Influence of the Processing Conditions on the Characteristics of the Clad Layers Produced with Laminar Plasma Technology

Laminar plasma technology was used to produce ceramic hardened layers of Al2O3-40% mass Ni composite powders on stainless steel substrates. In order to investigate the influences of processing conditions on the morphologies of the surface modified layers, two different powder-feeding methods were tested, one with carrier gas called the powder injection method, and the other without carrier gas called powder transfers method. The microscopic investigations demonstrate that the cross-section of the clad layers consists of two distinct microstructural regions, in which the Al2O3 phases exhibit different growth mechanisms. When the powder transfers method is adopted, the number density and volume fraction of the Al2O3 particles increase considerably and their distributions exhibit zonal periodical characteristics. When the powder-feeding rate increases, the microstructure of the Al2O3 phases changes from a small globular to a long needle shape. Finite element simulations show that the transient thermo-physical features of the pool substances, such as solidification rate and cooling rate, influence strongly the mechanisms of the nucleation and the directional growth of the Al2O3 phases in the thermal processing.

Applying the Electrochemical Deposition Technology to Construct the Hybrid Devices

Nanowires functionalized by special molecules can be used to as the candidates for biological application in many areas. In this paper, nickel nanowires, which were fabricated by electrochemical deposition and functionalized by biotinylated peptide, were applied to constructing the hybrid device powered by F-1-ATPase motors.

Monolithic Integration of Light Emitting Diodes, Photodetector and Receiver Circuit in Standard CMOS Technology

A monolithic silicon CMOS optoelectronic integrated circuit (OEIC) is designed and fabricated with standard 0.35 mu m CMOS technology. This OEIC circuit consists of light emitting diodes (LED), silicon dioxide waveguide, photodiodes and receiver circuit. The silicon LED operates in reverse breakdown mode and can be turned on at 8.5V 10mA. The silicon dioxide waveguide is composed of multiple layers of silicon dioxide between different metals layers. A two PN-junctions photodetector composed of n-well/p-substrate junction and p(+) active implantation/n-well junction maximizes the depletion region width. The readout circuitry in pixels is exploited to handle as small as 0.1nA photocurrent. Simulation and testing results show that the optical emissions powers are about two orders higher than the low frequency detectivity of silicon CMOS photodetcctor and receiver circuit.

A silicon light emitting devices in standard CMOS technology

A silicon light emitting device is designed and simulated. It is fabricated in 0.6 mum standard CMOS technology. The device can give more than 1 muW optical power of visible light under reverse breakdown. The device can be turned on at a bias of 0.88 V and work in a large range of voltage: 1.0-6.0 V The external electrical-optical conversion efficiency is more than 10(-6). The optical spectrum of the device is between 540-650 nm, which have a clear peak near 580 nm. The emission mechanism can be explained by a hot carrier direct recombination model.

A silicon capacitive microphone based on oxidized porous silicon sacrificial technology

In this paper, a new capacitive microphone fabrication technology is proposed. It describes using the oxidized porous silicon sacrificial technology to make air gap and using KOH etching technique to make the backplate containing acoustic holes based on the principle that the heavy p(+)-doping silicon can be nearly etched in KOH solution. The innovation of the method is using oxidized porous silicon technology. The sensitivity of the fabricated microphone is from -55dB ( 1.78mV/Pa) to -45dB (5.6mV/Pa) in the frequency range of 500Hz to 25kHz. Its cut-off frequency is higher than 20kHz.

Artificial neural networks expecting more advanced microelectronics technology