Dr Kafil M. Razeeb, Senior Staff Researcher & Principal Investigator at Tyndall shares his Path to Research Excellence

Dr Kafil M. Razeeb is a Senior Staff Researcher and Principal Investigator at Tyndall specialising in the development of specialist materials for energy generation and storage.

Dr Razeeb’s deep expertise empowers him to address global biomedical and environmental energy challenges. His significant deep-tech innovation, invention and impact in energy materials has led to cutting-edge research in this very specialised field. Dr Razeeb shares his path to Research Excellence.

 

After completing my B.Sc. and Master’s degrees in Applied Physics and Electronics from the University of Dhaka, I was offered a PhD position in the Department of Physics at the University of Limerick in 2000, where I investigated the magnetic properties of nanowire arrays. Although I was trying to explain the physical properties of these intricate structures, the fabrication of these tiny nanowires demands extensive understanding of electrochemistry related techniques, which was new to me at the time. Eventually, I completed my PhD in 2003 and joined what was formerly known as the National Microelectronic Research Centre (NMRC), and now Tyndall as a postdoctoral fellow. I received my first funding as a Principal Investigator (PI) in 2005 and commenced developing my core research activities in the application of nanostructured materials in the area of thermal management and thermoelectric, energy storage and sensors. At present, I am leading the Advanced Energy Materials group at Tyndall.

Developing deep expertise in Energy Materials

Energy is one of the most valuable commodities in our modern day lives. I have always therefore been intrigued by how energy is produced and used. In 2005, whilst exploring how to develop new types of thermal interface materials for efficiently removing the heat generated by microprocessors and other electronic and optoelectronic components and devices, I became curious about converting waste heat into usable electricity by thermoelectric devices. This sparked my interest in the storage of that electrical energy using a new type of hybrid storage device called “Supercapattery”. Furthermore, my interest in energy generation and storage also spurred me towards the application of these devices, in particular, developing and running different types of sensors from biomedical to environmental applications. Some relevant publication examples include:

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• Citations: 2067

 

 

International Impact in Energy and Biomedical Applications

 

Development of electroplated thermoelectric materials on Si

My role as a PI at Tyndall and coordinator of several international EU projects has given me the opportunity to develop some high efficiency thermoelectric materials on Si platform. Recently, we discovered enhanced thermoelectric properties of electrodeposited copper-doped tellurium and copper doped bismuth telluride films as an n-type thermoelectric material for near-room-temperature applications. Here, with the increase of the copper content in the films, we observed an enhancement of the thermoelectric properties. We investigated the role of copper in modifying the crystal structure, which leads to the amorphous nature of the films and the corresponding enhancement in the thermoelectric properties. The electrodeposited copper-doped tellurium films exhibited a high Seebeck coefficient of −227 μV/K, resulting to a power factor of 5.6 mW/mK² (https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.9b02153; https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaelm.1c00063).

We have also developed a new strategy in enhancing the thermoelectric properties of p-type BiSbTe thin films that usually require at least 60 hours annealing in Te atmosphere, which is not a viable process for industrial upscaling. In our proposed process, we electroplated a thin film of Te between BiSbTe films and anneal in usual nitrogen atmosphere only for 1 hour and achieved similar thermoelectric properties (https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5049586). The result was an invention disclosure which received the 2015 UCC Innovation of the Year Award. This lead to an invitation to participate in the IRDS 2020 Roadmap for the More than Moore White Paper.

Smart Multimodal Sensors for vital sign monitoring system powered by micro-thermoelectric generator

As a PI and coordinator of the multimillion euro H2020 project (www.smartvista.eu), I have pioneered the concept of developing and applying a high efficiency thin film based thermoelectric generator on Si platform to convert human body heat into usable electricity (https://doi.org/10.3390/en14082339) to power a multimodal flexible sensor system to monitor the electrocardiograph, respiratory flow, oxygen flow and temperature of the patient.

This information will then be transmitted wirelessly for online health processing. This real-time self-powered monitoring of a patient’s health in this manner is not currently available so the technology that will be developed in this project should position us at the forefront of digital health and wearable biosensor technology for wireless monitoring in hospitals and of remote patients, both of which are necessary in this era of an aging population. This autonomous self-sustainable platform enables wireless, real-time, continuous patient monitoring and delivers a seamless feed of patient data and will contribute to the EU vision of an Internet of Things for healthcare (https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/2.0162003JES).

Electrodeposited Thin-Film Micro-Thermoelectric Coolers with Extreme Heat Flux Handling and Microsecond Time Response

A thermoelectric or Peltier cooler is a solid state active heat pump that can transfer heat from one side of the device to another, with consumption of electrical energy. The macroscale thermoelectric coolers are relatively inefficient compared to other forms of refrigeration. However, micro-thermoelectric coolers can have several advantages such as fast response time that scales with their critical dimension, have the ability to handle much higher heat flux, and can be fabricated using CMOS compatible processes. There are several applications of μTECs - such as thermal management of optoelectronic devices, thermal tuning of electronic, photonic, and microelectromechanical (MEM) devices, sensitive detection of light and heat, just to name a few.

The global challenge of hotspot cooling in electronic thermal management is becoming ever more relevant as power densities in electronic circuits rise rapidly. Devices such as processors, light-emitting diodes, and high-frequency GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) are producing heat fluxes >500 W cm⁻². At Tyndall, in collaboration with Nokia Ireland and Trinity College Dublin, we have developed a micro-thermoelectric cooler which demonstrate the record heat flux handling capability of electrodeposited Bi₂Te₃ films of 720(±60) W cm⁻² at room temperature, achieved by careful control of the contact interfaces to reduce contact resistance. Our device allowed a net cooling of 4.4(±0.12) K with a response time of 20 micro seconds (https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.0c16614).

Collaboration with Industry

I have engaged with Analog Devices and Nokia Bell Labs Ireland though EI Innovation Partnership, SFI spoke, IRC Enterprise Fellowship and SFI Industry Fellowship and EU 2020 projects for the development of thermoelectric materials and micro-devices on Si platform for both power generation and micro-cooler for thermal management of photonic devices. At present, I am collaborating with a multinational semiconductor industry in the SmartVista project where we are trialling the transfer of some of our thermoelectric materials in their devices.

Developing Early Career Researchers & Next Generation Leaders

My present team comprises of 3 PhD students and 1 postdoctoral fellow. Additional postdoctoral fellows will join the team soon. Among my previous PhD students, Dr. Alessio Munari secured a role as a process and development engineer at Analog Devices and Dr. Jing Tao as a Research Fellow at Nanyang Technological University, Dr. Han Shao is a postdoctoral fellow at Tyndall as is Swatchith Lal who just graduated with a PhD who recently joined Intel Ireland. Over the course of my career at Tyndall, I have supervised 18 intern students, 9 Masters Students, 2 Research Engineers (Mr. Indrajit Paul, Amcor Flexibles and Prof. Pratap Kollu, University of Hyderabad) and 6 Postdoctoral fellows (Dr. Devendraprakash Gautam, Analog Devices, Dr. Maksudul Hasan, Newcastle University, Prof. Mamun Jamal, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology, Prof. Vanessa Smet, Georgia Institute of Technology, Prof. Ju Xu, Chinese Academy of Sciences). Also, served in the thesis committees for 3 PhD students in Tyndall.

Successful coordination of past projects

• Smart Autonomous Multi Modal Sensors for Vital Signs Monitoring (SmartVista) [www.smartvista.eu] (PI and Coordinator, ongoing)
• Thermally Integrated Smart Photonics Systems (TIPS) [http://www.tips2020.eu] (PI and Coordinator)
• Development of Wafer Level Thermoelectric Generator (DeWaLT) (PI)
• Biofouling mitigated sweat pH and glucose sensing (SweatSens) (PI)
• Energy Harvesting and Storage for Low Frequency Vibrations (MANpower) (Co-PI)
• Development of CMOS compatible thermoelectric materials and devices (PI)
• Best-Reliable Ambient Intelligent Nanosensor Systems by Heterogeneous Integration (e-BRAINS) (PI from Tyndall)
• Nanoelectronics for an Energy Efficient Electrical Car (E3Car) (PI from Tyndall)
• Nanowire/ Nanotube Infused Thermal Interface Material Integrated to Thermal Management System (NITS) (PI)
• Nanotubes for Thermal Interface Material (NTIM) (PI)
• 3-D-Integrated Micro Nano Modules for Easily Adapted Applications (e-CUBES) (PI from Tyndall)

Awards:

• 2017 Horizon 2020 Champion Award, Enterprise Ireland
• 2015 UCC Innovation of the Year Award
• Best paper award in 3rd MiNaPAD Forum 2014, MINATEC Grenoble, France, May 20-22, 2014
• ENIAC Joint Undertaking 2011 Innovation Award for the project “Nanoelectronics for an Energy Efficient Electrical Car, E³Car”.
• Biosensors and Bioelectronics Top Cited Author for 2010 and 2011