Thin-film Characterization

The third intended application for the proposed dispersion-encoded low-coherence interferometry is the evaluation of thin-film characteristics on substrate materials. Due to the usage of thin-film technologies in high-volume production in e.g. the photovoltaics and semiconductor industry, process monitoring becomes relevant in order to ensure functional parameters such as solar cell efficiency, [289]. In this context, film thickness as well as film homogeneity over large areas are important criteria for quality assurance.

Determining Johnson-Cook Constitutive Equation for Low-Carbon Steel via Taylor Anvil Test

Tristal steel is low-carbon construction-type steel widely used in the automotive industry, e.g., for braking components. Given the contemporary demands on the high-volume production of such components, these are typically fabricated using automatic sequential machines, which can produce components at strain rates up to 103 s−1. For this reason, characterising the behaviour of the used material at high strain rates is of the utmost importance for successful industrial production. This study focuses on the characterisation of the behaviour of low-carbon steel via developing its material model using the Johnson-Cook constitutive equation. At first, the Taylor anvil test is performed. Subsequently, the acquired data together with the results of observations of structures and properties of the tested specimens are used to fill the necessary parameters into the equation. Finally, the developed equation is used to numerically simulate the Taylor anvil test and the predicted data is correlated with the experimentally acquired one. The results showed a satisfactory correlation of the experimental and predicted data; the deformed specimen region featured increased occurrence of dislocations, as well as higher hardness (its original value of 88 HV increased to more than 200 HV after testing), which corresponded to the predicted distributions of effective imposed strain and compressive stress.

A Reusable Unit Process Life Cycle Inventory Model for Infeed Centerless Grinding

Environmental impact minimization is an important aspect for improving the sustainability performance of manufacturing processes. Quantifying the environmental impacts of unit manufacturing processes requires systematic modeling of process life cycle inventories. This paper develops an inventory model for infeed centerless grinding based on the unit process life cycle inventory methodology. The developed model estimates the energy consumption, material losses, and consumable fluids, for a typical high-volume production setup. Process consumption data is estimated from parameters directly used for process setup as well as machine and tool specifications that can be easily obtained from technical documentation and product geometrical specification. The developed model is demonstrated using a case study involving the infeed centerless grinding of an Inconel 718 shaft on a Cincinnati Twin-Grip Centerless Grinding Machine.

Screen-Printed Flexible Thermoelectric Device Based on Hybrid Silver Selenide/PVP Composite Films

In recent years, the preparation of flexible thermoelectric generators by screen printing has attracted wide attention due to easy processing and high-volume production. In this work, we propose an n-type Ag2Se/polymer polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) film based on screen printing and investigate the effect of PVP on thermoelectric performance by varying the ratio of PVP. When the content ratio of Ag2Se to PVP is 30:1, i.e., PI30, the fabricated PI30 film has the best thermoelectric property. The maximum power factor (PF) of the PI30 is 4.3 μW·m−1·K−2, and conductivity reaches 81% of its initial value at 1500 bending cycles. Then, the film thermoelectric generator (F-TEG) fabricated by PI30 is tested for practical application; the output voltage and the maximum output power are 21.6 mV and 233.3 nW at the temperature difference of 40 K, respectively. This work demonstrates that the use of PVP combined with screen printing to prepare F-TEG is a simple and rapid method, which provides an efficient preparation solution for the development of environmentally friendly and wearable flexible thermoelectric devices.

Design and Implementation of 64-bit SRAM and CAM on Cadence and Open-source environment

Low-power IC design has become a priority in recent years because of the growing proliferation of portable battery-operated devices, bringing Static Random-Access Memory (SRAM) and Content Addressable Memory (CAM) into play. In today's SoCs, embedded SRAM units have become a necessary component. There is a lack of chips in the current world and to manufacture chips there is the requirement of Electronic Design Automation(EDA) tools that can perform better. In this paper, the main motive is to showcase the performance of open-source tools available currently which can still generate the required output with no cost. In this new era of fast mobile computing, traditional SRAM cell designs are power-demanding and underperforming. Rather than lowering manufacturing costs through high-volume production, specialty memory give cost-effective alternatives through architecture. Specialty memory devices enable the designer to address issues like board area, important timing, data flow bottlenecks, and so on in ways that high-volume regular memory devices cannot. Implementation of memory devices on Cadence environment and open-source environment to check the compatibility and compare the power, area, and delay of both 64-bit SRAM and CAM also analysing and validating the results of both the memory devices in this paper. For SRAM in a cadence environment, the calculated power, area, and slack have improved values, namely 0.145mW, 1104.3um2, and positive slack of 6636. Furthermore, the power for 64-bit CAM in a cadence context is nearly identical to those for an open-source environment ~0.8mW. In an open-source environment, the calculated slack for CAM is 4.74.

Molecular engineering improves antigen quality and enables integrated manufacturing of a trivalent subunit vaccine candidate for rotavirus

Background Vaccines comprising recombinant subunit proteins are well-suited to low-cost and high-volume production for global use. The design of manufacturing processes to produce subunit vaccines depends, however, on the inherent biophysical traits presented by an individual antigen of interest. New candidate antigens typically require developing custom processes for each one and may require unique steps to ensure sufficient yields without product-related variants. Results We describe a holistic approach for the molecular design of recombinant protein antigens—considering both their manufacturability and antigenicity—informed by bioinformatic analyses such as RNA-seq, ribosome profiling, and sequence-based prediction tools. We demonstrate this approach by engineering the product sequences of a trivalent non-replicating rotavirus vaccine (NRRV) candidate to improve titers and mitigate product variants caused by N-terminal truncation, hypermannosylation, and aggregation. The three engineered NRRV antigens retained their original antigenicity and immunogenicity, while their improved manufacturability enabled concomitant production and purification of all three serotypes in a single, end-to-end perfusion-based process using the biotechnical yeast Komagataella phaffii. Conclusions This study demonstrates that molecular engineering of subunit antigens using advanced genomic methods can facilitate their manufacturing in continuous production. Such capabilities have potential to lower the cost and volumetric requirements in manufacturing vaccines based on recombinant protein subunits.

Fabrication Methods for Microfluidic Devices: An Overview

Microfluidic devices offer the potential to automate a wide variety of chemical and biological operations that are applicable for diagnostic and therapeutic operations with higher efficiency as well as higher repeatability and reproducibility. Polymer based microfluidic devices offer particular advantages including those of cost and biocompatibility. Here, we describe direct and replication approaches for manufacturing of polymer microfluidic devices. Replications approaches require fabrication of mould or master and we describe different methods of mould manufacture, including mechanical (micro-cutting; ultrasonic machining), energy-assisted methods (electrodischarge machining, micro-electrochemical machining, laser ablation, electron beam machining, focused ion beam (FIB) machining), traditional micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) processes, as well as mould fabrication approaches for curved surfaces. The approaches for microfluidic device fabrications are described in terms of low volume production (casting, lamination, laser ablation, 3D printing) and high-volume production (hot embossing, injection moulding, and film or sheet operations).