PdZn catalysts prepared by washcoating microstructured reactors

Methanol steam reforming is an option for dynamic hydrogen generation in automotive fuel cell systems. Microstructured reactors with small channels (100 μm×100 μm) are being studied. A washcoating procedure applying dispersed ZnO nanoparticles to the microchannel walls was adapted to the PdZn catalyst system. The catalyst layer showed no significant differences during X-ray diffraction and temperature-programmed oxidation and reduction experiments for examination of oxidation state and alloy formation compared with other PdZn systems reported in the literature. Chemisorption with different adsorbates and X-ray backscattering were used for gathering detailed information on PdZn dispersion, diameter and shape with respect to the preparation parameters. Catalytic experiments yielded a relationship between the catalyst properties and the catalytic activity, degradation and secondary reactions.     

Crystalline silicon on glass (CSG) thin-film solar cell modules

Crystalline silicon on glass (CSG) solar cell technology was developed to address the difficulty that silicon wafer-based technology has in reaching the very low costs required for large-scale photovoltaic applications as well as the perceived fundamental difficulties with other thin-film technologies. The aim was to combine the advantages of standard silicon wafer-based technology, namely ruggedness, durability, good electronic properties and environmental soundness with the advantages of thin-films, specifically low material use, large monolithic construction and a desirable glass superstrate configuration. The challenge has been to match the different preferred processing temperatures of silicon and glass and to obtain strong solar absorption in notoriously weakly-absorbing silicon of only 1.4 μm thickness, the thinnest active layer of the key thin-film contenders. A rugged, durable silicon thin-film technology has been developed arguably with the lowest likely manufacturing cost of these contenders and confirmed efficiency for small pilot line modules already in the 8–9% energy conversion efficiency range, on the path to 12–13%.     

Novel scheme for ultrafast all-optical XOR operation

A novel scheme for all-optical exclusive-OR (XOR) operating at 160 Gb/s is proposed and analyzed by means of numerical simulations. It consists of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) where a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is placed in each of its arms. This SOA-MZI setup is coupled to a delay interferometer, which acts as a signal regenerator. It is shown that error-free operation can be achieved at a data rate of 160 Gb/s, indicating that the proposed scheme is not limited by the SOA recovery time.     

New thermoelectric components using microsystem technologies

This paper describes the first thermoelectric devices based on the V-VI-compounds Bi/sub 2/Te/sub 3/ and (Bi,Sb)/sub 2/Te/sub 3/ which can be manufactured by means of regular thin film technology in combination with microsystem technology. Fabrication concept, material deposition for some 10-/spl mu/m-thick layers and the properties of the deposited thermoelectric materials will be reported. First device properties for Peltier-coolers and thermogenerators will be shown as well as investigations on long term and cycling stability. Data on metal/semiconductor contact resistance were extracted form device data. Device characteristics like response time for a Peltier-cooler and power output for a thermogenerator will be compared to commercial devices.