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In this work, ordered macropore arrays in n-type silicon wafers were fabricated by anodic etching using a double-tank electrochemical cell. The effects of the wafer thickness, etching time and voltage on the quality of macropore arrays were investigated. Homogeneous macropore arrays could be achieved in 200 μm thick silicon wafers, but could not be obtained from 300 and 400 μm thick silicon wafers. Highly ordered macropore arrays with an aspect ratio of 19 were fabricated in 200 μm thick n-type silicon at 4.5 V. The etching current decreases in 200 μm thick silicon but increases in thicker silicon with an increase in time. It demonstrates that the minority carrier transportation capability from the illuminated surface to the reactive surface is different for silicon wafers with different thicknesses. The minority carrier concentration at the illuminated surface for stable macropore formation and the current under different etching voltages were calculated based on a hole transport model. The results show that appropriately decreasing wafer thickness and increasing voltage can help stable macropore array fabrication in the illumination-limited double-tank cell.

Hypersonic vehicles are drawing more and more attention now and for the near future, especially in the low-altitudes near space, from 20 km to 45 km. The reliable separation of the protecting shroud from the hypersonic vehicle is a prerequisite and critical issue for the success of the entire flight mission. The unsteady multi-body separation characteristics and flow characteristics of hypersonic shroud separation at Mach 7.0 are investigated based on numerical simulation in this paper. The improved delayed detached eddy simulation (IDDES) method, dynamic hybrid overset mesh method, and HLLE++ numerical scheme are used to ensure numerical accuracy. Numerical results show that there are four types of vortexes and three types of shock waves inside the shrouds during the separation process, which generate complex shock wave/vortex/boundary layer interactions. Further, an unsteady process of the expansion-transfer-dissipation of an A-type vortex is found, which is the result of strong shock/vortex/boundary layer interactions. The adverse pressure gradient is the root cause driving the generation and transfer of the A-type vortex during the shroud separation. Furthermore, the transfer process of the A-type vortex only lasts for 5.52 ms but causes a large disturbance to the aerodynamic force of the shroud. The results of this paper could provide a reference for the design of near-space hypersonic vehicles.

The internal weapon bay is widely used in modern aircraft; however, because the unsteady flows of the cavity would cause dangerous store separation and intense aerodynamic noise, the leading-edge spoiler is an easy and efficient passive flow-control method. The flow control of the leading-edge flat spoiler before the cavity of a low-aspect-ratio flying-wing aircraft is investigated based on numerical simulation. Numerical results show that the leading-edge flat spoiler completely changes the cavity flow; it obviously lifts up the shear layer and reduces the pressure inside the cavity. For the store separation from the weapon bay, the leading-edge flat spoiler is a very good passive flow-control method that curbs the nose-up trend of the store and produces a safe and stable store separation. Besides, the leading-edge spoiler reduces the noise in the rear of the cavity (max 8.2 dB), but increases the noise in the middle of the cavity (max 11.3 dB). In addition, the leading-edge spoiler brings in a large drag increase to the aircraft (39.41% when the height of spoiler is 0.2 m), which would affect the operational stability of the aircraft. The results of this paper could provide a reference for the flow control of weapon bays and the design of aircraft.

Tin(II) monosulfide (SnS) nanosheets were synthesized using SnCl4•5H2O and S powders as raw materials in the presence of H2O via a facile chemical bath method. Orthorhombic phase SnS nanosheets with a thickness of ~100 nm and lateral dimensions of 2~10 μm were obtained by controlling the synthesis parameters. The formation of a SnO2 intermediate is key to the valence reduction of Sn ions (from IV to II) and the formation of SnS. The gas sensors fabricated from SnS nanosheets exhibited an excellent response of 14.86 to 100 ppm ethanol vapor when operating at 160 °C, as well as fast response and recovery times of 23 s and 26 s, respectively. The sensors showed excellent selectivity for the detection of ethanol over acetone, methanol, and ammonia gases, which indicates the SnS nanosheets are promising for high-performance ethanol gas sensing applications.

In this work, we report a passive wireless eddy current proximity sensor based on inductive-capacitive (LC) resonance using a low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) technology. The operation principle of the LC proximity sensor to the metal targets was comprehensively discussed through electromagnetic simulation and circuit model. Copper and aluminum were selected as the metal target materials for the measurements. Circular copper plates with different diameters and thickness were used to investigate the influence of the surface area and thickness of the target on the sensitivity. The decreases of the sensitivity with the decrease of the surface area and thickness were observed. The LC proximity sensor showed a high sensitivity of 11.2 MHz/mm for the proximity distance of 1–3 mm, and large detection range up to 10 mm. The developed LC proximity sensor is promising for passive wireless metal detections and proximity measurements under harsh environments.

This work reports a novel wireless microfluidic biosensor based on low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) technology. The wireless biosensor consists of a planar spiral inductor and parallel plate capacitor (LC) resonant antenna, which integrates with microchannel bends in the LTCC substrate. The wireless response of the biosensor was associated to the changes of its resonant frequency due to the alteration in the permittivity of the liquid flow in the microchannel. The wireless sensing performance to different organic liquids with permittivity from 3 to 78.5 was presented. The measured results are in good agreement with the theoretical calculation. The wireless detection for the concentration of glucose in water solution was investigated, and an excellent linear response and repeatability were obtained. This kind of LC wireless microfluidic sensor is very promising in establishing wireless lab-on-a-chip for biomedical and chemical applications.

This paper presents a kind of passive wireless pressure sensor comprised of a planar spiral inductor and a cavity parallel plate capacitor fabricated through low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) technology. The LTCC material with a low Young’s modulus of ~65 GPa prepared by our laboratory was used to obtain high sensitivity. A three-step lamination process was applied to construct a high quality cavity structure without using any sacrificial materials. The effects of the thickness of the sensing membranes on the sensitivity and detection range of the pressure sensors were investigated. The sensor with a 148 μm sensing membrane showed the highest sensitivity of 3.76 kHz/kPa, and the sensor with a 432 μm sensing membrane presented a high detection limit of 2660 kPa. The tunable sensitivity and detection limit of the wireless pressure sensors can meet the requirements of different scenes.

3–5, 8–14 μm mid-far infrared (MF-IR) coherent lights generated by nonlinear optical (NLO) crystals are crucial for many industrial and military applications. AgGaGe5Se12 (AGGSe) is a promising NLO candidate because of its good optical performance. In this paper, the large AGGSe single crystal of 35 mm diameter and 80 mm length was obtained by the seed-aided Bridgman method. The crystalline quality was characterized with X-ray diffraction, rocking curve, transmission spectrum. The FWHM of the (210) peak was about 0.05° and the IR transmission was about 60% (1–10 μm, 6 mm thick). Additionally, it performed well in 8 μm frequency doubling, with a maximum output power of about 41 mW, corresponding to an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 3.2%. The laser induced damage threshold (LIDT) value was about 200 MW/cm2 (1.06 μm, 20 ns, 1 Hz).