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Activity Funded

Advanced nanoFabrication Of eLectronic devices based on sustainable Oxide nanoWires

Nanofabricação avançada de dispositivos electrónicos baseados em nanofios de óxidos sustentáveis

Reference
2023.11887.PEX
Project Start Date
2025-02-20
Project End Date
2026-08-19
Principal Investigator
Scientific Area
Engineering and technology
Funding Program
Concurso de Projetos Exploratórios em Todos os Domínios Científicos 2023

Abstract

There has been a significant increase in the demand for a new generation of sustainable nanostructured materials, fabricated by low-temperature methods, enabling high integrability and permitting for a wide range of applications. Oxide nanostructures are thought to meet these requirements and have already demonstrated excellent electrical properties such as high electrical conductivity, mobility and piezoelectricity. Furthermore, oxide materials have been implemented for memristors, a heavily pursued technology to tackle future data storage needs and new computation paradigms. Multiple phases and morphologies from multicomponent oxides enable for multifunctional concepts, allowing to combine in the same surface different devices such as sensors, energy harvesters, transistors, and memories, all based in the same material system. Zinc-based nanostructures are widely employed [19], with an abundant, low-cost, recyclable and non-toxic materials promising alternative in the critical-element free zinc-tin oxide (ZTO) system, due to its excellent properties and demonstrated multifunctionality [8-11,13,14]. However, the investigation of electrical properties of nanowires falls mostly at the microscale, employing the nanostructures in random networks or randomly dispersed in other mediums. With the actual demand for miniaturization, it is crucial to study individual nanostructures’ properties and their integration in single nanostructure electronic devices. This project intends to address this by establishing an innovative protocol for the electrical characterization of nanowires (NWs), and devices comprising them. For this, nanosized electrodes by electron-beam assisted deposition (EAD) inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM) (using an e-beam lithography tool (EBL) and gas injection (GIS) processes) will enable to electrical contact single nanostructures down to 100 nm, while also forming the devices’ electrodes. These electrodes are complemented with conventional µm-sized electrodes (by clean room patterning techniques, such as direct laser writing, DLW), enabling the employment of conventional electrical characterization methodologies for material/device investigation (crucial at an early stage of material development and device optimization). Transistors and memristors will be fabricated through this a pick-and-place approach, and the demonstration of low-device count nanocircuits is intended as proof-of-concept. Focus will be given to ZTO NWs, following from the PI’s previous work in which the low temperature seed-layer free hydrothermal synthesis of different ZTO nanostructures (particularly ZnSnO3 NWs) was developed. This simple approach was proven very promising, with the nanostructures revealing impressive performances for applications, suchas electronics, energy harvesting, photocatalysis and sensors [8-11,13,14], demonstrating their potential for future integration on environmentally friendly and self-sustainable smart surfaces. Following from this work, this project also aims to achieve both a faster ZnSnO3 NWs’ synthesis, as well as a low-temperature hydrothermal synthesis of Zn2SnO4 NWs. The low cost and the high degree of freedom for device integration provided by this synthesis is in line with the requirements for integration on a plethora of objects, as required for concepts such as the Internet of Things (IoT). This projects will benefit from the complementary backgrounds of the PI and the integrating team. The Pi has expertise in solution-based synthesis of oxide nanostructures, electrical characterization of NWs inside SEM and has recently received training in EBL processes, while other team members comprise large experience in the design, fabrication and characterization of oxide electronic devices and circuits [3-9]. Furthermore, CENIMAT houses large expertise in these areas and possesses excellent laboratory resources for the development of this project [1,4,20]. This project will contribute to the work recently developed at CENIMAT focused on nanofabrication. This project is completely integrated in the research strategy of CENIMAT. The sustainable and innovation ambitions of this project are key factors, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Institutions

Main Institutions

  • Universidade Nova de Lisboa Associação para a Inovação e Desenvolvimento da FCT (NOVA.ID.FCT)

Funding 50.000,00 €

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Portugal

50.000,00 €