Thermal modeling in electricity assisted incremental sheet forming

A thermal model was built to account for the effects of geometrical parameters of sheet specimen, process parameters and material parameters on the temperature increase of the sheet specimen in Electricity-Assisted Incremental Sheet Forming (EISF). In the EISF, the local area of sheet specimen contacting with a forming tool is heated by direct current, which flows through the forming tool to the sheet specimen. EISF experiments of two high strength steel sheets were carried out to validate the thermal model. The thermal model can be integrated into the control program of EISF system to achieve more accurate temperature control.     

Cytosolic Calcium Concentration Changes in Neuronal Cells Under Clinorotation and in Parabolic Flight Missions

All life on earth has been established under conditions of stable gravity of 1g. Nevertheless, in numerous experiments the direct gravity dependence of biological processes has been shown on all levels of organization, from single molecules to humans. To study the effects especially of microgravity on biological systems, a variety of platforms are available, from drop towers to the ISS. Due to the costs of these platforms and their limited availability, as an alternative, numerous simulators have been developed for so called “simulated” microgravity. A classical systems is a clinostat, basically rotating a sample around one axis, and by integration of the gravity vector for 360° arguing that thus the effects of gravity are depleted. Indeed, a variety of studies has shown that taking out the direction of gravity from a biological system often results in consequences similar to the exposure of the system to real microgravity. Nevertheless, the opposite has been shown, too, and as a consequence the relevance of clinostats in microgravity research is still under discussion. To get some more insight into this problem we have constructed a small fluorescence clinostat and have studied the effects of clinorotation on the cytosolic calcium concentration of neuroglioma cells. The results have been compared to experiments with identical cells in real microgravity, utilizing parabolic flight missions. Our results show that in case of a cell suspension used in a small florescence clinostat within a tube diameter of 2mm, the effects of clinorotation are comparable to those under real microgravity, both showing a significant increase in intracellular calcium concentration.     

Stray Light Rejection in Rotational Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Spectroscopy by use of a Sodium-Seeded Flame

A common experimental problem with rotational coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy (CARS) is undesired spectral interference that is due to stray light from the primary laser beams. Also, for the most developed approach, dual-broadband rotational CARS, practical measurements often suffer from stray light interference from the narrow-band laser, inasmuch as the CARS signal is produced inherently in the spectral vicinity of the narrow-band laser beam. An optical filter does not provide a sufficiently sharp transmission profile, thus leading to signal loss and spectral distortion of the rotational CARS signal. An atomic filter consisting of a sodium-seeded flame is presented here as a solution to the problem, and its usefulness was demonstrated in dual-broadband rotational CARS experiments.     

Kinoforms designed to produce different fan-out patterns for two wavelengths

Kinoforms (diffractive optical elements) were designed to produce different fan-out (i.e., spot) patterns when illuminated with green (543-nm wavelength) and red (633-nm) light. Three design examples are presented, each using one of three different techniques for this wavelength discrimination. If the fan-out pattern is to be produced in the near field (Fresnel region) of the kinoform, focusing-defocusing distinguishes between the two colors. For a far-field pattern the color distinction can be obtained either by active suppression of unwanted spots, which also decreases the diffraction efficiency, or, preferably, by an increase in the maximum phase modulation of the kinoform (to more than 2pi rad). All three examples were designed with a method based on the full scalar wave equation and optimal-rotation-angle optimization. The designed kinoforms were manufactured and performed, at least qualitatively, as predicted by the design.     

Kinoform-only Gaussian-to-rectangle beam shaper for a semiconductor laser

A kinoform that shapes the divergent beam from a semiconductor laser without using any other optical components was designed and fabricated. The kinoform-only concept means that the kinoform must perform both the actual beam shaping as well as focusing the divergent laser beam, correcting for the astigmatism of the laser, and correcting for the spherical aberration of the laser exit window. A rectangular beam of dimensions 1000 μm × 300 μm is formed 42 mm behind the kinoform. Of the total output from the laser, some 50% is incident upon the kinoform, of which ~50% will appear in the rectangular beam. The intensity uniformity error within the rectangle increases from the design value of 8% to 38% because of sensitivity to fabrication errors. The kinoform-only design for beam-shaping applications requires high manufacturing accuracy but is attractive because a system using such a component is easily mounted and aligned and, with the use of kinoform-replication techniques, can be mass produced at low cost.     

A survey of problems,solution techniques,and future challenges in scheduling semiconductor manufacturing operations

In this paper, we discuss scheduling problems in semiconductor manufacturing. Starting from describing the manufacturing process, we identify typical scheduling problems found in semiconductor manufacturing systems. We describe batch scheduling problems, parallel machine scheduling problems, job shop scheduling problems, scheduling problems with auxiliary resources, multiple orders per job scheduling problems, and scheduling problems related to cluster tools. We also present important solution techniques that are used to solve these scheduling problems by means of specific examples, and report on known implementations. Finally, we summarize some of the challenges in scheduling semiconductor manufacturing operations.