Plasma polymerized a-C:H thin films have been deposited on Si (100) and aluminum coated glass substrates by a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) operated at medium pressure using C₂Hm/Ar (m = 2, 4, 6) gas mixtures. The deposited films were characterized by Fourier transform infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (FT-IRRAS), Raman spectroscopy, and ellipsometry. FT-IRRAS revealed the presen...

In the present work, the stress evaluation of RF sputtered silicon dioxide films for MEMS applications has been reported. The films were deposited in argon atmosphere in the pressure range 5-20 mtorr at 300 W RF power using a 3 inch diameter silicon dioxide target. The stress measurements were carried out using wafer curvature technique. All the deposited films show compressive stress except th...

Diamond-like carbon sDLCd films have always had high intrinsic stress due to their metastable structure and the fine balance between film density and bond stability. We show the effects of high intrinsic stress on the electron field emission performance, where a lower electric field for emission is recorded with increasing stress in the DLC films. In addition to examining “as deposited” films w...

Screen printing is a potential technique for mass-production of printed electronics; however, improvement in printing resolution is needed for high integration and performance. In this study, screen printing of highly loaded silver ink (77 wt %) on polyimide films is studied using fine-scale silicon stencils with openings ranging from 5 to 50 μm wide. This approach enables printing of high-reso...

We explore the electric-field-induced interfacial instabilities of a trilayer composed of a thin elastic film confined between two viscous layers. A linear stability analysis (LSA) is performed to uncover the growth rate and length scale of the different unstable modes. Application of a normal external electric field on such a configuration can deform the two coupled elastic-viscous interfaces ...

The coefficient of thermal expansion ~CTE! of hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) was investigated as a function of the concentration of sp hybridization. The CTE, determined using the thermally induced bending technique, depends on the concentration of sp bonded carbon, increasing to the value of graphite as the sp concentration approaches 100%. By using a combination of the thermally induce...

The bending angle effect on a multi-domain in-plane switching liquid crystal display (MD IPS LCD) using the chevron-shaped electrodes is investigated through a three-dimensional simulation. We find that when the bending angle of the electrodes increases from 10 to 40 , the threshold voltage is lowered from 1.25 Vrms to 0.75 Vrms. With the optimized uniaxial compensation films, the viewing angle...

Rapid progress in the reduction of substrate thickness for silicon-based microelectronics leads to a significant reduction of the device bending stiffness and the need to address its implication for the thermo-mechanical fatigue behavior of metallization layers. Results on 5 µm thick Cu films reveal a strong substrate thickness-dependent microstructural evolution. Substrates with hs = 323 and 2...

Position and/or force feedback is critical in ensuring precise and safe operation of ionic polymer–metal composite (IPMC) actuators in io/micromanipulation. In this paper the design of an integrated sensory actuator is presented, where polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) films re used to provide simultaneous feedback of bending and force outputs of the IPMC actuator. The design adopts differential c...