Description:
Reference #: 01392
The University of South Carolina is offering licensing opportunities for Quantum Dot Enhancement of Wide Bandgap Schottky Devices
Background:
Wide bandgap Schottky devices increase the efficiency of electronic devices such as LEDs, light sensors, and solar cells. Schottky devices are a superior diode with less heat production, less voltage loss, and the ability to handle higher frequencies of electric current than their silicon counterparts. Through the use of tiny semiconductor particles called “quantum dots” which emit light waves based on their size and relative exposure to light/electricity,there is a highly sensitive and accurate sensor created which is able to be precisely fine-tuned for each specific application.
Invention Description:
The technology adds quantum dots to an existing Schottky device to modify performance in a controlled manner. The research done quantifies the difference in the effectiveness of these quantum dot enhancements and compares them to unaltered Schottky devices.The device has a wide range of uses in light harvesting and sensing applications with a design process that can tune the performance to specific application needs. The device’s operation has proven consistent across the ultraviolet, infrared and visible light spectrum.
Potential Applications:
The primary development by this technology is the improved light detection and harvesting through systematic sensitization and enhancement of semiconductor materials or devices. Further, the core practices in this device's creation can be used to sensitize reusable and/or flexible light sensors or emitters with large surface areas reliably. Immediate uses include the large area sensitization of existing solar cell technologies to increase power conversion efficiency and the application specific tuning of light sensors. This means great use cases for solar cell technology, increasing efficiency without sacrificing initial design and providing an easily adaptable route to a better product.
Advantages and Benefits:
This technology enables enhancement of light sensors, LED technology, and solar cells at larger surface areas with higher uniformity and consistency of results. The core benefits of this technology can be applied to enhance already established and more mature technologies with little or no change to the existing technology's design. The use of natively grown transparent metal contacts means that this technology immediately has greater efficiency in larger surface area light absorption for applications in light detection and harvesting. Additionally, the optical properties of quantum dots are tunable with their size and it could be possible to make laterally-patterned devices with unique spectral responses.