BIOGRAPHY

HEaTS: Silicon Carbide Thin Film and Nanostructures for Harsh Environment Sensing and Energy Applications [BPN424]
Silicon Carbide (SiC) is a material of interest to fabricate sensors and actuators able to operate in harsh environments. Particularly, its mechanical and electrical stability and its chemical inertness make SiC well suited for designing devices capable of operation in high temperature and corrosive environments. Harsh-environment stable metallization remains one of the key challenges with SiC technology. We are developing novel metallization schemes, utilizing solid-state graphitization, to improve the long term reliability of metal/SiC contacts in high temperature environemnts. In addition, strategies to integrate on-chip energy storage with SiC sensors and actuators could increase the portability, mobility, and utility of these harsh environment devices. Our group is currently developing all-solid state supercapacitors based on yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ), a high temperature solid electrolyte, and SiC nanowire- or carbon-based electrodes. We are studying a variety of YSZ deposition techniques and their integration with a variety of high surface area electrodes to determine the optimum combination.