Resolving Deep Sub-Wavelength Scattering of Nanoscale Sidewalls Using Parametric Microscopy

The quantitative optical measurement of deep sub-wavelength features with sub-nanometer sensitivity addresses the measurement challenge in the semiconductor fabrication process. Optical scatterings from the sidewalls of patterned devices reveal abundant structural and material information. We demonstrated a parametric indirect microscopic imaging (PIMI) technique that enables recovery of the profile of wavelength-scale objects with deep sub-wavelength resolution, based on measuring and filtering the variations of far-field scattering intensities when the illumination was modulated. The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) numerical simulation was performed, and the experimental results were compared with atomic force microscopic (AFM) images to verify the resolution improvement achieved with PIMI. This work may provide a new approach to exploring the detailed structure and material properties of sidewalls and edges in semiconductor-patterned devices with enhanced contrast and resolution, compared with using the conventional optical microscopy, while retaining its advantage of a wide field of view and relatively low cost.     

Light extraction of flexible OLEDs based on transparent polyimide substrates with 3-D photonic structure

We report a flexible organic light-emitting diode (OLED) based on transparent polyimide (PI) substrate with 3-D photonic structure, which shows a maximum gain factor of ∼1.7 for current efficiency at large viewing angle. The PI substrate is a replicate from glass carrier with hexagonal closely-packed convex-truncated-cone array. Green OLEDs are fabricated on the planar surface of the PI substrate before being mechanically de-bonded from the glass template. The proposed OLEDs exhibit excellent angular optical properties including stable CIE coordinates with Δx = −0.006 and Δy = 0.002 as the viewing angle varies from 0° to 50°. Surface scattering effect of the 3-D photonic structure eliminates the periodic distortion phenomenon in electroluminescence spectrum of flexible OLEDs.     

Ruthenium complex-cored dendrimers: Shedding light on efficiency trade-offs in dye-sensitised solar cells

A series of first generation dendrimers provide important insight into the performance of dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs). The dendrimers are comprised of a substituted [cis-di(thiocyanato)-bis(2,2′-bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) complex, first generation biphenyl-based dendrons, and either four, eight, or twelve 2-ethylhexyloxy surface groups. The dendrimers were bound to the titanium dioxide of the DSSCs via carboxylate groups on one of the bipyridyl moieties in a similar manner to the ‘gold standard’ [cis-di(thiocyanato)-bis(4,4′-dicarboxylate-2,2′-bipyridyl)]ruthenium(II) 1 (N3). Exchanging one pair of the carboxylate groups on one bipyridyl ligand of N3 with styryl units to give [cis-di(thiocyanato)-(4,4′-dicarboxylate-2,2′-bipyridyl)-(4,4′-distyryl-2,2′-bipyridyl]ruthenium(II) 2 resulted in an improvement in device performance (7.19% ± 0.11% for 2 versus 6.94% ± 0.12% for N3). Devices containing the dendrimers also had good efficiencies but the performance was found to decrease with the increasing number of surface groups, which gives rise to an increase in the molecular volume of the dye. The device containing the dendrimer with four surface groups, 3, had a global efficiency of 6.32% ± 0.13%, which was comparable to N3 (6.94% ± 0.12%) in the same device configuration. In contrast, the dendrimer with twelve surface groups, 5, had an efficiency of 3.69% ± 0.19%. Complex 2 and all three dendrimers have the same core chromophore, which absorbs more light than N3. The decrease in efficiency with increasing molecular volume was therefore determined to be due to less dye being adsorbed. Hence molecular volume and molar extinction coefficient are both first order parameters in achieving high conversion efficiencies and must be taken into account when designing new dyes for DSSCs.     

Organic light-emitting diodes fabricated on recessed anodes for light extraction enhancement

Circular recesses have been fabricated on indium tin oxide (ITO) anodes to enhance light extraction of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). The effects of recess depth and recess coverage ratio on the performance of a green OLED were systematically investigated. Results showed that the current efficiency could be enhanced from 40.7 cd/A of a planar device to 47.2 cd/A of the device with a recess depth of 100 nm and a recess coverage ratio of 14.1%. The enhanced light extraction by the recess wall effect was realized to be the major factor leading to the improved efficiency. The efficiency is however limited by the accompanying increase in electrical resistivity of the ITO films at deep recesses and high recess coverage ratios. Despite of the insignificant efficiency enhancement (up to 16%) in this study, this recessed ITO approach provides a simple architecture to enhance waveguide mode light extraction without adding an internal medium.     

Prism coupling method to evaluate the light extraction efficiency of outcoupling substrates

One of the key challenges in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) for lighting applications is efficient light extraction from the planar, multi-layered OLED stack. Several different light extraction approaches are being explored currently by researchers, however characterizing light extraction films after fabricating OLEDs is not a viable approach when the outcoupling films have large surface roughness and is time consuming as well. Here we apply prism coupling method (PCM), a simple and elegant tool, to characterize outcoupling films. We show the effectiveness of PCM in estimating light extraction efficiency of outcoupling films. PCM can expedite selection and optimization of various light extraction approaches without the need to build OLEDs. The experimental results are corroborated by the optical simulations done using ray tracing method taking into account Mie scattering from wavelength sized spherical inclusions in an outcoupling film.     

Dye mixture promoted light harvesting for organic dye-sensitized solar cells using triphenylamine dyes with various numbers of anchoring groups

Co-sensitizers and co-adsorbents are promising materials to enhance the light harvesting efficiency and reduce the un-expected back transfer reaction (recombination) of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). In this study, three sensitizers with triphenylamine as an electron donor, thiophene as a bridge and various numbers of acceptors/anchors cyanoacetic acid (TPA3T1A, TPA3T2A and TPA3T3A) were synthesized, and TPA3T1A and TPA3T2A were used as co-adsorbents with TPA3T3A. The results showed that co-adsorption on the TiO₂ surface at the following percentages, TPA3T3A 73%, TPA3T1A 17% and TPA3T2A 10%, resulted in an increase in the photovoltaic performance of the DSSCs from 5.27% to 5.83% compared to that of a single TPA3T3A sensitizer due to the increasing J_SC and V_OC. This enhancement might be due to improved light absorption and decreasing recombination by the co-sensitizers, TPA3T1A and TPA3T2A, occupying all the empty plases on the TPA3T3A-adsorbed TiO₂ surface.     

Various density light field image coding based on distortion minimization interpolation

In recent years, the light field (LF) as a new imaging modality has attracted wide interest. The large data volume of LF images poses great challenge to LF image coding, and the LF images captured by different devices show significant differences in angular domain. In this paper we propose a view prediction framework to handle LF image coding with various sampling density. All LF images are represented as view arrays. We first partition the views into reference view (RV) set and intermediate view (IV) set. The RVs are rearranged into a pseudo sequence and directly compressed by a video encoder. Other views are then predicted by the RVs. To exploit the four dimensional signal structure, we propose the linear approximation prior (LAP) to reveal the correlation among LF views and efficiently remove the LF data redundancy. Based on the LAP, a distortion minimization interpolation (DMI) method is used to predict IVs. To robustly handle the LF images with different sampling density, we propose an Iteratively Updating depth image based rendering (IU-DIBR) method to extend our DMI. Some auxiliary views are generated to cover the target region and then the DMI calculates reconstruction coefficients for the IVs. Different view partition patterns are also explored. Extensive experiments on different types LF images also valid the efficiency of the proposed method.     

Study on thermal performance of high power LED employing aluminum filled epoxy composite as thermal interface material

This paper elucidates the thermal behavior of an LED employing metal filled polymer matrix as thermal interface material (TIM) for an enhanced heat dissipation characteristic. Highly thermal conductive aluminum (Al) particles were incorporated in bisphenol A diglycidylether (DGEBA) epoxy matrix to study the effect of filler to polymer ratio on the thermal performance of high power LEDs. The curing behavior of DGEBA was studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The dispersion nature of the Al fillers in polymer matrix was verified with Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM). The thermal performance of synthesized Al filled polymer composite as TIM was tested with an LED employing thermal transient measurement technique. Comparing the filler to polymer ratio, the rise in junction temperature for 60 wt% Al filled composite was higher by 11.1 °C than 50 wt% Al filled composite at cured state. Observed also from the structure function analysis that the total thermal resistance was 10.96 K/W higher for 60 wt% Al filled composite compared to 50 wt% Al filled composite. On the other hand, a significant rise of 9.5 °C in the junction temperature between cured and uncured samples of 50 wt% Al filled polymer TIM was observed and hence the importance of curing process of metal filled polymer composite for effective heat dissipation is discussed extensively in this work.     

Optimization of polymer light emitting devices using TiOx electron transport layers and prism sheets

The internal and external efficiency of polymer light emitting devices were found can be simultaneously improved by insertion a high refractive index material, titanium oxide (TiO_x), to the emission layer and a prism sheet attached to the substrate. The TiO_x layer increased the internal efficiency due to a better electron injection and hole confinement. However, it led a wider angular emission profile with more photons trapped in the substrate. By using the prism sheet, those trapped light was efficiently coupled to the air. The extraction efficiency enhancement was increased from 33.1% to 54.4% and the overall current efficiency was improved up to 86%.