter of Intent of the ILD and SiD detector concepts. These last years, SiLC successfully performed beam tests to experience and test these R&D lines.

Texturing Silicon Nanowires for Highly Localized Optical Modulation of Cellular Dynamics.

PubMed

Fang, Yin; Jiang, Yuanwen; Acaron Ledesma, Hector; Yi, Jaeseok; Gao, Xiang; Weiss, Dara E; Shi, Fengyuan; Tian, Bozhi

2018-06-18

Engineered silicon-based materials can display photoelectric and photothermal responses under light illumination, which may lead to further innovations at the silicon-biology interfaces. Silicon nanowires have small radial dimensions, promising as highly localized cellular modulators, however the single crystalline form typically has limited photothermal efficacy due to the poor light absorption and fast heat dissipation. In this work, we report strategies to improve the photothermal response from silicon nanowires by introducing nanoscale textures on the surface and in the bulk. We next demonstrate high-resolution extracellular modulation of calcium dynamics in a number of mammalian cells including glial cells, neurons, and cancer cells. The new materials may be broadly used in probing and modulating electrical and chemical signals at the subcellular length scale, which is currently a challenge in the field of electrophysiology or cellular engineering.

Specific energy yield comparison between crystalline silicon and amorphous silicon based PV modules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferenczi, Toby; Stern, Omar; Hartung, Marianne; Mueggenburg, Eike; Lynass, Mark; Bernal, Eva; Mayer, Oliver; Zettl, Marcus

2009-08-01

As emerging thin-film PV technologies continue to penetrate the market and the number of utility scale installations substantially increase, detailed understanding of the performance of the various PV technologies becomes more important. An accurate database for each technology is essential for precise project planning, energy yield prediction and project financing. However recent publications showed that it is very difficult to get accurate and reliable performance data of theses technologies. This paper evaluates previously reported claims the amorphous silicon based PV modules have a higher annual energy yield compared to crystalline silicon modules relative to their rated performance. In order to acquire a detailed understanding of this effect, outdoor module tests were performed at GE Global Research Center in Munich. In this study we examine closely two of the five reported factors that contribute to enhanced energy yield of amorphous silicon modules. We find evidence to support each of these factors and evaluate their relative significance. We discuss aspects for improvement in how PV modules are sold and identify areas for further study further study.

Study of prototypes of LFoundry active CMOS pixels sensors for the ATLAS detector

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vigani, L.; Bortoletto, D.; Ambroz, L.; Plackett, R.; Hemperek, T.; Rymaszewski, P.; Wang, T.; Krueger, H.; Hirono, T.; Caicedo Sierra, I.; Wermes, N.; Barbero, M.; Bhat, S.; Breugnon, P.; Chen, Z.; Godiot, S.; Pangaud, P.; Rozanov, A.

2018-02-01

Current high energy particle physics experiments at the LHC use hybrid silicon detectors, in both pixel and strip configurations, for their inner trackers. These detectors have proven to be very reliable and performant. Nevertheless, there is great interest in depleted CMOS silicon detectors, which could achieve a similar performance at lower cost of production. We present recent developments of this technology in the framework of the ATLAS CMOS demonstrator project. In particular, studies of two active sensors from LFoundry, CCPD_LF and LFCPIX, are shown.

Status and Plan for The Upgrade of The CMS Pixel Detector

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Rong-Shyang; CMS Collaboration

2016-04-01

The silicon pixel detector is the innermost component of the CMS tracking system and plays a crucial role in the all-silicon CMS tracker. While the current pixel tracker is designed for and performing well at an instantaneous luminosity of up to 1 ×1034cm-2s-1, it can no longer be operated efficiently at significantly higher values. Based on the strong performance of the LHC accelerator, it is anticipated that peak luminosities of two times the design luminosity are likely to be reached before 2018 and perhaps significantly exceeded in the running period until 2022, referred to as LHC Run 3. Therefore, an upgraded pixel detector, referred to as the phase 1 upgrade, is planned for the year-end technical stop in 2016. With a new pixel readout chip (ROC), an additional fourth layer, two additional endcap disks, and a significantly reduced material budget the upgraded pixel detector will be able to sustain the efficiency of the pixel tracker at the increased requirements imposed by high luminosities and pile-up. The main new features of the upgraded pixel detector will be an ultra-light mechanical design, a digital readout chip with higher rate capability and a new cooling system. These and other design improvements, along with results of Monte Carlo simulation studies for the expected performance of the new pixel detector, will be discussed and compared to those of the current CMS detector.

Analysis and Quantification of Coupling Mechanisms of External Signal Perturbations on Silicon Detectors for Particle Physics Experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arteche, F.; Rivetta, C.; Iglesias, M.; Echeverria, I.

2016-05-01

Silicon detectors have been used in astrophysics satellites and particle detectors for high energy physics (HEP) experiments. For HEP applications, EMC studies have been conducted in silicon detectors to characterize the impact of external noise on the system. They have shown that problems associated with the new generation of silicon detectors are related with interferences generated by the power supplies and auxiliary equipment connected to the device. Characterization of these interferences along with the coupling and their propagation into the susceptible front-end circuits is required for a successful integration of these systems. This paper presents the analysis of the sensitivity curves and coupling mechanisms between the noise and the front-end electronics that have been observed during the characterization of two silicon detector prototypes: the CMS-Silicon tracker detector (CMS-ST) and Silicon Vertex Detector (Belle II-SVD). As a result of these studies, it is possible to identify critical elements in prototypes to take corrective actions in the design and improve the front-end electronics performance.

Resonator-Based Silicon Electro-Optic Modulator with Low Power Consumption

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xin, Maoqing; Danner, Aaron J.; Eng Png, Ching; Thor Lim, Soon

2009-04-01

This paper demonstrates, via simulation, an electro-optic modulator based on a subwavelength Fabry-Perot resonator cavity with low power consumption of 86 µW/µm. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the lowest power reported for silicon photonic bandgap modulators. The device is modulated at a doped p-i-n junction overlapping the cavity in a silicon waveguide perforated with etched holes, with the doping area optimized for minimum power consumption. The surface area of the entire device is only 2.1 µm2, which compares favorably to other silicon-based modulators. A modulation speed of at least 300 MHz is detected from the electrical simulator after sidewall doping is introduced which is suitable for sensing or fiber to the home (FTTH) technologies, where speed can be traded for low cost and power consumption. The device does not rely on ultra-high Q, and could serve as a sensor, modulator, or passive filter with built-in calibration.

50 Gb/s hybrid silicon traveling-wave electroabsorption modulator.

PubMed

Tang, Yongbo; Chen, Hui-Wen; Jain, Siddharth; Peters, Jonathan D; Westergren, Urban; Bowers, John E

2011-03-28

We have demonstrated a traveling-wave electroabsorption modulator based on the hybrid silicon platform. For a device with a 100 μm active segment, the small-signal electro/optical response renders a 3 dB bandwidth of around 42 GHz and its modulation efficiency reaches 23 GHz/V. A dynamic extinction ratio of 9.8 dB with a driving voltage swing of only 2 V was demonstrated at a transmission rate of 50 Gb/s. This represents a significant improvement for modulators compatible with integration of silicon-based photonic integrated circuits.

Low-power silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) modulators for advanced modulation formats.

PubMed

Lauermann, M; Palmer, R; Koeber, S; Schindler, P C; Korn, D; Wahlbrink, T; Bolten, J; Waldow, M; Elder, D L; Dalton, L R; Leuthold, J; Freude, W; Koos, C

2014-12-01

We demonstrate silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) electro-optic modulators that enable quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) and 16-state quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM) with high signal quality and record-low energy consumption. SOH integration combines highly efficient electro-optic organic materials with conventional silicon-on-insulator (SOI) slot waveguides, and allows to overcome the intrinsic limitations of silicon as an optical integration platform. We demonstrate QPSK and 16QAM signaling at symbol rates of 28 GBd with peak-to-peak drive voltages of 0.6 V(pp). For the 16QAM experiment at 112 Gbit/s, we measure a bit-error ratio of 5.1 × 10⁻⁵ and a record-low energy consumption of only 19 fJ/bit.

Behavior of the potential-induced degradation of photovoltaic modules fabricated using flat mono-crystalline silicon cells with different surface orientations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yamaguchi, Seira; Masuda, Atsushi; Ohdaira, Keisuke

2016-04-01

This paper deals with the dependence of the potential-induced degradation (PID) of flat, p-type mono-crystalline silicon solar cell modules on the surface orientation of solar cells. The investigated modules were fabricated from p-type mono-crystalline silicon cells with a (100) or (111) surface orientation using a module laminator. PID tests were performed by applying a voltage of -1000 V to shorted module interconnector ribbons with respect to an Al plate placed on the cover glass of the modules at 85 °C. A decrease in the parallel resistance of the (100)-oriented cell modules is more significant than that of the (111)-oriented cell modules. Hence, the performance of the (100)-oriented-cell modules drastically deteriorates, compared with that of the (111)-oriented-cell modules. This implies that (111)-oriented cells offer a higher PID resistance.

U.S. Photovoltaic Prices and Cost Breakdowns. Q1 2015 Benchmarks for Residential, Commercial, and Utility-Scale Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chung, Donald; Davidson, Carolyn; Fu, Ran

The price of photovoltaic (PV) systems in the United States (i.e., the cost to the system owner) has continued to decline across all major market sectors. This report provides a Q1 2015 update regarding the prices of residential, commercial, and utility scale PV systems, based on an objective methodology that closely approximates the book value of a PV system. Several cases are benchmarked to represent common variations in business models, labor rates, and system architecture choice. We estimate a weighted-average cash purchase price of $3.09/W for residential scale rooftop systems, $2.15/W for commercial scale rooftop systems, $1.77/W for utility scalemore » systems with fixed mounting structures, and $1.91/W for utility scale systems using single-axis trackers. All systems are modeled assuming standard-efficiency, polycrystalline-silicon PV modules, and further assume installation within the United States.« less

From cells to laminate: probing and modeling residual stress evolution in thin silicon photovoltaic modules using synchrotron X-ray micro-diffraction experiments and finite element simulations

DOE PAGES

Tippabhotla, Sasi Kumar; Radchenko, Ihor; Song, W. J. R.; ...

2017-04-12

Fracture of silicon crystalline solar cells has recently been observed in increasing percentages especially in solar photovoltaic (PV) modules involving thinner silicon solar cells (<200 μm). Many failures due to fracture have been reported from the field because of environmental loading (snow, wind, etc.) as well as mishandling of the solar PV modules (during installation, maintenance, etc.). However, a significantly higher number of failures have also been reported during module encapsulation (lamination) indicating high residual stress in the modules and thus more prone to cell cracking. Here in this paper we report through the use of synchrotron X-ray submicron diffractionmore » coupled with physics-based finite element modeling, the complete residual stress evolution in mono-crystalline silicon solar cells during PV module integration process. For the first time, we unravel the reason for the high stress and cracking of silicon cells near soldered inter-connects. Our experiments revealed a significant increase of residual stress in the silicon cell near the solder joint after lamination. Moreover, our finite element simulations show that this increase of stress during lamination is a result of highly localized bending of the cell near the soldered inter-connects. Further, the synchrotron X-ray submicron diffraction has proven to be a very effective way to quantitatively probe mechanical stress in encapsulated silicon solar cells. Thus, this technique has ultimately enabled these findings leading to the enlightening of the role of soldering and encapsulation processes on the cell residual stress. This model can be further used to suggest methodologies that could lead to lower stress in encapsulated silicon solar cells, which are the subjects of our continued investigations.« less

From cells to laminate: probing and modeling residual stress evolution in thin silicon photovoltaic modules using synchrotron X-ray micro-diffraction experiments and finite element simulations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tippabhotla, Sasi Kumar; Radchenko, Ihor; Song, W. J. R.

Fracture of silicon crystalline solar cells has recently been observed in increasing percentages especially in solar photovoltaic (PV) modules involving thinner silicon solar cells (<200 μm). Many failures due to fracture have been reported from the field because of environmental loading (snow, wind, etc.) as well as mishandling of the solar PV modules (during installation, maintenance, etc.). However, a significantly higher number of failures have also been reported during module encapsulation (lamination) indicating high residual stress in the modules and thus more prone to cell cracking. Here in this paper we report through the use of synchrotron X-ray submicron diffractionmore » coupled with physics-based finite element modeling, the complete residual stress evolution in mono-crystalline silicon solar cells during PV module integration process. For the first time, we unravel the reason for the high stress and cracking of silicon cells near soldered inter-connects. Our experiments revealed a significant increase of residual stress in the silicon cell near the solder joint after lamination. Moreover, our finite element simulations show that this increase of stress during lamination is a result of highly localized bending of the cell near the soldered inter-connects. Further, the synchrotron X-ray submicron diffraction has proven to be a very effective way to quantitatively probe mechanical stress in encapsulated silicon solar cells. Thus, this technique has ultimately enabled these findings leading to the enlightening of the role of soldering and encapsulation processes on the cell residual stress. This model can be further used to suggest methodologies that could lead to lower stress in encapsulated silicon solar cells, which are the subjects of our continued investigations.« less

ATCA-based ATLAS FTK input interface system

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Okumura, Yasuyuki; Liu, Tiehui Ted; Olsen, Jamieson

The first stage of the ATLAS Fast TracKer (FTK) is an ATCA-based input interface system, where hits from the entire silicon tracker are clustered and organized into overlapping eta-phi trigger towers before being sent to the tracking engines. First, FTK Input Mezzanine cards receive hit data and perform clustering to reduce data volume. Then, the ATCA-based Data Formatter system will organize the trigger tower data, sharing data among boards over full mesh backplanes and optic fibers. The board and system level design concepts and implementation details, as well as the operation experiences from the FTK full-chain testing, will be presented.

Star tracker error analysis: Roll-to-pitch nonorthogonality

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Corson, R. W.

1979-01-01

An error analysis is described on an anomaly isolated in the star tracker software line of sight (LOS) rate test. The LOS rate cosine was found to be greater than one in certain cases which implied that either one or both of the star tracker measured end point unit vectors used to compute the LOS rate cosine had lengths greater than unity. The roll/pitch nonorthogonality matrix in the TNB CL module of the IMU software is examined as the source of error.

Recycling WEEE: Extraction and concentration of silver from waste crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules.

PubMed

Dias, Pablo; Javimczik, Selene; Benevit, Mariana; Veit, Hugo; Bernardes, Andréa Moura

2016-11-01

Photovoltaic modules (or panels) are important power generators with limited lifespans. The modules contain known pollutants and valuable materials such as silicon, silver, copper, aluminum and glass. Thus, recycling such waste is of great importance. To date, there have been few published studies on recycling silver from silicon photovoltaic panels, even though silicon technology represents the majority of the photovoltaic market. In this study, the extraction of silver from waste modules is justified and evaluated. It is shown that the silver content in crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules reaches 600g/t. Moreover, two methods to concentrate silver from waste modules were studied, and the use of pyrolysis was evaluated. In the first method, the modules were milled, sieved and leached in 64% nitric acid solution with 99% sodium chloride; the silver concentration yield was 94%. In the second method, photovoltaic modules were milled, sieved, subjected to pyrolysis at 500°C and leached in 64% nitric acid solution with 99% sodium chloride; the silver concentration yield was 92%. The first method is preferred as it consumes less energy and presents a higher yield of silver. This study shows that the use of pyrolysis does not assist in the extraction of silver, as the yield was similar for both methods with and without pyrolysis. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

77 FR 73017 - Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules, From the People's...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-12-07

... Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules, From the People's Republic of China: Countervailing... photovoltaic cells, whether or not assembled into modules (solar cells), from the People's Republic of China... material injury to a U.S. industry.\\1\\ \\1\\ See Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells and Modules from...

77 FR 14732 - Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules, From the People's...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-03-13

... Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules, From the People's Republic of China: Postponement of... of an antidumping duty investigation of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells, whether or not... currently due no later than March 27, 2012. \\1\\ See Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not...

77 FR 5487 - Countervailing Duty Investigation of Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-02-03

... Investigation of Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules, From the People... crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells, whether or not assembled into modules (solar cells), from the People's... exist for imports of solar cells from the PRC for Suntech, Trina, and all other producers or exporters...

Solar power roof shingle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Forestieri, A. F.; Ratajczak, A. F.; Sidorak, L. G.

1975-01-01

Silicon solar cell module provides both all-weather protection and electrical power. Module consists of array of circular silicon solar cells bonded to fiberglass substrate roof shingle with fluorinated ethylene propylene encapsulant.

Mechanical Modulation of Phonon-Assisted Field Emission in a Silicon Nanomembrane Detector for Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry

PubMed Central

Park, Jonghoo; Blick, Robert H.

2016-01-01

We demonstrate mechanical modulation of phonon-assisted field emission in a free-standing silicon nanomembrane detector for time-of-flight mass spectrometry of proteins. The impacts of ion bombardment on the silicon nanomembrane have been explored in both mechanical and electrical points of view. Locally elevated lattice temperature in the silicon nanomembrane, resulting from the transduction of ion kinetic energy into thermal energy through the ion bombardment, induces not only phonon-assisted field emission but also a mechanical vibration in the silicon nanomembrane. The coupling of these mechanical and electrical phenomenon leads to mechanical modulation of phonon-assisted field emission. The thermal energy relaxation through mechanical vibration in addition to the lateral heat conduction and field emission in the silicon nanomembrane offers effective cooling of the nanomembrane, thereby allowing high resolution mass analysis. PMID:26861329

Increasing the Endurance and Payload Capacity of Unmanned Vehicles with Thin-Film Photovoltaics

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-06-01

25  1.  Maximum Power Point Tracker .......................................................25  2.  DC-DC Power Conversion...An example of the amorphous silicon cell (from [28]). ...................................20  Figure 15.  The structure of a copper indium gallium ...for the final solar array with the maximum power point indicated

The Belle-II Depfet Pixel Detector at the Superkekb Flavour Factory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heindl, Stefan

2012-08-01

The ongoing upgrade of the asymmetric electron positron collider KEKB also requires extensive detector upgrades to cope with the new design luminosity of 8 · 1035 cm-2 · s-1 · Of critical importance is the new silicon pixel vertex tracker, which will significantly improve the decay vertex resolution, crucial for time dependent CP violation measurements. This new detector will consist of two layers of DEPFET pixel seii8ors very close to the interaction point. These sensors combine both particle detection and amplification of the signal by embedding a field effect transistor into a 75 μm thick fully depleted silicon substrate, providing very high signal to noise ratios and excellent spatial resolution. Using this technology satisfies the given requirements of extremely low material and high radiation tolerance at the new Belle II experiment. The power dissipation due to continuous readout at high rate and spatial constraints also give strict requirements for the mechanical support and cooling of the new detector. We will discuss the overall concept of the pixel vertex tracker, its expected performance and the challenging mechanical integration.

Optically tuned terahertz modulator based on annealed multilayer MoS2.

PubMed

Cao, Yapeng; Gan, Sheng; Geng, Zhaoxin; Liu, Jian; Yang, Yuping; Bao, Qiaoling; Chen, Hongda

2016-03-08

Controlling the propagation properties of terahertz waves is very important in terahertz technologies applied in high-speed communication. Therefore a new-type optically tuned terahertz modulator based on multilayer-MoS2 and silicon is experimentally demonstrated. The terahertz transmission could be significantly modulated by changing the power of the pumping laser. With an annealing treatment as a p-doping method, MoS2 on silicon demonstrates a triple enhancement of terahertz modulation depth compared with the bare silicon. This MoS2-based device even exhibited much higher modulation efficiency than the graphene-based device. We also analyzed the mechanism of the modulation enhancement originated from annealed MoS2, and found that it is different from that of graphene-based device. The unique optical modulating properties of the device exhibit tremendous promise for applications in terahertz switch.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hacke, P.; Terwilliger, K.; Koch, S.

Three crystalline silicon module designs were distributed in five replicas each to five laboratories for testing according to the IEC 62804 (Committee Draft) system voltage durability qualification test for crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) modules. The stress tests were performed in environmental chambers at 60 degrees C, 85% relative humidity, 96 h, and with module nameplate system voltage applied.

Ultra-thin silicon/electro-optic polymer hybrid waveguide modulators

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Qiu, Feng; Spring, Andrew M.; Sato, Hiromu

2015-09-21

Ultra-thin silicon and electro-optic (EO) polymer hybrid waveguide modulators have been designed and fabricated. The waveguide consists of a silicon core with a thickness of 30 nm and a width of 2 μm. The cladding is an EO polymer. Optical mode calculation reveals that 55% of the optical field around the silicon extends into the EO polymer in the TE mode. A Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) modulator was prepared using common coplanar electrodes. The measured half-wave voltage of the MZI with 7 μm spacing and 1.3 cm long electrodes is 4.6 V at 1550 nm. The evaluated EO coefficient is 70 pm/V, which is comparable to that ofmore » the bulk EO polymer film. Using ultra-thin silicon is beneficial in order to reduce the side-wall scattering loss, yielding a propagation loss of 4.0 dB/cm. We also investigated a mode converter which couples light from the hybrid EO waveguide into a strip silicon waveguide. The calculation indicates that the coupling loss between these two devices is small enough to exploit the potential fusion of a hybrid EO polymer modulator together with a silicon micro-photonics device.« less

Long-term object tracking combined offline with online learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, Mengjie; Wei, Zhenzhong; Zhang, Guangjun

2016-04-01

We propose a simple yet effective method for long-term object tracking. Different from the traditional visual tracking method, which mainly depends on frame-to-frame correspondence, we combine high-level semantic information with low-level correspondences. Our framework is formulated in a confidence selection framework, which allows our system to recover from drift and partly deal with occlusion. To summarize, our algorithm can be roughly decomposed into an initialization stage and a tracking stage. In the initialization stage, an offline detector is trained to get the object appearance information at the category level, which is used for detecting the potential target and initializing the tracking stage. The tracking stage consists of three modules: the online tracking module, detection module, and decision module. A pretrained detector is used for maintaining drift of the online tracker, while the online tracker is used for filtering out false positive detections. A confidence selection mechanism is proposed to optimize the object location based on the online tracker and detection. If the target is lost, the pretrained detector is utilized to reinitialize the whole algorithm when the target is relocated. During experiments, we evaluate our method on several challenging video sequences, and it demonstrates huge improvement compared with detection and online tracking only.

Chemical Bonding Technology: Direct Investigation of Interfacial Bonds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Koenig, J. L.; Boerio, F. J.; Plueddemann, E. P.; Miller, J.; Willis, P. B.; Cuddihy, E. F.

1986-01-01

This is the third Flat-Plate Solar Array (FSA) Project document reporting on chemical bonding technology for terrestrial photovoltaic (PV) modules. The impetus for this work originated in the late 1970s when PV modules employing silicone encapsulation materials were undergoing delamination during outdoor exposure. At that time, manufacturers were not employing adhesion promoters and, hence, module interfaces in common with the silicone materials were only in physical contact and therefore easily prone to separation if, for example, water were to penetrate to the interfaces. Delamination with silicone materials virtually vanished when adhesion promoters, recommended by silicone manufacturers, were used. The activities related to the direct investigation of chemically bonded interfaces are described.

Analysis and evaluation in the production process and equipment area of the low-cost solar array project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goldman, H.; Wolf, M.

1979-01-01

The energy consumed in manufacturing silicon solar cell modules was calculated for the current process, as well as for 1982 and 1986 projected processes. In addition, energy payback times for the above three sequences are shown. The module manufacturing energy was partitioned two ways. In one way, the silicon reduction, silicon purification, sheet formation, cell fabrication, and encapsulation energies were found. In addition, the facility, equipment, processing material and direct material lost-in-process energies were appropriated in junction formation processes and full module manufacturing sequences. A brief methodology accounting for the energy of silicon wafers lost-in-processing during cell manufacturing is described.

Using carrier-depletion silicon modulators for optical power monitoring.

PubMed

Yu, Hui; Korn, Dietmar; Pantouvaki, Marianna; Van Campenhout, Joris; Komorowska, Katarzyna; Verheyen, Peter; Lepage, Guy; Absil, Philippe; Hillerkuss, David; Alloatti, Luca; Leuthold, Juerg; Baets, Roel; Bogaerts, Wim

2012-11-15

Defect-mediated subbandgap absorption is observed in ion-implanted silicon-on-oxide waveguides that experience a rapid thermal annealing at 1075°C. With this effect, general carrier-depletion silicon modulators exhibit the capability of optical power monitoring. Responsivity is measured to be 22 mA/W for a 3 mm long Mach-Zehnder modulator of 2×10(18) cm(-3) doping concentration at -7.1 V bias voltage and 5.9 mA/W for a ring modulator of 1×10(18) cm(-3) doping concentration at -10 V bias voltage. The former is used to demonstrate data detection of up to 35 Gbits/s.

Low loss poly-silicon for high performance capacitive silicon modulators.

PubMed

Douix, Maurin; Baudot, Charles; Marris-Morini, Delphine; Valéry, Alexia; Fowler, Daivid; Acosta-Alba, Pablo; Kerdilès, Sébastien; Euvrard, Catherine; Blanc, Romuald; Beneyton, Rémi; Souhaité, Aurélie; Crémer, Sébastien; Vulliet, Nathalie; Vivien, Laurent; Boeuf, Frédéric

2018-03-05

Optical properties of poly-silicon material are investigated to be integrated in new silicon photonics devices, such as capacitive modulators. Test structure fabrication is done on 300 mm wafer using LPCVD deposition: 300 nm thick amorphous silicon layers are deposited on thermal oxide, followed by solid phase crystallization anneal. Rib waveguides are fabricated and optical propagation losses measured at 1.31 µm. Physical analysis (TEM ASTAR, AFM and SIMS) are used to assess the origin of losses. Optimal deposition and annealing conditions have been defined, resulting in 400 nm-wide rib waveguides with only 9.2-10 dB/cm losses.

Heterogeneously-integrated VCSEL using high-contrast grating on silicon

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferrara, James; Zhu, Li; Yang, Weijian; Qiao, Pengfei; Chang-Hasnain, Connie J.

2015-02-01

We present a unique heterogeneous integration approach for VCSELs on silicon using eutectic bonding. An electrically pumped III-V - silicon heterogeneous VCSEL is demonstrated using a high-contrast grating (HCG) reflector on silicon. CW output power >1.5 mW, thermal resistance of 1.46 K/mW, and 5 Gb/s direct modulation is demonstrated. We also explore the possibility of an all-HCG VCSEL structure that would benefit from stronger thermal performance, larger tuning efficiency, and higher direct modulation speeds.

Integral bypass diodes in an amorphous silicon alloy photovoltaic module

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hanak, J. J.; Flaisher, H.

1991-01-01

Thin-film, tandem-junction, amorphous silicon (a-Si) photovoltaic modules were constructed in which a part of the a-Si alloy cell material is used to form bypass protection diodes. This integral design circumvents the need for incorporating external, conventional diodes, thus simplifying the manufacturing process and reducing module weight.

Forty Gb/s hybrid silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator with low chirp.

PubMed

Chen, Hui-Wen; Peters, Jonathan D; Bowers, John E

2011-01-17

We demonstrate a hybrid silicon modulator operating up to 40 Gb/s with 11.4 dB extinction ratio. The modulator has voltage-length product of 2.4 V-mm and chirp of -0.75 over the entire bias range. As a switch, it has a switching time less than 20 ps.

77 FR 37877 - Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules, From the People's...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-06-25

... Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules, From the People's Republic of China: Preliminary... crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells, whether or not assembled into modules (``solar cells''), from the... names of these companies in the table in the ``Preliminary Determination'' section in the solar cells...

Integrated Thermal Modules for Cooling Silicon and Silicon Carbide Power Modules

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-06-11

analyses, bench tests, and motor tests comprise the program. The ITMs, in place of standard heatsinks, use a highly conductive pyrolytic graphite to...passively cool power modules. Initial results show that even simple ITMs can lower chip temperatures by 20 deg. C and 10 deg. C with engine oil and

A High Temperature Silicon Carbide mosfet Power Module With Integrated Silicon-On-Insulator-Based Gate Drive

DOE PAGES

Wang, Zhiqiang; Shi, Xiaojie; Tolbert, Leon M.; ...

2014-04-30

Here we present a board-level integrated silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFET power module for high temperature and high power density application. Specifically, a silicon-on-insulator (SOI)-based gate driver capable of operating at 200°C ambient temperature is designed and fabricated. The sourcing and sinking current capability of the gate driver are tested under various ambient temperatures. Also, a 1200 V/100 A SiC MOSFET phase-leg power module is developed utilizing high temperature packaging technologies. The static characteristics, switching performance, and short-circuit behavior of the fabricated power module are fully evaluated at different temperatures. Moreover, a buck converter prototype composed of the SOI gate drivermore » and SiC power module is built for high temperature continuous operation. The converter is operated at different switching frequencies up to 100 kHz, with its junction temperature monitored by a thermosensitive electrical parameter and compared with thermal simulation results. The experimental results from the continuous operation demonstrate the high temperature capability of the power module at a junction temperature greater than 225°C.« less

Evolution of integrated panel structural design and interfaces for PV power plants

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Arnett, J. C.; Anderson, A. J.; Robertson, R. E.

1983-01-01

The evolution of integrated photovoltaic (PV) panel design at ARCO Solar is discussed. Historically, framed PV modules of about 1 x 4-ft size were individually mounted in the field on fixed support structures and interconnected electrically with cables to build higher-power arrays. When ARCO Solar saw the opportunity in 1982 to marry its PV modules with state-of-the-art heliostat trackers developed by ARCO Power Systems, it became obvious that mounting individual modules was impractical. For this project, the framed modules were factory-assembled into panels and interconnected with cables before being mounted on the trackers. Since then, ARCO Solar made considerable progress and gained substantial experience in the design and fabrication of large PV panels. Constraints and criteria considered in these design activities included static and dynamic loads; assembly and transportation equipment and logistics, structural and electrical interfaces, and safety and grounding concerns.

Indoor modeling of the wind pressure in solar installations with flat and step-like frames for HCPV modules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rumyantsev, Valery D.; Ashcheulov, Yury V.; Chekalin, Alexander V.; Chumakov, Yury S.; Shvarts, Maxim Z.; Timofeev, Vladimir V.

2014-09-01

As a rule, the HCPV modules are mounted on solar trackers in a form of a flat panel. Wind pressure is one of the key factors limiting the operation capabilities of such type solar installations. At the PV Lab of the Ioffe Institute, the sun-trackers with step-like frame for modules have been proposed and developed, which have a potential for significant reduction of wind pressure. Such a reduction is realized in a wide range of the frame tilt angles the most typical for day-light operation of solar installations. In the present work, theoretical consideration and indoor experiments with mechanical models of installation frames have been carried out. A wind tunnel has been used as an experimental instrument for quantitative comparison in conventional units of expected wind loads on module frames of different designs.

Experience from the construction and operation of the STAR PXL detector

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Greiner, L.; Anderssen, E. C.; Contin, G.; Schambach, J.; Silber, J.; Stezelberger, T.; Sun, X.; Szelezniak, M.; Vu, C.; Wieman, H. H.; Woodmansee, S.

2015-04-01

A new silicon based vertex detector called the Heavy Flavor Tracker (HFT) was installed at the Soleniodal Tracker At RHIC (STAR) experiment for the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) 2014 heavy ion run to improve the vertex resolution and extend the measurement capabilities of STAR in the heavy flavor domain. The HFT consists of four concentric cylinders around the STAR interaction point composed of three different silicon detector technologies based on strips, pads and for the first time in an accelerator experiment CMOS monolithic active pixels (MAPS) . The two innermost layers at a radius of 2.8 cm and 8 cm from the beam line are constructed with 400 high resolution MAPS sensors arranged in 10-sensor ladders mounted on 10 thin carbon fiber sectors giving a total silicon area of 0.16 m2. Each sensor consists of a pixel array of nearly 1 million pixels with a pitch of 20.7 μm with column-level discriminators, zero-suppression circuitry and output buffer memory integrated into one silicon die with a sensitive area of ~ 3.8 cm2. The pixel (PXL) detector has a low power dissipation of 170 mW/cm2, which allows air cooling. This results in a global material budget of 0.5% radiation length per layer for detector used in this run. A novel mechanical approach to detector insertion allows for the installation and integration of the pixel sub detector within a 12 hour period during an on-going STAR run. The detector specifications, experience from the construction and operation, lessons learned and initial measurements of the PXL performance in the 200 GeV Au-Au run will be presented.

Application of quantum-dot multi-wavelength lasers and silicon photonic ring resonators to data-center optical interconnects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beckett, Douglas J. S.; Hickey, Ryan; Logan, Dylan F.; Knights, Andrew P.; Chen, Rong; Cao, Bin; Wheeldon, Jeffery F.

2018-02-01

Quantum dot comb sources integrated with silicon photonic ring-resonator filters and modulators enable the realization of optical sub-components and modules for both inter- and intra-data-center applications. Low-noise, multi-wavelength, single-chip, laser sources, PAM4 modulation and direct detection allow a practical, scalable, architecture for applications beyond 400 Gb/s. Multi-wavelength, single-chip light sources are essential for reducing power dissipation, space and cost, while silicon photonic ring resonators offer high-performance with space and power efficiency.

Hybrid metasurface for ultra-broadband terahertz modulation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Heyes, Jane E.; Withayachumnankul, Withawat; Grady, Nathaniel K.

2014-11-05

We demonstrate an ultra-broadband free-space terahertz modulator based on a semiconductor-integrated metasurface. The modulator is made of a planar array of metal cut-wires on a silicon-on-sapphire substrate, where the silicon layer functions as photoconductive switches. Without external excitation, the cut-wire array exhibits a Lorentzian resonant response with a transmission passband spanning dc up to the fundamental dipole resonance above 2 THz. Under photoexcitation with 1.55 eV near-infrared light, the silicon regions in the cut-wire gaps become highly conductive, causing a transition of the resonant metasurface to a wire grating with a Drude response. In effect, the low-frequency passband below 2more » THz evolves into a stopband for the incident terahertz waves. Experimental validations confirm a bandwidth of at least 100%, spanning 0.5 to 1.5 THz with -10 dB modulation depth. This modulation depth is far superior to -5 dB achievable from a plain silicon-on-sapphire substrate with effectively 25 times higher pumping energy. The proposed concept of ultra-broadband metasurface modulator can be readily extended to electrically controlled terahertz wave modulation.« less

Advancements in n-Type Base Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells and Their Emergence in the Photovoltaic Industry

PubMed Central

ur Rehman, Atteq; Lee, Soo Hong

2013-01-01

The p-type crystalline silicon wafers have occupied most of the solar cell market today. However, modules made with n-type crystalline silicon wafers are actually the most efficient modules up to date. This is because the material properties offered by n-type crystalline silicon substrates are suitable for higher efficiencies. Properties such as the absence of boron-oxygen related defects and a greater tolerance to key metal impurities by n-type crystalline silicon substrates are major factors that underline the efficiency of n-type crystalline silicon wafer modules. The bi-facial design of n-type cells with good rear-side electronic and optical properties on an industrial scale can be shaped as well. Furthermore, the development in the industrialization of solar cell designs based on n-type crystalline silicon substrates also highlights its boost in the contributions to the photovoltaic industry. In this paper, a review of various solar cell structures that can be realized on n-type crystalline silicon substrates will be given. Moreover, the current standing of solar cell technology based on n-type substrates and its contribution in photovoltaic industry will also be discussed. PMID:24459433

Advancements in n-type base crystalline silicon solar cells and their emergence in the photovoltaic industry.

PubMed

ur Rehman, Atteq; Lee, Soo Hong

2013-01-01

The p-type crystalline silicon wafers have occupied most of the solar cell market today. However, modules made with n-type crystalline silicon wafers are actually the most efficient modules up to date. This is because the material properties offered by n-type crystalline silicon substrates are suitable for higher efficiencies. Properties such as the absence of boron-oxygen related defects and a greater tolerance to key metal impurities by n-type crystalline silicon substrates are major factors that underline the efficiency of n-type crystalline silicon wafer modules. The bi-facial design of n-type cells with good rear-side electronic and optical properties on an industrial scale can be shaped as well. Furthermore, the development in the industrialization of solar cell designs based on n-type crystalline silicon substrates also highlights its boost in the contributions to the photovoltaic industry. In this paper, a review of various solar cell structures that can be realized on n-type crystalline silicon substrates will be given. Moreover, the current standing of solar cell technology based on n-type substrates and its contribution in photovoltaic industry will also be discussed.

Ultrasensitive Silicon Photonic-Crystal Nanobeam Electro-Optical Modulator (Preprint)

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-10-01

and simulation results are presented for an ultralow switching energy, resonator based silicon-on-insulator (SOI) electro-optical modulator. The...joshua.hendrickson@wpafb.af.mil Abstract: Design and simulation results are presented for an ultralow switching energy, resonator based silicon-on...S. Fegadolli, J. E. B. Oliveira, V. R. Almeida, and A. Scherer, “Compact and low power consumption tunable photonic crystal nanobeam cavity,” 21

77 FR 25400 - Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules, From the People's...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-04-30

... Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules, From the People's Republic of China: Alignment of... crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells, whether or not assembled into modules (solar cells) from the People's... Department initiated the AD and CVD investigations of solar cells from the PRC.\\1\\ On March 26, 2012, the...

Fatigue degradation and electric recovery in Silicon solar cells embedded in photovoltaic modules

PubMed Central

Paggi, Marco; Berardone, Irene; Infuso, Andrea; Corrado, Mauro

2014-01-01

Cracking in Silicon solar cells is an important factor for the electrical power-loss of photovoltaic modules. Simple geometrical criteria identifying the amount of inactive cell areas depending on the position of cracks with respect to the main electric conductors have been proposed in the literature to predict worst case scenarios. Here we present an experimental study based on the electroluminescence (EL) technique showing that crack propagation in monocrystalline Silicon cells embedded in photovoltaic (PV) modules is a much more complex phenomenon. In spite of the very brittle nature of Silicon, due to the action of the encapsulating polymer and residual thermo-elastic stresses, cracked regions can recover the electric conductivity during mechanical unloading due to crack closure. During cyclic bending, fatigue degradation is reported. This pinpoints the importance of reducing cyclic stresses caused by vibrations due to transportation and use, in order to limit the effect of cracking in Silicon cells. PMID:24675974

Generation of tunable, high repetition rate optical frequency combs using on-chip silicon modulators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nagarjun, K. P.; Jeyaselvan, Vadivukarassi; Selvaraja, Shankar Kumar; Supradeepa, V. R.

2018-04-01

We experimentally demonstrate tunable, highly-stable frequency combs with high repetition-rates using a single, charge injection based silicon PN modulator. In this work, we demonstrate combs in the C-band with over 8 lines in a 20-dB bandwidth. We demonstrate continuous tuning of the center frequency in the C-band and tuning of the repetition-rate from 7.5GHz to 12.5GHz. We also demonstrate through simulations the potential for bandwidth scaling using an optimized silicon PIN modulator. We find that, the time varying free carrier absorption due to carrier injection, an undesirable effect in data modulators, assists here in enhancing flatness in the generated combs.

Thermal conductivity engineering in width-modulated silicon nanowires and thermoelectric efficiency enhancement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zianni, Xanthippi

2018-03-01

Width-modulated nanowires have been proposed as efficient thermoelectric materials. Here, the electron and phonon transport properties and the thermoelectric efficiency are discussed for dimensions above the quantum confinement regime. The thermal conductivity decreases dramatically in the presence of thin constrictions due to their ballistic thermal resistance. It shows a scaling behavior upon the width-modulation rate that allows for thermal conductivity engineering. The electron conductivity also decreases due to enhanced boundary scattering by the constrictions. The effect of boundary scattering is weaker for electrons than for phonons and the overall thermoelectric efficiency is enhanced. A ZT enhancement by a factor of 20-30 is predicted for width-modulated nanowires compared to bulk silicon. Our findings indicate that width-modulated nanostructures are promising for developing silicon nanostructures with high thermoelectric efficiency.

Evaluation of cleaners for photovoltaic modules exposed in an outdoor environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Knapp, W. D.

1979-01-01

Power recovery of silicone encapsulated and glass covered photovoltaic modules, exposed for two years to a suburban environment, was measured after washing with a variety of cleaners including detergents, abrasive soap, and hydrocarbon solvents. Silicone encapsulated modules in operating environments may experience significant power losses or require extensive periodic cleaning. Glass front-faced modules in similar situations are much less affected. Organic hydrocarbon solvents or abrasives were found to be about five times more effective than mild detergents in cleaning encapsulated modules.

Conditions for optimal efficiency of PCBM-based terahertz modulators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yoo, Hyung Keun; Lee, Hanju; Lee, Kiejin; Kang, Chul; Kee, Chul-Sik; Hwang, In-Wook; Lee, Joong Wook

2017-10-01

We demonstrate the conditions for optimal modulation efficiency of active terahertz modulators based on phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM)-silicon hybrid structures. Highly efficient active control of the terahertz wave modulation was realized by controlling organic film thickness, annealing temperature, and laser excitation wavelength. Under the optimal conditions, the modulation efficiency reached nearly 100%. Charge distributions measured with a near-field scanning microwave microscanning technique corroborated the fact that the increase of photo-excited carriers due to the PCBM-silicon hybrid structure enables the enhancement of active modulation efficiency.

In-Situ Characterization of Potential-Induced Degradation in Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Modules Through Dark I–V Measurements

DOE PAGES

Luo, Wei; Hacke, Peter; Singh, Jai Prakash; ...

2016-11-14

Here, a temperature correction methodology for in-situ dark I-V(DIV) characterization of conventional p-type crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) modules undergoing potential-induced degradation (PID) is proposed.

Band-gap engineering by molecular mechanical strain-induced giant tuning of the luminescence in colloidal amorphous porous silicon nanostructures.

PubMed

Mughal, A; El Demellawi, J K; Chaieb, Sahraoui

2014-12-14

Nano-silicon is a nanostructured material in which quantum or spatial confinement is the origin of the material's luminescence. When nano-silicon is broken into colloidal crystalline nanoparticles, its luminescence can be tuned across the visible spectrum only when the sizes of the nanoparticles, which are obtained via painstaking filtration methods that are difficult to scale up because of low yield, vary. Bright and tunable colloidal amorphous porous silicon nanostructures have not yet been reported. In this letter, we report on a 100 nm modulation in the emission of freestanding colloidal amorphous porous silicon nanostructures via band-gap engineering. The mechanism responsible for this tunable modulation, which is independent of the size of the individual particles and their distribution, is the distortion of the molecular orbitals by a strained silicon-silicon bond angle. This mechanism is also responsible for the amorphous-to-crystalline transformation of silicon.

A holistic view of crystalline silicon module reliability

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hanoka, J.I.

1995-11-01

Several aspects of module reliability are discussed, particularly with reference to the encapsulant and its interaction with the metallization and interconnection of a module. A need to look at the module as a whole single unit is stressed. Also, the issue of a slight light degradation effect in crystalline silicon cells is discussed. A model for this is mentioned and it may well be that polycrystalline cells with dislocations may have an advantage.

Heterogeneous microring and Mach-Zehnder modulators based on lithium niobate and chalcogenide glasses on silicon

DOE PAGES

Rao, Ashutosh; Patil, Aniket; Chiles, Jeff; ...

2015-08-20

In this study, thin films of lithium niobate are wafer bonded onto silicon substrates and rib-loaded with a chalcogenide glass, Ge 23Sb 7S 70, to demonstrate strongly confined single-mode submicron waveguides, microring modulators, and Mach-Zehnder modulators in the telecom C band. The 200 μm radii microring modulators present 1.2 dB/cm waveguide propagation loss, 1.2 × 10 5 quality factor, 0.4 GHz/V tuning rate, and 13 dB extinction ratio. The 6 mm long Mach-Zehnder modulators have a half-wave voltage-length product of 3.8 V.cm and an extinction ratio of 15 dB. The demonstrated work is a key step towards enabling wafer scalemore » dense on-chip integration of high performance lithium niobate electro-optical devices on silicon for short reach optical interconnects and higher order advanced modulation schemes.« less

Heterogeneous microring and Mach-Zehnder modulators based on lithium niobate and chalcogenide glasses on silicon

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rao, Ashutosh; Patil, Aniket; Chiles, Jeff

In this study, thin films of lithium niobate are wafer bonded onto silicon substrates and rib-loaded with a chalcogenide glass, Ge 23Sb 7S 70, to demonstrate strongly confined single-mode submicron waveguides, microring modulators, and Mach-Zehnder modulators in the telecom C band. The 200 μm radii microring modulators present 1.2 dB/cm waveguide propagation loss, 1.2 × 10 5 quality factor, 0.4 GHz/V tuning rate, and 13 dB extinction ratio. The 6 mm long Mach-Zehnder modulators have a half-wave voltage-length product of 3.8 V.cm and an extinction ratio of 15 dB. The demonstrated work is a key step towards enabling wafer scalemore » dense on-chip integration of high performance lithium niobate electro-optical devices on silicon for short reach optical interconnects and higher order advanced modulation schemes.« less

Sensing and perception research for space telerobotics at JPL

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gennery, Donald B.; Litwin, Todd; Wilcox, Brian; Bon, Bruce

1987-01-01

PIFLEX is a pipelined-image processor that can perform elaborate computations whose exact nature is not fixed in the hardware, and that can handle multiple images. A wire-wrapped prototype PIFEX module has been produced and debugged, using a version of the convolver composed of three custom VLSI chips (plus the line buffers). A printed circuit layout is being designed for use with a single-chip convolver, leading to production of a PIFEX with about 120 modules. A high-level language for programming PIFEX has been designed, and a compiler will be written for it. The camera calibration software has been completed and tested. Two more terms in the camera model, for lens distortion, probably will be added later. The acquisition and tracking system has been designed and most of it has been coded in Pascal for the MicroVAX-II. The feature tracker, motion stereo module and stereo matcher have executed successfully. The model matcher is still under development, and coding has begun on the tracking initializer. The object tracker was running on a different computer from the VAX, and preliminary runs on real images have been performed there. Once all modules are working, optimization and integration will begin. Finally, when a sufficiently large PIFEX is available, appropriate parts of acquisition and tracking, including much of the feature tracker, will be programmed into PIFEX, thus increasing the speed and robustness of the system.

The Status and Outlook for the Photovoltaics Industry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carlson, David

2006-03-01

The first silicon solar cell was made at Bell Labs in 1954, and over the following decades, shipments of photovoltaic (PV) modules increased at a rate of about 18% annually. In the last several years, the annual growth rate has increased to ˜ 35% due largely to government-supported programs in Japan and Germany. Silicon technology has dominated the PV industry since its inception, and in 2005 about 65% of all solar cells were made from polycrystalline (or multicrystalline) silicon, 24% from monocrystalline silicon and ˜ 4% from ribbon silicon. While conversion efficiencies as high as 24.7% have been obtained in the laboratory for silicon solar cells, the best efficiencies for commercial PV modules are in the range of 17 18% (the efficiency limit for a silicon solar cell is ˜ 29%). A number of companies are commercializing solar cells based on other materials such as amorphous silicon, microcrystalline silicon, cadmium telluride, copper-indium-gallium-diselenide (CIGS), gallium arsenide (and related compounds) and dye- sensitized titanium oxide. Thin film CIGS solar cells have been fabricated with conversion efficiencies as high as 19.5% while efficiencies as high as 39% have been demonstrated for a GaInP/Ga(In)As/Ge triple-junction cell operating at a concentration of 236 suns. Thin film solar cells are being used in consumer products and in some building-integrated applications, while PV concentrator systems are being tested in grid-connected arrays located in high solar insolation areas. Nonetheless, crystalline silicon PV technology is likely to dominate the terrestrial market for at least the next decade with module efficiencies > 20% and module prices of < 1/Wp expected by 2020, which in turn should allow significant penetration of the utility grid market. However, crystalline silicon solar cells may be challenged in the next decade or two by new low-cost, high performance devices based on organic materials and nanotechnology.

Experimental Highlights: Heavy Quark Physics in Heavy-Ion Collisions at RHIC

DOE PAGES

Nouicer, Rachid

2017-03-22

The discovery at RHIC of large high-p T suppression and flow of electrons from heavy quarks flavors have altered our view of the hot and dense matter formed in central Au + Au collisions at √s NN = 200 GeV. These results suggest a large energy loss and flow of heavy quarks in the hot, dense matter. In recent years, the RHIC experiments upgraded the detectors; (1) PHENIX Collaboration installed silicon vertex tracker (VTX) at midrapidity region and forward silicon vertex tracker (FVTX) at the forward rapidity region, and (2) STAR Collaboration installed the heavy flavor tracker (HFT) and themore » muon telescope detector (MTD) both at the mid-rapidity region. The PHENIX experiments established measurements of ψ (1S ) and ψ (2S ) production as a function of system size, p + p, p + Al, p + Au, and 3He + Au collisions at √s NN = 200 GeV. In p/ 3He + A collisions at forward rapidity, we observe no difference in the ψ (2S )/ψ (1S ) ratio relative to p + p collisions. At backward rapidity, where the comoving particle density is higher, we find that the ψ (2S ) is preferentially suppressed by a factor of two. STAR Collaboration presents the first J/ ψ measurements in the di-muon decay channel in Au + Au at √s NN = 200 GeV at mid-rapidity. In conclusion, we observe a clear J/ψ R AA suppression and qualitatively well described by transport models, including dissociation and regeneration simultaneously.« less

Highlights from PHENIX at RHIC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nouicer, Rachid

2018-02-01

Hadrons conveying strange quarks or heavy quarks are essential probes of the hot and dense medium created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. With hidden strangeness, ϕ meson production and its transport in the nuclear medium have attracted high interest since its discovery. Heavy quark-antiquark pairs, like charmonium and bottomonium mesons, are mainly produced in initial hard scattering processes of partons. While some of the produced pairs form bound quarkonia, the vast majority hadronize into particles carrying open heavy flavor. In this context, the PHENIX collaboration carries out a comprehensive physics program which studies the ϕ meson production, and heavy flavor production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions at RHIC. In recent years, the PHENIX experiment upgraded the detector in installing silicon vertex tracker (VTX) at mid-rapidity region and forward silicon vertex tracker (FVTX) at the forward rapidity region. With these new upgrades, the experiment has collected large data samples, and enhanced the capability of heavy flavor measurements via precision tracking. This paper summarizes the latest PHENIX results concerning ϕ meson, open and closed charm and beauty heavy quark production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. These results are presented as a function of rapidity, energy and system size, and their interpretation with respect to the current theoretical understanding.

LCoS-SLM technology based on Digital Electro-optics Platform and using in dynamic optics for application development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsai, Chun-Wei; Wang, Chen; Lyu, Bo-Han; Chu, Chen-Hsien

2017-08-01

Digital Electro-optics Platform is the main concept of Jasper Display Corp. (JDC) to develop various applications. These applications are based on our X-on-Silicon technologies, for example, X-on-Silicon technologies could be used on Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS), Micro Light-Emitting Diode on Silicon (μLEDoS), Organic Light-Emitting Diode on Silicon (OLEDoS), and Cell on Silicon (CELLoS), etc. LCoS technology is applied to Spatial Light Modulator (SLM), Dynamic Optics, Wavelength Selective Switch (WSS), Holographic Display, Microscopy, Bio-tech, 3D Printing and Adaptive Optics, etc. In addition, μLEDoS technology is applied to Augmented Reality (AR), Head Up Display (HUD), Head-mounted Display (HMD), and Wearable Devices. Liquid Crystal on Silicon - Spatial Light Modulator (LCoSSLM) based on JDC's On-Silicon technology for both amplitude and phase modulation, have an expanding role in several optical areas where light control on a pixel-by-pixel basis is critical for optimum system performance. Combination of the advantage of hardware and software, we can establish a "dynamic optics" for the above applications or more. Moreover, through the software operation, we can control the light more flexible and easily as programmable light processor.

Graphene-silicon phase modulators with gigahertz bandwidth

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sorianello, V.; Midrio, M.; Contestabile, G.; Asselberghs, I.; Van Campenhout, J.; Huyghebaert, C.; Goykhman, I.; Ott, A. K.; Ferrari, A. C.; Romagnoli, M.

2018-01-01

The modulator is a key component in optical communications. Several graphene-based amplitude modulators have been reported based on electro-absorption. However, graphene phase modulators (GPMs) are necessary for functions such as applying complex modulation formats or making switches or phased arrays. Here, we present a 10 Gb s-1 GPM integrated in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer configuration. This is a compact device based on a graphene-insulator-silicon capacitor, with a phase-shifter length of 300 μm and extinction ratio of 35 dB. The GPM has a modulation efficiency of 0.28 V cm at 1,550 nm. It has 5 GHz electro-optical bandwidth and operates at 10 Gb s-1 with 2 V peak-to-peak driving voltage in a push-pull configuration for binary transmission of a non-return-to-zero data stream over 50 km of single-mode fibre. This device is the key building block for graphene-based integrated photonics, enabling compact and energy-efficient hybrid graphene-silicon modulators for telecom, datacom and other applications.

Long-term stability of amorphous-silicon modules

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ross, R. G., Jr.

1986-01-01

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) program of developing qualification tests necessary for amorphous silicon modules, including appropriate accelerated environmental tests reveal degradation due to illumination. Data were given which showed the results of temperature-controlled field tests and accelerated tests in an environmental chamber.

The effect of different module configurations on the radiation tolerance of multijunction solar cells

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gee, James M.; Curtis, Henry B.

1988-01-01

The effect of different module configurations on the performance of multijunction (MJ) solar cells in a radiation environment was investigated. Module configuration refers to the electrical circuit in which the subcells of the multijunction cell are wired. Experimental data for AlCaAs, GaAs, InGaAs, and silicon single-junction concentrator cells subjected to 1 MeV electron irradiation was used to calculate the expected performance of AlGaAs/InGaAs, AlGa/silicon, GaAs/InGaAs, and GaAs/silicon Mj concentrator cells. These calculations included independent, series, and voltage-matched configurations. The module configuration was found to have a significant impact on the radiation tolerance characteristic of the MJ cells.

Ultra-low-power carrier-depletion Mach-Zehnder silicon optical modulator.

PubMed

Ding, Jianfeng; Chen, Hongtao; Yang, Lin; Zhang, Lei; Ji, Ruiqiang; Tian, Yonghui; Zhu, Weiwei; Lu, Yangyang; Zhou, Ping; Min, Rui; Yu, Mingbin

2012-03-26

We demonstrate a 26 Gbit/s Mach-Zehnder silicon optical modulator. The doping concentration and profile are optimized, and a modulation efficiency with the figure of merit (VπL) of 1.28 V·cm is achieved. We design an 80-nm-wide intrinsic silicon gap between the p-type and n-type doped regions to reduce the capacitance of the diode and prevent the diode from working in a slow diffusion mode. Therefore, the modulator can be driven with a small differential voltage of 0.5 V with no bias. Without the elimination of the dissipated power of the series resistors and the reflected power of the electrical signal, the maximum power consumption is 3.8 mW.

Correlation between surface carbon concentration and adhesive strength at the Si cell/EVA interface in a PV module

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dhere, N.G.; Wollam, M.E.; Gadre, K.S.

1997-12-31

Silicon solar cell/EVA composite is being studied with an objective to further improve the manufacturing technology of PV modules. Sample extraction and adhesion strength measurement process has been modified. Silicon and EVA samples were extracted from solar cells of new and field-deployed modules. Optical microscopy, SEM, and AES of samples from new modules revealed EVA islands covering most of the silicon cell surface indicating a cohesive failure. A good correlation was observed between the adhesive strength and surface concentration of carbon. A low carbon concentration which indicated less EVA clinging to cell surface always resulted in low adhesive strengths. Themore » correlation provides a simple technique for inferring properties of EVA.« less

A hybrid life-cycle inventory for multi-crystalline silicon PV module manufacturing in China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yao, Yuan; Chang, Yuan; Masanet, Eric

2014-11-01

China is the world’s largest manufacturer of multi-crystalline silicon photovoltaic (mc-Si PV) modules, which is a key enabling technology in the global transition to renewable electric power systems. This study presents a hybrid life-cycle inventory (LCI) of Chinese mc-Si PV modules, which fills a critical knowledge gap on the environmental implications of mc-Si PV module manufacturing in China. The hybrid LCI approach combines process-based LCI data for module and poly-silicon manufacturing plants with a 2007 China IO-LCI model for production of raw material and fuel inputs to estimate ‘cradle to gate’ primary energy use, water consumption, and major air pollutant emissions (carbon dioxide, methane, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide, and nitrogen oxides). Results suggest that mc-Si PV modules from China may come with higher environmental burdens that one might estimate if one were using LCI results for mc-Si PV modules manufactured elsewhere. These higher burdens can be reasonably explained by the efficiency differences in China’s poly-silicon manufacturing processes, the country’s dependence on highly polluting coal-fired electricity, and the expanded system boundaries associated with the hybrid LCI modeling framework. The results should be useful for establishing more conservative ranges on the potential ‘cradle to gate’ impacts of mc-Si PV module manufacturing for more robust LCAs of PV deployment scenarios.

8-channel prototype of SALT readout ASIC for Upstream Tracker in the upgraded LHCb experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abellan Beteta, C.; Bugiel, S.; Dasgupta, R.; Firlej, M.; Fiutowski, T.; Idzik, M.; Kane, C.; Moron, J.; Swientek, K.; Wang, J.

2017-02-01

SALT is a new 128-channel readout ASIC for silicon strip detectors in the upgraded Upstream Tracker of the LHCb experiment. It will extract and digitise analogue signals from the sensor, perform digital processing and transmit serial output data. SALT is designed in CMOS 130 nm process and uses a novel architecture comprising of an analogue front-end and an ultra-low power (<0.5 mW) fast (40 MSps) sampling 6-bit ADC in each channel. An 8-channel prototype (SALT8), comprising all important functionalities was designed, fabricated and tested. A full 128-channel version was also submitted. The design and test results of the SALT8 prototype are presented showing its full functionality.

Environmental testing of block 2 solar cell modules

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Griffith, J. S.

1979-01-01

The testing procedures and results of samples of the LSA Project Block 2 procurement of silicon solar cell modules are described. Block 2 was the second large scale procurement of silicon solar cell modules made by the JPL Low-cost Solar Array Project with deliveries in 1977 and early 1978. The results showed that the Block 2 modules were greatly improved over Block 1 modules. In several cases it was shown that design improvements were needed to reduce environmental test degradation. These improvements were incorporated during this production run.

Experimental comparison of direct detection Nyquist SSB transmission based on silicon dual-drive and IQ Mach-Zehnder modulators with electrical packaging.

PubMed

Ruan, Xiaoke; Li, Ke; Thomson, David J; Lacava, Cosimo; Meng, Fanfan; Demirtzioglou, Iosif; Petropoulos, Periklis; Zhu, Yixiao; Reed, Graham T; Zhang, Fan

2017-08-07

We have designed and fabricated a silicon photonic in-phase-quadrature (IQ) modulator based on a nested dual-drive Mach-Zehnder structure incorporating electrical packaging. We have assessed its use for generating Nyquist-shaped single sideband (SSB) signals by operating it either as an IQ Mach-Zehnder modulator (IQ-MZM) or using just a single branch of the dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator (DD-MZM). The impact of electrical packaging on the modulator bandwidth is also analyzed. We demonstrate 40 Gb/s (10Gbaud) 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM) Nyquist-shaped SSB transmission over 160 km standard single mode fiber (SSMF). Without using any chromatic dispersion compensation, the bit error rates (BERs) of 5.4 × 10 -4 and 9.0 × 10 -5 were measured for the DD-MZM and IQ-MZM, respectively, far below the 7% hard-decision forward error correction threshold. The performance difference between IQ-MZM and DD-MZM is most likely due to the non-ideal electrical packaging. Our work is the first experimental comparison between silicon IQ-MZM and silicon DD-MZM in generating SSB signals. We also demonstrate 50 Gb/s (12.5Gbaud) 16-QAM Nyquist-shaped SSB transmission over 320 km SSMF with a BER of 2.7 × 10 -3 . Both the silicon IQ-MZM and the DD-MZM show potential for optical transmission at metro scale and for data center interconnection.

R&D issues in scale-up and manufacturing of amorphous silicon tandem modules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arya, R. R.; Carlson, D. E.; Chen, L. F.; Ganguly, G.; He, M.; Lin, G.; Middya, R.; Wood, G.; Newton, J.; Bennett, M.; Jackson, F.; Willing, F.

1999-03-01

R & D on amorphous silicon based tandem junction devices has improved the throughtput, the material utilization, and the performance of devices on commercial tin oxide coated glass. The tandem junction technology has been scaled-up to produce 8.6 Ft2 monolithically integrated modules in manufacturing at the TF1 plant. Optimization of performance and stability of these modules is ongoing.

Design of a muonic tomographic detector to scan travelling containers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pugliatti, C.; Antonuccio, V.; Bandieramonte, M.; Becciani, U.; Belluomo, F.; Belluso, M.; Billotta, S.; Blancato, A. A.; Bonanno, D. L.; Bonanno, G.; Costa, A.; Fallica, G.; Garozzo, S.; Indelicato, V.; La Rocca, P.; Leonora, E.; Longhitano, F.; Longo, S.; Lo Presti, D.; Massimino, P.; Petta, C.; Pistagna, C.; Puglisi, M.; Randazzo, N.; Riggi, F.; Riggi, S.; Romeo, G.; Russo, G. V.; Santagati, G.; Valvo, G.; Vitello, F.; Zaia, A.; Zappalà, G.

2014-05-01

The Muon Portal Project aims at the construction of a large volume detector to inspect the content of travelling containers for the identification of high-Z hidden materials (U, Pu or other fissile samples), exploiting the secondary cosmic-ray muon radiation. An image of these materials is achieved reconstructing the deviations of the muons from their original trajectories inside the detector volume, by means of two particle trackers, placed one below and one above the container. The scan is performed without adding any external radiation, in a few minutes and with a high spatial and angular resolution. The detector consists of 4800 scintillating strips with two wavelength shifting (WLS) fibers inside each strip, coupled to Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs). A smart strategy for the read out system allows a considerable reduction of the number of the read-out channels. Actually, an intense measurement campaign is in progress to carefully characterize any single component of the detector. A prototype of one of the 48 detection modules (1 × 3 m2) is actually under construction. This paper presents the detector architecture and the preliminary results.

Hybrid Silicon Photonic Integration using Quantum Well Intermixing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jain, Siddharth R.

With the push for faster data transfer across all domains of telecommunication, optical interconnects are transitioning into shorter range applications such as in data centers and personal computing. Silicon photonics, with its economic advantages of leveraging well-established silicon manufacturing facilities, is considered the most promising approach to further scale down the cost and size of optical interconnects for chip-to-chip communication. Intrinsic properties of silicon however limit its ability to generate and modulate light, both of which are key to realizing on-chip optical data transfer. The hybrid silicon approach directly addresses this problem by using molecularly bonded III-V epitaxial layers on silicon for optical gain and absorption. This technology includes direct transfer of III-V wafer to a pre-patterned silicon-on-insulator wafer. Several discrete devices for light generation, modulation, amplification and detection have already been demonstrated on this platform. As in the case of electronics, multiple photonic elements can be integrated on a single chip to improve performance and functionality. However, scalable photonic integration requires the ability to control the bandgap for individual devices along with design changes to simplify fabrication. In the research presented here, quantum well intermixing is used as a technique to define multiple bandgaps for integration on the hybrid silicon platform. Implantation enhanced disordering is used to generate four bandgaps spread over 120+ nm. By combining these selectively intermixed III-V layers with pre-defined gratings and waveguides on silicon, we fabricate distributed feedback, distributed Bragg reflector, Fabry-Perot and mode-locked lasers along with photodetectors, electro-absorption modulators and other test structures, all on a single chip. We demonstrate a broadband laser source with continuous-wave operational lasers over a 200 nm bandwidth. Some of these lasers are integrated with modulators with a 3-dB bandwidth above 25 GHz, thus demonstrating coarse wavelength division multiplexing transmitter on silicon.

The effect of material matching on the stress-induced power degradation for light-redirecting-ribbon-based silicon photovoltaic modules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gou, X. F.; Zhuang, H.; Zhu, J.; Li, X. Y.

2018-01-01

Light redirecting ribbons (LRR) have recently been adopted in crystalline silicon modules in PV industry. The introduction of this LRR may bring additional stress at the boundary of the busbar/wafer contact, which may probably lead to higher power loss after aging. The thermal cycle and electroluminescence (EL) test are employed in this work to investigate this stress-induced power degradation for LRR-based crystalline silicon modules. The obtained results demonstrate that with increase in the thickness of the EVA encapsulant or the decrease in the thickness of the LRR, the power degradation induced by stress can be effectively diminished.

Silicon dendritic web material

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Meier, D. L.; Campbell, R. B.; Sienkiewicz, L. J.; Rai-Choudhury, P.

1982-01-01

The development of a low cost and reliable contact system for solar cells and the fabrication of several solar cell modules using ultrasonic bonding for the interconnection of cells and ethylene vinyl acetate as the potting material for module encapsulation are examined. The cells in the modules were made from dendritic web silicon. To reduce cost, the electroplated layer of silver was replaced with an electroplated layer of copper. The modules that were fabricated used the evaporated Ti, Pd, Ag and electroplated Cu (TiPdAg/Cu) system. Adherence of Ni to Si is improved if a nickel silicide can be formed by heat treatment. The effectiveness of Ni as a diffusion barrier to Cu and the ease with which nickel silicide is formed is discussed. The fabrication of three modules using dendritic web silicon and employing ultrasonic bonding for interconnecting calls and ethylene vinyl acetate as the potting material is examined.

Silicon dendritic web material

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meier, D. L.; Campbell, R. B.; Sienkiewicz, L. J.; Rai-Choudhury, P.

1982-03-01

The development of a low cost and reliable contact system for solar cells and the fabrication of several solar cell modules using ultrasonic bonding for the interconnection of cells and ethylene vinyl acetate as the potting material for module encapsulation are examined. The cells in the modules were made from dendritic web silicon. To reduce cost, the electroplated layer of silver was replaced with an electroplated layer of copper. The modules that were fabricated used the evaporated Ti, Pd, Ag and electroplated Cu (TiPdAg/Cu) system. Adherence of Ni to Si is improved if a nickel silicide can be formed by heat treatment. The effectiveness of Ni as a diffusion barrier to Cu and the ease with which nickel silicide is formed is discussed. The fabrication of three modules using dendritic web silicon and employing ultrasonic bonding for interconnecting calls and ethylene vinyl acetate as the potting material is examined.

18th Workshop on Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells and Modules: Materials and Processes; Workshop Proceedings, 3-6 August 2008, Vail, Colorado

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sopori, B. L.

2008-09-01

The National Center for Photovoltaics sponsored the 18th Workshop on Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells & Modules: Materials and Processes, held in Vail, CO, August 3-6, 2008. This meeting provided a forum for an informal exchange of technical and scientific information between international researchers in the photovoltaic and relevant non-photovoltaic fields. The theme of this year's meeting was 'New Directions for Rapidly Growing Silicon Technologies.'

Automated assembly of Gallium Arsenide and 50-micron thick silicon solar cell modules

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mesch, H. G.

1984-01-01

The TRW automated solar array assembly equipment was used for the module assembly of 300 GaAs solar cells and 300 50 micron thick silicon solar cells (2 x 4 cm in size). These cells were interconnected with silver plated Invar tabs by means of welding. The GaAs cells were bonded to Kapton graphite aluminum honeycomb graphite substrates and the thin silicon cells were bonded to 0.002 inch thick single layer Kapton substrates. The GaAs solar cell module assembly resulted in a yield of 86% and the thin cell assembly produced a yield of 46% due to intermittent sticking of weld electrodes during the front cell contact welding operation. (Previously assembled thin cell solar modules produced an overall assembly yield of greater than 80%).

Potential of thin-film solar cell module technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shimada, K.; Ferber, R. R.; Costogue, E. N.

1985-01-01

During the past five years, thin-film cell technology has made remarkable progress as a potential alternative to crystalline silicon cell technology. The efficiency of a single-junction thin-film cell, which is the most promising for use in flat-plate modules, is now in the range of 11 percent with 1-sq cm cells consisting of amorphous silicon, CuInSe2 or CdTe materials. Cell efficiencies higher than 18 percent, suitable for 15 percent-efficient flat plate modules, would require a multijunction configuration such as the CdTe/CuInSe2 and tandem amorphous-silicon (a-Si) alloy cells. Assessments are presented of the technology status of thin-film-cell module research and the potential of achieving the higher efficiencies required for large-scale penetration into the photovoltaic (PV) energy market.

Space Shuttle Star Tracker Challenges

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Herrera, Linda M.

2010-01-01

The space shuttle fleet of avionics was originally designed in the 1970's. Many of the subsystems have been upgraded and replaced, however some original hardware continues to fly. Not only fly, but has proven to be the best design available to perform its designated task. The shuttle star tracker system is currently flying as a mixture of old and new designs, each with a unique purpose to fill for the mission. Orbiter missions have tackled many varied missions in space over the years. As the orbiters began flying to the International Space Station (ISS), new challenges were discovered and overcome as new trusses and modules were added. For the star tracker subsystem, the growing ISS posed an unusual problem, bright light. With two star trackers on board, the 1970's vintage image dissector tube (IDT) star trackers track the ISS, while the new solid state design is used for dim star tracking. This presentation focuses on the challenges and solutions used to ensure star trackers can complete the shuttle missions successfully. Topics include KSC team and industry partner methods used to correct pressurized case failures and track system performance.

The reliability and stability of multijunction amorphous silicon PV modules

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Carlson, D.E.

1995-11-01

Solarex is developing a manufacturing process for the commercial production of 8 ft{sup 2} multijunction amorphous silicon (a-Si) PV modules starting in 1996. The device structure used in these multijunction modules is: glass/textured tin oxide/p-i-n/p-i-n/ZnO/Al/EVA/Tedlar where the back junction of the tandem structure contains an amorphous silicon germanium alloy. As an interim step, 4 ft{sup 2} multijunction modules have been fabricated in a pilot production mode over the last several months. The distribution of initial conversion efficiencies for an engineering run of 67 modules (4 ft{sup 2}) is shown. Measurements recently performed at NREL indicate that the actual efficiencies aremore » about 5% higher than those shown, and thus exhibit an average initial conversion efficiency of about 9.5%. The data indicates that the process is relatively robust since there were no modules with initial efficiencies less than 7.5%.« less

Characterisation of irradiated thin silicon sensors for the CMS phase II pixel upgrade

DOE PAGES

Adam, W.; Bergauer, T.; Brondolin, E.; ...

2017-08-22

The high luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider, foreseen for 2026, necessitates the replacement of the CMS experiment’s silicon tracker. The innermost layer of the new pixel detector will be exposed to severe radiation, corresponding to a 1 MeV neutron equivalent fluence of up tomore » $$\\Phi _{eq} = 2 \\times 10^{16}$$  cm$$^{-2}$$ , and an ionising dose of $${\\approx } 5$$  MGy after an integrated luminosity of 3000 fb$$^{-1}$$ . Thin, planar silicon sensors are good candidates for this application, since the degradation of the signal produced by traversing particles is less severe than for thicker devices. Here in this article, the results obtained from the characterisation of 100 and 200 μm thick p-bulk pad diodes and strip sensors irradiated up to fluences of $$\\Phi _{eq} = 1.3 \\times 10^{16}$$  cm$$^{-2}$$ are shown.« less

Hybrid luminescent/magnetic nanostructured porous silicon particles for biomedical applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Muñoz-Noval, Álvaro; Sánchez-Vaquero, Vanessa; Torres-Costa, Vicente; Gallach, Darío; Ferro-Llanos, Vicente; Javier Serrano, José; Manso-Silván, Miguel; García-Ruiz, Josefa Predestinación; Del Pozo, Francisco; Martín-Palma, Raúl J.

2011-02-01

This work describes a novel process for the fabrication of hybrid nanostructured particles showing intense tunable photoluminescence and a simultaneous ferromagnetic behavior. The fabrication process involves the synthesis of nanostructured porous silicon (NPSi) by chemical anodization of crystalline silicon and subsequent in pore growth of Co nanoparticles by electrochemically-assisted infiltration. Final particles are obtained by subsequent sonication of the Co-infiltrated NPSi layers and conjugation with poly(ethylene glycol) aiming at enhancing their hydrophilic character. These particles respond to magnetic fields, emit light in the visible when excited in the UV range, and internalize into human mesenchymal stem cells with no apoptosis induction. Furthermore, cytotoxicity in in-vitro systems confirms their biocompatibility and the viability of the cells after incorporation of the particles. The hybrid nanostructured particles might represent powerful research tools as cellular trackers or in cellular therapy since they allow combining two or more properties into a single particle.

Hybrid luminescent/magnetic nanostructured porous silicon particles for biomedical applications.

PubMed

Muñoz-Noval, Alvaro; Sánchez-Vaquero, Vanessa; Torres-Costa, Vicente; Gallach, Darío; Ferro-Llanos, Vicente; Serrano, José Javier; Manso-Silván, Miguel; García-Ruiz, Josefa Predestinación; del Pozo, Francisco; Martín-Palma, Raúl J

2011-02-01

This work describes a novel process for the fabrication of hybrid nanostructured particles showing intense tunable photoluminescence and a simultaneous ferromagnetic behavior. The fabrication process involves the synthesis of nanostructured porous silicon (NPSi) by chemical anodization of crystalline silicon and subsequent in pore growth of Co nanoparticles by electrochemically-assisted infiltration. Final particles are obtained by subsequent sonication of the Co-infiltrated NPSi layers and conjugation with poly(ethylene glycol) aiming at enhancing their hydrophilic character. These particles respond to magnetic fields, emit light in the visible when excited in the UV range, and internalize into human mesenchymal stem cells with no apoptosis induction. Furthermore, cytotoxicity in in-vitro systems confirms their biocompatibility and the viability of the cells after incorporation of the particles. The hybrid nanostructured particles might represent powerful research tools as cellular trackers or in cellular therapy since they allow combining two or more properties into a single particle.

Development of an optical three-dimensional laser tracker using dual modulated laser diodes and a signal detector

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lee, Hau-Wei; Chen, Chieh-Li; Liu, Chien-Hung

Laser trackers are widely used in industry for tasks such as the assembly of airplanes and automobiles, contour measurement, and robot calibration. However, laser trackers are expensive, and the corresponding solution procedure is very complex. The influence of measurement uncertainties is also significant. This study proposes a three-dimensional space position measurement system which consists of two tracking modules, a zero tracking angle return subsystem, and a target quadrant photodiode (QPD). The target QPD is placed on the object being tracked. The origin locking method is used to keep the rays on the origin of the target QPD. The position ofmore » the target QPD is determined using triangulation since the two laser rays are projected onto one QPD. Modulation and demodulation are utilized to separate the coupled positional values. The experiment results show that measurement errors in the X, Y, and Z directions are less than {+-}0.05% when the measured object was moved by 300, 300, and 200 mm in the X, Y, and Z axes, respectively. The theoretical measurement error estimated from the measurement model is between {+-}0.02% and {+-}0.07% within the defined measurable range. The proposed system can be applied to the measurements of machine tools and robot arms.« less

Development of an optical three-dimensional laser tracker using dual modulated laser diodes and a signal detector.

PubMed

Lee, Hau-Wei; Chen, Chieh-Li; Liu, Chien-Hung

2011-03-01

Laser trackers are widely used in industry for tasks such as the assembly of airplanes and automobiles, contour measurement, and robot calibration. However, laser trackers are expensive, and the corresponding solution procedure is very complex. The influence of measurement uncertainties is also significant. This study proposes a three-dimensional space position measurement system which consists of two tracking modules, a zero tracking angle return subsystem, and a target quadrant photodiode (QPD). The target QPD is placed on the object being tracked. The origin locking method is used to keep the rays on the origin of the target QPD. The position of the target QPD is determined using triangulation since the two laser rays are projected onto one QPD. Modulation and demodulation are utilized to separate the coupled positional values. The experiment results show that measurement errors in the X, Y, and Z directions are less than ±0.05% when the measured object was moved by 300, 300, and 200 mm in the X, Y, and Z axes, respectively. The theoretical measurement error estimated from the measurement model is between ±0.02% and ±0.07% within the defined measurable range. The proposed system can be applied to the measurements of machine tools and robot arms.

Development of an optical three-dimensional laser tracker using dual modulated laser diodes and a signal detector

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Hau-Wei; Chen, Chieh-Li; Liu, Chien-Hung

2011-03-01

Laser trackers are widely used in industry for tasks such as the assembly of airplanes and automobiles, contour measurement, and robot calibration. However, laser trackers are expensive, and the corresponding solution procedure is very complex. The influence of measurement uncertainties is also significant. This study proposes a three-dimensional space position measurement system which consists of two tracking modules, a zero tracking angle return subsystem, and a target quadrant photodiode (QPD). The target QPD is placed on the object being tracked. The origin locking method is used to keep the rays on the origin of the target QPD. The position of the target QPD is determined using triangulation since the two laser rays are projected onto one QPD. Modulation and demodulation are utilized to separate the coupled positional values. The experiment results show that measurement errors in the X, Y, and Z directions are less than ±0.05% when the measured object was moved by 300, 300, and 200 mm in the X, Y, and Z axes, respectively. The theoretical measurement error estimated from the measurement model is between ±0.02% and ±0.07% within the defined measurable range. The proposed system can be applied to the measurements of machine tools and robot arms.

Vibration Method for Tracking the Resonant Mode and Impedance of a Microwave Cavity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barmatz, M.; Iny, O.; Yiin, T.; Khan, I.

1995-01-01

A vibration technique his been developed to continuously maintain mode resonance and impedance much between a constant frequency magnetron source and resonant cavity. This method uses a vibrating metal rod to modulate the volume of the cavity in a manner equivalent to modulating an adjustable plunger. A similar vibrating metal rod attached to a stub tuner modulates the waveguide volume between the source and cavity. A phase sensitive detection scheme determines the optimum position of the adjustable plunger and stub turner during processing. The improved power transfer during the heating of a 99.8% pure alumina rod was demonstrated using this new technique. Temperature-time and reflected power-time heating curves are presented for the cases of no tracking, impedance tracker only, mode tracker only and simultaneous impedance and mode tracking. Controlled internal melting of an alumina rod near 2000 C using both tracking units was also demonstrated.

Spectrum sensitivity, energy yield, and revenue prediction of PV and CPV modules

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kinsey, Geoffrey S., E-mail: Geoffrey.kinsey@ee.doe.gov

2015-09-28

Impact on module performance of spectral irradiance variation has been determined for III-V multijunctions compared against the four most common flat-plate module types (cadmium telluride, multicrystalline silicon, copper indium gallium selenide, and monocrystalline silicon. Hour-by-hour representative spectra were generated using atmospheric variables for Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. Convolution with published values for external quantum efficiency gave the predicted current output. When combined with specifications of commercial PV modules, energy yield and revenue were predicted. This approach provides a means for optimizing PV module design based on various site-specific temporal variables.

Spectrum sensitivity, energy yield, and revenue prediction of PV and CPV modules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kinsey, Geoffrey S.

2015-09-01

Impact on module performance of spectral irradiance variation has been determined for III-V multijunctions compared against the four most common flat-plate module types (cadmium telluride, multicrystalline silicon, copper indium gallium selenide, and monocrystalline silicon. Hour-by-hour representative spectra were generated using atmospheric variables for Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. Convolution with published values for external quantum efficiency gave the predicted current output. When combined with specifications of commercial PV modules, energy yield and revenue were predicted. This approach provides a means for optimizing PV module design based on various site-specific temporal variables.

Optical modulation techniques for analog signal processing and CMOS compatible electro-optic modulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gill, Douglas M.; Rasras, Mahmoud; Tu, Kun-Yii; Chen, Young-Kai; White, Alice E.; Patel, Sanjay S.; Carothers, Daniel; Pomerene, Andrew; Kamocsai, Robert; Beattie, James; Kopa, Anthony; Apsel, Alyssa; Beals, Mark; Mitchel, Jurgen; Liu, Jifeng; Kimerling, Lionel C.

2008-02-01

Integrating electronic and photonic functions onto a single silicon-based chip using techniques compatible with mass-production CMOS electronics will enable new design paradigms for existing system architectures and open new opportunities for electro-optic applications with the potential to dramatically change the management, cost, footprint, weight, and power consumption of today's communication systems. While broadband analog system applications represent a smaller volume market than that for digital data transmission, there are significant deployments of analog electro-optic systems for commercial and military applications. Broadband linear modulation is a critical building block in optical analog signal processing and also could have significant applications in digital communication systems. Recently, broadband electro-optic modulators on a silicon platform have been demonstrated based on the plasma dispersion effect. The use of the plasma dispersion effect within a CMOS compatible waveguide creates new challenges and opportunities for analog signal processing since the index and propagation loss change within the waveguide during modulation. We will review the current status of silicon-based electrooptic modulators and also linearization techniques for optical modulation.

Silicon single mode waveguide modulator based upon switchable Bragg reflector

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Azogui, Jonathan; Ramon, Yonathan; Businaro, Luca; Ciasca, Gabriele; Gerardino, Annamaria; Zalevsky, Zeev

2018-02-01

In this paper we present the development of an electro optical "Bragg" modulator for telecommunication, in both design and fabrication. The device consists from a regular single mode silicon waveguide (WG) in which an effective Bragg reflector is "turned on" within the WG by means of external bias, due to the plasma dispersion effect, in which the (complexed) refractive index is affected by carrier concentration within the Silicon. Three different strategies are presented for both design and fabrication.

A new strips tracker for the upgraded ATLAS ITk detector

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

David, C.

2018-01-01

The ATLAS detector has been designed and developed to function in the environment of the present Large Hadron Collider (LHC). At the next-generation tracking detector proposed for the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), the so-called ATLAS Phase-II Upgrade, the fluences and radiation levels will be higher by as much as a factor of ten. The new sub-detectors must thus be faster, of larger area, more segmented and more radiation hard while the amount of inactive material should be minimized and the power supply to the front-end systems should be increased. For those reasons, the current inner tracker of the ATLAS detector will be fully replaced by an all-silicon tracking system that consists of a pixel detector at small radius close to the beam line and a large area strip tracker surrounding it. This document gives an overview of the design of the strip inner tracker (Strip ITk) and summarises the intensive R&D activities performed over the last years by the numerous institutes within the Strips ITk collaboration. These studies are accompanied with a strong prototyping effort to contribute to the optimisation of the Strip ITk's structure and components. This effort culminated recently in the release of the ATLAS Strips ITk Technical Design Report (TDR).

Optical modulation in silicon-vanadium dioxide photonic structures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miller, Kevin J.; Hallman, Kent A.; Haglund, Richard F.; Weiss, Sharon M.

2017-08-01

All-optical modulators are likely to play an important role in future chip-scale information processing systems. In this work, through simulations, we investigate the potential of a recently reported vanadium dioxide (VO2) embedded silicon waveguide structure for ultrafast all-optical signal modulation. With a VO2 length of only 200 nm, finite-differencetime- domain simulations suggest broadband (200 nm) operation with a modulation greater than 12 dB and an insertion loss of less than 3 dB. Predicted performance metrics, including modulation speed, modulation depth, optical bandwidth, insertion loss, device footprint, and energy consumption of the proposed Si-VO2 all-optical modulator are benchmarked against those of current state-of-the-art all-optical modulators with in-plane optical excitation.

All silicon approach to modulation and detection at λ = 2 μm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Littlejohns, Callum G.; Nedeljkovic, Milos; Cao, Wei; Soler Penades, Jordi; Hagan, David; Ackert, Jason J.; Rouifed, Mohamed Saïd.; Wang, Wanjun; Zhang, Zecen; Qiu, Haodong; Guo Xin, Tina; Knights, Andrew P.; Reed, Graham T.; Mashanovich, Goran Z.; Wang, Hong; Thomson, David J.

2018-02-01

Silicon photonics has traditionally focused on near infrared wavelengths, with tremendous progress seen over the past decade. However, more recently, research has extended into mid infrared wavelengths of 2 μm and beyond. Optical modulators are a key component for silicon photonics interconnects at both the conventional communication wavelengths of 1.3 μm and 1.55 μm, and the emerging mid-infrared wavelengths. The mid-infrared wavelength range is particularly interesting for a number of applications, including sensing, healthcare and communications. The absorption band of conventional germanium photodetectors only extends to approximately 1.55 μm, so alternative methods of photodetection are required for the mid-infrared wavelengths. One possible CMOS compatible solution is a silicon defect detector. Here, we present our recent results in these areas. Modulation at the wavelength of 2 μm has been theoretically investigated, and photodetection above 25 Gb/s has been practically demonstrated.

Using the intrinsic properties of silicon micro-ring modulators for characterization of RF termination

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Zhao; Knights, Andrew P.

2017-02-01

We describe a direct experimental method to determine the effective driving voltage (Vpp) applied to a silicon photonic modulator possessing an impedance mismatch between the unterminated capacitive load and input source. This method thus permits subsequent estimation of the power consumption of an imperfectly terminated device as well as a deduction of load impedance for optimization of termination design. The capacitive load in this paper is a silicon micro-ring modulator with an integrated p-n junction acting as a phase shifter. The RF reflection under high-speed drive is directly determined from observation of the eye-diagram following measurement of the power transfer function for various junction bias.

A hybrid silicon membrane spatial light modulator for optical information processing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pape, D. R.; Hornbeck, L. J.

1984-01-01

A new two dimensional, fast, analog, electrically addressable, silicon based membrane spatial light modulator (SLM) was developed for optical information processing applications. Coherent light reflected from the mirror elements is phase modulated producing an optical Fourier transform of an analog signal input to the device. The DMD architecture and operating parameters related to this application are presented. A model is developed that describes the optical Fourier transform properties of the DMD.

R&D issues in scale-up and manufacturing of amorphous silicon tandem modules

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Arya, R.R.; Carlson, D.E.; Chen, L.F.

1999-03-01

R & D on amorphous silicon based tandem junction devices has improved the throughtput, the material utilization, and the performance of devices on commercial tin oxide coated glass. The tandem junction technology has been scaled-up to produce 8.6&hthinsp;Ft{sup 2} monolithically integrated modules in manufacturing at the TF1 plant. Optimization of performance and stability of these modules is ongoing. {copyright} {ital 1999 American Institute of Physics.}

Open Heavy Flavor and Quarkonia Results at RHIC

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nouicer, Rachid

RHIC experiments carry out a comprehensive physics program which studies open heavy flavor and quarkonium production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The discovery at RHIC of large high-pT suppression and flow of electrons from heavy quarks flavors have altered our view of the hot and dense matter formed in central Au + Au collisions at √S NN = 200 GeV. These results suggest a large energy loss and flow of heavy quarks in the hot, dense matter. In recent years, the RHIC experiments upgraded the detectors; (1) PHENIX Collaboration installed silicon vertex tracker (VTX) at mid-rapidity region and forward silicon vertexmore » tracker (FVTX) at the forward rapidity region, and (2) STAR Collaboration installed the heavy flavor tracker (HFT) and the muon telescope detector (MTD) both at the mid-rapidity region. With these new upgrades, both experiments have collected large data samples. These new detectors enhance the capability of heavy flavor measurements via precision tracking. The PHENIX experiments established measurements of ψ(1S) and ψ(2S) production as a function of system size, p + p, p + Al, p + Au, and 3He + Au collisions at √S NN = 200 GeV. In p/ 3He + A collisions at forward rapidity, we observe no difference in the ψ(2S)/ψ(1S) ratio relative to p + p collisions. At backward rapidity, where the comoving particle density is higher, we find that the ψ(2S) is preferentially suppressed by a factor of two. STAR Collaboration presents the first J/ψ and Υ measurements in the di-muon decay channel in Au + Au collisions at GeV at mid-rapidity at RHIC. Here, we observe clear J/ψ RAA suppression and qualitatively well described by transport models simultaneously accounting for dissociation and regeneration processes.« less

Open Heavy Flavor and Quarkonia Results at RHIC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nouicer, Rachid

2017-12-01

RHIC experiments carry out a comprehensive physics program which studies open heavy flavor and quarkonium production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The discovery at RHIC of large high-pT suppression and flow of electrons from heavy quarks flavors have altered our view of the hot and dense matter formed in central Au + Au collisions at GeV. These results suggest a large energy loss and flow of heavy quarks in the hot, dense matter. In recent years, the RHIC experiments upgraded the detectors; (1) PHENIX Collaboration installed silicon vertex tracker (VTX) at mid-rapidity region and forward silicon vertex tracker (FVTX) at the forward rapidity region, and (2) STAR Collaboration installed the heavy flavor tracker (HFT) and the muon telescope detector (MTD) both at the mid-rapidity region. With these new upgrades, both experiments have collected large data samples. These new detectors enhance the capability of heavy flavor measurements via precision tracking. The PHENIX experiments established measurements of ψ(1S) and ψ(2S) production as a function of system size, p + p, p + Al, p + Au, and 3He + Au collisions at GeV. In p/3He + A collisions at forward rapidity, we observe no difference in the ψ(2S)/ψ(1S) ratio relative to p + p collisions. At backward rapidity, where the comoving particle density is higher, we find that the ψ(2S) is preferentially suppressed by a factor of two. STAR Collaboration presents the first J/ψ and ϒ measurements in the di-muon decay channel in Au + Au collisions at GeV at mid-rapidity at RHIC. We observe clear J/ψ RAA suppression and qualitatively well described by transport models simultaneously accounting for dissociation and regeneration processes.

Open Heavy Flavor and Quarkonia Results at RHIC

DOE PAGES

Nouicer, Rachid

2017-12-05

RHIC experiments carry out a comprehensive physics program which studies open heavy flavor and quarkonium production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The discovery at RHIC of large high-pT suppression and flow of electrons from heavy quarks flavors have altered our view of the hot and dense matter formed in central Au + Au collisions at √S NN = 200 GeV. These results suggest a large energy loss and flow of heavy quarks in the hot, dense matter. In recent years, the RHIC experiments upgraded the detectors; (1) PHENIX Collaboration installed silicon vertex tracker (VTX) at mid-rapidity region and forward silicon vertexmore » tracker (FVTX) at the forward rapidity region, and (2) STAR Collaboration installed the heavy flavor tracker (HFT) and the muon telescope detector (MTD) both at the mid-rapidity region. With these new upgrades, both experiments have collected large data samples. These new detectors enhance the capability of heavy flavor measurements via precision tracking. The PHENIX experiments established measurements of ψ(1S) and ψ(2S) production as a function of system size, p + p, p + Al, p + Au, and 3He + Au collisions at √S NN = 200 GeV. In p/ 3He + A collisions at forward rapidity, we observe no difference in the ψ(2S)/ψ(1S) ratio relative to p + p collisions. At backward rapidity, where the comoving particle density is higher, we find that the ψ(2S) is preferentially suppressed by a factor of two. STAR Collaboration presents the first J/ψ and Υ measurements in the di-muon decay channel in Au + Au collisions at GeV at mid-rapidity at RHIC. Here, we observe clear J/ψ RAA suppression and qualitatively well described by transport models simultaneously accounting for dissociation and regeneration processes.« less

Advanced photovoltaic power systems using tandem GaAs/GaSb concentrator modules

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fraas, L. M.; Kuryla, M. S.; Pietila, D. A.; Sundaram, V. S.; Gruenbaum, P. E.; Avery, J. E.; Dihn, V.; Ballantyne, R.; Samuel, C.

1992-01-01

In 1989, Boeing announced the fabrication of a tandem gallium concentrator solar cell with an energy conversion efficiency of 30 percent. This research breakthrough has now led to panels which are significantly smaller, lighter, more radiation resistant, and potentially less expensive than the traditional silicon flat plate electric power supply. The new Boeing tandem concentrator (BTC) module uses an array of lightweight silicone Fresnel lenses mounted on the front side of a light weight aluminum honeycomb structure to focus sunlight onto small area solar cells mounted on a thin back plane. This module design is shown schematically. The tandem solar cell in this new module consists of a gallium arsenide light sensitive cell with a 24 percent energy conversion efficiency stacked on top of a gallium antimonide infrared sensitive cell with a conversion efficiency of 6 percent. This gives a total efficiency 30 percent for the cell-stack. The lens optical efficiency is typically 85 percent. Discounting for efficiency losses associated with lens packing, cell wiring, and cell operating temperature still allows for a module efficiency of 22 percent which leads to a module power density of 300 Watts/sq. m. This performance provides more than twice the power density available from a single crystal silicon flat plate module and at least four times the power density available from amorphous silicon modules. The fact that the lenses are only 0.010 ft. thick and the aluminum foil back plane is only 0.003 ft. thick leads to a very lightweight module. Although the cells are an easy to handle thickness of 0.020 ft., the fact that they are small, occupying one-twenty-fifth of the module area, means that they add little to the module weight. After summing all the module weights and given the high module power, we find that we are able to fabricate BTC modules with specific power of 100 watts/kg.

Intelligent Front-end Electronics for Silicon photodetectors (IFES)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sauerzopf, Clemens; Gruber, Lukas; Suzuki, Ken; Zmeskal, Johann; Widmann, Eberhard

2016-05-01

While high channel density can be easily achieved for big experiments using custom made microchips, providing something similar for small and medium size experiments imposes a challenge. Within this work we describe a novel and cost effective solution to operate silicon photodetectors such as silicon photo multipliers (SiPM). The IFES modules provide the bias voltage for the detectors, a leading edge discriminator featuring time over threshold and a differential amplifier, all on one printed circuit board. We demonstrate under realistic conditions that the module is usable for high resolution timing measurements exploiting both charge and time information. Furthermore we show that the modules can be easily used in larger detector arrays. All in all this confirms that the IFES modules are a viable option for a broad range of experiments if cost-effectiveness and small form factor are required.

Flat Plate Solar Array Project: Proceedings of the 20th Project Integration Meeting

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mcdonald, R. R.

1982-01-01

Progress made by the Flat-Plate Solar Array Project during the period November 1981 to April 1982 is reported. Project analysis and integration, technology research in silicon material, large-area silicon sheet and environmental isolation, cell and module formation, engineering sciences, and module performance and failure analysis are covered.

NREL Technologies Win National Awards

Science.gov Websites

percent for a prototype module, 7.6 percent for a commercial module) from amorphous silicon, which is less expensive to produce than crystalline silicon used in most commercial solar cells. The resulting product is biomass resources such as wood waste or plant material into gas for electric power generation. The new

Macro Pixel ASIC (MPA): the readout ASIC for the pixel-strip (PS) module of the CMS outer tracker at HL-LHC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ceresa, D.; Marchioro, A.; Kloukinas, K.; Kaplon, J.; Bialas, W.; Re, V.; Traversi, G.; Gaioni, L.; Ratti, L.

2014-11-01

The CMS tracker at HL-LHC is required to provide prompt information on particles with high transverse momentum to the central Level 1 trigger. For this purpose, the innermost part of the outer tracker is based on a combination of a pixelated sensor with a short strip sensor, the so-called Pixel-Strip module (PS). The readout of these sensors is carried out by distinct ASICs, the Strip Sensor ASIC (SSA), for the strip layer, and the Macro Pixel ASIC (MPA) for the pixel layer. The processing of the data directly on the front-end module represents a design challenge due to the large data volume (30720 pixels and 1920 strips per module) and the limited power budget. This is the reason why several studies have been carried out to find the best compromise between ASICs performance and power consumption. This paper describes the current status of the MPA ASIC development where the logic for generating prompt information on particles with high transverse momentum is implemented. An overview of the readout method is presented with particular attention on the cluster reduction, position encoding and momentum discrimination logic. Concerning the architectural studies, a software test bench capable of reading physics Monte-Carlo generated events has been developed and used to validate the MPA design and to evaluate the MPA performance. The MPA-Light is scheduled to be submitted for fabrication this year and will include the full analog functions and a part of the digital logic of the final version in order to qualify the chosen VLSI technology for the analog front-end, the module assembly and the low voltage digital supply.

Design of integrated eye tracker-display device for head mounted systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

David, Y.; Apter, B.; Thirer, N.; Baal-Zedaka, I.; Efron, U.

2009-08-01

We propose an Eye Tracker/Display system, based on a novel, dual function device termed ETD, which allows sharing the optical paths of the Eye tracker and the display and on-chip processing. The proposed ETD design is based on a CMOS chip combining a Liquid-Crystal-on-Silicon (LCoS) micro-display technology with near infrared (NIR) Active Pixel Sensor imager. The ET operation allows capturing the Near IR (NIR) light, back-reflected from the eye's retina. The retinal image is then used for the detection of the current direction of eye's gaze. The design of the eye tracking imager is based on the "deep p-well" pixel technology, providing low crosstalk while shielding the active pixel circuitry, which serves the imaging and the display drivers, from the photo charges generated in the substrate. The use of the ETD in the HMD Design enables a very compact design suitable for Smart Goggle applications. A preliminary optical, electronic and digital design of the goggle and its associated ETD chip and digital control, are presented.

In vitro three-dimensional aortic vasculature modeling based on sensor fusion between intravascular ultrasound and magnetic tracker.

PubMed

Shi, Chaoyang; Tercero, Carlos; Ikeda, Seiichi; Ooe, Katsutoshi; Fukuda, Toshio; Komori, Kimihiro; Yamamoto, Kiyohito

2012-09-01

It is desirable to reduce aortic stent graft installation time and the amount of contrast media used for this process. Guidance with augmented reality can achieve this by facilitating alignment of the stent graft with the renal and mesenteric arteries. For this purpose, a sensor fusion is proposed between intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and magnetic trackers to construct three-dimensional virtual reality models of the blood vessels, as well as improvements to the gradient vector flow snake for boundary detection in ultrasound images. In vitro vasculature imaging experiments were done with hybrid probe and silicone models of the vasculature. The dispersion of samples for the magnetic tracker in the hybrid probe increased less than 1 mm when the IVUS was activated. Three-dimensional models of the descending thoracic aorta, with cross-section radius average error of 0.94 mm, were built from the data fusion. The development of this technology will enable reduction in the amount of contrast media required for in vivo and real-time three-dimensional blood vessel imaging. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Electric Field Distribution in High Voltage Power Modules Using Finite Element Simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Zhao; Liu, Yaoning

2018-03-01

With the development of the high voltage insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) power module, it leads to serious problems concerning the electric field insulation. The electric field capabilities of the silicone gels used in the power module encapsulation directly affect the module insulation. Some solutions have been developed to optimize the electric field and reliability. In this letter, the finite element simulation was used to analyze and localize the maximum electric field position; solutions were proposed to improve the module insulation. It’s demonstrated that BaTiO3 silicone composite is a promising insulation material for high voltage power device.

Low-voltage high-performance silicon photonic devices and photonic integrated circuits operating up to 30 Gb/s.

PubMed

Kim, Gyungock; Park, Jeong Woo; Kim, In Gyoo; Kim, Sanghoon; Kim, Sanggi; Lee, Jong Moo; Park, Gun Sik; Joo, Jiho; Jang, Ki-Seok; Oh, Jin Hyuk; Kim, Sun Ae; Kim, Jong Hoon; Lee, Jun Young; Park, Jong Moon; Kim, Do-Won; Jeong, Deog-Kyoon; Hwang, Moon-Sang; Kim, Jeong-Kyoum; Park, Kyu-Sang; Chi, Han-Kyu; Kim, Hyun-Chang; Kim, Dong-Wook; Cho, Mu Hee

2011-12-19

We present high performance silicon photonic circuits (PICs) defined for off-chip or on-chip photonic interconnects, where PN depletion Mach-Zehnder modulators and evanescent-coupled waveguide Ge-on-Si photodetectors were monolithically integrated on an SOI wafer with CMOS-compatible process. The fabricated silicon PIC(off-chip) for off-chip optical interconnects showed operation up to 30 Gb/s. Under differential drive of low-voltage 1.2 V(pp), the integrated 1 mm-phase-shifter modulator in the PIC(off-chip) demonstrated an extinction ratio (ER) of 10.5dB for 12.5 Gb/s, an ER of 9.1dB for 20 Gb/s, and an ER of 7.2 dB for 30 Gb/s operation, without adoption of travelling-wave electrodes. The device showed the modulation efficiency of V(π)L(π) ~1.59 Vcm, and the phase-shifter loss of 3.2 dB/mm for maximum optical transmission. The Ge photodetector, which allows simpler integration process based on reduced pressure chemical vapor deposition exhibited operation over 30 Gb/s with a low dark current of 700 nA at -1V. The fabricated silicon PIC(intra-chip) for on-chip (intra-chip) photonic interconnects, where the monolithically integrated modulator and Ge photodetector were connected by a silicon waveguide on the same chip, showed on-chip data transmissions up to 20 Gb/s, indicating potential application in future silicon on-chip optical network. We also report the performance of the hybrid silicon electronic-photonic IC (EPIC), where a PIC(intra-chip) chip and 0.13μm CMOS interface IC chips were hybrid-integrated.

Manufacturing Methods and Technology Program for Low Cost Hybrid Silicon Photodetector Modules

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-12-30

RESEARCH LN EVEMN TECHNICAL REPORT 4 CORADOOM- 77- C -0489-F I CMANUFACTURING METHODS AND TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM FOR LOW COST HYBRID SILICON PHOTODETECTORS...rINAL REPORT OR US ARMY CONTRACT NO, DAAD07-77- C -0489 TITLED 11MM&TMud SURE FOR COS HYBRID SILICON PHOTODRTECTOR MODULS", DATED 79/12/30 Gentlemen...when it is no longer needed. Do not return it to the originator. D.-stributi-on! Availability COcas- :Dist c specia S I ’ Cb.A *"itI. -P0 ~~J~,+~1

76 FR 70960 - Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules, From the People's...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-11-16

... silicon photovoltaic cells, whether or not assembled into modules (``solar cells'') from the People's Republic of China (``PRC'') filed in proper form by SolarWorld Industries America Inc. (``Petitioner'').\\1... Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (``the Act''), Petitioner alleges that imports of solar cells from the PRC...

77 FR 17439 - Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules, From the People's...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-03-26

... silicon photovoltaic cells, whether or not assembled into modules (solar cells) from the People's Republic... History The Department initiated a countervailing duty (CVD) investigation of solar cells from the PRC on.... Customs and Border Protection (CBP) entry data for U.S. imports of solar cells from the PRC for the period...

Flexible integration of free-standing nanowires into silicon photonics.

PubMed

Chen, Bigeng; Wu, Hao; Xin, Chenguang; Dai, Daoxin; Tong, Limin

2017-06-14

Silicon photonics has been developed successfully with a top-down fabrication technique to enable large-scale photonic integrated circuits with high reproducibility, but is limited intrinsically by the material capability for active or nonlinear applications. On the other hand, free-standing nanowires synthesized via a bottom-up growth present great material diversity and structural uniformity, but precisely assembling free-standing nanowires for on-demand photonic functionality remains a great challenge. Here we report hybrid integration of free-standing nanowires into silicon photonics with high flexibility by coupling free-standing nanowires onto target silicon waveguides that are simultaneously used for precise positioning. Coupling efficiency between a free-standing nanowire and a silicon waveguide is up to ~97% in the telecommunication band. A hybrid nonlinear-free-standing nanowires-silicon waveguides Mach-Zehnder interferometer and a racetrack resonator for significantly enhanced optical modulation are experimentally demonstrated, as well as hybrid active-free-standing nanowires-silicon waveguides circuits for light generation. These results suggest an alternative approach to flexible multifunctional on-chip nanophotonic devices.Precisely assembling free-standing nanowires for on-demand photonic functionality remains a challenge. Here, Chen et al. integrate free-standing nanowires into silicon waveguides and show all-optical modulation and light generation on silicon photonic chips.

Phase modulation in horizontal metal-insulator-silicon-insulator-metal plasmonic waveguides.

PubMed

Zhu, Shiyang; Lo, G Q; Kwong, D L

2013-04-08

An extremely compact Si phase modulator is proposed and validated, which relies on effective modulation of the real part of modal index of horizontal metal-insulator-Si-insulator-metal plasmonic waveguides by a voltage applied between the metal cover and the Si core. Proof-of-concept devices are fabricated on silicon-on-insulator substrates using standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology using copper as the metal and thermal silicon dioxide as the insulator. A modulator with a 1-μm-long phase shifter inserted in an asymmetric Si Mach-Zehnder interferometer exhibits 9-dB extinction ratio under a 6-V/10-kHz voltage swing. Numerical simulations suggest that high speed and low driving voltage could be achieved by shortening the distance between the Si core and the n(+)-contact and by using a high-κ dielectric as the insulator, respectively.

Behavioral data of thin-film single junction amorphous silicon (a-Si) photovoltaic modules under outdoor long term exposure

PubMed Central

Kichou, Sofiane; Silvestre, Santiago; Nofuentes, Gustavo; Torres-Ramírez, Miguel; Chouder, Aissa; Guasch, Daniel

2016-01-01

Four years׳ behavioral data of thin-film single junction amorphous silicon (a-Si) photovoltaic (PV) modules installed in a relatively dry and sunny inland site with a Continental-Mediterranean climate (in the city of Jaén, Spain) are presented in this article. The shared data contributes to clarify how the Light Induced Degradation (LID) impacts the output power generated by the PV array, especially in the first days of exposure under outdoor conditions. Furthermore, a valuable methodology is provided in this data article permitting the assessment of the degradation rate and the stabilization period of the PV modules. Further discussions and interpretations concerning the data shared in this article can be found in the research paper “Characterization of degradation and evaluation of model parameters of amorphous silicon photovoltaic modules under outdoor long term exposure” (Kichou et al., 2016) [1]. PMID:26977439

High-Q photonic resonators and electro-optic coupling using silicon-on-lithium-niobate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Witmer, Jeremy D.; Valery, Joseph A.; Arrangoiz-Arriola, Patricio; Sarabalis, Christopher J.; Hill, Jeff T.; Safavi-Naeini, Amir H.

2017-04-01

Future quantum networks, in which superconducting quantum processors are connected via optical links, will require microwave-to-optical photon converters that preserve entanglement. A doubly-resonant electro-optic modulator (EOM) is a promising platform to realize this conversion. Here, we present our progress towards building such a modulator by demonstrating the optically-resonant half of the device. We demonstrate high quality (Q) factor ring, disk and photonic crystal resonators using a hybrid silicon-on-lithium-niobate material system. Optical Q factors up to 730,000 are achieved, corresponding to propagation loss of 0.8 dB/cm. We also use the electro-optic effect to modulate the resonance frequency of a photonic crystal cavity, achieving a electro-optic modulation coefficient between 1 and 2 pm/V. In addition to quantum technology, we expect that our results will be useful both in traditional silicon photonics applications and in high-sensitivity acousto-optic devices.

25-Gb/s broadband silicon modulator with 0.31-V·cm VπL based on forward-biased PIN diodes embedded with passive equalizer.

PubMed

Baba, Takeshi; Akiyama, Suguru; Imai, Masahiko; Usuki, Tatsuya

2015-12-28

We investigated the broadband operations of a silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) based on a forward-biased-PIN diode. The phase shifter was integrated with a passive-circuit equalizer to compensate for the narrowband characteristics of the diodes, which consists of a simple resistance of doped silicon and a parallel-plate metal capacitance. The device structure was simple and fabricated using standard CMOS processes. The measured results for a 50-Ω driver indicated there was a small VπL of 0.31 V·cm and a flat frequency response for a 3-dB bandwidth (f(3dB)) of 17 GHz, which agree well with the designed values. A 25-Gb/s large-signal operation was obtained using binary signals without pre-emphasis. The modulator showed a linear modulation property to the applied voltage, due to the metal capacitance of the equalizer.

Dish-based CPV-T for rooftop generation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davila-Peralta, Christian; Hyatt, Justin; Alfred, Dan; Struble, Morgan; Sodari, Frank; Angel, Roger

2017-09-01

Hybrid CPV-T with combined electrical and thermal output is well suited to solar generation from fixed limited areas, such as on the roof of an industrial or commercial facility with need for heat. This application will become especially attractive once overall electrical conversion efficiency of 40% is reached, as is projected for REhnu CPV systems using multijunction cells of 50% efficiency, anticipated in a few years. We outline here a configuration of dish- based CPV trackers optimized for close packing on a flat roof in a triangular grid, with a mirror area-to-ground area ratio of 50%. When the geometry of shadowing averaged over a year is taken into account, 80% of all the sunlight that would strike the rooftop is directed into the receivers. Such an array on a given area of flat roof will generate more electrical energy than would be possible with conventional PV panels, even if covering the entire rooftop, because of silicon's relative inefficiency. For example, in Tucson, the annual average global flux of 5.7 kWh/m2/day on a horizontal surface covered with 22% silicon modules will yield 1.25 kWh/m2/day. We show that a CPV system collecting 80% of all the direct sunlight of 7.0 kWh/m2 and converting it with 40% efficiency will yield 2.24 kWh/m2/day of rooftop area, nearly twice as much4. Thermal power will double again the total energy yield. A dual axis CPV-T tracker designed specifically very close spacing has been built to carry a single dish mirror of the standard type used in REhnu's M-8 generator, described by Stalcup et al in these proceedings1,2. Sunlight is collected and focused by a single square paraboloidal mirror, 1.65 × 1.65 m with focal length of 1.5 m. For closest possible packing without mechanical interference, and for broad distribution of load on a rooftop, the mirror and receiver are mounted to a C-ring structure, configured such that the elevation and azimuth axes intersect at a virtual pivot, at the center of the sphere that just clears the receiver and the corners of the mirror. Initial tests of closed loop tracking show an accuracy of 0.03° rms under calm conditions, and 0.04° rms in 6 m/sec wind.

Integration of hybrid silicon lasers and electroabsorption modulators.

PubMed

Sysak, Matthew N; Anthes, Joel O; Bowers, John E; Raday, Omri; Jones, Richard

2008-08-18

We present an integration platform based on quantum well intermixing for multi-section hybrid silicon lasers and electroabsorption modulators. As a demonstration of the technology, we have fabricated discrete sampled grating DBR lasers and sampled grating DBR lasers integrated with InGaAsP/InP electroabsorption modulators. The integrated sampled grating DBR laser-modulators use the as-grown III-V bandgap for optical gain, a 50 nm blue shifted bandgap for the electrabosprtion modulators, and an 80 nm blue shifted bandgap for low loss mirrors. Laser continuous wave operation up to 45 ?C is achieved with output power >1.0 mW and threshold current of <50 mA. The modulator bandwidth is >2GHz with 5 dB DC extinction.

Metal-capped silicon organic micro-ring electro-optical modulator (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zaki, Aya O.; Kirah, Khaled A.; Swillam, Mohamed A.

2017-02-01

An ultra-compact hybrid plasmonic waveguide ring electro-optical modulator is designed to be easily fabricated on silicon on insulator (SOI) substrates using standard silicon photonics technology. The proposed waveguide is based on a buried standard silicon waveguide of height 220 nm topped with polymer and metal. The key advantage of this novel design is that only the silicon layer of the waveguide is structured as a coupled ring resonator. Then, the device is covered with electro-optical polymer and metal in post processes with no need for lithography or accurate mask alignment techniques. The simple fabrication method imposes many design challenges to obtain a resonator of reasonable loaded quality factor and high extinction ratio. Here, the performance of the resonator is optimized in the telecom wavelength range around 1550 nm using 3D FDTD simulations. The design of the coupling junction between the access waveguide and the tightly bent ring is thoroughly studied. The extension of the metal over the coupling region is exploited to make the critical dimension of the design geometry at least 2.5 times larger than conventional plasmonic resonators and the design is thus more robust. In this paper, we demonstrate an electro-optical modulator that offers an insertion loss < 1 dB, a modulation depth of 12 dB for an applied peak to peak voltage of only 2 V and energy consumption of 1.74 fJ/bit. The performance is superior to previously reported hybrid plasmonic ring resonator based modulators while the design shows robustness and low fabrication cost.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Atmaram, G.H.; Ventre, G.G.; Maytrott, C.W.

This study evaluates the long-term effects of outdoor exposure and high voltage operation on the performance and reliability of flat-plate crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules. The photovoltaic modules selected for this study were employed in the arrays of grid-connected residential photovoltaic prototype systems for over ten years at the Southeast Regional Experiment Station (SE RES) in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The modules included Mobil Ra-180 EFG ribbon silicon modules, Photowatt MU-7061 and ARCO 16-2000 single-crystal silicon modules with round cells. The Mobil and Photowatt modules were Block 5 generation, while the ARCO modules were Block 4 generation type. In all three typesmore » of photovoltaic modules (Mobil, Photowatt and ARCO), no significant power loss occurred over more than ten years of outdoor operation in the warm, humid and ocean-salt environments of coastal Florida. However, the wet insulation resistance values of a majority of the modules in all three types were lower than the values recommended in IEEE Standard 1262. This indicates potential future safety, reliability and lifetime related problems. The visual defects were more pronounced in the ARCO modules, which were manufactured in 1980 than in the Mobil and Photowatt modules, both of which were fabricated in 1983. The ARCO modules showed significant damage to the back surface tedlar in the form of tearing of the tedlar. All of the Mobil and most of the ARCO modules showed significant browning of the encapsulant, while only about half of the Photowatt modules showed significant encapsulant browning. The encapsulant discoloration generally did not appear to have any effect on the modules` power generation.« less

Compressed baryonic matter at FAIR: JINR participation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kurilkin, P.; Ladygin, V.; Malakhov, A.; Senger, P.

2015-11-01

The scientific mission of the Compressed Baryonic Matter(CBM) experiment is the study of the nuclear matter properties at the high baryon densities in heavy ion collisions at the Facility of Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) in Darmstadt. We present the results on JINR participation in the CBM experiment. JINR teams are responsible on the design, the coordination of superconducting(SC) magnet manufacture, its testing and installation in CBM cave. Together with Silicon Tracker System it will provide the momentum resolution better 1% for different configuration of CBM setup. The characteristics and technical aspects of the magnet are discussed. JINR plays also a significant role in the manufacture of two straw tracker station for the muon detection system. JINR team takes part in the development of new method for simulation, processing and analysis experimental data for different basic detectors of CBM.

The 19th Project Integration Meeting

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mcdonald, R. R.

1981-01-01

The Flat-Plate Solar Array Project is described. Project analysis and integration is discussed. Technology research in silicon material, large-area silicon sheet and environmental isolation; cell and module formation; engineering sciences, and module performance and failure analysis. It includes a report on, and copies of visual presentations made at, the 19th Project Integration Meeting held at Pasadena, California, on November 11, 1981.

High-efficiency THz modulator based on phthalocyanine-compound organic films

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

He, Ting; Zhang, Bo, E-mail: bzhang@cnu.edu.cn, E-mail: sjl-phy@cnu.edu.cn; Shen, Jingling, E-mail: bzhang@cnu.edu.cn, E-mail: sjl-phy@cnu.edu.cn

2015-02-02

We report a high efficiency, broadband terahertz (THz) modulator following a study of phthalocyanine-compound organic films irradiated with an external excitation laser. Both transmission and reflection modulations of each organic/silicon bilayers were measured using THz time-domain and continuous-wave systems. For very low intensities, the experimental results show that AlClPc/Si can achieve a high modulation factor for transmission and reflection, indicating that AlClPc/Si has a superior modulation efficiency compared with the other films (CuPc and SnCl{sub 2}Pc). In contrast, the strong attenuation of the transmitted and reflected THz waves revealed that a nonlinear absorption process takes place at the organic/silicon interface.

Elemental Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Daniel, Esther Gnanamalar Sarojini; Saat, Rohaida Mohd.

2001-01-01

Introduces a learning module integrating three disciplines--physics, chemistry, and biology--and based on four elements: carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and silicon. Includes atomic model and silicon-based life activities. (YDS)

Titanium-silicon oxide film structures for polarization-modulated infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy

PubMed Central

Dunlop, Iain E.; Zorn, Stefan; Richter, Gunther; Srot, Vesna; Kelsch, Marion; van Aken, Peter A.; Skoda, Maximilian; Gerlach, Alexander; Spatz, Joachim P.; Schreiber, Frank

2010-01-01

We present a titanium-silicon oxide film structure that permits polarization modulated infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy on silicon oxide surfaces. The structure consists of a ~6 nm sputtered silicon oxide film on a ~200 nm sputtered titanium film. Characterization using conventional and scanning transmission electron microscopy, electron energy loss spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray reflectometry is presented. We demonstrate the use of this structure to investigate a selectively protein-resistant self-assembled monolayer (SAM) consisting of silane-anchored, biotin-terminated poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG). PEG-associated IR bands were observed. Measurements of protein-characteristic band intensities showed that this SAM adsorbed streptavidin whereas it repelled bovine serum albumin, as had been expected from its structure. PMID:20418963

Choosing a Silicone Encapsulant for Photovoltaic Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Velderrain, Michelle

2011-12-01

Growth in the solar industry has resulted in newer technologies, specifically concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) modules, to explore using new types of materials such as silicone encapsulants. CPV and LCPV module designs are to achieve the most efficient energy conversion possible however it is equally important to demonstrate long term reliability. Silicone is a material of interest due to its thermal stability and ability to absorb stresses incurred during thermal cycling. The refractive index of clear silicone adhesives is advantageous because it can be optimized using phenyl groups to match BK7 glass and other substrates to minimize light loss at the interfaces but it is relatively unknown how the optical properties change over time possibly yellowing in such a harsh environment. A 1.41 silicone encapsulant is compared to a 1.52 refractive index silicone. Optical Absorption (300 nm-1300 nm), Water Vapor Permeability, Moisture Absorption and effects of oxidation at elevated temperatures will be compared of these materials to aid the engineer in choosing a silicone for their CPV application. Non-phenyl containing 1.41 RI silicones have been used for several years for bonding solar arrays in the satellite industry. Phenyl groups on the siloxane polymer can change various properties of the silicone. Understanding how phenyl affects these properties allows the engineer to understand the benefits and risks when using a RI matching silicone to minimize light loss versus a non-phenyl containing silicone.

Frequency non-degenerate phase-sensitive optical parametric amplification based on four-wave-mixing in width-modulated silicon waveguides.

PubMed

Wang, Zhaolu; Liu, Hongjun; Sun, Qibing; Huang, Nan; Li, Xuefeng

2014-12-15

A width-modulated silicon waveguide is proposed to realize non-degenerate phase sensitive optical parametric amplification. It is found that the relative phase at the input of the phase sensitive amplifier (PSA) θIn-PSA can be tuned by tailoring the width and length of the second segment of the width-modulated silicon waveguide, which will influence the gain in the parametric amplification process. The maximum gain of PSA is larger by 9 dB compared with the phase insensitive amplifier (PIA) gain, and the gain bandwidth of PSA is larger by 35 nm compared with the gain bandwidth of PIA. Our on-chip PSA can find important potential applications in highly integrated optical circuits for optical chip-to-chip communication and computers.

Gigascale Silicon Photonic Transmitters Integrating HBT-based Carrier-injection Electroabsorption Modulator Structures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fu, Enjin

Demand for more bandwidth is rapidly increasing, which is driven by data intensive applications such as high-definition (HD) video streaming, cloud storage, and terascale computing applications. Next-generation high-performance computing systems require power efficient chip-to-chip and intra-chip interconnect yielding densities on the order of 1Tbps/cm2. The performance requirements of such system are the driving force behind the development of silicon integrated optical interconnect, providing a cost-effective solution for fully integrated optical interconnect systems on a single substrate. Compared to conventional electrical interconnect, optical interconnects have several advantages, including frequency independent insertion loss resulting in ultra wide bandwidth and link latency reduction. For high-speed optical transmitter modules, the optical modulator is a key component of the optical I/O channel. This thesis presents a silicon integrated optical transmitter module design based on a novel silicon HBT-based carrier injection electroabsorption modulator (EAM), which has the merits of wide optical bandwidth, high speed, low power, low drive voltage, small footprint, and high modulation efficiency. The structure, mechanism, and fabrication of the modulator structure will be discussed which is followed by the electrical modeling of the post-processed modulator device. The design and realization of a 10Gbps monolithic optical transmitter module integrating the driver circuit architecture and the HBT-based EAM device in a 130nm BiCMOS process is discussed. For high power efficiency, a 6Gbps ultra-low power driver IC implemented in a 130nm BiCMOS process is presented. The driver IC incorporates an integrated 27-1 pseudo-random bit sequence (PRBS) generator for reliable high-speed testing, and a driver circuit featuring digitally-tuned pre-emphasis signal strength. With outstanding drive capability, the driver module can be applied to a wide range of carrier injection modulators and light-emitting diodes (LED) with drive voltage requirements below 1.5V. Measurement results show an optical link based on a 70MHz red LED work well at 300Mbps by using the pre-emphasis driver module. A traveling wave electrode (TWE) modulator structure is presented, including a novel design methodology to address process limitations imposed by a commercial silicon fabrication technology. Results from 3D full wave EM simulation demonstrate the application of the design methodology to achieve specifications, including phase velocity matching, insertion loss, and impedance matching. Results show the HBT-based TWE-EAM system has the bandwidth higher than 60GHz.

Field-effect modulation of the thermoelectric characteristics of silicon nanowires on plastic substrates.

PubMed

Choi, Jinyong; Jeon, Youngin; Cho, Kyoungah; Kim, Sangsig

2016-12-02

In this study, we demonstrate the substantial enhancement of the thermoelectric power factors of silicon nanowires (SiNWs) on plastic substrates achievable by field-effect modulation. The Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity are adjusted by varying the charge carrier concentration via electrical modulation with a gate voltage in the 0 to ±5 range, thus enhancing the power factors from 2.08 to 935 μW K -2 m -1 ) for n-type SiNWs, and from 453 to 944 μW K -2 m -1 ) for p-type SiNWs. The electrically modulated thermoelectric characteristics of SiNWs are analyzed and discussed.

In-Situ Measurement of Power Loss for Crystalline Silicon Modules Undergoing Thermal Cycling and Mechanical Loading Stress Testing: Preprint

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Spataru, Sergiu; Hacke, Pater; Sera, Dezso

2015-09-15

We analyze the degradation of multi-crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules undergoing simultaneous thermal, mechanical, and humidity stress testing to develop a dark environmental chamber in-situ measurement procedure for determining module power loss. From the analysis we determine three main categories of failure modes associated with the module degradation consisting of: shunting, recombination losses, increased series resistance losses, and current mismatch losses associated with a decrease in photo-current generation by removal of some cell areas due to cell fractures. Based on the analysis, we propose an in-situ module power loss monitoring procedure that relies on dark current-voltage measurements taken during the stressmore » test, and initial and final module flash testing, to determine the power degradation characteristic of the module.« less

Solar photovoltaic systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Forney, R. G.

1978-01-01

The Department of Energy's photovoltaic program is outlined. The main objective of the program is the development of low cost reliable terrestrial photovoltaic systems. A second objective is to foster widespread use of the system in residential, industrial and commercial application. The system is reviewed by examining each component; silicon solar cell, silicon solar cell modules, advanced development modules and power systems. Cost and applications of the system are discussed.

Electronics of the data acquisition system of the DANSS detector based on silicon photomultipliers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Svirida, D.

2018-01-01

The electronics of the data acquisition system based on silicon photomultipliers is briefly described. The elements and modules of the system were designed and constructed at ITEP especially for the DANSS detector. Examples of digitized signals obtained with the presented electronic modules and selected results on processing of the DANSS engineering data-taking run in spring 2016 are given.

Silicon Carbide (SiC) Device and Module Reliability, Performance of a Loop Heat Pipe Subjected to a Phase-Coupled Heat Input to an Acceleration Field

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-05-01

AFRL-RQ-WP-TR-2016-0108 SILICON CARBIDE (SiC) DEVICE AND MODULE RELIABILITY Performance of a Loop Heat Pipe Subjected to a Phase-Coupled... Heat Input to an Acceleration Field Kirk L. Yerkes (AFRL/RQQI) and James D. Scofield (AFRL/RQQE) Flight Systems Integration Branch (AFRL/RQQI...CARBIDE (SiC) DEVICE AND MODULE RELIABILITY Performance of a Loop Heat Pipe Subjected to a Phase-Coupled Heat Input to an Acceleration Field 5a

System and method for liquid silicon containment

DOEpatents

Cliber, James A; Clark, Roger F; Stoddard, Nathan G; Von Dollen, Paul

2013-05-28

This invention relates to a system and a method for liquid silicon containment, such as during the casting of high purity silicon used in solar cells or solar modules. The containment apparatus includes a shielding member adapted to prevent breaching molten silicon from contacting structural elements or cooling elements of a casting device, and a volume adapted to hold a quantity of breaching molten silicon with the volume formed by a bottom and one or more sides.

System and method for liquid silicon containment

DOEpatents

Cliber, James A; Clark, Roger F; Stoddard, Nathan G; Von Dollen, Paul

2014-06-03

This invention relates to a system and a method for liquid silicon containment, such as during the casting of high purity silicon used in solar cells or solar modules. The containment apparatus includes a shielding ember adapted to prevent breaching molten silicon from contacting structural elements or cooling elements of a casting device, and a volume adapted to hold a quantity of breaching molten silicon with the volume formed by a bottom and one or more sides.

Nonlinear Fano-Resonant Dielectric Metasurfaces

DOE PAGES

Yang, Yuanmu; Wang, Wenyi; Boulesbaa, Abdelaziz; ...

2015-10-26

Strong nonlinear light matter interaction is highly sought-after for a variety of applications including lasing and all-optical light modulation. Recently, resonant plasmonic structures have been considered promising candidates for enhancing nonlinear optical processes due to their ability to greatly enhance the optical near-field; however, their small mode volumes prevent the inherently large nonlinear susceptibility of the metal from being efficiently exploited. We present an alternative approach that utilizes a Fano-resonant silicon metasurface. The metasurface results in strong near-field enhancement within the volume of the silicon resonator while minimizing two photon absorption. Here, we measure a third harmonic generation enhancement factormore » of 1.5 105 with respect to an unpatterned silicon film and an absolute conversion efficiency of 1.2 10 6 with a peak pump intensity of 3.2 GW cm 2. The enhanced nonlinearity, combined with a sharp linear transmittance spectrum, results in transmission modulation with a modulation depth of 36%. Finally, the modulation mechanism is studied by pump probe experiments« less

High-Q photonic resonators and electro-optic coupling using silicon-on-lithium-niobate

PubMed Central

Witmer, Jeremy D.; Valery, Joseph A.; Arrangoiz-Arriola, Patricio; Sarabalis, Christopher J.; Hill, Jeff T.; Safavi-Naeini, Amir H.

2017-01-01

Future quantum networks, in which superconducting quantum processors are connected via optical links, will require microwave-to-optical photon converters that preserve entanglement. A doubly-resonant electro-optic modulator (EOM) is a promising platform to realize this conversion. Here, we present our progress towards building such a modulator by demonstrating the optically-resonant half of the device. We demonstrate high quality (Q) factor ring, disk and photonic crystal resonators using a hybrid silicon-on-lithium-niobate material system. Optical Q factors up to 730,000 are achieved, corresponding to propagation loss of 0.8 dB/cm. We also use the electro-optic effect to modulate the resonance frequency of a photonic crystal cavity, achieving a electro-optic modulation coefficient between 1 and 2 pm/V. In addition to quantum technology, we expect that our results will be useful both in traditional silicon photonics applications and in high-sensitivity acousto-optic devices. PMID:28406177

30GHz Ge electro-absorption modulator integrated with 3 μm silicon-on-insulator waveguide.

PubMed

Feng, Ning-Ning; Feng, Dazeng; Liao, Shirong; Wang, Xin; Dong, Po; Liang, Hong; Kung, Cheng-Chih; Qian, Wei; Fong, Joan; Shafiiha, Roshanak; Luo, Ying; Cunningham, Jack; Krishnamoorthy, Ashok V; Asghari, Mehdi

2011-04-11

We demonstrate a compact waveguide-based high-speed Ge electro-absorption (EA) modulator integrated with a single mode 3 µm silicon-on-isolator (SOI) waveguide. The Ge EA modulator is based on a horizontally-oriented p-i-n structure butt-coupled with a deep-etched silicon waveguide, which transitions adiabatically to a shallow-etched single mode large core SOI waveguide. The demonstrated device has a compact active region of 1.0 × 45 µm(2), a total insertion loss of 2.5-5 dB and an extinction ratio of 4-7.5 dB over a wavelength range of 1610-1640 nm with -4V(pp) bias. The estimated Δα/α value is in the range of 2-3.3. The 3 dB bandwidth measurements show that the device is capable of operating at more than 30 GHz. Clear eye-diagram openings at 12.5 Gbps demonstrates large signal modulation at high transmission rate. © 2011 Optical Society of America

Modulation of thermal conductivity in kinked silicon nanowires: phonon interchanging and pinching effects.

PubMed

Jiang, Jin-Wu; Yang, Nuo; Wang, Bing-Shen; Rabczuk, Timon

2013-04-10

We perform molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the reduction of the thermal conductivity by kinks in silicon nanowires. The reduction percentage can be as high as 70% at room temperature. The temperature dependence of the reduction is also calculated. By calculating phonon polarization vectors, two mechanisms are found to be responsible for the reduced thermal conductivity: (1) the interchanging effect between the longitudinal and transverse phonon modes and (2) the pinching effect, that is, a new type of localization, for the twisting and transverse phonon modes in the kinked silicon nanowires. Our work demonstrates that the phonon interchanging and pinching effects, induced by kinking, are brand-new and effective ways in modulating heat transfer in nanowires, which enables the kinked silicon nanowires to be a promising candidate for thermoelectric materials.

High Energy Physics Research with the CMS Experiment at CERN

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hanson, Gail G.

2013-05-31

The highlight of our last budget period, June 1, 2010, to May 31, 2013, was the discovery of the Higgs boson by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), announced on July 4, 2012, and for which François Englert and Peter Higgs were awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics on October 8, 2013. The Higgs boson was postulated in 1964 to explain how elementary particles obtain mass and was the missing piece of the Standard Model. However, the Standard Model does not describe everything that we know. There are many unanswered questions, such asmore » how can the Higgs boson have the mass that we have observed, are there more Higgs bosons, why is there more matter than antimatter, and what is the invisible dark matter, which constitutes about 85% of the matter in the universe. Our group played a significant role in the discovery of the Higgs boson and in subsequent analyses. We also carried out searches for new physics, in ways that could help elucidate some of the remaining questions. Our role in the CMS detector focused on the Tracker, a silicon strip outer tracker and pixel inner tracker.« less

Standard metrics for a plug-and-play tracker

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Antonisse, Jim; Young, Darrell

2012-06-01

The Motion Imagery Standards Board (MISB) has previously established a metadata "micro-architecture" for standards-based tracking. The intent of this work is to facilitate both the collaborative development of competent tracking systems, and the potentially distributed and dispersed execution of tracker system components in real-world execution environments. The approach standardizes a set of five quasi-sequential modules in image-based tracking. However, in order to make the plug-and-play architecture truly useful we need metrics associated with each module (so that, for instance, a researcher who "plugs in" a new component can ascertain whether he/she did better or worse with the component). This paper proposes the choice of a new, unifying set of metrics based on an informationtheoretic approach to tracking, which the MISB is nominating as DoD/IC/NATO standards.

Thin-film reliability and engineering overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ross, R. G., Jr.

1984-01-01

The reliability and engineering technology base required for thin film solar energy conversions modules is discussed. The emphasis is on the integration of amorphous silicon cells into power modules. The effort is being coordinated with SERI's thin film cell research activities as part of DOE's Amorphous Silicon Program. Program concentration is on temperature humidity reliability research, glass breaking strength research, point defect system analysis, hot spot heating assessment, and electrical measurements technology.

Failure Analysis to Identify Thermal Runaway of Bypass Diodes in Fielded Modules

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Xiao, Chuanxiao, Uchida, Yasunori; Johnston, Steve; Hacke, Peter

We studied a bypass diode recuperated from fielded modules in a rooftop installation to determine the failure mechanism. The field-failed diode showed similar characteristics to thermal runaway, specifically X-ray tomography evidence of migrated metal. We also observed burn marks on the silicon surface like those lab-stressed for thermal runaway. Reaction products are more soluble than silicon and the surface is oxygen rich.

Thin-film reliability and engineering overview

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ross, R. G., Jr.

1984-10-01

The reliability and engineering technology base required for thin film solar energy conversions modules is discussed. The emphasis is on the integration of amorphous silicon cells into power modules. The effort is being coordinated with SERI's thin film cell research activities as part of DOE's Amorphous Silicon Program. Program concentration is on temperature humidity reliability research, glass breaking strength research, point defect system analysis, hot spot heating assessment, and electrical measurements technology.

Develop Silicone Encapsulation Systems for Terrestrial Silicon Solar Arrays

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1979-01-01

The results of a study for Task 3 of the Low Cost Solar Array Project, directed toward the development of a cost effective encapsulation system for photovoltaic modules using silicon based materials, are reported. Results of the following are discussed: (1) weather-ometer stressing vs. weathering history of silicon and silicon modified materials; (2) humidity/temperature cycling exposure; (3) exposure at high humidity/high temperature; (4) outdoor exposure stress; (5) thermal cycling stress; and (6) UV screening agents. The plans for the next quarter are outlined.

Low cost solar array project. Experimental process system development unit for producing semiconductor-grade silicon using the silane-to-silicon process

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1980-01-01

Technical activities are reported in the design of process, facilities, and equipment for producing silicon at a rate and price comensurate with production goals for low cost solar cell modules. The silane-silicone process has potential for providing high purity poly-silicon on a commercial scale at a price of fourteen dollars per kilogram by 1986, (1980 dollars). Commercial process, economic analysis, process support research and development, and quality control are discussed.

Plate-slot polymer waveguide modulator on silicon-on-insulator.

PubMed

Qiu, Feng; Spring, Andrew M; Hong, Jianxun; Yokoyama, Shiyoshi

2018-04-30

Electro-optic (EO) modulators are vital for efficient "electrical to optical" transitions and high-speed optical interconnects. In this work, we applied an EO polymer to demonstrate modulators on silicon-on-insulator substrates. The fabricated Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) and ring resonator consist of a Si and TiO 2 slot, in which the EO polymer was embedded to realize a low-driving and large bandwidth modulation. The designed optical and electrical constructions are able to provide a highly concentrated TM mode with low propagation loss and effective EO properties. The fabricated MZI modulator shows a π-voltage-length product of 0.66 V·cm and a 3-dB bandwidth of 31 GHz. The measured EO activity is advantageous to exploit the ring modulator with a resonant tunability of 0.065 nm/V and a 3-dB modulation bandwidth up to 13 GHz.

Characteristic analysis of a photoexcited metamaterial perfect absorber at terahertz frequencies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bing, Pibin; Huang, Shichao; Li, Zhongyang; Yu, Zhou; Lu, Ying; Yao, Jianquan

2017-06-01

The absorption characteristics of a photoexcited metamaterial absorber at terahertz frequencies were analyzed in this study. Filling photosensitive semiconductor silicon into the gap between the resonator arms leads to modulation of its electromagnetic response through a pump beam which changes conductivity of silicon. Comparisons of terahertz absorbing properties which were caused by different thicknesses and dielectric constants of polyimide, cell sizes and widths of SRRs, and lengths and conductivities of the photosensitive silicon, were studied by using Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) from 0.4 THz to 1.6 THz. The results of this study will facilitate the design and preparation of terahertz modulator, filters and absorbers.

Gigahertz speed operation of epsilon-near-zero silicon photonic modulators

DOE PAGES

Wood, Michael G.; Campione, Salvatore; Parameswaran, S.; ...

2018-02-21

Opmore » tical communication systems increasingly require electro-optical modulators that deliver high modulation speeds across a large optical bandwidth with a small device footprint and a CMOS-compatible fabrication process. Although silicon photonic modulators based on transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) have shown promise for delivering on these requirements, modulation speeds to date have been limited. Here, we describe the design, fabrication, and performance of a fast, compact electroabsorption modulator based on TCOs. The modulator works by using bias voltage to increase the carrier density in the conducting oxide, which changes the permittivity and hence optical attenuation by almost 10 dB. Under bias, light is tightly confined to the conducting oxide layer through nonresonant epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) effects, which enable modulation over a broad range of wavelengths in the telecommunications band. Our approach features simple integration with passive silicon waveguides, the use of stable inorganic materials, and the ability to modulate both transverse electric and magnetic polarizations with the same device design. Using a 4-μm-long modulator and a drive voltage of 2 V p p , we demonstrate digital modulation at rates of 2.5 Gb/s. We report broadband operation with a 6.5 dB extinction ratio across the 1530–1590 nm band and a 10 dB insertion loss. This work verifies that high-speed ENZ devices can be created using conducting oxide materials and paves the way for additional technology development that could have a broad impact on future optical communications systems.« less

Gigahertz speed operation of epsilon-near-zero silicon photonic modulators

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wood, Michael G.; Campione, Salvatore; Parameswaran, S.

Opmore » tical communication systems increasingly require electro-optical modulators that deliver high modulation speeds across a large optical bandwidth with a small device footprint and a CMOS-compatible fabrication process. Although silicon photonic modulators based on transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) have shown promise for delivering on these requirements, modulation speeds to date have been limited. Here, we describe the design, fabrication, and performance of a fast, compact electroabsorption modulator based on TCOs. The modulator works by using bias voltage to increase the carrier density in the conducting oxide, which changes the permittivity and hence optical attenuation by almost 10 dB. Under bias, light is tightly confined to the conducting oxide layer through nonresonant epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) effects, which enable modulation over a broad range of wavelengths in the telecommunications band. Our approach features simple integration with passive silicon waveguides, the use of stable inorganic materials, and the ability to modulate both transverse electric and magnetic polarizations with the same device design. Using a 4-μm-long modulator and a drive voltage of 2 V p p , we demonstrate digital modulation at rates of 2.5 Gb/s. We report broadband operation with a 6.5 dB extinction ratio across the 1530–1590 nm band and a 10 dB insertion loss. This work verifies that high-speed ENZ devices can be created using conducting oxide materials and paves the way for additional technology development that could have a broad impact on future optical communications systems.« less

Silicon pore optics for the international x-ray observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wille, E.; Wallace, K.; Bavdaz, M.; Collon, M. J.; Günther, R.; Ackermann, M.; Beijersbergen, M. W.; Riekerink, M. O.; Blom, M.; Lansdorp, B.; de Vreede, L.

2017-11-01

Lightweight X-ray Wolter optics with a high angular resolution will enable the next generation of X-ray telescopes in space. The International X-ray Observatory (IXO) requires a mirror assembly of 3 m2 effective area (at 1.5 keV) and an angular resolution of 5 arcsec. These specifications can only be achieved with a novel technology like Silicon Pore Optics, which is developed by ESA together with a consortium of European industry. Silicon Pore Optics are made of commercial Si wafers using process technology adapted from the semiconductor industry. We present the manufacturing process ranging from single mirror plates towards complete focusing mirror modules mounted in flight configuration. The performance of the mirror modules is tested using X-ray pencil beams or full X-ray illumination. In 2009, an angular resolution of 9 arcsec was achieved, demonstrating the improvement of the technology compared to 17 arcsec in 2007. Further development activities of Silicon Pore Optics concentrate on ruggedizing the mounting system and performing environmental tests, integrating baffles into the mirror modules and assessing the mass production.

Extreme-Environment Silicon-Carbide (SiC) Wireless Sensor Suite

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yang, Jie

2015-01-01

Phase II objectives: Develop an integrated silicon-carbide wireless sensor suite capable of in situ measurements of critical characteristics of NTP engine; Compose silicon-carbide wireless sensor suite of: Extreme-environment sensors center, Dedicated high-temperature (450 deg C) silicon-carbide electronics that provide power and signal conditioning capabilities as well as radio frequency modulation and wireless data transmission capabilities center, An onboard energy harvesting system as a power source.

The all-optical modulator in dielectric-loaded waveguide with graphene-silicon heterojunction structure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Feiying; Xia, Liangping; Nie, Changbin; Shen, Jun; Zou, Yixuan; Cheng, Guiyu; Wu, Hao; Zhang, Yong; Wei, Dongshan; Yin, Shaoyun; Du, Chunlei

2018-04-01

All-optical modulators based on graphene show great promise for on-chip optical interconnects. However, the modulation performance of all-optical modulators is usually based on the interaction between graphene and the fiber, limiting their potential in high integration. Based on this point, an all-optical modulator in a dielectric-loaded waveguide (DLW) with a graphene-silicon heterojunction structure (GSH) is proposed. The DLW raises the waveguide mode, which provides a strong light-graphene interaction. Sufficient tuning of the graphene Fermi energy beyond the Pauli blocking effect is obtained with the presented GSH structure. Under the modulation light with a wavelength of 532 nm and a power of 60 mW, a modulation efficiency of 0.0275 dB µm-1 is achieved for light with a communication wavelength of 1.55 µm in the experiment. This modulator has the advantage of having a compact footprint, which may make it a candidate for achieving a highly integrated all-optical modulator.

Ultralow drive voltage silicon traveling-wave modulator.

PubMed

Baehr-Jones, Tom; Ding, Ran; Liu, Yang; Ayazi, Ali; Pinguet, Thierry; Harris, Nicholas C; Streshinsky, Matt; Lee, Poshen; Zhang, Yi; Lim, Andy Eu-Jin; Liow, Tsung-Yang; Teo, Selin Hwee-Gee; Lo, Guo-Qiang; Hochberg, Michael

2012-05-21

There has been great interest in the silicon platform as a material system for integrated photonics. A key challenge is the development of a low-power, low drive voltage, broadband modulator. Drive voltages at or below 1 Vpp are desirable for compatibility with CMOS processes. Here we demonstrate a CMOS-compatible broadband traveling-wave modulator based on a reverse-biased pn junction. We demonstrate operation with a drive voltage of 0.63 Vpp at 20 Gb/s, a significant improvement in the state of the art, with an RF energy consumption of only 200 fJ/bit.

Large Scale Beam-Tests of the Silicon and Scintillator-SiPM Modules for the CMS High Granularity Calorimeter at the HL-LHC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jain, Shilpi

The High Granularity Calorimeter (HGCAL) will replace the existing CMS endcap calorimeters during the High Luminosity run of the LHC (HL-LHC) era. The electromagnetic part, as well as the first layers of the hadronic part, foresees around 600 square metres of silicon sensors as the active material. The remainder of the HGCAL, in the lower radiation environment, will use plastic scintillators with on-tile silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) readout. Prototype hexagonal silicon modules, featuring a new ASIC (Skiroc2-CMS), together with a modified version of the scintillator-SiPM CALICE AHCAL, have been tested in beams at CERN. This setup represents a full slice through HGCAL. Results from MIP calibration, energy resolution, electromagnetic and hadronic shower-shapes are presented using electrons, pions and muons.

A MoTe2 based light emitting diode and photodetector for silicon photonic integrated circuits

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bie, Ya-Qing; Heuck, M.; Grosso, G.; Furchi, M.; Cao, Y.; Zheng, J.; Navarro-Moratalla, E.; Zhou, L.; Taniguchi, T.; Watanabe, K.; Kong, J.; Englund, D.; Jarillo-Herrero, P.

A key challenge in photonics today is to address the interconnects bottleneck in high-speed computing systems. Silicon photonics has emerged as a leading architecture, partly because many components such as waveguides, interferometers and modulators, could be integrated on silicon-based processors. However, light sources and photodetectors present continued challenges. Common approaches for light source include off-chip or wafer-bonded lasers based on III-V materials, but studies show advantages for directly modulated light sources. The most advanced photodetectors in silicon photonics are based on germanium growth which increases system cost. The emerging two dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) offer a path for optical interconnects components that can be integrated with the CMOS processing by back-end-of-the-line processing steps. Here we demonstrate a silicon waveguide-integrated light source and photodetector based on a p-n junction of bilayer MoTe2, a TMD semiconductor with infrared band gap. The state-of-the-art fabrication technology provides new opportunities for integrated optoelectronic systems.

Demonstration of an optical directed half-subtracter using integrated silicon photonic circuits.

PubMed

Liu, Zilong; Zhao, Yongpeng; Xiao, Huifu; Deng, Lin; Meng, Yinghao; Guo, Xiaonan; Liu, Guipeng; Tian, Yonghui; Yang, Jianhong

2018-04-01

An integrated silicon photonic circuit consisting of two silicon microring resonators (MRRs) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated for the purpose of half-subtraction operation. The thermo-optic modulation scheme is employed to modulate the MRRs due to its relatively simple fabrication process. The high and low levels of the electrical pulse signal are utilized to define logic 1 and 0 in the electrical domain, respectively, and the high and low levels of the optical power represent logic 1 and 0 in the optical domain, respectively. Two electrical pulse sequences regarded as the operands are applied to the corresponding micro-heaters fabricated on the top of the MRRs to achieve their dynamic modulations. The final operation results of bit-wise borrow and difference are obtained at their corresponding output ports in the form of light. At last, the subtraction operation of two bits with the operation speed of 10 kbps is demonstrated successfully.

Cross-phase modulation-induced spectral broadening in silicon waveguides.

PubMed

Zhang, Yanbing; Husko, Chad; Lefrancois, Simon; Rey, Isabella H; Krauss, Thomas F; Schröder, Jochen; Eggleton, Benjamin J

2016-01-11

We analytically and experimentally investigate cross-phase modulation (XPM) in silicon waveguides. In contrast to the well known result in pure Kerr media, the spectral broadening ratio of XPM to self-phase modulation is not two in the presence of either two-photon absorption (TPA) or free carriers. The physical origin of this change is different for each effect. In the case of TPA, this nonlinear absorption attenuates and slightly modifies the pulse shape due to differential absorption in the pulse peak and wings. When free carriers are present two different mechanisms modify the dynamics. First, free-carrier absorption performs a similar role to TPA, but is additionally asymmetric due to the delayed free-carrier response. Second, free-carrier dispersion induces an asymmetric blue phase shift which competes directly with the symmetric Kerr-induced XPM red shift. We confirm this analysis with pump-probe experiments in a silicon photonic crystal waveguide.

Biwavelength transceiver module for parallel simultaneous bidirectional optical interconnections

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nguyen, Nga T. H.; Ukaegbu, Ikechi A.; Sangirov, Jamshid; Cho, Mu-Hee; Lee, Tae-Woo; Park, Hyo-Hoon

2013-12-01

The design of a biwavelength transceiver (TRx) module for parallel simultaneous bidirectional optical interconnects is described. The TRx module has been implemented using two different wavelengths, 850 and 1060 nm, to send and receive signals simultaneously through a common optical interface while optimizing cost and performance. Filtering mirrors are formed in the optical fibers which are embedded on a V-grooved silicon substrate for reflecting and filtering optical signals from/to vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL)/photodiode (PD). The VCSEL and PD are flip-chip bonded on individual silicon optical benches, which are attached on the silicon substrate for optical signal coupling from the VCSEL to fiber and from fiber to the PD. A high-speed and low-loss ceramic printed circuit board, which has a compact size of 0.033 cc, has been designed to carry transmitter and receiver chips for easy packaging of the TRx module. Applied for quad small form-factor pluggable applications at 40-Gbps operation, the four-channel biwavelength TRx module showed clear eye diagrams with a bit error rate (BER) of 10-12 at input powers of -5 and -5.8 dBm for 1060 and 850 nm operation modes, respectively.

Status of the PAMELA silicon tracker

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bonechi, L.; Adriani, O.; Bongi, M.; Bottai, S.; Castellini, G.; Fedele, D.; Grandi, M.; Papini, P.; Ricciarini, S.; Spillantini, P.; Straulino, S.; Taddei, E.; Vannuccini, E.

2007-01-01

PAMELA is a composite particle detector which will be launched during the first half of 2006 on board the Russian satellite Resurs DK-1 from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. This experiment is mainly conceived for the study of cosmic-ray antiparticles and for the search for light antinuclei, but other issues related to the cosmic-ray physics will be investigated. In this work the structure of the whole apparatus is shortly discussed with particular attention to the magnetic spectrometer, which has been designed and built in Firenze.

Status of the R&D activity on diamond particle detectors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adam, W.; Bellini, B.; Berdermann, E.; Bergonzo, P.; de Boer, W.; Bogani, F.; Borchi, E.; Brambilla, A.; Bruzzi, M.; Colledani, C.; Conway, J.; D'Angelo, P.; Dabrowski, W.; Delpierre, P.; Doroshenko, J.; Dulinski, W.; van Eijk, B.; Fallou, A.; Fischer, P.; Fizzotti, F.; Furetta, C.; Gan, K. K.; Ghodbane, N.; Grigoriev, E.; Hallewell, G.; Han, S.; Hartjes, F.; Hrubec, J.; Husson, D.; Kagan, H.; Kaplon, J.; Karl, C.; Kass, R.; Keil, M.; Knöpfle, K. T.; Koeth, T.; Krammer, M.; Logiudice, A.; Lu, R.; mac Lynne, L.; Manfredotti, C.; Marshall, R. D.; Meier, D.; Menichelli, D.; Meuser, S.; Mishina, M.; Moroni, L.; Noomen, J.; Oh, A.; Perera, L.; Pernicka, M.; Polesello, P.; Potenza, R.; Riester, J. L.; Roe, S.; Rudge, A.; Sala, S.; Sampietro, M.; Schnetzer, S.; Sciortino, S.; Stelzer, H.; Stone, R.; Sutera, C.; Trischuk, W.; Tromson, D.; Tuve, C.; Weilhammer, P.; Wermes, N.; Wetstein, M.; Zeuner, W.; Zoeller, M.; RD42 Collaboration

2003-09-01

Chemical Vapor Deposited (CVD) polycrystalline diamond has been proposed as a radiation-hard alternative to silicon in the extreme radiation levels occurring close to the interaction region of the Large Hadron Collider. Due to an intense research effort, reliable high-quality polycrystalline CVD diamond detectors, with up to 270 μm charge collection distance and good spatial uniformity, are now available. The most recent progress on the diamond quality, on the development of diamond trackers and on radiation hardness studies are presented and discussed.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC): The Energy Frontier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brianti, Giorgio; Jenni, Peter

The following sections are included: * Introduction * Superconducting Magnets: Powerful, Precise, Plentiful * LHC Cryogenics: Quantum Fluids at Work * Current Leads: High Temperature Superconductors to the Fore * A Pumping Vacuum Chamber: Ultimate Simplicity * Vertex Detectors at LHC: In Search of Beauty * Large Silicon Trackers: Fast, Precise, Efficient * Two Approaches to High Resolution Electromagnetic Calorimetry * Multigap Resistive Plate Chamber: Chronometry of Particles * The LHCb RICH: The Lord of the Cherenkov Rings * Signal Processing: Taming the LHC Data Avalanche * Giant Magnets for Giant Detectors

Long-term leaching of photovoltaic modules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nover, Jessica; Zapf-Gottwick, Renate; Feifel, Carolin; Koch, Michael; Metzger, Jörg W.; Werner, Jürgen H.

2017-08-01

Some photovoltaic module technologies use toxic materials. We report long-term leaching on photovoltaic module pieces of 5 × 5 cm2 size. The pieces are cut out from modules of the four major commercial photovoltaic technologies: crystalline and amorphous silicon, cadmium telluride as well as from copper indium gallium diselenide. To simulate different environmental conditions, leaching occurs at room temperature in three different water-based solutions with pH 3, 7, and 11. No agitation is performed to simulate more representative field conditions. After 360 days, about 1.4% of lead from crystalline silicon module pieces and 62% of cadmium from cadmium telluride module pieces are leached out in acidic solutions. The leaching depends heavily on the pH and the redox potential of the aqueous solutions and it increases with time. The leaching behavior is predictable by thermodynamic stability considerations. These predictions are in good agreement with the experimental results.

Potential-Induced Degradation-Delamination Mode in Crystalline Silicon Modules: Preprint

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hacke, Peter L; Kempe, Michael D; Wohlgemuth, John

A test sequence producing potential-induced degradation-delamination (PID-d) in crystalline silicon modules has been tested and found comparable under visual inspection to cell/encapsulant delamination seen in some fielded modules. Four commercial modules were put through this sequence, 85 degrees C, 85%, 1000 h damp heat, followed by an intensive PID stress sequence of 72 degrees C, 95% RH, and -1000 V, with the module face grounded using a metal foil. The 60 cell c-Si modules exhibiting the highest current transfer (4.4 center dot 10-4 A) exhibited PID-d at the first inspection after 156 h of PID stress. Effects promoting PID-d aremore » reduced adhesion caused by damp heat, sodium migration further reducing adhesion to the cells, and gaseous products of electrochemical reactions driven by the applied system voltage. A new work item proposal for an IEC test standard to evaluate for PID-d is anticipated.« less

Low-loss and energy efficient modulation in silicon photonic waveguides by adiabatic elimination scheme

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mrejen, Michael; Suchowski, Haim; Bachelard, Nicolas; Wang, Yuan; Zhang, Xiang

2017-07-01

High-speed Silicon Photonics calls for solutions providing a small footprint, high density, and minimum crosstalk, as exemplified by the recent development of integrated optical modulators. Yet, the performances of such modulators are hindered by intrinsic material losses, which results in low energy efficiency. Using the concept of Adiabatic Elimination, here, we introduce a scheme allowing for the low-loss modulation in densely packed waveguides. Our system is composed of two waveguides, whose coupling is mediated by an intermediate third waveguide. The signal is carried by the two outer modes, while the active control of their coupling is achieved via the intermediate dark mode. The modulation is performed by the manipulation of the central-waveguide mode index, leaving the signal-carrying waveguides unaffected by the loss. We discuss how Adiabatic Elimination provides a solution for mitigating signal losses and designing relatively compact, broadband, and energy-efficient integrated optical modulators.

Charm Meson Production in Au-Au Collisions at √ SNN = 200 Gev at Rhic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vanfossen, Joseph A., Jr.

This research work is in the field of experimental nuclear physics, more specifically, the analysis of data taken with the Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC (STAR) apparatus at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) located at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). There, we accelerate and collide beams of heavy ions (e.g. gold nuclei) at relativistic velocities. The collisions of heavy nuclei in the STAR Experiment compress nuclear matter to high densities, and heat it to extreme temperatures, over one trillion degrees Celsius. Under such conditions, Lattice QCD and other phenomeno- logical models predict a phase transition in nuclear matter, a transition, where quarks and gluons become deconfined, i.e. they freely move throughout the interaction volume and are no longer confined to individual nucleons, forming Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP), a new state of nuclear matter. The study of QGP, its properties and dynamics, will provide a better understanding of QCD, the strong force, and of the history of the early universe. Mesons containing heavy flavor (charm and bottom) quarks can be used in QGP searches. Heavy quarks are produced mainly in the early stages of a collisions via energetic parton-parton interactions; heavy flavor production in QGP or during hadronization is suppressed due to the high masses of the quarks. Heavy quarks can therefore be used to probe the whole evolution of the system and as a calibrated tool to better understand the nature of the early, hot matter formed in the collisions. A key finding by the experiments at RHIC is the anomalously low production of heavy flavor at high transverse momentum values. This was found by measuring the yields of the decay electrons from mesons containing either charm or bottom quarks. These measurements suffer from very large combinatorial backgrounds and conceal the parent's kinematic properties. A suppression of particle production at high transverse momenta is likely caused by their interaction with the hot and dense surrounding medium, as the quarks traverse it. Such suppression is an indicator that the medium generated in relativistic heavy-ion collisions is strongly interacting. Theoretical models were successful in describing the suppression of light quarks but under-predicted the observed heavy-flavor suppression. The data triggered a new effort in modeling where theorists started taking into account the energy loss due to elastic collisions between the traversing parton and the surrounding medium. To fully understand the interplay between elastic and inelastic collision mechanisms of light and heavy partons and the hot medium, we needed precise data on heavy flavor production. Also, in order to be able to access the parent's kinematic information, one needs to perform a full topological reconstruction of the parent's decay. This will also allow for the separation of charm and bottom mesons. The study of D0 mesons, the lightest mesons with a charm quark, can be used to study the properties of the medium created in collisions, such as the density, flow, and thermalization of the medium. This dissertation presents an attempt to measure D0/D0bar ratios and D0 meson production in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV from fully reconstructed decays. For this purpose, we used a silicon tracker in STAR consisting of the Silicon Vertex Tracker (SVT) and the Silicon Strip Detector (SSD), along with the Time Projection Chamber (TPC) in a special run in the year 2007. We have developed new calibration and microvertexing techniques in the data analysis. We performed full secondary vertex reconstruction, to topologically reconstruct the secondary vertex of the D0 meson in the decay channel D0 -> K- + pi+ (B.R. = 3.89% and ct = 123 µm) and then performed a standard invariant mass analysis. At the same time we used a new tool (TMVA) in high energy physics for optimizing the signal to background ratio. However, precise measurements of open heavy flavor are difficult to obtain with the SVT due to a) the low yields and short lifespan of heavy hadrons, b) the huge combinatorial background, c) the poor statistics in the final data sample and d) the poor resolution of the SVT. STAR proposed and built a new generation vertex tracker, the Heavy Flavor Tracker (HFT). The HFT made its debut during the 2014 year's run and has vastly improved the experiment's heavy flavor capabilities making STAR an ideal detector to study the hot and dense matter created in heavy ion collisions. Taking advantage of the greatly improved pointing resolution from a dedicated microvertex detector, it is possible to directly track and reconstruct weak decay products from hadrons comprised of heavy `charm' and `bottom' quarks with low background. The HFT consists of three sub-detectors: PIXEL (PXL), the Intermediate Silicon Tracker (IST), and the Silicon Strip Detector (SSD) with 4 separate layers of silicon to guide tracks reconstructed in the Time Projection Chamber down to a pointing resolution of around 30 µm for 1 GeV/c pions, a requirement to distinguish between an event's primary vertex and the position of a hadron's decay. In this Dissertation we present the details of our SVT work, data analysis and results, and briefly show and discuss the recent results obtained with the HFT.

High temperature material interactions of thermoelectric systems using silicon germanium.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stapfer, G.; Truscello, V. C.

1973-01-01

The efficient use of silicon germanium thermoelectric material for radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG) is achieved by operation at relatively high temperatures. The insulation technique which is most appropriate for this application uses multiple layers of molybdenum foil and astroquartz. Even so, the long term operation of these materials at elevated temperatures can cause material interaction to occur within the system. To investigate these material interactions, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is currently testing a number of thermoelectric modules which use four silicon germanium thermoelectric couples in conjunction with the multifoil thermal insulation. The paper discusses the results of the ongoing four-couple module test program and correlates test results with those of a basic material test program.

The transition radiation detector of the PAMELA space mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ambriola, M.; Bellotti, R.; Cafagna, F.; Circella, M.; de Marzo, C.; Giglietto, N.; Marangelli, B.; Mirizzi, N.; Romita, M.; Spinelli, P.

2004-04-01

PAMELA space mission objective is to flight a satellite-borne magnetic spectrometer built to fulfill the primary scientific goals of detecting antiparticles (antiprotons and positrons) and to measure spectra of particles in cosmic rays. The PAMELA telescope is composed of: a silicon tracker housed in a permanent magnet, a time-of-flight and an anticoincidence system both made of plastic scintillators, a silicon imaging calorimeter, a neutron detector and a Transition Radiation Detector (TRD). The TRD is composed of nine sensitive layers of straw tubes working in proportional mode for a total of 1024 channels. Each layer is interleaved with a radiator plane made of carbon fibers. The TRD characteristics will be described along with its performances studied at both CERN-PS and CERN-SPS facilities, using electrons, pions, muons and protons of different momenta.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Adam, W.; Bergauer, T.; Brondolin, E.

The high luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider, foreseen for 2026, necessitates the replacement of the CMS experiment’s silicon tracker. The innermost layer of the new pixel detector will be exposed to severe radiation, corresponding to a 1 MeV neutron equivalent fluence of up tomore » $$\\Phi _{eq} = 2 \\times 10^{16}$$  cm$$^{-2}$$ , and an ionising dose of $${\\approx } 5$$  MGy after an integrated luminosity of 3000 fb$$^{-1}$$ . Thin, planar silicon sensors are good candidates for this application, since the degradation of the signal produced by traversing particles is less severe than for thicker devices. Here in this article, the results obtained from the characterisation of 100 and 200 μm thick p-bulk pad diodes and strip sensors irradiated up to fluences of $$\\Phi _{eq} = 1.3 \\times 10^{16}$$  cm$$^{-2}$$ are shown.« less

Development of a custom on-line ultrasonic vapour analyzer and flow meter for the ATLAS inner detector, with application to Cherenkov and gaseous charged particle detectors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alhroob, M.; Bates, R.; Battistin, M.; Berry, S.; Bitadze, A.; Bonneau, P.; Bousson, N.; Boyd, G.; Bozza, G.; Crespo-Lopez, O.; Degeorge, C.; Deterre, C.; DiGirolamo, B.; Doubek, M.; Favre, G.; Godlewski, J.; Hallewell, G.; Hasib, A.; Katunin, S.; Langevin, N.; Lombard, D.; Mathieu, M.; McMahon, S.; Nagai, K.; O'Rourke, A.; Pearson, B.; Robinson, D.; Rossi, C.; Rozanov, A.; Strauss, M.; Vacek, V.; Zwalinski, L.

2015-03-01

Precision sound velocity measurements can simultaneously determine binary gas composition and flow. We have developed an analyzer with custom microcontroller-based electronics, currently used in the ATLAS Detector Control System, with numerous potential applications. Three instruments monitor C3F8 and CO2 coolant leak rates into the nitrogen envelopes of the ATLAS silicon microstrip and Pixel detectors. Two further instruments will aid operation of the new thermosiphon coolant recirculator: one of these will monitor air leaks into the low pressure condenser while the other will measure return vapour flow along with C3F8/C2F6 blend composition, should blend operation be necessary to protect the ATLAS silicon tracker under increasing LHC luminosity. We describe these instruments and their electronics.

Evaluation of Mismatch Losses due to Shunts in industrial Silicon Photovoltaic Modules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Somasundaran, P.; Shilpi, M.; Gupta, R.

2017-05-01

In order to achieve higher efficiencies in photovoltaic module technology, it is important to characterize the shunts and other defects which degrade the performance of cells and modules as well as decrease their efficiency. These shunts also affect the reliability of cells and modules. It is important to understand how much fill factor and power loss is caused by the presence of shunts in the module. Shunts not only reduce the module power output, but also affect the I-V characteristics of the cell and hence the characteristics of the shunted cells are different from those of the shunt-free cells connected in the module leading to the mismatch effect. This is an interesting effect which has been systematically investigated in the present work. Moreover, the flow of increased shunt current will give rise to increased temperature in the region of shunt, which will affect the cell and hence module performance. In the present study, the distributed diode model has been extended to the module level and applied to evaluate the electrical mismatch losses and thermal mismatch losses due to shunts in industrial Silicon PV modules.

On-chip microwave signal generation based on a silicon microring modulator.

PubMed

Shao, Haifeng; Yu, Hui; Li, Xia; Li, Yan; Jiang, Jianfei; Wei, Huan; Wang, Gencheng; Dai, Tingge; Chen, Qimei; Yang, Jianyi; Jiang, Xiaoqing

2015-07-15

A photonic-assisted microwave signal generator based on a silicon microring modulator is demonstrated. The microring cavity incorporates an embedded PN junction that enables a microwave signal to modulate the lightwave circling inside. The DC component of the modulated light is trapped in the cavity, while the high-order sideband components are able to exit the cavity and then generate microwave signals at new frequencies in a photodetector. In our proof-of-concept experiment, a 10 GHz microwave signal is converted to a 20 GHz signal in the optical domain with an electrical harmonic suppression ratio of 22 dB. An analytic model is also established to explain the operation mechanism, which agrees well with the measured data.

Performance tradeoff between lateral and interdigitated doping patterns for high speed carrier-depletion based silicon modulators.

PubMed

Yu, Hui; Pantouvaki, Marianna; Van Campenhout, Joris; Korn, Dietmar; Komorowska, Katarzyna; Dumon, Pieter; Li, Yanlu; Verheyen, Peter; Absil, Philippe; Alloatti, Luca; Hillerkuss, David; Leuthold, Juerg; Baets, Roel; Bogaerts, Wim

2012-06-04

Carrier-depletion based silicon modulators with lateral and interdigitated PN junctions are compared systematically on the same fabrication platform. The interdigitated diode is shown to outperform the lateral diode in achieving a low VπLπ of 0.62 V∙cm with comparable propagation loss at the expense of a higher depletion capacitance. The low VπLπ of the interdigitated PN junction is employed to demonstrate 10 Gbit/s modulation with 7.5 dB extinction ration from a 500 µm long device whose static insertion loss is 2.8 dB. In addition, up to 40 Gbit/s modulation is demonstrated for a 3 mm long device comprising a lateral diode and a co-designed traveling wave electrode.

Summary of flat-plate solar array project documentation. Abstracts of published documents, 1975 to June 1982

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1982-01-01

Technologies that will enable the private sector to manufacture and widely use photovoltaic systems for the generation of electricity in residential, commercial, industrial, and government applications at a cost per watt that is competitive with other means is investigated. Silicon refinement processes, advanced silicon sheet growth techniques, solar cell development, encapsulation, automated fabrication process technology, advanced module/array design, and module/array test and evaluation techniques are developed.

Develop Silicone Encapsulation Systems for Terrestrial Silicon Solar Arrays

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1979-01-01

The results for Task 3 of the Low Cost Solar Array Project are presented. Task 3 is directed toward the development of a cost effective encapsulating system for photovoltaic modules using silicon based materials. The technical approach of the contract effort is divided into four special tasks: (1) technology review; (2) generation of concepts for screening and processing silicon encapsulation systems; (3) assessment of encapsulation concepts; and (4) evaluation of encapsulation concepts. The candidate silicon materials are reviewed. The silicon and modified silicon resins were chosen on the basis of similarity to materials with known weatherability, cost, initial tangential modulus, accelerated dirt pick-up test results and the ratio of the content of organic phenyl substitution of methyl substitution on the backbone of the silicon resin.

Study of run time errors of the ATLAS pixel detector in the 2012 data taking period

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gandrajula, Reddy Pratap

The high resolution silicon Pixel detector is critical in event vertex reconstruction and in particle track reconstruction in the ATLAS detector. During the pixel data taking operation, some modules (Silicon Pixel sensor +Front End Chip+ Module Control Chip (MCC)) go to an auto-disable state, where the Modules don't send the data for storage. Modules become operational again after reconfiguration. The source of the problem is not fully understood. One possible source of the problem is traced to the occurrence of single event upset (SEU) in the MCC. Such a module goes to either a Timeout or Busy state. This report is the study of different types and rates of errors occurring in the Pixel data taking operation. Also, the study includes the error rate dependency on Pixel detector geometry.

Optical modulation in silicon waveguides via charge state control of deep levels.

PubMed

Logan, D F; Jessop, P E; Knights, A P; Wojcik, G; Goebel, A

2009-10-12

The control of defect mediated optical absorption at a wavelength of 1550 nm via charge state manipulation is demonstrated using optical absorption measurements of indium doped Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) rib waveguides. These measurements introduce the potential for modulation of waveguide transmission by using the local depletion and injection of free-carriers to change deep-level occupancy. The extinction ratio and modulating speed are simulated for a proposed device structure. A 'normally-off' depletion modulator is described with an extinction coefficient limited to 5 dB/cm and switching speeds in excess of 1 GHz. For a carrier injection modulator a fourfold enhancement in extinction ratio is provided relative to free carrier absorption alone. This significant improvement in performance is achieved with negligible increase in driving power but slightly degraded switching speed.

Porous Silicon as Antireflecting Layer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kosoglu, Gulsen; Yumak, Mehmet; Okmen, Selim; Ozatay, Ozhan; Skarlatos, Yani; Garcia, Carlos

2013-03-01

The main aim in photovoltaic industry is to produce efficient and energy competitive solar cell modules at low cost. Efficient AntiReflection Coatings (ARC) improve light collection and thereby increase the current output of solar cells. Broadband ARCs are desirable for efficient application over the entire solar spectrum and porous silicon layers as antireflective coating layers provide successful light collection. In the study the most critical physical parameters of porous silicon are examined, homogeneous and uniform porous layers are produced. The photoluminescence spectrum and optical parameters of porous layers have been investigated, and we are now in the process of improving the efficiency of the device by modulating the structure of the porous silicon layers and studying its photovoltaic characteristics. We would like to thank to Mr. Aziz U. Caliskan and his group for their valuable support from TUBITAK YITAL. This Project is supported by Bogazici University Research Funding: 5782, TUBITAK Grant : 209T099, and Bogazici University Infrared Funding: 6121.

Video to Text (V2T) in Wide Area Motion Imagery

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-09-01

microtext) or a document (e.g., using Sphinx or Apache NLP ) as an automated approach [102]. Previous work in natural language full-text searching...language processing ( NLP ) based module. The heart of the structured text processing module includes the following seven key word banks...Features Tracker MHT Multiple Hypothesis Tracking MIL Multiple Instance Learning NLP Natural Language Processing OAB Online AdaBoost OF Optic Flow

Rabi oscillation and electron-spin-echo envelope modulation of the photoexcited triplet spin system in silicon

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akhtar, Waseem; Sekiguchi, Takeharu; Itahashi, Tatsumasa; Filidou, Vasileia; Morton, John J. L.; Vlasenko, Leonid; Itoh, Kohei M.

2012-09-01

We report on a pulsed electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) study of the photoexcited triplet state (S=1) of oxygen-vacancy centers in silicon. Rabi oscillations between the triplet sublevels are observed using coherent manipulation with a resonant microwave pulse. The Hahn echo and stimulated echo decay profiles are superimposed with strong modulations known as electron-spin-echo envelope modulation (ESEEM). The ESEEM spectra reveal a weak but anisotropic hyperfine coupling between the triplet electron spin and a 29Si nuclear spin (I=1/2) residing at a nearby lattice site, that cannot be resolved in conventional field-swept EPR spectra.

A review of manufacturing metrology for improved reliability of silicon photovoltaic modules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davis, Kristopher O.; Walters, Joseph; Schneller, Eric; Seigneur, Hubert; Brooker, R. Paul; Scardera, Giuseppe; Rodgers, Marianne P.; Mohajeri, Nahid; Shiradkar, Narendra; Dhere, Neelkanth G.; Wohlgemuth, John; Rudack, Andrew C.; Schoenfeld, Winston V.

2014-10-01

In this work, the use of manufacturing metrology across the supply chain to improve crystalline silicon (c-Si) photovoltaic (PV) module reliability and durability is addressed. Additionally, an overview and summary of a recent extensive literature survey of relevant measurement techniques aimed at reducing or eliminating the probability of field failures is presented. An assessment of potential gaps is also given, wherein the PV community could benefit from new research and demonstration efforts. This review is divided into three primary areas representing different parts of the c-Si PV supply chain: (1) feedstock production, crystallization and wafering; (2) cell manufacturing; and (3) module manufacturing.

A Module Experimental Process System Development Unit (MEPSDU). [development of low cost solar arrays

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1981-01-01

The technical readiness of a cost effective process sequence that has the potential for the production of flat plate photovoltaic modules which met the price goal in 1986 of $.70 or less per Watt peak was demonstrated. The proposed process sequence was reviewed and laboratory verification experiments were conducted. The preliminary process includes the following features: semicrystalline silicon (10 cm by 10 cm) as the silicon input material; spray on dopant diffusion source; Al paste BSF formation; spray on AR coating; electroless Ni plate solder dip metallization; laser scribe edges; K & S tabbing and stringing machine; and laminated EVA modules.

Frequency comb generation in a silicon ring resonator modulator.

PubMed

Demirtzioglou, Iosif; Lacava, Cosimo; Bottrill, Kyle R H; Thomson, David J; Reed, Graham T; Richardson, David J; Petropoulos, Periklis

2018-01-22

We report on the generation of an optical comb of highly uniform in power frequency lines (variation less than 0.7 dB) using a silicon ring resonator modulator. A characterization involving the measurement of the complex transfer function of the ring is presented and five frequency tones with a 10-GHz spacing are produced using a dual-frequency electrical input at 10 and 20 GHz. A comb shape comparison is conducted for different modulator bias voltages, indicating optimum operation at a small forward-bias voltage. A time-domain measurement confirmed that the comb signal was highly coherent, forming 20.3-ps-long pulses.

22.7% efficient PERL silicon solar cell module with a textured front surface

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhao, J.; Wang, A.; Campbell, P.

1997-12-31

This paper describes a solar cell module efficiency of 22.7% independently measured at Sandia National Laboratories. This is the highest ever confirmed efficiency for a photovoltaic module of this size achieved by cells made from any material. This 778-cm{sup 2} module used 40 large-area double layer antireflection coated PERL (passivated emitter, rear locally-diffused) silicon cells of average efficiency of 23.1%. A textured front module surface considerably improve the module efficiency. Also reported is an independently confirmed efficiency of 23.7% for a 21.6 cm{sup 2} cell of the type used in the module. Using these PERL cells in the 1996 Worldmore » Solar Challenge solar car race from Darwin to Adelaide across Australia, Honda`s Dream and Aisin Seiki`s Aisol III were placed first and third, respectively. Honda also set a new record by reaching Adelaide in four days with an average speed of 90km/h over the 3010 km course.« less

Analysis of multiple internal reflections in a parallel aligned liquid crystal on silicon SLM.

PubMed

Martínez, José Luis; Moreno, Ignacio; del Mar Sánchez-López, María; Vargas, Asticio; García-Martínez, Pascuala

2014-10-20

Multiple internal reflection effects on the optical modulation of a commercial reflective parallel-aligned liquid-crystal on silicon (PAL-LCoS) spatial light modulator (SLM) are analyzed. The display is illuminated with different wavelengths and different angles of incidence. Non-negligible Fabry-Perot (FP) effect is observed due to the sandwiched LC layer structure. A simplified physical model that quantitatively accounts for the observed phenomena is proposed. It is shown how the expected pure phase modulation response is substantially modified in the following aspects: 1) a coupled amplitude modulation, 2) a non-linear behavior of the phase modulation, 3) some amount of unmodulated light, and 4) a reduction of the effective phase modulation as the angle of incidence increases. Finally, it is shown that multiple reflections can be useful since the effect of a displayed diffraction grating is doubled on a beam that is reflected twice through the LC layer, thus rendering gratings with doubled phase modulation depth.

PROPOSAL FOR A SILICON VERTEX TRACKER (VTX) FOR THE PHENIX EXPERIMENT

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

AKIBA,Y.

2004-10-01

We propose the construction of a Silicon Vertex Tracker (VTX) for the PHENIX experiment at RHIC. The VTX will substantially enhance the physics capabilities of the PHENIX central arm spectrometers. Our prime motivation is to provide precision measurements of heavy-quark production (charm and beauty) in A+A, p(d)+A, and polarized p+p collisions. These are key measurements for the future RHIC program, both for the heavy ion program as it moves from the discovery phase towards detailed investigation of the properties of the dense nuclear medium created in heavy ion collisions, and for the exploration of the nucleon spin-structure functions. In addition,more » the VTX will also considerably improve other measurements with PHENIX. The main physics topics addressed by the VTX are: (1) Hot and dense strongly interacting matter--(a) Potential enhancement of charm production, (b) Open beauty production, (c) Flavor dependence of jet quenching and QCD energy loss, (d) Accurate charm reference for quarkonium, (e) Thermal dilepton radiation, (f) High p{sub T} phenomena with light flavors above 10-15 GeV/c in p{sub T}, and (g) Upsilon spectroscopy in the e{sup +}e{sup -} decay channel. (2) Gluon spin structure of the nucleon--(a) {Delta}G/G with charm, (b) {Delta}G/G with beauty, and (c) x dependence of {Delta}G/G with {gamma}-jet correlations. (3) Nucleon structure in nuclei--Gluon shadowing over broad x-range.« less

Optical simulations for design, alignment, and performance prediction of silicon pore optics for the ATHENA x-ray telescope (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spiga, D.; Della Monica Ferreira, D.; Shortt, B.; Bavdaz, M.; Bergback Knudsen, E.; Bianucci, G.; Christensen, F.; Civitani, M.; Collon, M.; Conconi, P.; Fransen, S.; Marioni, F.; Massahi, S.; Pareschi, G.; Salmaso, B.; Jegers, A. S.; Tayabaly, K.; Valsecchi, G.; Westergaard, N.; Wille, E.

2017-09-01

The ATHENA X-ray observatory is a large-class ESA approved mission, with launch scheduled in 2028. The technology of silicon pore optics (SPO) was selected as baseline to assemble ATHENA's optic with hundreds of mirror modules, obtained by stacking wedged and ribbed silicon wafer plates onto silicon mandrels to form the Wolter-I configuration. In the current configuration, the optical assembly has a 3 m diameter and a 2 m2 effective area at 1 keV, with a required angular resolution of 5 arcsec. The angular resolution that can be achieved is chiefly the combination of 1) the focal spot size determined by the pore diffraction, 2) the focus degradation caused by surface and profile errors, 3) the aberrations introduced by the misalignments between primary and secondary segments, 4) imperfections in the co-focality of the mirror modules in the optical assembly. A detailed simulation of these aspects is required in order to assess the fabrication and alignment tolerances; moreover, the achievable effective area and angular resolution depend on the mirror module design. Therefore, guaranteeing these optical performances requires: a fast design tool to find the most performing solution in terms of mirror module geometry and population, and an accurate point spread function simulation from local metrology and positioning information. In this paper, we present the results of simulations in the framework of ESA-financed projects (SIMPOSiuM, ASPHEA, SPIRIT), in preparation of the ATHENA X-ray telescope, analyzing the mentioned points: 1) we deal with a detailed description of diffractive effects in an SPO mirror module, 2) we show ray-tracing results including surface and profile defects of the reflective surfaces, 3) we assess the effective area and angular resolution degradation caused by alignment errors between SPO mirror module's segments, and 4) we simulate the effects of co-focality errors in X-rays and in the UV optical bench used to study the mirror module alignment and integration.

Silicon modulators with optimized vertical PN junctions for high-modulation-efficiency and low-loss in the O-band

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ang, Thomas Y. L.; Png, Ching Eng; Lim, Soon Thor; Ong, Jun Rong

2018-02-01

Silicon modulators based on the carrier depletion mechanism are extensively used in recent years for high-speed data transmission. Lateral PN junctions are the most common electro-optical phase shifters for silicon Mach-Zehnder modulators (MZMs) due to its ease of fabrication. They have a relatively high DC VπLπ of around 2.5 V.cm in the Oband. An alternative approach is to design and optimize vertical PN junctions for lower DC VπLπ, which is currently lacking in the literature for silicon MZMs that operates using carrier depletion mechanism in the O-band. In this work, we look into the design and optimization of silicon phase shifters based on vertical PN junctions for high-modulationefficiency with VπLπ <= 1 V.cm, while meeting the stringent low loss budget of <= 1 dB/mm for data communication in the O-band. This is achieved by varying the offsets of the vertical PN junction with respect to different doping concentrations (2e17/cm3 - 3e18/cm3 ) near the depletion region. Different types of doping schemes are explored and optimized. Our optimized vertical PN junction designs are predicted to give low DC VπLπ of 0.26-0.5 V.cm for low DC reverse bias of >= -2V and low propagation loss of <= 1dB/mm, resulting in α.VπLπ = 1.7 for the best designs, which to the best of our knowledge, is the lowest α.VπLπ at the O-band to date. Electrical and optical modeling are based on our in-house proprietary software that is able to perform both optical and electrical simulations without loss of data fidelity.

Monitoring the CMS strip tracker readout system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mersi, S.; Bainbridge, R.; Baulieu, G.; Bel, S.; Cole, J.; Cripps, N.; Delaere, C.; Drouhin, F.; Fulcher, J.; Giassi, A.; Gross, L.; Hahn, K.; Mirabito, L.; Nikolic, M.; Tkaczyk, S.; Wingham, M.

2008-07-01

The CMS Silicon Strip Tracker at the LHC comprises a sensitive area of approximately 200 m2 and 10 million readout channels. Its data acquisition system is based around a custom analogue front-end chip. Both the control and the readout of the front-end electronics are performed by off-detector VME boards in the counting room, which digitise the raw event data and perform zero-suppression and formatting. The data acquisition system uses the CMS online software framework to configure, control and monitor the hardware components and steer the data acquisition. The first data analysis is performed online within the official CMS reconstruction framework, which provides many services, such as distributed analysis, access to geometry and conditions data, and a Data Quality Monitoring tool based on the online physics reconstruction. The data acquisition monitoring of the Strip Tracker uses both the data acquisition and the reconstruction software frameworks in order to provide real-time feedback to shifters on the operational state of the detector, archiving for later analysis and possibly trigger automatic recovery actions in case of errors. Here we review the proposed architecture of the monitoring system and we describe its software components, which are already in place, the various monitoring streams available, and our experiences of operating and monitoring a large-scale system.

Proceedings of the 22nd Project Integration Meeting

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1983-01-01

This report describes progress made by the Flat-Plate Solar Array Project during the period January to September 1983. It includes reports on silicon sheet growth and characterization, module technology, silicon material, cell processing and high-efficiency cells, environmental isolation, engineering sciences, module performance and failure analysis and project analysis and integration. It includes a report on, and copies of visual presentations made at the 22nd Project Integration Meeting held at Pasadena, California, on September 28 and 29, 1983.

Integrate Thermal Modules for Cooling Silicon and Silicon Carbide Power Modules

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-06-01

currently valid OMB control number. 1 . REPORT DATE 11 JUN 2007 2 . REPORT TYPE N/A 3. DATES COVERED - 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Integrate Thermal...vehicle operation as follows: 1 ) Normal Operation at High Speed 2 ) Normal Operation at Low Speed 3) Acceleration at High Speed 4) Acceleration at Low...diodes. For a basis of comparing the performance of the ITMs, we are using the Semikron 100 kW SKAI inverter (fig 1 ) to quantify and generate

Thermally tunable silicon racetrack resonators with ultralow tuning power.

PubMed

Dong, Po; Qian, Wei; Liang, Hong; Shafiiha, Roshanak; Feng, Dazeng; Li, Guoliang; Cunningham, John E; Krishnamoorthy, Ashok V; Asghari, Mehdi

2010-09-13

We present thermally tunable silicon racetrack resonators with an ultralow tuning power of 2.4 mW per free spectral range. The use of free-standing silicon racetrack resonators with undercut structures significantly enhances the tuning efficiency, with one order of magnitude improvement of that for previously demonstrated thermo-optic devices without undercuts. The 10%-90% switching time is demonstrated to be ~170 µs. Such low-power tunable micro-resonators are particularly useful as multiplexing devices and wavelength-tunable silicon microcavity modulators.

Off-axis holographic lens spectrum-splitting photovoltaic system for direct and diffuse solar energy conversion.

PubMed

Vorndran, Shelby D; Chrysler, Benjamin; Wheelwright, Brian; Angel, Roger; Holman, Zachary; Kostuk, Raymond

2016-09-20

This paper describes a high-efficiency, spectrum-splitting photovoltaic module that uses an off-axis volume holographic lens to focus and disperse incident solar illumination to a rectangular shaped high-bandgap indium gallium phosphide cell surrounded by strips of silicon cells. The holographic lens design allows efficient collection of both direct and diffuse illumination to maximize energy yield. We modeled the volume diffraction characteristics using rigorous coupled-wave analysis, and simulated system performance using nonsequential ray tracing and PV cell data from the literature. Under AM 1.5 illumination conditions the simulated module obtained a 30.6% conversion efficiency. This efficiency is a 19.7% relative improvement compared to the more efficient cell in the system (silicon). The module was also simulated under a typical meteorological year of direct and diffuse irradiance in Tucson, Arizona, and Seattle, Washington. Compared to a flat panel silicon module, the holographic spectrum splitting module obtained a relative improvement in energy yield of 17.1% in Tucson and 14.0% in Seattle. An experimental proof-of-concept volume holographic lens was also fabricated in dichromated gelatin to verify the main characteristics of the system. The lens obtained an average first-order diffraction efficiency of 85.4% across the aperture at 532 nm.

Performance degradation of grid-tied photovoltaic modules in a hot-dry climatic condition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suleske, Adam; Singh, Jaspreet; Kuitche, Joseph; Tamizh-Mani, Govindasamy

2011-09-01

The crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) modules under open circuit conditions typically degrade at a rate of about 0.5% per year. However, it is suspected that the modules in an array level may degrade, depending on equipment/frame grounding and array grounding, at higher rates because of higher string voltage and increased module mismatch over the years of operation in the field. This paper compares and analyzes the degradation rates of grid-tied photovoltaic modules operating over 10-17 years in a desert climatic condition of Arizona. The nameplate open-circuit voltages of the arrays ranged between 400 and 450 V. Six different types/models of crystalline silicon modules with glass/glass and glass/polymer constructions were evaluated. About 1865 modules were inspected using an extended visual inspection checklist and infrared (IR) scanning. The visual inspection checklist included encapsulant discoloration, cell/interconnect cracks, delamination and corrosion. Based on the visual inspection and IR studies, a large fraction of these modules were identified as allegedly healthy and unhealthy modules and they were electrically isolated from the system for currentvoltage (I-V) measurements of individual modules. The annual degradation rate for each module type is determined based on the I-V measurements.

High speed analog-to-digital conversion with silicon photonics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holzwarth, C. W.; Amatya, R.; Araghchini, M.; Birge, J.; Byun, H.; Chen, J.; Dahlem, M.; DiLello, N. A.; Gan, F.; Hoyt, J. L.; Ippen, E. P.; Kärtner, F. X.; Khilo, A.; Kim, J.; Kim, M.; Motamedi, A.; Orcutt, J. S.; Park, M.; Perrott, M.; Popovic, M. A.; Ram, R. J.; Smith, H. I.; Zhou, G. R.; Spector, S. J.; Lyszczarz, T. M.; Geis, M. W.; Lennon, D. M.; Yoon, J. U.; Grein, M. E.; Schulein, R. T.; Frolov, S.; Hanjani, A.; Shmulovich, J.

2009-02-01

Sampling rates of high-performance electronic analog-to-digital converters (ADC) are fundamentally limited by the timing jitter of the electronic clock. This limit is overcome in photonic ADC's by taking advantage of the ultra-low timing jitter of femtosecond lasers. We have developed designs and strategies for a photonic ADC that is capable of 40 GSa/s at a resolution of 8 bits. This system requires a femtosecond laser with a repetition rate of 2 GHz and timing jitter less than 20 fs. In addition to a femtosecond laser this system calls for the integration of a number of photonic components including: a broadband modulator, optical filter banks, and photodetectors. Using silicon-on-insulator (SOI) as the platform we have fabricated these individual components. The silicon optical modulator is based on a Mach-Zehnder interferometer architecture and achieves a VπL of 2 Vcm. The filter banks comprise 40 second-order microring-resonator filters with a channel spacing of 80 GHz. For the photodetectors we are exploring ion-bombarded silicon waveguide detectors and germanium films epitaxially grown on silicon utilizing a process that minimizes the defect density.

FDTD modeling of anisotropic nonlinear optical phenomena in silicon waveguides.

PubMed

Dissanayake, Chethiya M; Premaratne, Malin; Rukhlenko, Ivan D; Agrawal, Govind P

2010-09-27

A deep insight into the inherent anisotropic optical properties of silicon is required to improve the performance of silicon-waveguide-based photonic devices. It may also lead to novel device concepts and substantially extend the capabilities of silicon photonics in the future. In this paper, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, we present a three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method for modeling optical phenomena in silicon waveguides, which takes into account fully the anisotropy of the third-order electronic and Raman susceptibilities. We show that, under certain realistic conditions that prevent generation of the longitudinal optical field inside the waveguide, this model is considerably simplified and can be represented by a computationally efficient algorithm, suitable for numerical analysis of complex polarization effects. To demonstrate the versatility of our model, we study polarization dependence for several nonlinear effects, including self-phase modulation, cross-phase modulation, and stimulated Raman scattering. Our FDTD model provides a basis for a full-blown numerical simulator that is restricted neither by the single-mode assumption nor by the slowly varying envelope approximation.

Thermoelectric Properties of High-Doped Silicon from Room Temperature to 900 K

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stranz, A.; Kähler, J.; Waag, A.; Peiner, E.

2013-07-01

Silicon is investigated as a low-cost, Earth-abundant thermoelectric material for high-temperature applications up to 900 K. For the calculation of module design the Seebeck coefficient and the electrical as well as thermal properties of silicon in the high-temperature range are of great importance. In this study, we evaluate the thermoelectric properties of low-, medium-, and high-doped silicon from room temperature to 900 K. In so doing, the Seebeck coefficient, the electrical and thermal conductivities, as well as the resulting figure of merit ZT of silicon are determined.

The U.S. and Japanese amorphous silicon technology programs A comparison

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shimada, K.

1984-01-01

The U.S. Department of Energy/Solar Energy Research Institute Amorphous Silicon (a-Si) Solar Cell Program performs R&D on thin-film hydrogenated amorphous silicon for eventual development of stable amorphous silicon cells with 12 percent efficiency by 1988. The Amorphous Silicon Solar Cell Program in Japan is sponsored by the Sunshine Project to develop an alternate energy technology. While the objectives of both programs are to eventually develop a-Si photovoltaic modules and arrays that would produce electricity to compete with utility electricity cost, the U.S. program approach is research oriented and the Japanese is development oriented.

Photonic-assisted microwave signal multiplication and modulation using a silicon Mach–Zehnder modulator

PubMed Central

Long, Yun; Zhou, Linjie; Wang, Jian

2016-01-01

Photonic generation of microwave signal is obviously attractive for many prominent advantages, such as large bandwidth, low loss, and immunity to electromagnetic interference. Based on a single integrated silicon Mach–Zehnder modulator (MZM), we propose and experimentally demonstrate a simple and compact photonic scheme to enable frequency-multiplicated microwave signal. Using the fabricated integrated MZM, we also demonstrate the feasibility of microwave amplitude-shift keying (ASK) modulation based on integrated photonic approach. In proof-of-concept experiments, 2-GHz frequency-doubled microwave signal is generated using a 1-GHz driving signal. 750-MHz/1-GHz frequency-tripled/quadrupled microwave signals are obtained with a driving signal of 250 MHz. In addition, a 50-Mb/s binary amplitude coded 1-GHz microwave signal is also successfully generated. PMID:26832305

Monolithic amorphous silicon modules on continuous polymer substrate

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Grimmer, D.P.

This report examines manufacturing monolithic amorphous silicon modules on a continuous polymer substrate. Module production costs can be reduced by increasing module performance, expanding production, and improving and modifying production processes. Material costs can be reduced by developing processes that use a 1-mil polyimide substrate and multilayers of low-cost material for the front encapsulant. Research to speed up a-Si and ZnO deposition rates is needed to improve throughputs. To keep throughput rates compatible with depositions, multibeam fiber optic delivery systems for laser scribing can be used. However, mechanical scribing systems promise even higher throughputs. Tandem cells and production experience canmore » increase device efficiency and stability. Two alternative manufacturing processes are described: (1) wet etching and sheet handling and (2) wet etching and roll-to-roll fabrication.« less

10 Gb/s operation of photonic crystal silicon optical modulators.

PubMed

Nguyen, Hong C; Sakai, Yuya; Shinkawa, Mizuki; Ishikura, Norihiro; Baba, Toshihiko

2011-07-04

We report the first experimental demonstration of 10 Gb/s modulation in a photonic crystal silicon optical modulator. The device consists of a 200 μm-long SiO2-clad photonic crystal waveguide, with an embedded p-n junction, incorporated into an asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The device is integrated on a SOI chip and fabricated by CMOS-compatible processes. With the bias voltage set at 0 V, we measure a V(π)L < 0.056 V∙cm. Optical modulation is demonstrated by electrically driving the device with a 2(31) - 1 bit non-return-to-zero pseudo-random bit sequence signal. An open eye pattern is observed at bitrates of 10 Gb/s and 2 Gb/s, with and without pre-emphasis of the drive signal, respectively.

Pattern manipulation via on-chip phase modulation between orbital angular momentum beams

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Li, Huanlu; School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Rankine Building, Oakfield Avenue, Glasgow G12 8LP; Strain, Michael J.

2015-08-03

An integrated approach to thermal modulation of relative phase between two optical vortices with opposite chirality has been demonstrated on a silicon-on-insulator substrate. The device consists of a silicon-integrated optical vortex emitter and a phase controlled 3 dB coupler. The relative phase between two optical vortices can be actively modulated on chip by applying a voltage on the integrated heater. The phase shift is shown to be linearly proportional to applied electrical power, and the rotation angle of the interference pattern is observed to be inversely proportional to topological charge. This scheme can be used in lab-on-chip, communications and sensing applications.more » It can be intentionally implemented with other modulation elements to achieve more complicated applications.« less

Case study of a central-station grid-intertie photovoltaic system with V-trough concentration

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Freilich, J.; Gordon, J.M.

1991-01-01

This presentation is a cast study of an installed, central-station (no storage), utility-intertie photovoltaic (PV) system in Sede Boqer, Israel (latitude 30.9{degree}N). The nominally 12 kW peak PV system is comprised of 189 polycrystalline silicon modules mounted on inexpensive, one-axis north-south horizontal trackers with V-trough mirrors for optical boost. The power conditioning unit operates at a fixed voltage rather than at maximum power point (MPP). The primary task in analyzing the installed system was to investigate the cause of measured power output significantly below the design predictions of the installers, and to recommend system design modifications. Subsequent tasks included themore » quantitative assessment of fixed-voltage operation and of the energetic value of V-trough concentration and one-axis tracking for this system. Sample results show: (1) fixed-voltage operation at the best fixed voltage (BFV) can achieve around 96% of the yearly energy of MPP operation; (2) the sensitivity of the yearly energy delivery to the selection of fixed voltage and its marked asymmetry about the BFV; (3) the influences of inverter current constraints on yearly energy delivery and BFV; and (4) how the separate effects of tracking and optical concentration increase yearly energy delivery.« less

Crystalline-silicon reliability lessons for thin-film modules

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ross, R. G., Jr.

1985-01-01

The reliability of crystalline silicon modules has been brought to a high level with lifetimes approaching 20 years, and excellent industry credibility and user satisfaction. The transition from crystalline modules to thin film modules is comparable to the transition from discrete transistors to integrated circuits. New cell materials and monolithic structures will require new device processing techniques, but the package function and design will evolve to a lesser extent. Although there will be new encapsulants optimized to take advantage of the mechanical flexibility and low temperature processing features of thin films, the reliability and life degradation stresses and mechanisms will remain mostly unchanged. Key reliability technologies in common between crystalline and thin film modules include hot spot heating, galvanic and electrochemical corrosion, hail impact stresses, glass breakage, mechanical fatigue, photothermal degradation of encapsulants, operating temperature, moisture sorption, circuit design strategies, product safety issues, and the process required to achieve a reliable product from a laboratory prototype.

Low-Cost CdTe/Silicon Tandem Solar Cells

DOE PAGES

Tamboli, Adele C.; Bobela, David C.; Kanevce, Ana; ...

2017-09-06

Achieving higher photovoltaic efficiency in single-junction devices is becoming increasingly difficult, but tandem modules offer the possibility of significant efficiency improvements. By device modeling we show that four-terminal CdTe/Si tandem solar modules offer the prospect of 25%-30% module efficiency, and technoeconomic analysis predicts that these efficiency gains can be realized at costs per Watt that are competitive with CdTe and Si single junction alternatives. The cost per Watt of the modeled tandems is lower than crystalline silicon, but slightly higher than CdTe alone. But, these higher power modules reduce area-related balance of system costs, providing increased value especially in area-constrainedmore » applications. This avenue for high-efficiency photovoltaics enables improved performance on a near-term timeframe, as well as a path to further reduced levelized cost of electricity as module and cell processes continue to advance.« less

Some tradeoffs in ingot shaping and price of solar photovoltaic modules

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Daud, T.

1982-01-01

Growth of round ingots is cost-effective for sheets but leaves unused space when round cells are packed into a module. This reduces the packing efficiency, which approaches 95% for square cells, to about 78% and reduces the conversion efficiency of the module by the same ratio. Shaping these ingots into squares with regrowth of cut silicon improves the packing factor, but increases growth cost. The cost impact on solar cell modules was determined by considering shaping ingots in stages from full round to complete square. The sequence of module production with relevant price allocation guidelines is outlined. The severe penalties in add-on price due to increasing slice thickness and kerf are presented. Trade-offs between advantages of recycling silicon and shaping costs are developed for different slicing scenarios. It is shown that shaping results in cost saving of up to 21% for a 15 cm dia. ingot.

Low-Cost CdTe/Silicon Tandem Solar Cells

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tamboli, Adele C.; Bobela, David C.; Kanevce, Ana

Achieving higher photovoltaic efficiency in single-junction devices is becoming increasingly difficult, but tandem modules offer the possibility of significant efficiency improvements. By device modeling we show that four-terminal CdTe/Si tandem solar modules offer the prospect of 25%-30% module efficiency, and technoeconomic analysis predicts that these efficiency gains can be realized at costs per Watt that are competitive with CdTe and Si single junction alternatives. The cost per Watt of the modeled tandems is lower than crystalline silicon, but slightly higher than CdTe alone. But, these higher power modules reduce area-related balance of system costs, providing increased value especially in area-constrainedmore » applications. This avenue for high-efficiency photovoltaics enables improved performance on a near-term timeframe, as well as a path to further reduced levelized cost of electricity as module and cell processes continue to advance.« less

Self-aligned nanoforest in silicon nanowire for sensitive conductance modulation.

PubMed

Seol, Myeong-Lok; Ahn, Jae-Hyuk; Choi, Ji-Min; Choi, Sung-Jin; Choi, Yang-Kyu

2012-11-14

A self-aligned and localized nanoforest structure is constructed in a top-down fabricated silicon nanowire (SiNW). The surface-to-volume ratio (SVR) of the SiNW is enhanced due to the local nanoforest formation. The conductance modulation property of the SiNWs, which is an important characteristic in sensor and charge transfer based applications, can be largely enhanced. For the selective modification of the channel region, localized Joule-heating and subsequent metal-assisted chemical etching (mac-etch) are employed. The nanoforest is formed only in the channel region without misalignment due to the self-aligned process of Joule-heating. The modified SiNW is applied to a porphyrin-silicon hybrid device to verify the enhanced conductance modulation. The charge transfer efficiency between the porphyrin and the SiNW, which is caused by external optical excitation, is clearly increased compared to the initial SiNW. The effect of the local nanoforest formation is enhanced when longer etching times and larger widths are used.

User handbook for block IV silicon solar cell modules

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smokler, M. I.

1982-01-01

The essential electrical and mechanical characteristics of block 4 photovoltaic solar cell modules are described. Such module characteristics as power output, nominal operating voltage, current-voltage characteristics, nominal operating cell temperature, and dimensions are tabulated. The limits of the environmental and other stress tests to which the modules are subjected are briefly described.

Characterization and validation tests on Ecosole C-modules first prototypes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cancro, Carmine; Graditi, Giorgio; Fucci, Raffaele; Ciniglio, Gabriele; Pellegrino, Michele; Borriello, Aniello; Romano, Antonio; Carpanelli, Maurizio; Borelli, Gianni; Verdilio, Daniele; De Nardis, Davide; Migali, Fabrizio

2015-09-01

ECOSOLE is an European collaborative Project started in August 2012 that involves several industrial and institutional partners with the aim to develop a complete and innovative concentrating photovoltaic system. During the first two years of activity, several specific components as cells, optics, modules and tracker have been designed and developed. This work reports the description of these devices and the main results of the characterization campaigns carried out to define their technical features.

Nanostructured silicon for thermoelectric

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stranz, A.; Kähler, J.; Waag, A.; Peiner, E.

2011-06-01

Thermoelectric modules convert thermal energy into electrical energy and vice versa. At present bismuth telluride is the most widely commercial used material for thermoelectric energy conversion. There are many applications where bismuth telluride modules are installed, mainly for refrigeration. However, bismuth telluride as material for energy generation in large scale has some disadvantages. Its availability is limited, it is hot stable at higher temperatures (>250°C) and manufacturing cost is relatively high. An alternative material for energy conversion in the future could be silicon. The technological processing of silicon is well advanced due to the rapid development of microelectronics in recent years. Silicon is largely available and environmentally friendly. The operating temperature of silicon thermoelectric generators can be much higher than of bismuth telluride. Today silicon is rarely used as a thermoelectric material because of its high thermal conductivity. In order to use silicon as an efficient thermoelectric material, it is necessary to reduce its thermal conductivity, while maintaining high electrical conductivity and high Seebeck coefficient. This can be done by nanostructuring into arrays of pillars. Fabrication of silicon pillars using ICP-cryogenic dry etching (Inductive Coupled Plasma) will be described. Their uniform height of the pillars allows simultaneous connecting of all pillars of an array. The pillars have diameters down to 180 nm and their height was selected between 1 micron and 10 microns. Measurement of electrical resistance of single silicon pillars will be presented which is done in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with nanomanipulators. Furthermore, measurement of thermal conductivity of single pillars with different diameters using the 3ω method will be shown.

PAMELA Space Mission: The Transition Radiation Detector

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ambriola, M.; Bellotti, R.; Cafagna, F.; Circella, M.; De Marzo, C.; Giglietto, N.; Marangelli, B.; Mirizzi, N.; Romita, M.; Spinelli, P.

2003-07-01

PAMELA telescope is a satellite-b orne magnetic spectrometer built to fulfill the primary scientific objectives of detecting antiparticles (antiprotons and positrons) in the cosmic rays, and to measure spectra of particles in cosmic rays. The PAMELA telescope is currently under integration and is composed of: a silicon tracker housed in a permanent magnet, a time of flight and an anticoincidence system both made of plastic scintillators, a silicon imaging calorimeter, a neutron detector and a Transition Radiation Detector (TRD). The TRD detector is composed of 9 sensitive layers of straw tubes working in proportional mode for a total of 1024 channels. Each layer is interleaved with a radiator plane made of carbon fibers. The TRD detector characteristics will be described along with its performance studied exposing the detector to particle beams of electrons, pions, muons and protons of different momenta at both CERN-PS and CERN-SPS facilities.

First fabrication of a silicon vertical JFET for power distribution in high energy physics applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fernández-Martínez, Pablo; Flores, D.; Hidalgo, S.; Quirion, D.; Durà, R.; Ullán, M.

2018-01-01

A new vertical JFET transistor has been recently developed at the IMB-CNM, taking advantage of a deep-trenched 3D technology to achieve vertical conduction and low switch-off voltage. The silicon V-JFET transistors were mainly conceived to work as rad-hard protection switches for the renewed HV powering scheme (HV-MUX) of the ATLAS upgraded tracker. This work presents the features of the first batch of V-JFETs produced at the IMB-CNM clean room, together with the results of a full pre-irradiation characterization of the fabricated prototypes. Details of the technological process are provided and the outcome quality is also evaluated with the aid of reverse engineering techniques. Concerning the electrical performance of the prototypes, promising results were obtained, already meeting most of the HV-MUX specifications, both at room and below-zerotemperatures.

DSSD detectors development PACT, a new space Compton telescope at the horizon 2025

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Laurent, P.; Khalil, M.; Dolgorouki, Y.; Bertoli, W.; Oger, R.; Bréelle, E.

2015-07-01

PACT is a Pair and Compton telescope that aims to make a sensitive survey of the gamma-ray sky between 100 keV and 100 MeV . It will be devoted to the detection of radioactivity lines from present and past supernova explosions, the observation of thousands of new blazars, and the study of polarized radiations from gamma-ray bursts, pulsars and accreting black holes. It will reach a sensitivity of one to two orders of magnitude lower than COMPTEL/CGRO (e.g. about 50 times lower for the broad-band, survey sensitivity at 1 MeV after 5 years). The PACT telescope is based upon three main components: a silicon-based gamma-ray tracker, a crystal-based calorimeter (e.g. CeBr3), and an anticoincidence detector made of plastic scintillator panels. Prototypes of the Silicon detector planes have been optimized and are currently tested in the APC laboratory.

Method for one-to-one polishing of silicon nitride and silicon oxide

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Babu, Suryadevara V. (Inventor); Natarajan, Anita (Inventor)

2009-01-01

The present invention provides a method of removing silicon nitride at about the same removal rate as silicon dioxide by CMP. The method utilizes a polishing slurry that includes colloidal silica abrasive particles dispersed in water and additives that modulate the silicon dioxide and silicon nitride removal rates such that they are about the same. In one embodiment of the invention, the additive is lysine or lysine mono hydrochloride in combination with picolinic acid, which is effective at a pH of about 8. In another embodiment of the invention, the additive is arginine in combination with picolinic acid, which is effective at a pH of about 10.

Silicon Heterojunction System Field Performance

DOE PAGES

Jordan, Dirk C.; Deline, Chris; Johnston, Steve; ...

2017-11-17

A silicon heterostructure photovoltaic system fielded for 10 years has been investigated in detail. The system has shown degradation, but at a rate similar to an average Si system, and still within the module warranty level. The power decline is dominated by a nonlinear Voc loss rather than more typical changes in Isc or Fill Factor. Modules have been evaluated using multiple techniques including: dark and light I-V measurement, Suns-Voc, thermal imaging, and quantitative electroluminescence. All techniques indicate that recombination and series resistance in the cells have increased along with a decrease of factor 2 in minority carrier lifetime. Performancemore » changes are fairly uniform across the module, indicating changes occur primarily within the cells.« less

Hot-spot durability testing of amorphous cells and modules

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gonzalez, Charles; Jetter, Elizabeth

1985-01-01

This paper discusses the results of a study to determine the hot-spot susceptibility of amorphous-silicon (a-Si) cells and modules, and to provide guidelines for reducing that susceptibility. Amorphous-Si cells are shown to have hot-spot susceptibility levels similar to crystalline-silicon (C-Si) cells. This premise leads to the fact that the same general guidelines must apply to protecting a-Si cells from hot-spot stressing that apply to C-Si cells. Recommendations are made on ways of reducing a-Si module hot-spot susceptibility including the traditional method of using bypass diodes and a new method unique to thin-film cells, limiting the string current by limiting cell area.

49.6 Gb/s direct detection DMT transmission over 40 km single mode fibre using an electrically packaged silicon photonic modulator.

PubMed

Lacava, C; Cardea, I; Demirtzioglou, I; Khoja, A E; Ke, Li; Thomson, D J; Ruan, X; Zhang, F; Reed, G T; Richardson, D J; Petropoulos, P

2017-11-27

We present the characterization of a silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator with electrical packaging and show that it exhibits a large third-order intermodulation spurious-free dynamic range (> 100 dB Hz 2/3 ). This characteristic renders the modulator particularly suitable for the generation of high spectral efficiency discrete multi-tone signals and we experimentally demonstrate a single-channel, direct detection transmission system operating at 49.6 Gb/s, exhibiting a baseband spectral efficiency of 5 b/s/Hz. Successful transmission is demonstrated over various lengths of single mode fibre up to 40 km, without the need of any amplification or dispersion compensation.

Construction and first beam-tests of silicon-tungsten prototype modules for the CMS High Granularity Calorimeter for HL-LHC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jain, S.

2017-03-01

The High Granularity Calorimeter (HGCAL) is the technology choice of the CMS collaboration for the endcap calorimetry upgrade planned to cope with the harsh radiation and pileup environment at the High Luminosity-LHC . The HGCAL is realized as a sampling calorimeter, including an electromagnetic compartment comprising 28 layers of silicon pad detectors with pad areas of 0.5-01. cm2 interspersed with absorbers made from tungsten and copper to form a highly compact and granular device. Prototype modules, based on hexagonal silicon pad sensors, with 128 channels, have been constructed and tested in beams at FNAL and at CERN. The modules include many of the features required for this challenging detector, including a PCB glued directly to the sensor, using through-hole wire-bonding for signal readout and 5 mm spacing between layers—including the front-end electronics and all services. Tests in 2016 have used an existing front-end chip —Skiroc2 (designed for the CALICE experiment for ILC). We present results from first tests of these modules both in the laboratory and with beams of electrons, pions and protons, including noise performance, calibration with mips and electron signals.

Optimization of detectors for the ILC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suehara, Taikan; ILD Group; SID Group

2016-04-01

International Linear Collider (ILC) is a next-generation e+e- linear collider to explore Higgs, Beyond-Standard-Models, top and electroweak particles with great precision. We are optimizing our two detectors, International Large Detector (ILD) and Silicon Detector (SiD) to maximize the physics reach expected in ILC with reasonable detector cost and good reliability. The optimization study on vertex detectors, main trackers and calorimeters is underway. We aim to conclude the optimization to establish final designs in a few years, to finish detector TDR and proposal in reply to expected ;green sign; of the ILC project.

Challenges of designing and testing a highly stable sensor platform: Cesic solves MTG star sensor bracket thermoelastic requirements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kroedel, Matthias; Zauner, Christoph

2017-09-01

The Meteosat Third Generation's extreme pointing requirements call for a highly stable bracket for mounting the Star Trackers. HB-Cesic®, a chopped fibre reinforced silicon carbide, was selected as a base material for the sensor bracket. The high thermal conductivity and low thermal expansion of HB-Cesic® were the key properties to fulfil the demanding thermo-elastic pointing requirements of below 1μrad/K for the Star Trackers mounting interfaces. Dominated by thermoelastic stability requirements, the design and analysis of the Bracket required a multidisciplinary approach with the focus on thermal and thermo-elastic analyses. Dedicated modal and thermal post-processing strategies have been applied in the scope of the light weighting process. The experimental verification of this thermo-elastic stable system has been a challenging task of its own. A thermo-elastic distortion measurement rig was developed with a stability of <0.1μrad/K in all three rotational degrees of freedom.

Design, status and perspective of the Mu2e crystal calorimeter

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pezzullo, G.; Atanov, N.; Baranov, V.

The Mu2e experiment at Fermilab will search for the charged lepton flavor violating process of neutrino-lessmore » $$\\mu \\to e$$ coherent conversion in the field of an aluminum nucleus. Mu2e will reach a single event sensitivity of about $$2.5\\cdot 10^{-17}$$ that corresponds to four orders of magnitude improvements with respect to the current best limit. The detector system consists of a straw tube tracker and a crystal calorimeter made of undoped CsI coupled with Silicon Photomultipliers. The calorimeter was designed to be operable in a harsh environment where about 10 krad/year will be delivered in the hottest region and work in presence of 1 T magnetic field. The calorimeter role is to perform $$\\mu$$/e separation to suppress cosmic muons mimiking the signal, while providing a high level trigger and a seeding the track search in the tracker. Here, in this paper we present the calorimeter design and the latest R&D results.« less

Gamma-telescopes Fermi/LAT and GAMMA-400 Trigger Systems Event Recognizing Methods Comparison

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arkhangelskaja, I. V.; Murchenko, A. E.; Chasovikov, E. N.; Arkhangelskiy, A. I.; Kheymits, M. D.

Usually instruments for high-energy γ-quanta registration consists of converter (where γ-quanta produced pairs) and calorimeter for particles energy measurements surrounded by anticoincidence shield used to events identification (whether incident particle was charged or neutral). The influence of pair formation by γ-quanta in shield and the backsplash (moved in the opposite direction particles created due high energy γ-rays interact with calorimeter) should be taken into account. It leads to decrease both effective area and registration efficiency at E>10 GeV. In the presented article the event recognizing methods used in Fermi/LAT trigger system is considered in comparison with the ones applied in counting and triggers signals formation system of gamma-telescope GAMMA-400. The GAMMA-400 (Gamma Astronomical Multifunctional Modular Apparatus) will be the new high-apogee space γ-observatory. The GAMMA-400 consist of converter-tracker based on silicon-strip coordinate detectors interleaved with tungsten foils, imaging calorimeter make of 2 layers of double (x, y) silicon strip coordinate detectors interleaved with planes of CsI(Tl) crystals and the electromagnetic calorimeter CC2 consists only of CsI(Tl) crystals. Several plastics detections systems used as anticoincidence shield, for particles energy and moving direction estimations. The main differences of GAMMA-400 constructions from Fermi/LAT one are using the time-of-flight system with base of 50 cm and double layer structure of plastic detectors provides more effective particles direction definition and backsplash rejection. Also two calorimeters in GAMMA-400 composed the total absorbtion spectrometer with total thickness ∼ 25 X0 or ∼1.2 λ0 for vertical incident particles registration and 54 X0 or 2.5 λ0 for laterally incident ones (where λ0 is nuclear interaction length). It provides energy resolution 1-2% for 10 GeV-3.0×103 GeV events while the Fermi/LAT energy resolution does not reach such a value because of its calorimeter thickness is only ∼10 X0 and energy of registered particles is defined by shower profile analysis. Less than 3% photons will be wrongly recognized as electrons or protons in double-layer ACtop taking into account both temporal and amplitude trigger marker analysis methods during onboard processing in the counting and triggers signals formation system of GAMMA-400. The proton rejection factor will be ∼10-5. The Fermi/LAT based on a 4 × 4 array of identical towers each contains a tracker, calorimeter and data acquisition module. Each tracker consists of 18 x-y silicon-strip layers. The calorimeter in each tower made of eight layers in a hodoscopic arrangement for measure the three-dimensional profiles of showers permits corrections for energy leakage and enhances the capability to discriminate hadronic cosmic rays. The each layer consists of 12 CsI(Tl) based bars. The segmented anticoincidence shield covers the array of towers. Unfortunately, several types of biases lead to systematic effects caused high values of relative systematic uncertainties of the exposure, the number of signal events, the induced fractional signal and so on. For example non confirmed announcement of ∼133 GeV line detection and lost sources in different Fermi catalogues (1FGL, 2FGL, 3FGL) - just well seen in 2FGL Cygnus X-3 (J2032.1+4049) does not appear in 3FGL. It allows to conclude sufficient biases in LAT characteristics obtained methods and event recognized algorithms. Now Fermi/LAT operates during ∼ 7 years but effective caveats methods continuously to be proposed. Respectively, continuation of measurements with use of other telescopes is necessary, and realization of GAMMA-400 will allow improving the results.

Control of Heat and Charge Transport in Nanostructured Hybrid Materials

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-07-21

measurements in our groups have yielded device ZT values of 0.4 on thermoelectric modules consisting of vertically oriented silicon nanowires . This is... nanowires with aspect ratio’s exceeding 10,000. Temperature differences as high as 800 °C are achievable for both types. The bulk nanostructured...thermal conductivity of the silicon nanostructures. Specifically, experiments on an array of 20 nm diameter vertically oriented silicon nanowires have

A MoTe2-based light-emitting diode and photodetector for silicon photonic integrated circuits.

PubMed

Bie, Ya-Qing; Grosso, Gabriele; Heuck, Mikkel; Furchi, Marco M; Cao, Yuan; Zheng, Jiabao; Bunandar, Darius; Navarro-Moratalla, Efren; Zhou, Lin; Efetov, Dmitri K; Taniguchi, Takashi; Watanabe, Kenji; Kong, Jing; Englund, Dirk; Jarillo-Herrero, Pablo

2017-12-01

One of the current challenges in photonics is developing high-speed, power-efficient, chip-integrated optical communications devices to address the interconnects bottleneck in high-speed computing systems. Silicon photonics has emerged as a leading architecture, in part because of the promise that many components, such as waveguides, couplers, interferometers and modulators, could be directly integrated on silicon-based processors. However, light sources and photodetectors present ongoing challenges. Common approaches for light sources include one or few off-chip or wafer-bonded lasers based on III-V materials, but recent system architecture studies show advantages for the use of many directly modulated light sources positioned at the transmitter location. The most advanced photodetectors in the silicon photonic process are based on germanium, but this requires additional germanium growth, which increases the system cost. The emerging two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) offer a path for optical interconnect components that can be integrated with silicon photonics and complementary metal-oxide-semiconductors (CMOS) processing by back-end-of-the-line steps. Here, we demonstrate a silicon waveguide-integrated light source and photodetector based on a p-n junction of bilayer MoTe 2 , a TMD semiconductor with an infrared bandgap. This state-of-the-art fabrication technology provides new opportunities for integrated optoelectronic systems.

A MoTe2-based light-emitting diode and photodetector for silicon photonic integrated circuits

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bie, Ya-Qing; Grosso, Gabriele; Heuck, Mikkel; Furchi, Marco M.; Cao, Yuan; Zheng, Jiabao; Bunandar, Darius; Navarro-Moratalla, Efren; Zhou, Lin; Efetov, Dmitri K.; Taniguchi, Takashi; Watanabe, Kenji; Kong, Jing; Englund, Dirk; Jarillo-Herrero, Pablo

2017-12-01

One of the current challenges in photonics is developing high-speed, power-efficient, chip-integrated optical communications devices to address the interconnects bottleneck in high-speed computing systems. Silicon photonics has emerged as a leading architecture, in part because of the promise that many components, such as waveguides, couplers, interferometers and modulators, could be directly integrated on silicon-based processors. However, light sources and photodetectors present ongoing challenges. Common approaches for light sources include one or few off-chip or wafer-bonded lasers based on III-V materials, but recent system architecture studies show advantages for the use of many directly modulated light sources positioned at the transmitter location. The most advanced photodetectors in the silicon photonic process are based on germanium, but this requires additional germanium growth, which increases the system cost. The emerging two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) offer a path for optical interconnect components that can be integrated with silicon photonics and complementary metal-oxide-semiconductors (CMOS) processing by back-end-of-the-line steps. Here, we demonstrate a silicon waveguide-integrated light source and photodetector based on a p-n junction of bilayer MoTe2, a TMD semiconductor with an infrared bandgap. This state-of-the-art fabrication technology provides new opportunities for integrated optoelectronic systems.

Silicon Photonics Transmitter with SOA and Semiconductor Mode-Locked Laser.

PubMed

Moscoso-Mártir, Alvaro; Müller, Juliana; Hauck, Johannes; Chimot, Nicolas; Setter, Rony; Badihi, Avner; Rasmussen, Daniel E; Garreau, Alexandre; Nielsen, Mads; Islamova, Elmira; Romero-García, Sebastián; Shen, Bin; Sandomirsky, Anna; Rockman, Sylvie; Li, Chao; Sharif Azadeh, Saeed; Lo, Guo-Qiang; Mentovich, Elad; Merget, Florian; Lelarge, François; Witzens, Jeremy

2017-10-24

We experimentally investigate an optical link relying on silicon photonics transmitter and receiver components as well as a single section semiconductor mode-locked laser as a light source and a semiconductor optical amplifier for signal amplification. A transmitter based on a silicon photonics resonant ring modulator, an external single section mode-locked laser and an external semiconductor optical amplifier operated together with a standard receiver reliably supports 14 Gbps on-off keying signaling with a signal quality factor better than 7 for 8 consecutive comb lines, as well as 25 Gbps signaling with a signal quality factor better than 7 for one isolated comb line, both without forward error correction. Resonant ring modulators and Germanium waveguide photodetectors are further hybridly integrated with chip scale driver and receiver electronics, and their co-operability tested. These experiments will serve as the basis for assessing the feasibility of a silicon photonics wavelength division multiplexed link relying on a single section mode-locked laser as a multi-carrier light source.

Experimental evidence of trap level modulation in silicon nitride thin films by hydrogen annealing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seki, Harumi; Kamimuta, Yuuichi; Mitani, Yuichiro

2018-06-01

The energy level of electron traps in silicon nitride (SiN x ) thin films was investigated by discharging current transient spectroscopy (DCTS). Results indicate that the trap level of the SiN x thin films becomes deeper with decreasing composition (N/Si) and shallower after hydrogen annealing. The dependence of the trap level on the SiN x composition and the modulation of the trap level by hydrogen annealing are possibly related to the change in the number of Si–H bonds in the SiN x thin films.

The Automated Array Assembly Task of the Low-cost Silicon Solar Array Project, Phase 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Coleman, M. G.; Grenon, L.; Pastirik, E. M.; Pryor, R. A.; Sparks, T. G.

1978-01-01

An advanced process sequence for manufacturing high efficiency solar cells and modules in a cost-effective manner is discussed. Emphasis is on process simplicity and minimizing consumed materials. The process sequence incorporates texture etching, plasma processes for damage removal and patterning, ion implantation, low pressure silicon nitride deposition, and plated metal. A reliable module design is presented. Specific process step developments are given. A detailed cost analysis was performed to indicate future areas of fruitful cost reduction effort. Recommendations for advanced investigations are included.

Tracking-integrated systems for concentrating photovoltaics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Apostoleris, Harry; Stefancich, Marco; Chiesa, Matteo

2016-04-01

Concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) systems, which use optical elements to focus light onto small-area solar cells, have the potential to minimize the costs, while improving efficiency, of photovoltaic technology. However, CPV is limited by the need to track the apparent motion of the Sun. This is typically accomplished using high-precision mechanical trackers that rotate the entire module to maintain normal light incidence. These machines are large, heavy and expensive to build and maintain, deterring commercial interest and excluding CPV from the residential market. To avoid this issue, some attention has recently been devoted to the development of tracking-integrated systems, in which tracking is performed inside the CPV module itself. This creates a compact system geometry that could be less expensive and more suitable for rooftop installation than existing CPV trackers. We review the basic tracking principles and concepts exploited in these systems, describe and categorize the existing designs, and discuss the potential impact of tracking integration on CPV cost models and commercial potential.

Micro benchtop optics by bulk silicon micromachining

DOEpatents

Lee, Abraham P.; Pocha, Michael D.; McConaghy, Charles F.; Deri, Robert J.

2000-01-01

Micromachining of bulk silicon utilizing the parallel etching characteristics of bulk silicon and integrating the parallel etch planes of silicon with silicon wafer bonding and impurity doping, enables the fabrication of on-chip optics with in situ aligned etched grooves for optical fibers, micro-lenses, photodiodes, and laser diodes. Other optical components that can be microfabricated and integrated include semi-transparent beam splitters, micro-optical scanners, pinholes, optical gratings, micro-optical filters, etc. Micromachining of bulk silicon utilizing the parallel etching characteristics thereof can be utilized to develop miniaturization of bio-instrumentation such as wavelength monitoring by fluorescence spectrometers, and other miniaturized optical systems such as Fabry-Perot interferometry for filtering of wavelengths, tunable cavity lasers, micro-holography modules, and wavelength splitters for optical communication systems.

Low cost solar array project: Cell and module formation research area. Process research of non-CZ silicon material

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1983-01-01

Meniscus coates tests, back junction formation using a new boron containing liquid, tests of various SiO2 and boron containing liquids, pelletized silicon for replenishment during web growth, and ion implantation compatibility/feasibility study are discussed.

Silicon induced systemic defense responses in perennial ryegrass against Magnaporthe oryzae infection

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Sustainable integrated disease management for gray leaf spot of perennial ryegrass may involve use of plant defense elicitors with compatible traditional fungicides to reduce disease incidence and severity. Silicon (Si) is a potential inducer or modulator of plant defenses against different pathogen...

Process research of non-cz silicon material. Low cost solar array project, cell and module formation research area

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1982-01-01

Liquid diffusion masks and liquid applied dopants to replace the CVD Silox masking and gaseous diffusion operations specified for forming junctions in the Westinghouse baseline process sequence for producing solar cells from dendritic web silicon were investigated.

Geometry Survey of the Time-of-Flight Neutron-Elastic Scattering (Antonella) Experiment

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Oshinowo, Babatunde O.; Izraelevitch, Federico

The Antonella experiment is a measurement of the ionization efficiency of nuclear recoils in silicon at low energies [1]. It is a neutron elastic scattering experiment motivated by the search for dark matter particles. In this experiment, a proton beam hits a lithium target and neutrons are produced. The neutron shower passes through a collimator that produces a neutron beam. The beam illuminates a silicon detector. With a certain probability, a neutron interacts with a silicon nucleus of the detector producing elastic scattering. After the interaction, a fraction of the neutron energy is transferred to the silicon nucleus which acquiresmore » kinetic energy and recoils. This kinetic energy is then dissipated in the detector producing ionization and thermal energy. The ionization produced is measured with the silicon detector electronics. On the other hand, the neutron is scattered out of the beam. A neutron-detector array (made of scintillator bars) registers the neutron arrival time and the scattering angle to reconstruct the kinematics of the neutron-nucleus interaction with the time-of-flight technique [2]. In the reconstruction equations, the energy of the nuclear recoil is a function of the scattering angle with respect to the beam direction, the time-of-flight of the neutron and the geometric distances between components of the setup (neutron-production target, silicon detector, scintillator bars). This paper summarizes the survey of the different components of the experiment that made possible the off-line analysis of the collected data. Measurements were made with the API Radian Laser Tracker and I-360 Probe Wireless. The survey was completed at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA in February 2015.« less

Silicon based mechanic-photonic wavelength converter for infrared photo-detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rudnitsky, Arkady; Agdarov, Sergey; Gulitsky, Konstantin; Zalevsky, Zeev

2017-06-01

In this paper we present a new concept to realize a mechanic-photonic wavelength converter in silicon chip by construction of nanorods and by modulating the input illumination at temporal frequency matched to the mechanic resonance of the nanorods. The use case is to realize an infrared photo detector in silicon which is not based on absorption but rather on the mechanical interaction of the nanorods with the incoming illumination.

The ATLAS SemiConductor Tracker operation and performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pater, J. R.

2012-04-01

The ATLAS SemiConductor Tracker (SCT) is a key precision tracking detector in the ATLAS experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. The SCT is composed of 4088 planar p-in-n silicon micro-strip detectors. The signals from the strips are processed in the front-end ABCD3TA ASICs, which operate in binary readout mode; data are transferred to the off-detector readout electronics via optical fibres. The SCT was completed in 2007. An extensive commissioning phase followed, during which calibration data were collected and analysed to determine the noise performance of the system, and further performance parameters of the detector were determined using cosmic ray data, both with and without magnetic field. After the commissioning phase, the SCT was ready for the first LHC proton-proton collisions in December 2009. From the beginning of data taking, the completed SCT has been in very good shape with more than 99% of its 6.3 million strips operational; the detector is well timed-in and the operational channels are 99.9% efficient in data acquisition. The noise occupancy and hit efficiency are better than the design specifications. The detector geometry is monitored continuously with a laser-based alignment system and is stable to the few-micron level; the alignment accuracy as determined by tracks is near specification and improving as statistics increase. The sensor behaviour in the 2T solenoidal magnetic field has been studied by measuring the Lorentz angle. Radiation damage in the silicon is monitored by periodic measurements of the leakage current; these measurements are in reasonable agreement with predictions.

Establishment of a PID Pass/Fail Test for Crystalline Silicon Modules by Examining Field Performance for Five Years: Preprint

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hacke, Peter L

In an experiment with five module designs and multiple replicas, it is found that crystalline silicon cell modules that can pass a criterion of less than 5 percent power degradation in stress test conditions of 60 degrees Celsius, 85 percent relative humidity (RH), 96 h, and nameplate-rated system voltage bias show no power degradation by potential induced degradation in the range of 4-6 years duration in the Florida, USA environment. This data suggests that this chamber stress level is useful as a pass/fail criterion for PID, and will help ensure against degradation by system voltage stress in Florida, or lessmore » stressful climates, for at least 5 years.« less

SMART- Small Motor AerRospace Technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Balucani, M.; Crescenzi, R.; Ferrari, A.; Guarrea, G.; Pontetti, G.; Orsini, F.; Quattrino, L.; Viola, F.

2004-11-01

This paper presents the "SMART" (Small Motor AerRospace Tecnology) propulsion system, constituted of microthrusters array realised by semiconductor technology on silicon wafers. SMART system is obtained gluing three main modules: combustion chambers, igniters and nozzles. The module was then filled with propellant and closed by gluing a piece of silicon wafer in the back side of the combustion chambers. The complete assembled module composed of 25 micro- thrusters with a 3 x 5 nozzle is presented. The measurement showed a thrust of 129 mN and impulse of 56,8 mNs burning about 70mg of propellant for the micro-thruster with nozzle and a thrust of 21 mN and impulse of 8,4 mNs for the micro-thruster without nozzle.

Performance degradation and cleaning of photovoltaic arrays

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sheskin, T. J.; Chang, G. C.; Cull, R. C.; Knapp, W. D.

1982-01-01

NASA tests results from an 18 mo program of cleaning silicone-encapsulated and glass fronted solar cell panels in urban and desert environments to examine the effects of cleaning on module performance are reported. The panels were cleaned on weekly, monthly, quarterly, or semi-annual basis, while other panels of the same construction were not cleaned and served as controls. Commercially-available detergents and city water were employed for the tests, and the measurements were maintained of the modules' continuing short-circuit current output. The decay of the output was determined by least square regression analyses. Performance degradation was noticeably less in glass covered, rather than silicone-encapsulated modules which decayed faster in urban than in desert environments. Lower frequency cleanings are recommended where labor costs are high.

40 Gbit/s low-loss silicon optical modulator based on a pipin diode.

PubMed

Ziebell, Melissa; Marris-Morini, Delphine; Rasigade, Gilles; Fédéli, Jean-Marc; Crozat, Paul; Cassan, Eric; Bouville, David; Vivien, Laurent

2012-05-07

40 Gbit/s low-loss silicon optical modulators are demonstrated. The devices are based on the carrier depletion effect in a pipin diode to generate a good compromise between high efficiency, speed and low optical loss. The diode is embedded in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, and a self-aligned fabrication process was used to obtain precise localization of the active p-doped region in the middle of the waveguide. Using a 4.7 mm (resp. 0.95 mm) long phase shifter, the modulator exhibits an extinction ratio of 6.6 dB (resp. 3.2 dB), simultaneously with an optical loss of 6 dB (resp. 4.5 dB) at the same operating point.

Silicon photonics plasma-modulators with advanced transmission line design.

PubMed

Merget, Florian; Azadeh, Saeed Sharif; Mueller, Juliana; Shen, Bin; Nezhad, Maziar P; Hauck, Johannes; Witzens, Jeremy

2013-08-26

We have investigated two novel concepts for the design of transmission lines in travelling wave Mach-Zehnder interferometer based Silicon Photonics depletion modulators overcoming the analog bandwidth limitations arising from cross-talk between signal lines in push-pull modulators and reducing the linear losses of the transmission lines. We experimentally validate the concepts and demonstrate an E/O -3 dBe bandwidth of 16 GHz with a 4V drive voltage (in dual drive configuration) and 8.8 dB on-chip insertion losses. Significant bandwidth improvements result from suppression of cross-talk. An additional bandwidth enhancement of ~11% results from a reduction of resistive transmission line losses. Frequency dependent loss models for loaded transmission lines and E/O bandwidth modeling are fully verified.

Singlet fission/silicon solar cell exceeding 100% EQE (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pazos, Luis M.; Lee, Jumin; Kirch, Anton; Tabachnyk, Maxim; Friend, Richard H.; Ehrler, Bruno

2016-09-01

Current matching limits the commercialization of tandem solar cells due to their instability over spectral changes, leading to the need of using solar concentrators and trackers to keep the spectrum stable. We demonstrate that voltage-matched systems show far higher performance over spectral changes; caused by clouds, dust and other variations in atmospheric conditions. Singlet fission is a process in organic semiconductors which has shown very efficient, 200%, down-conversion yield and the generated excitations are long-lived, ideal for solar cells. As a result, the number of publications has grown exponentially in the past 5 years. Yet, so far no one has achieved to combine singlet fission with most low bandgap semiconductors, including crystalline silicon, the dominating solar cell material with a 90% share of the PV Market. Here we show that singlet fission can facilitate the fabrication of voltage-matched systems, opening a simple design route for the effective implementation of down-conversion in commercially available photovoltaic technologies, with no modification of the electronic circuitry of such. The implemention of singlet fission is achieved simply by decoupling the fabrication of the individual subcells. For this demonstration we used an ITO/PEDOT/P3HT/Pentacene/C60/Ag wide-bandgap subcell, and a commercial silicon solar cell as the low-bandgap component. We show that the combination of the two leads to the first tandem silicon solar cell which exceeds 100% external quantum efficiency.

Comparison of two hardware-based hit filtering methods for trackers in high-pileup environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gradin, J.; Mårtensson, M.; Brenner, R.

2018-04-01

As experiments in high energy physics aim to measure increasingly rare processes, the experiments continually strive to increase the expected signal yields. In the case of the High Luminosity upgrade of the LHC, the luminosity is raised by increasing the number of simultaneous proton-proton interactions, so-called pile-up. This increases the expected yields of signal and background processes alike. The signal is embedded in a large background of processes that mimic that of signal events. It is therefore imperative for the experiments to develop new triggering methods to effectively distinguish the interesting events from the background. We present a comparison of two methods for filtering detector hits to be used for triggering on particle tracks: one based on a pattern matching technique using Associative Memory (AM) chips and the other based on the Hough transform. Their efficiency and hit rejection are evaluated for proton-proton collisions with varying amounts of pile-up using a simulation of a generic silicon tracking detector. It is found that, while both methods are feasible options for a track trigger with single muon efficiencies around 98–99%, the AM based pattern matching produces a lower number of hit combinations with respect to the Hough transform whilst keeping more of the true signal hits. We also present the effect on the two methods of increasing the amount of support material in the detector and of introducing inefficiencies by deactivating detector modules. The increased support material has negligable effects on the efficiency for both methods, while dropping 5% (10%) of the available modules decreases the efficiency to about 95% (87%) for both methods, irrespective of the amount of pile-up.

Fabrication and characterization of silicon quantum dots in Si-rich silicon carbide films.

PubMed

Chang, Geng-Rong; Ma, Fei; Ma, Dayan; Xu, Kewei

2011-12-01

Amorphous Si-rich silicon carbide films were prepared by magnetron co-sputtering and subsequently annealed at 900-1100 degrees C. After annealing at 1100 degrees C, this configuration of silicon quantum dots embedded in amorphous silicon carbide formed. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was used to study the chemical modulation of the films. The formation and orientation of silicon quantum dots were characterized by glancing angle X-ray diffraction, which shows that the ratio of silicon and carbon significantly influences the species of quantum dots. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy investigations directly demonstrated that the formation of silicon quantum dots is heavily dependent on the annealing temperatures and the ratio of silicon and carbide. Only the temperature of about 1100 degrees C is enough for the formation of high-density and small-size silicon quantum dots due to phase separation and thermal crystallization. Deconvolution of the first order Raman spectra shows the existence of a lower frequency peak in the range 500-505 cm(-1) corresponding to silicon quantum dots with different atom ratio of silicon and carbon.

Printable nanostructured silicon solar cells for high-performance, large-area flexible photovoltaics.

PubMed

Lee, Sung-Min; Biswas, Roshni; Li, Weigu; Kang, Dongseok; Chan, Lesley; Yoon, Jongseung

2014-10-28

Nanostructured forms of crystalline silicon represent an attractive materials building block for photovoltaics due to their potential benefits to significantly reduce the consumption of active materials, relax the requirement of materials purity for high performance, and hence achieve greatly improved levelized cost of energy. Despite successful demonstrations for their concepts over the past decade, however, the practical application of nanostructured silicon solar cells for large-scale implementation has been hampered by many existing challenges associated with the consumption of the entire wafer or expensive source materials, difficulties to precisely control materials properties and doping characteristics, or restrictions on substrate materials and scalability. Here we present a highly integrable materials platform of nanostructured silicon solar cells that can overcome these limitations. Ultrathin silicon solar microcells integrated with engineered photonic nanostructures are fabricated directly from wafer-based source materials in configurations that can lower the materials cost and can be compatible with deterministic assembly procedures to allow programmable, large-scale distribution, unlimited choices of module substrates, as well as lightweight, mechanically compliant constructions. Systematic studies on optical and electrical properties, photovoltaic performance in experiments, as well as numerical modeling elucidate important design rules for nanoscale photon management with ultrathin, nanostructured silicon solar cells and their interconnected, mechanically flexible modules, where we demonstrate 12.4% solar-to-electric energy conversion efficiency for printed ultrathin (∼ 8 μm) nanostructured silicon solar cells when configured with near-optimal designs of rear-surface nanoposts, antireflection coating, and back-surface reflector.

Low cost solar array project production process and equipment task. A Module Experimental Process System Development Unit (MEPSDU)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1981-01-01

Technical readiness for the production of photovoltaic modules using single crystal silicon dendritic web sheet material is demonstrated by: (1) selection, design and implementation of solar cell and photovoltaic module process sequence in a Module Experimental Process System Development Unit; (2) demonstration runs; (3) passing of acceptance and qualification tests; and (4) achievement of a cost effective module.

Investigation of HV/HR-CMOS technology for the ATLAS Phase-II Strip Tracker Upgrade

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fadeyev, V.; Galloway, Z.; Grabas, H.; Grillo, A. A.; Liang, Z.; Martinez-Mckinney, F.; Seiden, A.; Volk, J.; Affolder, A.; Buckland, M.; Meng, L.; Arndt, K.; Bortoletto, D.; Huffman, T.; John, J.; McMahon, S.; Nickerson, R.; Phillips, P.; Plackett, R.; Shipsey, I.; Vigani, L.; Bates, R.; Blue, A.; Buttar, C.; Kanisauskas, K.; Maneuski, D.; Benoit, M.; Di Bello, F.; Caragiulo, P.; Dragone, A.; Grenier, P.; Kenney, C.; Rubbo, F.; Segal, J.; Su, D.; Tamma, C.; Das, D.; Dopke, J.; Turchetta, R.; Wilson, F.; Worm, S.; Ehrler, F.; Peric, I.; Gregor, I. M.; Stanitzki, M.; Hoeferkamp, M.; Seidel, S.; Hommels, L. B. A.; Kramberger, G.; Mandić, I.; Mikuž, M.; Muenstermann, D.; Wang, R.; Zhang, J.; Warren, M.; Song, W.; Xiu, Q.; Zhu, H.

2016-09-01

ATLAS has formed strip CMOS project to study the use of CMOS MAPS devices as silicon strip sensors for the Phase-II Strip Tracker Upgrade. This choice of sensors promises several advantages over the conventional baseline design, such as better resolution, less material in the tracking volume, and faster construction speed. At the same time, many design features of the sensors are driven by the requirement of minimizing the impact on the rest of the detector. Hence the target devices feature long pixels which are grouped to form a virtual strip with binary-encoded z position. The key performance aspects are radiation hardness compatibility with HL-LHC environment, as well as extraction of the full hit position with full-reticle readout architecture. To date, several test chips have been submitted using two different CMOS technologies. The AMS 350 nm is a high voltage CMOS process (HV-CMOS), that features the sensor bias of up to 120 V. The TowerJazz 180 nm high resistivity CMOS process (HR-CMOS) uses a high resistivity epitaxial layer to provide the depletion region on top of the substrate. We have evaluated passive pixel performance, and charge collection projections. The results strongly support the radiation tolerance of these devices to radiation dose of the HL-LHC in the strip tracker region. We also describe design features for the next chip submission that are motivated by our technology evaluation.

DOE Forms National Center for Photovoltaics

Science.gov Websites

, Georgia, Florida and New Mexico. The alliance also will include the Utility Photovoltaic Group, a testing in partnership with the U.S. photovoltaic industry. For industry that means one-stop shopping for amorphous silicon and cadmium telluride photovoltaic modules, and manufacturing of silicon sheet and

Electrical detection of electron-spin-echo envelope modulations in thin-film silicon solar cells

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fehr, M.; Behrends, J.; Haas, S.; Rech, B.; Lips, K.; Schnegg, A.

2011-11-01

Electrically detected electron-spin-echo envelope modulations (ED-ESEEM) were employed to detect hyperfine interactions between nuclear spins and paramagnetic sites, determining spin-dependent transport processes in multilayer thin-film microcrystalline silicon solar cells. Electrical detection in combination with a modified Hahn-echo sequence was used to measure echo modulations induced by 29Si, 31P, and 1H nuclei weakly coupled to electron spins of paramagnetic sites in the amorphous and microcrystalline solar cell layers. In the case of CE centers in the μc-Si:H i-layer, the absence of 1H ESEEM modulations indicates that the adjacencies of CE centers are depleted from hydrogen atoms. On the basis of this result, we discuss several models for the microscopic origin of the CE center and conclusively assign those centers to coherent twin boundaries inside of crystalline grains in μc-Si:H.

Electro-optical modulator in a polymerinfiltrated silicon slotted photonic crystal waveguide heterostructure resonator.

PubMed

Wülbern, Jan Hendrik; Petrov, Alexander; Eich, Manfred

2009-01-05

We present a novel concept of a compact, ultra fast electro-optic modulator, based on photonic crystal resonator structures that can be realized in two dimensional photonic crystal slabs of silicon as core material employing a nonlinear optical polymer as infiltration and cladding material. The novel concept is to combine a photonic crystal heterostructure cavity with a slotted defect waveguide. The photonic crystal lattice can be used as a distributed electrode for the application of a modulation signal. An electrical contact is hence provided while the optical wave is kept isolated from the lossy metal electrodes. Thereby, well known disadvantages of segmented electrode designs such as excessive scattering are avoided. The optical field enhancement in the slotted region increases the nonlinear interaction with an external electric field resulting in an envisaged switching voltage of approximately 1 V at modulation speeds up to 100 GHz.

Active graphene-silicon hybrid diode for terahertz waves.

PubMed

Li, Quan; Tian, Zhen; Zhang, Xueqian; Singh, Ranjan; Du, Liangliang; Gu, Jianqiang; Han, Jiaguang; Zhang, Weili

2015-05-11

Controlling the propagation properties of the terahertz waves in graphene holds great promise in enabling novel technologies for the convergence of electronics and photonics. A diode is a fundamental electronic device that allows the passage of current in just one direction based on the polarity of the applied voltage. With simultaneous optical and electrical excitations, we experimentally demonstrate an active diode for the terahertz waves consisting of a graphene-silicon hybrid film. The diode transmits terahertz waves when biased with a positive voltage while attenuates the wave under a low negative voltage, which can be seen as an analogue of an electronic semiconductor diode. Here, we obtain a large transmission modulation of 83% in the graphene-silicon hybrid film, which exhibits tremendous potential for applications in designing broadband terahertz modulators and switchable terahertz plasmonic and metamaterial devices.

Simulation analysis of a novel high efficiency silicon solar cell

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mokashi, Anant R.; Daud, T.; Kachare, A. H.

1985-01-01

It is recognized that crystalline silicon photovoltaic module efficiency of 15 percent or more is required for cost-effective photovoltaic energy utilization. This level of module efficiency requires large-area encapsulated production cell efficiencies in the range of 18 to 20 percent. Though the theoretical maximum of silicon solar cell efficiency for an idealized case is estimated to be around 30 percent, practical performance of cells to-date are considerably below this limit. This is understood to be largely a consequence of minority carrier losses in the bulk as well as at all surfaces including those under the metal contacts. In this paper a novel device design with special features to reduce bulk and surface recombination losses is evaluated using numerical analysis technique. Details of the numerical model, cell design, and analysis results are presented.

Active graphene–silicon hybrid diode for terahertz waves

PubMed Central

Li, Quan; Tian, Zhen; Zhang, Xueqian; Singh, Ranjan; Du, Liangliang; Gu, Jianqiang; Han, Jiaguang; Zhang, Weili

2015-01-01

Controlling the propagation properties of the terahertz waves in graphene holds great promise in enabling novel technologies for the convergence of electronics and photonics. A diode is a fundamental electronic device that allows the passage of current in just one direction based on the polarity of the applied voltage. With simultaneous optical and electrical excitations, we experimentally demonstrate an active diode for the terahertz waves consisting of a graphene–silicon hybrid film. The diode transmits terahertz waves when biased with a positive voltage while attenuates the wave under a low negative voltage, which can be seen as an analogue of an electronic semiconductor diode. Here, we obtain a large transmission modulation of 83% in the graphene–silicon hybrid film, which exhibits tremendous potential for applications in designing broadband terahertz modulators and switchable terahertz plasmonic and metamaterial devices. PMID:25959596

Porous silicon advances in drug delivery and immunotherapy

PubMed Central

Savage, D; Liu, X; Curley, S; Ferrari, M; Serda, RE

2013-01-01

Biomedical applications of porous silicon include drug delivery, imaging, diagnostics and immunotherapy. This review summarizes new silicon particle fabrication techniques, dynamics of cellular transport, advances in the multistage vector approach to drug delivery, and the use of porous silicon as immune adjuvants. Recent findings support superior therapeutic efficacy of the multistage vector approach over single particle drug delivery systems in mouse models of ovarian and breast cancer. With respect to vaccine development, multivalent presentation of pathogen-associated molecular patterns on the particle surface creates powerful platforms for immunotherapy, with the porous matrix able to carry both antigens and immune modulators. PMID:23845260

A silicon-nanowire memory driven by optical gradient force induced bistability

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dong, B.; Institute of Microelectronics, A*STAR; Cai, H., E-mail: caih@ime.a-star.edu.sg

2015-12-28

In this paper, a bistable optical-driven silicon-nanowire memory is demonstrated, which employs ring resonator to generate optical gradient force over a doubly clamped silicon-nanowire. Two stable deformation positions of a doubly clamped silicon-nanowire represent two memory states (“0” and “1”) and can be set/reset by modulating the light intensity (<3 mW) based on the optical force induced bistability. The time response of the optical-driven memory is less than 250 ns. It has applications in the fields of all optical communication, quantum computing, and optomechanical circuits.

77 FR 63788 - Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules, From the People's...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-10-17

... Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules, From the People's Republic of China: Final... (solar cells) from the People's Republic of China (PRC). The Department further determines that there... Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules, from the People's Republic of China (Decision Memorandum...

Electrically-controlled near-field radiative thermal modulator made of graphene-coated silicon carbide plates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Yue; Wang, Liping

2017-08-01

In this work, we propose a hybrid near-field radiative thermal modulator made of two graphene-covered silicon carbide (SiC) plates separated by a nanometer vacuum gap. The near-field photon tunneling between the emitter and receiver is modulated by changing graphene chemical potentials with symmetrically or asymmetrically applied voltage biases. The radiative heat flux calculated from fluctuational electrodynamics significantly varies with graphene chemical potentials due to tunable near-field coupling strength between graphene plasmons across the vacuum gap. Thermal modulation and switching, which are the key functionalities required for a thermal modulator, are theoretically realized and analyzed. Newly introduced quantities of the modulation factor, the sensitivity factor and switching factor are studied quite extensively in a large parameter range for both graphene chemical potential and vacuum gap distance. This opto-electronic device with faster operating mode, which is in principle only limited by electronics and not by the thermal inertia, will facilitate the practical application of active thermal management, thermal circuits, and thermal computing with photon-based near-field thermal transport.

Cryogenic High Pressure Sensor Module

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chapman, John J. (Inventor); Shams, Qamar A. (Inventor); Powers, William T. (Inventor)

1999-01-01

A pressure sensor is provided for cryogenic, high pressure applications. A highly doped silicon piezoresistive pressure sensor is bonded to a silicon substrate in an absolute pressure sensing configuration. The absolute pressure sensor is bonded to an aluminum nitride substrate. Aluminum nitride has appropriate coefficient of thermal expansion for use with highly doped silicon at cryogenic temperatures. A group of sensors, either two sensors on two substrates or four sensors on a single substrate are packaged in a pressure vessel.

Spraylon fluorocarbon encapsulation for silicon solar cell arrays

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1977-01-01

A development program was performed for evaluating, modifying, and optimizing the Lockheed formulated liquid transparent filmforming Spraylon fluorocarbon protective coating for silicon solar cells and modules. The program objectives were designed to meet the requirements of the low-cost automated solar cell array fabrication process. As part of the study, a computer program was used to establish the limits of the safe working stress in the coated silicon solar cell array system under severe thermal shock.

Ultrafast Silicon Photonics with Visible to Mid-Infrared Pumping of Silicon Nanocrystals.

PubMed

Diroll, Benjamin T; Schramke, Katelyn S; Guo, Peijun; Kortshagen, Uwe R; Schaller, Richard D

2017-10-11

Dynamic optical control of infrared (IR) transparency and refractive index is achieved using boron-doped silicon nanocrystals excited with mid-IR optical pulses. Unlike previous silicon-based optical switches, large changes in transmittance are achieved without a fabricated structure by exploiting strong light coupling of the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) produced from free holes of p-type silicon nanocrystals. The choice of optical excitation wavelength allows for selectivity between hole heating and carrier generation through intraband or interband photoexcitation, respectively. Mid-IR optical pumping heats the free holes of p-Si nanocrystals to effective temperatures greater than 3500 K. Increases of the hole effective mass at high effective hole temperatures lead to a subpicosecond change of the dielectric function, resulting in a redshift of the LSPR, modulating mid-IR transmission by as much as 27%, and increasing the index of refraction by more than 0.1 in the mid-IR. Low hole heat capacity dictates subpicosecond hole cooling, substantially faster than carrier recombination, and negligible heating of the Si lattice, permitting mid-IR optical switching at terahertz repetition frequencies. Further, the energetic distribution of holes at high effective temperatures partially reverses the Burstein-Moss effect, permitting the modulation of transmittance at telecommunications wavelengths. The results presented here show that doped silicon, particularly in micro- or nanostructures, is a promising dynamic metamaterial for ultrafast IR photonics.

Ultrafast Silicon Photonics with Visible to Mid-Infrared Pumping of Silicon Nanocrystals

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Diroll, Benjamin T.; Schramke, Katelyn S.; Guo, Peijun

Dynamic optical control of infrared (IR) transparency and refractive index is achieved using boron-doped silicon nanocrystals excited with mid-IR optical pulses. Also, unlike previous silicon-based optical switches, large changes in transmittance are achieved without a fabricated structure by exploiting strong light coupling of the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) produced from free holes of p-type silicon nanocrystals. The choice of optical excitation wavelength allows selectivity between hole heating and carrier generation through intraband or interband photoexcitation, respectively. Mid-IR optical pumping heats the free holes of p-Si nanocrystals to effective temperatures greater than 3500 K. Increases of the hole effective massmore » at high effective hole temperatures lead to a sub-picosecond change of the dielectric function resulting in a redshift of the LSPR, modulating mid-IR transmission by as much as 27% and increasing the index of refraction by more than 0.1 in the mid-IR. Low hole heat capacity dictates sub-picosecond hole cooling, substantially faster than carrier recombination, and negligible heating of the Si lattice, permitting mid-IR optical switching at terahertz repetition frequencies. Further, the energetic distribution of holes at high effective temperatures partially reverses the Burstein-Moss effect, permitting modulation of transmittance at telecommunications wavelengths. Lastly, the results presented here show that doped silicon, particularly in micro- or nanostructures, is a promising dynamic metamaterial for ultrafast IR photonics.« less

Ultrafast Silicon Photonics with Visible to Mid-Infrared Pumping of Silicon Nanocrystals

DOE PAGES

Diroll, Benjamin T.; Schramke, Katelyn S.; Guo, Peijun; ...

2017-09-11

Dynamic optical control of infrared (IR) transparency and refractive index is achieved using boron-doped silicon nanocrystals excited with mid-IR optical pulses. Also, unlike previous silicon-based optical switches, large changes in transmittance are achieved without a fabricated structure by exploiting strong light coupling of the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) produced from free holes of p-type silicon nanocrystals. The choice of optical excitation wavelength allows selectivity between hole heating and carrier generation through intraband or interband photoexcitation, respectively. Mid-IR optical pumping heats the free holes of p-Si nanocrystals to effective temperatures greater than 3500 K. Increases of the hole effective massmore » at high effective hole temperatures lead to a sub-picosecond change of the dielectric function resulting in a redshift of the LSPR, modulating mid-IR transmission by as much as 27% and increasing the index of refraction by more than 0.1 in the mid-IR. Low hole heat capacity dictates sub-picosecond hole cooling, substantially faster than carrier recombination, and negligible heating of the Si lattice, permitting mid-IR optical switching at terahertz repetition frequencies. Further, the energetic distribution of holes at high effective temperatures partially reverses the Burstein-Moss effect, permitting modulation of transmittance at telecommunications wavelengths. Lastly, the results presented here show that doped silicon, particularly in micro- or nanostructures, is a promising dynamic metamaterial for ultrafast IR photonics.« less

Evolutionary process development towards next generation crystalline silicon solar cells : a semiconductor process toolbox application

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

John, J.; Prajapati, V.; Vermang, B.; Lorenz, A.; Allebe, C.; Rothschild, A.; Tous, L.; Uruena, A.; Baert, K.; Poortmans, J.

2012-08-01

Bulk crystalline Silicon solar cells are covering more than 85% of the world's roof top module installation in 2010. With a growth rate of over 30% in the last 10 years this technology remains the working horse of solar cell industry. The full Aluminum back-side field (Al BSF) technology has been developed in the 90's and provides a production learning curve on module price of constant 20% in average. The main reason for the decrease of module prices with increasing production capacity is due to the effect of up scaling industrial production. For further decreasing of the price per wattpeak silicon consumption has to be reduced and efficiency has to be improved. In this paper we describe a successive efficiency improving process development starting from the existing full Al BSF cell concept. We propose an evolutionary development includes all parts of the solar cell process: optical enhancement (texturing, polishing, anti-reflection coating), junction formation and contacting. Novel processes are benchmarked on industrial like baseline flows using high-efficiency cell concepts like i-PERC (Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell). While the full Al BSF crystalline silicon solar cell technology provides efficiencies of up to 18% (on cz-Si) in production, we are achieving up to 19.4% conversion efficiency for industrial fabricated, large area solar cells with copper based front side metallization and local Al BSF applying the semiconductor toolbox.

Terahertz absorption and emission upon the photoionization of acceptors in uniaxially stressed silicon

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhukavin, R. Kh., E-mail: zhur@ipmras.ru; Kovalevsky, K. A.; Orlov, M. L.

2016-11-15

Experimental data on the spontaneous emission and absorption modulation in boron-doped silicon under CO{sub 2} laser excitation depending on the uniaxial stress applied along the [001] and [011] crystallographic directions are presented. Room-temperature radiation is used as the probe radiation. Low stress (less than 0.5 kbar) is shown to reduce losses in the terahertz region by 20%. The main contribution to absorption modulation at zero and low stress is made by A{sup +} centers. Intersubband free hole transitions additionally contribute to terahertz absorption at higher stress. These contributions can be minimized by compensation.

Performance testing of an off-plane reflection grating and silicon pore optic spectrograph at PANTER

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marlowe, Hannah; McEntaffer, Randall L.; Allured, Ryan; DeRoo, Casey T.; Donovan, Benjamin D.; Miles, Drew M.; Tutt, James H.; Burwitz, Vadim; Menz, Benedikt; Hartner, Gisela D.; Smith, Randall K.; Cheimets, Peter; Hertz, Edward; Bookbinder, Jay A.; Günther, Ramses; Yanson, Alex; Vacanti, Giuseppe; Ackermann, Marcelo

2015-10-01

An x-ray spectrograph consisting of aligned, radially ruled off-plane reflection gratings and silicon pore optics (SPO) was tested at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics PANTER x-ray test facility. SPO is a test module for the proposed Arcus mission, which will also feature aligned off-plane reflection gratings. This test is the first time two off-plane gratings were actively aligned to each other and with an SPO to produce an overlapped spectrum. We report the performance of the complete spectrograph utilizing the aligned gratings module and plans for future development.

REDUCTION OF CONCENTRATION POLARIZATION IN PERVAPORATION USING VIBRATING MEMBRANE MODULE

EPA Science Inventory

A vibrating membrane module currently marketed for filtration applications was evaluated for the separation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from aqueous solutions by pervaporation. Preliminary screening experiments with three VOCs, four silicone membranes, and in the presenc...

Multi-Object Tracking with Correlation Filter for Autonomous Vehicle.

PubMed

Zhao, Dawei; Fu, Hao; Xiao, Liang; Wu, Tao; Dai, Bin

2018-06-22

Multi-object tracking is a crucial problem for autonomous vehicle. Most state-of-the-art approaches adopt the tracking-by-detection strategy, which is a two-step procedure consisting of the detection module and the tracking module. In this paper, we improve both steps. We improve the detection module by incorporating the temporal information, which is beneficial for detecting small objects. For the tracking module, we propose a novel compressed deep Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) feature based Correlation Filter tracker. By carefully integrating these two modules, the proposed multi-object tracking approach has the ability of re-identification (ReID) once the tracked object gets lost. Extensive experiments were performed on the KITTI and MOT2015 tracking benchmarks. Results indicate that our approach outperforms most state-of-the-art tracking approaches.

Atomic Oxygen Interactions With Silicone Contamination on Spacecraft in Low Earth Orbit Studied

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Banks, Bruce A.

2001-01-01

Silicones have been widely used on spacecraft as potting compounds, adhesives, seals, gaskets, hydrophobic surfaces, and atomic oxygen protective coatings. Contamination of optical and thermal control surfaces on spacecraft in low Earth orbit (LEO) has been an ever-present problem as a result of the interaction of atomic oxygen with volatile species from silicones and hydrocarbons onboard spacecraft. These interactions can deposit a contaminant that is a risk to spacecraft performance because it can form an optically absorbing film on the surfaces of Sun sensors, star trackers, or optical components or can increase the solar absorptance of thermal control surfaces. The transmittance, absorptance, and reflectance of such contaminant films seem to vary widely from very transparent SiOx films to much more absorbing SiOx-based films that contain hydrocarbons. At the NASA Glenn Research Center, silicone contamination that was oxidized by atomic oxygen has been examined from LEO spacecraft (including the Long Duration Exposure Facility and the Mir space station solar arrays) and from ground laboratory LEO simulations. The findings resulted in the development of predictive models that may help explain the underlying issues and effects. Atomic oxygen interactions with silicone volatiles and mixtures of silicone and hydrocarbon volatiles produce glassy SiOx-based contaminant coatings. The addition of hydrocarbon volatiles in the presence of silicone volatiles appears to cause much more absorbing (and consequently less transmitting) contaminant films than when no hydrocarbon volatiles are present. On the basis of the LDEF and Mir results, conditions of high atomic oxygen flux relative to low contaminant flux appear to result in more transparent contaminant films than do conditions of low atomic oxygen flux with high contaminant flux. Modeling predictions indicate that the deposition of contaminant films early in a LEO flight should depend much more on atomic oxygen flux than it does later in a mission.

Roadmap on silicon photonics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thomson, David; Zilkie, Aaron; Bowers, John E.; Komljenovic, Tin; Reed, Graham T.; Vivien, Laurent; Marris-Morini, Delphine; Cassan, Eric; Virot, Léopold; Fédéli, Jean-Marc; Hartmann, Jean-Michel; Schmid, Jens H.; Xu, Dan-Xia; Boeuf, Frédéric; O'Brien, Peter; Mashanovich, Goran Z.; Nedeljkovic, M.

2016-07-01

Silicon photonics research can be dated back to the 1980s. However, the previous decade has witnessed an explosive growth in the field. Silicon photonics is a disruptive technology that is poised to revolutionize a number of application areas, for example, data centers, high-performance computing and sensing. The key driving force behind silicon photonics is the ability to use CMOS-like fabrication resulting in high-volume production at low cost. This is a key enabling factor for bringing photonics to a range of technology areas where the costs of implementation using traditional photonic elements such as those used for the telecommunications industry would be prohibitive. Silicon does however have a number of shortcomings as a photonic material. In its basic form it is not an ideal material in which to produce light sources, optical modulators or photodetectors for example. A wealth of research effort from both academia and industry in recent years has fueled the demonstration of multiple solutions to these and other problems, and as time progresses new approaches are increasingly being conceived. It is clear that silicon photonics has a bright future. However, with a growing number of approaches available, what will the silicon photonic integrated circuit of the future look like? This roadmap on silicon photonics delves into the different technology and application areas of the field giving an insight into the state-of-the-art as well as current and future challenges faced by researchers worldwide. Contributions authored by experts from both industry and academia provide an overview and outlook for the silicon waveguide platform, optical sources, optical modulators, photodetectors, integration approaches, packaging, applications of silicon photonics and approaches required to satisfy applications at mid-infrared wavelengths. Advances in science and technology required to meet challenges faced by the field in each of these areas are also addressed together with predictions of where the field is destined to reach.

A binary link tracker for the BaBar level 1 trigger system

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Berenyi, A.; Chen, H.K.; Dao, K.

1999-08-01

The BaBar detector at PEP-II will operate in a high-luminosity e{sup +}e{sup {minus}} collider environment near the {Upsilon}(4S) resonance with the primary goal of studying CP violation in the B meson system. In this environment, typical physics events of interest involve multiple charged particles. These events are identified by counting these tracks in a fast first level (Level 1) trigger system, by reconstructing the tracks in real time. For this purpose, a Binary Link Tracker Module (BLTM) was designed and fabricated for the BaBar Level 1 Drift Chamber trigger system. The BLTM is responsible for linking track segments, constructed bymore » the Track Segment Finder Modules (TSFM), into complete tracks. A single BLTM module processes a 360 MBytes/s stream of segment hit data, corresponding to information from the entire Drift Chamber, and implements a fast and robust algorithm that tolerates high hit occupancies as well as local inefficiencies of the Drift Chamber. The algorithms and the necessary control logic of the BLTM were implemented in Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), using the VHDL hardware description language. The finished 9U x 400 mm Euro-format board contains roughly 75,000 gates of programmable logic or about 10,000 lines of VHDL code synthesized into five FPGAs.« less

Nanosatellite Power System Considerations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Robyn, M.; Thaller, L.; Scott, D.

1995-01-01

The capability to build complex electronic functions into compact packages is opening the path to miniature satellites on the order of 1 kg mass, 10 cm across, packed with the computing processors, motion controllers, measurement sensors, and communications hardware necessary for operation. Power generation will be from short strings of silicon or gallium arsenide-based solar photovoltaic cells with the array power maximized by a peak power tracker (PPT). Energy storage will utilize a low voltage battery with nickel cadmium or lithium ion cells as the most likely selections for rechargeables and lithium (MnO2-Li) primary batteries for one shot short missions.

NAOMI: a low-order adaptive optics system for the VLT interferometer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gonté, Frédéric Yves J.; Alonso, Jaime; Aller-Carpentier, Emmanuel; Andolfato, Luigi; Berger, Jean-Philippe; Cortes, Angela; Delplancke-Strobele, Françoise; Donaldson, Rob; Dorn, Reinhold J.; Dupuy, Christophe; Egner, Sebastian E.; Huber, Stefan; Hubin, Norbert; Kirchbauer, Jean-Paul; Le Louarn, Miska; Lilley, Paul; Jolley, Paul; Martis, Alessandro; Paufique, Jérôme; Pasquini, Luca; Quentin, Jutta; Ridings, Robert; Reyes, Javier; Shchkaturov, Pavel; Suarez, Marcos; Phan Duc, Thanh; Valdes, Guillermo; Woillez, Julien; Le Bouquin, Jean-Baptiste; Beuzit, Jean-Luc; Rochat, Sylvain; Vérinaud, Christophe; Moulin, Thibaut; Delboulbé, Alain; Michaud, Laurence; Correia, Jean-Jacques; Roux, Alain; Maurel, Didier; Stadler, Eric; Magnard, Yves

2016-08-01

The New Adaptive Optics Module for Interferometry (NAOMI) will be developed for and installed at the 1.8-metre Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) at ESO Paranal. The goal of the project is to equip all four ATs with a low-order Shack- Hartmann adaptive optics system operating in the visible. By improving the wavefront quality delivered by the ATs for guide stars brighter than R = 13 mag, NAOMI will make the existing interferometer performance less dependent on the seeing conditions. Fed with higher and more stable Strehl, the fringe tracker(s) will achieve the fringe stability necessary to reach the full performance of the second-generation instruments GRAVITY and MATISSE.

Silicon-graphene photonic devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yin, Yanlong; Li, Jiang; Xu, Yang; Tsang, Hon Ki; Dai, Daoxin

2018-06-01

Silicon photonics has attracted much attention because of the advantages of CMOS (complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor) compatibility, ultra-high integrated density, etc. Great progress has been achieved in the past decades. However, it is still not easy to realize active silicon photonic devices and circuits by utilizing the material system of pure silicon due to the limitation of the intrinsic properties of silicon. Graphene has been regarded as a promising material for optoelectronics due to its unique properties and thus provides a potential option for realizing active photonic integrated devices on silicon. In this paper, we present a review on recent progress of some silicon-graphene photonic devices for photodetection, all-optical modulation, as well as thermal-tuning. Project supported by the National Major Research and Development Program (No. 2016YFB0402502), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 11374263, 61422510, 61431166001, 61474099, 61674127), and the National Key Research and Development Program (No. 2016YFA0200200).

Neuromorphic photonic networks using silicon photonic weight banks.

PubMed

Tait, Alexander N; de Lima, Thomas Ferreira; Zhou, Ellen; Wu, Allie X; Nahmias, Mitchell A; Shastri, Bhavin J; Prucnal, Paul R

2017-08-07

Photonic systems for high-performance information processing have attracted renewed interest. Neuromorphic silicon photonics has the potential to integrate processing functions that vastly exceed the capabilities of electronics. We report first observations of a recurrent silicon photonic neural network, in which connections are configured by microring weight banks. A mathematical isomorphism between the silicon photonic circuit and a continuous neural network model is demonstrated through dynamical bifurcation analysis. Exploiting this isomorphism, a simulated 24-node silicon photonic neural network is programmed using "neural compiler" to solve a differential system emulation task. A 294-fold acceleration against a conventional benchmark is predicted. We also propose and derive power consumption analysis for modulator-class neurons that, as opposed to laser-class neurons, are compatible with silicon photonic platforms. At increased scale, Neuromorphic silicon photonics could access new regimes of ultrafast information processing for radio, control, and scientific computing.

Proposal for an optical multicarrier generator based on single silicon micro-ring modulator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bhowmik, Bishanka Brata; Gupta, Sumanta

2015-08-01

We propose an optical multicarrier generation technique using silicon micro-ring modulator (MRM) and analyze the scheme. Numerical studies have been done for three types MRMs having different power coupling coefficients. The proposed scheme is found to generate four optical carriers having 12.5 GHz spacing. According to simulation, the maximum side-mode-suppression ratio (SMSR) of ~16.3 dB with flatness of ~0.2 dB is achieved by using this scheme. The minimum extinction ratio (ER) of the generated carriers is found to be more than 35 dB. We also propose modulator driver circuit to generate RF signal, which is needed to generate multicarrier using MRM. The effect of coupling coefficient on the SMSR of the generated carriers is also investigated.

Investigating PID shunting in polycrystalline silicon modules via multiscale, multitechnique characterization

DOE PAGES

Harvey, Steven P.; Moseley, John; Norman, Andrew; ...

2018-02-27

We investigated the potential-induced degradation (PID) shunting mechanism in multicrystalline-silicon photovoltaic modules by using a multiscale, multitechnique characterization approach. Both field-stressed modules and laboratory-stressed mini modules were studied. We used photoluminescence, electroluminescence, and dark lock-in thermography imaging to identify degraded areas at the module scale. Small samples were then removed from degraded areas, laser marked, and imaged by scanning electron microscopy. We used simultaneous electron-beam induced current imaging and focused ion beam milling to mark around PID shunts for chemical analysis by time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry or to isolate individual shunt defects for transmission electron microscopy and atom-probe tomography analysis.more » By spanning a range of 10 orders of magnitude in size, this approach enabled us to investigate the root-cause mechanisms for PID shunting. We observed a direct correlation between recombination active shunts and sodium content. The sodium content in shunted areas peaks at the SiNX/Si interface and is consistently observed at a concentration of 0.1% to 2% in shunted areas. Analysis of samples subjected to PID recovery, either activated by electron beam or thermal effects only, reveals that recovery of isolated shunts correlates with diffusion of sodium out of the structural defects to the silicon surface. We observed the role of oxygen and chlorine in PID shunting and found that those species - although sometimes present in structural defects where PID shunting was observed - do not play a consistent role in PID shunting.« less

Process research of non-CZ silicon material

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Campbell, R. B.

1984-01-01

Advanced processing techniques for non-CZ silicon sheet material that might improve the cost effectiveness of photovoltaic module production were investigated. Specifically, the simultaneous diffusion of liquid boron and liquid phosphorus organometallic precursors into n-type dendritic silicon web was examined. The simultaneous junction formation method for solar cells was compared with the sequential junction formation method. The electrical resistivity of the n-n and p-n junctions was discussed. Further research activities for this program along with a program documentation schedule are given.

Design, fabrication, test, qualification, and price analysis of third generation design solar cell modules

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1981-01-01

The fabrication of solar cell modules is detailed with emphasis upon laminating and interconnecting the panels that hold the simicrystalline silicon cells. Design problems and enviromental tests are described as well as performance characteristics.

Swap intensified WDR CMOS module for I2/LWIR fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ni, Yang; Noguier, Vincent

2015-05-01

The combination of high resolution visible-near-infrared low light sensor and moderate resolution uncooled thermal sensor provides an efficient way for multi-task night vision. Tremendous progress has been made on uncooled thermal sensors (a-Si, VOx, etc.). It's possible to make a miniature uncooled thermal camera module in a tiny 1cm3 cube with <1W power consumption. For silicon based solid-state low light CCD/CMOS sensors have observed also a constant progress in terms of readout noise, dark current, resolution and frame rate. In contrast to thermal sensing which is intrinsic day&night operational, the silicon based solid-state sensors are not yet capable to do the night vision performance required by defense and critical surveillance applications. Readout noise, dark current are 2 major obstacles. The low dynamic range at high sensitivity mode of silicon sensors is also an important limiting factor, which leads to recognition failure due to local or global saturations & blooming. In this context, the image intensifier based solution is still attractive for the following reasons: 1) high gain and ultra-low dark current; 2) wide dynamic range and 3) ultra-low power consumption. With high electron gain and ultra low dark current of image intensifier, the only requirement on the silicon image pickup device are resolution, dynamic range and power consumption. In this paper, we present a SWAP intensified Wide Dynamic Range CMOS module for night vision applications, especially for I2/LWIR fusion. This module is based on a dedicated CMOS image sensor using solar-cell mode photodiode logarithmic pixel design which covers a huge dynamic range (> 140dB) without saturation and blooming. The ultra-wide dynamic range image from this new generation logarithmic sensor can be used directly without any image processing and provide an instant light accommodation. The complete module is slightly bigger than a simple ANVIS format I2 tube with <500mW power consumption.

Direct comparison of polymethylmetacrylate (PMMA) and silicone-on-glass (SOG) for Fresnel lenses in concentrating photovoltaics (CPV)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Annen, Hans Philipp; Fu, Ling; Leutz, Ralf; González, Luis; Mbakop, Jehu

2011-09-01

The CPV community is still undecided on one critical issue: what material to use best for Fresnel lens parquets. Reliability and longevity are the most important, but all other properties play roles as well. We have developed and manufactured Fresnel lenses with the two commonly used materials: PMMA (Polymethylmethacrylate) and silicone on glass (SOG). Both lenses are designed for the same optical train for best comparability. This allows for better understanding the pros and cons of the materials and making an informed choice for a specific CPV module. While PMMA lenses are embossed from pre-fab sheets in a hot-cold process, the silicone lenses are cast from a heat-curing silicone rubber at moderate temperatures, reducing the energy consumption. PMMA allows for the inclusion of custom low-profile 3D (2.5D) structures for module assembly and mechanical alignment, a feature not possible in silicone due to its low rigidity. Both lenses suffer from thermal expansion and refractive index change. While PMMA parquets expand isotropically, SOG prisms deform due to the difference of expansion coefficients between the glass and the silicone. SOG lenses are prone to delamination of the silicone film. The adhesive strength of the film to the glass can be measured using a modified blister test that we developed. The results show large difference with different materials and confirm the necessity of controlling this issue closely. While the small thermal expansion of the glass sheets allows for larger parquet sizes, the deformation of the prisms with temperature may cause a performance hit.

Simulation and modeling of silicon pore optics for the ATHENA x-ray telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spiga, D.; Christensen, F. E.; Bavdaz, M.; Civitani, M. M.; Conconi, P.; Della Monica Ferreira, D.; Knudsen, E. B.; Massahi, S.; Pareschi, G.; Salmaso, B.; Shortt, B.; Tayabaly, K.; Westergaard, N. J.; Wille, E.

2016-07-01

The ATHENA X-ray observatory is a large-class ESA approved mission, with launch scheduled in 2028. The technology of silicon pore optics (SPO) was selected as baseline to assemble ATHENA's optic with more than 1000 mirror modules, obtained by stacking wedged and ribbed silicon wafer plates onto silicon mandrels to form the Wolter-I configuration. Even if the current baseline design fulfills the required effective area of 2 m2 at 1 keV on-axis, alternative design solutions, e.g., privileging the field of view or the off-axis angular resolution, are also possible. Moreover, the stringent requirement of a 5 arcsec HEW angular resolution at 1 keV entails very small profile errors and excellent surface smoothness, as well as a precise alignment of the 1000 mirror modules to avoid imaging degradation and effective area loss. Finally, the stray light issue has to be kept under control. In this paper we show the preliminary results of simulations of optical systems based on SPO for the ATHENA X-ray telescope, from pore to telescope level, carried out at INAF/OAB and DTU Space under ESA contract. We show ray-tracing results, including assessment of the misalignments of mirror modules and the impact of stray light. We also deal with a detailed description of diffractive effects expected in an SPO module from UV light, where the aperture diffraction prevails, to X-rays where the surface diffraction plays a major role. Finally, we analyze the results of X-ray tests performed at the BESSY synchrotron, we compare them with surface finishing measurements, and we estimate the expected HEW degradation caused by the X-ray scattering.

Low-cost solar array progress and plans

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Callaghan, W. T.

It is pointed out that significant redirection has occurred in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Photovoltaics Program, and thus in the Flat-Plate Solar Array Project (FSA), since the 3rd European Communities Conference. The Silicon Materials Task has now the objective to sponsor theoretical and experimental research on silicon material refinement technology suitable for photovoltaic flat-plate solar arrays. With respect to the hydrochlorination reaction, a process proof of concept was completed through definition of reaction kinetics, catalyst, and reaction characteristics. In connection with the dichlorosilane chemical vapor desposition process, a preliminary design was completed of an experimental process system development unit with a capacity of 100 to 200 MT/yr of Si.Attention is also given to the silicon-sheet formation research area, environmental isolation research, the cell and module formation task, the engineering sciences area, and the module performance and failure analysis area.

Photonic crystal nanocavity assisted rejection ratio tunable notch microwave photonic filter

PubMed Central

Long, Yun; Xia, Jinsong; Zhang, Yong; Dong, Jianji; Wang, Jian

2017-01-01

Driven by the increasing demand on handing microwave signals with compact device, low power consumption, high efficiency and high reliability, it is highly desired to generate, distribute, and process microwave signals using photonic integrated circuits. Silicon photonics offers a promising platform facilitating ultracompact microwave photonic signal processing assisted by silicon nanophotonic devices. In this paper, we propose, theoretically analyze and experimentally demonstrate a simple scheme to realize ultracompact rejection ratio tunable notch microwave photonic filter (MPF) based on a silicon photonic crystal (PhC) nanocavity with fixed extinction ratio. Using a conventional modulation scheme with only a single phase modulator (PM), the rejection ratio of the presented MPF can be tuned from about 10 dB to beyond 60 dB. Moreover, the central frequency tunable operation in the high rejection ratio region is also demonstrated in the experiment. PMID:28067332

Photonic crystal nanocavity assisted rejection ratio tunable notch microwave photonic filter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Long, Yun; Xia, Jinsong; Zhang, Yong; Dong, Jianji; Wang, Jian

2017-01-01

Driven by the increasing demand on handing microwave signals with compact device, low power consumption, high efficiency and high reliability, it is highly desired to generate, distribute, and process microwave signals using photonic integrated circuits. Silicon photonics offers a promising platform facilitating ultracompact microwave photonic signal processing assisted by silicon nanophotonic devices. In this paper, we propose, theoretically analyze and experimentally demonstrate a simple scheme to realize ultracompact rejection ratio tunable notch microwave photonic filter (MPF) based on a silicon photonic crystal (PhC) nanocavity with fixed extinction ratio. Using a conventional modulation scheme with only a single phase modulator (PM), the rejection ratio of the presented MPF can be tuned from about 10 dB to beyond 60 dB. Moreover, the central frequency tunable operation in the high rejection ratio region is also demonstrated in the experiment.

Photonic crystal nanocavity assisted rejection ratio tunable notch microwave photonic filter.

PubMed

Long, Yun; Xia, Jinsong; Zhang, Yong; Dong, Jianji; Wang, Jian

2017-01-09

Driven by the increasing demand on handing microwave signals with compact device, low power consumption, high efficiency and high reliability, it is highly desired to generate, distribute, and process microwave signals using photonic integrated circuits. Silicon photonics offers a promising platform facilitating ultracompact microwave photonic signal processing assisted by silicon nanophotonic devices. In this paper, we propose, theoretically analyze and experimentally demonstrate a simple scheme to realize ultracompact rejection ratio tunable notch microwave photonic filter (MPF) based on a silicon photonic crystal (PhC) nanocavity with fixed extinction ratio. Using a conventional modulation scheme with only a single phase modulator (PM), the rejection ratio of the presented MPF can be tuned from about 10 dB to beyond 60 dB. Moreover, the central frequency tunable operation in the high rejection ratio region is also demonstrated in the experiment.

VCSEL Scaling, Laser Integration on Silicon, and Bit Energy

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-03-01

need of high efficiency with high temperature operation eliminates essentially all laser diode technologies except VCSELs. Therefore scaling of the...CW laser diode and separate modulator. Lower diagram circuitry shows the case for a DML VCSEL. The small gain volume and high speed modulation...speed of the modulator. However the CW laser that is needed for the modulator appears to create a technological roadblock for laser diode platforms

Outdoor module testing and comparison of photovoltaic technologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fabick, L. B.; Rifai, R.; Mitchell, K.; Woolston, T.; Canale, J.

A comparison of outdoor test results for several module technologies is presented. The technologies include thin-film silicon:hydrogen alloys (TFS), TFS modules with semitransparent conductor back contacts, and CuInSe2 module prototypes. A method for calculating open-circuit voltage and fill-factor temperature coefficients is proposed. The method relies on the acquisition of large statistical data samples to average effects due to varying insolation level.

Quest for Novel Chemical Entities through Incorporation of Silicon in Drug Scaffolds.

PubMed

Ramesh, Remya; Reddy, D Srinivasa

2018-05-10

In order to optimize a lead molecule for further development, bioisosteric replacements are generally adopted as one of the strategies. Silicon appears to be the right choice as a carbon isostere because of the similarity in chemical properties. Silicon can be strategically introduced in a molecule to modulate its druglike properties, providing medicinal chemists with an unconventional strategy for replacing a carbon atom. Silicon can also be introduced to replace other heteroatoms and can act as a surrogate of functional groups such as olefin and amide as well. The present Perspective focuses on the opportunities that silicon incorporation offers in drug discovery, with an emphasis on case studies where introduction of silicon has created a benefit over its analog. We have tried to highlight all the recent developments in the field and briefly discuss the challenges associated with them.

Porous silicon advances in drug delivery and immunotherapy.

PubMed

Savage, David J; Liu, Xuewu; Curley, Steven A; Ferrari, Mauro; Serda, Rita E

2013-10-01

Biomedical applications of porous silicon include drug delivery, imaging, diagnostics and immunotherapy. This review summarizes new silicon particle fabrication techniques, dynamics of cellular transport, advances in the multistage vector approach to drug delivery, and the use of porous silicon as immune adjuvants. Recent findings support superior therapeutic efficacy of the multistage vector approach over single particle drug delivery systems in mouse models of ovarian and breast cancer. With respect to vaccine development, multivalent presentation of pathogen-associated molecular patterns on the particle surface creates powerful platforms for immunotherapy, with the porous matrix able to carry both antigens and immune modulators. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Electrical Control of g-Factor in a Few-Hole Silicon Nanowire MOSFET.

PubMed

Voisin, B; Maurand, R; Barraud, S; Vinet, M; Jehl, X; Sanquer, M; Renard, J; De Franceschi, S

2016-01-13

Hole spins in silicon represent a promising yet barely explored direction for solid-state quantum computation, possibly combining long spin coherence, resulting from a reduced hyperfine interaction, and fast electrically driven qubit manipulation. Here we show that a silicon-nanowire field-effect transistor based on state-of-the-art silicon-on-insulator technology can be operated as a few-hole quantum dot. A detailed magnetotransport study of the first accessible hole reveals a g-factor with unexpectedly strong anisotropy and gate dependence. We infer that these two characteristics could enable an electrically driven g-tensor-modulation spin resonance with Rabi frequencies exceeding several hundred mega-Hertz.

Development of a modular test system for the silicon sensor R&D of the ATLAS Upgrade

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Liu, H.; Benoit, M.; Chen, H.

High Voltage CMOS sensors are a promising technology for tracking detectors in collider experiments. Extensive R&D studies are being carried out by the ATLAS Collaboration for a possible use of HV-CMOS in the High Luminosity LHC upgrade of the Inner Tracker detector. CaRIBOu (Control and Readout Itk BOard) is a modular test system developed to test Silicon based detectors. It currently includes five custom designed boards, a Xilinx ZC706 development board, FELIX (Front-End LInk eXchange) PCIe card and a host computer. A software program has been developed in Python to control the CaRIBOu hardware. CaRIBOu has been used in themore » testbeam of the HV-CMOS sensor AMS180v4 at CERN. Preliminary results have shown that the test system is very versatile. In conclusion, further development is ongoing to adapt to different sensors, and to make it available to various lab test stands.« less

Development of a modular test system for the silicon sensor R&D of the ATLAS Upgrade

DOE PAGES

Liu, H.; Benoit, M.; Chen, H.; ...

2017-01-11

High Voltage CMOS sensors are a promising technology for tracking detectors in collider experiments. Extensive R&D studies are being carried out by the ATLAS Collaboration for a possible use of HV-CMOS in the High Luminosity LHC upgrade of the Inner Tracker detector. CaRIBOu (Control and Readout Itk BOard) is a modular test system developed to test Silicon based detectors. It currently includes five custom designed boards, a Xilinx ZC706 development board, FELIX (Front-End LInk eXchange) PCIe card and a host computer. A software program has been developed in Python to control the CaRIBOu hardware. CaRIBOu has been used in themore » testbeam of the HV-CMOS sensor AMS180v4 at CERN. Preliminary results have shown that the test system is very versatile. In conclusion, further development is ongoing to adapt to different sensors, and to make it available to various lab test stands.« less

Design and construction of the Mini-Calorimeter of the AGILE satellite

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Labanti, C.; Marisaldi, M.; Fuschino, F.; Galli, M.; Argan, A.; Bulgarelli, A.; Di Cocco, G.; Gianotti, F.; Tavani, M.; Trifoglio, M.

2009-01-01

AGILE is a small space mission of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) devoted to gamma-ray and hard-X astrophysics, successfully launched on April 23, 2007. The AGILE Payload is composed of three instruments: a gamma-ray imager based on a tungsten-silicon tracker (ST), for observations in the gamma ray energy range 30 MeV-50 GeV, a Silicon based X-ray detector, SuperAGILE (SA), for imaging in the range 18-60 keV and a CsI(Tl) Mini-Calorimeter (MCAL) that detects gamma rays or charged particles energy loss in the range 300 keV-100 MeV. MCAL is composed of 30 CsI(Tl) scintillator bars with photodiode readout at both ends, arranged in two orthogonal layers. MCAL can work both as a slave of the ST and as an independent gamma-ray detector for transients and gamma-ray bursts detection. In this paper a detailed description of MCAL is presented together with its performance.

Analysis on H Spectral Shape During the Early 2012 SEPs with the PAMELA Experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Martucci, Matteo; Boezio, M.; Bravar, U.; Carbone, R.; Christian, E. R.; De Nolfo, G. A.; Merge, M.; Mocchiutti, E.; Munini, R.; Ricci, M.;

Reconstruction of neutrino induced NC-1π{sup 0} using the T2K-ND280 tracker

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

O’Keeffe, H. M.; Vacheret, A.; Barr, G. D.

2015-05-15

Single π{sup 0} production is the one of the most important backgrounds in the υ{sub e} appearance measurement in T2K. Large uncertainties in this production make it difficult to predict. Measurement at the near detector (ND280) is required both to constrain the background prediction at the far detector (Super-K) and also at the near detector to improve knowledge of beam υ{sub e} contamination. We present an analysis based on Monte Carlo simulation of neutral current (NC) single π{sup 0} in the tracker region. NC-1π{sup 0} events are selected using a specific two-gamma signature in the tracker region. One decay gammamore » is reconstructed by selecting an e+/e− pair starting in the Fine-Grained target Detector (FGD) and extending into the TPC, where the leptons can be identified and their momentum measured accurately. The second gamma is then selected in-time in the Calorimeter modules surrounding the tracker. Selections cuts, efficiency and purity of the selection are presented and projection of the expected number of single π{sup 0} candidates for 3 × 10{sup 20} protons on target (PoT) exposure is made.« less

Visual Sonority Modulates Infants' Attraction to Sign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stone, Adam; Petitto, Laura-Ann; Bosworth, Rain

2018-01-01

The infant brain may be predisposed to identify perceptually salient cues that are common to both signed and spoken languages. Recent theory based on spoken languages has advanced sonority as one of these potential language acquisition cues. Using a preferential looking paradigm with an infrared eye tracker, we explored visual attention of hearing…

Qualification of silicon pore optics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wille, Eric; Bavdaz, Marcos; Fransen, Sebastiaan; Collon, Maximilien; Ackermann, Marcelo; Guenther, Ramses; Chatbi, Abdelhakim; Vacanti, Giuseppe; Vervest, Mark; van Baren, Coen; Haneveld, Jeroen; Riekerink, Mark Olde; Koelewijn, Arenda; Kampf, Dirk; Zuknik, Karl-Heinz; Reutlinger, Arnd

2014-07-01

Silicon Pore Optics (SPO) are the enabling technology for ESA's second large class mission in the Cosmic Vision programme. As for every space hardware, a critical qualification process is required to verify the suitability of the SPO mirror modules surviving the launch loads and maintaining their performance in the space environment. We present recent design modifications to further strengthen the mounting system (brackets and dowel pins) against mechanical loads. The progress of a formal qualification test campaign with the new mirror module design is shown. We discuss mechanical and thermal limitations of the SPO technology and provide recommendations for the mission design of the next X-ray Space Observatory.

Ultra-high-speed graphene optical modulator design based on tight field confinement in a slot waveguide

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kovacevic, Goran; Phare, Christopher; Set, Sze Y.; Lipson, Michal; Yamashita, Shinji

2018-06-01

We present a design of an ultra-fast in-line graphene optical modulator on a silicon waveguide with a bandwidth exceeding 100 GHz, very small power consumption below 15 fJ/bit, and insertion loss of 1.5 dB. This is achieved by utilizing the transverse-electric-mode silicon slot to tailor the overlap of graphene electrodes, thus significantly reducing the capacitance of the device while maintaining a low insertion loss and using conservative estimates of the graphene resistance. Our design is substantiated by comprehensive finite-element-method simulations and RC circuit characterization, as well as fabrication feasibility discussion.

Project analysis and integration economic analyses summary

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Macomber, H. L.

1986-01-01

An economic-analysis summary was presented for the manufacture of crystalline-silicon modules involving silicon ingot/sheet, growth, slicing, cell manufacture, and module assembly. Economic analyses provided: useful quantitative aspects for complex decision-making to the Flat-plate Solar Array (FSA) Project; yardsticks for design and performance to industry; and demonstration of how to evaluate and understand the worth of research and development both to JPL and other government agencies and programs. It was concluded that future research and development funds for photovoltaics must be provided by the Federal Government because the solar industry today does not reap enough profits from its present-day sales of photovoltaic equipment.

Thin EFG octagons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kalejs, J. P.

1994-06-01

This report describes the impact of the technical achievements made in the first 18 months of the three year PVMaT program at Mobil Solar on lowering the manufacturing costs of its photovoltaic polycrystalline silicon-based modules. Manufacturing cost decreases are being achieved through a reduction of silicon material utilization, increases in productivity and yield in crystal growth, and through improvements in the laser cutting process for EFG wafers. The yield, productivity, and throughput advances made possible by these technical achievements are shown to be able to enhance future market share growth for Mobil Solar products as a consequence of significant reductions in a number of direct manufacturing cost elements in EFG wafer and module production.

Microelectromechanical-System-Based Variable-Focus Liquid Lens for Capsule Endoscopes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seo, Sang Won; Han, Seungoh; Seo, Jun Ho; Kim, Young Mok; Kang, Moon Sik; Min, Nam Ki; Choi, Woo Beom; Sung, Man Young

2009-05-01

A liquid lens based on the electrowetting phenomenon was designed to be cylindrical to minimize dead area. The lens was fabricated with microelectromechanical-system (MEMS) technology using silicon thin film and wafer bonding processes. A multiple dielectric layer comprising Teflon, silicon nitride, and thermal oxide was formed on the cylinder wall. With a change of 11 Vrms in the applied bias, the lens module, including the fabricated liquid lens, showed a focal length change of approximately 166 mm. A capsule endoscope was assembled, including the lens module, and was successfully used to take images of a pig colon at various focal lengths.

Terrestrial photovoltaic collector technology trends

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shimada, K.; Costogue, E.

1984-01-01

Following the path of space PV collector development in its early stages, terrestrial PV technologies based upon single-crystal silicon have matured rapidly. Currently, terrestrial PV cells with efficiencies approaching space cell efficiencies are being fabricated into modules at a fraction of the space PV module cost. New materials, including CuInSe2 and amorphous silicon, are being developed for lowering the cost, and multijunction materials for achieving higher efficiency. Large grid-interactive, tracking flat-plate power systems and concentrator PV systems totaling about 10 MW, are already in operation. Collector technology development both flat-plate and concentrator, will continue under an extensive government and private industry partnership.

Performance analysis of communication links based on VCSEL and silicon photonics technology for high-capacity data-intensive scenario.

PubMed

Boletti, A; Boffi, P; Martelli, P; Ferrario, M; Martinelli, M

2015-01-26

To face the increased demand for bandwidth, cost-effectiveness and simplicity of future Ethernet data communications, a comparison between two different solutions based on directly-modulated VCSEL sources and Silicon Photonics technologies is carried out. Also by exploiting 4-PAM modulation, the transmission of 50-Gb/s and beyond capacity per channel is analyzed by means of BER performance. Applications for optical backplane, very short reach and in case of client-optics networks and intra and inter massive data centers communications (up to 10 km) are taken into account. A comparative analysis based on the power consumption is also proposed.

Performance testing of a novel off-plane reflection grating and silicon pore optic spectrograph at PANTER

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marlowe, Hannah; McEntaffer, Randall L.; Allured, Ryan; DeRoo, Casey; Miles, Drew M.; Donovan, Benjamin D.; Tutt, James H.; Burwitz, Vadim; Menz, Benedikt; Hartner, Gisela D.; Smith, Randall K.; Günther, Ramses; Yanson, Alex; Vacanti, Giuseppe; Ackermann, Marcelo

2015-05-01

An X-ray spectrograph consisting of aligned, radially ruled off-plane reflection gratings and silicon pore optics (SPO) was tested at the Max Planck Institute for extraterrestrial Physics PANTER X-ray test facility. The SPO is a test module for the proposed Arcus mission, which will also feature aligned off-plane reflection gratings. This test is the first time two off-plane gratings were actively aligned to each other and with a SPO to produce an overlapped spectrum. We report the performance of the complete spectrograph utilizing the aligned gratings module and plans for future development.

Photovoltaic solar panels of crystalline silicon: Characterization and separation.

PubMed

Dias, Pablo Ribeiro; Benevit, Mariana Gonçalves; Veit, Hugo Marcelo

2016-03-01

Photovoltaic panels have a limited lifespan and estimates show large amounts of solar modules will be discarded as electronic waste in a near future. In order to retrieve important raw materials, reduce production costs and environmental impacts, recycling such devices is important. Initially, this article investigates which silicon photovoltaic module's components are recyclable through their characterization using X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffraction, energy dispersion spectroscopy and atomic absorption spectroscopy. Next, different separation methods are tested to favour further recycling processes. The glass was identified as soda-lime glass, the metallic filaments were identified as tin-lead coated copper, the panel cells were made of silicon and had silver filaments attached to it and the modules' frames were identified as aluminium, all of which are recyclable. Moreover, three different components segregation methods have been studied. Mechanical milling followed by sieving was able to separate silver from copper while chemical separation using sulphuric acid was able to detach the semiconductor material. A thermo gravimetric analysis was performed to evaluate the use of a pyrolysis step prior to the component's removal. The analysis showed all polymeric fractions present degrade at 500 °C. © The Author(s) 2016.

Construction and beam-tests of silicon-tungsten prototype modules for the CMS High Granularity Calorimeter for HL-LHC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Quast, Thorben

2018-02-01

As part of its HL-LHC upgrade program, CMS is developing a High Granularity Calorimeter (HGCAL) to replace the existing endcap calorimeters. The HGCAL will be realised as a sampling calorimeter, including an electromagnetic compartment comprising 28 layers of silicon pad detectors with pad areas of 0.5-1.0 cm2 interspersed with absorbers. Prototype modules, based on 6-inch hexagonal silicon pad sensors with 128 channels, have been constructed and include many of the features required for this challenging detector. In 2016, beam tests of sampling configurations made from these modules have been conducted both at FNAL and at CERN using the Skiroc2 front-end ASIC (designed by the CALICE collaboration for ILC). In 2017, the setup has been extended with CALICE's AHCAL prototype, a scinitillator based sampling calorimeter, and it was further tested in dedicated beam tests at CERN. There, the new Skiroc2-CMS front-end ASIC was used for the first time. We highlight final results from our studies in 2016, including position resolution as well as precision timing-measurements. Furthermore, the extended setup in 2017 is discussed and first results from beam tests with electrons and pions are shown.

Mass production of silicon pore optics for ATHENA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wille, Eric; Bavdaz, Marcos; Collon, Maximilien

2016-07-01

Silicon Pore Optics (SPO) provide high angular resolution with low effective area density as required for the Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics (Athena). The x-ray telescope consists of several hundreds of SPO mirror modules. During the development of the process steps of the SPO technology, specific requirements of a future mass production have been considered right from the beginning. The manufacturing methods heavily utilise off-the-shelf equipment from the semiconductor industry, robotic automation and parallel processing. This allows to upscale the present production flow in a cost effective way, to produce hundreds of mirror modules per year. Considering manufacturing predictions based on the current technology status, we present an analysis of the time and resources required for the Athena flight programme. This includes the full production process starting with Si wafers up to the integration of the mirror modules. We present the times required for the individual process steps and identify the equipment required to produce two mirror modules per day. A preliminary timeline for building and commissioning the required infrastructure, and for flight model production of about 1000 mirror modules, is presented.

An ultralow power athermal silicon modulator.

PubMed

Timurdogan, Erman; Sorace-Agaskar, Cheryl M; Sun, Jie; Shah Hosseini, Ehsan; Biberman, Aleksandr; Watts, Michael R

2014-06-11

Silicon photonics has emerged as the leading candidate for implementing ultralow power wavelength-division-multiplexed communication networks in high-performance computers, yet current components (lasers, modulators, filters and detectors) consume too much power for the high-speed femtojoule-class links that ultimately will be required. Here we demonstrate and characterize the first modulator to achieve simultaneous high-speed (25 Gb s(-1)), low-voltage (0.5 VPP) and efficient 0.9 fJ per bit error-free operation. This low-energy high-speed operation is enabled by a record electro-optic response, obtained in a vertical p-n junction device that at 250 pm V(-1) (30 GHz V(-1)) is up to 10 times larger than prior demonstrations. In addition, this record electro-optic response is used to compensate for thermal drift over a 7.5 °C temperature range with little additional energy consumption (0.24 fJ per bit for a total energy consumption below 1.03 J per bit). The combined results of highly efficient modulation and electro-optic thermal compensation represent a new paradigm in modulator development and a major step towards single-digit femtojoule-class communications.

Low-chirp high-extinction-ratio modulator based on graphene-silicon waveguide.

PubMed

Yang, Longzhi; Hu, Ting; Hao, Ran; Qiu, Chen; Xu, Chao; Yu, Hui; Xu, Yang; Jiang, Xiaoqing; Li, Yubo; Yang, Jianyi

2013-07-15

We present a hybrid graphene-silicon waveguide, which consists of a lateral slot waveguide with three layers of graphene flakes inside. Through a theoretical analysis, an effective index variation for about 0.05 is found in the waveguide by applying a voltage on the graphene. We designed a Mach-Zehnder modulator based on this waveguide and demonstrated it can process signals nearly chirp-free. The calculation shows that the driving voltage is only 1 V even if the length of the arm is shortened to be 43.54 μm. An extinction up to 34.7 dB and a minimum chirp parameter of -0.006 are obtained. Its insertion loss is roughly -1.37 dB. This modulator consumes low power and has a small footprint. It can potentially be ultrafast as well as CMOS compatible.

Method of forming structural heliostat

DOEpatents

Anderson, Alfred J.

1984-06-26

In forming a heliostat having a main support structure and pivoting and tilting motors and gears and a mirror module for reflecting solar energy onto a collector, the improvement characterized by a method of forming the mirror module in which the mirror is laid upon a solid rigid supporting bed in one or more sections, with or without focusing; a mirror backing sheet is applied by first applying respective thin layers of silicone grease and, thereafter, progressively rolling application to eliminate air bubbles; followed by affixing of a substrate assembly to the mirror backing sheet to form a mirror module that does not curve because of thermally induced stresses and differential thermal expansion or contraction effects. The silicone grease also serves to dampen fluttering of the mirror and protect the mirror backside against adverse effects of the weather. Also disclosed are specific details of preferred embodiments.

Optimized optical devices for edge-coupling-enabled silicon photonics platform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Png, Ching Eng; Ang, Thomas Y. L.; Ong, Jun Rong; Lim, Soon Thor; Sahin, Ezgi; Chen, G. F. R.; Tan, D. T. H.; Guo, Tina X.; Wang, Hong

2018-02-01

We present a library of high-performance passive and active silicon photonic devices at the C-band that is specifically designed and optimized for edge-coupling-enabled silicon photonics platform. These devices meet the broadband (100 nm), low-loss (< 2dB per device), high speed (>= 25 Gb/s), and polarization diversity requirements (TE and TM polarization extinction ratio <= 25 dB) for optical communication applications. Ultra-low loss edge couplers, broadband directional couplers, high-extinction ratio polarization beam splitters (PBSs), and high-speed modulators are some of the devices within our library. In particular, we have designed and fabricated inverse taper fiber-to-waveguide edge couplers of tip widths ranging from 120 nm to 200 nm, and we obtained a low coupling loss of 1.80+/-0.28 dB for 160 nm tip width. To achieve polarization diversity operation for inverse tapers, we have experimentally realized different designs of polarization beam splitters (PBS). Our optimized PBS has a measured extinction ratio of <= 25 dB for both the quasiTE modes, and quasi-TM modes. Additionally, a broadband (100 nm) directional coupler with a 50/50 power splitting ratio was experimentally realized on a small footprint of 20×3 μm2 . Last but not least, high-speed silicon modulators with a range of carrier doping concentrations and offset of the PN junction can be used to optimise the modulation efficiency, and insertion losses for operation at 25 GHz.

77 FR 63791 - Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled into Modules, from the People's...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-10-17

...., Jiangsu Sunlink PV Technology Co., Ltd., and JA Solar Technology Yangzhou Co., Ltd. On June 25, 2012, Wuxi... (Chengdu) PV Tianwei New Energy 25.96 Module Co., Ltd. (Chengdu) PV Module Co., Ltd. Canadian Solar.... Chint Solar (Zhejiang) Co., Ltd Chint Solar (Zhejiang) 25.96 Co., Ltd. Suzhou Shenglong PV-Tech Co...

A hybrid electronically scanned pressure module for cryogenic environments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chapman, J. J.; Hopson, P., Jr.; Kruse, N.

1995-01-01

Pressure is one of the most important parameters measured when testing models in wind tunnels. For models tested in the cryogenic environment of the National Transonic Facility at NASA Langley Research Center, the technique of utilizing commercially available multichannel pressure modules inside the models is difficult due to the small internal volume of the models and the requirement of keeping the pressure transducer modules within an acceptable temperature range well above the -173 degrees C tunnel temperature. A prototype multichannel pressure transducer module has been designed and fabricated with stable, repeatable sensors and materials optimized for reliable performance in the cryogenic environment. The module has 16 single crystal silicon piezoresistive pressure sensors electrostatically bonded to a metalized Pyrex substrate for sensing the wind tunnel model pressures. An integral temperature sensor mounted on each silicon micromachined pressure sensor senses real-time temperature fluctuations to within 0.1 degrees C to correct for thermally induced non-random sensor drift. The data presented here are from a prototype sensor module tested in the 0.3 M cryogenic tunnel and thermal equilibrium conditions in an environmental chamber which approximates the thermal environment (-173 degrees C to +60 degrees C) of the National Transonic Facility.

Laminated photovoltaic modules using back-contact solar cells

DOEpatents

Gee, James M.; Garrett, Stephen E.; Morgan, William P.; Worobey, Walter

1999-09-14

Photovoltaic modules which comprise back-contact solar cells, such as back-contact crystalline silicon solar cells, positioned atop electrically conductive circuit elements affixed to a planar support so that a circuit capable of generating electric power is created. The modules are encapsulated using encapsulant materials such as EVA which are commonly used in photovoltaic module manufacture. The module designs allow multiple cells to be electrically connected in a single encapsulation step rather than by sequential soldering which characterizes the currently used commercial practices.

InGaAs multiple quantum well modulating retro-reflector for free-space optical communications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rabinovich, William S.; Gilbreath, G. Charmaine; Goetz, Peter G.; Mahon, Rita; Katzer, D. Scott; Ikossi-Anastasiou, Kiki; Binari, Steven C.; Meehan, Timothy J.; Stell, Mena F.; Sokolsky, Ilene; Vasquez, John A.; Vilcheck, Michael J.

2002-01-01

Modulating retro-reflectors provide means for free space optical communication without the need for a laser, telescope or pointer tracker on one end of the link. These systems work by coupling a retro-reflector with an electro- optic shutter. The modulating retro-reflector is then interrogated by a cw laser beam from a conventional optical communications system and returns a modulated signal beam to the interrogator. Over the last few years the Naval Research Laboratory has developed modulating retro-reflector based on corner cubes and large area Transmissive InGaAs multiple quantum well modulators. These devices can allow optical links at speeds up to about 10 Mbps. We will discuss the critical performance characteristics of such systems including modulating rate, power consumption, optical contrast ratio and operating wavelength. In addition a new modulating retro-reflector architecture based upon cat s eye retroreflectors will be discussed. This architecture has the possibility for data rates of hundreds of megabits per second at power consumptions below 100 mW.

LIFE CYCLE DESIGN OF AMORPHOUS SILICON PHOTOVOLTAIC MODULES

EPA Science Inventory

The life cycle design framework was applied to photovoltaic module design. The primary objective of this project was to develop and evaluate design metrics for assessing and guiding the Improvement of PV product systems. Two metrics were used to assess life cycle energy perform...

Septic safe interactions with smart glasses in health care.

PubMed

Czuszynski, K; Ruminski, J; Kocejko, T; Wtorek, J

2015-08-01

In this paper, septic safe methods of interaction with smart glasses, due to the health care environment applications consideration, are presented. The main focus is on capabilities of an optical, proximity-based gesture sensor and eye-tracker input systems. The design of both interfaces is being adapted to the open smart glasses platform that is being developed under the eGlasses project. Preliminary results obtained from the proximity sensor show that the recognition of different static and dynamic hand gestures is promising. The experiments performed for the eye-tracker module shown the possibility of interaction with simple Graphical User Interface provided by the near-to-eye display. Research leads to the conclusion of attractiveness of collaborative interfaces for interaction with smart glasses.

Heterogeneous silicon mesostructures for lipid-supported bioelectric interfaces

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jiang, Yuanwen; Carvalho-de-Souza, João L.; Wong, Raymond C. S.

Silicon-based materials have widespread application as biophysical tools and biomedical devices. Here we introduce a biocompatible and degradable mesostructured form of silicon with multi-scale structural and chemical heterogeneities. The material was synthesized using mesoporous silica as a template through a chemical vapour deposition process. It has an amorphous atomic structure, an ordered nanowire-based framework and random submicrometre voids, and shows an average Young’s modulus that is 2–3 orders of magnitude smaller than that of single-crystalline silicon. In addition, we used the heterogeneous silicon mesostructures to design a lipid-bilayer-supported bioelectric interface that is remotely controlled and temporally transient, and that permitsmore » non-genetic and subcellular optical modulation of the electrophysiology dynamics in single dorsal root ganglia neurons. Our findings suggest that the biomimetic expansion of silicon into heterogeneous and deformable forms can open up opportunities in extracellular biomaterial or bioelectric systems.« less

Heterogeneous silicon mesostructures for lipid-supported bioelectric interfaces

PubMed Central

Jiang, Yuanwen; Carvalho-de-Souza, João L.; Wong, Raymond C. S.; Luo, Zhiqiang; Isheim, Dieter; Zuo, Xiaobing; Nicholls, Alan W.; Jung, Il Woong; Yue, Jiping; Liu, Di-Jia; Wang, Yucai; De Andrade, Vincent; Xiao, Xianghui; Navrazhnykh, Luizetta; Weiss, Dara E.; Wu, Xiaoyang; Seidman, David N.; Bezanilla, Francisco; Tian, Bozhi

2017-01-01

Silicon-based materials have widespread application as biophysical tools and biomedical devices. Here we introduce a biocompatible and degradable mesostructured form of silicon with multiscale structural and chemical heterogeneities. The material was synthesized using mesoporous silica as a template through a chemical-vapor-deposition process. It has an amorphous atomic structure, an ordered nanowire-based framework, and random submicrometre voids, and shows an average Young’s modulus that is 2–3 orders of magnitude smaller than that of single crystalline silicon. In addition, we used the heterogeneous silicon mesostructures to design a lipid-bilayer-supported bioelectric interface that is remotely controlled and temporally transient, and that permits non-genetic and subcellular optical modulation of the electrophysiology dynamics in single dorsal root ganglia neurons. Our findings suggest that the biomimetic expansion of silicon into heterogeneous and deformable forms can open up opportunities in extracellular biomaterial or bioelectric systems. PMID:27348576

Evaluation of a high resolution silicon PET insert module

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grkovski, Milan; Brzezinski, Karol; Cindro, Vladimir; Clinthorne, Neal H.; Kagan, Harris; Lacasta, Carlos; Mikuž, Marko; Solaz, Carles; Studen, Andrej; Weilhammer, Peter; Žontar, Dejan

2015-07-01

Conventional PET systems can be augmented with additional detectors placed in close proximity of the region of interest. We developed a high resolution PET insert module to evaluate the added benefit of such a combination. The insert module consists of two back-to-back 1 mm thick silicon sensors, each segmented into 1040 1 mm2 pads arranged in a 40 by 26 array. A set of 16 VATAGP7.1 ASICs and a custom assembled data acquisition board were used to read out the signal from the insert module. Data were acquired in slice (2D) geometry with a Jaszczak phantom (rod diameters of 1.2-4.8 mm) filled with 18F-FDG and the images were reconstructed with ML-EM method. Both data with full and limited angular coverage from the insert module were considered and three types of coincidence events were combined. The ratio of high-resolution data that substantially improves quality of the reconstructed image for the region near the surface of the insert module was estimated to be about 4%. Results from our previous studies suggest that such ratio could be achieved at a moderate technological expense by using an equivalent of two insert modules (an effective sensor thickness of 4 mm).

High Temperature Silicon Carbide (SiC) Traction Motor Drive

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-08-09

UNCLASSIFIED Distribution Statement A. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. UNCLASSIFIED HIGH TEMPERATURE SILICON CARBIDE...be modular and conveniently distributed. Small component size and operation with high - temperature liquid coolant are essential factors in the...these densities, power modules capable of high - temperature operation were developed using SiC normally-off JFETs. This paper will discuss the unique

10Gbps monolithic silicon FTTH transceiver without laser diode for a new PON configuration.

PubMed

Zhang, Jing; Liow, Tsung-Yang; Lo, Guo-Qiang; Kwong, Dim-Lee

2010-03-01

A new passive optical network (PON) configuration and a novel silicon photonic transceiver architecture for optical network unit (ONU) are proposed, eliminating the need for an internal laser source in ONU. The Si transceiver is fully monolithic, includes integrated wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) filters, modulators (MOD) and photo-detectors (PD), and demonstrates low-cost high volume manufacturability.

Automated aray assembly, phase 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Daiello, R. V.

1979-01-01

A manufacturing process suitable for the large-scale production of silicon solar array modules at a cost of less than $500/peak kW is described. Factors which control the efficiency of ion implanted silicon solar cells, screen-printed thick film metallization, spray-on antireflection coating process, and panel assembly are discussed. Conclusions regarding technological readiness or cost effectiveness of individual process steps are presented.

A software module for implementing auditory and visual feedback on a video-based eye tracking system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosanlall, Bharat; Gertner, Izidor; Geri, George A.; Arrington, Karl F.

2016-05-01

We describe here the design and implementation of a software module that provides both auditory and visual feedback of the eye position measured by a commercially available eye tracking system. The present audio-visual feedback module (AVFM) serves as an extension to the Arrington Research ViewPoint EyeTracker, but it can be easily modified for use with other similar systems. Two modes of audio feedback and one mode of visual feedback are provided in reference to a circular area-of-interest (AOI). Auditory feedback can be either a click tone emitted when the user's gaze point enters or leaves the AOI, or a sinusoidal waveform with frequency inversely proportional to the distance from the gaze point to the center of the AOI. Visual feedback is in the form of a small circular light patch that is presented whenever the gaze-point is within the AOI. The AVFM processes data that are sent to a dynamic-link library by the EyeTracker. The AVFM's multithreaded implementation also allows real-time data collection (1 kHz sampling rate) and graphics processing that allow display of the current/past gaze-points as well as the AOI. The feedback provided by the AVFM described here has applications in military target acquisition and personnel training, as well as in visual experimentation, clinical research, marketing research, and sports training.

76 FR 80961 - Notice of Availability of the Record of Decision for the Sonoran Solar Energy Project, Arizona

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-12-27

... following major components or systems: PV modules/arrays; solar trackers and/or fixed support structures; an...;AZA34187] Notice of Availability of the Record of Decision for the Sonoran Solar Energy Project, Arizona... Management (BLM) announces the availability of the Record of Decision (ROD) for the Sonoran Solar Energy...

Proceedings of the 21st Project Integration Meeting

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1983-01-01

Progress made by the Flat Plate Solar Array Project during the period April 1982 to January 1983 is described. Reports on polysilicon refining, thin film solar cell and module technology development, central station electric utility activities, silicon sheet growth and characteristics, advanced photovoltaic materials, cell and processes research, module technology, environmental isolation, engineering sciences, module performance and failure analysis and project analysis and integration are included.

High-speed, Low Voltage, Miniature Electro-optic Modulators Based on Hybrid Photonic-Crystal/Polymer/Sol-Gel Technology

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-02-01

code) 01/02/2012 FINAL 15/11/2008 - 15/11/2011 High-speed, Low Voltage, Miniature Electro - optic Modulators Based on Hybrid Photonic-Crystal/Polymer... optic modulator, silicon photonics, integrated optics, electro - optic polymer, avionics, optical communications, sol-gel, nanotechnology U U U UU 25...2011 Program Manager: Dr. Charles Y-C Lee High-speed, Low Voltage, Miniature Electro - optic Modulators Based on Hybrid Photonic-Crystal/Polymer/Sol

Silicon solar cells with a total power capacity of 30 kilowatts

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1977-01-01

The bulk of the contract effort was carried out in the following two phases: Phase 1 -- module design, Pre-production module fabrication, inspection and test. Phase 2 -- Production, test and delivery. Effort during the first two months of the contract concentrated on design of a solar module to meet specification. Basic module design resulting from this effort is as follows: (1) frame design; (2) cell pan design; (3) cell interconnection; (4) encapsulation; (5) electrical performance.

Characterisation of novel thin n-in-p planar pixel modules for the ATLAS Inner Tracker upgrade

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beyer, J.-C.; La Rosa, A.; Macchiolo, A.; Nisius, R.; Savic, N.; Taibah, R.

2018-01-01

In view of the high luminosity phase of the LHC (HL-LHC) to start operation around 2026, a major upgrade of the tracker system for the ATLAS experiment is in preparation. The expected neutron equivalent fluence of up to 2.4×1016 1 MeV neq./cm2 at the innermost layer of the pixel detector poses the most severe challenge. Thanks to their low material budget and high charge collection efficiency after irradiation, modules made of thin planar pixel sensors are promising candidates to instrument these layers. To optimise the sensor layout for the decreased pixel cell size of 50×50 μm2, TCAD device simulations are being performed to investigate the charge collection efficiency before and after irradiation. In addition, sensors of 100-150 μm thickness, interconnected to FE-I4 read-out chips featuring the previous generation pixel cell size of 50×250 μm2, are characterised with testbeams at the CERN-SPS and DESY facilities. The performance of sensors with various designs, irradiated up to a fluence of 1×1016 neq./cm2, is compared in terms of charge collection and hit efficiency. A replacement of the two innermost pixel layers is foreseen during the lifetime of HL-LHC . The replacement will require several months of intervention, during which the remaining detector modules cannot be cooled. They are kept at room temperature, thus inducing an annealing. The performance of irradiated modules will be investigated with testbeam campaigns and the method of accelerated annealing at higher temperatures.

A Panel Prototype for the Mu2e Straw Tube Tracker at Fermilab

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lucà, Alessandra

The Mu2e experiment will search for coherent, neutrino-less conversion of muons into electrons in the Coulomb field of an aluminum nucleus with a sensitivity of four orders of magnitude better than previous experiments. The signature of this process is an electron with energy nearly equal to the muon mass. Mu2e relies on a precision (0.1%) measurement of the outgoing electron momentum to separate signal from background. In order to achieve this goal, Mu2e has chosen a very low-mass straw tracker, made of 20,736 5 mm diameter thin-walled (15more » $$\\mu$$m) Mylar straws, held under tension to avoid the need for supports within the active volume, and arranged in an approximately 3 m long by 0.7 m radius cylinder, operated in vacuum and a 1 T magnetic field. Groups of 96 straws are assembled into modules, called panels. We present the prototype and the assembly procedure for a Mu2e tracker panel built at Fermilab« less

A Detailed Analysis of Visible Defects Formed in Commercial Silicon Thin-Film Modules During Outdoor Exposure

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gerber, Andreas; Johnston, Steve; Olivera-Pimentel, Guillermo

We analyzed defects in silicon thin-film tandem (a-Si:H/..mu..c-Si:H) modules from an outdoor installation in India. The inspection of several affected modules reveals that most of the defects -- which optically appear as bright spots -- were formed primarily nearby the separation and series connection laser lines. Cross-sectional SEM analysis reveals that the bright spots emerge due to electrical isolation, caused by a delamination of the cell from the front TCO in the affected area. In addition, the morphology of the a-Si:H top cell differs in the delaminated area compared to the surrounding unaffected area. We propose that these effects aremore » potentially caused by an explosive and thermally triggered liberation of hydrogen from the a-Si:H layer. Electrical and thermal measurements reveal that these defects can impact the cell performance significantly.« less

3D silicon neural probe with integrated optical fibers for optogenetic modulation.

PubMed

Kim, Eric G R; Tu, Hongen; Luo, Hao; Liu, Bin; Bao, Shaowen; Zhang, Jinsheng; Xu, Yong

2015-07-21

Optogenetics is a powerful modality for neural modulation that can be useful for a wide array of biomedical studies. Penetrating microelectrode arrays provide a means of recording neural signals with high spatial resolution. It is highly desirable to integrate optics with neural probes to allow for functional study of neural tissue by optogenetics. In this paper, we report the development of a novel 3D neural probe coupled simply and robustly to optical fibers using a hollow parylene tube structure. The device shanks are hollow tubes with rigid silicon tips, allowing the insertion and encasement of optical fibers within the shanks. The position of the fiber tip can be precisely controlled relative to the electrodes on the shank by inherent design features. Preliminary in vivo rat studies indicate that these devices are capable of optogenetic modulation simultaneously with 3D neural signal recording.

Integrated resonant micro-optical gyroscope and method of fabrication

DOEpatents

Vawter, G Allen [Albuquerque, NM; Zubrzycki, Walter J [Sandia Park, NM; Guo, Junpeng [Albuquerque, NM; Sullivan, Charles T [Albuquerque, NM

2006-09-12

An integrated optic gyroscope is disclosed which is based on a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) having a bidirectional laser source, a pair of optical waveguide phase modulators and a pair of waveguide photodetectors. The PIC can be connected to a passive ring resonator formed either as a coil of optical fiber or as a coiled optical waveguide. The lasing output from each end of the bidirectional laser source is phase modulated and directed around the passive ring resonator in two counterpropagating directions, with a portion of the lasing output then being detected to determine a rotation rate for the integrated optical gyroscope. The coiled optical waveguide can be formed on a silicon, glass or quartz substrate with a silicon nitride core and a silica cladding, while the PIC includes a plurality of III V compound semiconductor layers including one or more quantum well layers which are disordered in the phase modulators and to form passive optical waveguides.

Monolithic short wave infrared (SWIR) detector array

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1983-01-01

A monolithic self-scanned linear detector array was developed for remote sensing in the 1.1- 2.4-micron spectral region. A high-density IRCCD test chip was fabricated to verify new design approaches required for the detector array. The driving factors in the Schottky barrier IRCCD (Pdsub2Si) process development are the attainment of detector yield, uniformity, adequate quantum efficiency, and lowest possible dark current consistent with radiometric accuracy. A dual-band module was designed that consists of two linear detector arrays. The sensor architecture places the floating diffusion output structure in the middle of the chip, away from the butt edges. A focal plane package was conceptualized and includes a polycrystalline silicon substrate carrying a two-layer, thick-film interconnecting conductor pattern and five epoxy-mounted modules. A polycrystalline silicon cover encloses the modules and bond wires, and serves as a radiation and EMI shield, thermal conductor, and contamination seal.

Ultralight monolithic photovoltaic modules of amorphous silicon alloys

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanak, J. J.

A process has been developed for fabrication of roll-up, monolithic, photovoltaic (PV) modules made of amorphous silicon (a-Si) alloys. They consist of tandem-junction solar cells deposited by a continuous, roll-to-roll process onto thin, foil substrates of bare metal, high temperature resin, or metal coated with insulators. They have the following characteristics: size, up to 71 cm x 30.5 cm; total thickness, 8 to 50 microns, power-to-weight and power-to-volume ratios at AM1, 2.4 kW/kg and 6.5 MW/cu m, respectively. Cells of a-Si alloys are up to 100 times as tolerant to irradiation with 1 MeV protons than crystalline cells and the damage is easily annealable. The modules have high power density and stability, they are portable, stowable, deployable, retractable, tolerant to radiation and meteorite or projectile impact, and attractive for terrestrial and aerospace applications.

Ultralight amorphous silicon alloy photovoltaic modules for space and terrestrial applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanak, J. J.; Fulton, C.; Myatt, A.; Nath, P.; Woodyard, J. R.

This paper gives a review and an update on recently developed ultralight photovoltaic modules based on amorphous silicon (a-Si) alloys. They consist of tandem-junction solar cells deposited by a continuous, roll-to-roll process onto thin, foil substrates of bare metal, high temperature resin or metal coated with insulators. They have the following features: size, up to 71 cm x 30.5 cm; total thickness, 8 to 50 microns; power-to-weight at AM1, 2.4 kW/kg; and power-to-volume ratio 6.5 MW/cu m. Cells of a-Si alloys are over 50 times more tolerant to irradiation with 1 MeV and with 200 keV protons than crystalline cells and the damage is easily annealable. The modules have high power density and stability, they are portable, stowable, deployable, retractable, tolerant to radiation and meteorite or projectile impact and attractive for terrestrial and aerospace applications.

Photovoltaic cell module and method of forming

DOEpatents

Howell, Malinda; Juen, Donnie; Ketola, Barry; Tomalia, Mary Kay

2017-12-12

A photovoltaic cell module, a photovoltaic array including at least two modules, and a method of forming the module are provided. The module includes a first outermost layer and a photovoltaic cell disposed on the first outermost layer. The module also includes a second outermost layer disposed on the photovoltaic cell and sandwiching the photovoltaic cell between the second outermost layer and the first outermost layer. The method of forming the module includes the steps of disposing the photovoltaic cell on the first outermost layer, disposing a silicone composition on the photovoltaic cell, and compressing the first outermost layer, the photovoltaic cell, and the second layer to form the photovoltaic cell module.

Vacuum stability testing of Apollo 15 Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) non-metallic materials and reversion of silicone rubber in a motor switch

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clancy, H. M.

1972-01-01

Vacuum stability screening tests were performed on the Apollo 15 Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) bay nonmetallic materials in accordance with the NASA document SP-R-0022. The testing was necessary to support the evaluation to determine the effect material outgassing contamination would have on the SIM bay optical lenses and sensing devices. The Apollo 15 SIM experiments were highly successful, therefore, it is assumed that contamination due to the outgassing of nonmetallic materials did not affect equipment operation. A related problem, the reversion of a silicone rubber grommet which affected an electrical motor switch operation is also reported.

A high-speed, tunable silicon photonic ring modulator integrated with ultra-efficient active wavelength control.

PubMed

Zheng, Xuezhe; Chang, Eric; Amberg, Philip; Shubin, Ivan; Lexau, Jon; Liu, Frankie; Thacker, Hiren; Djordjevic, Stevan S; Lin, Shiyun; Luo, Ying; Yao, Jin; Lee, Jin-Hyoung; Raj, Kannan; Ho, Ron; Cunningham, John E; Krishnamoorthy, Ashok V

2014-05-19

We report the first complete 10G silicon photonic ring modulator with integrated ultra-efficient CMOS driver and closed-loop wavelength control. A selective substrate removal technique was used to improve the ring tuning efficiency. Limited by the thermal tuner driver output power, a maximum open-loop tuning range of about 4.5nm was measured with about 14mW of total tuning power including the heater driver circuit power consumption. Stable wavelength locking was achieved with a low-power mixed-signal closed-loop wavelength controller. An active wavelength tracking range of > 500GHz was demonstrated with controller energy cost of only 20fJ/bit.

Large energy pulse generation modulated by graphene epitaxially grown on silicon carbide.

PubMed

Yu, Haohai; Chen, Xiufang; Zhang, Huaijin; Xu, Xiangang; Hu, Xiaobo; Wang, Zhengping; Wang, Jiyang; Zhuang, Shidong; Jiang, Minhua

2010-12-28

Graphene grown by thermal decomposition of a two-inch 6H silicon carbide (SiC) wafers surface was used to modulate a large energy pulse laser. Because of its saturable absorbing properties, graphene was used as a passive Q-switcher, and because of its high refractive index the SiC substrate was used as an output coupler. Together they formed a setup where the passively Q-switched neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG) crystal laser was realized with the pulse energy of 159.2 nJ. Our results illustrate the feasibility of using graphene as an inexpensive Q-switcher for solid-state lasers and its promising applications in integrated optics.

Mid-infrared integrated photonics on silicon: a perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Hongtao; Luo, Zhengqian; Gu, Tian; Kimerling, Lionel C.; Wada, Kazumi; Agarwal, Anu; Hu, Juejun

2017-12-01

The emergence of silicon photonics over the past two decades has established silicon as a preferred substrate platform for photonic integration. While most silicon-based photonic components have so far been realized in the near-infrared (near-IR) telecommunication bands, the mid-infrared (mid-IR, 2-20-μm wavelength) band presents a significant growth opportunity for integrated photonics. In this review, we offer our perspective on the burgeoning field of mid-IR integrated photonics on silicon. A comprehensive survey on the state-of-the-art of key photonic devices such as waveguides, light sources, modulators, and detectors is presented. Furthermore, on-chip spectroscopic chemical sensing is quantitatively analyzed as an example of mid-IR photonic system integration based on these basic building blocks, and the constituent component choices are discussed and contrasted in the context of system performance and integration technologies.

Biodegradable porous silicon barcode nanowires with defined geometry

PubMed Central

Chiappini, Ciro; Liu, Xuewu; Fakhoury, Jean Raymond; Ferrari, Mauro

2010-01-01

Silicon nanowires are of proven importance in diverse fields such as energy production and storage, flexible electronics, and biomedicine due to the unique characteristics emerging from their one-dimensional semiconducting nature and their mechanical properties. Here we report the synthesis of biodegradable porous silicon barcode nanowires by metal assisted electroless etch of single crystal silicon with resistivity ranging from 0.0008 Ω-cm to 10 Ω-cm. We define the geometry of the barcode nanowiresby nanolithography and we characterize their multicolor reflectance and photoluminescence. We develop phase diagrams for the different nanostructures obtained as a function of metal catalyst, H2O2 concentration, ethanol concentration and silicon resistivity, and propose a mechanism that explains these observations. We demonstrate that these nanowires are biodegradable, and their degradation time can be modulated by surface treatments. PMID:21057669

Sleeve reaction chamber system

DOEpatents

Northrup, M Allen [Berkeley, CA; Beeman, Barton V [San Mateo, CA; Benett, William J [Livermore, CA; Hadley, Dean R [Manteca, CA; Landre, Phoebe [Livermore, CA; Lehew, Stacy L [Livermore, CA; Krulevitch, Peter A [Pleasanton, CA

2009-08-25

A chemical reaction chamber system that combines devices such as doped polysilicon for heating, bulk silicon for convective cooling, and thermoelectric (TE) coolers to augment the heating and cooling rates of the reaction chamber or chambers. In addition the system includes non-silicon-based reaction chambers such as any high thermal conductivity material used in combination with a thermoelectric cooling mechanism (i.e., Peltier device). The heat contained in the thermally conductive part of the system can be used/reused to heat the device, thereby conserving energy and expediting the heating/cooling rates. The system combines a micromachined silicon reaction chamber, for example, with an additional module/device for augmented heating/cooling using the Peltier effect. This additional module is particularly useful in extreme environments (very hot or extremely cold) where augmented heating/cooling would be useful to speed up the thermal cycling rates. The chemical reaction chamber system has various applications for synthesis or processing of organic, inorganic, or biochemical reactions, including the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and/or other DNA reactions, such as the ligase chain reaction.

Solar cells and modules from dentritic web silicon

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Campbell, R. B.; Rohatgi, A.; Seman, E. J.; Davis, J. R.; Rai-Choudhury, P.; Gallagher, B. D.

1980-01-01

Some of the noteworthy features of the processes developed in the fabrication of solar cell modules are the handling of long lengths of web, the use of cost effective dip coating of photoresist and antireflection coatings, selective electroplating of the grid pattern and ultrasonic bonding of the cell interconnect. Data on the cells is obtained by means of dark I-V analysis and deep level transient spectroscopy. A histogram of over 100 dentritic web solar cells fabricated in a number of runs using different web crystals shows an average efficiency of over 13%, with some efficiencies running above 15%. Lower cell efficiency is generally associated with low minority carrier time due to recombination centers sometimes present in the bulk silicon. A cost analysis of the process sequence using a 25 MW production line indicates a selling price of $0.75/peak watt in 1986. It is concluded that the efficiency of dentritic web cells approaches that of float zone silicon cells, reduced somewhat by the lower bulk lifetime of the former.

Silicon pore optics for future x-ray telescopes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wille, Eric; Bavdaz, Marcos; Wallace, Kotska; Shortt, Brian; Collon, Maximilien; Ackermann, Marcelo; Günther, Ramses; Olde Riekerink, Mark; Koelewijn, Arenda; Haneveld, Jeroen; van Baren, Coen; Erhard, Markus; Kampf, Dirk; Christensen, Finn; Krumrey, Michael; Freyberg, Michael; Burwitz, Vadim

2017-11-01

Lightweight X-ray Wolter optics with a high angular resolution will enable the next generation of X-ray telescopes in space. The candidate mission ATHENA (Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics) required a mirror assembly of 1 m2 effective area (at 1 keV) and an angular resolution of 10 arcsec or better. These specifications can only be achieved with a novel technology like Silicon Pore Optics, which is being developed by ESA together with a consortium of European industry. Silicon Pore Optics are made of commercial Si wafers using process technology adapted from the semiconductor industry. We present the recent upgrades made to the manufacturing processes and equipment, ranging from the manufacture of single mirror plates towards complete focusing mirror modules mounted in flight configuration, and results from first vibration tests. The performance of the mirror modules is tested at X-ray facilities that were recently extended to measure optics at a focal distance up to 20 m.

Producing thin film photovoltaic modules with high integrity interconnects and dual layer contacts

DOEpatents

Jansen, Kai W.; Maley, Nagi

2000-01-01

High performance photovoltaic modules are produced with improved interconnects by a special process. Advantageously, the photovoltaic modules have a dual layer back (rear) contact and a front contact with at least one layer. The front contact and the inner layer of the back contact can comprise a transparent conductive oxide. The outer layer of the back contact can comprise a metal or metal oxide. The front contact can also have a dielectric layer. In one form, the dual layer back contact comprises a zinc oxide inner layer and an aluminum outer layer and the front contact comprises a tin oxide inner layer and a silicon dioxide dielectric outer layer. One or more amorphous silicon-containing thin film semiconductors can be deposited between the front and back contacts. The contacts can be positioned between a substrate and an optional superstrate. During production, the transparent conductive oxide layer of the front contact is scribed by a laser, then the amorphous silicon-containing semiconductors and inner layer of the dual layer back contact are simultaneously scribed and trenched (drilled) by the laser and the trench is subsequently filled with the same metal as the outer layer of the dual layer back contact to provide a superb mechanical and electrical interconnect between the front contact and the outer layer of the dual layer back contact. The outer layer of the dual layer back contact can then be scribed by the laser. For enhanced environmental protection, the photovoltaic modules can be encapsulated.

Producing thin film photovoltaic modules with high integrity interconnects and dual layer contacts

DOEpatents

Jansen, Kai W.; Maley, Nagi

2001-01-01

High performance photovoltaic modules are produced with improved interconnects by a special process. Advantageously, the photovoltaic modules have a dual layer back (rear) contact and a front contact with at least one layer. The front contact and the inner layer of the back contact can comprise a transparent conductive oxide. The outer layer of the back contact can comprise a metal or metal oxide. The front contact can also have a dielectric layer. In one form, the dual layer back contact comprises a zinc oxide inner layer and an aluminum outer layer and the front contact comprises a tin oxide inner layer and a silicon dioxide dielectric outer layer. One or more amorphous silicon-containing thin film semiconductors can be deposited between the front and back contacts. The contacts can be positioned between a substrate and an optional superstrate. During production, the transparent conductive oxide layer of the front contact is scribed by a laser, then the amorphous silicon-containing semiconductors and inner layer of the dual layer back contact are simultaneously scribed and trenched (drilled) by the laser and the trench is subsequently filled with the same metal as the outer layer of the dual layer back contact to provide a superb mechanical and electrical interconnect between the front contact and the outer layer of the dual layer back contact. The outer layer of the dual layer back contact can then be scribed by the laser. For enhanced environmental protection, the photovoltaic modules can be encapsulated.

Fabrication of Feedhorn-Coupled Transition Edge Sensor Arrays for Measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Denis, K. L.; Ali, A.; Appel, J.; Bennett, C. L.; Chang, M. P.; Chuss, D. T.; Colazo, F. A.; Costen, N.; Essinger-Hileman, T.; Hu, R.;

Fabrication of Feedhorn-Coupled Transition Edge Sensor Arrays for Measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Denis, Kevin L.; Aamir, A.; Bennett, C. L.; Chang, M. P.; Chuss, D. T.; Colazo, F. A.; Costen, N.; Essinger-Hileman, T.; Hu, R.; Marriage, T.;

Ultracompact electro-optic phase modulator based on III-V-on-silicon microdisk resonator.

PubMed

Lloret, J; Kumar, R; Sales, S; Ramos, F; Morthier, G; Mechet, P; Spuesens, T; Van Thourhout, D; Olivier, N; Fédéli, J-M; Capmany, J

2012-06-15

A novel ultracompact electro-optic phase modulator based on a single 9 μm-diameter III-V microdisk resonator heterogeneously integrated on and coupled to a nanophotonic waveguide is presented. Modulation is enabled by effective index modification through carrier injection. Proof-of-concept implementation involving binary phase shift keying modulation format is assembled. A power imbalance of ∼0.6  dB between both symbols and a modulation rate up to 1.8 Gbps are demonstrated without using any special driving technique.

Ultra-wide band signal generation using a coupling-tunable silicon microring resonator.

PubMed

Ding, Yunhong; Huang, Bo; Peucheret, Christophe; Xu, Jing; Ou, Haiyan; Zhang, Xinliang; Huang, Dexiu

2014-03-10

Ultra-wide band signal generation using a silicon microring resonator tuned to an NRZ-DPSK modulated optical carrier is proposed and demonstrated. The scheme is shown to enable the generation of UWB signals with switchable polarity and tunable bandwidth by simply tuning the coupling regions of the microring resonator. Monocycle pulses with both negative and positive polarities are successfully synthesized experimentally.

Nanophotonic Devices in Silicon for Nonlinear Optics

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-10-15

record performance  Demonstration of world‟s lowest loss slot waveguides, made in a DOD-trusted foundry (BAE Systems)  Design study showing...highly-cited design study.  Design study on analog links using the above modulators.  Demonstration of the first silicon waveguides for the mid...Hochberg. Design of transmission line driven slot waveguide Mach-Zehnder interferometers and application to analog optical links. Optics Express 2010

Reconfigurable Cellular Photonic Crystal Arrays (RCPA)

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-03-01

signal processing based on reconfigurable integrated optics devices. This technology has the potential to revolutionize the design circle of optical...Accomplishments III.A. Design and fabrication of an accumulation-mode modulator Figure 1(a) shows the schematic of a compact resonator on the double-Si... integration of silicon nitride on silicon-on-insulator platform to enhance the arsenal of photonic circuit designers . The coherent integration of

Technological processes of grating light valve as diffractive spatial light modulator in laser phototypesetting system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Wei; Geng, Yu; Hou, Changlun; Yang, Guoguang; Bai, Jian

2008-11-01

Grating Light Valve (GLV) is a kind of optics device based on Micro-Opto-Electro-Mechanical System (MOEMS) technology, utilizing diffraction principle to switch, attenuate and modulate light. In this paper, traditional GLV device's structure and its working principle are illuminated, and a kind of modified GLV structure is presented, with details introduction of the fabrication technology. The GLV structure includes single crystal silicon substrate, silicon dioxide isolating layer, aluminum layer of fixed ribbons and silicon nitride of movable ribbons. In the fabrication, lots of techniques are adopted, such as low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD), photolithography, etching and evaporation. During the fabrication processes, Photolithography is a fundamental and fatal technology, which determines etching result and GLV quality. Some methods are proposed through repeated experiments, to improve etching result greatly and guide the practical application. This kind of GLV device can be made both small and inexpensively, and has been tested to show proper range of actuation under DC bias, with good performance. The GLV device also has merits such as low cost, simple technology, high fill ratio and low driving voltage. It can properly be well used and match the demands of high light power needed in laser phototypesetting system, as a high-speed, high-resolution light modulator.

Public release of optimization of metallization scheme for thin emitter wrap-through solar cells for higher efficiency, reduced precious metal costs, and reduced stress.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ruby, Douglas Scott; Murphy, Brian; Meakin, David

2008-08-01

Back-contact crystalline-silicon photovoltaic solar cells and modules offer a number of advantages, including the elimination of grid shadowing losses, reduced cost through use of thinner silicon substrates, simpler module assembly, and improved aesthetics. While the existing edge tab method for interconnecting and stringing edge-connected back contact cells is acceptably straightforward and reliable, there are further gains to be exploited when you have both contact polarities on one side of the cell. In this work, we produce 'busbarless' emitter wrap-through solar cells that use 41% of the gridline silver (Ag) metallization mass compared to the edge tab design. Further, series resistancemore » power losses are reduced by extraction of current from more places on the cell rear, leading to a fill factor improvement of about 6% (relative) on the module level. Series resistance and current-generation losses associated with large rear bondpads and busbars are eliminated. Use of thin silicon (Si) wafers is enabled because of the reduced Ag metallization mass and by interconnection with conductive adhesives leading to reduced bow. The busbarless cell design interconnected with conductive adhesives passes typical International Electrotechnical Commission damp heat and thermal cycling test.« less

An extensive investigation of work function modulated trapezoidal recessed channel MOSFET

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lenka, Annada Shankar; Mishra, Sikha; Mishra, Satyaranjan; Bhanja, Urmila; Mishra, Guru Prasad

2017-11-01

The concept of silicon on insulator (SOI) and grooved gate help to lessen the short channel effects (SCEs). Again the work function modulation along the metal gate gives a better drain current due to the uniform electric field along the channel. So all these concepts are combined and used in the proposed MOSFET structure for more improved performance. In this work, trapezoidal recessed channel silicon on insulator (TRC-SOI) MOSFET and work function modulated trapezoidal recessed channel silicon on insulator (WFM-TRC-SOI) MOSFET are compared with DC and RF parameters and later linearity of both the devices is tested. An analytical model is formulated by using a 2-D Poisson's equation and develops a compact equation for threshold voltage using minimum surface potential. In this work we analyze the effect of negative junction depth and the corner angle on various device parameters such as minimum surface potential, sub-threshold slope (SS), drain induced barrier lowering (DIBL) and threshold voltage. The analysis interprets that the switching performance of WFM-TRC-SOI MOSFET surpasses TRC-SOI MOSFET in terms of high Ion/Ioff ratio and also the proposed structure can minimize the short channel effects (SCEs) in RF application. The validity of proposed model has been verified with simulation result performed on Sentaurus TCAD device simulator.

EFG solar modules

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1978-01-01

Six photovoltaic modules using solar cells fabricated from silicon ribbons were assembled and delivered to JPL. Each module was comprised of four separate submodules which were parallel connected. The submodules contained 45 EFG cells which were series interconnected by a shingle or overlapping design. The inherent rectangular shape of the cells allowed a high packing factor to be achieved. The average efficiency of the six modules, corrected to AM1 at 28 C was 8.7%, which indicates that the average encapsulated cell efficiency was 10.0%.

An ultralow power athermal silicon modulator

PubMed Central

Timurdogan, Erman; Sorace-Agaskar, Cheryl M.; Sun, Jie; Shah Hosseini, Ehsan; Biberman, Aleksandr; Watts, Michael R.

2014-01-01

Silicon photonics has emerged as the leading candidate for implementing ultralow power wavelength–division–multiplexed communication networks in high-performance computers, yet current components (lasers, modulators, filters and detectors) consume too much power for the high-speed femtojoule-class links that ultimately will be required. Here we demonstrate and characterize the first modulator to achieve simultaneous high-speed (25 Gb s−1), low-voltage (0.5 VPP) and efficient 0.9 fJ per bit error-free operation. This low-energy high-speed operation is enabled by a record electro-optic response, obtained in a vertical p–n junction device that at 250 pm V−1 (30 GHz V−1) is up to 10 times larger than prior demonstrations. In addition, this record electro-optic response is used to compensate for thermal drift over a 7.5 °C temperature range with little additional energy consumption (0.24 fJ per bit for a total energy consumption below 1.03 J per bit). The combined results of highly efficient modulation and electro-optic thermal compensation represent a new paradigm in modulator development and a major step towards single-digit femtojoule-class communications. PMID:24915772

Results of module electrical measurement of the DOE 46-kilowatt procurement

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Curtis, H. B.

1978-01-01

Current-voltage measurements have been made on terrestrial solar cell modules of the DOE/JPL Low Cost Silicon Solar Array procurement. Data on short circuit current, open circuit voltage, and maximum power for the four types of modules are presented in normalized form, showing distribution of the measured values. Standard deviations from the mean values are also given. Tests of the statistical significance of the data are discussed.

3D packaging of a microfluidic system with sensory applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morrissey, Anthony; Kelly, Gerard; Alderman, John C.

1997-09-01

Among the main benefits of microsystem technology are its contributions to cost reductio, reliability and improved performance. however, the packaging of microsystems, and particularly microsensor, has proven to be one of the biggest limitations to their commercialization and the packaging of silicon sensor devices can be the most costly part of their fabrication. This paper describes the integration of 3D packaging of a microsystem. Central to the operation of the 3D demonstrator is a micromachined silicon membrane pump to supply fluids to a sensing chamber constructed about the active area of a sensor chip. This chip carries ISFET based chemical sensors, pressure sensors and thermal sensors. The electronics required for controlling and regulating the activity of the various sensors ar also available on this chip and as other chips in the 3D assembly. The demonstrator also contains a power supply module with optical fiber interconnections. All of these modules are integrated into a single plastic- encapsulated 3D vertical multichip module. The reliability of such a structure, initially proposed by Val was demonstrated by Barrett et al. An additional module available for inclusion in some of our assemblies is a test chip capable of measuring the packaging-induced stress experienced during and after assembly. The packaging process described produces a module with very high density and utilizes standard off-the-shelf components to minimize costs. As the sensor chip and micropump include micromachined silicon membranes and microvalves, the packaging of such structures has to allow consideration for the minimization of the packaging-induced stresses. With this in mind, low stress techniques, including the use of soft glob-top materials, were employed.

The design of the JUNO veto system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, H.; Baussan, E.; experiment, JUNO

2017-09-01

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is a multipurpose 20 kton liquid scintillator detector. The detector will be built in a 700 m deep underground laboratory, and its primary physics goal will be to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy. Due to the low background requirement of the experiment, a multi-veto system for cosmic muon detection and background reduction is designed. The volume outside the central detector is filled with pure water and equipped with 2000 MCP-PMTs (20 inches) to form a water Cherenkov detector for muon tagging. A Top Tracker system will be built by re-using the Target Tracker plastic scintillator modules of the OPERA experiment and will cover half of the top area. This will provide valuable information for cosmic muon induced 9Li/8He study.

Origin of dislocation luminescence centers and their reorganization in p-type silicon crystal subjected to plastic deformation and high temperature annealing.

PubMed

Pavlyk, Bohdan; Kushlyk, Markiyan; Slobodzyan, Dmytro

2017-12-01

Changes of the defect structure of silicon p-type crystal surface layer under the influence of plastic deformation and high temperature annealing in oxygen atmosphere were investigated by deep-level capacitance-modulation spectroscopy (DLCMS) and IR spectroscopy of molecules and atom vibrational levels. Special role of dislocations in the surface layer of silicon during the formation of its energy spectrum and rebuilding the defective structure was established. It is shown that the concentration of linear defects (N ≥ 10 4  cm -2 ) enriches surface layer with electrically active complexes (dislocation-oxygen, dislocation-vacancy, and dislocation-interstitial atoms of silicon) which are an effective radiative recombination centers.

Heterogeneous integration of lithium niobate and silicon nitride waveguides for wafer-scale photonic integrated circuits on silicon.

PubMed

Chang, Lin; Pfeiffer, Martin H P; Volet, Nicolas; Zervas, Michael; Peters, Jon D; Manganelli, Costanza L; Stanton, Eric J; Li, Yifei; Kippenberg, Tobias J; Bowers, John E

2017-02-15

An ideal photonic integrated circuit for nonlinear photonic applications requires high optical nonlinearities and low loss. This work demonstrates a heterogeneous platform by bonding lithium niobate (LN) thin films onto a silicon nitride (Si₃N₄) waveguide layer on silicon. It not only provides large second- and third-order nonlinear coefficients, but also shows low propagation loss in both the Si₃N₄ and the LN-Si₃N₄ waveguides. The tapers enable low-loss-mode transitions between these two waveguides. This platform is essential for various on-chip applications, e.g., modulators, frequency conversions, and quantum communications.

Optofluidic encapsulation and manipulation of silicon microchips using image processing based optofluidic maskless lithography and railed microfluidics.

PubMed

Chung, Su Eun; Lee, Seung Ah; Kim, Jiyun; Kwon, Sunghoon

2009-10-07

We demonstrate optofluidic encapsulation of silicon microchips using image processing based optofluidic maskless lithography and manipulation using railed microfluidics. Optofluidic maskless lithography is a dynamic photopolymerization technique of free-floating microstructures within a fluidic channel using spatial light modulator. Using optofluidic maskless lithography via computer-vision aided image processing, polymer encapsulants are fabricated for chip protection and guiding-fins for efficient chip conveying within a fluidic channel. Encapsulated silicon chips with guiding-fins are assembled using railed microfluidics, which is an efficient guiding and heterogeneous self-assembly system of microcomponents. With our technology, externally fabricated silicon microchips are encapsulated, fluidically guided and self-assembled potentially enabling low cost fluidic manipulation and assembly of integrated circuits.

Quantitative analysis of defects in silicon. Silicon sheet growth development for the large are silicon sheet task of the low-cost solar array project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Natesh, R.; Smith, J. M.; Bruce, T.; Oidwai, H. A.

1980-01-01

One hundred and seventy four silicon sheet samples were analyzed for twin boundary density, dislocation pit density, and grain boundary length. Procedures were developed for the quantitative analysis of the twin boundary and dislocation pit densities using a QTM-720 Quantitative Image Analyzing system. The QTM-720 system was upgraded with the addition of a PDP 11/03 mini-computer with dual floppy disc drive, a digital equipment writer high speed printer, and a field-image feature interface module. Three versions of a computer program that controls the data acquisition and analysis on the QTM-720 were written. Procedures for the chemical polishing and etching were also developed.

The AMS tracking detector for cosmic-ray physics in space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bourquin, Maurice; AMS Tracker Collaboration

2005-04-01

AMS-02 is a general-purpose spectrometer designed to measure cosmic rays and gamma rays in near-Earth orbit. The main scientific motivations are the search for cosmic anti-matter, the search for dark matter, precision measurements on the relative abundance of different nuclei and isotopes, as well as the measurement of very high-energy gamma rays. Constructed by a large international collaboration of institutes from America, Asia and Europe, it will collect data on the International Space Station for a period of at least three years. In this contribution, I first identify the various detector requirements necessary to carry out this ambitious program. In particular, a large-area silicon microstrip detector inside a 0.8 T superconducting magnet is well suited to measure rigidity p/Z and specific energy loss d E/d x of cosmic rays, as well as the direction and energy of converted gamma rays. I review the advantage of such a silicon-tracking detector, taking into account the constraints of the space environment. The collaboration has gained extensive operating experience with double-sided silicon sensors in beam tests, and above all with AMS-01, a precursor spectrometer flown in the cargo bay of the Shuttle Discovery. During the entire 10-day STS-91 mission, the Silicon Tracker functioned without fault and with good spatial resolution. From the lessons learned with AMS-01, improvements were made to the design and assembly procedure of the 2500 sensors of AMS-02. As a result, the charge identification has been extended from Oxygen ( Z=8) to Iron ( Z=26). The physics reach of the new spectrometer is presented.

Silicon-sheet and thin-film cell and module technology potential: Issue study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shimada, K.; Costogue, E. N.; Ferber, R. R.

1984-01-01

The development of high-efficiency low-cost crystalline silicon ribbon and thih-film solar cells for the energy national photovoltaics program was examined. The findings of an issue study conducted are presented. The collected data identified the status of the technology, future research needs, and problems experienced. The potentials of present research activities to meet the Federal/industry long-term technical goal of achieving 15 cents per kilowatt-hour levelized PV energy cost are assessed. Recommendations for future research needs related to crystalline silicon ribbon and thin-film technologies for flat-plate collectors are also included.

Silicon-integrated thin-film structure for electro-optic applications

DOEpatents

McKee, Rodney A.; Walker, Frederick Joseph

2000-01-01

A crystalline thin-film structure suited for use in any of an number of electro-optic applications, such as a phase modulator or a component of an interferometer, includes a semiconductor substrate of silicon and a ferroelectric, optically-clear thin film of the perovskite BaTiO.sub.3 overlying the surface of the silicon substrate. The BaTiO.sub.3 thin film is characterized in that substantially all of the dipole moments associated with the ferroelectric film are arranged substantially parallel to the surface of the substrate to enhance the electro-optic qualities of the film.

Spalling of a Thin Si Layer by Electrodeposit-Assisted Stripping

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kwon, Youngim; Yang, Changyol; Yoon, Sang-Hwa; Um, Han-Don; Lee, Jung-Ho; Yoo, Bongyoung

2013-11-01

A major goal in solar cell research is to reduce the cost of the final module. Reducing the thickness of the crystalline silicon substrate to several tens of micrometers can reduce material costs. In this work, we describe the electrodeposition of a Ni-P alloy, which induces high stress in the silicon substrate at room temperature. The induced stress enables lift-off of the thin-film silicon substrate. After lift-off of the thin Si film, the mother substrate can be reused, reducing material costs. Moreover, the low-temperature process expected to be improved Si substrate quality.

Space Qualification Test of a-Silicon Solar Cell Modules

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kim, Q.; Lawton, R. A.; Manion, S. J.; Okuno, J. O.; Ruiz, R. P.; Vu, D. T.; Vu, D. T.; Kayali, S. A.; Jeffrey, F. R.

2004-01-01

The basic requirements of solar cell modules for space applications are generally described in MIL-S-83576 for the specific needs of the USAF. However, the specifications of solar cells intended for use on space terrestrial applications are not well defined. Therefore, this qualifications test effort was concentrated on critical areas specific to the microseismometer probe which is intended to be included in the Mars microprobe programs. Parameters that were evaluated included performance dependence on: illuminating angles, terrestrial temperatures, lifetime, as well as impact landing conditions. Our qualification efforts were limited to these most critical areas of concern. Most of the tested solar cell modules have met the requirements of the program except the impact tests. Surprisingly, one of the two single PIN 2 x 1 amorphous solar cell modules continued to function even after the 80000G impact tests. The output power parameters, Pout, FF, Isc and Voc, of the single PIN amorphous solar cell module were found to be 3.14 mW, 0.40, 9.98 mA and 0.78 V, respectively. These parameters are good enough to consider the solar module as a possible power source for the microprobe seismometer. Some recommendations were made to improve the usefulness of the amorphous silicon solar cell modules in space terrestrial applications, based on the results obtained from the intensive short term lab test effort.

Recycling WEEE: Polymer characterization and pyrolysis study for waste of crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules.

PubMed

Dias, Pablo; Javimczik, Selene; Benevit, Mariana; Veit, Hugo

2017-02-01

Photovoltaic (PV) modules contain both valuable and hazardous materials, which makes its recycling meaningful economically and environmentally. In general, the recycling of PV modules starts with the removal of the polymeric ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) resin using pyrolysis, which assists in the recovery of materials such as silicon, copper and silver. The pyrolysis implementation, however, needs improvement given its importance. In this study, the polymers in the PV modules were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and the removal of the EVA resin using pyrolysis has been studied and optimized. The results revealed that 30min pyrolysis at 500°C removes >99% of the polymers present in photovoltaic modules. Moreover, the behavior of different particle size milled modules during the pyrolysis process was evaluated. It is shown that polymeric materials tend to remain at a larger particle size and thus, this fraction has the greatest mass loss during pyrolysis. A thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) performed in all polymeric matter revealed the optimum pyrolysis temperature is around 500°C. Temperatures above 500°C continue to degrade matter, but mass loss rate is 6.25 times smaller. This study demonstrates the use of pyrolysis can remove >99% of the polymeric matter from PV modules, which assists the recycling of this hazardous waste and avoids its disposal. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sideband pump-probe technique resolves nonlinear modulation response of PbS/CdS quantum dots on a silicon nitride waveguide

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kolarczik, Mirco; Ulbrich, Christian; Geiregat, Pieter; Zhu, Yunpeng; Sagar, Laxmi Kishore; Singh, Akshay; Herzog, Bastian; Achtstein, Alexander W.; Li, Xiaoqin; van Thourhout, Dries; Hens, Zeger; Owschimikow, Nina; Woggon, Ulrike

2018-01-01

For possible applications of colloidal nanocrystals in optoelectronics and nanophotonics, it is of high interest to study their response at low excitation intensity with high repetition rates, as switching energies in the pJ/bit to sub-pJ/bit range are targeted. We develop a sensitive pump-probe method to study the carrier dynamics in colloidal PbS/CdS quantum dots deposited on a silicon nitride waveguide after excitation by laser pulses with an average energy of few pJ/pulse. We combine an amplitude modulation of the pump pulse with phase-sensitive heterodyne detection. This approach permits to use co-linearly propagating co-polarized pulses. The method allows resolving transmission changes of the order of 10-5 and phase changes of arcseconds. We find a modulation on a sub-nanosecond time scale caused by Auger processes and biexciton decay in the quantum dots. With ground state lifetimes exceeding 1 μs, these processes become important for possible realizations of opto-electronic switching and modulation based on colloidal quantum dots emitting in the telecommunication wavelength regime.

Packaging of ferroelectric liquid crystal-on-silicon spatial light modulators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, W.; Morozova, Nina D.; Ju, TehHua; Zhang, Weidong; Lee, Yung-Cheng; McKnight, Douglas J.; Johnson, Kristina M.

1996-11-01

A self-pulling soldering technology has been demonstrated for assembling liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) spatial light modulators (SLMs). One of the major challenges in manufacturing the LCOS modules is to reproducibly control the thickness of the gap between the very large scale integrated circuit (VLSI) chip and the cover glass. The liquid crystal material is sandwiched between the VLSI chop and the cover glass which is coated with a transparent conductor. Solder joints with different profiles and sizes have been designed to provide surface tension forces to control the gap accommodating the ferroelectric liquid crystal layer in the range of a micron level with sub- micron uniformity. The optimum solder joint design is defined as a joint that results in the maximum pulling force. This technology provides an automatic, batch assembly process for a LCOS SLM through one reflow process. Fluxless soldering technology is used to assemble the module. This approach avoids residues from chemical of flux and oxides, and eliminates potential contamination to the device. Two different LCOS SLM designs and the process optimization are described.

Mueller-Stokes characterization and optimization of a liquid crystal on silicon display showing depolarization.

PubMed

Márquez, A; Moreno, I; Iemmi, C; Lizana, A; Campos, J; Yzuel, M J

2008-02-04

In this paper we characterize the polarimetric properties of a liquid crystal on silicon display (LCoS), including depolarization and diattenuation which are usually not considered when applying the LCoS in diffractive or adaptive optics. On one hand, we have found that the LCoS generates a certain degree (that can be larger than a 10%) of depolarized light, which depends on the addressed gray level and on the incident state of polarization (SOP), and can not be ignored in the above mentioned applications. The main origin of the depolarized light is related with temporal fluctuations of the SOP of the light reflected by the LCoS. The Mueller matrix of the LCoS is measured as a function of the gray level, which enables for a numerical optimization of the intensity modulation configurations. In particular we look for maximum intensity contrast modulation or for constant intensity modulation. By means of a heuristic approach we show that, using elliptically polarized light, amplitude-mostly or phase-mostly modulation can be obtained at a wavelength of 633 nm.

A strong electro-optically active lead-free ferroelectric integrated on silicon

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abel, Stefan; Stöferle, Thilo; Marchiori, Chiara; Rossel, Christophe; Rossell, Marta D.; Erni, Rolf; Caimi, Daniele; Sousa, Marilyne; Chelnokov, Alexei; Offrein, Bert J.; Fompeyrine, Jean

2013-04-01

The development of silicon photonics could greatly benefit from the linear electro-optical properties, absent in bulk silicon, of ferroelectric oxides, as a novel way to seamlessly connect the electrical and optical domain. Of all oxides, barium titanate exhibits one of the largest linear electro-optical coefficients, which has however not yet been explored for thin films on silicon. Here we report on the electro-optical properties of thin barium titanate films epitaxially grown on silicon substrates. We extract a large effective Pockels coefficient of reff=148 pm V-1, which is five times larger than in the current standard material for electro-optical devices, lithium niobate. We also reveal the tensor nature of the electro-optical properties, as necessary for properly designing future devices, and furthermore unambiguously demonstrate the presence of ferroelectricity. The integration of electro-optical active films on silicon could pave the way towards power-efficient, ultra-compact integrated devices, such as modulators, tuning elements and bistable switches.

Graphene-assisted ultra-compact polarization splitter and rotator with an extended bandwidth.

PubMed

Zhang, Tian; Ke, Xianmin; Yin, Xiang; Chen, Lin; Li, Xun

2017-09-22

The high refraction-index contrast between silicon and the surrounding cladding makes silicon-on-insulator devices highly polarization-dependent. However, it is greatly desirable for many applications to address the issue of polarization dependence in silicon photonics. Here, a novel ultra-compact polarization splitter and rotator (PSR), constructed with an asymmetrical directional coupler consisting of a rib silicon waveguide and a graphene-embedded rib silicon waveguide (GERSW), on a silicon-on-insulator platform is proposed and investigated. By taking advantage of the large modulation of the effective refractive index of the TE mode for the GERSW by tuning the chemical potential of graphene, the phase matching condition can be well satisfied over a wide spectral band. The presented result demonstrates that for a 7-layer-graphene-embedded PSR with a coupling length of 11.1 μm, a high TM-to-TE conversion efficiency (>-0.5 dB) can be achieved over a broad bandwidth from 1516 to 1602 nm.

Breathing silicon anodes for durable high-power operations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hwang, Chihyun; Joo, Sehun; Kang, Na-Ri; Lee, Ungju; Kim, Tae-Hee; Jeon, Yuju; Kim, Jieun; Kim, Young-Jin; Kim, Ju-Young; Kwak, Sang-Kyu; Song, Hyun-Kon

2015-09-01

Silicon anode materials have been developed to achieve high capacity lithium ion batteries for operating smart phones and driving electric vehicles for longer time. Serious volume expansion induced by lithiation, which is the main drawback of silicon, has been challenged by multi-faceted approaches. Mechanically rigid and stiff polymers (e.g. alginate and carboxymethyl cellulose) were considered as the good choices of binders for silicon because they grab silicon particles in a tight and rigid way so that pulverization and then break-away of the active mass from electric pathways are suppressed. Contrary to the public wisdom, in this work, we demonstrate that electrochemical performances are secured better by letting silicon electrodes breathe in and out lithium ions with volume change rather than by fixing their dimensions. The breathing electrodes were achieved by using a polysaccharide (pullulan), the conformation of which is modulated from chair to boat during elongation. The conformational transition of pullulan was originated from its α glycosidic linkages while the conventional rigid polysaccharide binders have β linkages.

Study of the material of the ATLAS inner detector for Run 2 of the LHC

DOE PAGES

Aaboud, M.; Aad, G.; Abbott, B.; ...

2017-12-07

The ATLAS inner detector comprises three different sub-detectors: the pixel detector, the silicon strip tracker, and the transition-radiation drift-tube tracker. The Insertable B-Layer, a new innermost pixel layer, was installed during the shutdown period in 2014, together with modifications to the layout of the cables and support structures of the existing pixel detector. The material in the inner detector is studied with several methods, using a low-luminosity √s=13 TeV pp collision sample corresponding to around 2.0 nb -1 collected in 2015 with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. In this paper, the material within the innermost barrel region is studiedmore » using reconstructed hadronic interaction and photon conversion vertices. For the forward rapidity region, the material is probed by a measurement of the efficiency with which single tracks reconstructed from pixel detector hits alone can be extended with hits on the track in the strip layers. The results of these studies have been taken into account in an improved description of the material in the ATLAS inner detector simulation, resulting in a reduction in the uncertainties associated with the charged-particle reconstruction efficiency determined from simulation.« less

Study of the material of the ATLAS inner detector for Run 2 of the LHC

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Aaboud, M.; Aad, G.; Abbott, B.

The ATLAS inner detector comprises three different sub-detectors: the pixel detector, the silicon strip tracker, and the transition-radiation drift-tube tracker. The Insertable B-Layer, a new innermost pixel layer, was installed during the shutdown period in 2014, together with modifications to the layout of the cables and support structures of the existing pixel detector. The material in the inner detector is studied with several methods, using a low-luminosity √s=13 TeV pp collision sample corresponding to around 2.0 nb -1 collected in 2015 with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. In this paper, the material within the innermost barrel region is studiedmore » using reconstructed hadronic interaction and photon conversion vertices. For the forward rapidity region, the material is probed by a measurement of the efficiency with which single tracks reconstructed from pixel detector hits alone can be extended with hits on the track in the strip layers. The results of these studies have been taken into account in an improved description of the material in the ATLAS inner detector simulation, resulting in a reduction in the uncertainties associated with the charged-particle reconstruction efficiency determined from simulation.« less

Study of the material of the ATLAS inner detector for Run 2 of the LHC

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Aaboud, M.; Aad, G.; Abbott, B.

The ATLAS inner detector comprises three different sub-detectors: the pixel detector, the silicon strip tracker, and the transition-radiation drift-tube tracker. The Insertable B-Layer, a new innermost pixel layer, was installed during the shutdown period in 2014, together with modifications to the layout of the cables and support structures of the existing pixel detector. The material in the inner detector is studied with several methods, using a low-luminosity √s = 13 TeV pp collision sample corresponding to around 2.0 nb -1 collected in 2015 with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. In this paper, the material within the innermost barrel regionmore » is studied using reconstructed hadronic interaction and photon conversion vertices. For the forward rapidity region, the material is probed by a measurement of the efficiency with which single tracks reconstructed from pixel detector hits alone can be extended with hits on the track in the strip layers. The results of these studies have been taken into account in an improved description of the material in the ATLAS inner detector simulation, resulting in a reduction in the uncertainties associated with the charged-particle reconstruction efficiency determined from simulation.« less

Study of the material of the ATLAS inner detector for Run 2 of the LHC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aaboud, M.; Aad, G.; Abbott, B.; Abdallah, J.; Abdinov, O.; Abeloos, B.; Abidi, S. H.; AbouZeid, O. S.; Abraham, N. L.; Abramowicz, H.; Abreu, H.; Abreu, R.; Abulaiti, Y.; Acharya, B. S.; Adachi, S.; Adamczyk, L.; Adelman, J.; Adersberger, M.; Adye, T.; Affolder, A. A.; Agatonovic-Jovin, T.; Agheorghiesei, C.; Aguilar-Saavedra, J. A.; Ahlen, S. P.; Ahmadov, F.; Aielli, G.; Akatsuka, S.; Akerstedt, H.; Åkesson, T. P. A.; Akilli, E.; Akimov, A. V.; Alberghi, G. L.; Albert, J.; Albicocco, P.; Alconada Verzini, M. J.; Aleksa, M.; Aleksandrov, I. N.; Alexa, C.; Alexander, G.; Alexopoulos, T.; Alhroob, M.; Ali, B.; Aliev, M.; Alimonti, G.; Alison, J.; Alkire, S. P.; Allbrooke, B. M. M.; Allen, B. W.; Allport, P. P.; Aloisio, A.; Alonso, A.; Alonso, F.; Alpigiani, C.; Alshehri, A. A.; Alstaty, M.; Alvarez Gonzalez, B.; Álvarez Piqueras, D.; Alviggi, M. G.; Amadio, B. T.; Amaral Coutinho, Y.; Amelung, C.; Amidei, D.; Amor Dos Santos, S. P.; Amorim, A.; Amoroso, S.; Amundsen, G.; Anastopoulos, C.; Ancu, L. S.; Andari, N.; Andeen, T.; Anders, C. F.; Anders, J. K.; Anderson, K. J.; Andreazza, A.; Andrei, V.; Angelidakis, S.; Angelozzi, I.; Angerami, A.; Anisenkov, A. V.; Anjos, N.; Annovi, A.; Antel, C.; Antonelli, M.; Antonov, A.; Antrim, D. J.; Anulli, F.; Aoki, M.; Aperio Bella, L.; Arabidze, G.; Arai, Y.; Araque, J. P.; Araujo Ferraz, V.; Arce, A. T. H.; Ardell, R. E.; Arduh, F. A.; Arguin, J.-F.; Argyropoulos, S.; Arik, M.; Armbruster, A. J.; Armitage, L. J.; Arnaez, O.; Arnold, H.; Arratia, M.; Arslan, O.; Artamonov, A.; Artoni, G.; Artz, S.; Asai, S.; Asbah, N.; Ashkenazi, A.; Asquith, L.; Assamagan, K.; Astalos, R.; Atkinson, M.; Atlay, N. B.; Augsten, K.; Avolio, G.; Axen, B.; Ayoub, M. K.; Azuelos, G.; Baas, A. E.; Baca, M. J.; Bachacou, H.; Bachas, K.; Backes, M.; Backhaus, M.; Bagnaia, P.; Bahrasemani, H.; Baines, J. T.; Bajic, M.; Baker, O. K.; Baldin, E. M.; Balek, P.; Balli, F.; Balunas, W. K.; Banas, E.; Banerjee, Sw.; Bannoura, A. A. E.; Barak, L.; Barberio, E. L.; Barberis, D.; Barbero, M.; Barillari, T.; Barisits, M.-S.; Barkeloo, J. T.; Barklow, T.; Barlow, N.; Barnes, S. L.; Barnett, B. M.; Barnett, R. M.; Barnovska-Blenessy, Z.; Baroncelli, A.; Barone, G.; Barr, A. J.; Barranco Navarro, L.; Barreiro, F.; Barreiro Guimarães da Costa, J.; Bartoldus, R.; Barton, A. E.; Bartos, P.; Basalaev, A.; Bassalat, A.; Bates, R. L.; Batista, S. J.; Batley, J. R.; Battaglia, M.; Bauce, M.; Bauer, F.; Bawa, H. S.; Beacham, J. B.; Beattie, M. D.; Beau, T.; Beauchemin, P. H.; Bechtle, P.; Beck, H. P.; Becker, K.; Becker, M.; Beckingham, M.; Becot, C.; Beddall, A. J.; Beddall, A.; Bednyakov, V. A.; Bedognetti, M.; Bee, C. P.; Beermann, T. A.; Begalli, M.; Begel, M.; Behr, J. K.; Bell, A. S.; Bella, G.; Bellagamba, L.; Bellerive, A.; Bellomo, M.; Belotskiy, K.; Beltramello, O.; Belyaev, N. L.; Benary, O.; Benchekroun, D.; Bender, M.; Bendtz, K.; Benekos, N.; Benhammou, Y.; Benhar Noccioli, E.; Benitez, J.; Benjamin, D. P.; Benoit, M.; Bensinger, J. R.; Bentvelsen, S.; Beresford, L.; Beretta, M.; Berge, D.; Bergeaas Kuutmann, E.; Berger, N.; Beringer, J.; Berlendis, S.; Bernard, N. R.; Bernardi, G.; Bernius, C.; Bernlochner, F. U.; Berry, T.; Berta, P.; Bertella, C.; Bertoli, G.; Bertolucci, F.; Bertram, I. A.; Bertsche, C.; Bertsche, D.; Besjes, G. J.; Bessidskaia Bylund, O.; Bessner, M.; Besson, N.; Betancourt, C.; Bethani, A.; Bethke, S.; Bevan, A. J.; Beyer, J.; Bianchi, R. M.; Biebel, O.; Biedermann, D.; Bielski, R.; Biesuz, N. V.; Biglietti, M.; Bilbao De Mendizabal, J.; Billoud, T. R. V.; Bilokon, H.; Bindi, M.; Bingul, A.; Bini, C.; Biondi, S.; Bisanz, T.; Bittrich, C.; Bjergaard, D. M.; Black, C. W.; Black, J. E.; Black, K. M.; Blair, R. E.; Blazek, T.; Bloch, I.; Blocker, C.; Blue, A.; Blum, W.; Blumenschein, U.; Blunier, S.; Bobbink, G. J.; Bobrovnikov, V. S.; Bocchetta, S. S.; Bocci, A.; Bock, C.; Boehler, M.; Boerner, D.; Bogavac, D.; Bogdanchikov, A. G.; Bohm, C.; Boisvert, V.; Bokan, P.; Bold, T.; Boldyrev, A. S.; Bolz, A. E.; Bomben, M.; Bona, M.; Boonekamp, M.; Borisov, A.; Borissov, G.; Bortfeldt, J.; Bortoletto, D.; Bortolotto, V.; Boscherini, D.; Bosman, M.; Bossio Sola, J. D.; Boudreau, J.; Bouffard, J.; Bouhova-Thacker, E. V.; Boumediene, D.; Bourdarios, C.; Boutle, S. K.; Boveia, A.; Boyd, J.; Boyko, I. R.; Bracinik, J.; Brandt, A.; Brandt, G.; Brandt, O.; Bratzler, U.; Brau, B.; Brau, J. E.; Breaden Madden, W. D.; Brendlinger, K.; Brennan, A. J.; Brenner, L.; Brenner, R.; Bressler, S.; Briglin, D. L.; Bristow, T. M.; Britton, D.; Britzger, D.; Brochu, F. M.; Brock, I.; Brock, R.; Brooijmans, G.; Brooks, T.; Brooks, W. K.; Brosamer, J.; Brost, E.; Broughton, J. H.; Bruckman de Renstrom, P. A.; Bruncko, D.; Bruni, A.; Bruni, G.; Bruni, L. S.; Brunt, BH; Bruschi, M.; Bruscino, N.; Bryant, P.; Bryngemark, L.; Buanes, T.; Buat, Q.; Buchholz, P.; Buckley, A. G.; Budagov, I. A.; Buehrer, F.; Bugge, M. K.; Bulekov, O.; Bullock, D.; Burch, T. J.; Burckhart, H.; Burdin, S.; Burgard, C. D.; Burger, A. M.; Burghgrave, B.; Burka, K.; Burke, S.; Burmeister, I.; Burr, J. T. P.; Busato, E.; Büscher, D.; Büscher, V.; Bussey, P.; Butler, J. M.; Buttar, C. M.; Butterworth, J. M.; Butti, P.; Buttinger, W.; Buzatu, A.; Buzykaev, A. R.; Cabrera Urbán, S.; Caforio, D.; Cairo, V. M.; Cakir, O.; Calace, N.; Calafiura, P.; Calandri, A.; Calderini, G.; Calfayan, P.; Callea, G.; Caloba, L. P.; Calvente Lopez, S.; Calvet, D.; Calvet, S.; Calvet, T. P.; Camacho Toro, R.; Camarda, S.; Camarri, P.; Cameron, D.; Caminal Armadans, R.; Camincher, C.; Campana, S.; Campanelli, M.; Camplani, A.; Campoverde, A.; Canale, V.; Cano Bret, M.; Cantero, J.; Cao, T.; Capeans Garrido, M. D. M.; Caprini, I.; Caprini, M.; Capua, M.; Carbone, R. M.; Cardarelli, R.; Cardillo, F.; Carli, I.; Carli, T.; Carlino, G.; Carlson, B. T.; Carminati, L.; Carney, R. M. D.; Caron, S.; Carquin, E.; Carrá, S.; Carrillo-Montoya, G. D.; Carvalho, J.; Casadei, D.; Casado, M. P.; Casolino, M.; Casper, D. W.; Castelijn, R.; Castillo Gimenez, V.; Castro, N. F.; Catinaccio, A.; Catmore, J. R.; Cattai, A.; Caudron, J.; Cavaliere, V.; Cavallaro, E.; Cavalli, D.; Cavalli-Sforza, M.; Cavasinni, V.; Celebi, E.; Ceradini, F.; Cerda Alberich, L.; Cerqueira, A. S.; Cerri, A.; Cerrito, L.; Cerutti, F.; Cervelli, A.; Cetin, S. A.; Chafaq, A.; Chakraborty, D.; Chan, S. K.; Chan, W. S.; Chan, Y. L.; Chang, P.; Chapman, J. D.; Charlton, D. G.; Chau, C. C.; Chavez Barajas, C. A.; Che, S.; Cheatham, S.; Chegwidden, A.; Chekanov, S.; Chekulaev, S. V.; Chelkov, G. A.; Chelstowska, M. A.; Chen, C.; Chen, H.; Chen, S.; Chen, S.; Chen, X.; Chen, Y.; Cheng, H. C.; Cheng, H. J.; Cheplakov, A.; Cheremushkina, E.; Cherkaoui El Moursli, R.; Chernyatin, V.; Cheu, E.; Cheung, K.; Chevalier, L.; Chiarella, V.; Chiarelli, G.; Chiodini, G.; Chisholm, A. S.; Chitan, A.; Chiu, Y. H.; Chizhov, M. V.; Choi, K.; Chomont, A. R.; Chouridou, S.; Christodoulou, V.; Chromek-Burckhart, D.; Chu, M. C.; Chudoba, J.; Chuinard, A. J.; Chwastowski, J. J.; Chytka, L.; Ciftci, A. K.; Cinca, D.; Cindro, V.; Cioara, I. A.; Ciocca, C.; Ciocio, A.; Cirotto, F.; Citron, Z. H.; Citterio, M.; Ciubancan, M.; Clark, A.; Clark, B. L.; Clark, M. R.; Clark, P. J.; Clarke, R. N.; Clement, C.; Coadou, Y.; Cobal, M.; Coccaro, A.; Cochran, J.; Colasurdo, L.; Cole, B.; Colijn, A. P.; Collot, J.; Colombo, T.; Conde Muiño, P.; Coniavitis, E.; Connell, S. H.; Connelly, I. A.; Constantinescu, S.; Conti, G.; Conventi, F.; Cooke, M.; Cooper-Sarkar, A. M.; Cormier, F.; Cormier, K. J. R.; Corradi, M.; Corriveau, F.; Cortes-Gonzalez, A.; Cortiana, G.; Costa, G.; Costa, M. J.; Costanzo, D.; Cottin, G.; Cowan, G.; Cox, B. E.; Cranmer, K.; Crawley, S. J.; Creager, R. A.; Cree, G.; Crépé-Renaudin, S.; Crescioli, F.; Cribbs, W. A.; Cristinziani, M.; Croft, V.; Crosetti, G.; Cueto, A.; Cuhadar Donszelmann, T.; Cukierman, A. R.; Cummings, J.; Curatolo, M.; Cúth, J.; Czirr, H.; Czodrowski, P.; D'amen, G.; D'Auria, S.; D'eramo, L.; D'Onofrio, M.; Da Cunha Sargedas De Sousa, M. J.; Da Via, C.; Dabrowski, W.; Dado, T.; Dai, T.; Dale, O.; Dallaire, F.; Dallapiccola, C.; Dam, M.; Dandoy, J. R.; Daneri, M. F.; Dang, N. P.; Daniells, A. C.; Dann, N. S.; Danninger, M.; Dano Hoffmann, M.; Dao, V.; Darbo, G.; Darmora, S.; Dassoulas, J.; Dattagupta, A.; Daubney, T.; Davey, W.; David, C.; Davidek, T.; Davies, M.; Davis, D. R.; Davison, P.; Dawe, E.; Dawson, I.; De, K.; de Asmundis, R.; De Benedetti, A.; De Castro, S.; De Cecco, S.; De Groot, N.; de Jong, P.; De la Torre, H.; De Lorenzi, F.; De Maria, A.; De Pedis, D.; De Salvo, A.; De Sanctis, U.; De Santo, A.; De Vasconcelos Corga, K.; De Vivie De Regie, J. B.; Dearnaley, W. J.; Debbe, R.; Debenedetti, C.; Dedovich, D. V.; Dehghanian, N.; Deigaard, I.; Del Gaudio, M.; Del Peso, J.; Del Prete, T.; Delgove, D.; Deliot, F.; Delitzsch, C. M.; Dell'Acqua, A.; Dell'Asta, L.; Dell'Orso, M.; Della Pietra, M.; della Volpe, D.; Delmastro, M.; Delporte, C.; Delsart, P. A.; DeMarco, D. A.; Demers, S.; Demichev, M.; Demilly, A.; Denisov, S. P.; Denysiuk, D.; Derendarz, D.; Derkaoui, J. E.; Derue, F.; Dervan, P.; Desch, K.; Deterre, C.; Dette, K.; Devesa, M. R.; Deviveiros, P. O.; Dewhurst, A.; Dhaliwal, S.; Di Bello, F. A.; Di Ciaccio, A.; Di Ciaccio, L.; Di Clemente, W. K.; Di Donato, C.; Di Girolamo, A.; Di Girolamo, B.; Di Micco, B.; Di Nardo, R.; Di Petrillo, K. F.; Di Simone, A.; Di Sipio, R.; Di Valentino, D.; Diaconu, C.; Diamond, M.; Dias, F. A.; Diaz, M. A.; Diehl, E. B.; Dietrich, J.; Díez Cornell, S.; Dimitrievska, A.; Dingfelder, J.; Dita, P.; Dita, S.; Dittus, F.; Djama, F.; Djobava, T.; Djuvsland, J. I.; do Vale, M. A. B.; Dobos, D.; Dobre, M.; Doglioni, C.; Dolejsi, J.; Dolezal, Z.; Donadelli, M.; Donati, S.; Dondero, P.; Donini, J.; Dopke, J.; Doria, A.; Dova, M. T.; Doyle, A. T.; Drechsler, E.; Dris, M.; Du, Y.; Duarte-Campderros, J.; Dubreuil, A.; Duchovni, E.; Duckeck, G.; Ducourthial, A.; Ducu, O. A.; Duda, D.; Dudarev, A.; Dudder, A. Chr.; Duffield, E. M.; Duflot, L.; Dührssen, M.; Dumancic, M.; Dumitriu, A. E.; Duncan, A. K.; Dunford, M.; Duran Yildiz, H.; Düren, M.; Durglishvili, A.; Duschinger, D.; Dutta, B.; Dyndal, M.; Dziedzic, B. S.; Eckardt, C.; Ecker, K. M.; Edgar, R. C.; Eifert, T.; Eigen, G.; Einsweiler, K.; Ekelof, T.; El Kacimi, M.; El Kosseifi, R.; Ellajosyula, V.; Ellert, M.; Elles, S.; Ellinghaus, F.; Elliot, A. A.; Ellis, N.; Elmsheuser, J.; Elsing, M.; Emeliyanov, D.; Enari, Y.; Endner, O. C.; Ennis, J. S.; Erdmann, J.; Ereditato, A.; Ernis, G.; Ernst, M.; Errede, S.; Escalier, M.; Escobar, C.; Esposito, B.; Estrada Pastor, O.; Etienvre, A. I.; Etzion, E.; Evans, H.; Ezhilov, A.; Ezzi, M.; Fabbri, F.; Fabbri, L.; Facini, G.; Fakhrutdinov, R. M.; Falciano, S.; Falla, R. J.; Faltova, J.; Fang, Y.; Fanti, M.; Farbin, A.; Farilla, A.; Farina, C.; Farina, E. M.; Farooque, T.; Farrell, S.; Farrington, S. M.; Farthouat, P.; Fassi, F.; Fassnacht, P.; Fassouliotis, D.; Faucci Giannelli, M.; Favareto, A.; Fawcett, W. J.; Fayard, L.; Fedin, O. L.; Fedorko, W.; Feigl, S.; Feligioni, L.; Feng, C.; Feng, E. J.; Feng, H.; Fenton, M. J.; Fenyuk, A. B.; Feremenga, L.; Fernandez Martinez, P.; Fernandez Perez, S.; Ferrando, J.; Ferrari, A.; Ferrari, P.; Ferrari, R.; Ferreira de Lima, D. E.; Ferrer, A.; Ferrere, D.; Ferretti, C.; Fiedler, F.; Filipčič, A.; Filipuzzi, M.; Filthaut, F.; Fincke-Keeler, M.; Finelli, K. D.; Fiolhais, M. C. N.; Fiorini, L.; Fischer, A.; Fischer, C.; Fischer, J.; Fisher, W. C.; Flaschel, N.; Fleck, I.; Fleischmann, P.; Fletcher, R. R. M.; Flick, T.; Flierl, B. M.; Flores Castillo, L. R.; Flowerdew, M. J.; Forcolin, G. T.; Formica, A.; Förster, F. A.; Forti, A.; Foster, A. G.; Fournier, D.; Fox, H.; Fracchia, S.; Francavilla, P.; Franchini, M.; Franchino, S.; Francis, D.; Franconi, L.; Franklin, M.; Frate, M.; Fraternali, M.; Freeborn, D.; Fressard-Batraneanu, S. M.; Freund, B.; Froidevaux, D.; Frost, J. A.; Fukunaga, C.; Fusayasu, T.; Fuster, J.; Gabaldon, C.; Gabizon, O.; Gabrielli, A.; Gabrielli, A.; Gach, G. P.; Gadatsch, S.; Gadomski, S.; Gagliardi, G.; Gagnon, L. G.; Galea, C.; Galhardo, B.; Gallas, E. J.; Gallop, B. J.; Gallus, P.; Galster, G.; Gan, K. K.; Ganguly, S.; Gao, Y.; Gao, Y. S.; Garay Walls, F. M.; García, C.; García Navarro, J. E.; García Pascual, J. A.; Garcia-Sciveres, M.; Gardner, R. W.; Garelli, N.; Garonne, V.; Gascon Bravo, A.; Gasnikova, K.; Gatti, C.; Gaudiello, A.; Gaudio, G.; Gavrilenko, I. L.; Gay, C.; Gaycken, G.; Gazis, E. N.; Gee, C. N. P.; Geisen, J.; Geisen, M.; Geisler, M. P.; Gellerstedt, K.; Gemme, C.; Genest, M. H.; Geng, C.; Gentile, S.; Gentsos, C.; George, S.; Gerbaudo, D.; Gershon, A.; Geßner, G.; Ghasemi, S.; Ghneimat, M.; Giacobbe, B.; Giagu, S.; Giannetti, P.; Gibson, S. M.; Gignac, M.; Gilchriese, M.; Gillberg, D.; Gilles, G.; Gingrich, D. M.; Giokaris, N.; Giordani, M. P.; Giorgi, F. M.; Giraud, P. F.; Giromini, P.; Giugni, D.; Giuli, F.; Giuliani, C.; Giulini, M.; Gjelsten, B. K.; Gkaitatzis, S.; Gkialas, I.; Gkougkousis, E. L.; Gkountoumis, P.; Gladilin, L. K.; Glasman, C.; Glatzer, J.; Glaysher, P. C. F.; Glazov, A.; Goblirsch-Kolb, M.; Godlewski, J.; Goldfarb, S.; Golling, T.; Golubkov, D.; Gomes, A.; Gonçalo, R.; Goncalves Gama, R.; Goncalves Pinto Firmino Da Costa, J.; Gonella, G.; Gonella, L.; Gongadze, A.; González de la Hoz, S.; Gonzalez-Sevilla, S.; Goossens, L.; Gorbounov, P. A.; Gordon, H. A.; Gorelov, I.; Gorini, B.; Gorini, E.; Gorišek, A.; Goshaw, A. T.; Gössling, C.; Gostkin, M. I.; Gottardo, C. A.; Goudet, C. R.; Goujdami, D.; Goussiou, A. G.; Govender, N.; Gozani, E.; Graber, L.; Grabowska-Bold, I.; Gradin, P. O. J.; Gramling, J.; Gramstad, E.; Grancagnolo, S.; Gratchev, V.; Gravila, P. M.; Gray, C.; Gray, H. M.; Greenwood, Z. D.; Grefe, C.; Gregersen, K.; Gregor, I. M.; Grenier, P.; Grevtsov, K.; Griffiths, J.; Grillo, A. A.; Grimm, K.; Grinstein, S.; Gris, Ph.; Grivaz, J.-F.; Groh, S.; Gross, E.; Grosse-Knetter, J.; Grossi, G. C.; Grout, Z. J.; Grummer, A.; Guan, L.; Guan, W.; Guenther, J.; Guescini, F.; Guest, D.; Gueta, O.; Gui, B.; Guido, E.; Guillemin, T.; Guindon, S.; Gul, U.; Gumpert, C.; Guo, J.; Guo, W.; Guo, Y.; Gupta, R.; Gupta, S.; Gustavino, G.; Gutierrez, P.; Gutierrez Ortiz, N. G.; Gutschow, C.; Guyot, C.; Guzik, M. P.; Gwenlan, C.; Gwilliam, C. B.; Haas, A.; Haber, C.; Hadavand, H. K.; Haddad, N.; Hadef, A.; Hageböck, S.; Hagihara, M.; Hakobyan, H.; Haleem, M.; Haley, J.; Halladjian, G.; Hallewell, G. D.; Hamacher, K.; Hamal, P.; Hamano, K.; Hamilton, A.; Hamity, G. N.; Hamnett, P. G.; Han, L.; Han, S.; Hanagaki, K.; Hanawa, K.; Hance, M.; Haney, B.; Hanke, P.; Hansen, J. B.; Hansen, J. D.; Hansen, M. C.; Hansen, P. H.; Hara, K.; Hard, A. S.; Harenberg, T.; Hariri, F.; Harkusha, S.; Harrington, R. D.; Harrison, P. F.; Hartmann, N. M.; Hasegawa, M.; Hasegawa, Y.; Hasib, A.; Hassani, S.; Haug, S.; Hauser, R.; Hauswald, L.; Havener, L. B.; Havranek, M.; Hawkes, C. M.; Hawkings, R. J.; Hayakawa, D.; Hayden, D.; Hays, C. P.; Hays, J. M.; Hayward, H. S.; Haywood, S. J.; Head, S. J.; Heck, T.; Hedberg, V.; Heelan, L.; Heidegger, K. K.; Heim, S.; Heim, T.; Heinemann, B.; Heinrich, J. J.; Heinrich, L.; Heinz, C.; Hejbal, J.; Helary, L.; Held, A.; Hellman, S.; Helsens, C.; Henderson, R. C. W.; Heng, Y.; Henkelmann, S.; Henriques Correia, A. M.; Henrot-Versille, S.; Herbert, G. H.; Herde, H.; Herget, V.; Hernández Jiménez, Y.; Herr, H.; Herten, G.; Hertenberger, R.; Hervas, L.; Herwig, T. C.; Hesketh, G. G.; Hessey, N. P.; Hetherly, J. W.; Higashino, S.; Higón-Rodriguez, E.; Hill, E.; Hill, J. C.; Hiller, K. H.; Hillier, S. J.; Hils, M.; Hinchliffe, I.; Hirose, M.; Hirschbuehl, D.; Hiti, B.; Hladik, O.; Hoad, X.; Hobbs, J.; Hod, N.; Hodgkinson, M. C.; Hodgson, P.; Hoecker, A.; Hoeferkamp, M. R.; Hoenig, F.; Hohn, D.; Holmes, T. R.; Homann, M.; Honda, S.; Honda, T.; Hong, T. M.; Hooberman, B. H.; Hopkins, W. H.; Horii, Y.; Horton, A. J.; Hostachy, J.-Y.; Hou, S.; Hoummada, A.; Howarth, J.; Hoya, J.; Hrabovsky, M.; Hrdinka, J.; Hristova, I.; Hrivnac, J.; Hryn'ova, T.; Hrynevich, A.; Hsu, P. J.; Hsu, S.-C.; Hu, Q.; Hu, S.; Huang, Y.; Hubacek, Z.; Hubaut, F.; Huegging, F.; Huffman, T. B.; Hughes, E. W.; Hughes, G.; Huhtinen, M.; Huo, P.; Huseynov, N.; Huston, J.; Huth, J.; Iacobucci, G.; Iakovidis, G.; Ibragimov, I.; Iconomidou-Fayard, L.; Idrissi, Z.; Iengo, P.; Igonkina, O.; Iizawa, T.; Ikegami, Y.; Ikeno, M.; Ilchenko, Y.; Iliadis, D.; Ilic, N.; Introzzi, G.; Ioannou, P.; Iodice, M.; Iordanidou, K.; Ippolito, V.; Isacson, M. F.; Ishijima, N.; Ishino, M.; Ishitsuka, M.; Issever, C.; Istin, S.; Ito, F.; Ponce, J. M. Iturbe; Iuppa, R.; Iwasaki, H.; Izen, J. M.; Izzo, V.; Jabbar, S.; Jackson, P.; Jacobs, R. M.; Jain, V.; Jakobi, K. B.; Jakobs, K.; Jakobsen, S.; Jakoubek, T.; Jamin, D. O.; Jana, D. K.; Jansky, R.; Janssen, J.; Janus, M.; Janus, P. 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G.; Sarrazin, B.; Sasaki, O.; Sato, K.; Sauvan, E.; Savage, G.; Savard, P.; Savic, N.; Sawyer, C.; Sawyer, L.; Saxon, J.; Sbarra, C.; Sbrizzi, A.; Scanlon, T.; Scannicchio, D. A.; Scarcella, M.; Scarfone, V.; Schaarschmidt, J.; Schacht, P.; Schachtner, B. M.; Schaefer, D.; Schaefer, L.; Schaefer, R.; Schaeffer, J.; Schaepe, S.; Schaetzel, S.; Schäfer, U.; Schaffer, A. C.; Schaile, D.; Schamberger, R. D.; Scharf, V.; Schegelsky, V. A.; Scheirich, D.; Schernau, M.; Schiavi, C.; Schier, S.; Schildgen, L. K.; Schillo, C.; Schioppa, M.; Schlenker, S.; Schmidt-Sommerfeld, K. R.; Schmieden, K.; Schmitt, C.; Schmitt, S.; Schmitz, S.; Schnoor, U.; Schoeffel, L.; Schoening, A.; Schoenrock, B. D.; Schopf, E.; Schott, M.; Schouwenberg, J. F. P.; Schovancova, J.; Schramm, S.; Schuh, N.; Schulte, A.; Schultens, M. J.; Schultz-Coulon, H.-C.; Schulz, H.; Schumacher, M.; Schumm, B. A.; Schune, Ph.; Schwartzman, A.; Schwarz, T. A.; Schweiger, H.; Schwemling, Ph.; Schwienhorst, R.; Schwindling, J.; Sciandra, A.; Sciolla, G.; Scuri, F.; Scutti, F.; Searcy, J.; Seema, P.; Seidel, S. C.; Seiden, A.; Seixas, J. M.; Sekhniaidze, G.; Sekhon, K.; Sekula, S. J.; Semprini-Cesari, N.; Senkin, S.; Serfon, C.; Serin, L.; Serkin, L.; Sessa, M.; Seuster, R.; Severini, H.; Sfiligoj, T.; Sforza, F.; Sfyrla, A.; Shabalina, E.; Shaikh, N. W.; Shan, L. Y.; Shang, R.; Shank, J. T.; Shapiro, M.; Shatalov, P. B.; Shaw, K.; Shaw, S. M.; Shcherbakova, A.; Shehu, C. Y.; Shen, Y.; Sherafati, N.; Sherwood, P.; Shi, L.; Shimizu, S.; Shimmin, C. O.; Shimojima, M.; Shipsey, I. P. J.; Shirabe, S.; Shiyakova, M.; Shlomi, J.; Shmeleva, A.; Shoaleh Saadi, D.; Shochet, M. J.; Shojaii, S.; Shope, D. R.; Shrestha, S.; Shulga, E.; Shupe, M. A.; Sicho, P.; Sickles, A. M.; Sidebo, P. E.; Sideras Haddad, E.; Sidiropoulou, O.; Sidoti, A.; Siegert, F.; Sijacki, Dj.; Silva, J.; Silverstein, S. B.; Simak, V.; Simic, Lj.; Simion, S.; Simioni, E.; Simmons, B.; Simon, M.; Sinervo, P.; Sinev, N. B.; Sioli, M.; Siragusa, G.; Siral, I.; Sivoklokov, S. Yu.; Sjölin, J.; Skinner, M. B.; Skubic, P.; Slater, M.; Slavicek, T.; Slawinska, M.; Sliwa, K.; Slovak, R.; Smakhtin, V.; Smart, B. H.; Smiesko, J.; Smirnov, N.; Smirnov, S. Yu.; Smirnov, Y.; Smirnova, L. N.; Smirnova, O.; Smith, J. W.; Smith, M. N. K.; Smith, R. W.; Smizanska, M.; Smolek, K.; Snesarev, A. A.; Snyder, I. M.; Snyder, S.; Sobie, R.; Socher, F.; Soffer, A.; Soh, D. A.; Sokhrannyi, G.; Solans Sanchez, C. A.; Solar, M.; Soldatov, E. Yu.; Soldevila, U.; Solodkov, A. A.; Soloshenko, A.; Solovyanov, O. V.; Solovyev, V.; Sommer, P.; Son, H.; Sopczak, A.; Sosa, D.; Sotiropoulou, C. L.; Soualah, R.; Soukharev, A. M.; South, D.; Sowden, B. C.; Spagnolo, S.; Spalla, M.; Spangenberg, M.; Spanò, F.; Sperlich, D.; Spettel, F.; Spieker, T. M.; Spighi, R.; Spigo, G.; Spiller, L. A.; Spousta, M.; St. Denis, R. D.; Stabile, A.; Stamen, R.; Stamm, S.; Stanecka, E.; Stanek, R. W.; Stanescu, C.; Stanitzki, M. M.; Stapf, B. S.; Stapnes, S.; Starchenko, E. A.; Stark, G. H.; Stark, J.; Stark, S. H.; Staroba, P.; Starovoitov, P.; Stärz, S.; Staszewski, R.; Steinberg, P.; Stelzer, B.; Stelzer, H. J.; Stelzer-Chilton, O.; Stenzel, H.; Stewart, G. A.; Stockton, M. C.; Stoebe, M.; Stoicea, G.; Stolte, P.; Stonjek, S.; Stradling, A. R.; Straessner, A.; Stramaglia, M. E.; Strandberg, J.; Strandberg, S.; Strauss, M.; Strizenec, P.; Ströhmer, R.; Strom, D. M.; Stroynowski, R.; Strubig, A.; Stucci, S. A.; Stugu, B.; Styles, N. A.; Su, D.; Su, J.; Suchek, S.; Sugaya, Y.; Suk, M.; Sulin, V. V.; Sultan, DMS; Sultansoy, S.; Sumida, T.; Sun, S.; Sun, X.; Suruliz, K.; Suster, C. J. E.; Sutton, M. R.; Suzuki, S.; Svatos, M.; Swiatlowski, M.; Swift, S. P.; Sykora, I.; Sykora, T.; Ta, D.; Tackmann, K.; Taenzer, J.; Taffard, A.; Tafirout, R.; Taiblum, N.; Takai, H.; Takashima, R.; Takasugi, E. H.; Takeshita, T.; Takubo, Y.; Talby, M.; Talyshev, A. A.; Tanaka, J.; Tanaka, M.; Tanaka, R.; Tanaka, S.; Tanioka, R.; Tannenwald, B. B.; Tapia Araya, S.; Tapprogge, S.; Tarem, S.; Tartarelli, G. F.; Tas, P.; Tasevsky, M.; Tashiro, T.; Tassi, E.; Tavares Delgado, A.; Tayalati, Y.; Taylor, A. C.; Taylor, G. N.; Taylor, P. T. E.; Taylor, W.; Teixeira-Dias, P.; Temple, D.; Ten Kate, H.; Teng, P. K.; Teoh, J. J.; Tepel, F.; Terada, S.; Terashi, K.; Terron, J.; Terzo, S.; Testa, M.; Teuscher, R. J.; Theveneaux-Pelzer, T.; Thomas, J. P.; Thomas-Wilsker, J.; Thompson, P. D.; Thompson, A. S.; Thomsen, L. A.; Thomson, E.; Tibbetts, M. J.; Ticse Torres, R. E.; Tikhomirov, V. O.; Tikhonov, Yu. A.; Timoshenko, S.; Tipton, P.; Tisserant, S.; Todome, K.; Todorova-Nova, S.; Tojo, J.; Tokár, S.; Tokushuku, K.; Tolley, E.; Tomlinson, L.; Tomoto, M.; Tompkins, L.; Toms, K.; Tong, B.; Tornambe, P.; Torrence, E.; Torres, H.; Torró Pastor, E.; Toth, J.; Touchard, F.; Tovey, D. R.; Treado, C. J.; Trefzger, T.; Tresoldi, F.; Tricoli, A.; Trigger, I. M.; Trincaz-Duvoid, S.; Tripiana, M. F.; Trischuk, W.; Trocmé, B.; Trofymov, A.; Troncon, C.; Trottier-McDonald, M.; Trovatelli, M.; Truong, L.; Trzebinski, M.; Trzupek, A.; Tsang, K. W.; Tseng, J. C.-L.; Tsiareshka, P. V.; Tsipolitis, G.; Tsirintanis, N.; Tsiskaridze, S.; Tsiskaridze, V.; Tskhadadze, E. G.; Tsui, K. M.; Tsukerman, I. I.; Tsulaia, V.; Tsuno, S.; Tsybychev, D.; Tu, Y.; Tudorache, A.; Tudorache, V.; Tulbure, T. T.; Tuna, A. N.; Tupputi, S. A.; Turchikhin, S.; Turgeman, D.; Turk Cakir, I.; Turra, R.; Tuts, P. M.; Ucchielli, G.; Ueda, I.; Ughetto, M.; Ukegawa, F.; Unal, G.; Undrus, A.; Unel, G.; Ungaro, F. C.; Unno, Y.; Unverdorben, C.; Urban, J.; Urquijo, P.; Urrejola, P.; Usai, G.; Usui, J.; Vacavant, L.; Vacek, V.; Vachon, B.; Vaidya, A.; Valderanis, C.; Valdes Santurio, E.; Valentinetti, S.; Valero, A.; Valéry, L.; Valkar, S.; Vallier, A.; Valls Ferrer, J. A.; Van Den Wollenberg, W.; van der Graaf, H.; van Gemmeren, P.; Van Nieuwkoop, J.; van Vulpen, I.; van Woerden, M. C.; Vanadia, M.; Vandelli, W.; Vaniachine, A.; Vankov, P.; Vardanyan, G.; Vari, R.; Varnes, E. W.; Varni, C.; Varol, T.; Varouchas, D.; Vartapetian, A.; Varvell, K. E.; Vasquez, J. G.; Vasquez, G. A.; Vazeille, F.; Vazquez Schroeder, T.; Veatch, J.; Veeraraghavan, V.; Veloce, L. M.; Veloso, F.; Veneziano, S.; Ventura, A.; Venturi, M.; Venturi, N.; Venturini, A.; Vercesi, V.; Verducci, M.; Verkerke, W.; Vermeulen, A. T.; Vermeulen, J. C.; Vetterli, M. C.; Viaux Maira, N.; Viazlo, O.; Vichou, I.; Vickey, T.; Boeriu, O. E. Vickey; Viehhauser, G. H. A.; Viel, S.; Vigani, L.; Villa, M.; Villaplana Perez, M.; Vilucchi, E.; Vincter, M. G.; Vinogradov, V. B.; Vishwakarma, A.; Vittori, C.; Vivarelli, I.; Vlachos, S.; Vogel, M.; Vokac, P.; Volpi, G.; von der Schmitt, H.; von Toerne, E.; Vorobel, V.; Vorobev, K.; Vos, M.; Voss, R.; Vossebeld, J. H.; Vranjes, N.; Vranjes Milosavljevic, M.; Vrba, V.; Vreeswijk, M.; Vuillermet, R.; Vukotic, I.; Wagner, P.; Wagner, W.; Wagner-Kuhr, J.; Wahlberg, H.; Wahrmund, S.; Wakabayashi, J.; Walder, J.; Walker, R.; Walkowiak, W.; Wallangen, V.; Wang, C.; Wang, C.; Wang, F.; Wang, H.; Wang, H.; Wang, J.; Wang, J.; Wang, Q.; Wang, R.; Wang, S. M.; Wang, T.; Wang, W.; Wang, W.; Wang, Z.; Wanotayaroj, C.; Warburton, A.; Ward, C. P.; Wardrope, D. R.; Washbrook, A.; Watkins, P. M.; Watson, A. T.; Watson, M. F.; Watts, G.; Watts, S.; Waugh, B. M.; Webb, A. F.; Webb, S.; Weber, M. S.; Weber, S. W.; Weber, S. A.; Webster, J. S.; Weidberg, A. R.; Weinert, B.; Weingarten, J.; Weirich, M.; Weiser, C.; Weits, H.; Wells, P. S.; Wenaus, T.; Wengler, T.; Wenig, S.; Wermes, N.; Werner, M. D.; Werner, P.; Wessels, M.; Whalen, K.; Whallon, N. L.; Wharton, A. M.; White, A. S.; White, A.; White, M. J.; White, R.; Whiteson, D.; Whitmore, B. W.; Wickens, F. J.; Wiedenmann, W.; Wielers, M.; Wiglesworth, C.; Wiik-Fuchs, L. A. M.; Wildauer, A.; Wilk, F.; Wilkens, H. G.; Williams, H. H.; Williams, S.; Willis, C.; Willocq, S.; Wilson, J. A.; Wingerter-Seez, I.; Winkels, E.; Winklmeier, F.; Winston, O. J.; Winter, B. T.; Wittgen, M.; Wobisch, M.; Wolf, T. M. H.; Wolff, R.; Wolter, M. W.; Wolters, H.; Wong, V. W. S.; Worm, S. D.; Wosiek, B. K.; Wotschack, J.; Wozniak, K. W.; Wu, M.; Wu, S. L.; Wu, X.; Wu, Y.; Wyatt, T. R.; Wynne, B. M.; Xella, S.; Xi, Z.; Xia, L.; Xu, D.; Xu, L.; Xu, T.; Yabsley, B.; Yacoob, S.; Yamaguchi, D.; Yamaguchi, Y.; Yamamoto, A.; Yamamoto, S.; Yamanaka, T.; Yamatani, M.; Yamauchi, K.; Yamazaki, Y.; Yan, Z.; Yang, H.; Yang, H.; Yang, Y.; Yang, Z.; Yao, W.-M.; Yap, Y. C.; Yasu, Y.; Yatsenko, E.; Yau Wong, K. H.; Ye, J.; Ye, S.; Yeletskikh, I.; Yigitbasi, E.; Yildirim, E.; Yorita, K.; Yoshihara, K.; Young, C.; Young, C. J. S.; Yu, J.; Yu, J.; Yuen, S. P. Y.; Yusuff, I.; Zabinski, B.; Zacharis, G.; Zaidan, R.; Zaitsev, A. M.; Zakharchuk, N.; Zalieckas, J.; Zaman, A.; Zambito, S.; Zanzi, D.; Zeitnitz, C.; Zemaityte, G.; Zemla, A.; Zeng, J. C.; Zeng, Q.; Zenin, O.; Ženiš, T.; Zerwas, D.; Zhang, D.; Zhang, F.; Zhang, G.; Zhang, H.; Zhang, J.; Zhang, L.; Zhang, L.; Zhang, M.; Zhang, P.; Zhang, R.; Zhang, R.; Zhang, X.; Zhang, Y.; Zhang, Z.; Zhao, X.; Zhao, Y.; Zhao, Z.; Zhemchugov, A.; Zhou, B.; Zhou, C.; Zhou, L.; Zhou, M.; Zhou, M.; Zhou, N.; Zhu, C. G.; Zhu, H.; Zhu, J.; Zhu, Y.; Zhuang, X.; Zhukov, K.; Zibell, A.; Zieminska, D.; Zimine, N. I.; Zimmermann, C.; Zimmermann, S.; Zinonos, Z.; Zinser, M.; Ziolkowski, M.; Živković, L.; Zobernig, G.; Zoccoli, A.; Zou, R.; zur Nedden, M.; Zwalinski, L.

2017-12-01

The ATLAS inner detector comprises three different sub-detectors: the pixel detector, the silicon strip tracker, and the transition-radiation drift-tube tracker. The Insertable B-Layer, a new innermost pixel layer, was installed during the shutdown period in 2014, together with modifications to the layout of the cables and support structures of the existing pixel detector. The material in the inner detector is studied with several methods, using a low-luminosity √s=13 TeV pp collision sample corresponding to around 2.0 nb-1 collected in 2015 with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. In this paper, the material within the innermost barrel region is studied using reconstructed hadronic interaction and photon conversion vertices. For the forward rapidity region, the material is probed by a measurement of the efficiency with which single tracks reconstructed from pixel detector hits alone can be extended with hits on the track in the strip layers. The results of these studies have been taken into account in an improved description of the material in the ATLAS inner detector simulation, resulting in a reduction in the uncertainties associated with the charged-particle reconstruction efficiency determined from simulation.

Study of the material of the ATLAS inner detector for Run 2 of the LHC

DOE PAGES

Aaboud, M.; Aad, G.; Abbott, B.; ...

2017-12-07

The ATLAS inner detector comprises three different sub-detectors: the pixel detector, the silicon strip tracker, and the transition-radiation drift-tube tracker. The Insertable B-Layer, a new innermost pixel layer, was installed during the shutdown period in 2014, together with modifications to the layout of the cables and support structures of the existing pixel detector. The material in the inner detector is studied with several methods, using a low-luminosity √s = 13 TeV pp collision sample corresponding to around 2.0 nb -1 collected in 2015 with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. In this paper, the material within the innermost barrel regionmore » is studied using reconstructed hadronic interaction and photon conversion vertices. For the forward rapidity region, the material is probed by a measurement of the efficiency with which single tracks reconstructed from pixel detector hits alone can be extended with hits on the track in the strip layers. The results of these studies have been taken into account in an improved description of the material in the ATLAS inner detector simulation, resulting in a reduction in the uncertainties associated with the charged-particle reconstruction efficiency determined from simulation.« less

Sensors for the End-cap prototype of the Inner Tracker in the ATLAS Detector Upgrade

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Benítez, V.; Ullán, M.; Quirion, D.; Pellegrini, G.; Fleta, C.; Lozano, M.; Sperlich, D.; Hauser, M.; Wonsak, S.; Parzefall, U.; Mahboubi, K.; Kuehn, S.; Mori, R.; Jakobs, K.; Bernabeu, J.; García, C.; Lacasta, C.; Marco, R.; Rodriguez, D.; Santoyo, D.; Solaz, C.; Soldevila, U.; Ariza, D.; Bloch, I.; Diez, S.; Gregor, I. M.; Keller, J.; Lohwasser, K.; Peschke, R.; Poley, L.; Brenner, R.; Affolder, A.

2016-10-01

The new silicon microstrip sensors of the End-cap part of the HL-LHC ATLAS Inner Tracker (ITk) present a number of challenges due to their complex design features such as the multiple different sensor shapes, the varying strip pitch, or the built-in stereo angle. In order to investigate these specific problems, the "petalet" prototype was defined as a small End-cap prototype. The sensors for the petalet prototype include several new layout and technological solutions to investigate the issues, they have been tested in detail by the collaboration. The sensor description and detailed test results are presented in this paper. New software tools have been developed for the automatic layout generation of the complex designs. The sensors have been fabricated, characterized and delivered to the institutes in the collaboration for their assembly on petalet prototypes. This paper describes the lessons learnt from the design and tests of the new solutions implemented on these sensors, which are being used for the full petal sensor development. This has resulted in the ITk strip community acquiring the necessary expertise to develop the full End-cap structure, the petal.

MEMS based Low Cost Piezoresistive Microcantilever Force Sensor and Sensor Module

PubMed Central

Pandya, H. J.; Kim, Hyun Tae; Roy, Rajarshi; Desai, Jaydev P.

2014-01-01

In the present work, we report fabrication and characterization of a low-cost MEMS based piezoresistive micro-force sensor with SU-8 tip using laboratory made silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate. To prepare SOI wafer, silicon film (0.8 µm thick) was deposited on an oxidized silicon wafer using RF magnetron sputtering technique. The films were deposited in Argon (Ar) ambient without external substrate heating. The material characteristics of the sputtered deposited silicon film and silicon film annealed at different temperatures (400–1050°C) were studied using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. The residual stress of the films was measured as a function of annealing temperature. The stress of the as-deposited films was observed to be compressive and annealing the film above 1050°C resulted in a tensile stress. The stress of the film decreased gradually with increase in annealing temperature. The fabricated cantilevers were 130 µm in length, 40 µm wide and 1.0 µm thick. A series of force-displacement curves were obtained using fabricated microcantilever with commercial AFM setup and the data were analyzed to get the spring constant and the sensitivity of the fabricated microcantilever. The measured spring constant and sensitivity of the sensor was 0.1488N/m and 2.7mV/N. The microcantilever force sensor was integrated with an electronic module that detects the change in resistance of the sensor with respect to the applied force and displays it on the computer screen. PMID:24855449

MEMS based Low Cost Piezoresistive Microcantilever Force Sensor and Sensor Module.

PubMed

Pandya, H J; Kim, Hyun Tae; Roy, Rajarshi; Desai, Jaydev P

2014-03-01

In the present work, we report fabrication and characterization of a low-cost MEMS based piezoresistive micro-force sensor with SU-8 tip using laboratory made silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate. To prepare SOI wafer, silicon film (0.8 µm thick) was deposited on an oxidized silicon wafer using RF magnetron sputtering technique. The films were deposited in Argon (Ar) ambient without external substrate heating. The material characteristics of the sputtered deposited silicon film and silicon film annealed at different temperatures (400-1050°C) were studied using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. The residual stress of the films was measured as a function of annealing temperature. The stress of the as-deposited films was observed to be compressive and annealing the film above 1050°C resulted in a tensile stress. The stress of the film decreased gradually with increase in annealing temperature. The fabricated cantilevers were 130 µm in length, 40 µm wide and 1.0 µm thick. A series of force-displacement curves were obtained using fabricated microcantilever with commercial AFM setup and the data were analyzed to get the spring constant and the sensitivity of the fabricated microcantilever. The measured spring constant and sensitivity of the sensor was 0.1488N/m and 2.7mV/N. The microcantilever force sensor was integrated with an electronic module that detects the change in resistance of the sensor with respect to the applied force and displays it on the computer screen.

Freeform solar concentrator with a highly asymmetric acceptance cone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wheelwright, Brian; Angel, J. Roger P.; Coughenour, Blake; Hammer, Kimberly

2014-10-01

A solar concentrator with a highly asymmetric acceptance cone is investigated. Concentrating photovoltaic systems require dual-axis sun tracking to maintain nominal concentration throughout the day. In addition to collecting direct rays from the solar disk, which subtends ~0.53 degrees, concentrating optics must allow for in-field tracking errors due to mechanical misalignment of the module, wind loading, and control loop biases. The angular range over which the concentrator maintains <90% of on-axis throughput is defined as the optical acceptance angle. Concentrators with substantial rotational symmetry likewise exhibit rotationally symmetric acceptance angles. In the field, this is sometimes a poor match with azimuth-elevation trackers, which have inherently asymmetric tracking performance. Pedestal-mounted trackers with low torsional stiffness about the vertical axis have better elevation tracking than azimuthal tracking. Conversely, trackers which rotate on large-footprint circular tracks are often limited by elevation tracking performance. We show that a line-focus concentrator, composed of a parabolic trough primary reflector and freeform refractive secondary, can be tailored to have a highly asymmetric acceptance angle. The design is suitable for a tracker with excellent tracking accuracy in the elevation direction, and poor accuracy in the azimuthal direction. In the 1000X design given, when trough optical errors (2mrad rms slope deviation) are accounted for, the azimuthal acceptance angle is +/- 1.65°, while the elevation acceptance angle is only +/-0.29°. This acceptance angle does not include the angular width of the sun, which consumes nearly all of the elevation tolerance at this concentration level. By decreasing the average concentration, the elevation acceptance angle can be increased. This is well-suited for a pedestal alt-azimuth tracker with a low cost slew bearing (without anti-backlash features).

A probabilistic analysis of silicon cost

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reiter, L. J.

1983-01-01

Silicon materials costs represent both a cost driver and an area where improvement can be made in the manufacture of photovoltaic modules. The cost from three processes for the production of low-cost silicon being developed under the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Photovoltaic Program is analyzed. The approach is based on probabilistic inputs and makes use of two models developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory: SIMRAND (SIMulation of Research ANd Development) and IPEG (Improved Price Estimating Guidelines). The approach, assumptions, and limitations are detailed along with a verification of the cost analyses methodology. Results, presented in the form of cumulative probability distributions for silicon cost, indicate that there is a 55% chance of reaching the DOE target of $16/kg for silicon material. This is a technically achievable cost based on expert forecasts of the results of ongoing research and development and do not imply any market prices for a given year.

Weakly modulated silicon-dioxide-cladding gratings for silicon waveguide Fabry-Pérot cavities.

PubMed

Grote, Richard R; Driscoll, Jeffrey B; Biris, Claudiu G; Panoiu, Nicolae C; Osgood, Richard M

2011-12-19

We show by theory and experiment that silicon-dioxide-cladding gratings for Fabry-Pérot cavities on silicon-on-insulator channel ("wire") waveguides provide a low-refractive-index perturbation, which is required for several important integrated photonics components. The underlying refractive index perturbation of these gratings is significantly weaker than that of analogous silicon gratings, leading to finer control of the coupling coefficient κ. Our Fabry-Pérot cavities are designed using the transfer-matrix method (TMM) in conjunction with the finite element method (FEM) for calculating the effective index of each waveguide section. Device parameters such as coupling coefficient, κ, Bragg mirror stop band, Bragg mirror reflectivity, and quality factor Q are examined via TMM modeling. Devices are fabricated with representative values of distributed Bragg reflector lengths, cavity lengths, and propagation losses. The measured transmission spectra show excellent agreement with the FEM/TMM calculations.

Optical interconnects based on VCSELs and low-loss silicon photonics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aalto, Timo; Harjanne, Mikko; Karppinen, Mikko; Cherchi, Matteo; Sitomaniemi, Aila; Ollila, Jyrki; Malacarne, Antonio; Neumeyr, Christian

2018-02-01

Silicon photonics with micron-scale Si waveguides offers most of the benefits of submicron SOI technology while avoiding most of its limitations. In particular, thick silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguides offer 0.1 dB/cm propagation loss, polarization independency, broadband single-mode (SM) operation from 1.2 to >4 µm wavelength and ability to transmit high optical powers (>1 W). Here we describe the feasibility of Thick-SOI technology for advanced optical interconnects. With 12 μm SOI waveguides we demonstrate efficient coupling between standard single-mode fibers, vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) and photodetectors (PDs), as well as wavelength multiplexing in small footprint. Discrete VCSELs and PDs already support 28 Gb/s on-off keying (OOK), which shows a path towards 50-100 Gb/s bandwidth per wavelength by using more advanced modulation formats like PAM4. Directly modulated VCSELs enable very power-efficient optical interconnects for up to 40 km distance. Furthermore, with 3 μm SOI waveguides we demonstrate extremely dense and low-loss integration of numerous optical functions, such as multiplexers, filters, switches and delay lines. Also polarization independent and athermal operation is demonstrated. The latter is achieved by using short polymer waveguides to compensate for the thermo-optic effect in silicon. New concepts for isolator integration and polarization rotation are also explained.

Overview of the Micro Vertex Detector for the P bar ANDA experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Calvo, Daniela; P¯ANDA MVD Group

2017-02-01

The P bar ANDA experiment is devoted to study interactions between cooled antiproton beams and a fixed target (the interaction rate is of about 107 events/s), hydrogen or heavier nuclei. The innermost tracker of P bar ANDA is the Micro Vertex Detector (MVD), specially designed to ensure the secondary vertex resolution for the discrimination of short-lived charmonium states. Hybrid epitaxial silicon pixels and double-sided silicon microstrips will equip four barrels, arranged around the interaction point, and six forward disks. The experiment features a triggerless architecture with a master clock of 160 MHz, therefore the MVD has to run with a continuous data transmission where the hits need precise timestamps. The energy loss of the particles in the sensor will be measured as well. The challenging request of a triggerless readout suggested to develop custom readout chips for both pixel (ToPix) and microstrip (PASTA) devices. To validate components and the triggerless readout architecture, prototypes have been built and tested. After an overview of the MVD, the technological aspects and performances of some prototypes will be reported.

Low-voltage, high-extinction-ratio, Mach-Zehnder silicon optical modulator for CMOS-compatible integration.

PubMed

Ding, Jianfeng; Chen, Hongtao; Yang, Lin; Zhang, Lei; Ji, Ruiqiang; Tian, Yonghui; Zhu, Weiwei; Lu, Yangyang; Zhou, Ping; Min, Rui

2012-01-30

We demonstrate a carrier-depletion Mach-Zehnder silicon optical modulator, which is compatible with CMOS fabrication process and works well at a low driving voltage. This is achieved by the optimization of the coplanar waveguide electrode to reduce the electrical signal transmission loss. At the same time, the velocity and impedance matching are both considered. The 12.5 Gbit/s data transmission experiment of the fabricated device with a 2-mm-long phase shifter is performed. The driving voltages with the swing amplitudes of 1 V and 2 V and the reverse bias voltages of 0.5 V and 0.8 V are applied to the device, respectively. The corresponding extinction ratios are 7.67 and 12.79 dB.

Stabilized high-accuracy correction of ocular aberrations with liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator in adaptive optics retinal imaging system.

PubMed

Huang, Hongxin; Inoue, Takashi; Tanaka, Hiroshi

2011-08-01

We studied the long-term optical performance of an adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscope that uses a liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator to correct ocular aberrations. The system achieved good compensation of aberrations while acquiring images of fine retinal structures, excepting during sudden eye movements. The residual wavefront aberrations collected over several minutes in several situations were statistically analyzed. The mean values of the root-mean-square residual wavefront errors were 23-30 nm, and for around 91-94% of the effective time the errors were below the Marechal criterion for diffraction limited imaging. The ability to axially shift the imaging plane to different retinal depths was also demonstrated.

Automated array assembly task, phase 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carbajal, B. G.

1977-01-01

An assessment of state-of-the-art technologies that are applicable to silicon solar cell and solar cell module fabrication is provided. The assessment consists of a technical feasibility evaluation and a cost projection for high-volume production of silicon solar cell modules. The cost projection was approached from two directions; a design-to-cost analysis assigned cost goals to each major process element in the fabrication scheme, and a cost analysis built up projected costs for alternate technologies for each process element. A technical evaluation was used in combination with the cost analysis to identify a baseline low cost process. A novel approach to metal pattern design based on minimum power loss was developed. These design equations were used as a tool in the evaluation of metallization technologies.

Hybrid integration of carbon nanotubes in silicon photonic structures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Durán-Valdeiglesias, E.; Zhang, W.; Alonso-Ramos, C.; Le Roux, X.; Serna, S.; Hoang, H. C.; Marris-Morini, D.; Cassan, E.; Intonti, F.; Sarti, F.; Caselli, N.; La China, F.; Gurioli, M.; Balestrieri, M.; Vivien, L.; Filoramo, A.

2017-02-01

Silicon photonics, due to its compatibility with the CMOS platform and unprecedented integration capability, has become the preferred solution for the implementation of next generation optical interconnects to accomplish high efficiency, low energy consumption, low cost and device miniaturization in one single chip. However, it is restricted by silicon itself. Silicon does not have efficient light emission or detection in the telecommunication wavelength range (1.3 μm-1.5 μm) or any electro-optic effect (i.e. Pockels effect). Hence, silicon photonic needs to be complemented with other materials for the realization of optically-active devices, including III-V for lasing and Ge for detection. The very different requirement of these materials results in complex fabrication processes that offset the cost-effectiveness of the Si photonics approach. For this purpose, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have recently been proposed as an attractive one-dimensional light emitting material. Interestingly, semiconducting single walled CNTs (SWNTs) exhibit room-temperature photo- and electro-luminescence in the near-IR that could be exploited for the implementation of integrated nano-sources. They can also be considered for the realization of photo-detectors and optical modulators, since they rely on intrinsically fast non-linear effects, such as Stark and Kerr effect. All these properties make SWNTs ideal candidates in order to fabricate a large variety of optoelectronic devices, including near-IR sources, modulators and photodetectors on Si photonic platforms. In addition, solution processed SWNTs can be integrated on Si using spin-coating or drop-casting techniques, obviating the need of complex epitaxial growth or chip bonding approaches. Here, we report on our recent progress in the coupling of SWNTs light emission into optical resonators implemented on the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. .

SiNOI and AlGaAs-on-SOI nonlinear circuits for continuum generation in Si photonics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

El Dirani, Houssein; Monat, Christelle; Brision, Stéphane; Olivier, Nicolas; Jany, Christophe; Letartre, Xavier; Pu, Minhao; Girouard, Peter D.; Hagedorn Frandsen, Lars; Semenova, Elizaveta; Katsuo Oxenløwe, Leif; Yvind, Kresten; Sciancalepore, Corrado

2018-02-01

In this communication, we report on the design, fabrication, and testing of Silicon Nitride on Insulator (SiNOI) and Aluminum-Gallium-Arsenide (AlGaAs) on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) nonlinear photonic circuits for continuum generation in Silicon (Si) photonics. As recently demonstrated, the generation of frequency continua and supercontinua can be used to overcome the intrinsic limitations of nowadays silicon photonics notably concerning the heterogeneous integration of III-V on SOI lasers for datacom and telecom applications. By using the Kerr nonlinearity of monolithic silicon nitride and heterointegrated GaAs-based alloys on SOI, the generation of tens or even hundreds of new optical frequencies can be obtained in dispersion tailored waveguides, thus providing an all-optical alternative to the heterointegration of hundreds of standalone III-V on Si lasers. In our work, we present paths to energy-efficient continua generation on silicon photonics circuits. Notably, we demonstrate spectral broadening covering the full C-band via Kerrbased self-phase modulation in SiNOI nanowires featuring full process compatibility with Si photonic devices. Moreover, AlGaAs waveguides are heterointegrated on SOI in order to dramatically reduce (x1/10) thresholds in optical parametric oscillation and in the power required for supercontinuum generation under pulsed pumping. The manufacturing techniques allowing the monolithic co-integration of nonlinear functionalities on existing CMOS-compatible Si photonics for both active and passive components will be shown. Experimental evidence based on self-phase modulation show SiNOI and AlGaAs nanowires capable of generating wide-spanning frequency continua in the C-Band. This will pave the way for low-threshold power-efficient Kerr-based comb- and continuum- sources featuring compatibility with Si photonic integrated circuits (Si-PICs).

Onboard Robust Visual Tracking for UAVs Using a Reliable Global-Local Object Model

PubMed Central

Fu, Changhong; Duan, Ran; Kircali, Dogan; Kayacan, Erdal

2016-01-01

In this paper, we present a novel onboard robust visual algorithm for long-term arbitrary 2D and 3D object tracking using a reliable global-local object model for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) applications, e.g., autonomous tracking and chasing a moving target. The first main approach in this novel algorithm is the use of a global matching and local tracking approach. In other words, the algorithm initially finds feature correspondences in a way that an improved binary descriptor is developed for global feature matching and an iterative Lucas–Kanade optical flow algorithm is employed for local feature tracking. The second main module is the use of an efficient local geometric filter (LGF), which handles outlier feature correspondences based on a new forward-backward pairwise dissimilarity measure, thereby maintaining pairwise geometric consistency. In the proposed LGF module, a hierarchical agglomerative clustering, i.e., bottom-up aggregation, is applied using an effective single-link method. The third proposed module is a heuristic local outlier factor (to the best of our knowledge, it is utilized for the first time to deal with outlier features in a visual tracking application), which further maximizes the representation of the target object in which we formulate outlier feature detection as a binary classification problem with the output features of the LGF module. Extensive UAV flight experiments show that the proposed visual tracker achieves real-time frame rates of more than thirty-five frames per second on an i7 processor with 640 × 512 image resolution and outperforms the most popular state-of-the-art trackers favorably in terms of robustness, efficiency and accuracy. PMID:27589769

Thermal and optical performance of encapsulation systems for flat-plate photovoltaic modules

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Minning, C. P.; Coakley, J. F.; Perrygo, C. M.; Garcia, A., III; Cuddihy, E. F.

1981-01-01

The electrical power output from a photovoltaic module is strongly influenced by the thermal and optical characteristics of the module encapsulation system. Described are the methodology and computer model for performing fast and accurate thermal and optical evaluations of different encapsulation systems. The computer model is used to evaluate cell temperature, solar energy transmittance through the encapsulation system, and electric power output for operation in a terrestrial environment. Extensive results are presented for both superstrate-module and substrate-module design schemes which include different types of silicon cell materials, pottants, and antireflection coatings.

A process to control light in a micro resonator through a coupling modulation by surface acoustic waves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fan, Guofang; Li, Yuan; Hu, Chunguang; Lei, Lihua; Guo, Yanchuan

2016-08-01

A novel process to control light through the coupling modulation by surface acoustic wave (SAW) is presented in an optical micro resonator. An optical waveguide modulator of a racetrack resonator on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology is took as an example to explore the mechanism. A finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) is developed to simulate the acousto-optical (AO) modulator using the mechanism. An analytical method is presented to verify our proposal. The results show that the process can work well as an optical modulator by SAW.

Metal-insulator transition properties of sputtered silicon-doped and un-doped vanadium dioxide films at terahertz range

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Huafu; Wu, Zhiming; Niu, Ruihua; Wu, Xuefei; he, Qiong; Jiang, Yadong

2015-03-01

Silicon-doped and un-doped vanadium dioxide (VO2) films were synthesized on high-purity single-crystal silicon substrates by means of reactive direct current magnetron sputtering followed by thermal annealing. The structure, morphology and metal-insulator transition properties of silicon-doped VO2 films at terahertz range were measured and compared to those of un-doped VO2 films. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy indicated that doping the films with silicon significantly affects the preferred crystallographic orientation and surface morphologies (grain size, pores and characteristics of grain boundaries). The temperature dependence of terahertz transmission shows that the transition temperature, hysteresis width and transition sharpness greatly depend on the silicon contents while the transition amplitude was relatively insensitive to the silicon contents. Interestingly, the VO2 film doped with a silicon content of 4.6 at.% shows excellent terahertz switching characteristics, namely a small hysteresis width of 4.5 °C, a giant transmission modulation ratio of about 82% and a relatively low transition temperature of 56.1 °C upon heating. This work experimentally indicates that silicon doping can effectively control not only the surface morphology but also the metal-insulator transition characteristics of VO2 films at terahertz range.

Status of the measurement of the nuclear components in cosmic rays with the AMS-02 experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Donnini, F.

2017-01-01

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) is a large-acceptance (0.45 m 2 sr) magnetic spectrometer operating on board the International Space Station since May 2011. One of the main scientific objectives of the mission is the measurement of the nuclei fluxes in cosmic rays (CR). The identification of nuclei is achieved by the combination of independent measurements of the absolute charge, provided by different sub-detectors: the Silicon Tracker, the Time-of-Flight system (TOF), the Ring Imaging Cherenkov Counter (RICH), the Transition Radiation Detector (TRD) and the Electromagnetic Calorimeter (ECAL). In this contribution the results of nuclei fluxes already shown by the AMS collaboration are presented.

First Results of an “Artificial Retina” Processor Prototype

DOE PAGES

Cenci, Riccardo; Bedeschi, Franco; Marino, Pietro; ...

2016-11-15

We report on the performance of a specialized processor capable of reconstructing charged particle tracks in a realistic LHC silicon tracker detector, at the same speed of the readout and with sub-microsecond latency. The processor is based on an innovative pattern-recognition algorithm, called “artificial retina algorithm”, inspired from the vision system of mammals. A prototype of the processor has been designed, simulated, and implemented on Tel62 boards equipped with high-bandwidth Altera Stratix III FPGA devices. Also, the prototype is the first step towards a real-time track reconstruction device aimed at processing complex events of high-luminosity LHC experiments at 40 MHzmore » crossing rate.« less

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Atanov, N.; et al.

The Mu2e experiment at Fermilab will search for the coherentmore » $$\\mu \\to e$$ conversion on aluminum atoms. The detector system consists of a straw tube tracker and a crystal calorimeter. A pre-production of 150 Silicon Photomultiplier arrays for the Mu2e calorimeter has been procured. A detailed quality assur- ance has been carried out on each SiPM for the determination of its own operation voltage, gain, dark current and PDE. The measurement of the mean-time-to-failure for a small random sample of the pro-production group has been also completed as well as the determination of the dark current increase as a function of the ioninizing and non-ioninizing dose.« less

First Results of an “Artificial Retina” Processor Prototype

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cenci, Riccardo; Bedeschi, Franco; Marino, Pietro

We report on the performance of a specialized processor capable of reconstructing charged particle tracks in a realistic LHC silicon tracker detector, at the same speed of the readout and with sub-microsecond latency. The processor is based on an innovative pattern-recognition algorithm, called “artificial retina algorithm”, inspired from the vision system of mammals. A prototype of the processor has been designed, simulated, and implemented on Tel62 boards equipped with high-bandwidth Altera Stratix III FPGA devices. Also, the prototype is the first step towards a real-time track reconstruction device aimed at processing complex events of high-luminosity LHC experiments at 40 MHzmore » crossing rate.« less

10Gbps monolithic silicon FTTH transceiver for PON

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, J.; Liow, T. Y.; Lo, G. Q.; Kwong, D. L.

2010-05-01

We propose a new passive optical network (PON) configuration and a novel silicon photonic transceiver architecture for optical network unit (ONU), eliminating the need for an internal laser source in ONU. We adopt dual fiber network configuration. The internal light source in each of the ONUs is eliminated. Instead, an extra seed laser source in the optical line termination (OLT) operates in continuous wave mode to serve the ONUs in the PON as a shared and centralized laser source. λ1 from OLT Tx and λ2 from the seed laser are combined by using a WDM combiner and connected to serve the multiple ONUs through the downstream fibers. The ONUs receive the data in λ1. Meanwhile, the ONUs encode and transmit data in λ2, which are sent back to OLT. The monolithic ONU transceiver contains a wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) filter component, a silicon modulator and a Ge photo-detector. The WDM in ONU selectively guides λ1 to the Ge-PD where the data in λ1 are detected and converted to electrical signals, and λ2 to the transmitter where the light is modulated by upstream data. The modulated optical signals in λ2 from ONUs are connected back to OLT through upstream fibers. The monolithic ONU transceiver chip size is only 2mm by 4mm. The crosstalk between the Tx and Rx is measured to be less than -20dB. The transceiver chip is integrated on a SFP+ transceiver board. Both Tx and Rx demonstrated data rate capabilities of up to 10Gbps. By implementing this scheme, the ONU transceiver size can be significantly reduced and the assembly processes will be greatly simplified. The results demonstrate the feasibility of mass manufacturing monolithic silicon ONU transceivers via low cost

Integration of carbon nanotubes in slot waveguides (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Durán-Valdeiglesias, Elena; Zhang, Weiwei; Hoang, Thi Hong Cam; Alonso-Ramos, Carlos; Serna, Samuel; Le Roux, Xavier; Cassan, Eric; Balestrieri, Matteo; Keita, Al-Saleh; Sarti, Francesco; Biccari, Francesco; Torrini, Ughetta; Vinattieri, Anna; Yang, Hongliu; Bezugly, Viktor; Cuniberti, Gianaurelio; Filoramo, Arianna; Gurioli, Massimo; Vivien, Laurent

2016-05-01

Demanding applications such as video streaming, social networking, or web search relay on a large network of data centres, interconnected through optical links. The ever-growing data rates and power consumption inside these data centres are pushing copper links close to their fundamental limits. Optical interconnects are being extensively studied with the purpose of solving these limitations. Among the different possible technology platforms, silicon photonics, due to its compatibility with the CMOS platform, has become one of the preferred solutions for the development of the future generation photonic interconnects. However, the on-chip integration of all photonic and optoelectronic building blocks (sources, modulators and detectors…) is very complex and is not cost-effective due to the various materials involved (Ge for detection, doped Si for modulators and III-V for lasing). Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are nanomaterials of great interest in photonics thanks to their fundamental optical properties, including near-IR room-temperature foto- and electro- luminescence, Stark effect, Kerr effect and absorption. In consequence, CNTs have the ability to emit, modulate and detect light in the telecommunications wavelength range. Furthermore, they are being extensively developed for new nano-electronics applications. In this work, we propose to use CNTs as active material integrated into silicon photonics for the development of all optoelectronic devices. Here, we report on the development of new integration schemes to couple the light emission from CNTs into optical resonators implemented on the silicon-on-insulator and silicon-nitride-on-insulator platforms. A theoretical and experimental analysis of the light interaction of CNTs with micro-ring resonators based on strip and slot waveguides and slot photonic crystal heterostructure cavities were carried out.

77 FR 73018 - Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules, From the People's...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-12-07

...., Ltd. (Chengdu) PV Module Co., Ltd. Canadian Solar International Canadian Solar 24.48 Limited..... Chint Solar (Zhejiang) 24.48 Co., Ltd. Suzhou Shenglong PV-Tech Co., Ltd Suzhou Shenglong PV-TECH 24.48.... Jetion Solar (China) Co., Ltd.... Jetion Solar (China) 24.48 Co., Ltd. Jiangsu Green Power PV Co., Ltd...

77 FR 31309 - Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells, Whether or Not Assembled Into Modules, From the People's...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-05-25

... into modules (``solar cells''), from the People's Republic of China (``PRC'') are being, or are likely... a petition concerning imports of solar cells from the PRC filed in proper form by SolarWorld...'') duty investigation of solar cells from the PRC on November 8, 2011.\\3\\ \\1\\ See Petition for the...