Next-generation HiPIMS for e-CVD, PVD, etch, and precision implantation control for PV Manufacturing
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A stent apparatus, system, and method that senses wall shear stress by measuring fluid flow at localized areas within the stent, that processes measured information through an integrated circuit, and selectively sends power to mechanically controllable stent surfaces which results in localized geometric changes. In various embodiments the stent apparatus, system, and method sends data to outside the body in real time.
Systems and methods for utilizing a small form-factor, wirelessly powered transceiver are disclosed. In one embodiment, a wireless powered transceiver includes a receive antenna configured to receive a receive signal, a transmit antenna configured to transmit a transmit signal, a power harvesting system including a rectifier circuit configured convert radio frequency energy from the receive signal into DC (direct current) voltage, and a power management unit (PMU) configured to set the operating mode and biasing condition of the receive and transmit circuitry blocks and provide DC voltage from the receive circuitry block to the transmit circuitry block to maintain a minimum voltage, a receiver circuitry block configured to provide energy from the receive signal to the power harvesting system, and a transmitter circuitry block including a data modulator circuit, the data modulator circuit configured to generate the transmit signal using DC voltage received from the power management unit.
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Imaging methods driven by probes, electrons, and ions have played a dominant role in modern science and engineering. Opportunities for machine vision and AI that focus on consumer problems like driving and feature recognition, are now presenting themselves for automating aspects of the scientific processes. This proposal aims to enable and drive discovery in ultra-low energy implantation by taking advantage of faster processing, flexible control and detection methods, and architecture-agnostic workflows that will result in higher efficiency and shorter scientific development cycles. Custom microscope control, collection and analysis hardware will provide a framework for conducting novel in situ experiments revealing unprecedented insight into surface dynamics at the nanoscale. Ion implantation is a key capability for the semiconductor industry. As devices shrink, novel materials enter the manufacturing line, and quantum technologies transition to being more mainstream. Traditional implantation methods fall short in terms of energy, ion species, and positional precision. Here we demonstrate 1 keV focused ion beam Au implantation into Si and validate the results via atom probe tomography. We show the Au implant depth at 1 keV is 0.8 nm and that identical results for low energy ion implants can be achieved by either lowering the column voltage, or decelerating ions using bias – while maintaining a sub-micron beam focus. We compare our experimental results to static calculations using SRIM and dynamic calculations using binary collision approximation codes TRIDYN and IMSIL. A large discrepancy between the static and dynamic simulation is found that is due to lattice enrichment with high stopping power Au and surface sputtering. Additionally, we demonstrate how model details are particularly important to the simulation of these low-energy heavy-ion implantations. Finally, we discuss how our results pave a way to much lower implantation energies, while maintaining high spatial resolution.
Ion implantation is a key capability for the semiconductor industry. As devices shrink, novel materials enter the manufacturing line, and quantum technologies transition to being more mainstream. Traditional implantation methods fall short in terms of energy, ion species, and positional precision. Here, we demonstrate 1 keV focused ion beam Au implantation into Si and validate the results via atom probe tomography. We show the Au implant depth at 1 keV is 0.8 nm and that identical results for low-energy ion implants can be achieved by either lowering the column voltage or decelerating ions using bias while maintaining a sub-micron beam focus. We compare our experimental results to static calculations using SRIM and dynamic calculations using binary collision approximation codes TRIDYN and IMSIL. A large discrepancy between the static and dynamic simulation is found, which is due to lattice enrichment with high-stopping-power Au and surface sputtering. Additionally, we demonstrate how model details are particularly important to the simulation of these low-energy heavy-ion implantations. Finally, we discuss how our results pave a way towards much lower implantation energies while maintaining high spatial resolution.
In this study, Zr 52.5 Cu 17.9 Ni 14.6 Al 10 Ti 5 and Cu 60 Zr 20 Hf 10 Ti 10 amorphous and crystallized bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) were implanted at room temperature by 150 keV 3 He + ions to fluences of 2 × 10 15 cm -2 and 5 × 10 15 cm -2 , producing peak implanted He concentrations of ~1,100 and 3,500 appm, respectively. Nuclear reaction analysis (NRA) performed on post-implantation annealed samples at various temperatures between 250 and 600 °C (~0.30 to 0.75 of the absolute melting temperature T m of the BMGs) revealed no appreciable He migration. Complementary thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) on as-implanted samples, which involved in situ annealing, showed appreciable He release only at temperatures higher than ~700 °C (~0.76-0.90 T m ) in all the samples. Half or more of the implanted He did not desorb up to the maximum investigated TDS annealing temperature of 770 °C (~0.85-0.97 T m ). The lack of pronounced He diffusion up to 600 °C as observed from the NRA and TDS data was attributed to He trapping in free volume sites present in the BMGs, which seems to play a similar role to vacancies in crystalline materials. It was also observed that in both the amorphous and crystallized forms of the Zr BMG, the sample implanted to the lower fluence released more He as compared to the sample implanted with a higher fluence. The crystalline forms of both the Cu and Zr BMGs released more He as compared to their amorphous counterparts.
SIGN Fracture Care International partners with surgeons in low-resource hospitals worldwide to provide access to effective orthopedic care by donating educational materials and innovatively designed surgical implants. Over two decades, SIGN’s Online Surgical Database (SOSD) has grown to contain over 500,000 medical images, with radiographs holding the majority share. One challenge in working with hospitals worldwide is that both the radiographs uploaded to the SOSD and the data entry accompanying the uploads vary in quality. To improve the accuracy of data in the SOSD, we trained a model to detect surgical implants in radiographs. We first developed a tool to automatically detect radiographs, then trained an object detection model to determine the number and placement of surgical implants visible in the radiograph. Active learning was used to generate a training set containing 2,510 radiographs with screws, nails, and plates labeled by bounding boxes. Training a model to simultaneously recognize all three classes of implants gave a low average precision (AP) for the plate class, likely due to the low number of plate instances in our training set and the large variety of surgical plates used by SIGN-partnered surgeons. Applying standard image augmentation techniques to increase the plate count in our training set did not appreciably increase the AP of plate detection. To improve plate detection, we redrew the bounding boxes to account for correlations between the screw and plate classes. Training one model to detect nails and screws and a separate model to detect plates increased the AP of plate detection by 78.8 percentage points. The AP of each class was 80.7% for screws, 93.6% for nails, and 92.6% for plates; meanwhile, the sensitivity was 92% for screws, 86% for nails, and 81% for plates. We show that object detection methods can be used to detect surgical implants in radiographs of varying quality; however, the detection ability is dependent on the type of implant, and some implants, in our case plates, must be treated differently than others. Such tools can improve the throughput of radiograph analysis, assisting physicians and surgeons with the treatment of bone fractures.
Al 0.6 Ga 0.4 N deep‐UV p–i–n avalanche photodiodes (APDs) are demonstrated grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on a (0001) c‐plane aluminum nitride (AlN) bulk substrate and fabricated both with and without an ion implantation process for mesa‐edge electric‐field termination. Three design considerations are taken into account: the optical absorption of the AlN bulk substrate, the photosensitivity of the APD, and the breakdown electric field. The MOCVD growth conditions of the AlGaN APD layers are optimized. Then, a detailed description of the seven device fabrication steps of the APDs is provided, which includes nitrogen ion implantation. The APDs fabricated by the ion implant process exhibit a dark‐current density under low reverse bias ≈1 × 10 −9 A cm −2 . This is one order of magnitude lower than the APD fabricated without ion implantation from the same wafer. The breakdown voltage of the APD is ≈−140 V. The calculated optical gain of the ion‐implanted APD beyond avalanche breakdown is ≈5.2 × 10 5 (current limited) and the device has an average zero‐bias photoresponse of ≈68 mA W −1 at a wavelength of 250 nm.
A one-step approach to synthesize ultrafine transition metal particles (size < 5 nm) in carbon substrates is highly desirable for fabricating electrodes for energy devices. Herein, cobalt ion implantation into amorphous carbon films (a:C) and hydrogenated amorphous carbon films (a:CH) was explored, with the aim of synthesizing ultrafine metallic cobalt nanoparticles at room temperature. Co ions of 30 keV energy were implanted into the carbon films to achieve a Co areal density of 1.0 ± 0.1 × 10 17 atoms cm -2 . Rutherford backscattering measurements revealed that hydrogenated amorphous carbon films gave a broader Co depth distribution compared to the amorphous carbon films. Further, cross-sectional TEM analysis revealed that hydrogenated carbon films suppressed metallic Co nanoparticle aggregation, leading to the creation of ultrafine Co nanoparticles (size < 5 nm). Co L-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements confirmed the formation of predominantly metallic Co nanoparticles by ion implantation. Results conclusively demonstrate that the presence of hydrogen (~ 28 at%) in the carbon matrix facilitates the synthesis of ultrafine metallic Co nanoparticles during Co ion implantation.
We report Ferritic-martensitic (FM) steels for in-vessel components in proposed fusion reactors are expected to suffer from high levels of displacement damage and helium (He) generation by neutron transmutation. However, a thorough understanding of the He synergistic effects on the cavity swelling in FM steels is still not well established. To gain fundamental insights into the He effect on cavity swelling, high purity Fe and Fe-10 wt.% Cr ferritic model alloys were irradiated with 8 MeV Ni ions and co-implanted He ions at 400 to 550 °C up to 30 displacements per atom (dpa) with He implantation rates of 0.1, 10 and 50 appm He/dpa. The current study focuses on the 50 appm He/dpa, 500 °C behavior vs. 0.1 and 10 appm He/dpa. Irradiation-induced defects, including cavities, dislocation loops, and dislocation networks were characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In the grain interior, a bimodal cavity size distribution was observed in the 10 and 50 appm He/dpa samples, but not for 0.1 appm He/dpa. Cavity swelling was maximized at intermediate He implantation rates of ~10 appm He/dpa for both ion-irradiated Fe and Fe-10Cr alloys. The cavity swelling behavior as a function of He implantation rate appears to be controlled by the He/dpa-dependent variation of cavity sink strengths. Treating small bubbles as biased sinks for interstitial absorption can significantly increase the ratio of biased to unbiased sink strengths (Q) and results in maximized cavity swelling for a Q ratio close to one.
The formation of insoluble gaseous defects in materials due to nuclear transmutation or ion implantation involves the diffusion of impurity atoms to form atomic defect clusters that coalesce into bubbles or cavities and ultimately degrade the material properties. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is limited in its ability to resolve sub-nanometer gas clusters whereas X-ray diffraction (XRD) provides information pertaining to local atomic changes. Here, in this study, helium (He) implanted ultrafine grained tungsten is explored through a multimodal defect characterization campaign combining TEM-informed Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) analysis, XRD lattice parameter measurements, and nanoscale He cluster quantification from a region of reciprocal space accessible via Wide Angle X-ray Scattering (WAXS). Moderate elevated temperature implantations are shown to produce high concentrations of sub-nanoscale He clusters and small, homogeneously distributed cavities, which collectively are linked to lattice expansion and further substantiated through complementary atomistic simulations. Increased implantation temperatures encourage the diffusion of these defects to the grain boundaries (GBs), leading to lattice relaxation and the growth of large GB cavities manifesting as bimodal size distributions in the SAXS analysis. Overall, our results demonstrate the utility of multimodal synchrotron X-ray analysis in bridging the gap between microscale He cavity quantification and atomic-scale defect analysis.
Position sensitive n-on-p silicon sensors will be utilized in the tracker and in the High Granularity Calorimeter (HGCAL) of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC). The detrimental effect of the radiation-induced accumulation of positive net oxide charge on position resolution in n-on-p sensors has typically been countered by the application of isolation implants like p-stop or p-spray between n + -electrodes. In addition to the positively charged layer inside the oxide and close to the Si/SiO 2 -interface, surface damage introduced by ionizing radiation in SiO 2 -passivated silicon particle detectors includes the accumulation of trapped-oxide-charge and interface traps. A previous study of either n/γ (mixed field)- or γ-irradiated Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (MOS) capacitors showed evidence of substantially higher introduction rates of acceptor- and donor-type deep interface traps (N it,acc/don ) in mixed-field environment. Here, in this work, an inter-pad and -strip resistance (or resistivity (ρ int )) simulation study of n-on-p sensors with and without p-stop isolation implants was conducted for both irradiation types. Higher levels of ρint showed correlation to higher densities of deep N it,acc/don , with the inter-pad isolation performance of the mixed-field irradiated sensors becoming independent of the presence of p-stop implant between the n + - electrodes up to about 100 kGy. The low introduction rates of deep N it,acc/don in γ-irradiated sensors resulted in high sensitivity of ρ int to the presence and peak doping of p-stop above the lowest dose of about 7 kGy in the study. As a consequence of the advantageous influence of radiation-induced accumulation of deep N it on the inter-electrode isolation, position sensitive n-on-p sensors without isolation implants may be considered for future HEP-experiments where the radiation is largely due to hadrons.
Abstract Hundreds of thousands of human implant procedures require surgical revision each year due to infection. Infections are difficult to treat with conventional antibiotics due to the formation of biofilm on the implant surface. We have developed a noninvasive method to eliminate biofilm on metal implants using heat generated by intermittent alternating magnetic fields (iAMF). Here, we demonstrate that heat and antibiotics are synergistic in biofilm elimination. For Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm, bacterial burden was reduced >3 log with iAMF and ciprofloxacin after 24 h compared with either treatment alone ( p < 0.0001). This effect was not limited by pathogen or antibiotic as similar biofilm reductions were seen with iAMF and either linezolid or ceftriaxone in Staphylococcus aureus . iAMF and antibiotic efficacy was seen across various iAMF settings, including different iAMF target temperatures, dose durations, and dosing intervals. Initial mechanistic studies revealed membrane disruption as one factor important for AMF enhanced antibacterial activity in the biofilm setting. This study demonstrates the potential of utilizing a noninvasive approach to reduce biofilm off of metallic implants.
A steady-state photocapacitance (SSPC) setup directly connected to the beamline of a MeV ion implanter is utilized to study primary intrinsic defects in β – Ga 2 O 3 generated by He implantation at cryogenic temperatures (120 K). At low temperatures, the migration of defects is suppressed, and hence the generation of primary intrinsic defects is expected to prevail. SSPC measurements reveal defect-related optical transitions in halide vapor-phase epitaxy (HVPE) -grown β – Ga 2 O 3 thin films with onset energies at 1.3 ( T 1 ) , 1.7 ( T 2 ) , 1.9 ( T 3 ) , 2.6 ( T 4 ) , 3.7 ( T 5 ) , and 4.2 eV ( T 6 ) . T 2 , T 4 , T 5 , and T 6 were observed in as-received HVPE-grown β – Ga 2 O 3 thin films, whereby T 2 is only sporadically observed. The introduction rates for T 3 , T 4 , as well as T 6 indicate an origin related to primary intrinsic defects. Notably, T 1 and T 3 are only observed after He implantation at cryogenic temperatures. Hybrid-functional calculations were performed to estimate the optical absorption cross-section spectra for the gallium ( Ga i ) and oxygen ( O i ) interstitials as well as the corresponding vacancies ( V Ga and V O , respectively), and compared with the measured onsets for optical absorption found by SSPC measurements. Indeed, we propose T 3 to be associated with Ga i ( + / + 2 ) and/or V GaI ( - 3 / - 2 ) , while T 4 is suggested to be related to V O K ( 0 / + ) ( K = I , II , III ) and/or V GaII ( - 3 / - 2 ) . Additionally, several further charge-state transition levels associated with V GaI and V GaII may contribute to T 4 and T 6 . We further studied the kinetics of the defects created with He implantation by exposing the sample to room temperature. The kinetics observed for T 3 and T 4 further support the proposed assignments of the corresponding defect signatures.
Organic materials that conduct both electrons and ions are integral to implantable bioelectronics because of their conformable nature. There is a dearth of these materials that are highly sensitive to cations, which are the majority ions on the surface of neurons. This manuscript offers a solution using an extended ribbon structure that is defect-free, providing high electronic mobility along its fused backbone, while the edge structure of these ribbons promotes high ionic conductivity. We incorporated these mixed ion/electron conductors into neural probes and implanted them in a rodent brain where they offer a suite of useful properties: high cation sensitivity, stability over several weeks after implantation, and biocompatibility. These materials represent an innovative class of implantable biosensors.