Electronics assembly processes, tools

Self-assembly processes can today be found in a variety of fields ranging from biology to materials science and electronics. While self-assembly has proven to be a valuable tool in the formation of supramolecular assemblies, it remains less a discipline in its own right than a compilation of principles that have been applied to an apparently disparate collection of research fields. One outcome of this historical development is that the concepts of self-assembly were typically defined in discipline-specific and sometimes overlapping ways. This fragmentation obscures their underlying coherence and universality. It also hinders a widespread understanding of self-assembly. 

Zhou, C., Qi, K., Wooley, K.L., Walker, A.V. (2008) Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry, fluorescence microscopy and scanning electron microscopy combined tools for monitoring the process of pattering and layer-by-layer assembly of synthetic and biological materials. Colloids Surf. B Biointerfaces, 65(1), 85-91. 

The repairs were performed on lower- and upper-wing skin assemblies and on a composite liquid hydrogen tank. On average, they took 50-70% of the time required for a normal thermal repair. The only process where EB carmot be used is resin transfer molding (RTM) because the electrons cannot penetrate the thick steel tooling required for it. The typical dose for this process was found to be 100 kGy. ... 

Theoretical studies of the properties of the individual components of nanocat-alytic systems (including metal nanoclusters, finite or extended supporting substrates, and molecular reactants and products), and of their assemblies (that is, a metal cluster anchored to the surface of a solid support material with molecular reactants adsorbed on either the cluster, the support surface, or both), employ an arsenal of diverse theoretical methodologies and techniques for a recent perspective article about computations in materials science and condensed matter studies [254], These theoretical tools include quantum mechanical electronic structure calculations coupled with structural optimizations (that is, determination of equilibrium, ground state nuclear configurations), searches for reaction pathways and microscopic reaction mechanisms, ab initio investigations of the dynamics of adsorption and reactive processes, statistical mechanical techniques (quantum, semiclassical, and classical) for determination of reaction rates, and evaluation of probabilities for reactive encounters between adsorbed reactants using kinetic equation for multiparticle adsorption, surface diffusion, and collisions between mobile adsorbed species, as well as explorations of spatiotemporal distributions of reactants and products. 

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