Thin Film Materials Integration for Harvesting Energy Devices

A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "D:Materials and Processing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2021) | Viewed by 5129

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Electronic Department, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla,14 sur y Av. San Claudio, Puebla 72570, Mexico
Interests: MEMS devices; micromachining techniques; infrared sensors; harvesting sensor

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Energy harvesting systems have been subjected to many research and industrial developments in the past decade, due to the growth in the popularity of low-power electronic devices, such as wireless networks, wearables, and consumer electronics, among other applications. Energy harvesters are self-sustaining systems capable of capturing, processing, storing and applying small amounts of free energy from the environment to usable electrical energy in low-power electronics. These are composed of three stages: the micro-generator or source transducer, the voltage booster or power converter and the storage element. Piezoelectric, thermoelectric, electromagnetic RF, and photovoltaic techniques are some examples of energy harvesting technologies. One example is the development of piezoelectric materials for mechanical vibrations, however some drawbacks must be addressed in order to integrate the different materials into silicon, not only in the harvesting stage, but also to embed a power management electronic circuit. Another approach is the use of silicon nanostructures as thermoelectric thin film devices for energy harvesting. Accordingly, this Special Issue research papers, and review articles that focus on materials characterization and its integration into harvesting devices, electronic architectures to improve the efficiency in the energy harvesting system, such as the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) circuits, microfabrication and process integration for the energy transducers, and power management electronic systems for novel developments in the field of harvesting energy applications.

We look forward to receiving your submissions!

Dr. Roberto Carlos Ambrosio
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • energy harvesting
  • materials characterization
  • power management circuits
  • microtechnology

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 6531 KiB  
Article
Study of a Lead-Free Perovskite Solar Cell Using CZTS as HTL to Achieve a 20% PCE by SCAPS-1D Simulation
by Ana C. Piñón Reyes, Roberto C. Ambrosio Lázaro, Karim Monfil Leyva, José A. Luna López, Javier Flores Méndez, Aurelio H. Heredia Jiménez, Ana L. Muñoz Zurita, Francisco Severiano Carrillo and Esteban Ojeda Durán
Micromachines 2021, 12(12), 1508; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi12121508 - 01 Dec 2021
Cited by 31 | Viewed by 4499
Abstract
In this paper, a n-i-p planar heterojunction simulation of Sn-based iodide perovskite solar cell (PSC) is proposed. The solar cell structure consists of a Fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate on which titanium oxide (TiO2) is placed; this material will [...] Read more.
In this paper, a n-i-p planar heterojunction simulation of Sn-based iodide perovskite solar cell (PSC) is proposed. The solar cell structure consists of a Fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate on which titanium oxide (TiO2) is placed; this material will act as an electron transporting layer (ETL); then, we have the tin perovskite CH3NH3SnI3 (MASnI3) which is the absorber layer and next a copper zinc and tin sulfide (CZTS) that will have the function of a hole transporting layer (HTL). This material is used due to its simple synthesis process and band tuning, in addition to presenting good electrical properties and stability; it is also a low-cost and non-toxic inorganic material. Finally, gold (Au) is placed as a back contact. The lead-free perovskite solar cell was simulated using a Solar Cell Capacitance Simulator (SCAPS-1D). The simulations were performed under AM 1.5G light illumination and focused on getting the best efficiency of the solar cell proposed. The thickness of MASnI3 and CZTS, band gap of CZTS, operating temperature in the range between 250 K and 350 K, acceptor concentration and defect density of absorber layer were the parameters optimized in the solar cell device. The simulation results indicate that absorber thicknesses of 500 nm and 300 nm for CZTS are appropriate for the solar cell. Further, when optimum values of the acceptor density (NA) and defect density (Nt), 1016 cm−3 and 1014 cm−3, respectively, were used, the best electrical values were obtained: Jsc of 31.66 mA/cm2, Voc of 0.96 V, FF of 67% and PCE of 20.28%. Due to the enhanced performance parameters, the structure of the device could be used in applications for a solar energy harvesting system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thin Film Materials Integration for Harvesting Energy Devices)
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