The Research Center for High-Performance Manufacturing of Functional Structures and Devices of the School of Mechanical & Automotive Engineering is based on the national or provincial-level scientific research platforms, including the National and Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Semiconductor Display and Optical Communication Devices, the Guangdong Provincial Engineering Research Center for Advanced Electric Vehicle Power Supply and Thermal Control Systems, the Guangdong Provincial Research Center for Green Manufacturing of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the Guangdong Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Intelligent Manufacturing of Functional Structures and Devices and the Key Laboratory for Advanced Manufacturing of Surface Functional Structures of Guangdong Province.
The aim of the research center is to realize advanced and high-performance manufacturing of functional structures and devices. Focusing on the critical technical challenge of high-performance manufacturing of functional devices, the research center establish innovative research and development platforms in fields such as heat, light, energy conversion and storage, wearables and sensors. The research direction focuses on manufacturing technology of functional structures and devices, and the fundamental research and technological breakthroughs were carried out in five major research fields, including high-performance manufacturing of thermal functional structures, optical functional structures, energy conversion and storage functional structures, wearable and sensing functional structures and high-performance manufacturing of new concept functional structures and devices. The research center is committed to developing new theories, methods, materials and processes for manufacturing of functional structures and devices, to realize breakthroughs in the basic theories and key technologies of the bottleneck problems, and promoting technological upgrading in related engineering fields.
The research center has 14 faculty members, including 11 professors and 2 associate professors. The center has achieved many original results in the functional structure and high-performance manufacturing of devices for heat, light, energy conversion and storage. The center has broken through numerous leading core technologies, including key technologies for the design and controllable manufacturing of complex surface thermal functional structure morphology features, the multi-scale micro-reaction functional structure design and manufacturing technology, the photothermal coupling design and packaging of microarchitecture semiconductor light-emitting devices and the cross-scale optical functional structure design and manufacturing of semiconductor light-emitting devices. The related academic achievements have won multiple awards including the Second Prize of the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award (1 item), the China Patent Excellence Award (5 items), the First Prize of the Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award (3 items), the Second Prize of the Guangdong Provincial Natural Science Award (1 item) and the Second Prize of the Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award (1 item). The members of the research center have published over 600 SCI-indexed papers, including more than 10 ESI highly cited papers (one of which was selected as one of the Top 100 Most Influential International Academic Papers in China in 2010). 200 invention patents have been authorized (including 6 PCT international patents), and over 400 utility model patents have been authorized. The research center actively promotes industry-university-research cooperation, and has providing product development and technical support for leading enterprises such as GAC, Huawei, CRRC, BYD, CATL, EVE, Midea, NationStar, Broad-Ocean Motor, Longfeng Precision, Khgears, as well as research institutes like the 504th Institute of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (Xi 'an), the 12th Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (Beijing) and the 29th Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (Chengdu). In addition, the research center has established cooperation relations with internationally renowned university such as the University of Michigan, the University of California, Berkeley, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of New South Wales, the University of Nottingham and City University of Hong Kong.
The research center focuses on the high-performance manufacturing of functional structures and devices, its main research directions include as follows:
Research issue 1: High-performance manufacturing of thermal functional structures and devices
This direction mainly focuses on the fields of ultra-thin vapor chambers, ultra-thin loop heat pipes and flattened ultra-thin heat pipes, aiming to break through the design, manufacturing, and application of thermal functional structures, and form a complete theoretical system of new theories, new methods, new materials, and new processes. The key research focuses on high-performance manufacturing methods for thermal functional devices, the mechanisms of heat conduction and energy conversion at the micro and nano scales, the development and optimization of thermal functional materials, as well as advanced technologies applied to efficient heat dissipation and energy storage.
Research issue 2: High-performance manufacturing of optical functional structures and devices
This direction mainly focuses on the fields of efficient light extraction structures, spectral control structures, light field control structures, advanced packaging integration, and lighting display devices, aiming to break through in the design, manufacturing, and application of optical functional structures, and to form a theoretical system for efficient light energy utilization and precise light field control. The key research focuses on the light extraction and spectral regulation mechanisms of micro-nano structures, light field regulation methods based on metamaterials, the development and performance optimization of new optical materials, innovative packaging technologies for high-brightness and high-color gamut displays, as well as advanced optical device manufacturing processes for smart lighting and flexible displays.
Research issue 3: High-performance manufacturing of energy conversion and storage functional structures and devices
This issue mainly focuses on zinc-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries, lithium-ion batteries, fuel cells and supercapacitors, aiming to break through the design, manufacture, and application of key materials, device structures and system integration for electrochemical energy storage and conversion, to form a complete system from basic theory to core technologies. The key research focuses on the design and synthesis of high-efficiency energy storage electrode materials, the optimization of electrolyte interfaces, the regulation of ion transport and charge distribution, the improvement of battery safety and cycle life, the micro-nano processing technology of energy storage devices and the performance evolution mechanism under multi-field coupling effects. This research issue contributes to technological breakthroughs and industrialization of high-performance energy storage and conversion devices.
Research issue 4: High-performance manufacturing of wearable and sensing functional structures and devices
This issue mainly focuses on advanced flexible pressure sensors, strain sensors, bio-potential sensors, signal acquisition systems and signal processing methods, aiming to break through the key technologies in the design, manufacturing and integration of flexible electronic devices, and form a complete solution from material development to system application. The key research focuses on the performance regulation and optimization of flexible sensing materials, advanced micro-nano processing techniques for sensor devices, integrated design of flexible sensor arrays, low-power and high-precision signal acquisition and processing technologies, biocompatibility and long-life reliability design of sensors, and the application of artificial intelligence algorithms in multimodal signals. And the engineering application of flexible sensing technology in medical monitoring, smart wearable devices and industrial inspection has also been studied.
Research issue 5: High-performance manufacturing of new concept functional structures and devices
This issue mainly focuses on extreme new energy, surgical medical care, integrated circuits and other fields, aiming to break through core technologies and theories such as efficient energy conversion and storage of new energy materials, multi-functional design and application of precision medical devices, advanced semiconductor manufacturing and packaging. The key research focuses on high-performance solid-state batteries and superconducting energy storage materials, minimally invasive precise control and key performance improvement of surgical medical devices, thermal management and micro-nano manufacturing technology for wafer-level processes, reliability and stability assessment of devices in extreme environments, development of new functional materials for cross-domain energy and information coupling, as well as intelligent integration and optimized design of related systems.
