High-throughput material synthesis and characterisation: improving materials for tunable dialectics
Client: Murata
Sector: Electronics
Murata accessed equipment and expertise now at the Material Innovation Laboratory to investigate materials for improved tunable dielectrics, benefiting from advanced techniques for rapid, high-throughput synthesis and characterisation.
The challenge: accurate synthesis and characterisation at high volumes
Japanese electronics company Murata was seeking to improve the electrical properties of barium strontium titanate and study the effects of dopants on the material, for applications as tunable dielectrics, such as those used in mobile phone technology. Improved materials allow for better data transmission which leads to more efficient and faster processes.
This involved synthesising and characterising hundreds of samples and thousands of different compositions.
The solution: unique high-throughput capabilities
The project exploited the unique capabilities for high-throughput synthesis of thin film samples, combined with automated characterisation, to efficiently acquire a unique and complete dataset of the materials under investigation.
Using tailored software, we combined and analysed the data to produce an understanding of the relationship between composition, crystal structure and selected physical properties.
Technical details
For more detail about the methods and findings, read the write-up in Crystal Growth & Design
The outcome: fast, accurate results
The combination of specialist materials innovation expertise and state-of-the-art facilities enabled us to provide the data Murata needed with exceptional speed and accuracy.
- During the course of the six-month project we studied four dopants for barium strontium titanate in eight different combinations.
- With the high throughput approach, 7,056 distinct materials were synthesised and characterised with a total of 1,037,232 distinct measurements.
About the Material Innovation Laboratory
The Material Innovation Laboratory combines the capabilities and expertise of the University’s Advanced Composite Material Facility (ACMF) and the material discovery arm of Ilika Technologies (a 2004 spin-out company from the School of Chemistry). Twenty years of technological developments in material discovery using high-throughput techniques are now combined under one roof within the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. The project described here was undertaken by Ilika Technologies using equipment and specialist knowledge that is now within the Material Innovation Laboratory.
Related expertise
Dr Samuel Guerin
High-throughput materials synthesis and characterisaton