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Comparison of dielectric properties of additively manufactured vs. solvent cast polyimide dielectrics

IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation

Appelhans, Leah A.; Keicher, David M.; Lavin, Judith M.

The permittivity, dielectric loss, and DC dielectric breakdown strength of additively manufactured, solvent-cast, and commercial polyimide films are reported As expected, commercial films performed better than both AM and solvent-cast lab-made films. Solvent-cast films generally performed better than AM films, although performance depended on the optimization of the material for the specific deposition technique. The most significant degradation of performance in all the lab-made films was in the dispersion of both the x/Df measurements and the dielectric breakdown strength (Weibull β). Commercial films had a breakdown strength of 4891 kV/cm and β = 13.0 whereas the highest performing lab-made films had a breakdown strength of 4072 kV/cm and β = 3.8. Furthermore, this increase in dispersion in all the lab-made samples is attributed to higher variability in the preparation, a higher defect level related to fabrication in the lab environment and, for some AM samples, to morphology/topology features resulting from the deposition technique.

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Photovoltaic self-assembly

Lavin, Judith M.; Stewart, Constantine A.; Kemp, Richard K.

This late-start LDRD was focused on the application of chemical principles of self-assembly on the ordering and placement of photovoltaic cells in a module. The drive for this chemical-based self-assembly stems from the escalating prices in the 'pick-and-place' technology currently used in the MEMS industries as the size of chips decreases. The chemical self-assembly principles are well-known on a molecular scale in other material science systems but to date had not been applied to the assembly of cells in a photovoltaic array or module. We explored several types of chemical-based self-assembly techniques, including gold-thiol interactions, liquid polymer binding, and hydrophobic-hydrophilic interactions designed to array both Si and GaAs PV chips onto a substrate. Additional research was focused on the modification of PV cells in an effort to gain control over the facial directionality of the cells in a solvent-based environment. Despite being a small footprint research project worked on for only a short time, the technical results and scientific accomplishments were significant and could prove to be enabling technology in the disruptive advancement of the microelectronic photovoltaics industry.

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Results 26–48 of 48
Results 26–48 of 48