A novel nanoarchitecture-reinforced poly(lactic acid) (PLA) nanocomposite was prepared using multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT)-grafted silica nanohybrids as reinforcements. MWCNT-grafted silica nanohybrids were synthesized by the generation of silica nanoparticles on the MWCNT surface through the sol-gel technique. This synthetic method involves organo-modified MWCNTs that are dispersed in tetrahydrofuran, which incorporates tetraethoxysilane that undergoes an ultrasonic sol-gel process. Gelation yielded highly dispersed silica on the organo-modified MWCNTs. The structure and properties of the nanohybrids were established using ²⁹Si nuclear magnetic resonance, Raman spectroscopy, wide-angle X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, and transmission electron microscopy. The resulting MWCNT nanoarchitectures were covalently assembled into silica nanoparticles, which exhibited specific and controllable morphologies and were used to reinforce biodegradable PLA. The tensile strength and the heat deflection temperature (HDT) of the PLA/MWCNT-grafted silica nanocomposites increased when the MWCNT-grafted silica was applied to the PLA matrix; by contrast, the surface resistivity of the PLA/MWCNT-grafted silica nanocomposites appeared to decline as the amount of MWCNT-grafted silica in the PLA matrix increased. Overall, the reinforcement of PLA using MWCNT-grafted silica nanoarchitectures was efficient and improved its mechanical properties, heat resistance, and electrical resistivity.

In this study, a very compact, second-order, full differential bandpass filter is presented. To achieve compact circuit area and system-in-package (SiP) applications, the transformer structure is integrated using integrated passive device (IPD) technology on a glass substrate. The coupled resonator synthesis method is used to achieve the bandpass filter design and suitably adjust the tapped feed-lines to obtain good impedance match at all ports. The area (1.27 mm×1.27 mm) of the bandpass filter is effectively reduced, and the performance, as measured by insertion loss (2.5 dB) and CMRR (> 30 dB), is still acceptable with such a compact area. Most importantly, this full differential bandpass filter is also suitable for SiP applications, as other studies implemented using glass IPD technology have demonstrated.

The sol-gel technique was used to prepare epoxy/silica nano-hybrids. The thermal characteristics, curing kinetics and structure of epoxy/silica nano-hybrids were studied using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), ²⁹Si nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). To improve the compatibility between the organic and inorganic phases, a coupling agent was used to modify the diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) epoxy. The sol-gel technique enables the silica to be successfully incorporated into the network of the hybrids, increasing the thermal stability and improving the mechanical properties of the prepared epoxy/silica nano-hybrids. An autocatalytic mechanism of the epoxy/SiO₂ nanocomposites was observed. The low reaction rate of epoxy in the nanocomposites is caused by the steric hindrance in the network of hybrids that arises from the consuming of epoxide group in the network of hybrids by the silica. In the nanocomposites, the nano-scale silica particles had an average size of approximately 35 nm, and the particles were well dispersed in the epoxy matrix, according to the TEM images.

In order to decrease substrate loss and perform high quality factor of spiral inductors, high resistivity glass substrate is used to characterize and model spiral inductor for SiP application in this study. We use 6 ¿m thick copper film for spiral structure and the dielectric material is polyimide. We establish physical models by using frequency-independent lump elements that one is the conventional ¿ -model, the other is the ¿ -model added the skin-effect. The quality factor is about 25~40 and the inductance is 1~10 nH.