thin film

American

noun

a film of material only a few microns thick, deposited on a substrate, as in the technology for making integrated circuits.

thin-film British

adjective

(of an electronic component, device, or circuit) composed of one or more extremely thin layers of metal, semiconductor, etc, deposited on a ceramic or glass substrate

thin-film capacitor

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

thin-film adjective

Etymology

Origin of thin film

First recorded in 1955–60

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

"If you're trying to use this material for a real application, you need to be able to grow it in a thin film instead of trying to exfoliate layers off of a rock that might not have a consistent composition throughout," explained Lin.

From Science Daily

At the same time, the researchers continue to investigate other characteristics of thin film iron telluride selenide to better understand its potential for next generation quantum computing.

From Science Daily

Researchers think the faster breakdown in mixed samples may happen because a thin film forms where ice touches minerals.

From Science Daily

"Clean rooms are just cool. You're working with these massive, precise machines, and then you get to see images of structures you made only microns wide. Turning a thin film of glass into a working optical circuit is really satisfying."

From Science Daily

To test this effect, the team built a solar cell using a thin film of P3TTM.

From Science Daily

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023