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The use of the microstrip antenna has grown rapidly for the last two decades, because of the increasing demand for a low profile antenna with small size, low cost, and high performance over a large spectrum of frequencies. However, despite the advantages microstrip antennas provide, a number of technical challenges remain to be solved for microstrip antennas to reach their full potential, particularly if they are to be interfaced with monolithic circuits. The objective of this thesis is to examine novel methods for integrating and constructing broadband microstrip antennas, particularly at high microwave and millimeter wave frequencies where dimensions get very small and fabrication tolerances are critical. The first stage of the thesis investigates techniques to reduce the spurious feed radiation and surface wave generation from edge-fed patch antennas. A technique to reduce the spurious radiation from the edge-fed patch antenna by using a dielectric filled cavity behind the radiating element is explored. From this, a single element edge-fed cavity backed patch antenna was developed. Measured results showed low levels of cross polarization, making it suitable for dual or circular polarization applications. A 2 x 2 edge-fed cavity backed patch antenna array was also developed, which benefited greatly from this new technique due to the extensive feed network required. Furthermore, investigation into edge-fed cavity backed patches on high dielectric materials was also conducted. The measured impedance bandwidth of this edge-fed cavity backed patch is three times greater than the conventional edge-fed patch, and the gain increases to 5.1 dBi compared to 3.6 dBi. Further bandwidth enhancement of the single element edge-fed cavity backed antenna on high dielectric material was achieved by applying the hi-lo substrate structure. The hi-lo substrate structure produced an increase in the bandwidth to 26% from the 1.7% of the single element edge-fed cavity backed patch, while maintaining pattern integrity and radiation efficiency. Next, the development of a flip-chip bonding technique was investigated to enhance the fabrication accuracy and robustness of multilayer antennas on high dielectric materials. This technique was proven through simulation and experiment to provide good impedance and radiation performance via the high accuracy placement of the superstrate layer. The single element flip-chip patch antenna uses a high dielectric constant material for both the base and the patch superstrate, whereas the stacked flip-chip patch again uses a high and low permittivity material combination to achieve efficient wideband performance. Due to the high permittivity feed material, these antennas display the attributes required for integration with MMICs. The measured 10 dB return loss bandwidth of the single element was 4% with a gain of 4.6 dBi, whereas the stacked flip-chip patch showed very broadband performance, with a bandwidth of 23% with a gain of 8.5 dBi. The high accuracy placement and rigid attachment of the upper superstrat e layer via the flip-chip bonding technique also enables these antennas to be scaled up to millimeter-wave operational frequencies. The final section of this thesis is focused on developing a fabrication technique to enable the creation of a low permittivity layer at a nominated thickness.

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Energy storage is currently gaining considerable attention due to the current energy crisis and severe air pollution. The development of new and clean forms of energy and related storing devices is in high demanded. Dielectric capacitors, exhibiting high power density, long life and cycling life, are potential candidates for portable devices, transport vehicles and stationary energy resources applications. However, the energy density of dielectric capacitors is relatively low compared to that of traditional batteries, which inhibits their future development. In the current work, three types of dielectrics, namely antiferroelectric samarium-doped BiFeO3 (Bi1-xSmxFeO3), linear dielectric (potential antiferroelectric) BiNbO4 and incipient ferroelectric TiO2, have been investigated to develop their potential as energy storage capacitors. For the samarium-doped BiFeO3 (Bi1-xSmxFeO3) system, the effect of samarium content in the A-site (x=0.15, 0.16, 0.165 and 0.18) on the structural phase transitions and electrical properties across the Morphotropic Phase Boundary (MPB) were studied. A complex coexistence of rhombohedral R3c, orthorhombic Pbam and orthorhombic Pnma was found in the selected compositions. The R3c phase is the structure of pure BiFeO3, the Pbam phase has a PbZrO3-like antiferroelectric structure and the Pnma phase has a SmFeO3-like paraelectric structure. The presence of the PbZrO3-like antiferroelectric structure was confirmed by the observation of the 14{110}, 14{001}, 12{011} and 12{111} superlattice reflections in the transmission electron microscopy diffraction patterns. The weight fractions of the three phases varied with different calcination conditions and Sm substitution level. By increasing the calcination temperature, the weight fractions of the Pbam increased, while that of the R3c decreased. The fraction of the Pnma phase is mainly derived by the Sm concentration and is barely affected by the calcination temperature. The increase of Sm concentration, determined an increase of the weight fraction of the Pnma phase and a decrease of the Pbam and the R3c phases. Temperature dependent dielectric measurements and high temperature XRD of Bi0.85Sm0.15FeO3 revealed several phase transitions. The drastic weight fraction change between the Pbam and the Pnma phase around 200 °C is assumed as the Curie transition of the antiferroelectric Pbam phase. The transition at 575 °C is related to the diminishing of the R3c phase and is suggested as the Curie transition of the ferroelectric R3c phase. The Curie point of the antiferroelectric Pbam phase and the ferroelectric R3c phase in the Bi1-xSmxFeO3 ceramics shifted towards lower temperature with an increase of the Sm concentration. Current peaks were obtained in current-electric field loops in Bi0.85Sm0.15FeO3, which are correlated to domain switching in the R3c phase. The ferroelectric behavior was suppressed in Bi1-xSmxFeO3 (x=0.16, 0.165, 0.18), which is due to the gradually diminished contribution from the R3c phase. The system Bi0.82Sm0.18FeO3 showed the highest energy density of 0.64 J cm-3 (error bar ±0.02). For the BiNbO4 system, single phase α-BiNbO4 (space group Pnna) and β-BiNbO4 (space group P-1) powder and ceramics were produced. The longstanding issue related to the sequence of the temperature-induced phase transitions has been clarified. It is demonstrated that the β phase powder could be converted back to the  phase when annealed in the temperature range 800 °C -1000 °C with certain incubation time. The β to  phase transition is a slow kinetic process because sufficient temperature and time are required for the transition. In bulk ceramics with β phase, this transformation is impeded by inner stress, while it is favored by graphite-induced reducing atmosphere. A high temperature  phase has been revealed and the structure has been resolved. The structure of the  phase is monoclinic with a space group of P21/c. The lattice parameters are: a = 7.7951(1) Å, b = 5.64993(9) Å, c = 7.9048(1) Å,  = 104.691(2) Z=4. The volume is 336.76 (2) Å3. The calculated density is 7.217 g cm-3. The phase relationships among ,  and  phases have been clarified. It was found that the  phase (for both powder and ceramic) transforms into the  phase at 1040 °C on heating, and that the  phase always transforms into the  phase at 1000 °C on cooling. Meanwhile, a reversible first-order  to  phase transition is observed at ca. 1000 °C for both powder and ceramic if no incubation is processed on heating. The electric properties of both α- and - BiNbO4 have been investigated. The breakdown field of both ceramics were too low to observe any possible field-induced transition. As a result, linear P-E loops were obtained in each phase. The energy densities of α- and - BiNbO4 ceramics are 0.03 and 0.04 J cm-3 (error bar ±0.001), respectively. For the TiO2 system, ceramics were produced by conventional sintering and spark plasma sintering (SPS). Compared to conventional sintering, SPS technique produced dense ceramics without using sintering aids and avoided abnormal grain growth. Relaxation behavior related to the oxygen hopping among vacant sites is observed in the temperature range of 200 to 600 °C. TiO2 exhibits ultra-low loss at terahertz frequencies due to the reduced contribution of oxygen vacancies relaxation. TiO2 has a high breakdown field, but still has low polarization. The highest energy density obtained inTiO2 ceramics is 0.3 J cm-3 (error bar ±0.01).

<p>Silicon carbide rectifiers are commercially available since 2001, and MESFET switches are expected to enter the market within a year. Moreover, three inch SiC wafers can be purchased nowadays without critical defects for the device performance and four inch substrate wafers are announced for the year 2005. Despite this tremendous development in SiC technology, the reliability issues like device degradation or high channel mobility still remain to be solved.</p><p>This thesis focuses on SiC surface passivation and termination, a topic which is very important for the utilisation of the full potential of this semiconductor. Three dielectrics with high dielectric constants, Al2O3, AlN and TiO2, were deposited on SiC with different techniques. The structural and electrical properties of the dielectrics were measured and the best insulating layers were then deposited on fully processed and well characterised 1.2 kV 4H SiC PiN diodes. For the best Al2O3 layers, the leakage current was reduced to half its value and the breakdown voltage was extended by 0.5 kV, reaching 1.6 kV, compared to non passivated devices.</p><p>As important as the proper choice of dielectric material is a proper surface preparation prior to deposition of the insulator. In the thesis two surface treatments were tested, a standard HF termination used in silicon technology and an exposure to UV light from a mercury lamp. The second technique is highly interesting since a substantial improvement was observed when UV light was used prior to the dielectric deposition. Moreover, UV light stabilized the surface and reduced the leakage current by a factor of 100 for SiC devices after 10 Mrad γ ray exposition. The experiments indicate also that the measured leakage currents of the order of pA are dominated by surface leakage.</p>

Step and Flash Imprint Lithography (S-FIL) is a high resolution, next-generation lithography technique that uses an ambient temperature and low pressure process to replicate high resolution images in a UV-curable liquid material. Application of the S-FIL process in conjunction with multi-level imprint templates and new imprint materials enables one S-FIL step to reproduce the same structures that require two photolithography steps, thereby greatly reducing the number of patterning steps required for the copper, dual damascene process used to fabricate interconnect wirings in modern integrated circuits. Two approaches were explored for the implementation of S-FIL in the dual damascene process: sacrificial imprint materials and imprintable dielectric materials. Sacrificial imprint materials function as a pattern recording medium during S-FIL and a three-dimensional etch mask during the dielectric substrate etch, enabling the simultaneous patterning of both the via and metal structures in the dielectric substrate. Development of sacrificial imprint materials and the associated imprint and etch processes are described. Application of S-FIL and the sacrificial imprint material in a commercial copper dual damascene process successfully produced functional copper interconnect structures, demonstrating the feasibility of integrating multi-level S-FIL in the copper dual damascene process. Imprintable dielectric materials are designed to combine the multi-level patterning capability of S-FIL with novel dielectric precursor materials, enabling the simultaneous deposition and patterning of the interlayer dielectric material. Several candidate imprintable dielectric materials were evaluated: sol-gel, polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) epoxide, POSS acrylate, POSS azide, and POSS thiol. POSS thiol shows the most promise as functional imprintable dielectric material, although additional work in the POSS thiol formulation and viscous dispense process are needed to produce functional interconnect structures. Integration of S-FIL with imprintable dielectric materials would enable further streamlining of the dual damascene fabrication process. The fabrication of electronic devices on flexible substrates represents an opportunity for the development of macroelectronics such as flexible displays and large area devices. Traditional optical lithography encounters alignment and overlay limitations when applied on flexible substrates. A thermally activated, dual-tone photoresist system and its associated etch process were developed to enable the simultaneous patterning of two device layers on a flexible substrate. / text

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La recherche sur les matériaux diélectriques souples et biodégradable a été augmenté considérablement en raison de l'augmentation des exigences concernant l'énergie et les questions environnementales. Les composites polymériques, avec constante diélectrique élevée ont ainsi, été préférés par rapport aux composites à base de céramique pour les périphériques de stockage de l'énergie. L'objectif de cette thèse est de fabriquer une électrode biodégradable matériaux à base de nano-fibrilles de cellulose natives et oxydés (CNF) et de graphène pour améliorer le stockage diélectrique ainsi que les applications de stockage de charge électrochimique. La présente méthode de réduction, induite par les UV sur l'oxyde de graphène (GO) dans des matrices de cellulose, est une alternative prometteuse aux traitements à base de solvant en évitant la détérioration des propriétés des matériaux et l'utilisation de solvants organiques. Cette méthode pourrait être étendue à d’autres matériaux composites polymères. / The research on biodegradable and flexible dielectric materials has been increased widely because of increasing requirements about energy and environmental issues. Polymeric composites with high dielectric constant have, thus, been demanded increasingly compared to ceramic based composites for energy storage devices. The objective of this thesis is to fabricate a biodegradable electrode materials based on pristine and oxidized cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) with different graphene based fillers for enhanced dielectric storage as well as electrochemical charge storage applications. The presented dry method of UV induced reduction of graphene oxide (GO) in cellulose matrices are promising alternatives to solvent based treatments avoiding the deterioration of material properties and the use of organic solvents. This method could be extended to alternative polymer composite materials. In contrast to previous reports, the dielectric properties mainly focussed on the higher frequency regions to provide real, intrinsic material properties and obtained significant enhancement than reported studies. This approach gives a new insight to the exact performance of materials on dielectric charge storage applications. The current study gives more insight for the development of flexible, lightweight and biodegradable electrode materials for energy storage device applications.

Les crises énergétiques et environnementales nous obligent à chercher les sources d’énergies renouvelables, qui contribuent à la fois à réduire l’effet de serre et la consommation des sources traditionnelles d’énergie fossile. Récemment, un nouveau système, le nano-générateur triboélectrique (TENG), se convertit l’énergie mécanique en énergie électrique en combinant l’effet de la triboélectronique et de l’induction électrostatique. TENG montre comme un outil alternatif et prometteur pour la récupération des énergie s renouvelables. Pour réaliser des matériaux plus performants, la plupart des recherches s’appuie sur le choix des différents types des céramiques ou charges conductrices, de taux de charge et de nouvelle structure, l’effet de l’interface entre charge, ainsi que la taille des charges, matrice a été très peu étudié. Donc, l’objectif de cette thèse consiste à étudier les effets de taille des charges, de l’interface entre charge-matrice et de la polarisation sur les performances électriques du TENG et les nano-générateurs du type piézo/tribohybride (P-TENG). Tout d’abord, un TENG fonctionnant sous la mode de contact-séparation avec la motion de l’accélération/décélération a été utilisé dans notre expérimentation et les équations progressives du type du second ordre polynomial ont été choisi pour l’ajustement des courbes. Différents paramètres cinétiques comme distance entre deux électrodes, fréquence de déplacement, pression de contact et temp du repos du TENG basés sur les conditions expérimentales ont été étudiés dans le chapitre 2 afin de comprendre leur contributions sur les performances des sorties électriques. Deuxièmement, deux différentes tailles (BT-70, BT-500) des nanoparticules de BaTiO3 sont considérées et utilisées pour préparer des composites di électriques BaTiO3/PDMS et BaTiO3-MWCNT/PDMS dans le chapitre 3. Les propriétés di électriques de tous ces composites ont été caractérisées et le déplacement électrique entre les particules et le polymère a été analysé théoriquement. En plus, l’effet synergique de MWCNT, de nitrure de bore (BN) et de noir de carbone (CB) avec BaTiO3 dans BaTiO3-70-MWCNT (CB, BN) / PDMS ont été comparés. Tous ces films composites fabriqués précédemment sont ensuite utilisés dans l’assemblage des dispositifs TENG dans le chapitre 4. Les performances électriques ont été mesurées pour étudier l’influence de l’interface charge-matrice et l’effet synergique des particules MWCNT (CB, BN) pour les dispositifs TENG. Les résultats de la différence potentielle surfacique induite par les effets synergiques des BaTiO3/MWCNT ont été confirmé avec les simulations COMSOL Multiphysics. En outre, dans le chapitre 5 les films composites contenant des particules de BaTiO3 sont polarisés pour étudier les effets piézoélectriques et triboélectriques couplés pour P-TENG. Les effets des différents paramètres de polarisation, tels que la direction de polarisation, la température, le ratio massique du BaTiO3, le champ électrique et la taille des BaTiO3 sur les performances de P-TENG ont été discutées. Enfin, les conclusions générales sont présentées et certains ou quelques perspectives sont proposées pour le futur. / The increasing energy crisis and environmental pollution stimulate the development of renewable energies, which contribute to reducing the greenhouse effect and the consumption of traditional fossil fuels. As a new type of renewable energy harvesting system, triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) converts mechanical energy to electrical energy by coupling the effect of triboelectrification and electrostatic induction. TENG has been proved to be an alternative and promising approach to harvest renewable energy in recent years. For the dielectric material candidates, more attention has been paid to choosing different types of ceramic or conductive fillers, filler loading and surface structure design, rather than considering the filler-matrix interface effect. Thus, it is desired to clarify the effect of filler size and fillermatrix interface on the performance of compositebased TENGs. This work aims to research the influence of filler size, filler-matrix interface, and polarization on the output performance of TENG and piezo/tribo-hybrid nanogenerator (P-TENG). Firstly, the contact-separation mode TENG with acceleration/deceleration motion is utilized in our experiments. The piecewise second-order polynomial fitting is chosen for the motion process curve fitting. Various kinematic parameters including gap distance, motion frequency, contact pressure, and pause time of TENG are studied theoretically based on the experiment conditions in chapter 2, to understand their contributions to the electrical output performance. Secondly, in chapter 3, BaTiO3 nanoparticles with two different sizes (BT-70, BT-500) are considered and utilized to prepare BaTiO3/PDMS and BaTiO3-MWCNT/PDMS dielectric composites. The dielectric properties of all composites are characterized, and the electric displacement between particle and polymer are theoretically analyzed. Moreover, the synergistic effect of MWCNT, boron nitride (BN) and carbon black (CB) with BaTiO3 in BaTiO3-70-MWCNT(CB, BN)/PDMS are compared. Then, all composite films fabricated were further utilized to assemble TENG devices in chapter 4. The output voltage, current, and charges densities of TENGs are evaluated to investigate the influence of fillermatrix interface and synergistic effect of MWCNT (CB, BN) particles on the output performance of TENG devices. COMSOL Multiphysics simulation are performed to further confirm the surface potential difference introduced by the synergistic effects of BaTiO3/MWCNTs. Furthermore, the composite films with BaTiO3 particles are polarized to further explore the interaction of piezoelectric and triboelectric effects for P-TENG in chapter 5. Influences of different polarization parameters, such as polarization direction, poling temperature, BaTiO3 mass ratio, poling electric field and BaTiO3 sizes, on the output performance of the PTENG have been discussed. Finally, general conclusions are presented and perspectives are proposed for the future work.

No description available.