Nano and Advanced Materials Institute Limited

Caiming Sun

Li Fu

Kai Li

Man-Ho So

Xiaohua Chen

Chun Zhao

Ka Chon Wong

Chau-Shek Li

Tak-Hei Lam

Provided are wireless temperature sensors. A temperature sensor with a flexible, large-area printed thermistor can include an negative temperature coefficient (NTC) thermistor for temperature sensing, a control circuitry for electrically connecting with the NTC thermistor and obtaining the temperature sensed by the NTC thermistor, a power source for providing power supply to the NTC thermistor and the control circuitry, and a frame element for supporting the NTC thermistor, the control circuitry and the power source, where the frame element is at least partially thermally insulated to establish thermal equilibrium within the temperature sensor. The temperature sensor can sense the temperature in a fast and accurate way due to fast thermal equilibrium established within the sensor.

Temperature sensor for tracking body temperature based on printable nanomaterial thermistor

Si/SiOcore/shell nanostructures with sizes below 30 nm as trapping points in UV curable hybrid organic-inorganic gate dielectrics are presented in order to investigate printable nano floating gate transistors. Not only does the novelty of this invention comes from fabricating high-quality hybrid organic/inorganic gate dielectric layer by Sol-Gel process at low temperature but also incorporating the monolayer of high-density of Si nanoparticles (NPs) without obvious interface defects and keeping the quality of dielectric layers. Fixed-charge trapping defects are successfully removed from hybrid dielectrics by UV curing together with low temperature thermal curing and mobile charges solely related to Si/SiOcore/shell nanostructures on charge trapping layer clearly demonstrate memory effects on printable device. Thin/uniform SiOshell on each Si NP functions as tunneling layer of flash memory devices, significantly simplifying the fabrication of printable nano floating gate memory device.

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A method of fabricating a temperature sensing device based on printed silicon-carbon nanocomposite film is disclosed. This method includes high-crystal-quality Si nanoparticles (NPs) homogeneously mixed with carbon NPs and Si&#x2014;C nanocomposites printed as negative temperature coefficient (NTC) thermistor. These mixtures of Si and C NPs are formulated into screen printing paste with acrylic polymer binder and ethylene glycol (EG) as solvent. This composite paste can be successfully printed on flexible substrates, such as paper or plastics, eventually making printable NTC thermistors quite low-cost. Si and carbon powders have size range of 10 nanometers to 100 micrometers and are mixed together with weight ratios of 100:1 to 10:1. More carbon content, higher conductivity of printed Si&#x2014;C nanocomposite films keeping similar sensitivity of high-quality Si NPs. With homogeneous distribution of carbon particles in printed films, electrons can tunnel from silicon to carbon and high-conductivity carbon microclusters enhanced hopping process of electrons in printed nanocomposite film. The measured sensitivity 7.23%/&#xb0; C. of printed Si&#x2014;C nanocomposite NTC thermistor is approaching the reported value of 8.0-9.5%/&#xb0; C. for intrinsic silicon bulk material near room temperature, with the quite low resistance of 10 k&#x3a9;-100 k&#x3a9;. This NTC thermistor is quite suitable for low-cost readout circuits and the integrated systems target to be disposable temperature sensors.

Conductive thin film comprising silicon-carbon composite as printable thermistors

The present invention relates to methods of fabricating transparent conductive films based on nanomaterials, in particular, silver nanowires. The present invention incorporates a single step of annealing and patterning the conductive films by using a high energy flash lamp without post treatment to improve the conductivity and create substantially invisible patterns on the films for use in touch panel or display manufacturing industry.

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Hong Kong, China

Caiming Sun