Dynamic strain gages based on alloys of indium tin oxide (ITO) have been developed to monitor the structural integrity of gas turbine engine components operating at temperatures in excess of 1200 °C. Static strain measurements in these harsh environments have been hampered by apparent strain effects that can be mitigated by employing sensors with a low temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR). Since refractory metals typically exhibit a positive TCR and semiconductors such as ITO exhibit a negative TCR, an optimal combination of materials could produce a sensor with little or no apparent strain. These materials were combined in a single strain gage element, in which phase separation occurred at very small length scales. Specifically, nanocomposite strain elements comprised of ITO/(Pt, Pd, W, NiCoCrAlY, Ni and Ir) combinatorial libraries were prepared by co-sputtering from ITO and refractory metal targets onto alumina constant strain beams. TCR was measured from room temperature to 1100 °C and the piezoresistive response of the more promising combinations was measured at strain levels approaching 1000 μm/m and the chemical composition of the most promising combinatorial libraries was analyzed by SEM/EDS. Preliminary results indicated that a strain gage based on an ITO/platinum (12% ITO: 88% Pt) nanocomposite was fabricated with a near zero TCR over the temperature range 500-1100 °C. The gage factor of this nanocomposite remained unchanged (∼-26.0) compared to that of ITO and thus, it appears that a simple additive mixture rule does not apply here and that other physics are controlling the piezoresistive response in these materials.

Recently, the materials of functional optical glass lens mold have been studied. We had searched for the novel amorphous alloy having high crystallization temperature Tx using combinatorial arc plasma deposition (CAPD). In the previous work, Ru-based and Pt-based alloys were investigated. Although these amorphous alloys had high Tx of more than 973 K, they did not show good machinability. In this work, in order to progress machinability of amorphous samples, the various properties of the Pt-Zr-Ni thin film amorphous alloys were investigated. The properties of desired sample were as follows: (1) Tx exceeds 923K. (2) sf exceeds 2.0GPa. (3) Non-sticking characteristics with melting glass. (4) Good machinability.

As the process of searching for amorphous alloys, 3267 samples were deposited by CAPD. The phase and composition of the CAPD samples with thickness more than 500nm were evaluated. Thickness of the CAPD samples was measured by a white-light interferometer. Compositions were measured by an energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometer. Phases were identified by an X-ray diffractmeter. From these results, 312 amorphous compositions were found. The period of searching for amorphous composition was only about twenty days. This shows the effectiveness of CAPD.

Tx and fracture stress Ðf of the sputter-deposited amorphous samples having the same composition as amorphous CAPD samples were measured because CAPD samples were too small to evaluate thermal and mechanical properties. Tx was measured by differential scanning calorimeter. sf was measured by tensile tests using a thermo-mechanical analyzer.

At first, in order to investigate the effect of Pt-content on Tx, the PtxZr (90-x)Ni10 samples were fabricated by the sputter. Pt-content was ranged from 20 to 50 at.%. Tx increased with increasing Pt-content, and the Pt51Zr39Ni10 sample showed the highest Tx of 939K. The sample has needs to show Pt-rich composition to show Tx of more than 923K. However, sf of all sample showed less than 2GPa.

Subsequently, in order to search for Pt-rich sample having high sf, the properties of the Pt50Zr(50-x)Nix sample were investigated. Ni-content was ranged from 5 to 15 at.%. As the results, Tx increasing with increasing Ni-content. The Pt50Zr36Ni14 sample showed the highest Tx of 985 K and Ðf of 2.12 GPa.

Sticking characteristics of the Pt50Zr36Ni14 sample with melting glass were measured. Melting glass was felled in drops on the samples, and then droplet was removed without adhering to the sample. Machinability of the Pt50Zr36Ni14 sample was evaluated by cutting tests using diamond tools. Surface roughness of this sample worked was several nanometers. This result indicated that the Pt50Zr36Ni14 sample showed good machinability. From these results, it is considered that the Pt50Zr36Ni14 sample is suitable for the materials for glass lens mold.

Micro-Raman spectroscopy is used to measure stress distributions in 1.5 µm thick polycrystalline silicon thin film solar cells on glass. These measurements are combined with transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy to assign the measured local stresses to the sample's microstructure. Expansion and contraction of the silicon lattice in the layer and the borosilicate glass substrate during the thermal processing of the solar cell as well as quartz beads of µm size that reside on the glass substrate for light-trapping purposes induce internal stresses that locally vary with structural features. While the thermal processing induces an average tensile stress in the silicon layer originating from the thermal mismatch between glass and silicon, the latter results in lateral stress gradients up to 208 ± 12 MPa in the mapped area.

In this paper we describe a new attempt of high-throughput screening of thermoelectric materials by combining the use of the “bulk composition-spread (CS)” or “bulk diffusion multiples (DM)” and the “scanning thermal probe microanalyzer (STPM).” The (Bi2Te3)1-x(Sb2Te3)x (0<x<1) and Ni1-xCux (0<x<1) bulk CS samples were prepared by conventional powder metallurgy method by using mechanical alloying and spark plasma sintering process. The Ni-Cu-X (X=Sn, In, Bi.) DM sample was prepared by post-heating of the CS samples in a molten metal. The two dimensional distributions of Seebeck coefficient and the thermal conductivity of the cross section of the CS and DM samples which composed of graded composition were visualized by using STPM at room temperature. The composition variation was checked by EDX. The relationship between composition and the thermoelectric properties was successfully determined by using the mapping results. The time required for mapping out the 100x100 pixel image was 8 to 11 hours. The total time required for this set of the screening experiment, from sample preparation to the final conclusion, was within 24 hours. For samples Ni-Cu-X DM the diffusion length of the elements at the interface can be large as 1mm and it was found that STPM is applicable to visualize the thermoelectric properties at the region of interest.

We developed an autonomous modeling system for the calculation processes of the simulator for film deposition processes in order to decrease the calculation cost for reproducing experimental results. Replacing the simulator with the mathematical models proposed by the modeling system decreased huge calculation cost of the simulator. The system consists of one mobile agent and three platforms for the agent. The agent autonomously moved in the computer-networks and operated the process simulator in the platform in order to make training data needed for modeling and then operated the generalized modeling software in the platform using the training data and finally the agent created the models. The models showed both good reproducibility and predictability with the calculated results of the simulator.

An approach to prepare metal nanoparticle-polymer microbeads with integrated Raman tags using SERS as reliable diagnostic tool is reported. In essence, spectroscopically encoded (4-thioacetyl)styrenes were assembled on well-characterized 50 nm Au NPs and subjected to suspension polymerization conditions using styrene and methacrylic acid as comonomers and divinylbenzene as crosslinker. The resulting metal embedded nanocomposites were characterized by SEM, TEM, DSC, TGA, Raman and SERS to determine their morphology, particle size, composition, thermal stability and their optical and electronic properties.

This paper presents the properties of Pt-based thin film amorphous alloys developed for a glass lens mold. To search for the amorphous alloys, Pt-Zr-Ni and Pt-Hf-Ni thin film libraries were fabricated using combinatorial arc plasma deposition (CAPD). The composition ranges of the amorphous region in each library were 50 to 60 at.% Pt, 0 to 20 at.% Ni, and balance being Zr or Hf. To evaluate the thermal and mechanical properties of these amorphous alloys, Pt51Zr39Ni10 and Pt52Hf36Ni12 samples, as typical amorphous samples, were prepared by sputtering. The Pt51Zr39Ni10 sample showed a crystallization temperature, Tx, of 939 K and a fracture stress, σf, of 1.44 GPa. The Pt52Hf36Ni12 sample showed a Tx of 978 K and a σf of 0.3 GPa. The Pt51Zr39Ni10 and Pt52Hf36Ni12 samples did not achieve the target Tx (973K) and σf (1.0 GPa). In order to achieve the target properties, Zr was displaced with Hf to increase the Tx of Pt-Zr-Ni and four Pt51HfxZr37-xNi12 samples were prepared. The Pt51Hf20Zr17Ni12 sample had a Tx of 992 K and a σf of 0.87 GPa, and almost achieved the target properties. The machinability of the Pt51Hf20Zr17Ni12 sample was also evaluated. Though this sample could be cut using a diamond tool, it did not show sufficient machinability. In order to improve the accuracy of the glass mold shape, the machinability of the Pt-based thin film amorphous alloys require further modification.

Random bead microarray in which each bead has been functionalized with different biomolecules are of great interest. The process by which one would identify the location of each bead is referred to as decoding. The decoding step has played a challenging role in microarray technologies due to the increase in complexity with the increase in array size. Here we report a novel, fast and reliable method of decoding randomly assembled arrays based on polymer beads with unique spectroscopic signatures. Beads were synthesized by dispersion polymerization of a family of styrene monomers and methacrylic acid to generate a spectroscopically encoded bead library. In addition to identifying the self-encoded beads through their unique spectrum in a tetraplex experiment, Raman spectroscopy was used to monitor antibody-antigen binding events on the barcoded beads. The simplicity, versatility and rapid analysis enabled by this self-encoded bead array platform technology demonstrates its potential in high-throughput biomolecular multiplex screening.

Electrochemical transducers are frequently used to electrochemically deposit, synthesize and/or sense chemical compounds in material science, chemistry and biology. Traditionally this is done in fairly large volumes; generally several milliliters to even full production scale tanks, however, for high throughput measurements and combinatorial experiments smaller volumes are generally preferred. To probe small volumes small electrodes with preferable high density are needed. Presented in this paper is how to fabricate interdigitated electrodes by electron beam lithography (EBL) and also how to make large quantities by nanoimprint lithography (NIL) to enable combinatorial studies of cells or materials in microsystems (Lab-on-a-Chip Systems).

Interdigitated electrodes are shown to have additional advantages compared to simple disk or rod electrodes, such as being able to perform redox cycling experiments. The collection efficiency for the electrodes with pitch of 400 nm and width of 200 nm fabricated by EBL has been found to be round 87% when characterized electrochemically using ferro-/ferricyanide. The shape of the cyclic voltammograms for the electrodes are also in good agreement with the theoretical expectations for ultramicroelectrodes. Hence, these electrodes should be ideal candidates for combinatorial and high-throughput studies based on electrochemical methods.

Furthermore, a fabrication process based on nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is demonstrated, this could potentially ease fabrication and reduce cost of devices. The NIL process is based on thermal imprinting in PMMA 950k and LOR 0.7A.

The coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) is one of the most important material properties for actuators driven by heat or structure over a wide temperature. The CTE of an alloy depends on its composition, and combinatorial methods are very effective for researching new alloys. A CTE evaluation method, which can be applied to combinatorial methods or a thin film library, is proposed in this paper. The thermal behavior of a bi-layer cantilever couple was used for the evaluation, and the Young's modulus, which is also an important property, was simultaneously obtained. Firstly, one bi-layer cantilever was fabricated and agreement of the thermal behavior with the theoretical behavior was confirmed. The estimated error of the measurement device (CCD camera) resolution was then analyzed. The results indicate that combinatorial evaluation does not enable an accurate evaluation of Young's modulus, but does allow the CTE be accurately determined.

Reaction phase diagram of pseudo four-components Li-Ni-Co-Ti oxides was established for finding new chemical composition and functional materials by the combinatorial high-throughput preparation system “M-ist Combi,” based on electrostatic spray deposition process and the combinatorial x-ray powder diffraction apparatus. The new layered-type compounds were found wider composition region than the previous reported composition region of LiNi0.8-yCo0.2TiyO2 (0≤y≤0.1). Furthermore, the new composition regions of single phase for spinel-type and rock salt-type compounds in pseudo four-components Li-Ni-Co-Ti oxides system were also found in a short time.

In this paper, we introduced a novel calculation method to reproduce deposition profiles in various types of Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) reactors. Robust and accurate calculations along with reduced computing cost were achieved by the method. Boundary value problems for estimating diffusion-reaction equations by iterations of numerical integrations were changed into problems of finding the linear combinations consisted of a few "basis functions", which are inherent in the reactors. The coefficients of the linear combinations were optimized by Genetic Algorithms (GA). We could demonstrate the validity of the proposed method using various examples of the reaction mechanisms and conditions.