The concept of constant emission yield in GDOES

This review paper describes the evolution of the quantification procedure for compositional depth profiling (CDP) in glow discharge optical emission spectrometry (GD-OES), based on the constant emission yield concept. The concept of emission yield (EY) is defined and ways of measuring it experimentally are discussed. The history of the development of quantitative CDP is reviewed, which shows that all of the different approaches depend on the assumption that the EY is essentially a matrix-independent quantity. Particular emphasis is placed on the dependence of the EY on the plasma parameters of current, voltage, power and pressure. In short, impedance changes (current voltage) can significantly affect the emission yield and should either be corrected mathematically or the impedance should be kept constant by pressure regulation in order to obtain reliable results from GDOES CDP. On the other hand, the effect of varying the pressure on the emission yield can be considered to be minor within the limits of practical operating conditions for most CDP applications. It is worth, however, bearing in mind that varying the discharge pressure has a significant effect on the plasma processes, and does affect the emission yield when these variations are large. The experimental results obtained for the emission yield are related to the results from theoretical model calculations published on the subjec

Jet Application of Plasma Electrolyte Polishing

Plasma electrolytic polishing (PEP) has been gaining increasing attention as a replacement for electrochemical polishing (EP) processes. It significantly enhances metal surface properties in terms of surface roughness and corrosion resistance. In contrast to EP. PEP does not require any preliminary workpiece cleaning or treatment with hazardous acids. However, PEP in bath applications yields inhomogeneous polishing results and, in particular, cannot polish more complex geometries such as cavities. To overcome these issues and to enhance the control of local polishing effects on metal workpieces, the use of a PEP jet is investigated. A jet configuration enables higher PEP control and increases PEP polishing rates by a factor of six compared to a polishing bath as a result of higher localized current

Wood 'n plasma

Est-il possible de valoriser le bois dur de nos forêts par un traitement plasma? C’est ce à quoi s’emploie une équipe interdépartementale de chercheurs de la BFH.Ist es möglich, Hartholz aus unseren Wäldern mit einer Plasmabehandlung aufzuwerten? Ein interdepartementales Forscherteam der BFH sucht nach Lösungen

Investigation on AUTOSAR-Compliant Solutions for Many-Core Architectures

As of today, AUTOSAR is the de facto standard in the automotive industry, providing a common software architec- ture and development process for automotive applications. While this standard is originally written for singlecore operated Elec- tronic Control Units (ECU), new guidelines and recommendations have been added recently to provide support for multicore archi- tectures. This update came as a response to the steady increase of the number and complexity of the software functions embedded in modern vehicles, which call for the computing power of multicore execution environments. In this paper, we enumerate and analyze the design options and the challenges of porting AUTOSAR-based automotive applications onto multicore platforms. In particular, we investigate those options when considering the emerging many- core architectures that provide a more scalable environment than the traditional multicore systems. Such platforms are suitable to enable massive parallel execution, and their design is more suitable for partitioning and isolating the software components.Euromicro Conference on Digital System Design (DSD 2015), Funchal, Portugal

Microwave plasma-assisted reactive HiPIMS of InN films: Plasma environment and material characterisation

This work focuses on the low temperature fabrication process of InN thin films via microwave plasma-assisted reactive high power impulse magnetron sputtering (MAR-HiPIMS). The influence of microwave plasma on the HiPIMS discharge process at various nitrogen flows and microwave powers was monitored and characterised through in situ diagnostics, including following HiPIMS I(V,t) curves, optical emission spectroscopy (OES), as well as performing time-resolved Langmuir probe and time-of-flight mass spectroscopy (ToF-MS) measurements. This was followed by the deposition of InN films via standard reactive HiPIMS (reference sample) and MAR-HiPIMS and their characterisation via X-ray diffraction (XRD), reflectometry (XRR), as well as scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM, TEM). It was found that the microwave plasma facilitates the dissociation/activation of nitrogen species and supplies seed electrons to the magnetron discharge plasma. Furthermore, the energy of the incoming ions was determined via ToF-MS, and it was possible to identify their plasma origin and temporal behaviour. The produced R-HiPIMS sample was highly metallic, with no nitride phase detected. The MAR-HiPMS film, however, was stoichiometric and exhibited (0002) direction texturing, with an optical bandgap of approx. 1.5 eV, electron concentration of 2.72 × 1020 cm−3 and electron mobility of 7.16 cm2V−1 s−1 (in the range for polycrystalline InN)

Influence of HiPIMS pulse widths on the deposition behaviour and properties of CuAgZr compositionally graded films

In this work, the influence of different pulse widths (25, 50 and 100 μs) during high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) of copper, silver and zirconium was investigated in terms of plasma properties and properties of combinatorial composition gradient CuAgZr film libraries. In situ plasma diagnostics via optical emission spectroscopy (OES), time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOFMS), and modified quartz crystal microbalance (m-QCM), followed by film ex situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) investigations allowed to determine the effect of deposition parameters on the thin films' microstructural changes. Changing the pulse width, while keeping the duty cycle constant, modified the discharge composition in the target region and the ionised fraction of the sputtered species in the substrate region. The maximum Cu ionised fraction (19 %) was found for 50 μs, resulting in compact and smooth morphology for Cu-rich films, whereas short 25 μs pulses provided porous columnar films with rough surfaces, as the result from Ar+ bombardment. For Ag-rich films, Ag segregation allowed the deposition of dense layers, regardless of the used pulse width. Furthermore, low Ag (<10 at.%) CuAgZr films produced via HiPIMS and direct-current magnetron sputtering (DCMS) were compared in terms of structural and mechanical property changes as a function of Zr contents. For the studied chemical composition range, a linear relationship between Zr content, XRD phase shift and mechanical properties was observed for HiPIMS films, in contrast to DCMS's more abrupt transitions. An increase in hardness and elastic modulus (up to 44 % and 22 %, respectively) was found for the HiPIMS films compared to DCMS ones. The obtained results highlight HiPIMS's flexibility in providing a wide range of tailoring possibilities to meet specific application requirements, such as crystalline microstructure, density and associated mechanical properties

Improved semiconducting CuO/CuFe2O4 nanostructured thin films for CO2 gas sensing

Promising results on the behavior of CuO/CuFe2O4sputtered thin films as a sensing material under carbondioxide atmospheres are presented in this article. More specifically, we report the effects of preparationparameters and microstructure of the sensing layer on the response to CO2. FEG-SEM images and XPSmeasurements revealed the two-stacked layers rearrangement of samples after air annealing as a keyparameter in gas sensing test. The influence of the sensing layer thickness and the influence of Ag as anadditive in the film on the response are also reported. The best response was obtained at the optimaloperating temperature of 250◦C with a thin film deposited under low argon pressure and low target-to-substrate distance, reaching 40% towards 5000 ppm of CO2

From pulsed-DCMS and HiPIMS to microwave plasma-assisted sputtering: Their influence on the properties of diamond-like carbon films

The fabrication of high-hardness non-hydrogenated diamond-like carbon (DLC) via standard magnetron sputtering (MS) is often hindered by the low sputtering yields and ionisation rates of carbon, therefore investigations into pulsed alternatives of MS, else sputtered species post-ionisation methods, are of particular interest. This work focuses on investigating the influence of pulsed-direct current MS (pDCMS), high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) and their microwave plasma-assisted (MA-pDCMS, MA-HiPIMS) variants on the properties of the fabricated DLC films. Two setups were used for the pDCMS- and HiPIMS-based methods, respectively. The films were characterised using Raman spectroscopy, nanoindentation, X-ray reflectometry and scanning electron microscopy, where the pDCMS-produced films were additionally characterised by film-stress measurements. Moreover, in situ time-resolved Langmuir probe plasma analysis was performed under HiPIMS and MA-HiPIMS conditions to analyse the influence of the magnetron and microwave plasmas on one another. For both DCMS- and HiPIMS-based procedures, it was found that the addition of microwave plasma did not facilitate attaining hardnesses beyond 30 GPa, however, it did enable modifying the morphology of the films. Furthermore, this study shows the potential of synchronised sputtering with substrate biasing, as well as the importance of microwave plasma source positioning in relation to the substrate

Deposition and characterisation of c-axis oriented AlScN thin films via microwave plasma-assisted reactive HiPIMS

In this work, we demonstrate that highly oriented c-axis aluminium scandium nitride (AlScN) piezoelectric thin films can be deposited via microwave plasma-assisted reactive high power impulse magnetron sputtering (MAR-HiPIMS), without the necessity of substrate heating. A combination of in situ plasma diagnostics, i.e. time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ToF-MS), modified quartz crystal microbalance (m-QCM), and magnetic field measurements allowed to optimise the deposition conditions, in turn maximising the nitrogen supply and ionic flux at the substrate region, while maintaining stable discharge conditions. The AlScN thin films synthesised in this study were deposited as chemically gradient coatings with varying levels of scandium doping, and were characterised using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Obtaining highly textured films was made possible with the addition of microwave plasma to the optimised HiPIMS discharge, where the wurtzite AlScN films (with up to 20 at. % Sc) exhibited a stronger texture in the (0002) orientation compared to films prepared without microwave plasma. Additionally, the use of a microwave plasma led to a significant decrease in oxygen content in the films and increase in nitrogen content, ensuring stoichiometric compositions. Based on the results mentioned above, it is expected that the AlScN thin films fabricated via MAR-HiPIMS would exhibit a strong piezoelectric response