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Coatings
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Thin Films and Nanostructures for Electronics
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Thin Films and Nanostructures for Electronics

A special issue of Coatings (ISSN 2079-6412). This special issue belongs to the section "Surface Characterization, Deposition and Modification".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 June 2025 | Viewed by 3916

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Andrei Ionut Mardare

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Chemical Technology of Inorganic Materials, Johannes Kepler University Linz, 4040 Linz, Austria
Interests: thin films; deposition techniques; electrochemistry; nanostructures; electrocatalysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The world of thin films is seeing continuous growth. In the modern era, it is difficult to look around you without seeing at least one device that uses thin-film technology. The recent strong development of AI hardware is pushing the boundaries of these applications even further. Thin films still have a role to play in energy harvesting and management, bio-based and medical devices, heterogeneous catalysis, functionalized coatings and general miniaturized electronics.

This Special Issue aims to bring together recent experimental and theoretical findings related to thin and ultra-thin films, as well as various nanostructures with direct applications in future electronics. Discovery of a new structure or material at the nanoscale must always be accompanied by understanding of its fundamental working principles, and this is not always trivial in the nanoworld.

Potential topics include, but are not restricted to:

new nanomaterials for electronics

functionalized coatings for medical devices

film based sensors

memristors/memcapacitors

electrochemically formed films/structures

electrocatalysis for enhanced detection

Prof. Dr. Andrei Ionut Mardare
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Coatings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • vapor deposition
  • functionalized coatings
  • electrochemical films
  • nanostructures
  • electrocatalysis

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 4685 KiB  
Article
High-Performance SAW-Based Microfluidic Actuators Composed of Sputtered Al–Cu IDT Electrodes
by Hwansun Kim, Youngjin Lee, Peddathimula Puneetha, Sung Jin An, Jae-Cheol Park and Siva Pratap Reddy Mallem
Coatings 2024, 14(11), 1420; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings14111420 - 8 Nov 2024
Viewed by 1996
Abstract
To realize highly sensitive SAW devices, novel Al–Cu thin films were developed using a combinatorial sputtering system. The Al–Cu sample library exhibited a wide range of chemical compositions and electrical resistivities, providing valuable insights for selecting optimal materials for SAW devices. Considering the [...] Read more.
To realize highly sensitive SAW devices, novel Al–Cu thin films were developed using a combinatorial sputtering system. The Al–Cu sample library exhibited a wide range of chemical compositions and electrical resistivities, providing valuable insights for selecting optimal materials for SAW devices. Considering the significant influence of electrode resistivity and density on acoustic wave propagation, an Al–Cu film with 65 at% Al was selected as the IDT electrode material. The selected Al–Cu film demonstrated a resistivity of 6.0 × 10−5 Ω-cm and a density of 4.4 g/cm3, making it suitable for SAW-based microfluidic actuator applications. XRD analysis revealed that the Al–Cu film consisted of a physical mixture of Al and Cu without the formation of Al–Cu alloy phases. The film exhibited a fine-grained microstructure with an average crystallite size of 7.5 nm and surface roughness of approximately 6 nm. The SAW device fabricated with Al–Cu IDT electrodes exhibited excellent acoustic performance, resonating at 143 MHz without frequency shift and achieving an insertion loss of −13.68 dB and a FWHM of 0.41 dB. In contrast, the Au electrode-based SAW device showed significantly degraded acoustic characteristics. Moreover, the SAW-based microfluidic module equipped with optimized Al–Cu IDT electrodes successfully separated 5 μm polystyrene (PS) particles even at high flow rates, outperforming devices with Au IDT electrodes. This enhanced performance can be attributed to the improved resonance characteristics of the SAW device, which resulted in a stronger acoustic radiation force exerted on the PS particles. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thin Films and Nanostructures for Electronics)
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13 pages, 2626 KiB  
Article
Electrolyte Influence on Properties of Ultra-Thin Anodic Memristors on Titanium
by Dominik Knapic, Elena Atanasova, Ivana Zrinski, Achim Walter Hassel and Andrei Ionut Mardare
Coatings 2024, 14(4), 446; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings14040446 - 9 Apr 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1346
Abstract
Titanium anodic memristors were prepared in phosphate buffer (PB) and citrate buffer (CB) electrolytes. Studying their I-U sweeps, the memristors presented self-rectifying and volatile behaviors. Transmission electron microscopic analysis revealed crystalline protrusions inside a semi-crystalline Ti oxide. Grounded in this, a hybrid interfacial [...] Read more.
Titanium anodic memristors were prepared in phosphate buffer (PB) and citrate buffer (CB) electrolytes. Studying their I-U sweeps, the memristors presented self-rectifying and volatile behaviors. Transmission electron microscopic analysis revealed crystalline protrusions inside a semi-crystalline Ti oxide. Grounded in this, a hybrid interfacial memristive switching mechanism relaying on partial filaments was proposed. Moreover, both analyzed memristor types demonstrated multilevel switching capabilities. The memristors anodized in the PB and CB showed high-to-low resistance ratios of 4 × 104 and 1.6 × 102, respectively. The observed (more than two order of magnitude) ratio improvement of the PB memristors suggests their better performance, in spite of their modestly high resistive state instabilities, attributed to the thermal stress caused by consecutive switching. The endurance and retention of both the PB and CB memristors was measured over up to 106 cycles, indicating very good lifetimes. Phosphate incorporation into the anodic oxide was confirmed by photoelectron spectroscopy analysis and was related to the improved memristive behavior of the PB sample. The presence of phosphate inside the memristively active layer modifies the availability of free O species (vacancies and ions) in the oxide. Taking all this into consideration, Ti anodic memristors anodized in PB are emphasized as candidates for neuromorphic computing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thin Films and Nanostructures for Electronics)
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