Ed, Even though the article mentions chalcogenide materials, I don't see where ENER would need to be invilved. Do we have a broad enough patent on the use of chalcogenides to cover new ways of manufacturing, and new uses?
"The company is confident that it can do this and believes its technique will accelerate the widespread use of thin-film electronics made not only by spin coating but also similar volume, low cost fabrication techniques such as printing, stamping, nanoimprinting, inkjet printing and dipping."
“These types of easily processed semiconducting films could eventually be used to make circuitry for very-low-cost or flexible displays, high-performance smart cards, sensors and solar cells or for flexible electronics coated onto a wide variety of moulded or plastic shapes,” said IBM’s David Mitzi who led the research team that developed the process."
"Although it is well known that hydrazine is generally not a good solvent for metal chalcogenides, the presence of the extra chalcogen atoms is said to have improved solubility and enabled IBM to control the film’s final composition and grain structure. Heating the resulting film caused both the hydrazine and extra sulphur to dissociate and evaporate, leaving only a very thin layer of solid metal chalcogenide with a uniform thickness as thin as 5 nm. When IBM optimised the molecular proportions, spin-coating conditions, heat and annealing procedures, the films exhibited a charge mobility approaching that of polycrystalline silicon and 10 times that of any other spin-coated material or amorphous silicon."
Del |
