Dust‐Sized High‐Power‐Density Photovoltaic Cells on Si and SOI Substrates for Wafer‐Level‐Packaged Small Edge Computers

Li, Ning; Han, Kevin; Spratt, William; Bedell, Stephen W.; Ren, Jinhan; Gunawan, Oki; Ott, J. A.; Hopstaken, Marinus; Cabral, C.; Libsch, F.; Subramanian, C.; Shahidi, G.; Sadana, D. K.

doi:10.1002/adma.202004573

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Cu wires and bonding pads are located on the rest area of the chip, which are ready for bonding with the separately fabricated processor, memory, or sensor modules. [ 71 ] For the on‐chip Swiss‐roll microbattery, the same strategy can also be applied for the on‐chip integration. For instance, interdigitated microelectrodes for a light sensor are firstly patterned on the substrate followed by depositing the layer stack for the Swiss‐roll microbattery.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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On‐Chip Batteries for Dust‐Sized Computers

Zhu

Bandari

et al. 2022

Advanced Energy Materials

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are thus able to "walk" inside of everything to develop ubiquitous computing. In fact, in 2013, the computer size was reduced to 1 cubic millimeter (Figure 1a). [3] It was constructed by stacking dust-sized chips, including a central processing unit, a memory, a power management circuit, and a timer (Figure 1b) into a rectangular-shaped pile. End users can create a sensor system by adding an application layer, a temperature sensor for instance. A photovoltaic (PV) cell was placed in the top layer (layer 1) to harvest energy, and a microbattery was installed in layer 2 for energy storage. The size of the microbattery measured 1.1×1.69 mm 2 with a thickness of 150 µm. A computer with a similar structure and functionality but much smaller in size was developed in 2018 (Figure 1c). [4] The volume of only 0.04 mm 3 allows for a highly localized measurement of the cellular temperature, thus providing an accurate indicator of cellular metabolism. While these lab-level demonstrations show the future of ubiquitous computing, dustsized computers will only become a new class of computing platforms if they are available anywhere anytime, relying on energy-autonomous operation.The key challenge to realizing perpetual operation is the development of sub-millimeter-scale energy harvesters and storage devices. [2,5] Micro-thermoelectric generators convert heat into electricity, but their output power is too low to drive dust-sized chips. [6] Radiofrequency (RF) power converters suffer from low efficiency when reducing antenna sizes. PV Advances in microelectronics have enabled the use of miniaturized computers for autonomous intelligence at the size of a dust particle less than one square millimeter across and a few hundred micrometers thick, creating an environment for ubiquitous computing. However, the size mismatch between microbatteries and microelectronics has emerged as a fundamental barrier against the take-off of tiny intelligent systems requiring power anytime anywhere. Mainstream microbattery structures include stacked thin films on the chip or electrode pillars and on-chip interdigitated microelectrodes. Nevertheless, available technologies cannot shrink the footprint area of batteries while maintaining adequate energy storage. Alternatively, the on-chip self-assembly process known as micro-origami is capable of winding stacked thin films into Swiss-roll structures to reduce the footprint area, which exactly mimics the manufacture of the most successful full-sized batteries-cylinder batteries. In addition to discussing in detail the technical difficulties of reducing the size of on-chip microbatteries with various structures and potential solutions, this Perspective highlights the following two basic requirements for eventual integration in microcomputers: minimum energy density of 100 microwatt-hour per square centimeter and monolithic integration with other functional electric circuits on the chip.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On‐Chip Batteries for Dust‐Sized Computers

Zhu

Bandari

et al. 2022

Advanced Energy Materials

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“…As the technologies of the internet of things, edge computing, microcomputing, wireless communications, and remote sensing continue to advance, individual and continuous power sources are increasingly in demand. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Currently, batteries are used as individual power sources; however, frequent replacement is often necessary and power consumption is usually accelerated during data transmission, which tends to degrade the battery. [9,10] Photovoltaic (PV) devices have attracted attention as a potential solution to these issues, assuming the presence of a light source in the installation area.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of a c‐Si Solar Cell with a Three‐Dimensional Structure to Indoor Photovoltaics

Sim

Yun

Lee

et al. 2022

Adv Materials Technologies

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are considerably weaker sources of illumination compared to sunlight.Unfortunately, most PV devices are optimized for outdoor use, having the ability to generate electric power on the order of watts to gigawatts (e.g., power plants) with sunlight exposure. [14] The crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cell has been widely used under sunlight, as it is economical, expandable, and capable of being mass-produced. [15][16][17] However, artificial light sources have low light intensity and a narrow spectrum, residing mostly in the visible light regime (400-700 nm). As such, indoor photovoltaics (IPV) such as amorphous silicon (a-Si) solar cells, dyesensitized solar cells (DSSCs), perovskite solar cells (PSCs), and organic photovoltaics (OPVs) are often used indoors, as these types of PVs have the necessary absorption spectra and high energy conversion efficiency under weak lighting conditions. [10,[18][19][20][21][22] In contrast, the c-Si solar cell has low electrical power output due to its broad absorption spectrum and linearly decreasing power output under reduced light intensity. [23][24][25] However, as large-sized cells or modules, most of the abovementioned PV types have degradation problems, with the exception of the c-Si solar cell. Despite degradation under ambient light, the c-Si solar cell has the advantages of high durability and expandability for IPV applications. [26][27][28] In this study, we attempted to overcome the low energy conversion characteristics of a c-Si solar cell under weak lighting conditions, using a three-dimensional (3-D) configuration to acquire more indirect light, as well as direct light for increased power generation from the PV device. Compared to sunlight, artificial light sources, such as indoor lighting, tend to be fairly weak as the light is more diffuse and scattered. If the artificial light sources are installed periodically, as in an office setting, for example, the indirect light portion is increased. Incident daylight enters through windows at various angles (angled incident light). The energy generated from direct light is related to the occupied area assuming that the power density of the cells is constant. However, the total surface area is the most important factor when using indirect light. Here, we introduce a 3-D c-Si solar cell configuration to increase the total surface area for light accumulation from various angles, with a similar footprint to its flat cell counterpart.To fabricate the 3-D solar cell, we replaced the window glass, the ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) film, and the metal frame of a conventional module with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and an epoxy back frame. In our previous study, we demonstrated As individual photovoltaic (PV) power sources for indoor conditions, various types of solar cells including organic, perovskite, and dye-sensitized devices, have been used because they provide better performance under weak lighting conditions; however, they are limited in terms of durability and applicability to larger-sized cells and modules. Crystalline sili...

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“…Tiny on-chip intelligent systems, such as smart dust, hold promise for providing computing power seamlessly integrated into the environment and made available anytime anywhere. − All of these systems require an on-chip power source. Solar and mechanical energy can be harvested and converted to electricity, but they are limited to special locations and time intervals. − To unleash the full potential of energy autonomous microsystems, incorporating tiny batteries that store and release electrical power independent of the environment is crucial . But it is difficult to monitor and recharge the energy units frequently as the microsystems are deployed in a decentralized fashion.…”

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confidence: 99%

On-Chip Integration of a Covalent Organic Framework-Based Catalyst into a Miniaturized Zn–Air Battery with High Energy Density

Zhang

Hong-mei

et al. 2021

ACS Energy Lett.

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Advances in microelectronics have led to the development of on-chip intelligent microsystems that can digitalize the physical world, offering functions of sensing, data communication, and intelligent response to stimuli. Either mismatched form factors or limited energy density of available batteries compromises their integration. We report a microimprint fabrication for on-chip Zn−air microbatteries, which bypasses the complication of the catalyst incorporation on the chip at a target position. The on-chip integration of a bifunctional catalyst covalent organic framework with cobalt catalytic unitsenables the onchip Zn−air microbattery to outperform the Zn−air primary cell, showing 3 times more volumetric energy density. It is wirelessly chargeable, and its lifetime capacity is around twice longer than that for commercially available on-chip lithium ion microbatteries. The on-chip Zn−air microbattery can drive various electronic systems. Our approach bridges a long-standing gulf between advanced materials synthesis and their on-chip integration and paves the way toward high-performance on-chip Zn−air batteries.

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Dust‐Sized High‐Power‐Density Photovoltaic Cells on Si and SOI Substrates for Wafer‐Level‐Packaged Small Edge Computers

Cited by 8 publications

References 48 publications

On‐Chip Batteries for Dust‐Sized Computers

On‐Chip Batteries for Dust‐Sized Computers

Application of a c‐Si Solar Cell with a Three‐Dimensional Structure to Indoor Photovoltaics

On-Chip Integration of a Covalent Organic Framework-Based Catalyst into a Miniaturized Zn–Air Battery with High Energy Density

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