Wafer bonding is a process by which two or more mirror-polished flat surfaces are joined together. This process is increasingly used in microelectronics and microsystems industries as a key fabrication technique for various applications: production of SOI wafers, pressure sensors, accelerometers and all sorts of advanced MEMS. Unfortunately, the lack of reliability of these systems does not allow them to enter the production market. This lack of reliability is often related to the lack of understanding and control of the thermo-mechanical properties of materials used for the fabrication of MEMS (indeed, at this small scale, properties of materials are sometimes quite different than at large scale) but it is also due to the limited knowledge of the different phenomena occurring during the working of these devices, the most detrimental of them being fracture. Among all of these fracture processes, the integrity of the interfaces and, particularly, the interfaces created by wafer bonding is a generic problem with significant technological relevance. In order to understand the bonding behavior of silicon wafers, the interface chemistry occurring during the different steps of the bonding process has been detailed. The formation of strong covalent bonds across the two surfaces is responsible of the high fracture resistance of gwafer bondingh interfaces after appropriate surface treatments and annealing. The bonding process (surface treatments and annealing step) has been optimized toward reaching the best combination of interface toughness and bonding uniformity. The fracture resistance of gwafer bondingh interfaces or interface toughness has been determined using a steady-state method developed in the framework of this thesis. The high sensitivity to geometrical and environmental factors of gwafer bondingh interfaces has been quantified and related to the interface chemistry. A new technique involving the insertion of a dissipative ductile interlayer between the silicon substrate and the top silicon oxide has been proposed in order to increase the overall fracture resistance. A multiscale modeling strategy which involves the description of the interface fracture at the atomic scale, of the plasticity in the thin interlayer at the microscopic scale, and of the macroscopic structure of specimen has been used to guide the optimization of this technique. Numerical simulations have shown the influence of the ductile interlayer parameters (yield strength, workhardening exponent and thickness) and the critical strength of the interface on the overall toughness of such assemblies. A first set of experimental data has allowed increasing the interface toughness by 70%. The critical strength of the interface is finally determined by inverse identification and turns out to be in the expected range of theoretical strength. The knowledge of the strength and the fracture toughness of gwafer bondingh interfaces is of practical importance because these two values can be used in a simple fracture model (e.g. cohesive-zone model) in order to observe the behavior of such interfaces under complex loading using finite element simulations.

The supramolecular interactions of small organic molecules with different host molecules are investigated in this dissertation. Additionally, the author also describes the self-assembly mechanisms in hydrogen bonding motif. These studies were carried out by many techniques including, NMR, cyclic voltammetry, steady state voltammetry, mass spectroscopy, UV-visible spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy. Chapter 1 introduces the science of supramolecular chemistry and the background of cucurbiturils, one of the most important host molecules studied in this research work. It describes the structures and binding behaviors of each host molecule. Additionally, the selectivity and binding properties in the host-guest interactions involved cucurbiturils are discussed. Chapter 2 compares the electrochemical properties of cationic and neutral ferrocene derivatives upon addition of cucurbiturils. It is observed that the cationic ferrocene compounds bind to cucurbit[7]uril much stronger compared to the neutral ferrocene compounds. The positive charged side chains favor to interact with cucurbit[7]uril portals and thus stabilize the complexes. Besides, the author describes a simple analytical method to determine the binding constants by a competitive binding with a standard reference compound, cobaltocenium, which is reported to bind strongly to cucurbit[7]uril. Chapter 3 described the research of the pH-dependent binding affinity between cucurbit[7]uril and ferrocene guests. The electrochemical behavior of ferrocene moiety in aqueous solution was investigated by cyclic voltammetry in the presence of cucurbit[7]uril in acidic and basic environment respectively. The protonation and deprotonation processes affect the binding behaviors of the ferrocene residues with cucurbit[7]uril. Chapter 4 describes the synthesis and characterization of a new series of 4-phenyl-pyridinium derivatives. These compounds contain a phenyl-pyridinium residue which is favorable to be bound by cucurbit[8]uril. The 1:1 and 1:2 host-guest binding stoichiometries are both observed by UV-visible spectroscopy. These new compounds can be dimerized encapsulated inside the cucurbit[8]uril portals without being electrochemical reduced. Chapter 5 is a brief introduction into the science of hydrogen bonding. This chapter investigates the application of multiple hydrogen-bonding in supramolecular chemistry extensively. Multiple hydrogen bonds with their directionality and reversibility are of great interest and importance in the design and investigations of well-defined supramolecular assemblies. The potential of hydrogen bonding is limitless and is still developing. Chapter 6 describes the synthesis and photochemical behaviors of a series of ureido-pyrimidione derivatives. All of the DDAA derivatives form stable, non-covalent dimers in non-polar solvents. The dimeric molecular assemblies of these hydrogen bonding motifs in their DDAA pyrimidinedione units are investigated by NMR, X-ray crystallography, fluorescence spectroscopy and computations. Additionally, their hetero-dimerization is well studied by fluorescence spectroscopy. The observation and comparison of fluorescence quenching on the photochemical fluorophore for each compound by ferrocene-DDAA and isopropyl-DDAA reveal the electron transfer process through the quadruple hydrogen bonding motifs.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, December 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 122-130).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph.D)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 495-520) Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of North Texas, 1993. / Major Professor: James L. Marshall. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of North Texas, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references.

<p>The aim of this project was to compare the shear bond strengths of three light cure orthodontic adhesive resins with three different stainless steel molar brackets.</p>

No description available.

The objective of this investigation is to study the distinct physical and electronic properties of high-pressure solids, through state-of-the-art first-principles numerical computations. This thesis is composed of four distinct research topics.<p>The superconducting properties of several high-pressure solids were investigated based on the Migdal-Eliashberg theory within the framework of the BCS model. The possibility of pressure-induced superconductivity was investigated for selected materials, including dense Li, Xe, and Group IV hydrides. The pressure-induced phase transition FCC ¡÷ cI16 in Li and the superconducting properties in the FCC and cI16 phases were investigated. Noble gas Xe is predicted being a superconductor under pressure with a comparatively low Tc. Two Group IV hydrides, SiH4 and SnH4, were predicted to be good superconductors under high pressure. <p> The Bader¡¦s AIM analysis, IR and Raman spectroscopes were used as diagnostic tools to differentiate among candidate structural models for solid H2, O2, and SiH4. For solid H2, IR and Raman spectra are used to examine two recently proposed competing structures of the high-pressure phase III; the Cmcm and C2/c structures. For solid O2, the experiment observed structure, IR and Raman spectra of the recently solved C2/m structure of the high-pressure Õ phase were well produced. Using Bader¡¦s AIM method and from the analysis of the electron charge density, the preference on the formation of (O2)4 clusters in the C2/m structure and the nature of the interactions between O2 molecules is explained. For SiH4, IR and Raman spectra were calculated for our predicted P42/nmc structure and the agreement with available experiment results is very good. <p>On theoretical aspect, typical approaches for predicting/determining unknown high-pressure crystal structures usually involve dynamical processes. An alternate approach based on a recently proposed genetic algorithm was explored in this thesis. The focus is to predict stable and meta-stable structures at high pressure without any preference on initial structures. The high-pressure structures of Ca were investigated and two new stable structures that might explain the diffraction pattern of the Ca-IV and Ca-V phases were predicted. The high-pressure phase II and phase III of AlH3 were also investigated, and structures were successfully predicted for each phase. Another example presented is the prediction of a metastable single-bonded phase of nitrogen.<p>A first-principles approach was developed for the calculation of XAS within the framework of the DFT. The PAW method was used to reconstruct the core orbitals. These orbitals are essential for the calculation of the transition matrix elements. This approach provides a straightforward framework for the investigation of single particle core hole and electron screening effects, which have been demonstrated to be significant for all investigated materials. To test the implementation, the C, Si, and O K-edge XAS were calculated for diamond, fullerene C60, £-quartz and water molecule. In all cases, the calculated XAS agree very well with experiments. For water molecule, the quality of the calculated XAS sensitively depends on the delicate theoretical treatment of core hole potential and electron screening. The overall agreement between the calculated XAS and experiment is reasonable.