Breakthrough Discovery Could Help Electronic Devices Last Longer
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University of Sydney researchers have made a substantial discovery in neuro-scientific materials science, for the first time providing a complete picture of how fatigue in ferroelectric materials occurs.
Ferroelectric materials are being used in lots of devices, including memories, capacitors, actuators, and sensors. These devices are commonly used in both consumer and commercial instruments, such as for example computers, medical ultrasound equipment, and underwater sonars.
As time passes, ferroelectric materials are subjected to repeated mechanical and electrical loading, leading to a progressive decrease in their functionality, ultimately leading to failure. This process is known as ‘ferroelectric fatigue’.
This is a main reason behind the failure of a variety of gadgets, with discarded electronics a respected contributor to e-waste. Globally, tens of millions of tonnes of failed electronic devices go into landfills each year.
Using advanced in-situ electron microscopy, the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering researchers could actually observe ferroelectric fatigue since it occurred. This technique uses an advanced microscope to ‘see’, in real-time, right down to the nanoscale and atomic levels.
The researchers hope this new observation, described in a paper published in Nature Communications, can help better inform the near future design of ferroelectric nanodevices.
“Our discovery is a significant scientific breakthrough since it shows a clear picture of the way the ferroelectric degradation process exists at the nanoscale,” said co-author Professor Xiaozhou Liao, also from the University of Sydney Nano Institute.
Dr. Qianwei Huang, the study’s lead researcher, said: “Although it is definitely known that ferroelectric fatigue can shorten the lifespan of gadgets, how it occurs has previously not been well understood, due to too little suitable technology to see it.”
Co-author Dr. Zibin Chen said: “With this, we desire to better inform the engineering of devices with longer lifespans.”
Nobel laureate Herbert Kroemer once famously asserted “The interface may be the device.” The observations by the Sydney researchers could therefore spark a fresh debate on whether interfaces - which are physical boundaries separating different regions in materials - certainly are a viable solution to the unreliability of next-generation devices.
“Our discovery has indicated that interfaces could actually increase ferroelectric degradation. Therefore, better understanding of these processes is needed to achieve the very best performance of devices,” Dr. Chen said.
Reference: “Direct observation of nanoscale dynamics of ferroelectric degradation” by Qianwei Huang, Zibin Chen, Matthew J. Cabral, Feifei Wang, Shujun Zhang, Fei Li, Yulan Li, Simon P. Ringer, Haosu Luo, Yiu-Wing Mai and Xiaozhou Liao, 7 April 2021, Nature Communications.
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22355-1
The study was supported by the Australian Research Council for the project, Unravelling the structural origin of cyclic fatigue in ferroelectric materials. It was facilitated by the Australian Centre for Microscopy & Microanalysis at the University of Sydney.
Ferroelectric materials are being used in lots of devices, including memories, capacitors, actuators, and sensors. These devices are commonly used in both consumer and commercial instruments, such as for example computers, medical ultrasound equipment, and underwater sonars.
As time passes, ferroelectric materials are subjected to repeated mechanical and electrical loading, leading to a progressive decrease in their functionality, ultimately leading to failure. This process is known as ‘ferroelectric fatigue’.
This is a main reason behind the failure of a variety of gadgets, with discarded electronics a respected contributor to e-waste. Globally, tens of millions of tonnes of failed electronic devices go into landfills each year.
Using advanced in-situ electron microscopy, the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering researchers could actually observe ferroelectric fatigue since it occurred. This technique uses an advanced microscope to ‘see’, in real-time, right down to the nanoscale and atomic levels.
The researchers hope this new observation, described in a paper published in Nature Communications, can help better inform the near future design of ferroelectric nanodevices.
“Our discovery is a significant scientific breakthrough since it shows a clear picture of the way the ferroelectric degradation process exists at the nanoscale,” said co-author Professor Xiaozhou Liao, also from the University of Sydney Nano Institute.
Dr. Qianwei Huang, the study’s lead researcher, said: “Although it is definitely known that ferroelectric fatigue can shorten the lifespan of gadgets, how it occurs has previously not been well understood, due to too little suitable technology to see it.”
Co-author Dr. Zibin Chen said: “With this, we desire to better inform the engineering of devices with longer lifespans.”
Nobel laureate Herbert Kroemer once famously asserted “The interface may be the device.” The observations by the Sydney researchers could therefore spark a fresh debate on whether interfaces - which are physical boundaries separating different regions in materials - certainly are a viable solution to the unreliability of next-generation devices.
“Our discovery has indicated that interfaces could actually increase ferroelectric degradation. Therefore, better understanding of these processes is needed to achieve the very best performance of devices,” Dr. Chen said.
Reference: “Direct observation of nanoscale dynamics of ferroelectric degradation” by Qianwei Huang, Zibin Chen, Matthew J. Cabral, Feifei Wang, Shujun Zhang, Fei Li, Yulan Li, Simon P. Ringer, Haosu Luo, Yiu-Wing Mai and Xiaozhou Liao, 7 April 2021, Nature Communications.
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22355-1
The study was supported by the Australian Research Council for the project, Unravelling the structural origin of cyclic fatigue in ferroelectric materials. It was facilitated by the Australian Centre for Microscopy & Microanalysis at the University of Sydney.
Source: https://scitechdaily.com