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25 hojas : ilustraciones, cuadros.

Antenna tuning for wearable wireless sensors

When miniaturized wireless sensors are placed on or close to the human body, they can experience a significant loss inperformance due to antenna detuning, resulting in degradationof wireless performance as well as decreased battery lifetime.Several antenna tuning technologies have been proposed formobile wireless devices but devices suitable for widespread integration have yet to emerge. This paper highlights the possible advantages of antenna tuning for wearable wireless sensors and presents the design and characterization of a prototype 433MHz tuner module.

Evanescent field sensing: optical nanofibres, whispering-gallery-mode microspherical and microbubble resonators

In this thesis, the evanescent field sensing techniques of tapered optical nanofibres and microspherical resonators are investigated. This includes evanescent field spectroscopy of a silica nanofibre in a rubidium vapour; thermo-optical tuning of Er:Yb co-doped phosphate glass microspheres; optomechanical properties of microspherical pendulums; and the fabrication and characterisation of borosilicate microbubble resonators. Doppler-broadened and sub-Doppler absorption spectroscopic techniques are performed around the D2 transition (780.24 nm) of rubidium using the evanescent field produced at the waist of a tapered nanofibre with input probe powers as low as 55 nW. Doppler-broadened Zeeman shifts and a preliminary dichroic atomic vapour laser lock (DAVLL) line shape are also observed via the nanofibre waist with an applied magnetic field of 60 G. This device has the potential for laser frequency stabilisation while also studying the effects of atom-surface interactions. A non-invasive thermo-optical tuning technique of Er:Yb co-doped microspheres to specific arbitrary wavelengths is demonstrated particularly to 1294 nm and the 5S1/2F=3 to 5P3/2Fʹ=4 laser cooling transition of 85Rb. Reversible tuning ranges of up to 474 GHz and on resonance cavity timescales on the order of 100 s are reported. This procedure has prospective applications for sensing a variety of atomic or molecular species in a cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) experiments. The mechanical characteristics of a silica microsphere pendulum with a relatively low spring constant of 10-4 Nm-1 are explored. A novel method of frequency sweeping the motion of the pendulum to determine its natural resonance frequencies while overriding its sensitivity to environmental noise is proposed. An estimated force of 0.25 N is required to actuate the pendulum by a displacement of (1-2) μm. It is suggested that this is of sufficient magnitude to be experienced between two evanescently coupled microspheres (photonic molecule) and enable spatial trapping of the micropendulum. Finally, single-input borosilicate microbubble resonators with diameters <100 μm are fabricated using a CO2 laser. Optical whispering gallery mode spectra are observed via evanescent coupling with a tapered fibre. A red-shift of (4-22) GHz of the resonance modes is detected when the hollow cavity was filled with nano-filtered water. A polarisation conversion effect, with an efficiency of 10%, is observed when the diameter of the coupling tapered fibre waist is varied. This effect is also achieved by simply varying the polarisation of the input light in the tapered fibre where the efficiency is optimised to 92%. Thus, the microbubble device acts as a reversible band-pass to band-stop optical filter for cavity-QED, integrated solid-state and semiconductor circuit applications.

First principles simulation of amorphous silicon bulk, interfaces, and nanowires for photovoltaics

Amorphous silicon has become the material of choice for many technologies, with major applications in large area electronics: displays, image sensing and thin film photovoltaic cells. This technology development has occurred because amorphous silicon is a thin film semiconductor that can be deposited on large, low cost substrates using low temperature. In this thesis, classical molecular dynamics and first principles DFT calculations have been performed to generate structural models of amorphous and hydrogenated amorphous silicon and interfaces of amorphous and crystalline silicon, with the ultimate aim of understanding the photovoltaic properties of core-shell crystalline amorphous Si nanowire structures. We have shown, unexpectedly, from the simulations, that our understanding of hydrogenated bulk a-Si needs to be revisited, with our robust finding that when fully saturated with hydrogen, bulk a-Si exhibits a constant optical energy gap, irrespective of the hydrogen concentration in the sample. Unsaturated a-Si:H, with a lower than optimum hydrogen content, shows a smaller optical gap, that increases with hydrogen content until saturation is reached. The mobility gaps obtained from an analysis of the electronic states show similar behavior. We also obtained that the optical and mobility gaps show a volcano curve as the H content is varied from 7% (undersaturation) to 18% (mild oversaturation). In the case of mild over saturation, the mid-gap states arise exclusively from an increase in the density of strained Si-Si bonds. Analysis of our structures shows the extra H atoms in this case form a bridge between neighboring silicon atoms which increases the corresponding Si-Si distance and promotes bond length disorder in the sample. That has the potential to enhance the Staebler-Wronski effect. Planar interface models of amorphous-crystalline silicon have been generated in Si (100), (110) and (111) surfaces. The interface models are characterized by structure, RDF, electronic density of states and optical absorption spectrum. We find that the least stable (100) surface will result in the formation of the thickest amorphous silicon layer, while the most stable (110) surface forms the smallest amorphous region. We calculated for the first time band offsets of a-Si:H/c-Si heterojunctions from first principles and examined the influence of different surface orientations and amorphous layer thickness on the offsets and implications for device performance. The band offsets depend on the amorphous layer thickness and increase with thickness. By controlling the amorphous layer thickness we can potentially optimise the solar cell parameters. Finally, we have successfully generated different amorphous layer thickness of the a-Si/c-Si and a-Si:H/c-Si 5 nm nanowires from heat and quench. We perform structural analysis of the a-Si-/c-Si nanowires. The RDF, Si-Si bond length distributions, and the coordination number distributions of amorphous regions of the nanowires reproduce similar behaviour compared to bulk amorphous silicon. In the final part of this thesis we examine different surface terminating chemical groups, -H, - OH and –NH2 in (001) GeNW. Our work shows that the diameter of Ge nanowires and the nature of surface terminating groups both play a significant role in both the magnitude and the nature of the nanowire band gaps, allowing tuning of the band gap by up to 1.1 eV. We also show for the first time how the nanowire diameter and surface termination shifts the absorption edge in the Ge nanowires to longer wavelengths. Thus, the combination of nanowire diameter and surface chemistry can be effectively utilised to tune the band gaps and thus light absorption properties of small diameter Ge nanowires.

Molecular dynamics simulation of observed c(4x4) and c(4x3) C60 alignments on the Si(100) reconstructed surface.

We have implemented a large-scale classical molecular dynamics simulation at constant temperature to provide a theoretical insight into the results of a recently performed experiment on the monolayer and multi-layer formations of molecular films on the Si(100) reconstructed dimerized surface. Our simulation has successfully reproduced all of the morphologies observed on the monolayer film by this experiment. We have obtained the formation of both c(4 4) and c(4 3) structures of the molecules and have also obtained phase transitions of the former into the latter.

Stencil printing at sub-100 microns pitch

This article presents the latest print results at less than 100 microns pitch obtained in stencil printing type 6 and 7 lead-free solder pastes and conductive adhesives. The advantages of the microengineered stencil arc presented and compared with other bonding technologies. Characterisation of the print deposits is presented and future applications of stencil printing are described.

Stencil printing at sub-100 microns pitch

This article presents the latest print results at less than 100 microns pitch obtained in stencil printing type 6 and 7 leadfree solder pastes and conductive adhesives. The advantages of the microengineered stencil are presented and compared with other bonding technologies. Characterisation of the print deposits is presented and future applications of stencil printing are described.

Computational modelling for reliable flip-chip packaging at sub-100 micron pitch using isotropic conductive adhesives

This paper presents the assembly process using next generation electroformed stencils and Isotropic Conductive Adhesives (ICAs) as interconnection material. The utilisation of ICAs in flip-chip assembly process is investigated as an alternative to the lead and lead-free solder alloys and aims to ensure a low temperature (T < 100 °C) assembly process. The paper emphasizes and discusses in details the assembly of a flip-chip package based on copper columns bumped die and substrate with stencil printed ICA deposits at sub-100 μm pitch. A computational modelling approach is undertaken to provide comprehensive results on reliability trends of ICA joints subject to thermal cycling of the flip-chip assembly based on easy to use damage criteria and damage evaluation. Important design parameters in the package are selected and investigated using numerical modelling techniques to provide knowledge and understanding of their impact on the thermo-mechanical behaviour of the flip-chip ICA joints. Sensitivity analysis of the damage in the adhesive material is also carried out. Optimal design rules for enhanced performance and improved thermo-mechanical reliability of ICA assembled flip-chip packages are finally formulated.

Speed tuning of direction repulsion describes an inverted U-function

Direction repulsion describes the phenomenon in which observers typically overestimate the direction difference between two superimposed motions moving in different directions (Marshak & Sekuler, Science 205(1979) 1399). Previous research has found that, when a relatively narrow range of distractor speeds is considered, direction repulsion of a target motion increases monotonically with increasing speed of the distractor motion. We sought to obtain a more complete measurement of this speed-tuning function by considering a wider range of distractor speeds than has previously been used. Our results show that, contrary to previous reports, direction repulsion as a function of distractor speed describes an inverted U-function. For a target of 2.5deg/s, we demonstrate that the attenuation of repulsion magnitude with high-speed disractors can be largely explained in terms of the reduced apparent contrast of the distractor. However, when we reduce target motion speed, this no longer holds. When considered from the perspective of Edwards et al.s (Edwards, Badcock, & Smith, Vision Research 38 (1998) 1573) two global-motion channels, our results suggest that direction repulsion is speed dependent when the distractor and target motions are processed by different globalmotion channels, but is not speed dependent when both motions are processed by the same, high-speed channel. The implications of these results for models of direction repulsion are discussed.

Marine04 marine radiocarbon age calibration, 0-26 cal kyr BP

New radiocarbon calibration curves, IntCal04 and Marine04, have been constructed and internationally ratified to replace the terrestrial and marine components of IntCal98. The new calibration data sets extend an additional 2000 yr, from 0–26 cal kyr BP (Before Present, 0 cal BP = AD 1950), and provide much higher resolution, greater precision, and more detailed structure than IntCal98. For the Marine04 curve, dendrochronologically-dated tree-ring samples, converted with a box diffusion model to marine mixed-layer ages, cover the period from 0–10.5 cal kyr BP. Beyond 10.5 cal kyr BP, high-resolution marine data become available from foraminifera in varved sediments and U/Th-dated corals. The marine records are corrected with site-specific 14C reservoir age information to provide a single global marine mixed-layer calibration from 10.5–26.0 cal kyr BP. A substantial enhancement relative to IntCal98 is the introduction of a random walk model, which takes into account the uncertainty in both the calendar age and the 14C age to calculate the underlying calibration curve (Buck and Blackwell, this issue). The marine data sets and calibration curve for marine samples from the surface mixed layer (Marine04) are discussed here. The tree-ring data sets, sources of uncertainty, and regional offsets are presented in detail in a companion paper by Reimer et al. (this issue).

ShCal04 Southern Hemisphere Calibration, 0–11.0 Cal Kyr BP

Recent measurements on dendrochronologically-dated wood from the Southern Hemisphere have shown that there are differences between the structural form of the radiocarbon calibration curves from each hemisphere. Thus, it is desirable, when possible, to use calibration data obtained from secure dendrochronologically-dated wood from the corresponding hemisphere. In this paper, we outline the recent work and point the reader to the internationally recommended data set that should be used for future calibration of Southern Hemisphere 14C dates.