Nanolayer CrAlN/TiSiN coating designed for tribological applications

With the goal to produce a hard and tough coating intended for tribological applications, CrAlN/TiSiN nanolayer coating was prepared by alternative deposition of CrAlN and TiSiN layers. In the first part of the article, a detailed study of phase composition, microstructure, and layer structure of CrAlN/TiSiN coating is presented. In the second part, its mechanical properties, fracture and tribological behavior are compared to the nanocomposite TiSiN coating. An industrial magnetron sputtering unit was used for coating deposition. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy were used for compositional and microstructural analysis. Mechanical properties and fracture behavior were studied by instrumented indentation and focused ion beam techniques. Tribological properties were evaluated by ball-on-disk test in a linear reciprocal mode. A complex layer structure was found in the nanolayer coating. The TiSiN layers were epitaxially stabilized inside the coating which led to formation of dislocations at interfaces, to introduction of disturbances in the coating growth, and as a result, to development of fine-grained columnar microstructure. Indentation load required for the onset of fracture was twice lower for the nanolayer CrAlN/TiSiN, compared to the nanocomposite TiSiN coating. This agrees very well with their mechanical properties, with H³/E² being twice higher for the TiSiN coating. However, the nanolayer coating experienced less severe damage, which had a strong impact on tribological behavior. A magnitude of order lower wear rate and four times lower steady state friction coefficient were found for the nanolayer coating.     

Inductive proximity sensor with a flat coil and a new differential relaxation oscillator

A high-sensitivity flat-coil inductive proximity sensor microsystem has been realized and successfully tested. The flat coil, made with CMOS-compatible post processes, is connected to a versatile differential relaxation oscillator electronic interface. In this new and simple interface, the excitation, the signal extraction and amplification are assured by only one operational amplifier. Experimental results on the microsystem confirm that large output frequency variations occur when a metallic target approaches the sensor.     

Machine learning in control of functional electrical stimulationsystems for locomotion

Two machine learning techniques were evaluated for automatic design of a rule-based control of functional electrical stimulation (FES) for locomotion of spinal cord injured humans. The task was to learn the invariant characteristics of the relationship between sensory information and the FES-control signal by using off-line supervised training. Sensory signals were recorded using pressure sensors installed in the insoles of a subject's shoes and goniometers attached across the joints of the affected leg. The FES-control consisted of pulses corresponding to time intervals when the subject pressed on the manual push-button to deliver the stimulation during FES-assisted ambulation. The machine learning techniques used were the adaptive logic network (ALN) and the inductive learning algorithm (IL). Results to date suggest that, given the same training data, the IL learned faster than the ALN while both performed the test rapidly. The generalization was estimated by measuring the test errors and it was better with an ALN, especially if past points were used to reflect the time dimension. Both techniques were able to predict future stimulation events. An advantage of the ALN over the IL was that ALN's can be retrained with new data without losing previously collected knowledge. The advantages of the IL over the ALN were that the IL produces small, explicit, comprehensible trees and that the relative importance of each sensory contribution can be quantified     

Transistor oscillator and amplifier grids

Although quasi-optical techniques are applicable to a large variety of solid-state devices, special attention is given to transistors, which are attractive because they can be used as either amplifiers or oscillators. Experimental results for MESFET bar-grid and planar grid oscillators are presented. A MESFET grid amplifier that receives only vertically polarized waves at the input and radiates horizontally polarized waves at the output is discussed. These planar grids can be scaled for operation at millimeter- and submillimeter-wave frequencies. By using modern IC fabrication technology, planar grid oscillators and amplifiers containing thousands of devices can be built, thereby realizing an efficient means for large-scale power combining     

Air trenches for sharp silica waveguide bends

Air trench structures for reduced-size bends in low-index contrast waveguides are proposed. To minimize junction loss, the structures are designed to provide adiabatic mode shaping between low- and high-index contrast regions, which is achieved by the introduction of "cladding tapers." Drastic reduction in effective bend radius is predicted. We present two-dimensional (2-D) finite-difference time-domain/effective index method simulations of bends in representative silica index contrasts. We also argue that substrate loss, while present, can be controlled with such air trenches and reduced to arbitrarily low levels limited only by fabrication capabilities. The required trench depth, given an acceptable substrate loss, is calculated in three dimensions using an approximate equivalent current sheet method and also by a numerical solver for full-vector leaky modes. A simple, compact waveguide T-splitter using air trench bends is presented.     

Synthesis of new hyperbranched urethane-acrylates and their evaluation in UV-curable coatings

Three series of hyperbranched urethane-acrylates (HB-UA), based on aliphatic hyperbranched polyesters and polyethyleneglycol acrylate, were prepared and evaluated for use in UV-curable coatings. UV-curing kinetics were monitored by FT-IR spectroscopy. The thermal and mechanical properties of UV-cured HB-UA were investigated by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and correlated to the mechanical properties of coatings (hardness and flexibility). These new HB-UA's are very reactive and did not show oxygen inhibition. Obtained coatings have good mechanical properties and solvent resistance.     

The effect of nitrogenous fertilizers on the nitrification of forest soils

The effect of fertilization with urea and ammonium nitrate on nitrogen mineralization was studied in a series of laboratory incubation experiments. The samples (humus layer) were collected from field experiments with different applications of fertilizers during a period of 11–14 years. The nitrogen fertilization influenced some chemical properties of the humus layer such as pH, N-Kjeldahl content and the content of inorganic nitrogen, especially in the samples from North Sweden. Nitrate nitrogen was formed in humus samples classified as non-nitrifying in several cases, usually after urea fertilization.     

Formability of a high-strength Al–Mg6.8 type alloy sheet

Room temperature formability testing was performed on an AlMg6.8 type alloy sheet with a fully recrystallized structure (average grain diameter 18 m) and after partial annealing with a retained deformed structure. The yield strengths attained after full recrystallization and after partial annealing, were 175 and 283 MPa respectively. Such an increase in strength is followed by formability degradation, maximized around the plain strain state to either 42%, as obtained using the limiting dome height test (LDH), or 35% after using forming limit curves (FLC). A comparison with known high-strength formable alloys has shown that the tested alloy in the recrystallized condition has a better stretch formability (at the same or even higher yield stress level), while in the unrecrystallized-partially annealed condition it has a lower formability, limiting its application to moderate forming requirements for very high-strength parts. © 1998 Chapman & Hall