Column Control DTX

Challenges and Solutions for Material Science/Engineering Testing Applications

Technical Overviews

Keysight Technologies

Challenges and Solutions for Material Science/Engineering Testing Applications

Introduction

Understanding the properties of materials (both natural and man-made) is important for a variety of reasons.

Materials such as metallic materials, semiconductors, organic materials (such as polymers) and compound semiconductors have provided profound benefits over the last century. New and emerging materials such as oxide semiconductors, carbon nano tubes (CNT) and graphene promise to provide new benefits over the coming century.

Every material is unique in in terms of its electrical, optical and structural properties. It is these unique material properties that allow devices and components such as solar cells, sensors, logic devices, memories, interconnect, displays, emitters, packaging materials to perform their specified tasks. In turn, the devices and components just described can be used in other equipment such as machines, transportation equipment, IT gadgets, etc.

For these reasons, innovations in material science and engineering form the basis for many next generation technologies and products. The various test methods discussed in this document then form an important basis for these innovations.

Material Examples

We will review some typical materials and explore their various applications. We will also highlight some of their characteristics, applications and evaluation challenges.

Organic materials

Polymers are one of most important organic materials; they consist of macromolecules containing carbon covalently bonded together and with other elements of low atomic number (such as H, N, O or S). Since polymers have long linear structures that are held together with van der Waals bonds, they have low melting points. In addition, their low density makes polymers light weight, easy to process, and flexible in shape. Finally, polymer molecules are varied enough to permit a wide range of conductivities (from insulator to organic metal).

Polymers show promise for applications such as Organic EL (Electrical Luminescence), TFT, solar cell, flexible device, organic LED, photoelectric conversion element, organic memories and sensors. In fact, polymers are already being used for some of these purposes.

Some of the challenges facing the commercialization of organic materials are their reliability and an incomplete understanding of their conduction mechanisms. In addition, their characteristics tend to change quickly when exposed to air, which makes handling of test samples challenging.

Graphene

Graphene is a layer of pure carbon atoms that are bonded together in a hexagonal honeycomb lattice. It has some amazing properties, and it is the lightest and strongest material known today. It also has superior electrical and thermal conductivity, a high Young’s modulus, and is non-permeability.

Due to its high electrical and thermal conductivity, graphene has many expected applications. Potential devices that could use graphene in the future include super high-speed transistors, single electron transistors, spintronics devices, NEMS (Nano Electromechanical Systems) and sensors.

Unfortunately, since graphene is a zero-bandgap semiconductor controlling its insulation behavior is a big challenge. In addition, it will take years for graphene to be widely adopted because its manufacturing process is still immature.

CNT (Carbon Nanotubes)

A carbon nanotube is a cylindrical nanostructure made with allotropes of carbon. It has properties similar to those of graphene, although its electrical properties depend on its structure (length, diameter and chirality). Just like graphene it has high conductivity, a high Young’s modulus and high thermal conductivity. However, unlike graphene it has an adjustable band gap so that it can be made both resistive and highly conductive.

CNTs have been used in sport and bicycle components. Future electronic applications could include high performance interconnects high-speed transistors, single electron transistors, sensors and field emitters.

Some of the challenges facing the industrialization of CNTs include reliability, low yields and manufacturing repeatability (since CNT electrical properties strongly depend on chirality).

MTJ (Magnetic Tunnel Junction)

A MTJ consists of two ferromagnets separated by a thin insulator. Electrons can tunnel from one ferromagnet to the other if the insulating layer is sufficiently thin. MTJs exhibit a magnetoresistive effect called Tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR). Since the direction of the ferromagnet’s magnetization can be switched by an external magnetic field or by forcing a spin-polarized current through the material, it can be used as a memory cell. Moreover, an MTJ device can be both small in size and consume little power.

MTJs have been used in HDD (Hard Disk Drive) sensor heads as well as for MRAM (Magnetic RAM) and STT-MRAM (Spin Transfer Torque MRAM) applications. They have also been used as magnetic sensors.

The most difficult challenge facing MTJ commercialization is increasing the TMR ratio.

Super conductor

A super conductor is a material that can conduct electricity with no resistance under specific conditions. The phenomenon is observed when the superconducting material is cooled down below a characteristic critical temperature.

Since the discovery of high-temperature superconductors in 1986 (which have critical temperature above 90K), researchers around the world have expended a lot of effort to find super conductors with higher critical temperatures.

Potential applications include low loss power transmission and highly efficient transportation systems utilizing super conductors’ zero resistivity. Super conductors can also generate very powerful magnetic fields, making them ideal for use in NRI/NMR machines. Super conductors are also used to build SQUIDs (superconducting quantum interference devices), which are highly sensitive magnetometers.

The main challenge facing super conductors is finding materials with higher critical temperatures.

×

Please have a salesperson contact me.

*Indicates required field

Preferred method of communication? *Required Field
Preferred method of communication? Change email?
Preferred method of communication?

By clicking the button, you are providing Keysight with your personal data. See the Keysight Privacy Statement for information on how we use this data.

Thank you.

A sales representative will contact you soon.

Column Control DTX