Electronics and photonics has transformed everyday life over the last twenty years: the silicon microprocessor provides vast processing power in a device that can fit inside a pocket, the liquid crystal display allows us to see information on a high resolution display that can sit on the palm of our hand, and the optic fibre allows us to transmit data at high speeds over long distances. The result is that we are all essentially continuously connected to the internet, and this allows us to communicate with each other and access information instantly. The result has been a profound change in almost every aspect of life including working practices, shopping, healthcare, banking, transport and even relationships. However, whilst we are 'connected', the world of objects that are so much part of our everyday lives are not, and the next big transformation will be to connect these too. This is the vision of the 'Internet of Things'. In the words of Prime Minister David Cameron, 'I see the Internet of Things as a huge transformative development, a way of boosting productivity, of keeping us healthier, making transport more efficient, reducing energy needs, tackling climate change. We are on the brink of a new industrial revolution.' Advances in technology are the driver for such industrial revolutions, and the Internet of Things needs sensors, rfID, power supplies, logic, displays, lighting and communications to be integrated together onto the everyday objects around us with a form factor that does not adversely affect the prime function of the object, whether that object is our car, our refridgerator, our clothes, our purse or our toothbrush. This will require a new generation of electronics which can be produced transparently over large areas on almost any substrate, and which is flexible and robust. Such 'large-area electronics' on glass substrates based on amorphous silicon (a technology born in Dundee University in the 1970s) has already been critical for the development of flat panel displays. However, amorphous silicon is not optically transparent and has rather poor electronic properties (most nobably a low electron mobility). Amorphous ionic oxides have emeged as a replacement for amorphous silicon for display applications in recent years as it has superior electronic properties. In particular, amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO) has been developed to such a point that it will shortly start to be used in commercial products. However, this complex material can only be made as a n-type and not a p-type semiconductor, and so complemetary logic cannot be realised with the result that power consumption is high. Also, it suffers from instabilities which limits its lifetime. As a result, this material is less well suited to the Internet of Things. This project aims to develop a more simple n-type amorphous ionic oxide semiconductor with an improved stability over a-IGZO, and a complementary p-type amorphous ionic oxiide semiconductor. This will require detailed understanding of the physics of these materials, and in particular the electronic role of impurities. We will subject both the individual materials and devices made from these materials to a wide range of physical tests, including infrared spectroscopy, allowing us to study the device in its applied environment. This is critical as the performance of a thin film device is often dominated by its surfaces. This will enable us to develop both new materials and models for devices which are critical for the design and simulation of circuits and systems. This is critical if the technology is to be applied. We will demonstrate the validity of our materials, processes, models and their application by designing, simulating, fabircating and testing a four-bit rfID tag on a plastic substrate. The cost of producing these devices should end dup being similar to printing, allowing in-line manufacture with the rest of the object they are enabling in the UK.

We live in a world surrounded by man-made materials that have been engineered to fulfill a specific purpose, from the many components of everyday articles such as razors and mobile phones to the high performance armour used to protect military personnel and the coatings applied to aircraft to mitigate the effects of lightning strikes. These achievements have been made possible through a profound understanding of the linkages between how a material is made, what structure it has (over a range of length scales), what properties result and how all of these factors ultimately determine the performance of the material in a specific application, be it for a few minutes or many tens of years. Often selecting the most suitable material, then designing its microstructure and processing it in a cost-effective and sustainable manner such that it is optimised for performance, is crucial to the 'enablement' of a new technology; conversely, failure to understand the vital role of materials can lead to missed business opportunities. Currently, there is a shortage of people with the required level of expertise in materials to meet the needs of UK industry. The Industrial Doctorate Centre in Micro- and NanoMaterials and Technologies (IDC in MiNMaT) aims to meet those needs by providing the UK with materials science and engineering doctoral graduates, with the combination of knowledge, translatable research expertise, interpersonal skills and confidence to enable them to tackle the most challenging materials problems and make a real impact on the performance and international presence of UK industry. This will be achieved by building on a foundation of international excellence in materials science and engineering, world-leading expertise in characterisation and a proven track record in delivering a highly regarded Engineering Doctorate (EngD) programme. This is a four-year research degree comprising a taught element and a research element, although within the MiNMaT IDC they are interwoven to form a coherent programme rather than being distinct parts. The research engineer (as the student is known) is based with their industrial sponsor, working on their research problems at their premises for the whole programme. Their focus is the solution of academically challenging and industrially relevant processing-microstructure-property-performance relationship problems. Taking place over all four years, carefully integrated intensive short courses (normally one week duration, at the University) form the taught component. These courses build on each other and augment the research. By using a core set of courses, graduates from a number of physical science/engineering disciplines can acquire the necessary background in materials. This capacity is essential as demand for materials scientists and engineers cannot be met without adding to the numbers of students who have studied materials at undergraduate level. Thus, the IDC in MiNMaT offers a solution to the UK's need for 'employment-ready', well-rounded graduates with excellent materials science and engineering research credentials.

PV-21 is the UK's inorganic solar photovoltaic (PV) research programme / this proposal is for a renewal for the second four year cycle. The Consortium has sharpened its focus on the science that will deliver our medium to long term goal of 'making a major contribution to achieving competitive PV solar energy'. In its initial period of activity, the Consortium has put in place lab-scale facilities for making three main types of solar cells based on thin film absorbers - copper indium diselenide, cadmium telluride and ultra thin silicon - using a range of methods. In the renewal programme, these three 'Technology Platforms' form the basis for testing new processes and concepts. To reduce costs, we shall concentrate on critical materials and PV device issues. For large-scale PV manufacture, the materials costs dominate, and together with module efficiency determine the cost per kW peak. A closely related issue is sustainability. For example the metal indium is a key component in PV, but is rare and expensive ($660/kg in 2007). Reducing the thickness of semiconductor by one millionth of a metre (1 micron) in 10% efficient cells with a peak generating capacity of 1GW would save 50 tonnes of material. The renewal programme therefore includes work on both thickness reduction and on finding alternative sustainable low cost materials (absorbers and transparent conductors). To increase efficiency we shall work on aspects of grain boundaries and nanostructures thin films as well as on doping. Nanostructures will also be exploited to harvest more light, and surface sensitization of thin film silicon cells by energy transfer from fluorescent dyes will also be investigated as a means of making better use of sunlight and substantially reducing the required film thickness to as low 0.2 microns. In order to ensure a focus on cost effectiveness, the renewal programme includes a technical economics package that will examine cost and sustainability issues. Future links between innovative concepts and industry are ensured by a 'producibility' work package. Two highly relevant 'plus' packages have been submitted alongside the renewal proposal, these being on a) thin film silicon devices, grain engineering and new concepts, and b) new absorber materials. The Consortium will also continue to run the successful UK network for PV materials and device research, PV-NET, which is a forum for the UK academic and industrial research communities. The Supergen funding mechanism has enabled the Consortium to assemble and fully integrate a critical mass of PV researchers in the UK, and the work packages outlined in the proposal interweave the skills and capabilities of seven universities and nine industrial partners. PV-21 is also plays an important role in skills development, with nine PhD students due to be trained in the first cohort. The EPSRC Supergen funding mechanism is absolutely vital for the continued growth and strength of the UK PV materials research effort.

PV-21 is the UK's inorganic solar photovoltaic (PV) research programme / this proposal is for a renewal for the second four year cycle. The Consortium has sharpened its focus on the science that will deliver our medium to long term goal of 'making a major contribution to achieving competitive PV solar energy'. In its initial period of activity, the Consortium has put in place lab-scale facilities for making three main types of solar cells based on thin film absorbers - copper indium diselenide, cadmium telluride and ultra thin silicon - using a range of methods. In the renewal programme, these three 'Technology Platforms' form the basis for testing new processes and concepts. To reduce costs, we shall concentrate on critical materials and PV device issues. For large-scale PV manufacture, the materials costs dominate, and together with module efficiency determine the cost per kW peak. A closely related issue is sustainability. For example the metal indium is a key component in PV, but is rare and expensive ($660/kg in 2007). Reducing the thickness of semiconductor by one millionth of a metre (1 micron) in 10% efficient cells with a peak generating capacity of 1GW would save 50 tonnes of material. The renewal programme therefore includes work on both thickness reduction and on finding alternative sustainable low cost materials (absorbers and transparent conductors). To increase efficiency we shall work on aspects of grain boundaries and nanostructures thin films as well as on doping. Nanostructures will also be exploited to harvest more light, and surface sensitization of thin film silicon cells by energy transfer from fluorescent dyes will also be investigated as a means of making better use of sunlight and substantially reducing the required film thickness to as low 0.2 microns. In order to ensure a focus on cost effectiveness, the renewal programme includes a technical economics package that will examine cost and sustainability issues. Future links between innovative concepts and industry are ensured by a 'producibility' work package. Two highly relevant 'plus' packages have been submitted alongside the renewal proposal, these being on a) thin film silicon devices, grain engineering and new concepts, and b) new absorber materials. The Consortium will also continue to run the successful UK network for PV materials and device research, PV-NET, which is a forum for the UK academic and industrial research communities. The Supergen funding mechanism has enabled the Consortium to assemble and fully integrate a critical mass of PV researchers in the UK, and the work packages outlined in the proposal interweave the skills and capabilities of seven universities and nine industrial partners. PV-21 is also plays an important role in skills development, with nine PhD students due to be trained in the first cohort. The EPSRC Supergen funding mechanism is absolutely vital for the continued growth and strength of the UK PV materials research effort.

This project seeks to develop processes and resources towards sustainable and inexpensive high quality transparent conducting oxide (TCO) films (and printed tracks) on float glass, plastics and steel. In particular replacement materials for Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) and F-doped Tin Oxide (FTO). These materials are used in low-e window coatings (>£5B pa), computers, phones and PV devices. The current electronics market alone is worth in excess of £0.9 Trillion and every tablet PC uses ca 3g of tin. Indium is listed as a critical element- available in limited amounts often in unstable geopolitical areas. Tin metal has had the biggest rise in price of any metal consecutively in the last four years (valued at >£30K per ton) and indium is seen as one of the most difficult to source elements. In this project we will develop sustainable upscaled routes to TCO materials from precursors containing earth abundant elements (titanium, aluminium, zinc) with equivalent or better figures of merit to existing TCOs. Our method uses Aerosol assisted (AA) CVD to develop large scale coatings and developing new manufacturing approach to printed TCOs using highly uniform nanoparticle dispersions. AACVD has not been upscaled- although the related Atmospheric pressure (AP) CVD is widely used industrially. APCVD was developed in the UK (Pilkington now NSG) for commercial window coating methods- and in the UK glass industry supports >5000 jobs in the supply chain. Our challenge is to take our known chemistry and develop the underpinning science to demonstrate scale up routes to large area coatings. This will include pilot scale AACVD, nanoparticle dispersions and inks. Common precursor sets will be utilized in all the techniques. Our focus will be to ensure that the UK maintains a world-leading capability in the manufacturing of and with sustainable TCOs. This will be achieved by delivering two new scale up pathways one based on AACVD- for large area coatings and inks and dispersions for automotive and PC use. We will use known and sustainable metal containing precursors to deposit TCOs that do not involve rare elements (e.g. based on Ti, Zn, Al). Key issues will be (1) taking the existing aerosol assisted chemical vapour deposition (AACVD) process from small lab scale to a large pilot lab scale reactor (TRL3) and (2) developing a new approach to TCOs from transparent nanoparticle dispersions synthesized in a continuous hydrothermal flow systems (CHFS) reactor using an existing EPSRC funded pilot plant process (kg/h scale). Nano-dispersions will be formulated for use by the rest of the team, in jet and screen printing, advanced microwave processing and TCO application testing. Industry partners will provide engineering support, guidance on the aerosol transport issues, scale up and dynamic coating trials (Pilkington now NSG), jet and screen printing on glass (Xaar, Akzo Nobel, CPI) and use the TCO targets for Magnetron Sputtering of thin films on plastics (Teer Coatings). The two strands will be overseen by Life-cycle modelling and cost benefit analyses to take a holistic approach to the considerations of energy, materials consumption and waste and, in consultation with key stakeholders and policy makers, identify best approaches to making improvement or changes, e.g. accounting for environmental legislation in nanomaterials, waste disposal or recyclability of photovoltaics. We believe there is a real synergy of having two strands as they are linked by common scale up manufacturing issues and use similar process chemistries and precursors.