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Description
For decades, microelectronics manufacturing has been concerned with failures related to electromigration phenomena in conductors experiencing high current densities. The influence of interconnect microstructure on device failures related to electromigration in BGA and flip chip solder interconnects has become a significant interest with reduced individual solder interconnect volumes. A survey

For decades, microelectronics manufacturing has been concerned with failures related to electromigration phenomena in conductors experiencing high current densities. The influence of interconnect microstructure on device failures related to electromigration in BGA and flip chip solder interconnects has become a significant interest with reduced individual solder interconnect volumes. A survey indicates that x-ray computed micro-tomography (µXCT) is an emerging, novel means for characterizing the microstructures' role in governing electromigration failures. This work details the design and construction of a lab-scale µXCT system to characterize electromigration in the Sn-0.7Cu lead-free solder system by leveraging in situ imaging.

In order to enhance the attenuation contrast observed in multi-phase material systems, a modeling approach has been developed to predict settings for the controllable imaging parameters which yield relatively high detection rates over the range of x-ray energies for which maximum attenuation contrast is expected in the polychromatic x-ray imaging system. In order to develop this predictive tool, a model has been constructed for the Bremsstrahlung spectrum of an x-ray tube, and calculations for the detector's efficiency over the relevant range of x-ray energies have been made, and the product of emitted and detected spectra has been used to calculate the effective x-ray imaging spectrum. An approach has also been established for filtering `zinger' noise in x-ray radiographs, which has proven problematic at high x-ray energies used for solder imaging. The performance of this filter has been compared with a known existing method and the results indicate a significant increase in the accuracy of zinger filtered radiographs.

The obtained results indicate the conception of a powerful means for the study of failure causing processes in solder systems used as interconnects in microelectronic packaging devices. These results include the volumetric quantification of parameters which are indicative of both electromigration tolerance of solders and the dominant mechanisms for atomic migration in response to current stressing. This work is aimed to further the community's understanding of failure-causing electromigration processes in industrially relevant material systems for microelectronic interconnect applications and to advance the capability of available characterization techniques for their interrogation.
ContributorsMertens, James Charles Edwin (Author) / Chawla, Nikhilesh (Thesis advisor) / Alford, Terry (Committee member) / Jiao, Yang (Committee member) / Neithalath, Narayanan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
Carbon nanomaterials have caught tremendous attention in the last few decades due to their unique physical and chemical properties. Tremendous effort has been made to develop new synthesis techniques for carbon nanomaterials and investigate their properties for different applications. In this work, carbon nanospheres (CNSs), carbon foams (CF), and single-walled

Carbon nanomaterials have caught tremendous attention in the last few decades due to their unique physical and chemical properties. Tremendous effort has been made to develop new synthesis techniques for carbon nanomaterials and investigate their properties for different applications. In this work, carbon nanospheres (CNSs), carbon foams (CF), and single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) were studied for various applications, including water treatment, energy storage, actuators, and sensors.

A facile spray pyrolysis synthesis technique was developed to synthesize individual CNSs with specific surface area (SSA) up to 1106 m2/g. The hollow CNSs showed adsorption of up to 300 mg rhodamine B dye per gram carbon, which is more than 15 times higher than that observed for conventional carbon black. They were also evaluated as adsorbents for removal of arsenate and selenate from water and displayed good binding to both species, outperforming commercial activated carbons for arsenate removal in pH > 8. When evaluated as supercapacitor electrode materials, specific capacitances of up to 112 F/g at a current density of 0.1 A/g were observed. When used as Li-ion battery anode materials, the CNSs achieved a discharge capacity of 270 mAh/g at a current density of 372 mA/g (1C), which is 4-fold higher than that of commercial graphite anode.

Carbon foams were synthesized using direct pyrolysis and had SSA up to 2340 m2/g. When used as supercapacitor electrode materials, a specific capacitance up to 280 F/g was achieved at current density of 0.1 A/g and remained as high as 207 F/g, even at a high current density of 10 A/g.

A printed walking robot was made from common plastic films and coatings of SWNTs. The solid-state thermal bimorph actuators were multifunctional energy transducers powered by heat, light, or electricity. The actuators were also investigated for photo/thermal detection. Electrochemical actuators based on MnO2 were also studied for potential underwater applications.

SWNTs were also used to fabricate printable electrodes for trace Cr(VI) detection, which displayed sensitivity up to 500 nA/ppb for Cr(VI). The limit of detection was shown to be as low as 5 ppb. A flow detection system based on CNT/printed electrodes was also demonstrated.
ContributorsWang, Chengwei, Ph.D (Author) / Chan, Candace K. (Thesis advisor) / Tongay, Sefaattin (Committee member) / Wang, Qing Hua (Committee member) / Seo, Dong (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
Aluminum alloys are ubiquitously used in almost all structural applications due to their high strength-to-weight ratio. Their superior mechanical performance can be attributed to complex dispersions of nanoscale intermetallic particles that precipitate out from the alloy’s solid solution and offer resistance to deformation. Although they have been extensively investigated in

Aluminum alloys are ubiquitously used in almost all structural applications due to their high strength-to-weight ratio. Their superior mechanical performance can be attributed to complex dispersions of nanoscale intermetallic particles that precipitate out from the alloy’s solid solution and offer resistance to deformation. Although they have been extensively investigated in the last century, the traditional approaches employed in the past haven’t rendered an authoritative microstructural understanding in such materials. The effect of the precipitates’ inherent complex morphology and their three-dimensional (3D) spatial distribution on evolution and deformation behavior have often been precluded. In this study, for the first time, synchrotron-based hard X-ray nano-tomography has been implemented in Al-Cu alloys to measure growth kinetics of different nanoscale phases in 3D and reveal mechanistic insights behind some of the observed novel phase transformation reactions occurring at high temperatures. The experimental results were reconciled with coarsening models from the LSW theory to an unprecedented extent, thereby establishing a new paradigm for thermodynamic analysis of precipitate assemblies. By using a unique correlative approach, a non-destructive means of estimating precipitation-strengthening in such alloys has been introduced. Limitations of using existing mechanical strengthening models in such alloys have been discussed and a means to quantify individual contributions from different strengthening mechanisms has been established.

The current rapid pace of technological progress necessitates the demand for more resilient and high-performance alloys. To achieve this, a thorough understanding of the relationships between material properties and its structure is indispensable. To establish this correlation and achieve desired properties from structural alloys, microstructural response to mechanical stimuli needs to be understood in three-dimensions (3D). To that effect, in situ tests were conducted at the synchrotron (Advanced Photon Source) using Transmission X-Ray Microscopy as well as in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to study real-time damage evolution in such alloys. Findings of precipitate size-dependent transition in deformation behavior from these tests have inspired a novel resilient aluminum alloy design.
ContributorsKaira, Chandrashekara Shashank (Author) / Chawla, Nikhilesh (Thesis advisor) / Solanki, Kiran (Committee member) / Jiao, Yang (Committee member) / De Andrade, Vincent (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
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Description
Ultrasonication-mediated liquid-phase exfoliation has emerged as an efficient method for producing large quantities of two-dimensional materials such as graphene, boron nitride, and transition metal dichalcogenides. This thesis explores the use of this process to produce a new class of boron-rich, two-dimensional materials, namely metal diborides, and investigate their properties using

Ultrasonication-mediated liquid-phase exfoliation has emerged as an efficient method for producing large quantities of two-dimensional materials such as graphene, boron nitride, and transition metal dichalcogenides. This thesis explores the use of this process to produce a new class of boron-rich, two-dimensional materials, namely metal diborides, and investigate their properties using bulk and nanoscale characterization methods. Metal diborides are a class of structurally related materials that contain hexagonal sheets of boron separated by metal atoms with applications in superconductivity, composites, ultra-high temperature ceramics and catalysis. To demonstrate the utility of these materials, chromium diboride was incorporated in polyvinyl alcohol as a structural reinforcing agent. These composites not only showed mechanical strength greater than the polymer itself, but also demonstrated superior reinforcing capability to previously well-known two-dimensional materials. Understanding their dispersion behavior and identifying a range of efficient dispersing solvents is an important step in identifying the most effective processing methods for the metal diborides. This was accomplished by subjecting metal diborides to ultrasonication in more than thirty different organic solvents and calculating their surface energy and Hansen solubility parameters. This thesis also explores the production and covalent modification of pristine, unlithiated molybdenum disulfide using ultrasonication-mediated exfoliation and subsequent diazonium functionalization. This approach allows a variety of functional groups to be tethered on the surface of molybdenum disulfide while preserving its semiconducting properties. The diazonium chemistry is further exploited to attach fluorescent proteins on its surface making it amenable to future biological applications. Furthermore, a general approach for delivery of anticancer drugs using pristine two-dimensional materials is also detailed here. This can be achieved by using two-dimensional materials dispersed in a non-ionic and biocompatible polymer, as nanocarriers for delivering the anticancer drug doxorubicin. The potency of this supramolecular assembly for certain types of cancer cell lines can be improved by using folic-acid-conjugated polymer as a dispersing agent due to strong binding between folic acid present on the nanocarriers and folate receptors expressed on the cells. These results show that ultrasonication-mediated liquid-phase exfoliation is an effective method for facilitating the production and diverse application of pristine two-dimensional metal diborides and transition metal dichalcogenides.
ContributorsYousaf, Ahmed (Author) / Green, Alexander A (Thesis advisor) / Wang, Qing Hua (Committee member) / Liu, Yan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
In material science, microstructure plays a key role in determining properties, which further determine utility of the material. However, effectively measuring microstructure evolution in real time remains an challenge. To date, a wide range of advanced experimental techniques have been developed and applied to characterize material microstructure and structural evolution

In material science, microstructure plays a key role in determining properties, which further determine utility of the material. However, effectively measuring microstructure evolution in real time remains an challenge. To date, a wide range of advanced experimental techniques have been developed and applied to characterize material microstructure and structural evolution on different length and time scales. Most of these methods can only resolve 2D structural features within a narrow range of length scale and for a single or a series of snapshots. The currently available 3D microstructure characterization techniques are usually destructive and require slicing and polishing the samples each time a picture is taken. Simulation methods, on the other hand, are cheap, sample-free and versatile without the special necessity of taking care of the physical limitations, such as extreme temperature or pressure, which are prominent

issues for experimental methods. Yet the majority of simulation methods are limited to specific circumstances, for example, first principle computation can only handle several thousands of atoms, molecular dynamics can only efficiently simulate a few seconds of evolution of a system with several millions particles, and finite element method can only be used in continuous medium, etc. Such limitations make these individual methods far from satisfaction to simulate macroscopic processes that a material sample undergoes up to experimental level accuracy. Therefore, it is highly desirable to develop a framework that integrate different simulation schemes from various scales

to model complicated microstructure evolution and corresponding properties. Guided by such an objective, we have made our efforts towards incorporating a collection of simulation methods, including finite element method (FEM), cellular automata (CA), kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC), stochastic reconstruction method, Discrete Element Method (DEM), etc, to generate an integrated computational material engineering platform (ICMEP), which could enable us to effectively model microstructure evolution and use the simulated microstructure to do subsequent performance analysis. In this thesis, we will introduce some cases of building coupled modeling schemes and present

the preliminary results in solid-state sintering. For example, we use coupled DEM and kinetic Monte Carlo method to simulate solid state sintering, and use coupled FEM and cellular automata method to model microstrucutre evolution during selective laser sintering of titanium alloy. Current results indicate that joining models from different length and time scales is fruitful in terms of understanding and describing microstructure evolution of a macroscopic physical process from various perspectives.
ContributorsChen, Shaohua (Author) / Jiao, Yang (Thesis advisor) / Wang, Qinghua (Committee member) / Emady, Heather (Committee member) / Gel, Aytekin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
Metal Organic Frameworks(MOFs) have been used in various applications, including

sensors. The unique crystalline structure of MOFs in addition to controllability of

their pore size and their intake selectivity makes them a promising method of detection.

Detection of metal ions in water using a binary mixture of luminescent MOFs

has been reported. 3 MOFs(ZrPDA,

Metal Organic Frameworks(MOFs) have been used in various applications, including

sensors. The unique crystalline structure of MOFs in addition to controllability of

their pore size and their intake selectivity makes them a promising method of detection.

Detection of metal ions in water using a binary mixture of luminescent MOFs

has been reported. 3 MOFs(ZrPDA, UiO-66 and UiO-66-NH2) as detectors and 4

metal ions(Pb2+, Ni2+, Ba2+ and Cu2+) as the target species were chosen based on

cost, water stability, application and end goals.

It is possible to detect metal ions such as Pb2+ at concentrations at low as 0.005

molar using MOFs. Also, based on the luminescence responses, a method of distinguishing

between similar metal ions has been proposed. It is shown that using a

mixture of MOFs with dierent reaction to metal ions can lead to unique and specic

3D luminescence maps, which can be used to identify the present metal ions in water

and their amount.

In addition to the response of a single MOF to addition of a single metal ion,

luminescence response of ZrPDA + UiO-66 mixture to increasing concentration of

each of 4 metal ions was studied, and summarized. A new peak is observed in the

mixture, that did not exist before, and it is proposed that this peak requires metal

ions to activate
ContributorsSirous, Peyman (Author) / Mu, Bin (Thesis advisor) / Alford, Terry (Thesis advisor) / Jiao, Yang (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
Interstitial impurity atoms can significantly alter the chemical and physical properties of the host material. Oxygen impurity in HCP titanium is known to have a considerable strengthening effect mainly through interactions with dislocations. To better understand such an effect, first the role of oxygen on various slip planes in titanium

Interstitial impurity atoms can significantly alter the chemical and physical properties of the host material. Oxygen impurity in HCP titanium is known to have a considerable strengthening effect mainly through interactions with dislocations. To better understand such an effect, first the role of oxygen on various slip planes in titanium is examined using generalized stacking fault energies (GSFE) computed by the first principles calculations. It is shown that oxygen can significantly increase the energy barrier to dislocation motion on most of the studied slip planes. Then the Peierls-Nabbaro model is utilized in conjunction with the GSFE to estimate the Peierls stress ratios for different slip systems. Using such information along with a set of tension and compression experiments, the parameters of a continuum scale crystal plasticity model, namely CRSS values, are calibrated. Effect of oxygen content on the macroscopic stress-strain response is further investigated through experiments on oxygen-boosted samples at room temperature. It is demonstrated that the crystal plasticity model can very well capture the effect of oxygen content on the global response of the samples. It is also revealed that oxygen promotes the slip activity on the pyramidal planes.

The effect of oxygen impurity on titanium is further investigated under high cycle fatigue loading. For that purpose, a two-step hierarchical crystal plasticity for fatigue predictions is presented. Fatigue indicator parameter is used as the main driving force in an energy-based crack nucleation model. To calculate the FIPs, high-resolution full-field crystal plasticity simulations are carried out using a spectral solver. A nucleation model is proposed and calibrated by the fatigue experimental data for notched titanium samples with different oxygen contents and under two load ratios. Overall, it is shown that the presented approach is capable of predicting the high cycle fatigue nucleation time. Moreover, qualitative predictions of microstructurally small crack growth rates are provided. The multi-scale methodology presented here can be extended to other material systems to facilitate a better understanding of the fundamental deformation mechanisms, and to effectively implement such knowledge in mesoscale-macroscale investigations.
ContributorsGholami Bazehhour, Benyamin (Author) / Solanki, Kiran N (Thesis advisor) / Liu, Yongming (Committee member) / Oswald, Jay J (Committee member) / Rajagopalan, Jagannathan (Committee member) / Jiao, Yang (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
Increasing density of microelectronic packages, results in an increase in thermal and mechanical stresses within the various layers of the package. To accommodate the high-performance demands, the materials used in the electronic package would also require improvement. Specifically, the damage that often occurs in solders that function as die-attachment and

Increasing density of microelectronic packages, results in an increase in thermal and mechanical stresses within the various layers of the package. To accommodate the high-performance demands, the materials used in the electronic package would also require improvement. Specifically, the damage that often occurs in solders that function as die-attachment and thermal interfaces need to be addressed. This work evaluates and characterizes thermo-mechanical damage in two material systems – Electroplated Tin and Sintered Nano-Silver solder.

Tin plated electrical contacts are prone to formation of single crystalline tin whiskers which can cause short circuiting. A mechanistic model of their formation, evolution and microstructural influence is still not fully understood. In this work, growth of mechanically induced tin whiskers/hillocks is studied using in situ Nano-indentation and Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD). Electroplated tin was indented and monitored in vacuum to study growth of hillocks without the influence of atmosphere. Thermal aging was done to study the effect of intermetallic compounds. Grain orientation of the hillocks and the plastically deformed region surrounding the indent was studied using Focused Ion Beam (FIB) lift-out technique. In addition, micropillars were milled on the surface of electroplated Sn using FIB to evaluate the yield strength and its relation to Sn grain size.

High operating temperature power electronics use wide band-gap semiconductor devices (Silicon Carbide/Gallium Nitride). The operating temperature of these devices can exceed 250oC, preventing use of traditional Sn-solders as Thermal Interface materials (TIM). At high temperature, the thermomechanical stresses can severely degrade the reliability and life of the device. In this light, new non-destructive approach is needed to understand the damage mechanism when subjected to reliability tests such as thermal cycling. In this work, sintered nano-Silver was identified as a promising high temperature TIM. Sintered nano-Silver samples were fabricated and their shear strength was evaluated. Thermal cycling tests were conducted and damage evolution was characterized using a lab scale 3D X-ray system to periodically assess changes in the microstructure such as cracks, voids, and porosity in the TIM layer. The evolution of microstructure and the effect of cycling temperature during thermal cycling are discussed.
ContributorsLujan Regalado, Irene (Author) / Chawla, Nikhilesh (Thesis advisor) / Frear, Darrel (Committee member) / Rajagopalan, Jagannathan (Committee member) / Jiao, Yang (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
Flame retardants (FRs) are applied to variety of consumer products such as textiles and polymers for fire prevention and fire safety. Substantial research is ongoing to replace traditional FRs with alternative materials that are less toxic, present higher flame retardancy and result in lower overall exposure as there are potential

Flame retardants (FRs) are applied to variety of consumer products such as textiles and polymers for fire prevention and fire safety. Substantial research is ongoing to replace traditional FRs with alternative materials that are less toxic, present higher flame retardancy and result in lower overall exposure as there are potential health concerns in case of exposure to popular FRs. Carbonaceous nanomaterials (CNMs) such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene oxide (GO) have been studied and applied to polymer composites and electronics extensively due to their remarkable properties. Hence CNMs are considered as potential alternative materials that present high flame retardancy. In this research, different kinds of CNMs coatings on polyester fabric are produced and evaluated for their use as flame retardants. To monitor the mass loading of CNMs coated on the fabric, a two-step analytical method for quantifying CNMs embedded in polymer composites was developed. This method consisted of polymer dissolution process using organic solvents followed by subsequent programmed thermal analysis (PTA). This quantification technique was applicable to CNTs with and without high metal impurities in a broad range of polymers. Various types of CNMs were coated on polyester fabric and the efficacy of coatings as flame retardant was evaluated. The oxygen content of CNMs emerged as a critical parameter impacting flame retardancy with higher oxygen content resulting in less FR efficacy. The most performant nanomaterials, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and amine functionalized multi-walled carbon nantoubes (NH2-MWCNT) showed similar FR properties to current flame retardants with low mass loading (0.18 g/m2) and hence are promising alternatives that warrant further investigation. Chemical/physical modification of MWCNTs was conducted to produce well-dispersed MWCNT solutions without involving oxygen for uniform FR coating. The MWCNTs coating was studied to evaluate the durability of the coating and the impact on the efficacy during use phase by conducting mechanical abrasion and washing test. Approximately 50% and 40% of MWCNTs were released from 1 set of mechanical abrasion and washing test respectively. The losses during simulated usage impacted the flame retardancy negatively.
ContributorsNosaka, Takayuki (Author) / Herckes, Pierre (Thesis advisor) / Westerhoff, Paul (Committee member) / Wang, Qing Hua (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
Fatigue is a degradation process of materials that would lead to failure when materials are subjected to cyclic loadings. During past centuries, various of approaches have been proposed and utilized to help researchers understand the underlying theories of fatigue behavior of materials, as well as design engineering structures so that

Fatigue is a degradation process of materials that would lead to failure when materials are subjected to cyclic loadings. During past centuries, various of approaches have been proposed and utilized to help researchers understand the underlying theories of fatigue behavior of materials, as well as design engineering structures so that catastrophic disasters that arise from fatigue failure could be avoided. The stress-life approach is the most classical way that academia applies to analyze fatigue data, which correlates the fatigue lifetime with stress amplitudes during cyclic loadings. Fracture mechanics approach is another well-established way, by which people regard the cyclic stress intensity factor as the driving force during fatigue crack nucleation and propagation, and numerous models (such as the well-known Paris’ law) are developed by researchers.

The significant drawback of currently widely-used fatigue analysis approaches, nevertheless, is that they are all cycle-based, limiting researchers from digging into sub-cycle regime and acquiring real-time fatigue behavior data. The missing of such data further impedes academia from validating hypotheses that are related to real-time observations of fatigue crack nucleation and growth, thus the existence of various phenomena, such as crack closure, remains controversial.

In this thesis, both classical stress-life approach and fracture-mechanics-based approach are utilized to study the fatigue behavior of alloys. Distinctive material characterization instruments are harnessed to help collect and interpret key data during fatigue crack growth. Specifically, an investigation on the sub-cycle fatigue crack growth behavior is enabled by in-situ SEM mechanical testing, and a non-uniform growth mechanism within one loading cycle is confirmed by direct observation as well as image interpretation. Predictions based on proposed experimental procedure and observations show good match with cycle-based data from references, which indicates the credibility of proposed methodology and model, as well as their capability of being applied to a wide range of materials.
ContributorsLiu, Siying (Author) / Liu, Yongming (Thesis advisor) / Jiao, Yang (Committee member) / Nian, Qiong (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018