Thermal Fracture of Oxidized Polydimethylsiloxane and its Implications in Soft Lithography

Author(s):  
Wes W. Tooley ◽  
Shirin Feghhi ◽  
Sangyoon J. Han ◽  
Junlan Wang ◽  
Nathan J. Sniadecki

During the fabrication of nanopost arrays for measuring cellular forces, we have observed surface cracks in the negative molds used to replicate the arrays from a silicon master. These cracks become more numerous and severe with each replication such that repeated castings lead to arrays with missing or broken posts. This loss in pattern fidelity from the silicon master undermines the spatial resolution of the nanopost arrays in measuring cellular forces. We hypothesized that these cracks are formed because of a mismatch in the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of PDMS and its oxidized surface layer. To study the fracture of PDMS due to thermal effects, we treated circular test samples of PDMS with oxidizing plasma and then heated them to cause surface cracks. These cracks were found to be more abundant at 180 °C than at lower temperatures. Finite element analysis of a bilayer material with a CTE mismatch was used to validate that thermal stresses are sufficient to overcome the fracture toughness of oxidized PDMS when heated to a curing temperature for PDMS. As a consequence, we have ascertained that elevated temperatures are a significant detriment to the reproducibility of nanoscale features in PDMS during replica molding.

Author(s):  
Cun Wang ◽  
Tao Zhang ◽  
Cheng Zhao ◽  
Jian Pu

A three dimensional numerical model of a practical planar solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stack based on the finite element method is constructed to analyze the thermal stress generated at different uniform temperatures. Effects of cell positions, different compressive loads, and coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch of different SOFC components on the thermal stress distribution are investigated in this work. Numerical results indicate that the maximum thermal stress appears at the corner of the interface between ceramic sealants and cells. Meanwhile the maximum thermal stress at high temperature is significantly larger than that at room temperature (RT) and presents linear growth with the increase of operating temperature. Since the SOFC stack is under the combined action of mechanical and thermal loads, the distribution of thermal stress in the components such as interconnects and ceramic sealants are greatly controlled by the CTE mismatch and scarcely influenced by the compressive loads.


Author(s):  
Jefferson Talledo

Die crack is one of the problems in stacked die semiconductor packages. As silicon dies become thinner in such packages due to miniaturization requirement, the tendency to have die crack increases. This study presents the investigation done on a die crack issue in a stacked die package using finite element analysis (FEA). The die stress induced during the package assembly processes from die attach to package strip reflow was analyzed and compared with the actual die crack failure in terms of the location of maximum die stress at unit level as well as strip level. Stresses in the die due to coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch of the package component materials and mechanical bending of the package in strip format were taken into consideration. Comparison of the die stress with actual die crack pointed to strip bending as the cause of the problem and not CTE mismatch. It was found that the die crack was not due to the thermal processes involved during package assembly. This study showed that analyzing die stress using FEA could help identify the root cause of a die crack problem during the stacked die package assembly and manufacturing as crack occurs at locations of maximum stress. The die crack mechanism can also be understood through FEA simulation and such understanding is very important in coming up with robust solution.


1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qizhou Yao ◽  
Jianmin Qu

Abstract In this study, the apparent fracture toughness of the interfaces of several epoxy-based polymeric adhesives and metal (aluminum) substrate is experimentally measured. Double layer specimens with initial interfacial cracks are made for four-point bending tests. Thermal residual stresses exist on the interface due to the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch between the underfill and aluminum. Silica fillers are used to modify the CTE of the epoxy-based adhesives so that various levels of interface thermal residual stresses are achieved. Finite element analysis is also performed to quantify the effects of CTE mismatch as well as the elastic mismatch across the interface. It is found that the apparent interfacial toughness is significantly affected by the thermal residual stress, while the effect of elastic mismatch is negligible. In general thermal residual stress undermines the resistance to an interfacial crack. In some cases the residual stress is sufficient to result in adhesive and/or cohesive failure.


2005 ◽  
Vol 127 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Man-Lung Sham ◽  
Jang-Kyo Kim

Polymeric encapsulant is widely used to protect the integrated circuit chips and thus to enhance the reliability of electronic packages. Residual stresses are introduced in the plastic package when the polymer is cooled from the curing temperature to ambient, from which many reliability issues arise, including warpage of the package, premature interfacial failure, and degraded interconnections. Bimaterial strip bending experiment has been employed successfully to monitor the evolution of the residual stresses in underfrill resins for flip chip applications. A numerical analysis is developed to predict the residual stresses, which agree well with the experimental measurements. The changes of material properties, such as flexural modulus and coefficient of thermal expansion, of the resins with temperature are taken into account in the finite element analysis.


2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (suppl. 2) ◽  
pp. 387-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dragoljub Zivkovic ◽  
Dragan Milcic ◽  
Milan Banic ◽  
Pedja Milosavljevic

The paper presents an application of the Finite Elements Method for stress and strain analysis of the hot water boiler structure. The aim of the research was to investigate the influence of the boiler scale on the thermal stresses and strains of the structure of hot water boilers. Results show that maximum thermal stresses appear in the zone of the pipe carrying wall of the first reversing chamber. This indicates that the most critical part of the boiler are weld spots of the smoke pipes and pipe carrying plate, which in the case of significant scale deposits can lead to cracks in the welds and water leakage from the boiler. The nonlinear effects were taken into account by defining the bilinear isotropic hardening model for all boiler elements. Temperature dependency was defined for all relevant material properties, i. e. isotropic coefficient of thermal expansion, Young?s modulus, and isotropic thermal conductivity. The verification of the FEA model was performed by comparing the measured deformations of the hot water boiler with the simulation results. As a reference object, a Viessmann - Vitomax 200 HW boiler was used, with the installed power of 18.2 MW. CAD modeling was done within the Autodesk Inventor, and stress and strain analysis was performed in the ANSYS Software.


1999 ◽  
Vol 565 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huey-Chiang Liou ◽  
John Pretzer

AbstractThe mechanical properties and thermal stresses of FOx thin films at different thickness and cured at different temperatures have been investigated by a nanoindentor and a profilometer. In this study, the correlation between structure change, thickness, Si-H/Si-O ratio, modulus, hardness, and calculated coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of FOx films have been established. The results show that the modulus of 400°C cured FOx film decreases with increasing film thickness while the hardness slightly varies with increasing film thickness. The calculated CTE of FOx film increases with increasing film thickness. In addition, both the modulus and hardness of FOx films increase with increasing curing temperature. However, the calculated CTE of FOx film decreases with increasing curing temperature. The Si-H/Si-O ratio increases with increasing film thickness but decreases with increasing curing temperature. These results indicate that the increase in modulus and hardness and the decreases in CTE for FOx films are either due to the remaining of Si-H bonds in FOx film at different film thickness or the conversion of Si-H into Si-O when forming the network structure in the FOx film at higher curing temperatures.


Author(s):  
Michael P. H. Marohl ◽  
Glenn R. Frazee ◽  
Thomas M. Musto

The design of buried piping systems requires special considerations. Historically, buried piping was evaluated for thermal expansion and contraction using simple hand calculations considering the piping to be fully-constrained by the surrounding soil. With the development of analytical software, more advanced analysis of buried piping is possible considering detailed piping routing and the stiffness of the surrounding soil and of the piping itself (in cases of more flexible piping materials). Typically, the areas of highest thermal stress occur at changes in direction (i.e. elbows, etc.) due to the applied moments, and the relative stress magnitude is influenced by the stiffness of the surrounding soil. Due to the relatively high coefficient of thermal expansion of polyethylene, stresses in buried piping due to thermal expansion and contraction are of particular note for high density polyethylene (HDPE) piping. This paper examines the relative influence of the analytical representations of a variety of HDPE piping elbow geometries (e.g. mitered elbows, molded elbows, etc.) and corresponding soil restraint. The study demonstrates that total longitudinal stress calculated in a finite element analysis may be reduced using minor to moderate efforts of refinement.


1986 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. G. Agar ◽  
N. R. Morgenstern ◽  
J. D. Scott

The prediction of stress changes and deformations arising from ground heating requires the coupled solution of the heat transfer and consolidation equations. Heat consolidation as a class of problems is distinct from other thermally induced consolidation problems involving processes such as frost heave and thaw consolidation in that it involves heating to elevated temperatures well above normal ground temperatures. Two of the important parameters required in analyses of heat consolidation problems are thermal expansion coefficients and a coefficient of thermal pore pressure generation.Relationships describing thermal expansion behaviour and thermal pore pressure generation in oil sands are presented. Both drained and undrained thermal expansion coefficients for Athabasca oil sand were determined by means of heating experiments in the temperature range 20–300 °C. The thermal pore pressure generation coefficient was evaluated in undrained heating experiments under constant total confining stresses and under constant effective confining stresses. The equipment and experimental methods developed during this study are appropriate for determination of thermal expansion and pore pressure generation properties of oil sands and other unconsolidated geologic materials. Key words: thermal expansion, oil sand, tar sand, thermal pore pressure generation, heat consolidation, thermal consolidation, coefficient of thermal expansion, thermal stresses, ground heating, thermally enhanced oil recovery, thermoelasticity, undrained heating.


2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 (1) ◽  
pp. 000364-000371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aditi Mallik ◽  
Roger Stout

Wafers warp. It is important to minimize warpage in order to achieve optimal die yield and potentially prevent future device failure. Although the word warpage is widely used in the literature to represent wafer bow (convex or concave shape), in the real world wafers are often seen into warp into saddle shapes. This complicates the characterization of both the sources of and solutions to warpage, because (as will be discussed) Stoney's formula (relating intrinsic stress and curvature) does not apply for structures warped with compound curvature, and standard wafer warpage measurements are not designed to measure compound curvature. During thin film deposition, wafer warpage occurs due to the intrinsic stresses and the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch of the different thin films and the substrate. Unfortunately, whereas the introduction of the thermal stresses due to CTE mismatch into a finite element model is easily understood, the introduction of intrinsic stress is not. Further, although a saddle shape is clearly a physically realizable (indeed, often preferred) equilibrium configuration for a circular disk (consistent with an appropriate state of stress), obtaining a saddle shape in a finite element solution turns out to be extremely difficult, as convex or concave shapes may also be stable and numerically preferred. In this paper, a finite element technique (using ANSYS software) to model wafer warpage is presented. Simulations have been done for silicon wafers with aluminum or standard UBM films on top. Saddle-shaped warpage has been successfully modeled, and the aggravating effects of thinning (back side grinding) have been reproduced.


2006 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 1759-1764
Author(s):  
Maurizio Fersini ◽  
R. Bianco ◽  
L. De Lorenzis ◽  
Antonio Licciulli ◽  
G. Pasquero ◽  
...  

Advanced structural ceramics such as Hot Pressed Silicon Nitride (HPSN) and Reaction Bonded Silicon Carbide (RBSC), thanks to their low density (3.1 ÷ 3.4 gr/cm3) and to their thermostructural properties, are interesting candidates for aerospace applications. This research investigates the feasibility of employing such monolithic advanced ceramics for the production of turbine vanes for aerospace applications, by means of a finite element analysis. A parametric study is performed to analyse the influence of the coefficient of thermal expansion, the specific heat, the thermal conductivity, and the Weibull modulus on structural stability, heat transfer properties and thermomechanical stresses under take-off and flying conditions. A nodal point that is evidenced is the high intensity of thermal stresses on the vane, both on steady state and in transient conditions. In order to reduce such stresses various simulations have been carried out varying geometrical parameters such as the wall thickness. Several open questions are evidenced and guidelines are drawn for the design and production of ceramic vanes for gas turbines.


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