Design and manufacture of high-filling-efficiency microfluidic devices

In this study, we proposed an efficient method for mass production of high-filling-efficiency microfluidic devices. Precision machining was the main process of device fabrication. The commercially available SolidWorks software was adopted for structure design. Unigraphics software was then used to simulate the machining process. The simulated tooling file was then loaded into a CNC milling machine for mold production. The fabricated metal mold was used for pouring polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to obtain high-filling-efficiency microfluidic structures. Finally, plasma-assisted packaging was conducted to tightly bind the PDMS microfluidic structure to the glass substrate. Experimental results showed that the additional semicircular filling structure and expended fill-entry structure can efficiently enhance filling efficiency of the microchannel device. The incubation well array can be completely filled at a relatively short filling time. The proposed highly efficient filling microfluidic device possesses advantages, such as feasibility for mass production and cost effectiveness.     

Seasonal fouling on seawater desalination RO membrane

A pilot study has been performed to investigate the seasonal characteristic of seawater reverse osmosis (RO) membrane fouling. Two batches of experiment during summer and winter were both performed 18 days to provide a clear picture on microbial population variability. The feed water of the pilot from seawater desalination plant has significant difference in temperature and silica content between the two seasons.In our experiments, scaling and biofouling are more serious in summer. And the permeate flux decline is closely related to the rise in microbial population, and it was dominated by cell multiplication rather than adhesion. In addition, the summer cell multiplication is much more abundant. Moreover, the extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) feature intensity detected by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy was also stronger in summer. The abundant EPS was one of the major reasons to cause the inorganic matter adsorption. Si, Al, Fe, Ca and Mg were found as the major inorganic foulants deposited on the Ro membranes. Silica and calcium in summer appeared obvious higher amounts than that in winter, which indicated that they should be affected by microbial action directly or indirectly more than other elements.In summary, there exists a seasonal effect on membrane scaling and fouling, and scaling is associated with biofouling in some degree. Further researches could be focus on actual association between microbial action and inorganic fouling.     

Recast layer removal after electrical discharge machining via Taguchi analysis: A feasibility study

This study explores the feasibility of removing the recast layer (RCL) using etching and mechanical grinding for Ni-based superalloy materials by means of electrical discharge machining (EDM). The EDM process is widely used for machining hard metals and performing specific tasks that cannot be achieved using conventional techniques. The sparks produced during the EDM process melt the metal's surface, which then undergo ultra rapid quenching. A layer forms on the workpiece surface defined as a recast layer after solidification. Molds and dies desire to remove the RCL even though it is hard and has good matrix adherence.This experiment is divided into three stages. The first stage acquires a thick recast layer by using EDM with a larger discharging energy. A thick recast layer is essential for verification of the EDM technique for observing the recast process. Thus, this work applies the Taguchi L₁₈ analytical method to acquire the thick recast layer. The second stage optimizes the recast layer removal technique. Therefore, the thick recast layer is intentionally made in the first stage. This work determines the second stage setting using Taguchi's recommendation. Thus, the L₉ orthogonal array sets up the etching and mechanical grinding parameters and observes the recast layer removal quantity analysis. Finally, an experiment studies the surface characteristics of Ni-based superalloys, such as composition and micro-hardness after removing the recast layer.     

Anodization of nanoporous alumina on impurity-induced hemisphere curved surface of aluminum at room temperature

Nanoporous alumina which was produced by a conventional direct current anodization [DCA] process at low temperatures has received much attention in various applications such as nanomaterial synthesis, sensors, and photonics. In this article, we employed a newly developed hybrid pulse anodization [HPA] method to fabricate the nanoporous alumina on a flat and curved surface of an aluminum [Al] foil at room temperature [RT]. We fabricate the nanopores to grow on a hemisphere curved surface and characterize their behavior along the normal vectors of the hemisphere curve. In a conventional DCA approach, the structures of branched nanopores were grown on a photolithography-and-etched low-curvature curved surface with large interpore distances. However, a high-curvature hemisphere curved surface can be obtained by the HPA technique. Such a curved surface by HPA is intrinsically induced by the high-resistivity impurities in the aluminum foil and leads to branching and bending of nanopore growth via the electric field mechanism rather than the interpore distance in conventional approaches. It is noted that by the HPA technique, the Joule heat during the RT process has been significantly suppressed globally on the material, and nanopores have been grown along the normal vectors of a hemisphere curve. The curvature is much larger than that in other literatures due to different fabrication methods. In theory, the number of nanopores on the hemisphere surface is two times of the conventional flat plane, which is potentially useful for photocatalyst or other applications.PACS: 81.05.Rm; 81.07.-b; 82.45.Cc.     

Structural and Dielectric Characteristics of Barium Lanthanum Zinc Niobate

The dielectric properties and microstructural characteristics in solid solutions of Ba_{1− x} La _x [Zn_{(1+ x )/3}Nb_{(2− x )/3}]O₃ (BLZN) are investigated by measuring and observing these properties, respectively, by means of transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The 1:1 ordered structure of BLZN can be explained by the random-site model for the distribution of B-site cations. The decrease in the tolerance factor ( t ) by lanthanum substitution causes the tilting of oxygen octahedra. It appears that the onset of antiphase and inphase tilting causes the variation in the temperature coefficient of resonant frequency (τ_f). In the untilted region where t ≥1.01, the τ_f shows a linear increase with decreasing tolerance factor. The region of antiphase tilting, where 0.965≤ t <1.01, causes a rapid decrease in τ_f, including the reverse sign. The τ_f slowly increases, where t <0.965, which is due to the presence of inphase tilting of oxygen octahedra. The τ_f can be predicted by using the tolerance factor, and the near zero of τ_f can be obtained with lanthanum substitution in the solid solution of the BLZN system.     

A study of ceramic addition in end termination of multilayer ceramics capacitors with cofiring process

The silver paste with ceramics addition as end termination was performed on multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC) based on ZnO–B₂O₃ + Zn_0.95Mg_0.05TiO₃ + 0.25TiO₂ ceramic (ZnBO-ZMT′) with Ag95–Pd05 internal electrodes. A green sheet was prepared by tape casting using the ZnBO-ZMT′ powders. Ag95–Pd05 was attached on the green sheet as an internal electrode. After lamination, the green chips were pre-sintered at 800 °C for 1 h, then samples were dipped the external electrodes and were cofired together at 900 °C for 2 h. There is no extra curing process, so the production cost may be cut down and thermal shock of the MLCCs may be reduced. To improve the mismatch between end termination and dielectric body during sintering, the silver paste with different amounts of ceramics, e.g., 20, 30 and 40 wt.%, was added in this study. The mechanical and electrical properties of the MLCCs were investigated subsequently. The results showed that end termination with 40 wt.% ceramic addition has good performances on mechanical properties of MLCC, but equivalent series resistance (ESR) is a little bit higher compared to end termination with 20 and 30 wt.% ceramic addition.     

A novel common-subexpression-elimination method for synthesizing fixed-point FIR filters

We propose a common-subexpression-elimination (CSE) method for the synthesis of fixed-point finite-impulse response (FIR) filters. The proposed CSE algorithm considers both the redundancy among the canonic-signed-digit (CSD) filter coefficients and the length of the critical path in the multiplier block of a transposed-form FIR filter. Therefore, the proposed CSE method can perform tradeoff designs between complexity and the throughput rate. The number of adders synthesized by our method is commensurate with that by the graph-dependence algorithms. On the other hand, our method can synthesize a high-order complicated FIR filter in a few seconds.     

Stress Rate Dependence of Fracture Strength in Pre-Cracked Silicon Nitride Ceramics Doped with Ytterbium Oxide

High-temperature dynamic fatigue behavior has been investigated in 6 wt% ytterbium oxide and 2 wt% alumina-doped silicon nitride ceramics by nitrogen gas pressure sintering. The specimens were pre-cracked by Vickers indentation to prevent creep damage and to ensure dynamic fatigue dominating. The tests were performed in four-point flexure in air at temperatures of 1000°, 1200°, 1300°, and 1400°C and by varying the loading rate from 1, 0.5, 0.1–0.01 mm/min at each temperature. The analyses were conducted by plotting fatigue stress against loading rate at each testing temperature in double logarithm coordinates. The material was found to be the least susceptible (the highest slow crack exponent number N ) to slow crack growth at 1200°C, as reflected by the comparison of the plot slopes for the four testing temperatures. The explanation and analyses take into consideration the grain-boundary phase crystallization, crack healing, and oxidation during testing evidenced by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The fracture surfaces were characterized by three well-defined zones, namely zone I, II, and III, referring to the pre-cracked area, slow crack growth area, and fast fracture area, respectively.     

Structural and Dielectric Characteristics in a Ca(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–CaZrO3 System

This study investigates the effect of CaZrO₃ (CZ) substitution on the evolution of an ordered structure in a Ca(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃ (CMN) system using Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometry, and transmission electron microscopy. It indicates that a (1− x ) CMN−( x )CZ solid solution has the 1:2 and 1:1 ordered structure distorted by the antiphase, the inphase tilting of oxygen octahedra, and the antiparallel shift of A-site cation. A distinct correlation is noted between the transition of the ordered structure and microwave dielectric properties. The differences in ɛ_r and τ_f are attributed exclusively to the differences in the type of cation arrangement. The structure with the 1:2 ordering exhibits a lower relative permittivity and a more negative τ_f than the structure with the 1:1 ordering. The increased fraction of compressed Nb–O bond in the 1:2 ordered structure associated with a large NbO₆ octahedral distortion is correlated with a decrease in relative permittivity and change of τ_f toward more negative values. Simultaneously, the substitution of the Zr⁴⁺ ion causes a linear increase in polarizability, and it also results in an increase in the relative permittivity.