Design of an Energy Harvesting Capable Pixel in 90 nm CMOS Technology Optimized for Implantable Retinal Prosthesis

An energy harvesting capable pixel is designed in 90 nm standard complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology with the spectral response optimization considerations. The pixel can perform 2.22 nW power harvesting in 60 klx of illumination per pixel, while the pixel itself consumes 56.26 pW power. Moreover, the pixel could achieve 1.70 μV?e^? conversion gain and 60.72 dB of dynamic range. The high energy harvesting capability in spite of 90 nm CMOS technology power production limitations is achieved due to triple and dual junctions applications in photosensitive area and floating diffusion regions respectively. In addition, the pixel is engineered to utilize all available pn junctions in energy harvesting mode. It should be noted that, using a triple junction in photosensitive area has enabled spectral response engineering capability, which results in an optimized spectral response of pixel for the spectrums that the human eye exhibits most relative sensitivity (within a spectral range of about 550 nm).     

Effect of gate dimension on micro injection molded weld line strength with polypropylene (PP) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE)

As a defect of micro injection molding parts, weld line is unfavorable since it will influence the surface quality and mechanical properties of micro parts. Therefore, the investigation on the developing process of weld line would be a significant issue for improving the quality of micro injection molded parts. In this study, one injection mold with four micro tensile sample cavities was designed and constructed. Every cavity responses to various gate dimensions, which is marked as Gate $ {\text{Nr}}.1\left( {1.5 \times 0.1 \times 0.{\text{5mm}},{\text{width}} \times {\text{depth}} \times {\text{length}}} \right) $ , $ {\text{Nr}}.2\left( {1.0 \times 0.1 \times 0.{\text{5mm}},{\text{width}} \times {\text{depth}} \times {\text{length}}} \right) $ , $ {\text{Nr}}.3\left( {1.0 \times 0.05 \times 0.{\text{5mm}},{\text{width}} \times {\text{depth}} \times {\text{length}}} \right) $ , and $ {\text{Nr}}.4\left( {0.5 \times 0.1 \times 0.{\text{5mm}},{\text{width}} \times {\text{depth}} \times {\text{length}}} \right) $ . The effects of gate dimension of the mold on mechanical properties of weld line have been studied by experiments in different processing parameters. The tensile test was used to characterize the micro injection molded weld line strength. The results for polypropylene show that with the changing of injection pressure and mold temperature, Gate Nr.3 is corresponding to the strongest weld strength; the next is Gate Nr.2; Gates Nr.4 and Nr.1 are in the end. The difference between them is not obvious. For high-density polyethylene, Gate Nr.1 is not able to be completely filled, which is due to the blocking of stick materials and dirt based on the simulation analysis. The investigation was only carried out for the other three gate sizes; results present that Gate Nr.3 always gives the best weld line strength whatever the processing parameters are, Gate Nr.4 is next and then Gate Nr.2. There are always middle optimal values for processing parameters leading to strongest weld line strength, when injection pressure is 80 MPa, injection speed is 90 cm³/s, melt temperature is 200°C, and mold temperature is 130°C. Higher and lower processing parameters result in reduced weld line strength.     

Experimental Investigation of Viscoelastic Rolling Contacts: A Comparison with Theory

To address the issue of a pin sliding against a boundary film, we calculate the pressure-dependent shear strength of a bilayer of potassium chloride sandwiched between tungsten carbide (WC) slabs using first-principles, density functional theory (DFT) calculations. It has been shown experimentally that the shear strength S of a KCl film on metal substrates varies with pressure P as S = S ₀ + αP, and S ₀ = 65 ± 5 MPa and α = 0.14 ± 0.02. Calculations are performed for KCl in contact with the (1 $ \bar{1} $ 00) and (10 $ \bar{1} $ 0) faces of WC which have almost square surface unit cells. The effect of pressure is mimicked by varying the distance between the outermost layers of the WC slabs. The DFT calculations confirm that the shear strength depends on pressure and yield average values of S ₀ of 70 ± 10 MPa for the WC(1 $ \bar{1} $ 00) and 51 ± 13 MPa for the WC(10 $ \bar{1} $ 0) faces, in reasonable agreement with experiment. Since the calculations were performed for a KCl slab in registry with the WC slabs, the agreement with experiment suggests that the atoms at the interface between the tip and film are also in registry. In addition, the calculated and experimental shear strengths are much lower than the shear modulus of KCl, indicating that shear occurs between the tip and film surface without forming a transfer film, in agreement with previous experimental measurements.     

Atmospheric effects of friction,friction noise and wear with silicon and diamond. Part III. SEM tribometry of polycrystalline diamond in vacuum and hydrogen

In this part III of a multi-part paper series, the results of additional SEM tribometric experiments are described, performed with polished, mostly C(100)-oriented polycrystalline CVD diamond film [PCD_C(100) vs. PCD_C(100)] counterfaces sliding in Torr and in 0.1–0.3 Torr partial pressures of pure hydrogen gas. These tests were completed under a 28 g (0.27 N) normal load, under standard and slow thermal ramping conditions at temperatures ranging from room temperature to 1000^°C. The friction data were examined per the computer logging and analysis techniques described in part I. The treatment of the data is similar to that of Si in part II: the maximum and the average coefficients of friction (MAX.COF and COF) and their ratios (the friction noise FN) are employed to measure possible lubricative interaction of the diamond surfaces with rarefied hydrogen. The results indicate that excited species of molecular hydrogen enter into tribothermally catalyzed reactions not only with Si but with PCD_C(100) surfaces as well. Similar to the behavior of Si, the most beneficial friction-reducing regime occurs in a temperature range just before the thermal desorption of adsorbates. The general magnitudes of MAX.COF, COF and the FN are significantly lower than those of the Si crystallinities, in both vacuum and . The wear rate of the PCD_C(100) film characteristic of the standard thermal ramping test procedure performed mostly in is around , in good agreement with the wear rate previously measured in vacuum for unpolished, fine-cauliflowered diamond films. The data indicate that smooth polycrystalline diamond is a significantly better bearing material for miniaturized moving mechanical assembly applications than Si. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Atmospheric effects of friction,friction noise and wear with silicon and diamond. Part II. SEM tribometry of silicon in vacuum and hydrogen

Scanning electron microscope (SEM) tribometric data on polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) vs. poly-Si, Si(100) vs. Si(100) and Si(111) vs. Si(111) interfaces, obtained in Torr and in 0.2 Torr partial pressure of hydrogen gas ( ) from room temperature to 850^°C, were performed under standard and much slower thermal ramping rates. The friction data were analyzed per the methodology described in part I of this paper series. The results indicate a highly beneficial friction- and wear-reducing regime within a relatively narrow thermal region. This desirable region coincides with some chemisorption of excited species of molecular hydrogen just before the mass thermal desorption of surface hydrides. These data represent the tribochemical equivalent of a method routinely used in electronics, whereby deep electron traps (dangling Si bonds) are passivated by baking in molecular hydrogen. The also exerts a moderating influence on the size of the friction noise at all test temperatures. However, the general level of friction beyond the beneficial thermal region is high. In parallel, the general wear rate of Si representative of the entire range of standard thermal ramping in both atmospheric environments is in the extremely high 10^-12m³/(N m) range. Operating strictly in the beneficial, low-friction thermal regime resulted in a several orders-of-magnitude reduction in the wear rate over those measured under standard thermal ramping conditions. Although the results confirm previous findings that Si is not a good material of construction for miniaturized moving mechanical assemblies (e.g., microbearings and gears), there seems to be some limited possibility of gas-phase lubrication of Si micromechanisms with rarefied hydrogen at surface temperatures between 100 and 300^°C. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

DESIGN,MODELING, AND PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENTS OF A BROADBAND VIBRATION ENERGY HARVESTER USING A MAGNETOELECTRIC TRANSDUCER

This article presents a new broadband vibration energy harvester using a magnetoelectric (ME) transducer. In order for vibration energy harvesters to be efficiently applicable over a range of vibration frequencies, many techniques have recently been investigated to broaden the frequency ranges of the harvesters using piezoelectric, electromagnetic, or electrostatic transductions, but few have been studied in the harvesters using ME transducers. In this article, a new harvester using a ME transducer is proposed, which takes advantage of multi-cantilever beams and nonlinear behavior of the magnetic force to expand the working bandwidth in ambient low frequency vibration. A theoretical model is developed to analyze the nonlinear vibration of the harvester, and the effects of the structure parameters on the electrical output and the bandwidth of the harvester are analyzed to achieve the optimal vibration energy harvesting performances. The experimental results on the performances show that the harvester has bandwidths of 5.2 Hz, 6.3 Hz, and 7.2 Hz, and the maximum output power values of 0.21 mW, 0.6 mW, and 1.03 mW at the accelerations of 0.2 g, 0.4 g, and 0.6 g (with g = 9.8 ms^?2), respectively.     

Experimental and Modeling Study of the Regular Polygon Angle-spiral Liner in Ball Mills

Load behavior is one of the most critical factors affecting mills' energy consumption and grinding efficiency,and is greatly affected by the liner profiles. Generally, as liner profiles vary, the ball mill performances are extremely different. In order to study the performance of the ball mill with regular polygon angle-spiral liners(RPASLs), experimental and numerical studies on three types of RPASLs, including regular quadrilateral, pentagonal and hexagonal, are carried out. For the fine product of desired size, two critical parameters are analyzed: the energy input to the mill per unit mass of the fine product, E*, and the rate of production of the fine product, F*. Results show that the optimal structure of RPASLs is Quadrilateral ASL with an assembled angle of 50°. Under this condition, the specific energy consumption E* has the minimum value of 303 J per fine product and the production rate F* has the maximum value of 0.323. The production rate F* in the experimental result is consistent with the specific collision energy intensity to total collision energy intensity ratio E_s/E_t in the simulation. The relations between the production rate F* and the specific energy consumption E* with collision energy intensity E_s and E_t are obtained. The simulation result reveals the essential reason for the experimental phenomenon and correlates the mill performance parameter to the collision energy between balls,which could guide the practical application for Quadrilateral ASL.     

Intermolecular Forces, Adhesion, and the Elastic Foundation

A model for the elastic contact between a rigid sphere and an ideal elastic foundation with adhesion has been developed. The model was derived by integrating the full Lennard-Jones potential to arrive at a closed-form equilibrium condition that balances surface energy with strain energy. It was found that the separation height is not a function of the penetration. Using this energy criterion for separation of contact in an elastic foundation, a model for the force displacement relationship was then developed. In this derivation there exists a tensile zone of deformation along the perimeter of the contact. The model also reveals a number of unique aspects of the adhesive contact, including: the maximum adhesion occurs when the apex of the sphere is tangent to the plane of the undeformed surface, the maximum adhesion force $ F_{\text{adh}} = - 2\pi R\Updelta \gamma $ , and the contact area is linearly dependent on penetration. The ability to fit high fidelity indentation data from finite-element analysis and molecular dynamics simulation for thin films was demonstrated. Additionally, experiments were performed on thin films (~40 μm) of PDMS using a custom-built microtribometer with in situ optical interferometry that enabled simultaneous measurements of contact area, penetration depths, externally applied force, and the detailed measurements of the free-surface deformations, which include the predicted tensile zone along the perimeter of contact.     

Optimal design of \overline {\text{X}} -control chart with Pareto in-control times

Economic control chart models usually assume that the time to occurrence of an assignable cause follows an exponential or Weibull distribution. This paper extends that to the Pareto distribution in order to investigate, in general, the effect on the economic control chart parameters like sample size, time between two successive samples, and the cost per unit time of the distributional assumption. The Pareto distribution arises as a limiting distribution of the waiting time for the number of new observations needed to obtain a value exceeding the greatest among “n” observations. It was found that the economic design of $ \overline {\text{X}} $ chart is greatly influenced by the distributional assumption. Using the cost model, the sensitivity analysis of the statistical economic design of the $ \overline {\text{X}} $ chart with respect to the parameters and costs is studied.     

Shear Thinning of Nanometer-Thick Liquid Lubricant Films Measured at High Shear Rates

Viscosities of liquid films that were confined and sheared in a nanometer-scale gap were higher than those in the bulk state, and decreased with increasing shear rate, which is called shear thinning. However, the previous findings were based on the experimental results obtained at shear rates of 10^?1–10⁶ s^?1 by using a surface force apparatus (SFA). In this study, we succeeded in measuring shear rate dependence of viscous friction at the high shear rates of 10⁵–10⁸ s^?1. To measure the viscous friction at high shear rates, we used a fiber wobbling method that is a highly sensitive shear force measurement method we developed. The confined polymer lubricant (PFPE Z03) showed shear thinning behavior even at high shear rates up to 10⁸ s^?1, and the relationship between effective viscosity η and shear rate $\dot{\gamma }$ was well expressed by the equation that was $\log_{10} \eta = C - n\log_{10} \dot{\gamma }$ where C ≈ 4.6 ± 0.6 and n ≈ 1.1 ± 0.1. This equation agreed well with the universal curve of shear thinning determined based on the SFA measurements conducted at shear rates of 10^?1–10⁶ s^?1. This result indicates the measured shear thinning behavior was consistent at wide range of shear rates from 10^?1–10⁸ s^?1.     

Plastic deformation depth modeling on grinding of gamma Titanium Aluminides

This work reports on the subsurface plastic deformation depth (PDD) as a result of grinding of γ-TiAl, where the effects of grit size and shape, workpiece speed, and wheel depth of cut were studied. A grinding model based on a stochastic distribution of the chip thickness was used to estimate the expected maximum normal force per grit ( ${F''_{n\:{\rm max}}}$ ), which was correlated to the PDD. It was found that the PDD shows a linear correlation with ${F''_{n\:{\rm max}}}^{0.5}$ . The results suggest that the indentation model is still valid for grinding if ${F''_{n\:{\rm max}}}^{0.5}$ is used as a PDD predictor variable instead of the total grinding force.     

Determination of a coupling equation for milling parameters based on optimal cutting temperature

Nanofluid minimum quantity lubrication (NMQL) is one of the main modes of sustainable manufacturing. It is an environment-friendly, energy-saving, and highly efficient lubrication method. With the use of nanoparticles, the tribological properties of debris–tool and workpiece–tool interfaces will change. However, spectrum analyses of force and power spectral density (PSD) of surface microstructures are limited. In the present work, the milling force, friction coefficient, specific energy, surface roughness, and surface microstructure of debris were evaluated in milling of 45 steel for different lubrication conditions, namely, dry, flood, minimum quantity lubrication, and Al₂O₃ NMQL. Results demonstrated that compared with other lubrication conditions, NMQL achieves minimum milling force peak (F_x?=?270 N, F_y?=?160 N, F_z?=?50 N), friction coefficient (μ?= 1.039), specific energy (U?= 65.5 J/mm³), and surface roughness value (R_a?=?2.254 μm, RS_m?=?0.0562 mm). Furthermore, a spectrum analysis of the milling force and PSD of the surface microstructure was conducted for validation. The spectral analysis of milling force revealed that NMQL obtained the lowest milling force and amplitude in the middle-frequency region, thereby indicating the minimum abrasion loss of the tool. Meanwhile, the PSD analysis indicated that NMQL had the lowest proportional coefficient in the low-frequency region (0.4766) and the highest proportional coefficient in the high-frequency region (0.0569). These results revealed that the workpiece surface gained by Al₂O₃ NMQL obtained higher wave fineness than other working conditions. By combining with the lowest R_a, NMQL contributes the best workpiece surface quality. Therefore, machining experiments using NMQL showed the best lubrication performance.     

Internal energy minimization in biarc interpolation

The problem of scheduling n multioperation jobs on a single machine such as the flexible manufacturing system is considered. Each job comprises up to F operations, which belong to several distinct families, and a sequence-independent setup time is incurred whenever an operation is to be processed following an operation of a different family. A job completes when all of its operations have been processed. Two variants with maximum lateness and total completion time as optimality criterion are considered. The problems are denoted as $1\left| {s_f ,{\text{assembly}},GT} \right|L_{\max } $ and $1\left| {s_f = 1,{\text{assembly}},GT,p_{ij} = 0\,{\text{or}}\,1} \right|\sum {C_j } $ . The decision is to sequence all the families in order to minimize the predefined criterion. This environment has a variety of real world applications such as flexible manufacturing systems scheduling and food industry scheduling. A heuristic is presented and a branch and bound is developed for benchmarking. Experimental results show that the heuristic provides good results and the branch and bound procedure is efficient. These results may narrow down the gap between easy and hard cases of the general problem.     

Reciprocating Wear Performance and Interfacial Microstructure of a TiC–Ni2AlTi Cermet

Wear performance of a near equi-volume TiC–Ni₂AlTi cermet with minor NiAl was evaluated by reciprocal sliding against Si₃N₄ balls. Both coefficient of friction (COF) and specific wear rate (SWR) decrease with the applied load in the range from 5 to 20 N, reaching minimums of 0.34 and 2.2 × 10^?6 mm³/Nm, respectively, at 20 N. To understand the novel wear resistance, interfacial microstructure was investigated. As indicated by high resolution transmission electron microscopy observations, the interfaces are either coherent (TiC/NiAl and Ni₂AlTi/NiAl) or semi-coherent (TiC/Ni₂AlTi). Depending on the grain size of Ni₂AlTi, two types of TiC/Ni₂AlTi interface were observed. For the micrometer or sub-micrometer sized Ni₂AlTi grains, the orientation relationship (OR) is (111) TiC ∥ (220) Ni₂AlTi, [1 \(\bar{1}\) 0] TiC ∥ [1 \(\bar{1}\) 0] Ni₂AlTi, while for the Ni₂AlTi grains in tens of nanometers, the OR is (020) TiC ∥ (002) Ni₂AlTi, [101] TiC ∥ [010] Ni₂AlTi. The strongly bonded coherent and semi-coherent interfaces impede the failure of the heterophase boundaries, which accounts for the excellent wear resistance of the newly prepared cermet.     

An investigation on multistage bending of blank sheet into cylindrical tube by experiment and numerical simulation

In this paper, one pair of punch and die was employed to experimentally investigate the pure bending of blank sheet into cylindrical tube by multistage process. The investigated material was hot-rolled HSLA370 with the thickness of 2?mm. Numerical simulation was conducted on bending and springback with LS-DYNA solver. Results showed that multistage bending technique was an alternative way to produce cylindrical tubes. The sequence is described as $ {\text{Blank}}\,{\text{sheet}}\xrightarrow{{{\text{Multistage}}\,{\text{bending}}}}{\text{C - tube}}\xrightarrow[{{\text{Welding}}}]{{{\text{Squeezing}}}}{\text{O - tube}} $ . Gap width and roundness of C-tube (configuration like letter ??C??) were two dominant parameters to evaluate the bending performance. The effects of blank positioning on both of them were investigated by means of numerical simulation. Laser-welded tubes meeting roundness and the tolerance limit of diameter were produced. Simulation revealed that effective plastic strain along circumferential direction was much low, mostly ranging between 0.03 and 0.05. Severe thinning and shape defects were not observed in the finished tubes. A numerical model was developed and its effectiveness was verified by a comparison between the predicted results and the corresponding experiments.     

Stochastic flow-shop scheduling with minimizing the expected number of tardy jobs

In this research, minimizing the expected number of tardy jobs in a dynamic m machine flow-shop scheduling problem, i.e., $ {F_m}\left| {{r_j}\left| {{\text{E}}\left[ {\sum {{U_j}} } \right]} \right.} \right. $ is investigated. It is assumed that the jobs with deterministic processing times and stochastic due dates arrive randomly to the flow-shop cell. The due date of each job is assumed to be normally distributed with known mean and variance. A dynamic method is proposed for this problem by which the m machine stochastic flow-shop problem is decomposed into m stochastic single-machine sub-problems. Then, each sub-problem is solved as an independent stochastic single-machine scheduling problem by a mathematical programming model. Comparison of the proposed method with the most effective rule of thumb for the proposed problem, i.e., shortest processing time first rule shows that the proposed method performs 23.9 % better than the SPT rule on average for industry-size scheduling problems.     

Wear and Lubrication Behaviors of Cu-Based Friction Pairs with Asperity Contacts: Numerical and Experimental Studies

This paper aims to investigate the wear and lubrication behaviors of wet Cu-based friction pairs. A mixed lubrication model in plane contacts is developed, and the tests of pin-on-disk are carried out. Wear losses are measured by the oil spectrum analysis method. The wear loss, the real contact area ratio, and the load sharing ratio are analyzed. Effects of sliding velocity, temperature, and pressure are considered. The results show that the temperature is the most significant influence on the wear loss of lubricated Cu-based friction pairs. As the temperature rises from 30 to 150 °C, wear loss increases from less than 0.4 mg to about 2.3 mg. The wear factor of the lubricated Cu-based friction pair in asperity contact areas is \(K_{c} = 9.4 \times 10^{ - 9}\) (g/Nm). When the lubricated wear is slight, the oil spectrum analysis method is an effective approach to accurately determine the wear loss.     

Experimental investigations on effects of tool flank wear on surface integrity during orthogonal dry cutting of Ti-6Al-4V

Machining titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V is a challenging task since tool flank wear adversely affects surface integrity. Quantitative effects of predetermined tool flank wear values (VB) on the surface integrity were investigated through the orthogonal dry cutting of Ti-6Al-4V. Experimental results indicated that three-dimensional (3D) average surface roughness increased with the VB ranging from 0 to 0.2 mm but decreased at VB = 0.3 mm. Given the effects of rubbing and ironing enhanced, surface material burning and plastic flows emerged on the machined surface at VB = 0.3 mm. Not only the plastic deformation layer became deeper but also the grains were greatly distorted with the increase of tool flank wear. When machined by using the tool at VB = 0.3 mm, the β phase of Ti-6Al-4V decreased near the machined surface layer than that of using the fresh tool. Besides, the depth of work-harden layer increased from 20 to 60 μm with the VB increasing from 0 to 0.3 mm. The softened layer was generated near the machined surface by using the tool at VB = 0.3 mm. In addition, the residual compressive stresses of the machined surface had the trend of decreasing. Experimental results indicated that the VB less than 0.2 mm was the most suitable condition for better surface integrity during orthogonal dry cutting of Ti-6Al-4V. This study aims at providing experimental data for optimizing the processing parameters and improving the surface integrity of Ti-6Al-4V.