Metallic Layers

17 Sensing Layers in Work-Function-Type Gas Sensors 

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A method has been worked out for eddy current testing of surfaces and surface cracks or corrosion under dielectric or non-magnetic metal layer of up to 10 mm. The method is based on excitation of eddy currents by a coil with U - type core and information reading by a sensitive gradientometric element located on a axis of symmetry of the core (fig. 1). 

It is generally used with half mild or mild steels (carbon <. 4). Its purpose is to enrich in carbon the superficial metal layers by diffusion phenomenon. To obtain a hard cemented layer after this processing, we generally proceed by tempering. The chemical processing increases the rate of atomic defects by the introduction of one or many elements in the superficial layers. We can reach surface hardnesses of about 800 VICKERS. 

The application of fundamentally new ECT (Russia patent Jf 2063025) has made it possible to provide high-efficiency defect control accompanied by detecting both small surface defects and more rough under-surface defects under non-magnetic metal layer of 7 mm thick, or surface defects under protection coatings, dye, corrosion, hermetic and other type of layer of 10 mm thick. 

Writing by Bubble Forming. Bubble formation occurs under thin metal layers on polymeric substrate films, caused by local evaporation when hit by a focused laser beam (see Fig. 3c). Bubble formation occurs as in the DIP concept in dye-in-polymer films which are covered by a thin metal (mostiy gold) or ceramic layer (6) (see Fig. 3d). 

Dyes for WORM-Disks. Regarding their memory layer, dye-in-polymer systems show advantages over metal layers in their higher stabiHty, lower toxicity, lower heat conductivity, lower melting and sublimation temperature, and simpler manufacturing technique (substrate coating by sublimation or spincoating). 

Metallization. Integrated circuits require conductive layers to form electrical connections between contacts on a device, between devices on a chip, between metal layers on a chip, and between chips and higher levels of interconnections needed for packaging the chips. It is critical to the success of IC fabrication that the metallization be stable throughout the process sequence in order to maintain the correct physical and electrical properties of the circuit. It must also be possible to pattern the blanket deposition. 

Metallization layers are generally deposited either by CVD or by physical vapor deposition methods such as evaporation (qv) or sputtering. In recent years sputter deposition has become the predominant technique for aluminum metallization. Energetic ions are used to bombard a target such as soHd aluminum to release atoms that subsequentiy condense on the desired substrate surface. The quaUty of the deposited layers depends on the cleanliness and efficiency of the vacuum systems used in the process. The mass deposited per unit area can be calculated using the cosine law of deposition ... 

Impurities that can negatively affect the physical and electrical properties of the metallisation layer can originate from several sources, particularly the deposition source and the gaseous environment. Impurities stemming from the source bombard the surface of the growing film and get trapped in the metal layer. 

Etching. After a resist is patterned on a wafer, the exposed or unwanted substrate is removed by etching processes. Subsequentiy the resist is removed, leaving a desired pattern in a functional layer of the integrated circuit. Etching is performed to pattern a number of materials in the IC fabrication process, including blanket polysiHcon, metal layers, and oxide and nitride layers. The etch process for each material is different, and adapted to the material requirements of the substrate. 

Step 11. If no additional metallisa tion layers are required, the substrate is covered with a passivation layer. If additional levels of metallisa tion are to be added to the stmcture, a blanket layer of a intermetal dielectric (IMD) is deposited. The resist is deposited, patterned (mask 5), and vias down to the Al in the first metal layer are etched. Steps 10 and 11 are repeated to form the second metal layer. 

Designing tandem cells is complex. For example, each cell must transmit efficiently the insufficiently energetic photons so that the contacts on the backs of the upper cells are transparent to these photons and therefore caimot be made of the usual bulk metal layers. Unless the cells in a stack can be fabricated monolithically, ie, together on the same substrate, different external load circuits must be provided for each cell. The thicknesses and band gaps of individual cells in the stack must be adjusted so that the photocurrents in all cells are equal. Such an optimal adjustment is especially difficult because the power in different parts of the solar spectmm varies under ambient conditions. Despite these difficulties, there is potential for improvement in cell conversion efficiency from tandem cells. 

The last technique commonly employed to deposit metals for compound semiconductors is electroplating (150). This technique is usually used where very thick metal layers are desired for very low resistance interconnects or for thick wire bond pads. Another common use of this technique is in the formation of air-bridged interconnects (150), which are popular for high speed electronic and optoelectronic circuits. 

Zirconium chloride and bromide have closely related but dissimilar stmctures. Both contain two metal layers enclosed between two nonmetal layers which both have hexagonal stmcture. In ZrCl, the four-layer sandwich repeats in layers stacked up according to /abca/bcab/cabc/, whereas the ZrBr stacking order is /abca/cabc/bcab/ (188). Both are metallic conductors, but the difference in packing results in different mechanical properties the bromide is much more brittle. 

A unique application of the solid oxygen electrolytes is in dre preparation of mixed oxides from metal vapour deposits. For example, the ceramic superconductors described below, have been prepared from mixtures of the metal vapours in the appropriate proporhons which are deposited on the surface of a solid electrolyte. Oxygen is pumped tluough the electrolyte by the application of a polarizing potential across the electrolyte to provide the oxidant for the metallic layer which is formed. 

This node(s) presents a different problem. Its AC voltage can be easily capac-itively coupled into any adjacent traces on different metal layers, as well as radiate EMI. Unfortunately, it is generally the trace that must also act as a heatsink for both the power switch and the rectifiers, especially in surface mount power supplies. Electrically, the trace wants to be as small as possible, but thermally, it wants to be large. There is one good compromise in the surface mount designs, and that is to make the top PCB island identical to the bottom PCB island and connect them with numerous vias (or thru-hole connections). This can be seen in Figure 3-62. 

In the early days of TEM, sample preparation was divided into two categories, one for thin films and one for bulk materials. Thin-films, particularly metal layers, were often deposited on substrates and later removed by some sort of technique involving dissolution of the substrate. Bulk materials were cut and polished into thin slabs, which were then either electropolished (metals) or ion-milled (ceramics). The latter technique uses a focused ion beam (typically Ar+) of high-energy, which sputters the surface of the thinned slab. These techniques produce so-called plan-view thin foils. 

The SSMS point-to-plane surface technique has been shown to be particularly useful in the survey analysis of epitaxial films, heavy metal implant contamination, diflRision furnace contamination, and deposited metal layers. 

The thickness of a film influences the interference of light waves reflected from the front and back of the film, and hence the reflectance. The thickness of an absorbing film can, therefore, be measured only as long as there is still a contribution of from the back of the film to the reflectance of the sample. Typical measurable thicknesses of metallic layers are <50 nm. 

Adhesion of copper films to PMDA/ODA polyimide was determined by peel tests conducted on samples that were prepared by vapor-depositing a thin layer of copper onto the polyimide and then building the thickness of the metal layer to about 18 p,m by electrodeposition of copper. Results of the adhesion measurements correlated well with substrate pretreatment. When the substrate... 

Of course, this simple picture constitutes only a crude approximation and should be valued only for showing that the completion of a metal layer around C o with 32 Ba-atoms is, indeed, plausible. More precise predictions would have to rely on ab initio calculations, including a possible change in bond lengths of Qo> such as an expansion of the double bonds of C o due to electron transfer to the antibonding LUMO (as was found in the case of QoLii2[I2,131T... 

Fig. 3. Mass spectra of photoionized QgCa (top) and C7oCa) (bottom) the lower axis is labeled by the number of metal atoms on the fullerene molecule. The peaks at x = 32 for C Ca and x = 37 for C7oCa , correspond to a first metal layer around the fullerenes with one atom located at each of the rings. The edges at x = 104 and x = 114, respectively, signal the completion of a second metal layer.

At the end of this section, let us return briefly to the spectra shown in Fig. 3. Notice the structure in the mass spectrum of QoCa, between the completion of the first metal layer at 32 and the second at 104. This structure is identical in the fragmentation mass spectra of fullerenes covered with Ca and with Sr. It is reminiscent of the subshell structure of pure Ca clusters. The subshells could be correlated with the formation of stable islands during the growth of the individual shells[10,l 1]. The sublayer structure we observe here may also give some clue to the building process of these layers. However, the data is presently insufficient to allow stable islands to be identified with certainty. 

Consider now the solutions of the spherical potential well with a barrier at the center. Figure 14 shows how the energies of the subshells vary as a function of the ratio between the radius of the C o barrier Rc and the outer radius of the metal layer R ui- The subshells are labeled with n and /, where n is the principal quantum number used in nuclear physics denoting the number of extrema in the radial wave function, and / is the angular momentum quantum number. 

CORCON initially assumes that the molten core debris is stratified as a dense oxidic layer on the bottom and a less dense metallic layer on the top. Later, when molten concrete slag dilutes the heavy oxide layer, the lighter oxide layer than the metal layer rises to the top. Each layci is assumed to be isothermal and heat is exchanged between (1) the melt and the concrete, (2) layers of the melt, and (3) the top surface of the melt and the atmosphere above it. When the concrete heats up to about 2500 F, CORCON predicts the release of steam and COj from concrete decomposition. Tile lieat of reaction of the gases reacting with the materials of the melt are calculated. 

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