NEWS REVIEW
Skyworks opens doors for tier one automotive firm
SKYWORKS SOLUTIONS, which makes high performance analogue semiconductors, has announced that a tier-one automotive supplier is using its products for in-vehicle garage door openers across several car manufacturers.
The control system enables drivers to remotely activate garage door openers, entry door locks, home lighting, security systems and entry gates. Currently offered in all automotive brands, the platform is compatible with more than 99 percent of garage door opening systems as well as a wide variety of home safety and convenience products.
The three-button interface is located as
an easy-to-install module in automobile rearview mirrors for a convenient, battery-free, programmable solution that eliminates the need for traditional clip-on transponders.
“Skyworks’ advanced analogue and RF solutions are being leveraged across multiple in-vehicle applications that are enhancing safety and the overall driving experience,” said John O’Neill, vice president of broad markets marketing at Skyworks. “As wireless technology in automobiles continues to rise, we are capitalising on the increasing number of addressable semiconductor opportunities that add value, minimise OEM costs and complexity, and improve time to market.”
According to a report by Transparency Market Research entitled ‘Connected Car Market: Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast’, the global connected car market is expected to reach $131.9 billion by 2019, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 34.7 percent.
The global connected car market is driven by safety and security services along with gaming, entertainment, traffic information, weather and location services.
US lab offers insights into new class of semiconductors
A PAPER PUBLISHED in the August 10th edition of the journal Nature Photonics by researchers at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, describes their investigations into the fundamental optical properties of a new class of semiconducting materials known as organic-inorganic ‘hybrid’ perovskites. They conclude that the materials offer the best compromise between cost and performance for light harvesting.
‘Perovskites’ refers to the structural order these materials adopt upon drying and assembling in the solid state. In solid-state thin film solar cells, hybrid perovskites have recently shown light- to-electricity conversion efficiencies approaching 20 percent, rivaling that of commercial solar cells based on polycrystalline silicon. More importantly, these materials are easy and cheap to process using coating and or printing in contrast to solar technologies that typically require high purity materials, especially for silicon solar cells, and high- temperature processing.
However, the scientific community does not yet fully know how these unique materials interact with light on a fundamental level. In this study, Joseph Manser under the direction
of Prashant Kamat, present insights into the excited-state properties of hybrid methylammonium lead iodide (CH3
NH3 PbI3 ) thin films through a
technique ‘transient absorption pump- probe spectroscopy’. This approach was used to examine the events that occur trillions of a second after light absorption in the hybrid methylammonium lead iodide. They analysed both the relaxation pathway and spectral broadening in photoexcited hybrid methylammonium lead iodide and found that the excited state is primarily composed of separate and distinct electrons and holes known as free carriers.
“The fact that these separated species are present intrinsically in photoexcited hybrid methylammonium lead iodide provides a vital insight into the basic operation of perovskite solar cells,” Manser said. “Since the electron and hole are equal and opposite in charge, they often exist in a bound or unseparated form known as an ‘exciton.’ Most next-generation photovoltaics based on low-temperature, solution- processable materials are unable to perform the function of separating these bound species without intimate contact with another material that can extract one of the charges.”
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www.compoundsemiconductor.net Issue VI 2014 Copyright Compound Semiconductor
This separation process siphons energy within the light-absorbing layer and restricts the device architecture to one of highly interfacial surface area. As a result, the overall effectiveness of the solar cell is reduced. “However, from our study, we now know that the photoexcited charges in hybrid perovskites exist in an inherently unbound state, thereby eliminating the additional energy loss associated with interfacial change separation,” Manser said. “These results indicate that hybrid perovskites represent a ‘best of both worlds’ scenario, and have the potential to mitigate the compromise between low-cost and high-performance in light-harvesting devices.”
Although the research was on the fundamental optical and electronic properties of hybrid perovskites, it does have direct implications for device applications. Manser and Kamat’s research was supported by the Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Science.
The paper ‘Band filling with free charge carriers in organometal halide perovskites’ by J Manser et al, appears in Nature Photonics (2014) doi:10.1038/ nphoton.2014.171
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