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Researchers at North Carolina State University demonstrated a low-cost technique for retrieving nanowires from electronic devices that have reached the end of their utility and then using those nanowires in new devices. The work is a step toward more sustainable electronics. The paper, “Recycling of Nanowire Percolation Network for Sustainable Soft Electronics,” is published in the journal Advanced Electronic Materials. “There is a lot of interest in recycling electronic materials because we want to both reduce electronic waste and maximize the use we get out of rare or costly materials,” says Yuxuan Liu, first author of a paper on the work and a Ph.D. student at NC State. “We’ve demonstrated an approach that allows us to recycle nanowires, and that we think could be extended to other nanomaterials – including nanomaterials containing noble and rare-earth elements.” “Our recycling technique differs from conventional recycling,” says Yong Zhu, corresponding author of the paper and the Andrew A. Adams Distinguished Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at NC State. “When you think about recycling a glass bottle, it is completely melted down before being used to create another glass object. In our approach, a silver nanowire network is separated from the rest of the materials in a device. That network is then disassembled into a collection of separate silver nanowires in solution. These nanowires can then be used to create a new network and incorporated into a new sensor or other devices.” The new recycling technique takes into account the entire life cycle of a device. The first step is to design devices using polymers that are soluble in solvents that will not also dissolve the nanowires. Once a device has been used, the polymer matrix containing the silver nanowires is dissolved, leaving behind the nanowire network. The network is then placed in a separate solvent and hit with ultrasound. This disperses the nanowires, separating them out of the network. In a proof-of-concept demonstration, the researchers created a wearable health sensor patch that could be used to track a patient’s temperature and hydration. The sensor consisted of silver nanowire networks embedded in a polymer material. The researchers tested the sensors to ensure that they were fully functional. Once used, a sensor patch is normally discarded. But for their demonstration, the researchers dissolved the polymer in water, removed the nanowire network, broke it down into a collection of individual nanowires, and then used those nanowires to create a brand-new wearable sensor. While there was minor degradation in the properties of the nanowire network after each “life cycle,” the researchers found that the nanowires could be recycled four times without harming the sensor’s performance. After four life cycles, you can improve the performance of the nanowire network by introducing new silver nanowires into the mix. “Using our approach, you get far more use from the nanowires,” Zhu says. “And even after the nanowires have broken down many times, to the point where they can’t be reused, we can still use them as feedstock for conventional recycling. It’s a tremendous reduction in waste.” One key to the recycling process is identifying a solvent with a low surface tension for use in breaking up the nanowire network. “Low surface tension is important because it makes it easier for the solvent to diffuse into the narrow junctions between nanowires in the network, facilitating the disassembling of the network,” Liu says. The researchers found that it is also important to find the right balance of time when breaking up the nanowire networks with ultrasound. If you apply the ultrasound for too long, you can break the nanowires. If you don’t apply the ultrasound for long enough, you can end up with clumps of nanowires. “The approach we’ve demonstrated here could be used to recycle other nanomaterials – such as nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, other types of nanowires, and two-dimensional materials – as long as they are used in the form of a network,” Zhu says. For more information, visit: https://news.ncsu.edu/2021/07/recycling-nanowires-in-electronics/

Researchers at North Carolina State University have created a soft and stretchable device that converts movement into electricity and can work in wet environments. The paper, “A Soft Variable-Area Electrical-Double-Layer Energy Harvester,” is published in the journal Advanced Materials. “Mechanical energy – such as the kinetic energy of wind, waves, body movement, and vibrations from motors – is abundant,” says Michael Dickey, corresponding author of a paper on the work and Camille & Henry Dreyfus Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at NC State. “We have created a device that can turn this type of mechanical motion into electricity. And one of its remarkable attributes is that it works perfectly well underwater.” The heart of the energy harvester is a liquid metal alloy of gallium and indium. The alloy is encased in a hydrogel – a soft, elastic polymer swollen with water. The water in the hydrogel contains dissolved salts called ions. The ions assemble at the surface of the metal, which can induce a charge in the metal. Increasing the area of the metal provides more surface to attract a charge. This generates electricity, which is captured by a wire attached to the device. “Since the device is soft, any mechanical motion can cause it to deform, including squishing, stretching, and twisting,” Dickey says. “This makes it versatile for harvesting mechanical energy. For example, the hydrogel is elastic enough to be stretched to five times its original length.” In experiments, researchers found that deforming the device by only a few millimeters generates a power density of approximately 0.5 mW m-2. This amount of electricity is comparable to several popular classes of energy harvesting technologies. “However, other technologies don’t work well, if at all, in wet environments,” Dickey says. “This unique feature may enable applications from biomedical settings to athletic wear to marine environments. Plus, the device is simple to make. “There is a path to increase the power, so we consider the work we described here a proof-of-concept demonstration.” The researchers already have two related projects underway. One project is aimed at using the technology to power wearable devices by increasing the harvester’s power output. The second project evaluates how this technology could be used to harvest wave power from the ocean. For more information, visit: https://news.ncsu.edu/2021/08/liquid-metal-energy-harvester/

As anyone who has ever parked a car in the sun on a hot summer day knows, glass windows are great at letting sunlight in but terrible at allowing heat out. Now, engineers at Duke University have developed smart window-like technology that, with the flip of a switch, can alternate between harvesting heat from sunlight and allowing an object to cool. The approach could be a boon for HVAC savings, potentially cutting energy usage by nearly 20% in the United States alone. The electrochromic technology – material that changes color or opacity when electricity is applied – is detailed in a paper "Ultra-Wideband Transparent Conductive Electrode for Electrochromic Synergistic Solar and Radiative Heat Management" published in the journal American Chemical Society Energy Letters. “We have demonstrated the very first electrochromic device that can switch between solar heating and radiative cooling,” said Po-Chun Hsu, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Duke. “Our electrochromic tuning method does not have any moving parts and is continuously tunable.” Smart windows made from electrochromic glass are a relatively new technology that uses an electrochromic reaction to change glass from transparent to opaque and back again in the blink of an eye. While there are many approaches to creating this phenomenon, they all involve sandwiching an electrically responsive material between two thin layers of electrodes and passing an electric current between them. While this trick is difficult enough to achieve for visible light, it becomes even more so when having to also consider mid-infrared light (radiative heat). In the paper, Hsu and his graduate student Chenxi Sui demonstrate a thin device that interacts with both spectrums of light while switching between passive heating and cooling modes. In the heating mode, the device darkens to absorb sunlight and stop mid-infrared light from escaping. In the cooling mode, the darkened window-like layer clears, simultaneously revealing a mirror that reflects sunlight and allows mid-infrared light from behind the device to dissipate. Because the mirror is never transparent to visible light, the device would not replace windows in homes or offices, but it might be used on other building surfaces. “It’s very difficult to create materials that can function in both of these regimes,” Hsu said. “Our device has one of the largest tuning ranges in thermal radiation ever demonstrated.” There were two major challenges to overcome to engineer such a device. The first was creating electrode layers that conduct electricity and are transparent to both visible light and thermal radiation. Most conductive materials such as metals, graphite, and some oxides don’t fit the bill, as these two properties are at odds with one another, so Hsu and Sui engineered their own. The researchers started with a one-atom-thick layer of graphene, which they showed is too thin to reflect or absorb either type of light. But it is also not conducive enough to transmit the amount of electricity required for the device to work at a large scale. To get around this limitation, Hsu and Sui added a thin grid of gold on top of the graphene to act as a highway for electricity. While this somewhat decreased the graphene’s ability to allow light to pass through unimpeded, the tradeoff was small enough to be worth it. The second challenge involved engineering a material that could go between the two electrode layers and switch back and forth between absorbing light and heat or allowing them to pass through. The researchers achieved this by harnessing a phenomenon called plasmonics. When tiny, nanoscale metal particles are placed just nanometers away from each other, they can essentially trap specific wavelengths of light based on their size and spacing. But in this case, the nanoparticles are randomly distributed in clusters, leading to interactions with a wide range of wavelengths, which is beneficial for efficiently trapping sunlight. In the demonstration, electricity passing through the two electrodes causes metal nanoparticles to form near the top electrode. Not only does this blackout the device, but it also causes the entire device to absorb and trap both visible light and heat. And when the electrical flow is reversed, the nanoparticles dissolve back into the liquid transparent electrolyte. The transition between the two states takes a minute or two to complete. “The device would spend many hours in one state or the other out in the real world, so losing a couple of minutes of efficiency during the transition is just a drop in the bucket,” said Hsu. There are still many challenges to making this technology useful in everyday settings. The largest might be increasing the number of times the nanoparticles can cycle between forming and disintegrating, as the prototype was only able to perform a couple dozen transitions before losing efficiency. There is also room for improvement in the solar reflectivity of the cooling mode, which Hsu hopes can achieve sub-ambient cooling in the near future. As the technology matures, however, there may be many applications for it. The technology might be applied to exterior walls or roofs to help heat and cool buildings while consuming very little energy. Providing the building envelopes such a dynamic capability to use renewable resources for heating and cooling could also open up the opportunity to use less of the construction materials that have been a significant source of carbon emission for decades. For more information, visit: https://pratt.duke.edu/about/news/smart-material-switches-between-heating-and-cooling-minutes

Speaker: Frank Louwet | Company: Agfa | Date: 11-12 May 2021 | Full Presentation Digital printing has clearly established itself for graphics printing, thanks to the advantages it offers over traditional processes like screen printing. More recently, digital printing started morphing into digital manufacturing and also Printed Electronics is taking advantage of that evolution. In this talk we will review Agfa's digital conductive inks based on nanomaterials, and highlight some features of newly developed inks. In the second part of the talk, Nanogate Netherlands will discuss the application of additive digital manufacturing in motor sport products. Peter Willaert Global Marketing Manager Printed Electronics @ Agfa Bio Experienced Product Marketing and Business Development Manager in Printed Electronics with a background in Electronic Engineering. Over the years I have developed a broad knowledge about materials and processes for applications like RFID, iOT, Sensors, Displays etc. Join TechBlick on an annual pass to join all live online conference or online version of onsite conference access library of on-demand talks (600 talks + PDFs) portfolio of expert led masterclass year-round platform https://www.techblick.com/ And do NOT miss our flagship event in Berlin on 17-18 OCT 2023 focused on Reshaping the Future of Electronics. This event attracts 550-600 participants from all the world and offers a superb ambience and dynamic exhibition floor. To learn more visit https://www.techblick.com/electronicsreshaped To see feedback about previous event see https://www.techblick.com/events-agenda

Miniaturized electronics, minute sample volumes in lab equipment, small footprint batteries, and a multitude of other applications have one thing in common: The need for miniaturization and component flexibility. Whether employed as a reference sensor for precise ambient temperature measurement, or for temperature monitoring of critical components – the tiny sensor ‘microRTD’ developed by Heraeus Nexensos fulfills the need for a tiny, flexible temperature sensor. Thanks to a well-focused development effort, the sensor is ready for the transition to pilot plant production. The microRTD—the Right Temperature Sensor for Applications Requiring Ultrasmall, Ultra-Thin, and Flexibility With a footprint of just 0.6mm x 0.3 mm and a low profile of 50 microns, the microRTD can be employed in applications that require temperature control on localized hot spots or require a reference sensor that contributes to the overall small system layout. As a result of the low profile and innovative production technology, the bendable microRTD sensor is capable of conformal contact to curved or flexible surfaces, resulting in fast and precise temperature detection. The operating temperature window is -40 to +140 °C. Miniaturization Combined with Precision – Ready for Pilot Evaluation by Our Customers In close cooperation with a strategic partner, Nexensos channeled decades of sensor expertise into the development of the miniaturized temperature sensor. In the next phase, a large-scale production facility will be constructed, ready to serve our customer’s needs. With this next exciting stage, Nexensos ensures that the required production capabilities will be in place to fill our customers’ requirements for this innovative sensor. For more information: https://www.heraeus.com/en/hne/company_sensors/press_news_sensors/2021_news_hne/2021-08-micrortd.html?utm_medium=social.post&utm_source=linkedin&utm_campaign=HNE.micro-rtd&utm_content=option4

Graphene, hexagonally arranged carbon atoms in a single layer with, superior pliability and high conductivity, could advance flexible electronics according to a Penn State-led international research team. Huanyu “Larry” Cheng, Dorothy Quiggle Career Development Professor in Penn State's Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics (ESM), heads the collaboration, which recently published two studies that could inform research and development of future motion detection, tactile sensing and health monitoring devices. Investigating how laser processing affects graphene form and function Several substances can be converted into carbon to create graphene through laser radiation. Called laser-induced graphene (LIG), the resulting product can have specific properties determined by the original material. The team tested this process and their results were made available online ahead of publication in SCIENCE CHINA Technological Sciences "Effects of laser processing parameters on properties of laser-induced graphene by irradiating CO2 laser on polyimide". Samples of polyimide, a type of plastic, were irradiated through laser scanning. The researchers varied the power, scanning speed, number of passes, and density of scanning lines. “We wanted to look at how different parameters of the laser processing process create different nanostructures,” Cheng said. “Varying the power allowed us to create LIG either in a fiber or foam structure.” The researchers found that lower power levels, from 7.2 watts to roughly 9 watts, resulted in the formation of a porous foam with many ultrafine layers. This LIG foam exhibited electrical conductivity and fair resistance to heat damage — both properties that are useful in components of electronic devices. Increasing the power from approximately 9 watts to 12.6 watts changed the LIG formation pattern from foam to bundles of small fibers. These bundles grew larger in diameter with increased laser power, while higher power promoted the web-like growth of a fiber network. The fibrous structure showed better electrical conductivity than the foam. According to Cheng, this increased performance combined with the fiber’s form could open possibilities for sensing devices. “In general, this is a conductive framework we can use to construct other components,” Cheng said. “As long as the fiber is conductive, we can use it as a scaffold and do a lot of subsequent modifications on the surface to enable a number of sensors, such as a glucose sensor on the skin or an infection detector for wounds.”Varying the laser scanning speed, density, and passes for the LIG formed at different powers also influenced conductivity and subsequent performance. More laser exposure resulted in higher conductivity but eventually dropped due to excess carbonization from burning. Demonstrating a low-cost LIG sensor Using the previous study as a foundation, Cheng and the team set out to design, fabricate and test a flexible LIG pressure sensor. “Pressure sensors are very important,” Cheng said. “We can use them not only in households and manufacturing but also on the skin surface to measure lots of signals from the human body, like the pulse. They can also be used at the human-machine interface to enhance the performance of prosthetic limbs or monitor their attachment points.” The team tested two designs. For the first, they sandwiched a thin LIG foam layer between two polyimide layers containing copper electrodes. When the pressure was applied, the LIG generated electricity. The voids in the foam reduced the number of pathways for electricity to travel, making it easier to localize the pressure source, and appeared to improve sensitivity to delicate touches. This first design, when attached to the back of the hand or the finger, detected bending and stretching hand movements — as well as the characteristic percussion, tidal and diastolic waves of the heartbeat. According to Cheng, this pulse reading could be combined with an electrocardiogram reading to yield blood pressure measurements without a cuff. In the second design, the researchers incorporated nanoparticles into the LIG foam. These tiny spheres of molybdenum disulfide, a semiconductor that can act as a conductor and an insulator, enhanced the foam’s sensitivity and resistance to physical forces. This design was also resilient to repeated use, showing nearly identical performance before and after nearly 10,000 uses. Both designs were cost-effective and allowed for simple data acquisition, according to Cheng. For more information: https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/graphene-made-lasers-wearable-health-devices/

Noninvasive glucose monitoring devices are not currently commercially available in the United States, so people with diabetes must collect blood samples or use sensors embedded under the skin to measure their blood sugar levels. Now, with a new wearable device created by Penn State researchers, less intrusive glucose monitoring could become the norm. Led by Huanyu “Larry” Cheng, Dorothy Quiggle Career Development Professor in Penn State's Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, the researchers published the details of the noninvasive, low-cost sensor that can detect glucose in sweat in Biosensors and Bioelectronics "Laser-induced graphene non-enzymatic glucose sensors for on-body measurements". The researchers constructed the device first with laser-induced graphene (LIG), a material consisting of atom-thick carbon layers in various shapes. With high electrical conductivity and a convenient fabrication time of just seconds, LIG appeared to be an ideal framework for the sensing device but there was a significant caveat. “The challenge here is that LIG is not sensitive to glucose at all,” Cheng said. “So, we needed to deposit a glucose-sensitive material onto the LIG.” The team chose nickel because of its robust glucose sensitivity, according to Cheng, and combined it with gold to lower potential risks of an allergic reaction. The researchers hypothesized that the LIG outfitted with the nickel-gold alloy would be able to detect low concentrations of glucose in sweat on the skin’s surface. A material with high glucose sensitivity was a priority. Sweat exhibits remarkably low glucose concentrations compared to blood but, according to Cheng, there is a strong correlation between glucose levels in sweat and blood. While the concentration of glucose in sweat is about 100 times less than the concentration in blood, the team’s device is sensitive enough to accurately measure the glucose in sweat and reflect the concentration in blood. The nickel-gold alloy’s sensitivity allowed Cheng’s team to exclude enzymes, which are often used to measure glucose in more invasive, commercially available devices or in noninvasive monitors proposed by other researchers. These enzymes, however, can degrade quickly with time and changing temperatures. “An enzymatic sensor has to be kept at a certain temperature and pH, and the enzyme can’t be stored in the long term,” Cheng said. “A nonenzymatic glucose sensor, on the other hand, is advantageous in terms of stable performance and glucose sensitivity regardless of these changes.” Nonenzymatic sensors require an alkaline solution, which can damage the skin and typically limits device wearability. To curb this issue, Cheng and his team attached a microfluidic chamber to the LIG alloy. This chamber is smaller than previously developed configurations to promote wearability and porous to allow for a range of movement, such as stretching or crushing. It is connected to a collection inlet that passes sweat into the solution without allowing the solution to touch the skin. The basic solution interacts with the glucose molecules to produce a compound that reacts with the alloy. This reaction triggers an electrical signal, indicating the concentration of glucose in the sweat. With a smaller alkaline solution chamber, the entire device is roughly the size of a quarter and is flexible enough to maintain a secure attachment to the human body, Cheng said. In a proof-of-concept test, the researchers used a skin-safe adhesive to attach the reusable device to a person’s arm one hour and three hours after a meal. The subject performed a brief workout — just enough to produce sweat — right before each measurement time. A few minutes after collecting the sweat, the researchers found that the detected glucose concentration dropped from the first measurement to the next. The glucose measurements from the device were verified by measurements made with a commercially available glucose monitor. Cheng and the team plan to improve upon their prototype for future applications, including addressing how patients or clinicians may use the sensor for incremental glucose measurements or continuous monitoring to determine treatment actions, such as administering insulin. They also intend to refine and expand this platform for more comfortable monitoring of other biomarkers that can be found in the sweat or interstitial fluids that fill the space between cells in the body. “We want to work with physicians and other health care providers to see how we can apply this technology for daily monitoring of a patient,” Cheng said. “This glucose sensor serves as a foundational example to show that we can improve the detection of biomarkers in sweat at extremely low concentrations.” For more information: https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/monitoring-glucose-levels-no-needles-required/

TNO at Holst Centre has developed an ultrathin conformable smart sensor mat that can detect a person's breathing rate, heart rate, and posture. The multi-modal sensing mat consists of a combination of printed piezo-resistive and piezo-electric sensors. In one implementation, the mat can be placed under a bedsheet, enabling long-term monitoring of patients in a hospital bed or babies sleeping at home. The mat can also be integrated into the seat and back of an office chair, increasing and extending the vitality of our workforce. When used in a car seat, the mat can monitor posture and driver alertness. Unobtrusive monitoring Approximately 26% of people between the ages of 30 and 70 suffer from sleep apnoea worldwide. People with sleep apnoea are four times more likely to have a stroke and many die each year from cardiovascular diseases caused by this condition. As the healthcare costs involved are increasing rapidly across the globe, the demand for a cure is on the rise. People suffering from sleep apnoea are often monitored in so-called sleeping centers, having to sleep there several nights under less-than-ideal circumstances. Peter Zalar, Program Manager Large-Area Sensors at TNO at Holst Centre, explains: "The posture, breathing rate, and heart rate of a person laying on a bed can be ascertained using a large-area matrix of piezo-electric and piezo-resistive force sensors. Because these sensors are printed on a thin elastomer, they are very sensitive, quickly picking up a signal again even if the patient has moved. This maximizes data quality, enabling patient monitoring to be performed completely remotely and reliably. Since the sensors are unobtrusive and do not cause discomfort, the patient does not notice the device – allowing for the accumulation of vast amounts of unbiased data. Furthermore, by combining multiple data sources, the state of the patient's health can be determined with greater certainty." A variety of applications in healthcare and wellness The smart sensor mat enables long-term monitoring, as it is a non-intrusive device. The mat simply disappears into the object in which it is integrated. There are many possible applications to use the sensor mat, for example in a baby bed to monitor an infant's activity and breathing rate. Peter Zalar: "Another field of application is in cars. When used in a car seat, the mat can monitor sitting posture and heart rate and give an indication of the driver's alertness level. Even with the advent of autonomous driving technologies, the driver formally still needs to pay attention, but the chance of being distracted or dosing off increases due to driver inactivity. The mat could prevent people from falling asleep behind the steering wheel, which could help save lives." Peter continues: "When integrated into an office chair the mat can signal when it is necessary to change position or even to get up and get some exercise. This helps increase and extend the vitality of our workforce. Additionally, it could help designers of office furniture to create more ergonomic chairs by identifying areas of a chair which can cause discomfort or harm to a person." Technology deep-dive Existing solutions for large-area pressure sensors are rigid and often based on capacitive sensors that are difficult to implement in practice. The sensor mat is entirely developed in-house, using a unique set of materials and design features. Peter explains: "At TNO at Holst Centre we have optimized the technology of large-area, multilayer screen printing and lamination, which means that a sensor array can be printed on substrates as large as 90x200 cm. We have also introduced the use of elastomeric substrates and laminates for piezo-electric sensors, increasing their sensitivity. Furthermore, in order to improve the sensitivity to compression, which is used to detect heartbeats, the piezo-electric sensor geometry has been optimized. To validate our approach, we have developed basic software and algorithms, as well as a new fast readout system to keep up with the volume of data produced by all the sensors. We have three submitted patents around these innovations." Cost-effective The number and ratio of piezo-electric and piezo-resistive sensors within the matrix structure can be adjusted. This makes the mat highly cost-effective in the long term, as more or fewer of either sensor type can be used on a larger or smaller surface. The algorithms can also be adjusted, so both the hardware and the software can be tailored to the application. Peter adds: "TNO at Holst Centre is currently working on adding new sensor modalities, such as (printed) temperature sensors, to broaden the application possibilities and prediction qualities of algorithms that take advantage of this data." For more information: https://www.holstcentre.com/news---press/2021/tno-at-holst-centre-develops-smart-sensor-mat/

NovaCentrix today announced that it received a 2021 Mexico Technology Award in the category of Soldering – Other for its PulseForge® Soldering In-Line. The award was announced at a ceremony that took place Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2021, during SMTA International in Minneapolis, MN. “We are delighted to be recognized for this prestigious award,” said Stan Farnsworth, NovaCentrix’ Chief Marketing Officer. “The capabilities of the newest PulseForge toolset open the doors to new product innovation and substantial reduction in energy utilization in manufacturing”. NovaCentrix’s new PulseForge Soldering In-Line, with NovaCentrix proprietary high-intensity thermal technology, reflows a wide range of traditional solders, such as SAC305, in seconds or less. Such fast processing allows , commercial packages, including transistors, LEDs, and resistors in traditional sizes, to be soldered to heat-sensitive substrates like plastic, films, textiles, and paper, without damaging the substrate. Additionally, temperature-sensitive components such as sensors, batteries, and cameras can be directly soldered without damage. Furthermore, because of the ultra-rapid processing speed, substantial energy savings have been demonstrated versus traditional thermal processing methods. The PulseForge tools offer meaningful decarbonization of the EMS/SMT supply chain. PulseForge® Soldering In-Line is SMEMA 9851 compliant with high throughput, and available with input and output buffers. Move past conventional, slow, inflexible soldering solutions and take back control of materials and design in electronics manufacturing – without damaging temperature-sensitive substrates and components. NovaCentrix’s high-speed, high-intensity thermal technology makes substrate and component damage during soldering a concern of the past. Product innovators and manufacturers can now utilize flexible, low-cost substrates, and deliver functionality never before possible with conventional oven and laser processing. The Mexico Technology Awards acknowledge the latest innovations available in Mexico produced by OEM manufacturing equipment and materials suppliers during the last 12 months. For more information, visit www.mexicoems.com/mta-awards.

As the world leaders gathered in Glasgow to discuss climate policies, there was inevitably constant discussion on energy transition towards sustainable renewable sources. Solar cells are unquestionably part of the answer. As shown below, photovoltaic technology has come far in terms of reducing $/W and expanding global production capacity. In fact, solar cells are now financially viable without subsidy in many regions of the world. The installations are also rapidly growing every year as solar cells become a major part of the global energy mix. The solar technology of choice today is of course wafer based silicon. As shown below, this technology is long established as the winning technology, limiting the space for other solutions including thin film solar cells. Given this dominance, an important question is whether Si will forever retain its current pole position? or will other technology options rise to complement and/or displace silicon? In most technology fields many technology transitions take place. These transitions brew in the background for decades, often with dim prospects, but they eventually come of age to displace the old guard. There is no fundamental reason to assume solar technology will be any different, especially as silicon as is appears to have matured, reaching limits of its performance. On the hand, silicon has proven extremely resilient in the electronic field. It never ceases to surprise and progress. However, even in this field, many non-silicon semiconductors now occupy mighty roles in, for example, high frequency or high power electronics. Furthermore, despite the unimaginable cumulative human hours of development time and capital thus far dedicated to silicon electronics, it remains an open question whether silicon alone can sustain the future roadmap, leaving an open space for alternatives such as 2D materials. At TechBlick, we have organized a live (online) conference exploring the future of photovoltaic technologies. In this conference, we will examine all the key trends in the development of new photovoltaic technologies. Here we consider perovskite, organic, CIGS as well as hybrid/tandem solar cells. We examine emerging production methods, considering the latest development in printing as well as R2R solution- or evaporation-based processing. At this LIVE online conference, you will hear from the key players advancing these technologies including CubicPV, Armor, Heliatek, 3M, Epishine, Flisom AG, National Research Council Canda, VTT, Saule Technologies, Sunew, ITRI, Dracula Technologies, Brite Solar, Solaire, Lightricity, Brite Solar Evolar AB, Ubiquitous Energy, Lusoco, KIT, DuPont, Faunhofer IAP, Swansea University, QDSolar, Solaires, Brilliant Matters, etc. In this article, we provide you with detailed background information, outlining the status and trends of these solar technologies for outdoor and indoor applications. This will help set the importance of the themes of this conference in context. Here we discus organic PV, perovskite PV, and techniques such as R2R processing, inkjet printing, etc. Source: data from charts by Fraunhofer ISE, adapted by TechBlick. Left: annual global production. Left: share of thin film PV technologies. The rest of the market share goes to Si. Become an Annual Pass holder to watch this content on-demand Perovskites: the winning technology of the future? There has been talk of the third generation of photovoltaics for decades. Two main classes of solar cell technologies studied were organics and dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC), which later evolved in the fastest improving PV technology: perovskite photovoltaics. The chart below shows the improvement trajectory of several non-silicon photovoltaic technologies at the champion cell level. All the red lines refer to perovskite PVs, either as standalone or in tandem form. Since appearing on the block around 2014, they have shown an incredibly fast EQE improvement trend. Interesting, this trend still has some room to continue, especially for tandem versions (perovskite/CIGS or perovskite/Si). The steep curve shown below has made perovskites the darling of the industry as well as investors worldwide. For some years, it also stole the limelight from OPVs. At TechBlick's live(online) conference you will hear from many key players advancing the art and the technology of this field towards industrialization. You will hear from CubicPV, Saule Technologies, Solaire, VTT, Brite Solar, Evolar, and others. Join TechBlick as an Annual Pass holders until 19 November and benefit from a 100 discount (coupon: Save100Euros to be applied at check out). With this pass, you can hear from and meet all the key players covering an entire spectrum of advances from best-in-class efficiency and lifetime results, to progress towards R2R and inkjet printing of perovskites, to advances in stable perovskite ink formulation, to turnkey thin film solutions, and beyond. Source: TechBlick. Adapted from NREL data. Become an Annual Pass holder to watch this content on-demand Despite the fast cell-level improvements, technology barriers to full scale commercialization still remain. One challenge is that the transition away from small champion cells to larger cells and modules is accompanied by a steep loss in efficiency. This is shown below. This data is from 2020/2021 and there are constant improvements. Nonetheless, this area still needs to be addressed. At this conference, you will hear from the likes of CubicPV who are reporting record stability results and plan on investing more than $1Bn in scale-up. Another challenge has been the high rate of degradation of perovskite solar cells, limiting their useful lifetime. There is improvement though at both the cell and module levels, as shown below on the right. Here, you can see the degradation rate of PCE of cell- and module-level perovskite PVs compared to well established technologies such as crystalline Si, polycrystalline Si, CdTe, a-Si, and CIGS. Interestingly, the gap with acceptable commercial degradation level is generally shrinking, and there are also specific reports where this gap is fully bridged. At the conference leading researchers such as those from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology will passivation technologies for perovskite tandem cells. Another challenge is of course with the presence of lead in best performing perovskite PVs. This is important issue but due to lack of space in the article, we will not address it further. Become an Annual Pass holder to watch this content on-demand Manufacturing perovskites, be they single or tandem cells, is an important question. Physical vapour deposition currently gives the best results. Most firms pursuing tandem cells use this technique as it yields more stable cells thank to better control of the thin film properties. In perovskite-only cells, thin film deposition techniques may prove cost competitive against wafer-based silicon. This did not turn out to be the case with amorphous silicon. However, perovskites are far more efficient than a-Si and can thus halve the $/W cost even with the same equipment costs and production parameters. In tandem perovskite cells, thin film processes offer an immediate approach for compatibility with existing silicon lines, enabling one to leverage perovskite solar cells to increase the efficiency of the well-established silicon cells. Without this booster technology, silicon may have reached the limits of its performance, exposing it to risk of technological disruption. Therefore, perovskite thin film cells can be the saviour of silicon photovoltaics if proven stable and non-toxic enough. To achieve scales beyond what wafer technology can reach, many are developing printing R2R-based approaches, borrowing from the learnings of the OPV development. Here, some are targeting 1.5m webs running at an incredible (for this sector) 30m/min web speeds for unwind-to-wind fully-R2R perovskite PVs. The cleaner interlayer interfaces, compared to the interweaving donor-acceptor morphology of OPVs, might make it simpler than OPVs provided good perovskite inks are developed. At the conference you will hear from leading researchers working on solution processing as well as R2R coating of perovskite photovoltaics as VTT and Swansea Universities. These will be overview talks, outlining the state-of-the-art and offering unbaised benchmarking. At the same time, you will hear from companies trying to commercially R2R produce perovskite PVs or start-ups developing novel perovskite inks such as Solaire Enterprises. We also highlight R2R production of tandem quantum dot-perovskite solar cells by the likes of QDSolar, a novel early-stage approach that might combine the best of both emerging technologies. Finally, perovskite solar cells can also be inkjet printed. This has the advantage of freedom of design as well as the ability to integrate materials. You will hear from Saule Technologies, scaling up inkjet printed solar cells (42k sqm per year) with a strong application pipeline, and from Brite Solar scaling up inkjet printed photovoltaics to larger area solar cells. Left: EMC’s high speed R2R solar pilot line with flexographic printed metal mesh transparent conductive layer on 100um Corning glass. Right: Inkjet printed perovskite PVs by Saule Technology on glass and some indoor application examples. Become an Annual Pass holder to watch this content on-demand. Organic photovoltaics: Renaissance? As shown in the efficiency vs year chart, organic photovoltaics have had a development history of 20 years already. The technology had a setback after the bankruptcy of Konarka, stalling commercial and technological development. This is reflected in the slow incremental growth of OPV efficiency between 2011 and 2018. However there have been jumps in efficiency since then with OPV cells exceeding 18% certified efficiency. The material developments, and the mastery of the art of nanoscale donor-acceptor morphology control, will further sustain this development trend. In particular, in recent years, the transition to non-fullerene acceptors has rejuvenated the development trend, leading to ever higher efficiency level. All manners of material developments now continue apace, shaping the future of OPV technology. At the TechBlick live(online) conference on 1-2 December you will hear from the likes of Brilliant Matters, Phillips 66, Solaire, and others discussing development of organic and perovskite materials. Source TechBlick. Adapted from Swansea University data. Become an Annual Pass holder to watch this content on-demand In parallel, and equally important, there is now significant accumulated production level technical learnings in the industry. At first, Konarka raised enormous sums of money but the bubble of hype around OPV technology burst with its bankruptcy. Konarka suffered from bad timing at that time. China massively expanded Si cell production capacity through financing and other state-support backings, changing the competitive landscape with the plummeting $/W prices. However, Konarka also made technology errors. It wanted to scale up too soon and tried to scale up using an existing non-custom ex Polaroid 1.5m-wide web machine which could not be optimized to boost the efficiency of the OPV cells. As such, despite the investment, it never managed to approach the 5% efficiency level and never ran the machine close to its intended web speed levels. The industry has learnt these lessons. In fact, despite this set back, the industry continued its developments. There was some degree of technology consolidation through mergers and acquisitions, and more importantly excellent built up of technical expertise. As shown below as an example, companies can now process on wider webs with good uniformity. This specific example is from Sunew in Brazil. They print on 0.5m webs with lengths upto 1.5Km. They have five print stations and 32 printing lines (with double sided it becomes 64). As shown below, they can maintain a thickness uniformity across the web of <2%. Furthermore, they achieve a relatively constant EQE as the web is scaled. This is no easy feat to achieve. Furthermore, they reduced the number of dummy runs to reach consistency between runs to <<3. You can also see various installation examples, showing that this technology is still not ready for utility-level energy production, but is finding niche unique uses elsewhere. Sunew is not alone in scaling up R2R production of organic OPVs. Armor (ASCA) is also scaling up solution processed bulk heterojunction OPVs. Heliatek is mastering the complex art of R2R evaporation of tandem OPVs. At TechBlick's LIVE (online) conference on 1-2 December you can hear from all the key players in this field including Sunew, Armor, and Heliatek live. You can also meet the speakers from these firms in the interactive 'in person virtual' rooms to mingle and discuss further. You will also hear from equipment manufacturers such as Coatema whose expertise and custom coating machines play a pivotal role in the development of this industry. Data from Sunew. Adapted by TechBlick. Become an Annual Pass holder to watch this content on-demand Not everyone is also focused on outdoor or BIPV applications. This makes sense as OPV efficiency and costs are not yet close to being good enough for competing directly with Si or CdTe technologies. In contrast, a strong selling point and a differentiating factor for OPVs has always been their ability to outperform standard Si cells under low-light indoor conditions. In some cases, as NRCC will show at our conference, the efficiency indoors can approach 30%. This explains the strong focus on indoor energy harvesting applications of OPVs, especially seeking to offer a fully integrated module to replace coin cell batteries or extend their lifetime such that they become fit and forget solutions. At the TechBlick conference, Enerthing, for example, will discuss their approach to OPV-based energy harvesting modules. One barrier against the adoption of OPV energy harvesting is the high cost of energy production by OPVs. To overcome this, R2R techniques may become useful. Epishine, another speaker at TechBlick's live(online) conference, will discuss its fully R2R line- from production to conversion- for mass producing OPVs at high speeds and low costs. As you will learn, these companies are going further than ever before and almost all of them are directly benefiting from the technology developments of previous generation of players in the field. Some have taken over equipment at lower costs which was originally intended for other applications, whilst others have absorbed the intellectual property as well as technical know-how of previous players. Therefore, one can easily recognize a long running thread within, and a shared heritage across, all these developments. Customization of design or free-form design has been another differentiating feature of organic solar cells. Here, inkjet printing can become very design, enabling one to rapidly try out different designs as well as different active materials and green solvents. At the TechBlick conference on 1-2 Dec 2021, you will hear from Dracula Technologies, one of the pioneers in this field. Dracula has plans to push capacity to 5000k pcs by mid 2023, thus showing that inkjet printing can also be a good choice for industrialization of OPVs targeted at indoor applications. Finally, when it comes to photovoltaics (organics, CIGS, QDs), passivation is a key component. Often higher permeability levels are required (>10E-4g/day/sqm), mandating multi-layer structures consisting of pairs of organic-inorganic layers. This, and currently low production volumes, add to costs of barrier films. These films in turn are a major cost component, driving up the price of OPVs and other solar cells. It is a classic chicken-and-egg problem for this industry. Despite this, good technical solutions are now available, and maturing. The prices have also been falling fast, even if not fast enough. In addition to barrier properties, additional features like UV protections are also introduced. At this conference, you can hear the latest from two leading players, 3M and ITRI. The former is a major player in the field and the latter has a very novel unique solution. Join TechBlick as an Annual Pass holders until 19 November and benefit from a 100 discount (coupon: Save100Euros to be applied at check out). With this pass, you can hear from and meet all the key players working in OPV developments such as Sunew, Armor, Heliatek, Epishine, Dracula Technologies, Brilliant Matters, Phillips 66, Coatema, InfinityPV, and others. There is really no other forum where you can meet everyone. One final point is that printing or R2R processing are not unique to organics or perovskites. CIGS can also be R2R produced. Those with a history in the industry might remember some well-funded companies seeking to R2R print CIGS inks. At this conference we will hear from interesting approaches towards R2R processing of CIGS. FlisomAG with technology from Empa is very advanced in terms of R2R production with off-the-shelf ready-to-sell product portfolio of high-performance flexible CIGS. Source: Inkjet printed OPVs from Dracula. Become an Annual Pass holder to watch this content on-demand Add to your Calendar iCalendar (majority of email clients) Google Calendar | Microsoft Outlook Calendar | Office 365 Calendar | Yahoo Calendar Leading global speakers include:

Researchers at BYU have created microfluidic lab-on-a-chip devices using a new 3D printing technique that could help doctors find preterm birth defects and treat patients suffering from lung diseases, among other applications. Their research work has been published in Nature Communications paper "Spatially and optically tailored 3D printing for highly miniaturized and integrated microfluidics" where they detail a generalized 3D printing process that enables the fabrication of much higher resolution 3D components without increasing the resolution of the 3D printer. Microfluidic devices are tiny, coin-sized microchips that include a set of nearly microscopic channels, valves and pumps etched into the material of the chip. They’re designed to sort out and analyze disease biomarkers, cells, and other small structures from samples of liquids, like blood, through their channels. “We have taken the conventional 3D printing approach and generalized it to something that is broader in scope and has significantly more capability,” said BYU engineering professor Greg Nordin. Currently, the process to create these devices is time-consuming and expensive. Due to the precision needed, new prototypes are typically created and tested in a cleanroom—a designated lab environment free from dust and other contaminants. This process makes it difficult to manufacture and distribute the lab-on-a-chip technology on a large scale and puts major limitations on the size and type of devices that can be made. To overcome these obstacles, Nordin and his team changed the traditional uniform method of 3D printing to one that altered the thickness, order, and a number of layers stacked. These small changes resulted in dramatic advantages that now allow for the chip to be manufactured at a fraction of the cost, and at a much smaller scale than before. “People have been working on lab-on-a-chip devices for 20+ years, but making prototypes in cleanrooms is an inhibitor to success,” Nordin said. “The road to market stops with clean rooms. With 3D printing, there is a road to market.” Nordin and his team are hoping that their new development will set in motion more microfluidic research and development because of the lower cost it now takes to create these devices. “Our new approach gets you over some of the big hurdles that block using this technology in real-world applications,” said Nordin. “We have yet to see that someone takes that and runs with it, but we certainly hope they will.” For more information: https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-news/byu-researchers-develop-innovative-medical-devices-from-new-3-d-printing-process https://news.byu.edu/lab-on-a-chip-devices-smaller-than-ever-thanks-to-new-3d-printing-techniques-from-byu/

USA has completed the commercial launch of its GEN3.0 CVD Graphene manufacturing line and a portfolio of application-specific CVD products. This 20m long state-of-the-art production facility, has the capability to produce single and multi-layer graphene in large sheets or long rolls, up to 400mm wide. Programmable in both scale and size, polycrystalline and large scale, preferred copper orientation graphene sheets can be manufactured on this production line. Using patented processes, General Graphene focuses on providing low-cost, large sheet, CVD graphene. The latest GEN 3.0 state-of-the-art production line delivers more than 100,000 m2/yr. sheet graphene; a 1000-fold increase in production compared with the previous GEN 2.0 machine, and with advanced levels of control and precision. GEN 3.0 technology is scalable and enables General Graphene to supply affordable, highly consistent CVD graphene in industrial volumes. This capability is a game-changer. Now the industry can accelerate the development of advanced products and devices with confidence in supply and consistency of performance. With a thickness of just 0.345nm, CVD graphene provides a flexible, biocompatible, transparent, and conductive ultra-thin film barrier, opening new design options for researchers and industrial engineers. General Graphene is currently partnering with industrial leaders in the electronics, sensors, life sciences, industrial metals, and packaging markets, to unlock the potential that these ultra-thin, 2-D carbon crystal sheets provide. These partnerships are critical and will drive this technology to higher levels of industrialization and cost reduction. Speaking from the headquarters in Knoxville TN, USA. CEO, Vig Sherrill commented “We always believed that the industrialization of CVD graphene technology was mostly an engineering problem. To increase volume and reduce cost, this had to be solved using a continuous roll-to-roll process, rather than a traditional batch process. For the past 6 years, we have focused exclusively on this challenge and are pleased to announce our latest GEN 3.0 production system has completed commissioning and is online. As our technology evolves and costs continue to fall, advanced, CVD graphene-enabled products are primed to emerge across many industries”. For more information: https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:30e0096c-7694-40ca-a975-27f87d0a0519