Publications

As a result of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) recently issued by the Department of Energy, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) has been selected as the {open_quotes}most appropriate facility{close_quotes} for the production of {sup 99}Mo. The daughter product of {sup 99}Mo is {sup 99m}Tc, a radioisotope used in 36,000 medical procedures per day in the U.S.{close_quote} At SNL, the {sup 99}Mo would be created by the fission process in UO{sub 2} coated {open_quotes}targets{close_quotes} and chemically separated in the SNL Hot Cell Facility (HCF). SNL has recently completed the irradiation of five production targets at its Annular Core Research Reactor (ACRR). Following irradiation, four of the targets were chemically processed in the HCF using the Cintichem process.

The simulation of mechanical system random vibrations is important in structural dynamics, but it is particularly difficult when the system under consideration is nonlinear. Artificial neural networks provide a useful tool for the modeling of nonlinear systems, however, such modeling may be inefficient or insufficiently accurate when the system under consideration is complex. This paper shows that there are several transformations that can be used to uncouple and simplify the components of motion of a complex nonlinear system, thereby making its modeling and random vibration simulation, via component modeling with artificial neural networks, a much simpler problem. A numerical example is presented.

Environmental and health concerns pertaining to lead have encouraged research into low-lead alloys for electronic soldering. The development of solder alloys containing lower amounts of lead than Sn/Pb eutectic (37 wt.% lead), but possessing similar properties, is an industry-wide goal. To determine the wettability of low-lead solders, 21 alloys each of Sn/Ag and Sn/Cu eutectic (containing 0 to 10 wt.% lead and/or indium) were tested on as-received copper-clad FR-4. Contact angles for the alloys ranged from 12.5 to 38.9{degrees} and area of spread measurements ranged from 5.2 to 17.3 mm{sup 2} compared with 5 to 150 and {approximately}19 mm{sup 2}, respectively, for Sn/Pb eutectic. Alloys with 8 to 10 wt.% lead showed contact angles and areas of spread similar to Sn/Pb eutectic under similar conditions. The best results on the as-received substrates, compared to the Sn/Pb eutectic, were obtained from the Sn/Ag eutectic with 10 wt.% lead. The very low-lead (less than 10 wt.% lead) and lead-free alloys, however, failed to achieve the performance level of eutectic Sn/Pb solders. A desire to improve the spreading of very low-lead and lead-free solders provided the impetus for these efforts to produce {open_quotes}engineered{close_quotes} rough surfaces. In an attempt to improve the wettability and spreading behavior of very low-lead and lead-free alloys, the very low-lead and lead-free members of the Sn/Ag system were tested on roughened copper-clad FR-4. Every alloy in the test suite demonstrated improvement in area of spread on the roughened substrates. The best results on the roughened substrates, compared to the Sn/Pb eutectic, were obtained from the Sn/Ag eutectic with 8 wt.% lead. The effects of surface roughness on the wettability and flow behavior of solder alloys has provided insight into surface morphologies that lead to improved solderability.

This paper presents a convergence theory for evolutionary pattern search algorithms (EPSAs). EPSAs are self-adapting evolutionary algorithms that modify the step size of the mutation operator in response to the success of previous optimization steps. Previously, the authors have proven a stationary point convergence theory for EPSAs for which the step size is not allowed to increase. The present analysis generalizes this analysis to prove a convergence theory for EPSAs that are allowed to both increase and decrease the step size. This convergence theory is based on an extension of the convergence theory for generalized pattern search methods.

A microstructurally-based computational simulation is presented that predicts the behavior and lifetime of solder interconnects for electronic applications. This finite element simulation is based on an internal state variable constitutive model that captures both creep and plasticity, and accounts for microstructural evolution. The basis of the microstructural evolution is a simple model that captures the grain size and microstructural defects in the solder. The mechanical behavior of the solder is incorporated into the model in the form of time-dependent viscoplastic equations derived from experimental creep tests. The unique aspect of this methodology is that the constants in the constitutive relations of the model are determined from experimental tests. This paper presents the constitutive relations and the experimental means by which the constants in the equations are determined. The fatigue lifetime of the solder interconnects is predicted using a damage parameter (or grain size) that is an output of the computer simulation. This damage parameter methodology is discussed and experimentally validated.

New soldering materials and processes have been developed over the last several years to address a variety of environmental issues. One of the primary efforts by the electronics industry has involved the development of alternative solders to replace the traditional lead-containing alloys. Sandia National Laboratories is developing such alternative solder materials for printed circuit board and hybrid microcircuit (HMC) applications. This paper describes the work associated with low residue, lead-free soldering of thick film HMC`s. The response of the different materials to wetting, aging, and mechanical test conditions was investigated. Hybrid test vehicles were designed and fabricated with a variety of chip capacitors and leadless ceramic chip carriers to conduct thermal, electrical continuity, and mechanical evaluations of prototype joints. Microstructural development along the solder and thick film interface, after isothermal solid state aging over a range of elevated temperatures and times, was quantified using microanalytical techniques. Flux residues on soldered samples were stressed (temperature-humidity aged) to identify potential corrosion problems. Mechanical tests also supported the development of a solder joint lifetime prediction model. Progress of this effort is summarized.

Cost and schedule overruns are often caused by poor requirements that are produced by people who do not understand the requirement process. This paper provides a high-level overview of the requirements discovery process.

This paper presents an experimental evaluation of evolutionary pattern search algorithms (EPSAs). Our experimental evaluation of EPSAs indicates that EPSAs can achieve similar performance to EAs on challenging global optimization problems. Additionally, we describe a stopping rule for EPSAs that reliably terminated them near a stationary point of the objective function. The ability for EPSAs to reliably terminate near stationary points offers a practical advantage over other EAs, which are typically stopped by heuristic stopping rules or simple bounds on the number of iterations. Our experiments also illustrate how the rate of the crossover operator can influence the tradeoff between the number of iterations before termination and the quality of the solution found by an EPSA.

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), located in a salt bed in southern New Mexico, is designed by US Department of Energy to demonstrate the safe and permanent disposal of design-basis transuranic waste. WIPP performance assessment requires consideration of radionuclide release in brines in the event of inadvertent human intrusion. The mobility of radionuclides depends on chemical factors such as brine pmH (-log molality of H{sup +}) and CO{sub 2} fugacity. According to current waste inventory estimates, a large quantity ({approximately} 10{sup 9} moles C) of organic materials will be emplaced in the WIPP. Those organic material will potentially be degraded by halophilic or halotolerant microorganisms in the presence of liquid water in the repository, especially if a large volume of brine is introduced into the repository by human intrusions. Organic material biodegradation will produce a large amount of CO{sub 2}, which will acidify the WIPP brine and thus significantly increase the mobility of actinides. This communication addresses (1) the rate of organic material biodegradation and the quantity of CO{sub 2} to be possibly generated, (2) the effect of microbial CO{sub 2} production on overall WIPP performance, and (3) the mechanism of using MgO to mitigate this effect.

The authors have demonstrated room-temperature CW operation of type-II quantum cascade (QC) light emitting diodes at 4.2 {micro}m using InAs/InGaSb/InAlSb type-II quantum wells. The type-II QC configuration utilizes sequential multiple photon emissions in a staircase of coupled type-II quantum wells. The device was grown by molecular beam epitaxy on a p-type GaSb substrate and was compared of 20 periods of active regions separated by digitally graded quantum well injection regions. The maximum average output power is about 250 {micro}W at 80 K, and 140 {micro}W at 300 K at a repetition rate of 1 kHz with a duty cycle of 50%.

The electrochemical properties of LiMn2O4 and LiAlxMn2-xO4 (where x = 0.125, 0.25, 0.375) were studied for variations in lithium-ion diffusion. The largest diffusion coefficient was shown for the undoped material, DLi+=2.7×10-11 cm2/s. As the level of dopant was increased a concurrent decrease in diffusion coefficient is shown. This effect was attributed to a decrease in the lattice parameter caused by dopant addition. © 1997 Published by Elsevier Science S.A.

Solid and annular silicon aerogel and agar foams were imploded on the SATURN accelerator to study plasma initiation, acceleration, and stagnation. SATURN delivers 7 MA with a 50 ns rise time to these foam loads. We fielded several spectroscopic diagnostics to measure plasma parameters throughout the z-pinch discharge. A spatially resolved single frame time-gated extreme ultraviolet spectrometer measured the extent of plasma ablation off the surface of the foam. A time integrated crystal spectrometer showed that characteristic K shell radiation of silicon in the aerogel and of sulfur and sodium impurities in the agar were attenuated when the foam loads were coated with a conductive layer of gold. A time-resolved pinhole camera showed that in general the quality of the pinch implosions was poor but improved with increasing efforts to improve current continuity such as prepulse and conductive coatings. © 1997 American Institute of Physics.

A pulsed Na atomic beam source developed for spectroscopic diagnosis of a high-power ion diode is described. The goal is to produce a ∼1012-cm-3-density Na atomic beam that can be injected into the diode acceleration gap to measure electric and magnetic fields from the Stark and Zeeman effects through laser-induced fluorescence or absorption spectroscopy. A ∼10 ns full width at half-maximum (FWHM), 1.06 μm, 0.6 J/cm2 laser incident through a glass slide heats a Na-bearing thin film, creating a plasma that generates a sodium vapor plume. A ∼1 μs FWHM dye laser beam tuned to 5890 Å is used for absorption measurement of the Na I resonant doublet by viewing parallel to the film surface. The dye laser light is coupled through a fiber to a spectrograph with a time-integrated charge-coupled-device camera. A two-dimensional mapping of the Na vapor density is obtained through absorption measurements at different spatial locations. Time-of-flight and Doppler broadening of the absorption with ∼0.1 Å spectral resolution indicate that the Na neutral vapor temperature is about 0.5-2 eV. Laser-induced fluorescence from ∼1×1012 cm-3 Na I 3s-3p lines observed with a streaked spectrograph provides a signal level sufficient for ∼±0.06 Å wavelength shift measurements in a mock-up of an ion diode experiment. © 1997 American Institute of Physics.

We find that significant polarization fatigue (> 90%) can be induced in SrBi2Ta2O9 (SET) thin films using (a) broad-band optical illumination combined with a bias near the switching threshold and (b) electric field cycling under broadband optical illumination. In the latter case, the extent of polarization fatigue increases with decreasing cycling voltage. In either case, the optically fatigued SET capacitors can be fully rejuvenated by applying a saturating dc bias with light or by electric field cycling without light, which suggests a field-assisted recovery mechanism. A similar behavior was observed in Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) films with LSCO electrodes. Based on these results, we suggest that polarization fatigue in ferroelectrics is essentially a dynamic competition between domain wall pinning due to electronic charge trapping, and field-assisted unpinning of the domain walls. Thus, domain wall pinning is not necessarily absent in nominally fatigue-free systems. Instead, these systems are ones in which domain wall unpinning occurs at least as rapidly as any pinning. Factors which may affect the pinning and unpinning rates will be discussed.

We describe the application of the techniques of high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) to analyze and characterize various types of inorganic nanoclusters. Both metal and semiconductor nanoclusters were grown in inverse micelles and we demonstrate how the nanoclusters can be separated from the surfactants and other byproducts of the reaction by using a variety of HPLC columns. We also discuss passivation of the cluster surface to prevent aggregation. The HPLC columns separate the clusters based upon a combination of size exclusion and chemical affinity mechanisms and the optical properties of the purified clusters are determined on-line using a variety of detectors. These include a photodiode array for collecting absorbance spectra, a fluorescence detector to monitor luminesence, and a conductivity detector to monitor surface charge on the nanoclusters. We illustrate the analysis of nanoclusters using HPLC by showing data from semiconductor Si, MoS2 nanoclusters and Au nanoclusters. An extremely novel luminesence was observed from very small metal nanoclusters. © 1997 Acta Metallurgica Inc.

We have grown AlSb and AlAsxSb1 - x epitaxial layers by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) using trimethylamine alane or ethyldimethylamine alane, triethylantimony, and arsine. These layers were successfully doped p-or n-type using diethylzinc or tetraethyltin, respectively. We examined the growth of AlAsxSb1 - x using temperatures of 500-600°C, pressures of 65-630 Torr, V/III ratios of 1-17, and growth rates of 0.3-2.7 μm/h in a horizontal quartz reactor. We have also fabricated gain-guided, injection lasers using AlAsxSb1 - x for optical confinement and a strained InAsSb/InAs multi-quantum well active region grown using MOCVD. In pulsed mode, the laser operated up to 210 K with an emission wavelength of 3.8-3.9 μm.

Micro-Electrical Mechanical Systems (MEMS) is an emerging technology with demonstrated potential for a wide range of applications including sensors and actuators for medical, industrial, consumer, military, automotive and instrumentation products. Failure analysis (FA) of MEMS is critically needed for the successful design, fabrication, performance analysis and reliability assurance of this new technology. Many devices have been examined using techniques developed for integrated circuit analysis, including optical inspection, scanning laser microscopy (SLM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), focused ion beam (FIB) techniques, atomic force microscopy (AFM), infrared (lR) microscopy, light emission (LE) microscopy, acoustic microscopy and acoustic emission analysis. For example, the FIB was used to microsection microengines that developed poor performance characteristics. Subsequent SEM analysis clearly demonstrated the absence of wear on gear, hub, and pin joint bearing surfaces, contrary to expectations. Another example involved the use of infrared microscopy for thermal analysis of operating microengines. Hot spots were located, which did not involve the gear or hub, but indicated contact between comb structures which drive microengines. Voltage contrast imaging proved useful on static and operating MEMS in both the SEM and the FIB and identified electrostatic clamping as a potentially significant contributor to failure mechanisms in microengines. This work describes MEMS devices, FA techniques, failure modes, and examples of FA of MEMS.

We studied whether plasma-etching techniques can use standard screen-printed gridlines as etch masks to form self-aligned, patterned-emitter profiles on multicrystalline-silicon (mc-Si) cells from Solarex. We conducted an investigation of plasma deposition and etching processes on full-size mc-Si cells processed in commercial production lines, so that any improvements obtained would be immediately relevant to the PV industry. This investigation determined that reactive ion etching (RIE) is compatible with using standard, commercial, screen-printed gridlines as etch masks to form self-aligned, selectively doped emitter profiles. This process results in reduced gridline contact resistance when followed by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) treatments, an undamaged emitter surface easily passivated by plasma-nitride, and a less heavily doped emitter between gridlines for reduced emitter recombination. This allows for heavier doping beneath the gridlines for even lower contact resistance, reduced contact recombination, and better bulk defect gettering. Our initial results found a statistically significant improvement of about half an absolute percentage point in cell efficiency when the self-aligned emitter etchback was combined with a PECVD-nitride surface passivation treatment. Some additional improvement in bulk diffusion length was observed when a hydrogen passivation treatment was used in the process. We attempted to gain additional benefits from using an extra-heavy phosphorus emitter diffusion before the gridlines were deposited. However, this required a higher plasma-etch power to etch back the deeper diffusion and keep the etch time reasonably short. The higher power etch may have damaged the surface and the gridlines so that improvement due to surface passivation and reduced gridline contact resistance was inhibited.

This paper is concerned with describing a damage mechanics formulation which provides for non-isotropic effects using a scalar damage variable. An investigation has been in progress for establishing the constitutive behavior of rock salt at long times and low to moderate confining pressures in relation to the possible use of excavated rooms in rock salt formations as repositories for nuclear waste. An important consideration is the effect of damage manifested principally by the formation of shear induced wing cracks which have a stress dependent orientation. The analytical formulation utilizes a scalar damage parameter, but is capable of indicating the non-isotropic dependence of inelastic straining on the stress state and the confining pressure. Also, the equations indicate the possibility of volumetric expansions leading to the onset of tertiary creep and eventually rupture if the damage variable reaches a critical value.

The interactions of CP-Ti and Ti-6Al-4V with investment molds containing alumina/silica and yttria/silica face coat systems were studied. "Containerless" melting in argon was employed and small test samples were made by drop casting into the molds. The effects of the face coat material and mold preheat temperatures on the thickness of the alpha case in the drop castings were evaluated with microhardness and microprobe measurements. It was found that the thickness of the alpha case was the same, whether a yttria/silica or alumina/silica face coat was used, indicating that the silica binder can reduce the apparent inertness of a more stable refractory, such as yttria. It was also found that the alloyed titanium castings had a thinner alpha case than those produced from CP-Ti, which suggests that the thickness of the alpha case depends on the crystal structure of the alloy during cooling from high temperatures. Furthermore, the small drop castings made in small yttria crucibles used as molds exhibited little or no alpha case.

The nuclear microprobe has proven to be a useful tool in radiation testing of integrated circuits. This paper reviews single event upset and ion beam induced charge collection imaging techniques, with special attention to damage-dependent effects. Comparisons of charge collection measurements with three-dimensional charge transport simulations of charge collection are then presented for isolated p-channel field effect transistors under conducting and non-conducting bias conditions.

Mid-infrared lasers grown by MOCVD with AlAsSb claddings and strained InAsSb active regions are reported. A 3.8-3.9 μm injection laser with a pseudomorphic InAsSb multiple quantum well active region lased at 210 K under pulsed operation. A semi-metal layer acts as an internal electron source for the injection laser. An optically pumped laser with an InAsSb/InAsP strained-layer superlattice active region was demonstrated at 3.7 μm, 240 K.

The wide band gap group-III nitride materials continue to generate interest in the semiconductor community with the fabrication of green, blue, and ultraviolet light emitting diodes (LEDs), blue lasers, and high temperature transistors. Realization of more advanced devices requires pattern transfer processes which are well controlled, smooth, highly anisotropic and have etch rates exceeding 0.5 μm/min. The utilization of high-density chlorine-based plasmas including electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) systems has resulted in improved etch quality of the group-III nitrides over more conventional reactive ion etch (RIE) systems.

Many applications of high temperature superconductors, HTS, require the presence of lattice defects in the material structure to suppress the motion of magnetic vortices and enhance the critical current density, Jc. The microstructure of Tl2Ba2CaCu2O8-δ (Tl-2212) thin films which have extended defects induced by high energy Au and Cu ion irradiation is studied using high resolution transmission electron microscopy, HRTEM, with slow scan digital imaging. In order to optimize the HTS properties and better analyze the consequent microstructural modification, the fluence is varied. At moderate fluences, resulting in approximately 4% reduction of the superconducting transition, large enhancements of Jc and vortex pinning potential are observed. The density and microstructure of isolated defects and surrounding structure will be discussed and compared to damage profiles calculated using the TRIM code. Correlation will be made between the HRTEM results and the changes in HTS properties.

Optically targeted, ion microbeams provide a useful means of exposing individual structures within an integrated circuit to ionizing radiation. With this tool, calibrated, low damage, charge collection spectra can be measured from specific circuit structures without preceding ion damage to the structure or surrounding circuitry. This paper presents comparisons of calibrated, low damage, ion microbeam-based charge collection measurements and three-dimensional, charge transport simulations of charge collection for isolated n-and p-channel field effect transistors under conducting and non-conducting bias conditions.