The central goal of this research is to quantitatively characterize the relationships between processing, microstructure, and mechanical properties of important high-pressure die-cast (HPDC) Mg-alloys. For this purpose, a new digital image processing technique for automatic detection and segmentation of gas and shrinkage pores in the cast microstructure is developed and it is applied to quantitatively characterize the effects of HPDC process parameters on the size distribution and spatial arrangement of porosity. To get better insights into detailed geometry and distribution of porosity and other microstructural features, an efficient and unbiased montage based serial sectioning technique is applied for reconstruction of three-dimensional microstructures. The quantitative microstructural data have been correlated to the HPDC process parameters and the mechanical properties. The analysis has led to hypothesis of formation of new type of shrinkage porosity called, gas induced shrinkage porosity that has been substantiated via simple heat transfer simulations. The presence of inverse surface macrosegregation has been also shown for the first time in the HPDC Mg-alloys. An image analysis based technique has been proposed for simulations of realistic virtual microstructures that have realistic complex pore morphologies. These virtual microstructures can be implemented in the object oriented finite elements framework to model the variability in the fracture sensitive mechanical properties of the HPDC alloys.

Brittle materials such as silicon, germanium, glass and ceramics are widely used in semiconductor, optical, micro-electronics and various other fields. Traditionally, grinding, polishing and lapping have been employed to achieve high tolerance in surface texture of silicon wafers in semiconductor applications, lenses for optical instruments etc. The conventional machining processes such as single point turning and milling are not conducive to brittle materials as they produce discontinuous chips owing to brittle failure at the shear plane before any tangible plastic flow occurs. In order to improve surface finish on machined brittle materials, ductile regime machining is being extensively studied lately. The process of machining brittle materials where the material is removed by plastic flow, thus leaving a crack free surface is known as ductile-regime machining. Ductile machining of brittle materials can produce surfaces of very high quality comparable with processes such as polishing, lapping etc. The objective of this project is to develop a comprehensive predictive model for ductile machining of brittle materials. The model would predict the critical undeformed chip thickness required to achieve ductile-regime machining. The input to the model includes tool geometry, workpiece material properties and machining process parameters. The fact that the scale of ductile regime machining is very small leads to a number of factors assuming significance which would otherwise be neglected. The effects of tool edge radius, grain size, grain boundaries, crystal orientation etc. are studied so as to make better predictions of forces and hence the critical undeformed chip thickness. The model is validated using a series of experiments with varying materials and cutting conditions. This research would aid in predicting forces and undeformed chip thickness values for micro-machining brittle materials given their material properties and process conditions. The output could be used to machine brittle materials without fracture and hence preserve their surface texture quality. The need for resorting to experimental trial and error is greatly reduced as the critical parameter, namely undeformed chip thickness, is predicted using this approach. This can in turn pave way for brittle materials to be utilized in a variety of applications.

Microstructures are usually fabricated on the surface of optical sheets to improve the optical characteristics. In this study, a new fabrication process with UV (ultraviolet) laser direct writing method is developed to embed microstructures inside the glass. Then the optical properties of glass such as reflection and refraction indexes can be modified. Single- and multi-layer microstructures are designed and embedded inside glasses to modify the optical characteristics. Both luminance and uniformity can be controlled with the embedded microstructures. Thus, the glass with inside pattern can be used as a light guide plate to increase optical performance. First, an optical software, FRED, is applied to design the microstructure configuration. Then, UV laser direct writing with output power: 2.5~ 2.6 W, repetition rate: 30 kHz, wave length: 355nm and pulse duration: 15ns is used to fabricate the microstructures inside the glass. The effect of pattern dimension such as the pitch, the layer gap, and the number of layer on the optical performance is discussed. Machining capacity of UV laser is ranging from micron to submicrometer; hence various dimensions of dot, line width, and layers can be easily embedded in the glass by one simple process. In addition, the embedded microstructures can be fabricated less damage and contamination. Finally, the optical performance of the glasses with various configurations is measured by using Spectra Colorometer (Photo Research PR650) and compared with the simulated results.

In this study, we investigate and fabricate two-dimensional ordered lattice structure by breath figures method. The breath figures pattern was prepared with the solution of carbon disulfide (CS2) doped with 1% weight concentration of polystyrene. The temperature and the humidity were controlled at ~23¢J and ~60 %, respectively. The breath figures pattern began to expand while CS2 is under evaporation. We explored the relationship between self-assemble of the water droplet and ordered structure via the solution height, the temperature evolution, and the dynamical optical images in the formation process of breath figures pattern. It was found that the radius of the water droplets varying with time follows the power law, £l ~ t £go; £g0=0.76. The fast Fourier transformation and Voronoi Diagram were used to conform that the formation of the breath figures pattern varied form a disordered state to an ordered state with the evaporation of CS2. The understanding of the breath figures pattern provides us to fabricate the photonics with size from nano- to micro-scale and to improve the application of nano device.

The deformation mechanism of an ultrafine grained (UFG) Al-Zn alloy has been studied. In this work, Al-15wt%Zn alloy was processed by equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE) route A at 100oC to achieve UFG structure. The deformation mechanism was studied by performing tensile test with various strain rates. Scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy were used to investigate the microstructure evolution in Al-15wt%Zn alloy with increasing ECAE passes. The observation indicated that the super saturated Al-Zn alloy would decompose and precipitate Zn particles during ECAE process. Increasing ECAE passes, the aluminum grain size was reduced, but the size of Zn particles was increased. However, the net effect of increasing ECAE passes is softening of this Al-Zn alloy. The tensile properties of the UFG Al-Zn alloy can be summarized as follows. (1)The UFG Al-Zn alloy possesses higher tensile strength and elongation as compared to commercial purity Al (AA1050). (2)The strain rate sensitivity of the UFG Al-Zn alloy increases significantly with increasing number of ECAE pass, which might be related to the refined aluminum grain size. After processed by 4-16 ECAE passes, the activation volume of the UFG Al-Zn alloy falls in the range of 25 b3~40 b3, which remains nearly constant value with increasing tensile strain. It is suggested that the controlling mechanism responsible for the tensile deformation of the UFG Al-Zn alloy might be related to a grain boundary mediated mechanism. (3)With increasing ECAE passes, the total tensile elongation of the UFG Al-Zn alloy increases but the uniform elongation show little change. This indicates that the increase in total elongation is mainly due to the contribution from an enhanced post-uniform elongation (PUE). It is suggested that the enhanced PUE might be related to the increase in strain rate sensitivity, which is resulted from the refinement of grain size. More detailed studies are needed to understand the deformation mechanism.

This thesis aimed to design and develop a novel micro-thermal electric generator (£g-TEG) with a transparent parallel-array bridge microstructure using the ANSYS finite element analysis software and Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology. The presented £g-TEG can convert the temperature difference between the indoor and outdoor planes of building glass window into a useful electrical power. The thermoelectrically transferred output electrical power is suitable for recharging various mobile communication products. Conventional £g-TEG presented a high fabrication cost, low integration compatibility with IC processes and non-transparent characteristics. To improve these disadvantages, this research utilizes a batch production surface micromachining technology to implement the Poly-Si based parallel-array £g-TEG on a transparent quartz glass substrate and the main fabrication processes adopted in this research are including six thin-film deposition processes and five photolithography processes. The implemented Poly-Si based transparent £g-TEG has successfully demonstrates a maximum temperature difference of 1.38¢J between the hot plane (substrate) and cold plane (suspending microstructure), a maximum output voltage of 13.28 mV/cm2, a maximum output power of 110.22 nW/cm2 and a maximum light transmission of 40%.

This thesis aimed to develop a novel micro thermal electric generator (£g-TEG) with a series-array bridge microstructure utilizing microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. By integrating the tens of thousands of micro-thermocouple in a centimeter square area, the temperature difference between the hot plane and cold plane of the presented £g-TEG can be converted into a useful electrical power. The thermoelectrically transferred output electrical power is suitable for recharging various mobile communication products. There are two main configurations of the conventional £g-TEGs have been proposed, including the vertical and lateral structure types. The heat flow of the vertical-type £g-TEG can be directly transferred by the thermocouples and hence the energy loss through the substrate can be efficiently reduced and the thermoelectrical conversion efficiency is usually higher than vertical-type £g-TEG. However, to obtain a useful electrical power output, the height of the vertical-type £g-TEG usually more than 100 micrometers and this will increase the production difficulty and fabrication cost. In contrast, the height of the lateral-type £g-TEG is only about several micrometers and hence the production difficulty and fabrication cost are lower than vertical-type £g-TEG. The non-neglect energy loss through the substrate of lateral-type £g-TEG will constrain the efficiency of electrical power generation. Using the surface micromachining technology, tens of thousands of suspending micro polysilicon thermocouple are integrated and serially connected to increase the efficiency of electrical power generation and reduce the substrate energy loss. The main fabrication processes adopted in this research are including seven thin-film deposition processes and five photolithography processes. The implemented Poly-Si based £g-TEG demonstrates a maximum temperature difference of 1.29¢J between the hot plane and cold plane (under nine different substrate temperatures), a maximum output voltage of 4.47 V/cm2 and a maximum output power of 601.4 nW/cm2. The comparison and analysis of experimental and simulation (ANSYS) results under the nine different substrate temperatures are investigated and the influence of length of suspending micro thermocouples is also discussed in this work.

Utilizing bulk micromachining technology, this thesis aimed to develop a flexural plate-wave(FPW) device with novel groove reflection microstructure for high-sensitivity and low insertion-loss biomedical microsystem applications. The influences of the amount and depth of the groove and the distance between the groove and the boundary of ZnO piezoelectric thin-film (DGB) on the reduction of insertion-loss and the enhancement of quality factor (Q) and electromechanical coupling coefficient (K2) were investigated. Three critical technology modules established in this thesis are including the development of (1) a sputtering deposition process of high C-axis (002) orientation ZnO piezoelectric thin-film, (2) an electrochemical etch-stop technique of silicon anisotropic etching and (3) an integration process of FPW device. Firstly, under the optimized conditions of the sputtering deposition process (300¢J substrate temperature, 200 W radio-frequency (RF) power and 30/70 Ar/O2 gas flow ratio), a high C-axis (002) orientated ZnO piezoelectric thin-film with a high X-ray diffraction (XRD) intensity (50,799 a.u.) and narrow full width at half maximum (FWHM = 0.383¢X) can be demonstrated. The peak of XRD intensity of the standard ZnO film occurs at diffraction angle 2£c = 34.422¢X, which matches well with our results (2£c = 34.357¢X). Secondary, an electrochemical etch-stop system with three electrode configuration has been established in this research and the etching accuracy can be controlled to less than 1%. Thirdly, this thesis has successfully integrated the main fabrication processes for developing the FPW device which are including six thin-film deposition processes and six photolithography processes. The implemented FPW device with RIE etched groove reflection microstructure presents a low insertion-loss of -12.646 dB, center frequency of 114.7 MHz, Q factor of 12.76 and K2 value of 0.1876%.

Nanoporous materials have attracted tremendous interest, investment and effort in research and development due to their potential applications in various areas such as membranes, catalysis, sensors, delivery, and micro devices. Controlling a nanoporous material’s microstructure is of great interest due to the strong influence on efficiency and performance. For particles, microstructure refers to particle size, shape, surface morphology, and composition. When discussing thin films, microstructure includes film thickness, crystal orientation and grain boundaries. In this respect, we focus to develop novel methods for the synthesis and characterization of nanoporous materials and their films, which are capable of controlling the microstructure of material. This dissertation is composed of two main sections and each explores the fabrication of a different nanoporous material: 1) A simple fabrication method for producing oriented MFI zeolite membranes with controlled thickness, orientation, and grain boundary; 2) A microfluidic synthesis of ordered mesoporous silica particles with controllable size, shape, surface morphology, and composition. The first section of this dissertation demonstrates a simple and commercially viable method termed the micro-tiles-and-mortar method to make continuous b-oriented MFI membranes with controlled membrane microstructure. This simple method allows for control of the thickness of the membrane by using plate-like seed crystals with different thicknesses along the b-axis (0.5 μm to 2.0 μm), as well as to manipulate the density and structure of grain boundaries. Microstructural effects of silicalite-1 membranes on the gas separation are investigated by measuring the permeation and separation for xylene isomers. In the second section of this dissertation, a new synthesis method for the ordered mesoporous silica particles with controllable microstructure is demonstrated. This novel method combines a microfluidic emulsification technique and nonaqueous inorganic synthesis with a diffusion-induced self-assembly (DISA). The systematic control of the particle microstructure such as size, shape, and surface morphology is shown by adjusting microfluidic conditions.

The aim of this work is to nondestructively characterize the industrial dual phase (ferritic-martensitic) steels (DPS) by the Magnetic Barkhausen Noise (MBN) method. By quenching of AISI 8620 steel specimens having two different starting microstructures, from various intercritical annealing temperatures (ICAT) in the ferrite-austenite region, the microstructures consisting of different volume fractions of martensite and morphology have been obtained. The microstructures, strength properties and hardness values were determined by conventional metallographic and mechanical tests. The measurements of the Magnetic Barkhausen Noise (MBN) were performed by using both Rollscan and &amp / #956 / SCAN sensor connectors. A good correlation between the martensite volume fraction, hardness and MBN signal amplitude has been obtained. MBN emission decreased as the ICAT, therefore the volume fraction of martensite increased. Moreover, MBN emission decreased as the martensite morphology become thinner. It has been concluded that MBN method can be used for nondestructive characterization of industrial dual phase steels.