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This work focusses on the development of top-emitting white organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), which can be fabricated on metal substrates. Bottom-emitting OLEDs have been studied intensively over the years and show promising perspectives for future commercial applications in general lighting. The development of top-emitting devices has fallen behind despite the opportunities to produce these devices also on low-cost opaque substrates. This is due to the challenges of top-light-emission concerning the achievement of a broad and well-balanced white emission spectrum in presence of a strong microcavity. The following work is a further step towards the detailed understanding and optimization of white top-emitting OLEDs. First, the available metal substrates and the deposited silver electrodes are examined microscopically to determine their surface characteristics and morphology in order to assess their applicability for thin-film organic stacks of OLEDs. The examination shows the suitability for untreated Alanod metal substrates, which display low surface roughness and almost no surface defects. For the deposited silver anodes, investigations via AFM show a strong influence of the deposition rate on the surface roughness. In the main part of the work top-emissive devices with both hybrid and all-phosphorescent architecture are investigated, in which three or four emitter materials are utilized to achieve maximum performance. The feasibility for top-emitting white OLEDs in first and second order devices is investigated via optical simulations, using the example of a three-color hybrid OLED. Here, the concept of a dielectric capping layer on top of the cathode is an essential criterion for broadband and nearly angle independent light emission. The main focus concerning the investigation of fabricated devices is the optimization of the organic stacks to achieve high efficiencies as well as excellent color quality of warm white emission. The optimization of the hybrid layer structure based on three emitter materials using a combined aluminum-silver anode mirror resulted in luminous efficacies up to 13.3 lm/W and 5.3 % external quantum efficiency. Optical analysis by means of simulation revealed a superior position concerning internal quantum efficiency compared to bottom-emitting devices with similar layer structure. The devices show an enhanced emission in forward direction compared to an ideal Lambertian emitter, which is highly preferred for lighting applications. The color quality - especially for devices based on a pure Al anode - is showing excellent color coordinates near the Planckian locus and color rending indices up to 77. The introduction of an additional yellow emitter material improves the luminous efficacy up to values of 16.1 lm/W and external quantum efficiencies of 5.9 %. With the choice of a all-phosphorescent approach, using orange-red, light blue and green emitter materials, luminous efficacies of 21.7 lm/W are realized with external quantum efficiencies of 8.5 %. Thereby, color coordinates of (x, y) = (0.41, 0.45) are achieved. Moreover, the application of different crystalline capping layers and alternative cathode materials aim at a scattering of light that further reduces the angular dependence of emission. Experiments with the crystallizing material BPhen and thin carbon nanotube films (CNT) are performed. Heated BPhen capping layer with a thickness of 250 nm show a lower color shift compared to the NPB reference capping layer. Using CNT films as cathode leads to a broadband white emission at a cavity thickness of 160 nm. However, due to very high driving voltages needed, the device shows low luminous efficacy. Finally, white top-emitting organic LEDs are successfully processed on metal substrates. A comparison of three and four color based hybrid devices reveal similar performance for the devices on glass and metal substrate. Only the devices on metal substrate show slightly higher leakaged currents. During repeated mechanical bending experiments with white devices deposited on 0.3 mm thin flexible Alanod substrates, bending radii up to 1.0 cm can be realized without device failure. / Diese Arbeit richtet ihren Schwerpunkt auf die Entwicklung von top-emittierenden weißen organischen Leuchtdioden (OLEDs), welche auch auf Metallsubstraten gefertigt werden können. Im Laufe der letzten Jahre wurden bottom-emittierende OLEDs sehr intensiv studiert, da sie vielversprechende Perspektiven für zukünftige kommerzielle Anwendungen in der Allgemeinbeleuchtung bieten. Trotz der Möglichkeit, OLEDs auch auf kostengünstigen lichtundurchlässigen Substraten fertigen zu können, blieb die Entwicklung von top-emittierenden Bauteilen dabei allerdings zurück. Dies läßt sich auf die enormen Herausforderungen von top-emittierenden OLEDs zurückführen, ein breites und ausgeglichenes weißes Abstrahlungsspektrum in Gegenwart einer Mikrokavität zu generieren. Die folgende Arbeit liefert einen Beitrag zum detaillierten Verständnis und der Optimierung von weißen top-emittierenden OLEDs. Zunächst werden die verfügbaren Metallsubstrate und abgeschiedenen Silberelektroden auf ihre Oberflächeneigenschaften und Morphologie mikroskopisch untersucht, um damit ihre Verwendbarkeit für organische Dünnfilmstrukturen in OLEDs einzuschätzen. Die Untersuchung zeigt eine Eignung von unbehandelten Alanod Metallsubstraten auf, welche eine niedrige Oberflächenrauigkeit und fast keine Oberflächendefekte besitzen. Bei den abgeschiedenen Silberelektroden zeigen Untersuchungen mit dem Rasterkraftmikroskop eine starke Beeinflussung der Oberflächenrauigkeit durch die Aufdampfrate. Im Hauptteil der Arbeit werden top-emittierende Dioden mit hybrid und voll-phosphoreszenter Architektur untersucht, in welcher drei oder vier Emittermaterialien verwendet werden, um eine optimale Leistungscharakteristik zu erreichen. Die Realisierbarkeit von top-emittierenden weißen OLEDs in Dioden erster und zweiter Ordnung wird durch optische Simulation am Beispiel einer dreifarb-OLED mit Hybridstruktur ermittelt. Dabei ist das Konzept der dielektrischen Deckschicht - aufgebracht auf die Kathode - ein essenzielles Kriterium für breitbandige und annähernd winkelunabhängige Lichtemission. Der Schwerpunkt im Hinblick auf die Untersuchung von hergestellten Dioden liegt in der Optimierung der organischen Schichtstrukturen, um hohe Effizienzen sowie exzellente warmweiße Farbqualität zu erreichen. Im Rahmen der Optimierung von hybriden Schichtstrukturen basierend auf drei Emittermaterialien resultiert die Verwendung eines kombinierten Aluminium-Silber Anodenspiegels in einer Lichtausbeute von 13.3 lm/W und einer externen Quanteneffizienz von 5.3 %.Eine optische Analyse mit Hilfe von Simulationen zeigt eine überlegene Stellung hinsichtlich der internen Quanteneffizient verglichen mit bottom-emittierenden Dioden ähnlicher Schichtstruktur. Die Dioden zeigen eine verstärkte vorwärts gerichtete Emission im Vergleich zu einem idealen Lambertschen Emitter, welche in hohem Maße für Beleuchtungsanwendungen erwünscht ist. Es kann eine ausgezeichnete Farbqualität erreicht werden - insbesondere für Dioden basierend auf einer reinen Aluminiumanode - mit Farbkoordinaten nahe der Planckschen Strahlungskurve und Farbwiedergabeindizes bis zu 77. Die weitere Einführung eines zusätzlichen gelben Emittermaterials verbessert die Lichtausbeute auf Werte von 16.1 lm/W und die externe Quanteneffizient auf 5.9 %. Mit der Wahl eines voll-phosphoreszenten Ansatzes unter der Verwendung eines orange-roten, hellblauen und grünen Emittermaterials werden Lichtausbeuten von 21.7 lm/W und externe Quanteneffizienten von 8.5 % erzielt. Damit werden Farbkoordinaten von (x, y) = (0.41, 0.45) erreicht. Darüberhinaus zielt die Verwendung von verschiedenen kristallinen Deckschichten und alternativen Kathodenmaterialien auf eine Streuung des ausgekoppelten Lichts ab, was die Winkelabhängigkeit der Emission vermindern soll. Experimente mit dem kristallisierenden Material BPhen und dünnen Filmen aus Kohlenstoffnanoröhren werden dabei durchgeführt. Geheizte BPhen Deckschichten mit einer Schichtdicke von 250 nm zeigen eine geringere Farbverschiebung verglichen mit einer NPB Referenzdeckschicht. Die Verwendung von Kohlenstoffnanoröhren als Kathode führt zu einer breitbandigen weißen Emission bei einer Kavitätsschichtdicke von 160 nm. Schließlich werden weiße top-emittierende organische Leuchtdioden erfolgreich auf Metallsubstraten prozessiert. Ein Vergleich von drei- und vierfarb-basierten hybriden Bauteilen zeigt ähnliche Leistungsmerkmale für Dioden auf Glas- und Metallsubstraten. Während wiederholten mechanischen Biegeexperimenten mit weißen Dioden auf 0.3 mm dicken flexiblen Alanodsubstraten können Biegeradien bis zu 1.0 cm ohne Bauteilausfall realisiert werden.

De nouveaux radiotraceurs sont continuellement développés pour améliorer l'efficacité diagnostique en imagerie moléculaire, principalement en tomographie d'émission par positrons (TEP) et en tomographie d'émission monophotonique (TEM) dans les domaines de l'oncologie, de la cardiologie et de la neurologie. Avant de pouvoir être utilisés chez les humains, ces radiotraceurs doivent être caractérisés chez les petits animaux, principalement les rats et les souris. Pour cela, de nombreux échantillons sanguins doivent être prélevés et analysés (mesure de radioactivité, séparation de plasma, séparation d'espèces chimiques), ce qui représente un défi majeur chez les rongeurs à cause de leur très faible volume sanguin (-1,4 ml pour une souris). Des solutions fournissant une analyse partielle sont présentées dans la littérature, mais aucune ne permet d'effectuer toutes les opérations dans un même système. Les présents travaux de recherche s'insèrent dans le contexte global d'un projet visant à développer un système microfluidique d'analyse sanguine complète en temps réel pour la caractérisation des nouveaux radiotraceurs TEP et TEM. Un cahier des charges a tout d'abord été établi et a permis de fixer des critères quantitatifs et qualitatifs à respecter pour chacune des fonctions de la puce. La fonction de détection microfluidique a ensuite été développée. Un état de l'art des travaux ayant déjà combiné la microfluidique et la détection de radioactivité a permis de souligner qu'aucune solution existante ne répondait aux critères du projet. Parmi les différentes technologies disponibles, des microcanaux en résine KMPR fabriqués sur des détecteurs semiconducteurs de type p-i-n ont été identifiés comme une solution technologique pour le projet. Des détecteurs p-i-n ont ensuite été fabriqués en utilisant un procédé standard. Les performances encourageantes obtenues ont mené à initier un projet de maîtrise pour leur optimisation. En parallèle, les travaux ont été poursuivis avec des détecteurs du commerce sous forme de gaufres non découpées. Un premier dispositif intégrant des canaux en KMPR sur ces gaufres a permis de valider le concept démontrant le grand potentiel de ces choix technologiques et incitant à poursuivre les développements dans cette voie, notamment en envisageant des expériences animales. L'utilisation prolongée des canaux avec du sang non dilué est cependant particulièrement exigeante pour les matériaux artificiels. Une passivation à l'albumine a permis d'augmenter considérablement la compatibilité sanguine de la résine KMPR. Le concept initial, incluant la passivation des canaux, a ensuite été optimisé et intégré dans un système de mesure complet avec toute l'électronique et l'informatique de contrôle. Le système final a été validé chez le petit animal avec un radiotraceur connu. Ces travaux ont donné lieu à la première démonstration d'un détecteur microfluidique de haute efficacité pour la TEP et la TEM. Cette première brique d'un projet plus global est déjà un outil innovant en soi qui permettra d'augmenter l'efficacité du développement d'outils diagnostiques plus spécifiques principalement pour l'oncologie, la cardiologie et la neurologie.

L’objectif de cette thèse est de concevoir un réseau réflecteur à dépointage électronique à 20 GHz pour des applications de communication avec des drones (Unmanned Aerial System). Le principe de fonctionnement des réseaux réflecteurs est similaire à celui d’une antenne parabolique. La principale différence concerne la forme du réflecteur. En effet les panneaux des réseaux réflecteurs sont plans contrairement à la parabole. Le panneau réflecteur se compose de cellules élémentaires qui sont utilisées pour contrôler la phase réfléchie de l’onde d’incidente. Le contrôle de la phase au niveau de la cellule élémentaire nous permet de focaliser le diagramme de rayonnement dans la direction souhaitée. Dans cette thèse, la solution retenue est l’utilisation de diodes PIN. Cette dernière a fait l’objet de nombreuses études que ce soit au niveau laboratoire mais également industriel et possède des atouts intéressant en terme de performance et de coût. L'étude montre que d'avoir un niveau de correction élevée ne garantit pas la meilleure performance parce qu'il faut aussi considérer les pertes dans l'élément actif lui-même (dans notre cas, il s’agit des pertes dans les diodes PIN). Dans l’avenir, il serait nécessaire de modifier la position de la diode afin de rendre la fabrication plus aisée. Dans ce cas il faudra retravailler sur les lignes de polarisation et aussi les géométries du stub et des vias. Il sera peut-être nécessaire de déplacer la diode à l'extérieur du substrat en face l'arrière de la cellule par exemple. Quand les réseaux réflecteurs seront fabriqués, ils pourront être directement testés avec le contrôleur de diode fabriqué. / The objective of this project is to design and fabricate a reconfigurable reflectarray with beam scanning capability at 20 GHz for unmanned aerial system (UAS) communication link. Reflectarray is a type of antenna that shares similar functionality to parabolic reflector antenna. The main difference is the physical and geometry appearance of the antenna where reflectarray has flat reflecting panel instead of parabolic reflector. The reflecting panel consists of elementary cell, which is used to control the reflected phase of the incident wave. By controlling the reflected phase on each elementary cell, the radiation pattern of the antenna can be focused to any desired direction. PIN diode technology is chosen as the preferred solution in the context of this project because it is already proven working in the industry and research fields. In house reflectarray simulator has been developed from the simulation, having high correction order will not necessarily improve the performance because the loss inside in active element must also be considered. In the short-term period, the modification on the elementary cell diode polarization line will enable the reflectarray to be fabricated and measured because the current design cannot be fabricated by the manufacturer contrary to their first statement due to position of the diode in the middle of substrates. The modification requires the p-i-n diode to be moved at the backside of the elementary cell and some geometry adjustments are needed for the phase delay line and the via. Once the reflectarray is fabricated, it can be tested directly with the diode controller that is already validated and shown to be working well.

The purpose of this project was to design, construct, and evaluate an alpha spectrometer based on an inexpensive p-i-n photodiode as a radiation detector. The BPX-61 p-i-n photodiode was selected and calculated to have a 93 µm wide sensitive volume at 25 V reverse bias. Electronics consisting of a charge-sensitive preamplifier, a pole-zero canceling CR-(RC)4 pulse shaping amplifier, and an adjustable detector bias voltage supply were devised and assembled. Several alpha spectra were recorded from different alpha radiation sources to determine the performance of the alpha spectrometer. The results show that the alpha spectrometer could successfully and accurately measure alpha spectra, which could then be used to identify radioactive materials present in the sources. An FWHM resolution of about 230 keV was measured for 5.486 MeV alpha particles from Am-241. This resolution is inferior to most alpha spectrometers that measure under vacuum. However, because the device does not require a vacuum pump and uses USB for power and data acquisition, it is a convenient and compact option for field measurements. The low cost and reasonable performance of commercial p-i-n photodiodes as radiation detectors could be appealing for future alpha spectroscopy applications.

The unique properties, such as large direct bandgap, excellent thermal stability, high μH × ns, of III-nitrides make them ideal candidates for both optoelectronic and high-speed electronic devices. In the past decades, great success has been achieved in commercialization of GaN based light emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes (LDs). However, due to the lack of native substrates, thin films grown on sapphire or SiC substrates have high defect densities that degrade the device performance and reliability. Conventional epitaxy lateral overgrowth (ELO) can reduce dislocation densities down to ∼10-6 cm-2 in the lateral growth area, but requires ex situ photolithography steps. Hence, an in situ method using a SiNx interlayer (nano-scale ELOG) has emerged as a promising technique. The GaN templates prepared by this method exhibit a very low dislocation density (low-10-7 cm-2) and excellent optical and electrical properties. As a cost, such high quality GaN templates containing SiN, nanonetworks are not suitable for heterojunction field effect transistor (HFET) applications due to degenerate GaN:Si layer which serves as parallel conduction channel. This dissertation discusses the growth of low dislocation density GaN templates, by using the in situ SiNx nanonetwork for conductive templates, and the AIN buffer for semi-insulating templates. On SiN x nanonetwork templates, double-barrier RTD and superlattice (SL) exhibited negative differential resistances. Moreover, the injection current of Blue LEDs (450 nm) was improved ∼30%. On semi-insulating GaN templates, nearly lattice matched AlInN/AIN/GaN HFETs were successfully demonstrated and exhibited ∼ 1600 cm2/Vs and 17 600 cm2/Vs Hall mobilities at 300 K and 10 K, respectively. Those mobility values are much higher than literature reports and indicate that high quality HFETs can be realized in lattice matched AlInN/AIN/GaN, thereby solving the strain related issue. The attempt to use InGaN as the 2DEG channel has also been successfully implemented. A Hall mobility (1230 cm2/Vs) was achieved in a 12 nm InGaN channel HFET with AlInGaN barrier, which demonstrates the viability of InGaN channel HFETs.

This thesis investigates the possibility of enhancing the efficiency of thin film solar cells by including periodic material nonhomogeneities in combination with periodically corrugated back reflectors. Two different types of solar cell are investigated; p-i-n junctions solar cells made from alloys of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) (containing either carbon or germanium), and Schottky barrier junction solar cells made from alloys of indium gallium nitride (InξGa1-ξN). Material nonhomogeneities are produced by varying the fractions of the constituent elements of the alloys. For example, by varying the content of carbon or germanium in the a-Si:H alloys, semiconductors with bandgaps ranging from 1:3 eV to 1:95 eV can be produced. Changing the bandgap alters both the optical and electrical properties of the material so this necessitates the use of coupled optical and electrical models. To date, the majority of solar cell simulations either prioritise the electrical portion of the simulation or they prioritise the optical portion of the simulation. In this thesis, a coupled optoelectronic model, developed using COMSOL Multiphysics®, was used to simulate solar cells: a two-dimensional finite-element optical model, which solved Maxwell's equations throughout the solar cells, was used to calculate the absorption of incident sunlight; and a finite-element electrical drift-diffusion transport model, either one- or two-dimensional depending on the symmetries of the problem, was used to calculate the steady state current densities throughout the solar cells under external voltage biases. It is shown that a periodically corrugated back reflector made from silver can increase efficiency of an a-Si:H alloy single p-i-n junction solar cell by 9:9% compared to a baseline design, while for a triple junction the improvement is a relatively meagre 1:8%. It is subsequently shown that the efficiency of these single p-i-n junction solar cells with a back reflector can be further increased by the inclusion of material nonhomogeneities, and that increasing the nonhomogeneity progressively increases efficiency, especially in thicker solar cells. In the case of InξGa1-ξN Schottky barrier junction solar cells, the gains are shown to be even greater. An overall increase in efficiency of up to 26:8% over a baseline design is reported.

This dissertation presents the contributions and the research conducted in developing and implementing Microwave Tomography (MWT) systems. MWT is an imaging modality which aims to interrogate an object of interest by microwave energy, and quantitatively “find” the interior spatial distribution of its dielectric properties using field measurements taken outside the object. Due to the inherent non-linearity of the MWT problem, a substantial amount of electromagnetic scattering data is required to ensure a robust inversion and quantitatively accurate imaging results. This research benefits a variety of applications including biomedical imaging, industrial non-destructive testing, and security applications. Developing a MWT system, requires many critical components including the bandwidth and polarization purity of the collected fields as well as calibration of the fields scattered by the object of interest. Two generations of MWT systems were designed, implemented, calibrated and tested at the University of Manitoba (UM). These systems aim different approaches for near-field measurements which are referred to as the direct and indirect methods. With regard to the antenna design, a novel methodology applicable to broadband planar antennas is introduced. This technique is based on a combination of field modelling, herein, the finite element method and transmission line modelling. In the first generation of the UM MWT systems, a suitable antenna system was utilized. The system under study was a prototype, where twenty-four co-resident antennas encircle the object of interest to directly measure the fields. In the second generation of the UM MWT systems, the feasibility of using a novel technique to indirectly measure the fields by a secondary array of near-field scatterer probes was studied. The technique is based on the Modulated Scatterer Technique (MST). In this system, antennas are called ``collectors", since the role of antennas are changed to collecting probes' scattered fields. A number of PIN diodes were utilized to activate the probes. Finally, the capability of the probe system was investigated and its performance with the previously constructed tomography systems was compared. Various dielectric phantoms were utilized to test the accuracy of the systems.

This dissertation presents the contributions and the research conducted in developing and implementing Microwave Tomography (MWT) systems. MWT is an imaging modality which aims to interrogate an object of interest by microwave energy, and quantitatively “find” the interior spatial distribution of its dielectric properties using field measurements taken outside the object. Due to the inherent non-linearity of the MWT problem, a substantial amount of electromagnetic scattering data is required to ensure a robust inversion and quantitatively accurate imaging results. This research benefits a variety of applications including biomedical imaging, industrial non-destructive testing, and security applications. Developing a MWT system, requires many critical components including the bandwidth and polarization purity of the collected fields as well as calibration of the fields scattered by the object of interest. Two generations of MWT systems were designed, implemented, calibrated and tested at the University of Manitoba (UM). These systems aim different approaches for near-field measurements which are referred to as the direct and indirect methods. With regard to the antenna design, a novel methodology applicable to broadband planar antennas is introduced. This technique is based on a combination of field modelling, herein, the finite element method and transmission line modelling. In the first generation of the UM MWT systems, a suitable antenna system was utilized. The system under study was a prototype, where twenty-four co-resident antennas encircle the object of interest to directly measure the fields. In the second generation of the UM MWT systems, the feasibility of using a novel technique to indirectly measure the fields by a secondary array of near-field scatterer probes was studied. The technique is based on the Modulated Scatterer Technique (MST). In this system, antennas are called ``collectors", since the role of antennas are changed to collecting probes' scattered fields. A number of PIN diodes were utilized to activate the probes. Finally, the capability of the probe system was investigated and its performance with the previously constructed tomography systems was compared. Various dielectric phantoms were utilized to test the accuracy of the systems.

No description available.