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Method is applied in middle of fabrication process: (a) after mask region is formed, diffused-boron region is etched; (b) etching is left incomplete for ion implantation; (c) boron ions are implanted into region to define accurately crucial geometry of V-groove; (d) groove is etched to completion, forming two well-defined diffusion regions that serve as source and drain of transistor. Remaining process is conventional.
An electron bombardment argon ion source was used to ion etch various metals and fluoropolymers. The metal and fluoropolymers were exposed to (0.5 to 1.0) keV Ar ions at ion current densities of (0.2 to 1.5) mA/sq cm for various exposure times. The resulting surface texture is in the form of needles or spires whose vertical dimensions may range from tenths to hundreds of micrometers, depending on the selection of beam energy, ion current density, and etch time. The bonding of textured surfaces is accomplished by ion beam texturing mating pieces of either metals or fluoropolymers and applying a bonding agent which wets in and around the microscopic cone-like structures. After bonding, both tensile and shear strength measurements were made on the samples. Also tested, for comparison's sake, were untextured and chemically etched fluoropolymers. The results of these measurements are presented.
Large area, semiconductor crystals selected from group 3-5 compounds and alloys are provided for semiconductor device fabrication by the use of a selective etching operation which completely removes the substrate on which the desired crystal was deposited. The substrate, selected from the same group as the single crystal, has a higher solution rate than the epitaxial single crystal which is essentially unaffected by the etching solution. The preparation of gallium phosphide single crystals using a gallium arsenide substrate and a concentrated nitric acid etching solution is described.
To determine whether sputter etching may provide substantial polymer surface texturing with insignificant changes in chemical and mechanical properties, an 8 cm beam diameter, electron bombardment, argon ion source was used to sputter etch (ion-texture process) nine biomedical polymers. The materials included silicone rubber, 32% carbon impregnated polyolefin, polyoxymethylene, polytetrafluoroethylene, ultrahigh molecular weight (UHMW) polyethylene, UHMW polyethylene with carbon fibers (10%), and several polyurethanes (bioelectric, segmented, and cross linked). Ion textured microtensile specimens of each material except UHMW polyethylene and UHMW polyethylene with 10% carbon fibers were used to determine the effect of ion texturing on tensile properties. Scanning electron microscopy was used to determine surface morphology changes, and electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis was used to analyze the near surface chemical changes that result from ion texturing. Ion energies of 500 eV with beam current densities ranging from 0.08 to 0.19 mA/sq cm were used to ion texture the various materials. Standard microtensile specimens of seven polymers were exposed to a saline environment for 24 hours prior to and during the tensile testing. The surface chemical changes resulting from sputter etching are minimal in spite of the often significant changes in the surface morphology.
An electron-bombardment argon ion source was used to ion-etch various metals and fluoropolymers. The metal and fluoropolymers were exposed to (0.5 to 1.0)-keV Ar ions at ion current densities of 0.2 to 1.5 mA/sq cm for various exposure times. The resulting surface texture is in the form of needles or spires whose vertical dimensions may range from tenths to hundreds of micrometers, depending on the selection of beam energy, ion current density, and etch time. The bonding of textured surfaces is accomplished by ion-beam texturing mating pieces of either metals or fluoropolymers and applying a bonding agent which wets in and around the microscopic conelike structures. After bonding, both tensile and shear strength measurements were made on the samples. Also tested, for comparison's sake, were untextured and chemically etched fluoropolymers. The results of these measurements are presented in this paper.
A technique for producing boron filaments with an average tensile strength of 6.89 GPa has been developed which involves longitudinal splitting of the filament and core (substrate) removal by etching. Splitting is accomplished by a pinch wheel device which continuously splits filaments in lengths of 3.0 m by applying a force to the side of the filament to create a crack which is then propagated along the axis by a gentle sliding action. To facilitate the splitting, a single 10 mil tungsten substrate is used instead of the usual 0.5 mil substrate. A solution of hot 30% hydrogen peroxide is used to remove the core without attacking the boron. An alternative technique is to alter the residual stress by heavily etching the filament. Average strengths in the 4.83-5.52 GPa range have been obtained by etching an 8 mil filament to 4 mil.
The interfacial chemistry of CVD SiO2 films deposited on thin native oxides grown on InSb substrates is examined using X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) and a relatively benign chemical etching technique for depth profiling. An intensity analysis of XPS spectra is used to derive the compositional structure of the interfaces obtained in the SiO2/native oxide/InSb system. Peak positions in these spectra are used to follow the change in substrate surface potential during the etch sequence, and to establish the chemical nature of the species formed during deposition and subsequent processing. Reaction of the substrate with oxygen resulted in an In-rich native oxide and 1-2 monolayers of excess elemental Sb at the native-oxide/substrate interface, incompletely oxidized silane reduced the native oxide, leaving less than 1 monolayer of elemental In at the SiO2/native oxide interface. Etch removal of this thin In-rich layer leads to a change in the substrate surface potential of 0.06 eV, corresponding to a net increase in positive charge. The results are consistent with simple thermodynamic considerations; they are also compared to previously reported studies of deposited dielectrics on III-V compound semiconductors.
In reactive ion etching of Si, varying amounts of O2 were added to the CF4 background. The experimental results indicated an etch rate less than that for Ar up to an O2 partial pressure of about .00006 Torr. Above this O2 pressure, the etch rate with CF4 exceeded that with Ar alone. For comparison the random arrival rate of O2 was approximately equal to the ion arrival rate at a partial pressure of about .00002 Torr. There were also ion source and ion pressure gauge maintenance problems as a result of the use of CF4. Large scale (4 sq cm) texturing of Si was accomplished using both Cu and stainless steel seed. The most effective seeding method for this texturing was to surround the sample with large inclined planes. Designing, fabricating, and testing a 200 sq cm rectangular beam ion source was emphasized. The design current density was 6 mA/sq cm with 500 eV argon ions, although power supply limitations permitted operation to only 2 mA/sq cm. The use of multiple rectangular beam ion sources for continuous processing of wider areas than would be possible with a single source was also studied. In all cases investigated, the most uniform coverage was obtained with 0 to 2 cm beam overlay. The maximum departure from uniform processing at optimum beam overlap was found to be +15%.
A thin film field emission cathode array and an electron gun based on this emitter array are summarized. Fabricating state of the art cathodes for testing at NASA and NRL, advancing the fabrication technology, developing wedge shaped emitters, and performing emission tests are covered. An anistropic dry etching process (reactive ion beam etching) developed that leads to increasing the packing density of the emitter tips to about 5 x 10 to the 6th power/square cm. Tests with small arrays of emitter tips having about 10 tips has demonstrated current densities of over 100 A/sq cm. Several times using cathodes having a packing density of 1.25 x 10 to the 6th power tips/sq cm. Indications are that the higher packing density achievable with the dry etch process may extend this capability to the 500 A/sq cm range and beyond. The wedge emitter geometry was developed and shown to produce emission. This geometry can (in principle) extend the current density capability of the cathodes beyond the 500 A/sq cm level. An emission microscope was built and tested for use with the cathodes.
The future development of a solid track high energy particle detector is discussed. The goal is to improve the sensitivity and lower the threshold of the detector. One most widely used material for such purpose is a plastic commercially known as CR-39. A scheme is presented which involves changing the formula of the monomer, diethylene glycol-bis-allyl carbonate. This is to be accomplished by substituting some heteroatoms for H and substituting sulfur atoms for oxygen in the ether linkages. Use of a new plasticizer to make the etched surface clearer than what has been accomplished as of today is suggested. Possible improvement in acquiring better tracks and increasing the ratio of V sub T/V sub B was planned. This is to be accomplished by changing the composition of the etchants, etching time, and etching temperature.
An investigation was conducted to examine plastic deformation of a cleaved single-crystal magnesium oxide 001-plane surface exposed to cavitation. Cavitation damage experiments were carried out in distilled water at 25 C by using a magnetostrictive oscillator in close proximity (2 mm) to the surface of the cleaved specimen. The dislocation-etch-pit patterns induced by cavitation were examined and compared with that of microhardness indentations. The results revealed that dislocation-etch-pit patterns around hardness indentations contain both screw and edge dislocations, while the etch-pit patterns on the surface exposed to cavitation contain only screw dislocations. During cavitation, deformation occurred in a thin surface layer, accompanied by work-hardening of the ceramic. The row of screw dislocations underwent a stable growth, which was analyzed crystallographically.
Due to delays in manifesting the return of the Long Duration Exposure Facility from space, attention was concentrated on extracting the maximum information from the EIOM-2 (oxygen interaction with materials experiment) flown on STS-8 in September 1983. An analysis was made of the optical surfaces exposed during that flight and an assessment made of the effect of the 5 eV atomic oxygen upon their physical and chemical properties. The surfaces studied were of two types: high-purity thin films sputtered or evaporated onto 2.54-cm diam lambda/20 fused silica optical flats, and highly polished bulk samples. Rapid etching of carbon and carbonaceous surfaces was observed with polycarbonate CR-39 showing the largest etch of any substrate flown and measured. Of the metals tested, only osmium and silver showed large effects, the former being heavily etched and the later forming a very thick layer of oxide. The first measurable effects on iridium, aluminum, nickel, tungsten and niobium thin films are reported.
Several microfabrication techniques combined into process cutting slots 100 micrometer long and 1 to 5 micrometer wide into tungsten dispenser cathodes for traveling-wave tubes. Patterned photoresist serves as mask for etching underlying aluminum. Chemically-assisted ion-beam etching with chlorine removes exposed parts of aluminum layer. Etching with fluorine or chlorine trifluoride removes tungsten not masked by aluminum layer. Slots enable more-uniform low-work function coating dispensed to electron-emitting surface. Emission of electrons therefore becomes more uniform over cathode surface.
During the period of this research grant, the process of liquid phase electroepitaxy (LPEE) was used to grow ternary and quaternary alloy III-V semiconductor thin films. Selective area growth of InGaAs was performed on InP substrates using a patterned sputtered quartz or spin-on glass layer. The etch back and growth characteristics with respect to substrate orientation were investigated. The etch back behavior is somewhat different from wet chemical etching with respect to the sidewall profiles which are observed. LPEE was also employed to grow epitaxial layers of InGaAsP alloys on InP substrates. The behavior of Mn as an acceptor dopant was investigated with low temperature Hall coefficient and photoluminescence measurements. A metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy system was partially complete within the grant period. This atmospheric pressure system will be used to deposit III-V compound and alloy semiconductor layers in future research efforts.
An attempt is made to obtain the etch rates for various polymer films exposed to O(3P) downstream from, and out of the glow of, the O2 plasma. These rates are compared with published values from the following sources: etching in the glow of an O2 plasma, the Space Shuttle STS-8 flight experiment, and beam experiments. The etch rate data for Kapton fit a logarithmic plot (with a positive slope) of the reaction probability versus O(3P) impact energy.
Zero-order and first-order efficiencies of plane diffraction grazings over the 100-300-A band have been measured using the NRL beamline facility at the National Synchrotron Light Source. Measurements were taken at grating angles of 5, 10, and 15 deg, and the incident radiation was polarized primarily in the transverse magnetic mode. Four (three laminar, one blazed) of the gratings were ion etched in high quality quartz blanks, overcoated with 200 A of gold. A fifth (blazed) grating was ruled in gold. The line densities are 1000, 2000, and 3600 grooves/mm for those with laminar profiles. Both blazed gratings have a blaze angle of 8 deg and line densities of 3600 grooves/mm. Measured first-order efficiencies up to 15 percent were obtained for the laminar gratings and up to 8 percent was obtained for the ion-etched blazed grating. Much lower efficiencies (not greater than 2 percent) were measured for the ruled grating. A computer program was written to calculate grating efficiencies using a full electromagnetic model. Measured efficiencies of the ion-etched gratings agree well with predicted values, but the measured first-order efficiency of the ruled grating is much lower than predicted.
Results on electrical characterization of YBa2Cu3O(7-x) thin-film surfaces treated with a Br/ethanol chemical etch are presented. Electrical measurements of YBa2Cu3O(7-x)/Au/Nb device structures fabricated using polycrystalline, post-annelaed YBa2Cu3O(7-x) films with Br-etched surfaces, show improvements of approximately one or two orders of magnitude in current densities and resistivities (resistance-area products) relative to unetched devices. The existence of supercurrents in these structures has been confirmed by observation of the ac Josephson effect, and by magnetic field and temperature studies of the critical currents. The Br-etch process has produced 10 x 10 sq micron devices with critical current densities greater than 400 A/sq cm and resistivities as low as 4 x 10 to the -7th ohm/sq cm.
The structural and morphological characteristics of visible-light-emitting porous Si layers produced by anodic and stain etching of single-crystal Si substrates are compared using transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM). AFM of conventionally anodized, laterally anodized and stain-etched Si layers show that the layers have a fractal-type surface morphology. The anodized layers are rougher than the stain-etched films. At higher magnification 10 nm sized hillocks are visible on the surface. Transmission electron diffraction patterns indicate an amorphous structure with no evidence for the presence of crystalline Si in the near-surface regions of the porous Si layers.