Process Engineering

Enables lower-temperature semiconductor processing

A team of researchers have achieved a long-sought scientific goal: using laser light to break specific molecular bonds. The process uses laser light, instead of heat, to strip hydrogen atoms from silicon surfaces, a key step in the manufacture of computer chips and solar cells.

The new technique was developed by Philip Cohen, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Minnesota, working with

A unique 3-dimensional microscope that works in a new way is giving unprecedented insight into microscopic internal structure and chemical composition. It is revealing how materials are affected, over time, by changes in temperature, humidity, weight load and other conditions.

The device could lead to advances in a range of areas, such as healthcare (in furthering, for instance, the understanding of conditions such as osteoporosis), the development of better construction materi

Three-dimensional imaging devices are becoming important measuring tools in the manufacturing, construction and transportation sectors. Numerous models of the imaging devices, capable of digitally capturing the existing conditions of objects from as small as pipe fittings to as large as an entire bridge, are on the market. A lack of standard tests to verify manufacturers’ performance specifications is inhibiting wider market acceptance of these devices.

In response, researchers a

Manufacturing road map

Using a combination of experimental data and simulations, researchers have identified key parameters that predict the outcome of nanoimprint lithography, a fabrication technique that offers an alternative to traditional lithography in patterning integrated circuits and other small-scale structures into polymers.

Results of the three-year study, conducted by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Sandia National Laboratories, provid

Cider making, as with any similar process, involves the production of leftover “waste” such as the apple pulp, discarded apples and liquid residue, for example.

AZTI-Tecnalia Technological Centre, given its intention to improve and innovate the production process of natural cider, is undertaking a number of studies of the management, the reduction and the re-evaluation of waste residue from cider making. The aim is twin-fold: the gains from eliminating the waste generated in th

When Michael Furey, professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering, at Virginia Tech, met Czeslaw Kajdas, then with the Radom Technical University in Poland, at a conference in Europe in 1981, they had differing views on how to form polymer films on surfaces to reduce wear. The result of their eventual collaboration has been fundamental discoveries in surface chemistry and dozens of compounds that reduced wear in metals, advanced alloys, and ceramics. These include ashless antiwear additiv