Submicron nickel filaments made by electroplating carbon filaments as a new filler material for electromagnetic interference shielding

Short nickel filaments of diam 0.4 μm and containing 94 vol% Ni and 6 vol% C were fabricated by electroplating with nickel 0.1 μm diam catalytically grown carbon filaments. The use of these filaments in polyether sulfone in amounts of 3, 7,13, and 19 vol% gave composites with electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness at 1–2 GHz of 42,87,84, and 92 dB, respectively, compared to a value of 90 dB for solid copper. Less shielding was attained when 0.1 μm diam carbon filaments or 2 or 20 μm diam nickel fibers were used instead.     

Study of Spectroscopy and Microstructure in Nanocrystalline Cr-Doped Fibers Grown by the Drawing-Tower Technique

The spectroscopy and microstructure of Cr-doped fibers (CDFs) fabricated by the drawing-tower technique are investigated. The spontaneous emission spectrum exhibited broadband emission of 1.2 μm to 1.55 μm. High-resolution transmission electron microscope images showed that there were nanocrystalline structures in the core, surrounded by an amorphous matrix of SiO₂; they also revealed that the nanoparticle density was about 3.2 × 10³ μm⁻² near the core/clad interface, and 1.5 × 10⁴ μm⁻² near the core center. The results indicate preliminary success in fabricating nanocrystalline CDF with low transmission loss and crystal-like active properties.     

Operation of a semiconductor opening switch at ultrahigh current densities

The operation of a semiconductor opening switch (SOS diode) at cutoff current densities of tens of kA/cm² is studied. In experiments, the maximum reverse current density reached 43 kA/cm² for ∼40 ns. Experimental data on SOS diodes with a p ⁺-p-n-n ⁺ structure and a p-n junction depth from 145 to 180 μm are presented. The dynamics of electron-hole plasma in the diode at pumping and current cutoff stages is studied by numerical simulation methods. It is shown that current cutoff is associated with the formation of an electric field region in a thin (∼45 μm) layer of the structure’s heavily doped p-region, in which the acceptor concentration exceeds 10¹⁶ cm⁻³, and the current cutoff process depends weakly on the p-n junction depth.     

Electromigration Reliability and Morphologies of Cu Pillar Flip-Chip Solder Joints with Cu Substrate Pad Metallization

The Cu pillar is a thick underbump metallurgy (UBM) structure developed to alleviate current crowding in a flip-chip solder joint under operating conditions. We present in this work an examination of the electromigration reliability and morphologies of Cu pillar flip-chip solder joints formed by joining Ti/Cu/Ni UBM with largely elongated ∼62 μm Cu onto Cu substrate pad metallization using the Sn-3Ag-0.5Cu solder alloy. Three test conditions that controlled average current densities in solder joints and ambient temperatures were considered: 10 kA/cm² at 150°C, 10 kA/cm² at 160°C, and 15 kA/cm² at 125°C. Electromigration reliability of this particular solder joint turns out to be greatly enhanced compared to a conventional solder joint with a thin-film-stack UBM. Cross-sectional examinations of solder joints upon failure indicate that cracks formed in (Cu,Ni)₆Sn₅ or Cu₆Sn₅ intermetallic compounds (IMCs) near the cathode side of the solder joint. Moreover, the ~52-μm-thick Sn-Ag-Cu solder after long-term current stressing has turned into a combination of ~80% Cu-Ni-Sn IMC and ~20% Sn-rich phases, which appeared in the form of large aggregates that in general were distributed on the cathode side of the solder joint.     

Design of large-core single-mode Yb3+-doped photonic crystal fiber

The effective index of the cladding fundamental space-filling mode in photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is simulated by the effective index method. The variation of the effective index with the structure parameters of the fiber is achieved. For the first time, the relations of the V parameter of Yb3+-doped PCF with the refractive index of core and the structure parameters of the fiber are provided. the single-mode characteristics of large-core Yb3+-doped photonic crystal fibers with 7 and 19 missing air holes in the core are analyzed. The large-core single-mode Yb3+-doped photonic crystal fibers with core diameters of 50 μm, 100 μm and 150 μm are designed. The results provide theory instruction for the design and fabrication of fiber.     

MBE growth and characterization of 5-μm quantum-cascade lasers

Quantum-cascade lasers, which are obtained by molecular-beam epitaxy, emit at wavelengths of 5.0 μm at 77 K and 5.2 μm at 300 K and are based on a design with four quantum wells in the active region with vertical transitions and strain-compensated superlattices with high-efficiency injection and a short lifetime of the ground state are fabricated. The typical thresholds for lasing at 300 K were in the range 4–10 kA/cm². The maximum emission power was as high as ∼1 W, the maximum lasing temperature was ∼450 K, and the maximum characteristic temperature T ₀ ≈ 200 K. The use of a modified process of postgrowth treatment made it possible to reproducibly obtain high-quality devices.     

Effect of Wet Pretreatment on Interfacial Adhesion Energy of Cu-Cu Thermocompression Bond for 3D IC Packages

Quantitative analysis of the interfacial adhesion energy of Cu-Cu thermocompression bonds was performed using the four-point bending method with various wet pretreatment conditions. The evaluated interfacial adhesion energies for 1-μm-thick Cu bonding layers were 0.29 J/m², 1.28 J/m², 1.64 J/m², 1.17 J/m², and 0.43 J/m² for different acetic acid pretreatment times of 0 min, 1 min, 5 min, 10 min, and 15 min, respectively. There exists an optimum wet etch time for maximum adhesion strength. The change of surface properties with increasing wet etch time was believed to result in the variation of the interfacial adhesion energy. The decrease in interfacial adhesion energy after 5 min seems to result from a decrease in the plastic dissipation energy during interfacial crack propagation with thinner Cu film thickness caused by overetching.     

Dependence of electrical properties of polycrystalline cvd si films on grain size and impurity doping concentrationa,b

The electrical properties of sets of simultaneously grown p-type polycrystalline Si films, deposited by SiH₄ pyrolysis on polycrystalline high-purity alumina substrates and B-doped during growth, were determined by Hall-effect measurements in the temperature range 77-420K as functions both of impurity doping concentration N (~10^l5 to ~10²⁰cm⁻³) and average grain size (≈1 to ≈125μm) in the film. Room temperature data showed rapidly increasing resistivities and rapidly decreasing free-carrier concentrations for doping below a critical concentration N_m and distinct mobility minima at that concentration, with the value of N_m being larger the smaller the average grain size. Measurements as a function of sample temperature showed the intergrain barrier height E_b, decreasing from a maximum value of ~0.4eV at the critical concentration to very small values (~0.01eV) for concentrations above 10¹⁹cm⁻³, with a functional dependence close to E_b ∝l/N^1/2 and E_b for any given concentration being larger the smaller the average grain size. Results are interpreted in terms of the grain-boundary trapping model. Trapped carrier densities in the grain boundaries were calculated to range from ~5×l0¹¹cm⁻² at N≈N_m to ~5×l0¹²cm⁻² for N>10¹⁹cm⁻³, the density being higher the smaller the grain size, and evidence was found for an energy distribution of traps in the Si bandgap, rather than a fixed density at a single discrete energy level. The observed relationship between N_m and average grain size nearly coincides with that of the model for films with ~lμm grain size but sharply departs from it for larger grain sizes, indicating probable applicability of the model for grain sizes up to that range. ^aThis work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energythrough its San Francisco Operations Office under Contract DE-AC03-79ET23045 and monitored by the Solar Energy Research Institute, Golden, CO. bThese results were first described at the 22nd Electronic Materials Conference, Ithaca, NY, June 21–27, 1980, Paper No. M4.     

Microstructural Characterization of CdTe Surface Passivation Layers

The microstructure of CdTe (CT) surface passivation layers deposited on HgCdTe (MCT) heterostructures has been evaluated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The MCT heterostructures were grown by liquid-phase epitaxy and consisted of thick (approximately 10 μm to 20 μm) n-type MCT layers and thin (approximately 1 μm to 3 μm) p-type MCT layers. The final CT (approximately 0.3 μm to 0.6 μm) capping layers were grown either by hot-wall epitaxy (HWE) or molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE). One of the wafers with the CT layer grown by MBE was also annealed in Hg atmosphere at 250°C for 96 h. The as-deposited CT passivation layers were polycrystalline and columnar. The CT grains were larger and more irregular when deposited by HWE, whereas those deposited by MBE were generally well textured with mostly vertical grain boundaries. Observations and measurements with several TEM abrupt structurally after annealing techniques showed that the CT/MCT interface became considerably more abrupt structurally after annealing, and the crystallinity of the CT layer was also improved.     

Nickel filament polymer-matrix composites with low surface impedance and high electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness

The processing of nickel filaments of 0.4 Μm diameter gives polyethersulfone-matrix composites with high electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness, high reflection coefficient and low surface impedance at 1-2 GHz. With 7 vol.% nickel filaments, the composite exhibited shielding effectiveness 87 dB (compared to 90 dB for solid copper), surface impedance 1.2 Ω (same as for solid copper), tensile strength 52 MPa, modulus 5 GPa, ductility 1.0%, and density 1.87 g/cm³.     

Novel design of highly nonlinear photonic crystal fibers with flattened dispersion

Novel highly nonlinear photonic crystal fibers(HN-PCFs) with flattened dispersion are proposed by omitting 19 air holes as the fiber core.The simulation results show that the high nonlinearity and the flattened dispersion can be achieved simultaneously by employing only two types of air holes in the cladding.To reduce the confinement loss,the modified designs are presented.The confinement loss is below 0.1 dB/km at 1.55 μm,when seven layers of air-hole rings are introduced to the cladding.After modifying,the dispersion can change from-0.5 ps/(nm.km) to+0.5 ps/(nm.km) in the range from 1.35 μm to 2.06 μm,and the effective mode area is as low as 2.27 μm 2 at 1.55 μm.     

Deposition of Bismuth Telluride Thick Film by Solidification under Centrifugal Pressure

Bismuth telluride alloys—Bi_0.5Sb_1.5Te₃ and Bi_1.8Sb_0.2Te_3.33Se_0.17—have been deposited on polycrystalline zirconia via solidification under centrifugal pressure. The crystal growth under centrifugal pressure was a process in which the starting powders charged in the groove patterns of the substrates were first melted and then solidified under centrifugal acceleration of 10⁴ m/s². This new process offers c-axis-oriented films with a thickness of more than 100 μm. A mirror-like surface is another characteristic feature of these films. Owing to their orientation, reasonable power factors such as 4.2 mW/m K² and 2.7 mW/m K² (in plane) were obtained for p- and n-type films, respectively.     

Interband Cascade Lasers with Wavelengths Spanning 2.9 μm to 5.2 μm

We report an experimental investigation of four interband cascade lasers with wavelengths spanning the mid-infrared spectral range, i.e., 2.9 μm to 5.2 μm, near room temperature in pulsed mode. One broad-area device had a pulsed threshold current density of only 3.8 A/cm² at 78 K (λ = 3.6 μm) and 590  A/cm² at 300 K (λ = 4.1 μm). The room-temperature threshold for the shortest-wavelength device (λ = 2.6 μm to 2.9 μm) was even lower, 450 A/cm². A␣cavity-length study of the lasers emitting at 3.6 μm to 4.1 μm yielded an internal loss varying from 7.8 cm⁻¹ at 78 K to 24 cm⁻¹ at 300 K, accompanied by a decrease of the internal efficiency from 77% to 45%.     

Fabrication of Metal–Oxide–Diamond Field-Effect Transistors with Submicron-Sized Gate Length on Boron-Doped (111) H-Terminated Surfaces Using Electron Beam Evaporated SiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> and Al<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript>

A H-terminated surface conductive layer of B-doped diamond on a (111) surface was used to fabricate a metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) using an electron beam evaporated SiO₂ or Al₂O₃ gate insulator and a Cu-metal stacked gate. When the bulk carrier concentration was approximately 10¹⁵/cm³ and the B-doped diamond layer was 1.5 μm thick, the surface carrier mobility of the H-terminated surface on the (111) diamond before FET processing was 35 cm²/Vs and the surface carrier concentration was 1.5 × 10¹³/cm². For the SiO₂ gate (0.76 μm long and 50 μm wide), the maximum measured drain current at a gate voltage of −3.0 V was −75 mA/mm and the maximum transconductance was 24 mS/mm, and for the Al₂O₃ gate (0.64 μm long and 50 μm wide), these features were −86 mA/mm and 15 mS/mm, respectively. These values are among the highest reported direct-current (DC) characteristics for a diamond homoepitaxial (111) MOSFET.     

Improved Electrical Performance and Reliability of Poly-Si TFTs Fabricated by Drive-In Nickel-Induced Crystallization with Chemical Oxide Layer

Ni-metal-induced crystallization (MIC) of amorphous Si (α-Si) has been employed to fabricate low-temperature polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistors (TFTs). However, the Ni residues degrade the device performance. In this study, a new method for manufacturing MIC–TFTs using drive-in Ni-induced crystallization with a chemical oxide layer (DICC) is proposed. Compared with that of MIC–TFTs, the on/off current ratio (I _on/I _off) of DICC–TFTs was increased by a factor of 9.7 from 9.21 × 10⁴ to 8.94 × 10⁵. The leakage current (I _off) of DICC–TFTs was 4.06 pA/μm, which was much lower than that of the MIC–TFTs (19.20 pA/μm). DICC–TFTs also possess high immunity against hot-carrier stress and thereby exhibit good reliability.     

High temperature MOVPE growth of GaAs/AlGaAs device structures with tertiarybutylarsine

The performance characteristics of epitaxial structures suitable for optoelectronic and electronic devices were investigated. These were fabricated by MOVPE using tertiary-butylarsine, a non-hydride arsenic source. Minority carrier diffusion lengths of 5μm at 3 × 10¹⁸/cm³ and 2μm at 2 × 10¹⁹/cm³ were achieved inp-type GaAs. Recombination velocities at the GaAs/AlGaAs interface are reduced to 1 × 10³ cm/sec by processing under appropriate conditions. Electron mobilities of 4000 cm²/V-sec inn-type (2 × 10¹⁷/cm³) layers resulted in transconductances of 120 mS/mm in 1.5μm gate depletion mode MESFETs. The above values are comparable to those obtained with arsine in this work and others reported in the literature.     

Wavelength conversion technique based on self phase modulation in highly nonlinear microstructure fiber

A wavelength converter based on the self phase modulation(SPM) effect in highly nonlinear microstructure fibers(MFs) is proposed.The core diameter and the pitch of the fiber are 2.05 μm and 5.0 μm,respectively,and the diameter of the airholes in the fiber cladding is 4.50 μm.The calculating nonlinear coefficient is 112.2 W-1 km-1 and it is 11 times higher than that of a conventional dispersion-shift fiber and 56 times higher than that of a conventional single-mode fiber.The length of the fiber i...     

Three-Dimensional Thermoelectrical Simulation in Flip-Chip Solder Joints with Thick Underbump Metallizations during Accelerated Electromigration Testing

In flip-chip solder joints, thick Cu and Ni films have been used as under bump metallization (UBM) for Pb-free solders. In addition, electromigration has become a crucial reliability concern for fine-pitch flip-chip solder joints. In this paper, the three-dimensional (3-D) finite element method was employed to simulate the current-density and temperature distributions for the eutectic SnPb solder joints with 5-μm Cu, 10-μm Cu, 25-μm Cu, and 25-μm Ni UBMs. It was found that the thicker the UBM is the lower the maximum current density inside the solder. The maximum current density is 4.37 × 10⁴ A/cm², 1.69 × 10⁴ A/cm², 7.54 × 10³ A/cm², and 1.34 × 10⁴ A/cm², respectively, when the solder joints with the above four UBMs are stressed by 0.567 A. The solder joints with thick UBMs can effectively relieve the current crowding effect inside the solder. In addition, the joint with the thicker Cu UBM has a lower Joule heating effect in the solder. The joint with the 25-μm Ni UBM has the highest Joule heating effect among the four models.     

Field-Emission Performance of Wormhole-Like Mesoporous Tungsten Oxide Nanowires

We prepared wormhole-like mesoporous tungsten oxide nanowires on a Cu-tape/Si substrate, and explored the field-emission performances. The wormhole-like mesoporous tungsten oxide nanowires of 20 nm diameter exhibited excellent field-emission properties with extremely low turn-on and threshold fields (emission current density of 10 μA/cm² and 10 mA/cm²) of 0.083 V/μm and 1.75 V/μm, respectively, as well as current stability of about 1400 μA/cm² at a fixed field of 0.67 V/μm. This approach provides an efficient methodology for fabricating a field emitter that is expected to work at low voltage and can be used in field-emission displays.     

Silver Particle Carbon-Matrix Composites as Thick Films for Electrical Applications

Silver particle (3 μm) carbon-matrix composites in the form of thick films (around 100 μm thick) on alumina, as prepared from pastes comprising silver and mesophase pitch particles (14 μm), have been attained. The films on alumina were fired at 650°C in nitrogen to convert pitch to carbon. The volume electrical resistivity attained ranged from 10⁻⁵ Ω cm to 10⁴ Ω cm, depending on the silver volume fraction. The percolation threshold was 12 vol% silver.