Integration of III-V materials on Silicon Substrates for Multi-junction Solar Cell Applications

The work presented here aims to reduce the cost of multijunction solar cell technology by developing ways to manufacture them on cheap substrates such as silicon. In particular, our main objective is the growth of III-V semiconductors on silicon substrates for photovoltaic applications. The goal is to create a GaAsP/Si virtual substrates onto which other III-V cells could be integrated with an interesting efficiency potential. This technology involves several challenges due to the difficulty of growing III-V materials on silicon. In this paper, our first work done aimed at developing such structure is presented. It was focused on the development of phosphorus diffusion models on silicon and on the preparation of an optimal silicon surface to grow on it III-V materials.

Using Virtual Reality in the teaching of manufacturing processes with material removal in CNC Machine-Tools

This paper presents a methodology for the incorporation of a Virtual Reality development applied to the teaching of manufacturing processes, namely the group of machining processes in numerical control of machine tools. The paper shows how it is possible to supplement the teaching practice through virtual machine-tools whose operation is similar to the 'real' machines while eliminating the risks of use for both users and the machines.

Multiscale Modeling of Composites: Toward Virtual Testing ... and Beyond

Recent developments in the area of multiscale modeling of fiber-reinforced polymers are presented. The overall strategy takes advantage of the separa-tion of length scales between different entities (ply, laminate, and component) found in composite structures. This allows us to carry out multiscale modeling by computing the properties of one entity (e.g., individual plies) at the relevant length scale, homogenizing the results into a constitutive model, and passing this information to the next length scale to determine the mechanical behavior of the larger entity (e.g., laminate). As a result, high-fidelity numerical sim-ulations of the mechanical behavior of composite coupons and small compo-nents are nowadays feasible starting from the matrix, fiber, and interface properties and spatial distribution. Finally, the roadmap is outlined for extending the current strategy to include functional properties and processing into the simulation scheme.