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A Wet Etch Release Method for Silicon Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) Using Polystyrene Microspheres for Improved Yield

Description: One of the final steps in fabricating microelectromechanical devices often involves a liquid etch release process. Capillary forces during the liquid evaporation stage after the wet etch process can pull two surfaces together resulting in adhesion of suspended microstructures to the supporting substrate. This release related adhesion can greatly reduce yields. In this report, a wet etch release method that uses polystyrene microspheres in the final rinse liquid is investigated. The polystyrene … more
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Date: May 2004
Creator: Mantiziba, Fadziso
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries

Topics in micro electromechanical systems: MEMS engineering and alternative materials for MEMS fabrication.

Description: This paper deals with various topics in micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology beginning with microactuation, MEMS processing, and MEMS design engineering. The fabrication and testing of three separate MEMS devices are described. The first two devices are a linear stepping motor and a continuous rotary motor, respectively; and were designed for the purpose of investigating the frictional and wear properties of silicon components. The third device is a bi-stable microrelay, in which e… more
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Date: August 2004
Creator: Chapla, Kevin
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open access

Deposition and Characterization of Pentacene Film.

Description: Many organic materials have been studied to be used as semiconductors, few of them being pentacene and polythiophene. Organic semiconductors have been investigated to make organic thin film transistors. Pentacene has been used in the active region of the transistors. Transistors fabricated with pentacene do not have very high mobility. But in some applications, high mobility is not needed. In such application other properties of organic transistors are used, such as, ease of production and flex… more
Date: December 2003
Creator: Singh, Nidhi
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries

Study of Conductance Quantization by Cross-Wire Junction

Description: The thesis studied quantized conductance in nanocontacts formed between two thin gold wires with one of the wires coated by alkainthiol self assembly monolayers (SAM), by using the cross-wire junction. Using the Lorenz force as the driving force, we can bring the two wires in contact in a controlled manner. We observed conductance with steps of 2e2 / h. The conductance plateaus last several seconds. The stability of the junction is attributed to the fact that the coating of SAM improves the st… more
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Date: May 2004
Creator: Zheng, Tao
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open access

Investigation of growth kinetics of self-assembling monolayers by means of contact angle, optical ellipsometry, angle-resolved XPS and IR spectroscopy.

Description: Absorption of octadecanethiol and p-nitrobenzenethiol onto gold surfaces from ethanol solutions has been studied by means of contact angle, optical ellipsometry, angle-resolved XPS (ARXPS), and with grazing angle total reflection FTIR. Growth of the monolayers from dilute solutions has been monitored and Langmuir isotherm adsorption curves were fitted to experimental data. A saturated film is formed within approximately 5h after immersion in solutions of concentrations ranging from 0.0005mM to … more
Date: August 2004
Creator: Jakubowicz, Agnieszka
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
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The Effects of Color Concentrate in Polyolefins.

Description: Throughout history consumer products were generally manufactured from wood and metal. They either had to hold their natural color or become subject to painting. When plastics entered the industry, it was recognized for its ease of shaping, re-usability, physical properties and its low cost. One of plastics' greatest benefits is its ability to hold a given color from within allowing it to avoid use of paint. This paper will give a brief overview on the effects of pigments when incorporated in a … more
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Date: December 2001
Creator: Flora, Paul
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open access

Techniques Utilized in the Characterization of Existing Materials for Improved Material Development

Description: It has become increasingly important to remain on the cutting edge of technology for a company to remain competitive and survive in today's high-tech industries. To do this, a company needs various resources dedicated to this cause. One of these resources is the use of existing materials, as starting points, for which improved materials can be based. For this, a company must rely on the characterization of existing materials to bring that base technology into their company. Through this evaluat… more
Date: December 2001
Creator: Withaeger, Gary
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries

Mineral-filled polypropylene: Improvement of scratch resistance

Description: A potential alternative to acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and polycarbonate+ABS (PC+ABS), pigmented mineral-filled polypropylene (PP) finds an opening in automotive interior components such as instrument panels, knee bolsters, consoles, etc. Because of the lack of surface aesthetics, pigmented mineral-filled PP is experiencing a limitation to its acceptance in many applications. This study focuses on exploring various mineral fillers and additives in polypropylene to provide a material w… more
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Date: December 2001
Creator: Khatib, Jamal F.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
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open access

The Effect of Average Grain Size on Polycrystalline Diamond Films

Description: The work function of hydrogen-terminated, polycrystalline diamond was studied using ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy. Polycrystalline diamond films were deposited onto molybdenum substrates by electrophoresis for grain sizes ranging from 0.3 to 108 microns. The work function and electron affinity were measured using 21.2 eV photons from a helium plasma source. The films were characterized by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to determine elemental composition and the sp2/sp3 carbon fractio… more
Date: May 2002
Creator: Abbott, Patrick Roland
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Stability of Field Emitter Arrays to Oxygen Exposures

Description: The purpose of these experiments was to determine the degradation mechanisms of molybdenum based field emitter arrays to oxygen exposures and to improve the overall reliability. In addition, we also evaluated the emission current stability of gold-coated field emitter arrays to oxygen exposures. oxygen at 1x10-6 torr was introduced into the chamber through a leak valve for different lengths of time and duty cycles. To ensure identical oxygen exposure and experimental measurement conditions, ti… more
Date: December 2002
Creator: Godbole, Soumitra Kumar
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Work Function Study of Iridium Oxide and Molybdenum Using UPS and Simultaneous Fowler-Nordheim I-V Plots with Field Emission Energy Distributions

Description: The characterization of work functions and field emission stability for molybdenum and iridium oxide coatings was examined. Single emission tips and flat samples of molybdenum and iridium oxide were prepared for characterization. The flat samples were characterized using X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction to determine elemental composition, chemical shift, and crystal structure. Flat coatings of iridium oxide were also scanned by Atomic Force Microscopy to examine topography… more
Date: August 1999
Creator: Bernhard, John Michael
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries

Mechanical behavior and performance of injection molded semi-crystalline polymers.

Description: I have used computer simulations to investigate the behavior of polymeric materials at the molecular level. The simulations were performed using the molecular dynamics method with Lennard-Jones potentials defining the interactions between particles in the system. Significant effort was put into the creation of realistic materials on the computer. For this purpose, an algorithm was developed based on the step-wise polymerization process. The resulting computer-generated materials (CGMs) exhibit… more
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Date: August 2003
Creator: Simoes, Ricardo J. F.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
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Characterization of Methyltrimethoxysilane Sol-Gel Polymerization and the Resulting Aerogels.

Description: Methyl-functionalized porous silica is of considerable interest as a low dielectric constant film for semiconductor devices. The structural development of these materials appears to affect their gelation behaviors and impact their mechanical properties and shrinkage during processing. 29Si solution NMR was used to follow the structural evolution of MTMS (methyltrimethoxysilane) polymerization to gelation or precipitation, and thus to better understand the species that affect these properties an… more
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Date: August 2003
Creator: Dong, Hanjiang
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Study of Gate Electrode Materials on High K Dielectrics

Description: This problem in lieu of thesis report presents a study on gate electrode materials on high K dielectrics, including poly-SiGe and Ru. The stability of poly-SiGe in direct contact with Hf silicon-oxynitride (HfSiON) is studied by rapid thermal annealing (RTA), Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). By performing a series of RTA treatments we found that as RTA thermal budgets reach 1050 C f… more
Date: August 2003
Creator: Yao, Chun
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
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Thermal, Electrical, and Structural Analysis of Graphite Foam

Description: A graphite foam was developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) by Dr. James Klett and license was granted to POCO Graphite, Inc. to manufacture and market the product as PocoFoam™. Unlike many processes currently used to manufacture carbon foams, this process yields a highly graphitic structure and overcomes many limitations, such as oxidation stabilization, that are routinely encountered in the development of carbon foam materials. The structure, thermal properties, electrical resistiv… more
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Date: August 2001
Creator: Morgan, Dwayne Russell
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Characterizaton of Triethoxyfluorosilane and Tetraethoxysilane Based Aerogels

Description: Aerogels are highly porous, low dielectric constant (low k) materials being considered by the semiconductor industry as an interlayer dielectric. Low k materials are needed to overcome capacitance problems that limit device feature sizes. Precursors triethoxyfluorosilane (TEFS) and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) were used to prepare bulk aerogels. Samples were prepared by sol-gel methods, and then carbon dioxide supercritically-dried. Effects of varying the water to precursor ratio were studied with … more
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Date: December 2001
Creator: Roepsch, Jodi Ann
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Physics of Gaseous Exposures on Active Field Emission Microcathode Arrays

Description: The interaction of active molybdenum field emission microcathode arrays with oxygen, water, carbon dioxide, methane, hydrogen and helium gases was studied. Experiments were setup to measure the emission characteristics as a function of gas exposures. The resulting changes in the surface work function of the tips were determined from the Fowler-Nordheim plots. The kinetics of the FEA-gas interaction were studied by observing the ion species originating from the array during and after gas exposur… more
Date: September 1996
Creator: Chalamala, Babu Reddy
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
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open access

Structure property and deformation analysis of polypropylene montmorillonite nanocomposites.

Description: Nanocomposites with expandable smectites such as montmorillonite layered silicates (MLS) in polymer matrices have attracted extensive application interest. Numerous MLS concentrations have been used with no particular justification. Here, we investigate the effects of MLS dispersion within the matrix and on mechanical performance. The latter is resolved through a three-prong investigation on rate dependent tensile results, time dependent creep results and the influence of a sharp notch in polyp… more
Date: May 2003
Creator: Hernandez-Luna, Alejandro
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Hypotheses for Scratch Behavior of Polymer Systems that Recover

Description: Scratch recovery is a desirable property of many polymer systems. The reason why some materials have demonstrated excellent scratch recovery while others do not has been a mystery. Explaining the scratch resistance based upon the hardness of a material or its crosslink density is incorrect. In this thesis, novel polymers were tested in an attempt to discover materials that show excellent scratch recovery - one of the most important parameters in determining the wear of a material. Several hypo… more
Date: May 2002
Creator: Bujard, Bernard
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
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open access

Synthesis and study of crystalline hydrogels, guided by a phase diagram.

Description: Monodispersed nanoparticles of poly-N-isopropylacrylamide-co-allylamine (PNIPAM-co-allylamine) and PNIPAM-co-acrylic acid (AA) have been synthesized and used as building blocks for creating three-dimensional networks. The close-packed PNIPAM-co-allylamine and PNIPAM-co-AA nanoparticles were stabilized by covalently bonding neighboring particles at room temperature and at neutral pH; factors which make these networks amicable for drug loading and release. Controlled release studies have been pe… more
Date: December 2004
Creator: Huang, Gang
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
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Carbon Nanotube/Microwave Interactions and Applications to Hydrogen Fuel Cells.

Description: One of the leading problems that will be carried into the 21st century is that of alternative fuels to get our planet away from the consumption of fossil fuels. There has been a growing interest in the use of nanotechnology to somehow aid in this progression. There are several unanswered questions in how to do this. It is known that carbon nanotubes will store hydrogen but it is unclear how to increase that storage capacity and how to remove this hydrogen fuel once stored. This document off… more
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Date: May 2004
Creator: Imholt, Timothy James
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open access

Metal Oxide Reactions in Complex Environments: High Electric Fields and Pressures above Ultrahigh Vacuum

Description: Metal oxide reactions at metal oxide surfaces or at metal-metal oxide interfaces are of exceptional significance in areas such as catalysis, micro- and nanoelectronics, chemical sensors, and catalysis. Such reactions are frequently complicated by the presence of high electric fields and/or H2O-containing environments. The focus of this research was to understand (1) the iron oxide growth mechanism on Fe(111) at 300 K and 500 K together with the effect of high electric fields on these iron oxide… more
Date: August 2005
Creator: Qin, Feili
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
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Cure Kinetics and Processing Parameters of Neat and Reinforced High Performance Epoxy Resins: Evaluation of Techniques

Description: Kinetic equation parameters for the curing reaction of a commercial glass fiber reinforced high performance epoxy prepreg composed of the tetrafunctional epoxy tetraglycidyl 4,4-diaminodiphenyl methane (TGDDM), the tetrafunctional amine curing agent 4,4’-diaminodiphenylsulfone (DDS) and an ionic initiator/accelerator, are determined by various thermal analysis techniques and the results compared. The reaction is monitored by heat generated determined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). … more
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Date: December 1999
Creator: Bilyeu, Bryan
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open access

Polymer hydrogel nanoparticles and their networks

Description: The thermally responsive hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) hydrogel nanoparticles have been synthesized and characterized. The HPC particles were obtained by chemically crosslinking collapsed HPC polymer chains in water-surfactant (dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide) dispersion above the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of the HPC. The size distributions of microgel particles, measured by dynamic light scattering, have been correlated with synthesis conditions including surfactant concen… more
Date: August 2002
Creator: Lu, Xihua
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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