Electronic devices polymer application

One of the reasons for an increasing interest In conducting polymers is the expectation of their use in electronic devices Several applications are announced and prototype devices have been demonstrated 34) gy p Qst... 

Of the many physical methods which can be used to study polymers in their bulk or solution states those involving the mechanical and electrical properties have been prominent. The need for data on the mechanical properties is evident since most applications of synthetic polymers require the materials to be strong, tough and mechanically stable. The electrical properties are required when polymers are used for cable insulation, for capacitors, for insulation or packaging of electronic devices or as integral parts of electronic devices. Polymers used in these connexions include low and high density polyethylenes, poly(vinyl chloride), the nylons, polystyrene, poly(tetrafluoroethylene) and the acrylate and methacrylate polymers. 

Industrial use of thin films has increased for several reasons including the development of ever-smaller electronic devices. As applications of polymers become smaller and thinner, the behavior of polymer chains in these confined geometries needs to be understood. Many aspects need to be probed such as the effect of molecular weight, thermal degradation, and the adhesion properties. In the first study, one characterization scheme, cooperativity, was chosen to summarize the influence of the small scale on polymer behavior. The theory of cooperativity focuses on polymer chain interactions and relates those interactions to macroscopic behavior. This research looks specifically at the well-defined system of polymethyl methacrylate and silicon to understand better how cooperativity reveals polymeric behavior in thin films. 

Applied Sciences, Inc. has, in the past few years, used the fixed catalyst fiber to fabricate and analyze VGCF-reinforced composites which could be candidate materials for thermal management substrates in high density, high power electronic devices and space power system radiator fins and high performance applications such as plasma facing components in experimental nuclear fusion reactors. These composites include carbon/carbon (CC) composites, polymer matrix composites, and metal matrix composites (MMC). Measurements have been made of thermal conductivity, coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), tensile strength, and tensile modulus. Representative results are described below. 

A broad variety of structural polymers is nowadays available that are suitable for applications as different as carbon fiber reinforced materials, encapsulation of electronic devices or adhesive bonding. Each of these polymers belongs to one of two classes thermosets or thermoplastics. 

The field of modified electrodes spans a wide area of novel and promising research. The work dted in this article covers fundamental experimental aspects of electrochemistry such as the rate of electron transfer reactions and charge propagation within threedimensional arrays of redox centers and the distances over which electrons can be transferred in outer sphere redox reactions. Questions of polymer chemistry such as the study of permeability of membranes and the diffusion of ions and neutrals in solvent swollen polymers are accessible by new experimental techniques. There is hope of new solutions of macroscopic as well as microscopic electrochemical phenomena the selective and kinetically facile production of substances at square meters of modified electrodes and the detection of trace levels of substances in wastes or in biological material. Technical applications of electronic devices based on molecular chemistry, even those that mimic biological systems of impulse transmission appear feasible and the construction of organic polymer batteries and color displays is close to industrial use. 

Many other opportunities exist due to the enormous flexibility of the preparative method, and the ability to incorporate many different species. Very recently, a great deal of work has been published concerning methods of producing these materials with specific physical forms, such as spheres, discs and fibres. Such possibilities will pave the way to new application areas such as molecular wires, where the silica fibre acts as an insulator, and the inside of the pore is filled with a metal or indeed a conducting polymer, such that nanoscale wires and electronic devices can be fabricated. Initial work on the production of highly porous electrodes has already been successfully carried out, and the extension to uni-directional bundles of wires will no doubt soon follow. 

In recent several years, super-capacitors are attracting more and more attention because of their high capacitance and potential applications in electronic devices. The performance of super-capacitors with MWCNTs deposited with conducting polymers as active materials is greatly enhanced compared to electric double-layer super-capacitors with CNTs due to the Faraday effect of the conducting polymer as shown in Fig. 9.18 (Valter et al., 2002). Besides those mentioned above, polymer/ CNT nanocomposites own many potential applications (Breuer and Sundararaj, 2004) in electrochemical actuation, wave absorption, electronic packaging, selfregulating heater, and PTC resistors, etc. The conductivity results for polymer/CNT composites are summarized in Table 9.1 (Biercuk et al., 2002). 

The protection of microelectronics from the effects of humidity and corrosive environments presents especially demanding requirements on protective coatings and encapsulants. Silicone polymers, epoxies, and imide resins are among the materials that have been used for the encapsulation of microelectronics. The physiological environment to which implanted medical electronic devices are exposed poses an especially challenging protection problem. In this volume, Troyk et al. outline the demands placed on such systems in medical applications, and discuss the properties of a variety of silicone-based encapsulants. 

There are other types of semiconducting polymers as well, some of the more important of which are listed in Table 6.10. The condnction mechanism in most of these polymers is the polaron model described above. Applications for these polymers are growing and inclnde batteries, electromagnetic screening materials, and electronic devices. 

Electronic devices can also generate electromagnetic and radio frequency interference waves that can interfere with other electronic devices. These waves must be modulated and leakage to the environment prevented. Plastics, silicones, acrylics, and polyesters (qv) that are filled with conductive fillers, such as silver, nickel, and copper, are used for this application (1). Although nickel-filled polymers are low cost and efficient, these are not preferred because of the carcinogenic nature of nickel powder. 

This list can be divided into three main classes based mainly on function and redox state. First, applications that utilize the conjugated polymer in its neutral state are often based around their semi-conducting properties, as in electronic devices such as field effect transistors or as the active materials in electroluminescent devices. Secondly, the conducting forms of the polymers can be used for electron transport, electrostatic charge dissipation, and as EMI-shielding mate-... 

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