EFFECT OF PASSIVATING COATINGS ON METALLIZATION TOPOLOGY IN PRODUCTION OF SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES

The surface quality of the metallized contact pads on the crystal plays an important role in the production of semiconductor devices. This paper presents experimental studies of the effect of a protective passivation film of silicon oxide on the surface structure of aluminum metallization in the field of forming contact pads. Plasma chemical deposition of passivation layer SiO2 from gas phase (PECVD method) was carried out on prepared samples of silicon with aluminum metallization using a high-frequency power source with a frequency of 13.56 MHz. After that, chemical etching of precipitated silicon oxide was carried out to simulate the process of forming contact areas of semiconductor device crystals. The resistance of the metallization surface to plasma processes was studied by raster electron microscopy. It is shown that as a result of the process cycle, defects of the dislocation type are generated in the applied film Al. The nature of the observed defects has been found to be different. The revealed large square-shaped pits with a size of ~ 1 μm at the places where dislocations come to the surface are of a single nature and appear independently of the processes of applying passivation coatings, which is determined by the orienting action of a single-crystal substrate having some low dislocation density. While the second type of defects, shown by the presence of etching pits measuring ~ 100-300 nm, is characterized by a higher surface density. Moreover, the exclusion of the passivation process with silicon oxide did not lead to the appearance of this type of defects, which determined their nature associated with the ion bombardment of the Al layer during the plasma chemical deposition of silicon oxide from the gas phase. It is also shown that a feature of this type of defects is their disorientation both with respect to the first type of defects and with respect to each other. Detection of the structure of the metallization layers was carried out by X-ray diffraction, the results of which show the polycrystallinity of the formed aluminum metallization. The preferred orientation of the aluminum film corresponds to the substrate Si (111).

Laser Transmission Welding of Aluminum Film Coated With Heat Sealable Co-Polyester Resin With Polypropylene Films For Applications In Food & Drug Packaging

The present work deals with the high-power diode laser joining process of aluminum films coated with a polyester resin with polypropylene (PP) films. The first part of the work focused on analyzing the coating process of aluminum films with a polyester resin, using an automatic applicator. The second part of the work was focused on the analysis of the laser joining process of coated aluminum films with plastic counterparts made of PP. Different thicknesses and colors of the PP parts were tested in order to analyze the joining process under a wide range of different conditions. The experimental plan involved the study of the influence of the laser joining parameters, in particular the scanning speed and beam power, on the joints. The joints between aluminum and PP films were subsequently tested by means of tensile and peel-off tests. The results allowed the detection of the best processing conditions, stating the high potential of laser systems in the joining process of aluminum and PP films for food packaging applications.

The Corrosion Resistance of Al Film on AZ31 Magnesium Alloys by Magnetron Sputtering

Nano Al films were prepared on AZ31 magnesium alloy samples by DC magnetron sputtering. The effects of sputtering power on the microstructure and corrosion resistance of the Al film were investigated. The results show that the surface of aluminum film is dense and polycrystalline state, and it is oriented along the Al (111) crystal plane. The grain size of Al film first increases and then decreases with the increase of sputtering power. When the sputtering power exceeds 100 W, there is no insignificant effect on the orientation of the Al crystals and the corrosion current density of the samples with Al film are reduced by two orders of magnitude. The corrosion resistance of the magnesium alloy samples with the Al film magnetron sputtered varies with the sputtering power. Compared with low sputtering power, the Al film sputtered by high power has the most excellent corrosion resistance, but too high sputtering power will lead to micro cracks on the Al film, which will adversely affect the corrosion resistance.

Hard Anodization Film on Carbon Steel Surface by Thermal Spray and Anodization Methods

In this paper, we used two mass-produced industrial technologies, namely, thermal spraying and anodization methods, to enhance the surface characteristics of AISI 1045 medium carbon steel for use in special environments or products. The anodic film can effectively improve the surface properties of carbon steel. A sequence of treatments of the carbon steel substrate surface that consist of sandblasting, spraying the aluminum film, annealing, hot rolling, cleaning, grinding, and polishing can increase the quality of the anodized film. This paper proposes an anodization process for the surface of carbon steel to increase the corrosion resistance, hardness, color diversification, and electrical resistance. The resulting surface improves the hardness (from 170 HV to 524 HV), surface roughness (from 1.26 to 0.15 μm), coloring (from metal color to various colors), and corrosion resistance (from rusty to corrosion resistant). The electrochemical corrosion studies showed that the AISI 1045 steel surface with a hard anodized film had a lower corrosion current density of 10−5.9 A/cm2 and a higher impedance of 9000 ohm than those of naked AISI 1045 steel (10−4.2 A/cm2 and 150 ohm) in HCl gas.

Noise and Memristance Variation Tolerance of Single Crossbar Architectures for Neuromorphic Image Recognition

We performed a comparative study on the Gaussian noise and memristance variation tolerance of three crossbar architectures, namely the complementary crossbar architecture, the twin crossbar architecture, and the single crossbar architecture, for neuromorphic image recognition and conducted an experiment to determine the performance of the single crossbar architecture for simple pattern recognition. Ten grayscale images with the size of 32×32 pixels were used for testing and comparing the recognition rates of the three architectures. The recognition rates of the three memristor crossbar architectures were compared to each other when the noise level of images was varied from -10 to 4 dB and the percentage of memristance variation was varied from 0% to 40%. The simulation results showed that the single crossbar architecture had the best Gaussian noise input and memristance variation tolerance in terms of recognition rate. At the signal-to-noise ratio of –10 dB, the single crossbar architecture produced a recognition rate of 91%, which was 2% and 87% higher than those of the twin crossbar architecture and the complementary crossbar architecture, respectively. When the memristance variation percentage reached 40%, the single crossbar architecture had a recognition rate as high as 67.8%, which was 1.8% and 9.8% higher than the recognition rates of the twin crossbar architecture and the complementary crossbar architecture, respectively. Finally, we carried out an experiment to determine the performance of the single crossbar architecture with a fabricated 3 × 3 memristor crossbar based on carbon fiber and aluminum film. The experiment proved successful implementation of pattern recognition with the single crossbar architecture.

Design and Optimization Principles of Cylindrical Sliding Triboelectric Nanogenerators

Reciprocating motion is a widely existing form of mechanical motion in the natural environment. Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) that work in sliding mode are ideal for harnessing large-distance reciprocating motion, and their energy conversion efficiency could be greatly enhanced by adding springs to them. Herein, we focused on investigating the design and optimization principles of sliding mode TENGs by analyzing the effects of spring parameters and vibration frequency on the triboelectric output performance of typical cylindrical sliding TENGs (CS-TENGs). Experimental study and finite elemental analysis were carried out based on a CS-TENG model assembled using a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) film as the negative layer and an aluminum film as the positive layer. The energy output was found to be mainly affected by the change of relative displacement between the two friction layers, rather than the reactive force applied by the springs or the velocity of the sliding motion. However, the frequency of the output signals could be improved when the stiffness coefficient of the springs and the CS-TENG vibration frequency were increased. This study provides valuable directions for the design and optimization of sliding mode TENGs containing springs, and will motivate in-depth research on the fundamental principles of TENG operation.