Notes by Akshat Jiwan Sharma

Attending the webinar on Decarbonising the European Glass Industry provided me an opportunity to connect with researchers working hard to make glass production more sustainable.  Glass is one of the most important materials that enables several critical technologies powering the world. Fiber optic cables,displays, scientific equipment,lenses and of course windows. Every year nearly 150 million tonnes of glass is made. Therefore it is essential that we find ways to produce glass in a more eco-friendly way. The European Innovation council has been leading the effort in this space by funding research projects like H2 glass, Everglass and GIFFT in collaboration with industrial partners like Schott,PlasmaAir and several universities throughout the region.   One strategy is to reuse and recycle existing glass. Here innovations like localised melting with lasers are making the process cheaper as compared to full melt processing but concerns about gathering waste glass remains. ...

30 NOV 2025 I thank the International Bamboo and Rattan Organization(INBAR) for organising a series of  online seminars towards mainstreaming bamboo construction.  It's undeniable that the advancements in the construction industry have made affordable housing possible for billions of people. Cement is the single most important material that has made this happen.  The key ingredients of cement are widely available and generally well distributed. Strategically nations are not dependent on imports and can source all the raw materials required to manufacture it domestically.  Environmentally though the construction industry through its use of cement and steel is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gasses and also one of the biggest consumers of energy. But much of it is offsetted by the fact that constructions last for several decades and maybe centuries so short term increased energy consumption is going to lead to lesser use in the future.  The search for ne...

26 Nov 2025 At the annual oil and gas conference in New Delhi today I had the privilege of interacting with some of the sharpest minds in the energy sector.   Oil and gas has been facing some harsh criticism in the last few decades but whether we like it or not it's a key driver of the economy.  The transportation industry is the second largest consumer of fossil fuels next only to the power industry. In the short term it's unlikely that batteries will be able to meet the demand. Similarly building a green hydrogen ecosystem would take time. LNG provides a relatively clean alternative to petrol or diesel until alternatives are in place.   The energy supply chain gets even more complicated when manufacturing is brought into the mix. Can we find alternatives to natural gas or coal in the glass industry, in steelmaking or in cement manufacturing? It's possible but it will require massive initial investment. A switch to nuclear power as it's happening in the USA m...

25 Nov 2025 I thank SEMI for organising an informative online session on atomic layer deposition inviting speakers from Beneq— the biggest ALD company in the world today having presence in Asia,EU and Americas.  Since its experimental demonstration in the 60s in the soviet union atomic layer deposition technique has been developed to cover almost all of the elements of the periodic table barring noble gasses.  ALD today is a critical process in microelectronics for growth of high k dielectric films as well as in barriers and protective layers enabling 3D structures on chip. ALD has found applications in fields beyond microelectronics & has become indispensable in optics,energy and filtration industries.  It was insightful to learn about some of the challenges in ALD which include maintaining vacuum ,precursor flow precision , temperature control and of course precursor synthesis which are usually complex organometallic compounds. Yet despite these challenges thickness...

A Celebration of India's Electronic Component Manufacturing Scheme milestones: Pairing policy incentives with turbulent Innovation 17 Nov 2025 After the incredible success of semicon India this September, India cellular and electronics association organised a lunch celebrating the success of Electronic components and manufacturing scheme at the Taj in New Delhi.  Minister for Electronics & IT Ashwini Vaishnaw, was joined by Minister of State for Electronics & IT Jitin Prasad , Secretary S Krishnan, Secretary Sushil Pal and various industry leaders who are helping to build a semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem in India. It was a unique opportunity for me to observe the collective decision making that goes into developing policies shaping the industry. Through exchange of ideas the policy makers have mapped in great detail the components that need to be in place for the initiative to succeed. The list was quite comprehensive including PCBs, oscillators, lith...

Electromagnetic wave propagation inside electron sheaths in a capacitive discharge plasma  ABSTRACT While the influence of plasma frequency on the propagation of electromagnetic (EM) waves has been extensively studied, the potential role of Lorentz force in perturbing free electrons in plasma sheath and thereby facilitating transmission of electromagnetic waves as per maxwell laws has received comparatively little attention. An oscillating EM wave at a frequency above the plasma frequency interacts with free electrons in the sheaths leading to generation of conduction currents. The frequency of oscillation of these conduction currents is equal to the applied wave frequency.  Although the primary EM wave propagates only a limited distance due to attenuation and geometric spreading, these free electrons carry the currents through the volume of the plasma making them detectable by probes placed deeper within the plasma body. This mechanism is similar to propagation of EM waves ...