Microstructure,Tensile and Fatigue Properties of Al–5 wt.%Mg Alloy Manufactured by Twin Roll Strip Casting

This study investigated the microstructure, tensile and fatigue properties of Al–5 wt.%Mg alloy manufactured by twin roll strip casting. Strips cast as a fabricated (F) specimen and a specimen heat treated (O) at 400 °C/5 h were produced and compared. In the F specimen, microstructural observation discovered clustered precipitates in the center area, while in the O specimen precipitates were relatively more evenly distributed. Al, Al₆(Mn, Fe), Mg₂Al₃ and Mg₂Si phases were observed. However, most of the Mg₂Al₃ phase in the heat-treated O specimen was dissolved. A room temperature tensile test measured yield strength of 177.7 MPa, ultimate tensile strength of 286.1 MPa and elongation of 11.1% in the F specimen and 167.7 MPa (YS), 301.5 MPa (UTS) and 24.6% (EL) in the O specimen. A high cycle fatigue test measured a fatigue limit of 145 MPa in the F specimen and 165 MPa in the O specimen, and the O specimen achieved greater fatigue properties in all fatigue stress conditions. The tensile and fatigue fracture surfaces of the above-mentioned specimens were observed, and this study attempted to investigate the tensile and fatigue deformation behavior of strip cast Al–5 wt.%Mg based on the findings.     

A Fully-Differential Complementary Hartley VCO in 0.18 m CMOS Technology

In this letter, a new complementary Hartley (C-Hartley) voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) with fully differential outputs is proposed, in which the self-biasing configuration is introduced to solve the biasing difficulty of a Hartley VCO by employing a five-port transformer. The proposed C-Hartley VCO with the center frequency of 5.6 GHz is implemented in a 1P6M 0.18 $mu$m CMOS process. The measurement result shows that the phase noise is ${-}123.6$ dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset frequency, while dissipating 6.5 mA from 1.6 V supply with the FOM of ${-}188.5$ dBc.      

Warpage of a large‐sized orthogonal stiffened plate produced by injection molding and injection compression molding

Rectangular plates of the size of 1800 × 600 × 12 mm³ and 1200 × 600 × 12 mm³ were selected for injection molding and injection compression molding, respectively, in order to investigate warpage characteristics of the large‐sized polymer plates with orthogonal stiffener. To determine the mold system and to reduce warpage of the specimen, numerical analyses for injection molding and injection compression molding were performed by using a commercial simulation code. Experiments were performed to verify the suggested mold system and warpage of the specimen. Relatively large warpage of the injection molded product was observed and small warpage of the injection compression molded product was generated. Compression force of the injection compression molding was only 6% of the clamp force of the injection molding. Warpage of the product was reduced significantly by using the injection compression molding. The injection compression molding will be used to substitute expensive and disused wood forms with inexpensive and recyclable polymer plates for concrete casting. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010     

Enhancement of the Li ion transfer reaction at the LiCoO2 interface by 1,3,5-trifluorobenzene

This work presents a method of enhancing the kinetics of the interfacial reaction using 1,3,5-trifluorobenzene (TFB) which is used as an electron acceptor due to its locally biased polarity and as a source of rearranging the layer of the electrolyte around LiCoO₂ electrode, not a SEI layer source. The full cells with TFB show a decrease in irreversible capacity loss during the first charge-to-discharge process, regardless of the SEI layer formation, and also show better discharge properties even at high rate conditions. The charge transfer resistance (R_ct) of the LiCoO₂ half cell with TFB shows the smaller resistance than that of the TFB free half cell, and the activation energy calculated from the R_ct was 24.7 kJ/mol for the TFB free half cell and 19.3 kJ/mol for the half cell with TFB. In addition, the film resistance of the half cell with TFB shows higher value when the temperature is below 283 K. Since R_ct is related to the transfer resistance of the solvated Li⁺ ions on the surface of the LiCoO₂ electrode, it will help design the electrolyte to improve the transfer velocity of Li⁺ ions around the cathode electrode for high power Li ion battery.     

Electromigration-Induced Plastic Deformation in Cu Interconnects: Effects on Current Density Exponent, <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>, and Implications for EM Reliability Assessment

While Black’s equation for electromigration (EM) in interconnects with n = 1 is rigorously based on the principles of electrotransport, n > 1 is more commonly observed empirically. This deviation is usually attributed to Joule heating. An alternative explanation is suggested by the recent discovery of EM plasticity. To examine this possibility, we have retested samples that had been previously subjected to a predamaging phase of high temperature and current densities to determine whether the loss of median time to failure (MTF) is retained. We find that the predamaged samples exhibit MTFs that are permanently reduced, which is a characteristic of EM plasticity.     

Hypocholesterolemic Action of Fermented Brown Rice Supplement in Cholesterol-Fed Rats: Cholesterol-lowering Action of Fermented Brown Rice

Fermented rice products have been implicated in vascular injury and atherosclerosis in recent animal and human studies. In the current study, whether consumption of differently processed brown rice diets may change the cholesterol metabolism was evaluated in male Spraque Dawley (SD) rats after 28 d of treatment with diets containing 1% cholesterol. The experimental diets include corn starch alone as control diet (CO) or a diet containing a 50% substitute of CO; uncooked brown rice (UB), cooked brown rice (CB), lactic acid bacteria (LAB), brown rice mixed with LAB (BLAB), and fermented‐brown rice by LAB (FB), respectively. Among them, FB group elicited significantly lower levels of plasma and hepatic triglycerides, plasma total cholesterol, low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL‐C), and very low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL‐C) by 33% to 50%, whereas higher levels of HDL‐C were elicited by 227% compared with the CO group (P < 0.05). These amelioration action on lipid profile in FB group appeared to correspondent to the higher excretions of fecal weight, triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), and bile acid (P < 0.05). Furthermore, sensory properties such as flavor liking, taste liking, and overall acceptability of the diet were significantly improved by the addition of fermented brown rice. Conclusively, fermented‐brown rice may have a potent cholesterol‐lowering benefits with sensory quality improvement of the diet.     

Effect of the dehydrogenation speed and Nd content on the microstructure and magnetic properties of HDDR processed Nd-Fe-B magnets

The effect of Nd content and dehydrogenation speed on the microstructure and magnetic properties of hydrogenation-disproportionation-desorption-recombination (HDDR) processed Nd-Fe-B magnetic powders was studied. The Nd_xB_6.4Ga_0.3Nb_0.2Fe_bal (x=12.5–13.5, at.%) mold casting alloys were subjected to HDDR process after homogenization heat treatment. During desorption-recombination stage, dehydrogenation speed and time were systematically changed to control the speed of the desorption-recombination reaction. The higher Nd content resulted in better magnetic properties of the HDDR powder, and this was attributed to the thicker and more uniform Nd-rich phase at grain boundaries. It was also confirmed that the slow dehydrogenation speed could maximize the effect of high Nd content on the magnetic properties of HDDR powder. At the optimized dehydrogenation speed, the coercivity and remanence was 15.3 kOe and 13.0 kG, respectively, at 12.9 at.% Nd content, which resulted in a (BH)_max of 36.8 MGOe.