Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HANDSOME (Hands-on Materials Science for Education)
Reporting period: 2023-10-01 to 2025-03-31
The HANDSOME project addresses challenges of the education in materials science and engineering, in particular, in the field of crystal growth. This is an interdisciplinary field, between chemistry, physics and engineering, crucial for the modern society, and yet it is mostly unknown to the general public. Educators on various levels struggle with the issue how to demonstrate processes usually taking place in hardly accessible specialized research labs. We are developing a novel HANDS-ON EXPERIMENTAL SETUP (EduCrys), which is focused on the so-called Czochralski growth process – one of the main techniques behind the production of silicon for microelectronics. However, we start with simple heat transfer phenomena and phase changes between solid and liquid states, which can be related to many aspects of everyday life such as cooking or weather.
The EduCrys setup is a compact desktop experiment, with a modular design, implemented using open hardware and open source software to maximize the reach of the project. It is applicable on different levels: 1) public demonstrations during various science events; 2) teaching at school level for topics from basic heat transfer phenomena to production of crystalline materials; 3) teaching at university level including lab courses and development of further experiments for EduCrys in students' theses; 4) professional training in practical crystal growth in industry and research. Consequently, the goal of HANDSOME is both to achieve social impact and provide a novel and innovative educational product.
The EduCrys setup is a compact desktop experiment, with a modular design, implemented using open hardware and open source software to maximize the reach of the project. It is applicable on different levels: 1) public demonstrations during various science events; 2) teaching at school level for topics from basic heat transfer phenomena to production of crystalline materials; 3) teaching at university level including lab courses and development of further experiments for EduCrys in students' theses; 4) professional training in practical crystal growth in industry and research. Consequently, the goal of HANDSOME is both to achieve social impact and provide a novel and innovative educational product.
The main technical and scientific task in HANDSOME is the development of the EduCrys setup. Although a desktop experiment for Czochralski growth of tin crystals at 232 °C (Demo-CZ) already existed, that setup was not suited for external users outside our lab. Hence, the central goal of HARDWARE development was a robust and compact setup, based on commonly available components at low-cost. An important decision was to employ a simple cooking plate as heat source. Although the overall size of the setup was increased roughly by a factor of 2, expensive custom-made parts and time-consuming implementation of safety features were avoided. The main body of EduCrys was made of standard aluminum profiles and plates containing both the hotplate and electronics. Significant efforts were needed to design the electronic control of the heating, motors and various sensors. Again, common components and ready-to-use development boards were employed as much as possible, so that the printed circuit board was the only custom-made part. A significant scientific value was achieved by a large number of sensors for the evaluation of temperature, heat transfer and energy consumption. At the end, a hardware setup with a cost of about 1200 Eur (excluding manufacturing and assembly) was achieved, which can be manufactured by workshops usually available at research and education institutions.
The hardware of EduCrys is controlled by a Raspberry Pi microcomputer, which provides also a convenient graphical interface (Linux operating system) for data evaluation and documentation. The control SOFTWARE has been implemented in Python, which is a widely known scripting language and is taught already at school level. An intuitive user interface with a single graphical window contains an overview of all sensor inputs including a time plot and camera images. Beyond the basic control of the hotplate and motors, the interface also supports programmable recipes for the experiments. The developed software was significantly simpler and much more user friendly compared to the command-line interface with an Arduino microcontroller in the former Demo-CZ setup. A future update may also include a more flexible, modular script design and remote control, e.g. using a smartphone app.
Two different series of EXPERIMENTS have been implemented for the EduCrys setup so far. The first topic addresses the basics of heat transfer by heat conduction, convection and radiation. These phenomena are not only relevant for crystal growth applications, but general physical courses, and demonstrate the wide potential of EduCrys applications. In a series of experiments, water in a glass beaker or metal pot is heated and boiled under various conditions (with/without lid, enclosed in metallic foil etc.), carefully monitoring both the temperature and the energy consumption. The second series of experiments is focused on the growth of tin crystals from melt in an aluminum crucible, similar to the Demo-CZ setup. Initially, basic effects of crystal growth are observed by pulling thin seed crystals and changing various process parameters such as pull speed, melt temperature and cooling fan speed. Then, a recipe to grow a crystal with a specified shape is developed and tested, which allows for a scientific discussion of many practical aspects of the Czochralski process in the industry and research. A lab manual suitable for courses at schools and universities has been prepared for both series of experiments.
The hardware of EduCrys is controlled by a Raspberry Pi microcomputer, which provides also a convenient graphical interface (Linux operating system) for data evaluation and documentation. The control SOFTWARE has been implemented in Python, which is a widely known scripting language and is taught already at school level. An intuitive user interface with a single graphical window contains an overview of all sensor inputs including a time plot and camera images. Beyond the basic control of the hotplate and motors, the interface also supports programmable recipes for the experiments. The developed software was significantly simpler and much more user friendly compared to the command-line interface with an Arduino microcontroller in the former Demo-CZ setup. A future update may also include a more flexible, modular script design and remote control, e.g. using a smartphone app.
Two different series of EXPERIMENTS have been implemented for the EduCrys setup so far. The first topic addresses the basics of heat transfer by heat conduction, convection and radiation. These phenomena are not only relevant for crystal growth applications, but general physical courses, and demonstrate the wide potential of EduCrys applications. In a series of experiments, water in a glass beaker or metal pot is heated and boiled under various conditions (with/without lid, enclosed in metallic foil etc.), carefully monitoring both the temperature and the energy consumption. The second series of experiments is focused on the growth of tin crystals from melt in an aluminum crucible, similar to the Demo-CZ setup. Initially, basic effects of crystal growth are observed by pulling thin seed crystals and changing various process parameters such as pull speed, melt temperature and cooling fan speed. Then, a recipe to grow a crystal with a specified shape is developed and tested, which allows for a scientific discussion of many practical aspects of the Czochralski process in the industry and research. A lab manual suitable for courses at schools and universities has been prepared for both series of experiments.
The developed EduCrys setup is a novel, INNOVATIVE EDUCATIONAL TOOL available at low cost. Commercial ready-to-use products of comparable scientific complexity would cost at least an order of magnitude more. EduCrys has been published with open design and is available for interested users worldwide at various educational institutions. During the project, we demonstrated live experiments in 5 public events and always attracted a lot of interest from the audience. Our presentation received the main poster prize at the German Crystal Growth Conference in 2024. In addition, EduCrys was continuously tested during the development phase in our lab and at several cooperation partners by interested users in a wide range, from 16-year-old school students to senior scientists. They all were able to learn the basic principles of high-tech production of materials in about 1 day.
How can the EduCrys setup become a successful business PRODUCT? Several issues were not completely solved during the project. First, manufacturing costs at small scale currently are higher than the raw hardware costs, so that the total cost seems to be too high for many academic and even industrial users. Up-scaling and simplification of the routines for manufacturing, assembly and testing would be necessary. Second, the focus on crystal growth currently seems to reach a rather limited market. Therefore, further topics similar to the heat transfer experiments need to be developed and advertised. These are two key issues that need to be addressed for further commercialization of the project results.
How can the EduCrys setup become a successful business PRODUCT? Several issues were not completely solved during the project. First, manufacturing costs at small scale currently are higher than the raw hardware costs, so that the total cost seems to be too high for many academic and even industrial users. Up-scaling and simplification of the routines for manufacturing, assembly and testing would be necessary. Second, the focus on crystal growth currently seems to reach a rather limited market. Therefore, further topics similar to the heat transfer experiments need to be developed and advertised. These are two key issues that need to be addressed for further commercialization of the project results.