thin film
noun
a film of material only a few microns thick, deposited on a substrate, as in the technology for making integrated circuits.
thin film
Americannoun
thin-film
British
adjective
Other Word Forms
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.
See Examples For:
They engineered a hafnium-based thin film that switches states through a more controlled mechanism.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 23, 2026
To test this effect, the team built a solar cell using a thin film of P3TTM.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 15, 2025
A thin film that combines an electrode grid and LEDs can both track and produce a visual representation of the brain's activity in real-time during surgery-a huge improvement over the current state of the art.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 24, 2024
Tagliabue explains that, using a thin film of monocrystalline gold produced with a novel synthesis technique, the team studied the photoluminescence process as they made the metal thinner and thinner.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 19, 2024
A thin film of spit bubbled on Pycelle's lips as his mouth trembled.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
The company has been dogged by concerns over a lack of clarity into its operations, including its progress on building an operational foundry in Arizona to manufacture thin-film lithium niobate chips for quantum systems.
From Barron's ● May 11, 2026
The Chinese thin-film deposition equipment provider is poised to benefit from a strong memory expansion upcycle, the analysts say.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026
Quantum Computing sees its thin-film lithium niobate chip foundry, which produces materials used in telecom hardware and photonic chips that power certain types of quantum systems, as a way to stand out from peers.
From Barron's ● Mar. 2, 2026
The ink can flow through hair to reach the scalp, and once dried, it works as a thin-film sensor, picking up brain activity through the scalp.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 2, 2024
One promising approach to enable proton counting during radiotherapy involves the development of high-performance thin-film detectors that are transmissive to protons.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 1, 2024
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
