Papers by Author: Liang Chi Zhang

Abstract: This paper investigates the effects of some chemical factors on the material removal rate (MRR) in chemo-mechanical polishing (CMP) of Si (100) wafers. The CMP was carried out in alkaline slurry using alumina and ceria particles with hydrogen peroxide. When using the alumina particles, the MRR initially decreases with increasing the slurry pH value until pH = 9. Nevertheless, the application of the ceria particles increases the MRR before the pH of the slurry reaches 10. A higher slurry flow rate brings about a greater MRR.

Abstract: Chemo-mechanical polishing (CMP) has been a useful method to produce superior brittle wafer surfaces. This paper reviews the CMP of silicon carbide and sapphire wafers, focusing on efficiency of the polishing rate. The effects of slurry type, slurry pH value and mixed abrasives will be discussed in detail.

Abstract: This paper investigates residual stress of epitaxial silicon film on SOS thin film systems. The emphasis was to develop a method to obtain accurately the complete residual stress tensors. It was found that using the multiple asymmetric X-ray diffraction method to measure strains in 13 [hkl] directions, the complete residual stress tensors can be determined reliably. The results were verified by both the Raman Backscattering and the substrate curvature methods.

Abstract: This paper presents a stress analysis of the ceramic femoral heads of hip joint prostheses with different borehole shapes to evaluate their mechanical reliability in terms of stress concentration. Under the ideal loading conditions used for ceramic rupture tests specified by the ISO 7206-5 standard, a finite element (FE) modeling is performed to determine the tensile and hoop stress distributions in the ceramic femoral heads. Two borehole shapes that are currently used in the manufacturing industry for hip joint prostheses, namely the flat bottom and keyhole, were first studied. Two new borehole shapes, dome arc and dome ellipse, were then introduced by the authors in the paper to minimize the stress concentration. It was found that while the currently used borehole shapes lead to high tensile notch stresses at their critical corners causing possible fracture failure of ceramic heads, the authors’ borehole designs can improve the mechanical reliability significantly. In addition, the effects of taper-bore contact length and their interface friction are investigated and discussed.

Abstract: To improve the structural properties of engineering ceramics, carbon nanotubes have been used as a reinforcement phase to produce stronger ceramic matrix composites. This paper investigates the possible chemical bond formation between a carbon nanotube and alumina with the aid of quantum mechanics analysis. The cases with and without functionalizing the nanotubes were examined. The nanotubes were modeled by nanotube segments with hydrogen atoms added to the dangling bonds of the perimeter carbons. The cleaved ceramic (0001) surface was represented by an alumina molecule with the oxygen atoms on either end terminated with hydrogen. Methoxy radicals were used to functionalize the CNTs. The study predicts that covalent bonding between Al atoms on a cleaved single crystal alumina surface and C atoms on a nanotube are energetically favorable.

Abstract: Silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) thin film systems have had specific electronic applications because they can reduce noise and current leakage in metal oxide semiconductor transistors. However, there are some issues in producing defect-free SOS wafers. Dislocations, misfit, micro twins and residual stresses can emerge during the SOS processing and they will reduce the performance of an SOS product. For some reasons, research publications on SOS in the literature are not extensive, and as a result, the information available in the public domain is fragmentary. This paper aims to review the subject matter in an as complete as possible manner based on the published information about the production, characterization and application of SOS wafers.

Abstract: This paper investigates experimentally the edge chipping of a rock to assess the cutting performance of a conical and a pyramidal tip. It was found that the conical tip generates many radiated cracks and results in a larger amount of fine rock grains due to crashing. The size of chips produced by the pyramidal tip is bigger. It was concluded that the critical chipping energy has approximately a linear relation with h9/4 of which h is the depth of cut of the tip.

Abstract: Edge chipping by an indenter has been used to investigate the fragmentation of brittle materials. This paper proposed a constitutive model for studying both the initiation and propagation of cracks during the chipping of concrete. The analysis was carried out by the finite element method using a commercially available code, LS-DYNA. The results showed that a zone with very high compressive stresses appears beneath the indenter and causes the material to break or crush. Most of the external work, about 78%, was dissipated in the crushing zone while only a small percentage (less than 17%) contributed to form chips/fragments. As the indentation proceeded, radian-median cracks initiated and propagated downward and parallel to the front surface of the material to form a half penny crack. The crack tips from both sides of the indenter on the surface would then deviate toward the free edge, leading to a chipping scallop at a critical load.

Abstract: With the aid of the Raman spectroscopy, this paper investigates the phase transformation and residual stress distribution in surfaces of polycrystalline diamond composites polished by dynamic friction technique. To clarify the contribution of phase transformations to residual stresses, the study focused on the surface which was incompletely polished such that the transformed phases remained. It was found that amorphous non-diamond carbon and amorphous graphite phase appeared in grain boundaries, but pristine diamond phase was predominant within gain areas. The residual stresses vary across the polished surfaces and the maximum stress locates at the grain boundaries.

Abstract: This paper investigates the temperature field in plunge cylindrical grinding with the aid of the finite element analysis. The analysis included the effect of the variation of the depth of cut and that of the repeated heating and cooling caused by workpiece rotation. It was found that the predictions agree well with the experimentally measured results. The analysis showed that the heating in the consequent rotations further raises the temperature in the workpiece. The reheating in the hardened layer can lead to material’s tempering.