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Thesis (M. S.)--Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: Tentzeris, Emmanouil; Committee Member: Andrew Peterson; Committee Member: Laskar, Joy; Committee Member: Papapolymerou, Ioannis. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

M.Sc. / The efficiency of commercial polycrystalline silicon solar cells is currently 12% and 15% in the case of single crystalline cells. It is possible to lose about half of the open circuit voltage due to inferior contacts on the cell. It is thus clear that inferior contacts can seriously impede the relative low efficiency and care should be taken to make good ohmic contacts. Experiments were done to evaluate the influence of several factors on the quality and stability of the contacts. 1 C2•cm p-type polycrystalline silicon and 3 52.cm n-type single crystalline silicon were primarily used for these experiments. Results of molybdenum contacts on n-type silicon are also presented and the problems with silver epoxy contacts are discussed. It was found that aluminium contacts on p-type polycrystaline silicon improve with temperature and time, while those on single crystaline n-type degrade with temperature and time. These changes are already present at room temperature and are attributed to solid state diffusion of the aluminium into the silicon. This results in a p + layer. In the case of contacts on p-type, the behaviour is that of a Schottky diode. After the solid state diffusion, it becomes possible for the charges to quantum mechanically tunnel through the p+ layer. This results in an improvement of the contact. The contacts on n-type however, are ohmic just after evaporation. Similar to the p-material, the p+ layer causes a p+-n-junction with the depletion layer primarily in the n-type material. This causes a degradation in the contact quality. It is possible to achieve good quality contacts on polycrystaline p-type material, by annealing the contacts above 500°C for one minute. These contacts however, are non-ideal. SEM photographs show that the silicon surface is crated by pits due to solid state diffusion. It is only at these pits that conduction through the Schottkybarrier is possible. Since the area of the pits constitutes only a portion of the total area, only a portion of the surface will partake in conduction. Contact resistance is always present. For pm sized contacts on integrated circuits, the spesific resistance is of the order of 10 -6 Q.cm2. Contacts on solar cells, however, are of millimetre dimensions and the spesific resistance can be four orders of magnitude larger. The conduction through the surface can be modelled as conduction through a surface that is constituted of a mixture of minute ohmic and diode surfaces.

M.Sc. / Techniques for the fabrication of polycrystalline silicon solar cells have advanced in recent years with efficiencies exceeding 17%. The major advantage of polycrystalline silicon is its low cost relative to single-crystalline silicon. The disadvantage is the significantly smaller minoritycarrier bulk diffusion length and inhomogeneous nature of the material. These two drawbacks are due to the presence of grain boundaries as well as high concentrations of dislocations and other physical and chemical defects. In this study the experimental conditions were determined to fabricate solar cells on polycrystalline silicon substrates. The controlled diffusion of phosphorous into silicon and subsequent evaluation of the doped layers (by spreading resistance profiling and chemical staining) were important aspects of this study. From these results the diffusion parameters (i.e. temperature and reaction times) could be optimized in order to improve the solar cell output parameters. Additional material improvement (increase in surface- and bulk minority carrier lifetimes) was demonstrated by the hydrogen passivation of electrically active defects in polycrystalline silicon. However. measurements on hydrogenated silicon samples also indicated that excess passivation can result in surface damage and subsequent reduction in the minority carrier lifetimes. Preliminary solar cells were fabricated on polycrystalline silicon with efficiencies ranging between 0.5 and 6% (total area = 16 cm2).

Finally, we also propose and demonstrate an integrated Mach-Zehnder optical diplexer (IMZOD) for possible use in an integrated silicon optical amplifier. The diplexer is based on two rnultimode interferometers (MMIs) and a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI), and has potential use in an integrated silicon waveguide optical amplifier, to combine or separate the pump signal (1440nm) and probe signal (1556nm) for monolithic implementation of a silicon Raman amplifier. / Helium ion implantation can not only reduce the free-carrier loss, but can also enhance the detection responsivity of below-bandgap wavelengths (1440 1590 nm). We propose and demonstrate an in-line channel power monitor (ICPM) based on helium ion implanted silicon waveguides. The implanted waveguide can detect light at 1440 1590 nm which are normally not detectable by silicon. We study the enhanced photoresponse of helium ion implanted waveguide samples which were annealed at different temperatures and for different durations. / Recently there has been much interest in silicon optical amplifiers and lasers relying on stimulated Raman scattering (SRS), which, despite the much shorter waveguide lengths possible in silicon compared with silica optical fiber, can still provide large optical gain because of the large Raman coefficient of silicon and small mode field areas. However, two-photon absorption (TPA) generated free-carrier absorption (FCA) loss can exceed the Raman gain. In this thesis, experiments and theoretical model will he discussed and analyzed, showing that helium ion implantation can successfully reduce the optical losses due to free-carriers and allow net gain to be attained by continuous-wave (CW)-pumped SRS without requiring external bias to remove the photo-generated free carriers. The theoretical study of dynamics of free carrier lifetime of the silicon waveguides will be described. The effective nonlinear length of the silicon waveguides is defined and studied. The theoretical and experimental studies of the enhanced spectral broaden induced by self-phase-modulation (SPM) are carried out in helium on implanted silicon waveguides. / Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers are an attractive platform for the fabrication of planar lightwave circuits (PLCs) because they offer the potential for low-cost fabrication using mature complementary metal--organic--semiconductor (CMOS) compatible processes developed in the microelectronics industry. At the wavelengths of interest for telecommunications, SOI waveguides can have low optical losses (0.1dB/cm). Besides, the strong optical confinement offered by the high index contrast between silicon (Si) (n=3.45) and silicon dioxide (SiO2) (n=1.45) makes it possible to scale photonic devices to sub-micron level. In addition, the high optical intensity arising from the strong optical confinement inside the waveguide makes it possible to observe nonlinear optical effects, such as Raman and Kerr effects, in chip-scale devices. / We then make use of the ICPM to perform a system application, called optical-burst-and-transient-equalizer (OBTE). The OBTE may provide a compact and low-cost solution to compensate gain-transient, gain-spectrum-tilt and to equalize the upstream packet amplitude in erbium doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) amplified hybrid dense-wavelength-division-multiplexed (DWDM) and time-division-multiplexed (TDM) passive-optical-networks (PONs). The OBTE may be monolithically integrated on SOI platform and is potentially low cost and compact. The OBTE can compensate complicated gain slope shape, which may be generated in cascaded EDFAs or deliberate channel add/drop, based on individual channel equalization. 15-dB receiver sensitivity improvement at 10 Gbit/s bit-error-rate (BER) measurements of 10-9 was achieved by the compensation. / Liu, Yang. / "August 2007." / Adviser: Hon Ki Tsang. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-02, Section: B, page: 1212. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

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This thesis investigates the presence of multiple (quasi-TEM) modes in inverted embedded microstrip lines. It has already been shown that parasitic modes do exist in inverted embedded microstrips due to field leakage inside the dielectric substrate, especially for high dielectric constants (like Silicon). This thesis expands upon that work and characterizes those modes for a variety of geometrical dimensions. Chapter 1 focuses on the theory behind the different transmission line modes, which may be present in inverted embedded microstrips. Based on the structure of the inverted embedded microstrip, the conventional microstrip mode, the quasi-conventional microstrip mode, and the stripline mode are expected. Chapter 2 discusses in detail the techniques used to decompose the total probed field into the various modes present in the inverted embedded microstrip lines. Firstly, a short explanation of the finite-difference time-domain method, that is used for the simulation and modeling of inverted microstrips up to 50 GHz is provided. Next, a flowchart of the process involved in decomposing the modes is laid out. Lastly, the challenges of this approach are also highlighted to give an appreciation of the difficulty in obtaining accurate results. Chapter 3 shows the results (dispersion diagrams, values/percentage of the individual mode energies ) obtained after running time-domain simulations for a variety of geometrical dimensions. Chapter 4 concludes the thesis by explaining the results in terms of the transmission line theory presented in Chapter 1. Next, possible future work is mentioned.

Thesis (M. S.)--Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. / Committee Chair: King, William; Committee Member: Graham, Samuel; Committee Member: Hesketh, Peter

Piezoresistive microcantilevers can be used for the detection of biological and chemical substances by measuring the change in surface stress. Design parameters for the cantilever and piezoresistor dimensions are investigated analytically and through finite element modelling. Based on these results, six optimized cantilever types are designed and fabricated with microfabrication methods. The electrical and mechanical properties of these devices as well as their deflection and surface stress sensitivities are characterized and compared to the models. A second generation of cantilevers that incorporates heater areas to trigger or enhance chemical reactions is designed and fabricated. In addition to the measurements done for the first generation devices, the thermal properties for both steady-state and transient operation of these microcantilevers are characterized.

Carbon emissions associated with deep learning and high-performance computing have reached critical levels and must be addressed to mitigate the potential damage to the environment. Optical solutions have been widely accepted as a necessary part of any comprehensive intervention, primarily in the form of ultra-broadband wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) optical interconnects to connect spatially distanced compute nodes and, in the further term, as dedicated photonic deep learning accelerators and photonic quantum computers. Silicon photonic interconnects provides the most promising platform for satisfying the required performance, device density, and total wafer throughput by leveraging the same mature complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) infrastructure used to fabricate modern electronic chips. However, implementing these links at scale requires unprecedented levels of integration density in the associated silicon photonic integrated circuit (PICs). The potential explosion in PIC density poses a significant design challenge towards guaranteeing that designers are capable of both an exhaustive design space exploration and rigorous design optimization within reasonable design cycles. Higher level design abstractions—that is, representations of designs that accurately capture system behavior while simultaneously reducing model complexity—are needed for moreefficient design and optimization of PICs. This work contributes two novel design abstractions for the rapid optimization of ultra-high-bandwidth silicon photonic interconnects. The first contribution is a novel process variation-aware compact model of strip waveguides that is suitable for circuit-level simulation of waveguide-based process design kit (PDK) elements. The model is shown to describe both loss and—using a novel expression for the thermo-optic effect in high index contrast materials—the thermo-optic behavior of strip waveguides. Experimental results prove the reported model can self-consistently describe waveguide phase, loss, and thermo-optic behavior across all measured devices over an unprecedented range of optical bandwidth, waveguide widths, and temperatures. The second contribution is a generalized abstraction for designing WDM links in the multi-freespectral range (FSR) regime, a technique for avoiding aliasing while using microresonators with FSRs smaller than the total optical bandwidth of the link. Extensive simulation and experimental results prove that the aforementioned abstractions described collectively provide a powerful toolset for rapid interconnect design and optimization. The advances in this thesis demonstrate the utility of higher-level design abstractions for fully realizing the potential silicon photonics holds for keeping pace with ever-growing bandwidth demands computing systems in the post-Moore’s Law era and beyond.