WTC2005-63573 Surface Treatments for Modifying the Tribological Behavior of Microsystems

ABSTRACT The surfaces of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) that have impacting and sliding contacts are frequently modified by coatings to improve the tribological behavior of the structural material. In silicon microsystems, chemisorbed hydrocarbon or fluorocarbon monolayers are commonly used to modify the surface energy of the oxidized silicon to resist water adsorption and adhesion. Thin conformal solid films can also be employed to improve the wear resistance of the structural material. The requirements of coatings for microsystems will be discussed in terms of tribological behavior, processing, operation and aging characteristics. Although contacting surfaces of polycrystalline silicon have arithmetic roughness of less than 50 nm, contact forces below 1 mN prescribe that real contact occurs at only a few asperities. Defects in the coatings, and interfaces that are deeply buried present opportunities for adsorption of reactive species and degradation of the coating over time. An understanding of the mechanical and chemical degradation mechanisms of tribological coatings is of primary importance for the reliable operation of microsystems. At the same time, relating composition and structure of the contacting surfaces to the tribological behavior is quite challenging due to the limited size and number of real contact spots. A variety of surface treatments for silicon microsystems have been investigated, including chemisorbed monolayers, vapor phase lubricants and hard coatings. The tribological behavior of polycrystalline silicon containing chemisorbed monolayers is dramatically influenced by water vapor in the environment during fabrication processes, storage or operation. Surface analytical tools and friction measurements using micromachined tribometers to understand the impact of coating degradation on the tribological behavior of microsystems are illustrated

Baryon Resonance Analysis from SAID

We discuss the analysis of data from piN elastic scattering and single pion photo- and electroproduction. The main focus is a study of low-lying non-strange baryon resonances. Here we concentrate on some difficulties associated with resonance identification, in particular the Roper and higher P11 states.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures; Nstar2009 Conf Proceedings; small revisio

Energetic-Particle Synthesis of Nanocomposite Al Alloys

Ion implantation of O into Al and growth of Al(O) layers using electro-cyclotron resonance plasma and pulsed laser depositions produce composite alloys with a high density of nanometer-size oxide precipitates in an Al matrix. The precipitates impart high strength to the alloy and reduced adhesion during sliding contact, while electrical conductivity and ductility are retained. Implantation of N into Al produces similar microstructures and mechanical properties. The athermal energies of deposited atoms are a key factor in achieving these properties

Population dynamics of mallards breeding in eastern Washington

Variation in regional population trends for mallards breeding in the western United States indicates that additional research into factors that influence demographics could contribute to management and understanding the population demographics of mallards across North America. We estimated breeding incidence and adult female, nest, and brood survival in eastern Washington in 2006 and 2007 by monitoring female mallards with radio telemetry and tested how those parameters were influenced by study year (2006 vs. 2007), landscape type (agricultural vs. natural), and age (second year [SY] vs. after second year [ASY]). We also investigated the effects of female body condition and capture date on breeding incidence, and nest initiation date and hatch date on nest and brood survival, respectively. We included population parameters in a stage-based demographic model and conducted a perturbation analysis to identify which vital rates were most influential on population growth rate (λ). Adult female survival was best modeled with a constant weekly survival rate (0.994, SE = 0.003). Breeding incidence differed between years and was higher for birds in better body condition. Nest survival was higher for ASY females (0.276, SE = 0.118) than SY females (0.066, SE = 0.052), and higher on publicly managed lands (0.383, SE = 0.212) than agricultural (0.114, SE = 0.058) landscapes. Brood survival was best modeled with a constant rate for the 7-week monitoring period (0.50, SE = 0.155). The single variable having the greatest influence on λ was non-breeding season survival, but the combination of parameters from the breeding grounds explained a greater percent of the variance in λ. Mallard population growth rate was most sensitive to changes in non-breeding survival, nest success, brood survival, and breeding incidence. Future management decisions should focus on activities that improve these vital rates if managers want to increase the production of mallards in eastern WashingtonKeywords: survival, Washington, Anas platyrhynchos, mallard, nest success, breeding demographicsKeywords: survival, Washington, Anas platyrhynchos, mallard, nest success, breeding demographic

Topological complexity of the relative closure of a semi-Pfaffian couple

Gabrielov introduced the notion of relative closure of a Pfaffian couple as an alternative construction of the o-minimal structure generated by Khovanskii's Pfaffian functions. In this paper, use the notion of format (or complexity) of a Pfaffian couple to derive explicit upper-bounds for the homology of its relative closure. Keywords: Pfaffian functions, fewnomials, o-minimal structures, Betti numbers.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure. v3: Proofs and bounds have been slightly improve

Towers and fibered products of model categories

Given a left Quillen presheaf of localized model structures, we study the homotopy limit model structure on the associated category of sections. We focus specifically on towers and fibered products of model categories. As applications we consider Postnikov towers of model categories, chromatic towers of spectra and Bousfield arithmetic squares of spectra. For spectral model categories, we show that the homotopy fiber of a stable left Bousfield localization is a stable right Bousfield localization

Backward-angle photoproduction of π0\pi^0 mesons on the proton at EγE_\gamma = 1.5--2.4 GeV

Differential cross sections and photon beam asymmetries for $\pi^0$ photoproduction have been measured at $E_\gamma$ = 1.5--2.4 GeV and at the $\pi^0$ scattering angles, --1 $<$ cos$\Theta_{c.m.} <$ --0.6. The energy-dependent slope of differential cross sections for $u$-channel $\pi^0$ production has been determined. An enhancement at backward angles is found above $E_\gamma$ = 2.0 GeV. This is inferred to be due to the $u$-channel contribution and/or resonances. Photon beam asymmetries have been obtained for the first time at backward angles. A strong angular dependence has been found at $E_\gamma >$ 2.0 GeV, which may be due to the unknown high-mass resonances.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PL

Aging model for solid lubricants used in weapon stronglinks: Oxidation chemistry and hardware review

In support of efforts to model the performance of the MC2969 strong link for stockpile life extension, the kinetics of oxidation of the MoS{sub 2} based solid lubricant coating have been determined. The lubricant oxidation is primarily influenced by the extent of burnishing of the coating after application and curing. The activation energy for lubricant oxidation is low and agrees well with reported values for MoS{sub 2} coatings and particles. The type of substrate material and the amount of H{sub 2}O vapor present have little influence on the oxidation kinetics, but do affect the chemical species found on the surface, including sulfate species which enhance substrate corrosion. The analysis of field returned hardware shows oxidation levels within the range of those obtained throughout the oxidation study

Penta-quark states with hidden charm and beauty

More and more hadron states are found to be difficult to be accommodated by the quenched quark models which describe baryons as 3-quark states and mesons as antiquark-quark states. Dragging out an antiquark-quark pair from the gluon field in hadrons should be an important excitation mechanism for hadron spectroscopy. Our recent progress on the penta-quark states with hidden charm and beauty is reviewed.Comment: Plenary talk at the 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on Few-Body Problems in Physics 2011 (APFB2011), 22-26 Aug., 2011, Seoul, Kore