In this study, an electrolytic micro-machining tester is employed to investigate the effects of the supply voltage, the immerse depth of tungsten rod, and the machining time on the current waveform, the material removal rate, and the geometry of the tungsten needle. The tungsten rod to be electrolyzed is dipped in an aqueous electrolyte of 10 wt% sodium hydroxide as the anode, and the stainless steel ring as the cathode. The spindle rotating speed and the stirring rotating speed are set to be 100 rpm and 200rpm, respectively. According to analyze the topography of the tungsten needle, four machined regimes have been identified as:¡]1¡^non-machined regime,¡]2¡^incomplete machined regime,¡]3¡^complete machined regime,¡]4¡^over machined regime. In order to obtain the perfect tungsten needle, the experiments are conducted in the complete machined regime. Results show that the tungsten rod becomes a short cone for the immerse depth of 5 mm, and a long cone for the depth of 10mm. When the immerse depth of 10 mm and the supply voltage of 3V, the surface of tungsten needle becomes rough slightly and the tip radius of tungsten needle is about 2£gm. With increasing the supply voltage to 4.5 V, the surface of tungsten needle is uniform with a downward trend in material removal rate, and the tip radius can achieve a submicron. For the supply voltage of 6V, because the material removal rate varies violently, it becomes very difficult to control the diameter of tungsten needle. During the machining time between 0 to 10 min for the supply voltage of 4.5V, the diameter of tungsten rod is decreased from 1000 to 200£gm, but during the machining time between 10 to 12.5 min, the tungsten rod gradually transforms into the needle due to a downward trend in current, and the tip radius is decreased from 200£gm to submicron. Hence, the machining time must be controlled accurately to manufacture the needle in a submicron radius.

Coatings are often used on critical components in machines and engines to reduce wear and to provide low friction in order to reduce energy losses and the environmental impact. A triboactive coating not only provides this desired performance, it also actively maintains the low friction by a structural or chemical change in a very thin top layer of these already micrometer thin coatings. This so-called tribofilm is often 5-50 nm thick and can be formed either from the coating itself or by a reaction with the counter surface or the surrounding atmosphere, i.e. gas, fuel, oil, etc. The tribofilm will maintain the wanted performance for as long as the system is not chemically disturbed. This thesis provides a detailed overview of the functionality of triboactive low-friction coatings, in many different systems. The majority of the tribofilms discussed, formed in very different environments, are built up by tungsten disulfide (WS2), which is a material similar to graphite, with a lamellar structure where strongly bonded atomic planes may slip over each other almost without resistance. The major difference is that WS2 is an intrinsically triboactive material, while graphite is not. However, graphite and other carbon-based materials can be made triboactive in certain atmospheres or by addition of other elements, such as hydrogen. The remarkable affinity and driving force to form such WS2 low-friction tribofilms, regardless of the initial states of the sulfur and tungsten, and even when the forming elements are present only at ppm levels, is a recurrent observation in the thesis. Addition of an alloying element to sputtered coatings of WS2 can improve its mechanical and frictional properties significantly. Several promising attempts have been made to find good candidates, out of which a few important ones are investigated in this thesis. Their achievable potential in friction reductions is demonstrated. By reducing friction, energy losses can be avoided, which also results in lower particle and exhaust emissions, which directly reduces the environmental impact. Triboactive coatings are shown to be a promising route to significantly improve tribological applications and allow more environmental friendly and energy efficient vehicles.

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In the study, a self-developed electrolytic micro-machining tester is employed to investigate the effects of the supply voltage and the highest position of the workpiece relative to the tool on the geometry of the tungsten rod. The peripheral surface of the iron needle (tool) is insulated by an insulator and its tip with a diameter of 50£gm is exposed to the electrolyte as a cathode. The tungsten rod (workpiece) with 200£gm in diameter reciprocates as an anode. Both the cathode and the anode are dipped into an aqueous electrolyte of 2wt % sodium hydroxide to proceed electrochemical machining. Experimental results show that since the length and the diameter of the workpiece are varied during the machining process, it is necessary to manually adjust the highest position and the gap between the workpiece and the tool in each reciprocating motion to achieve a uniform tungsten rod. Moreover, because of the higher removal rate of the workpiece at the higher supply voltage, it is hard to control the geometry of the workpiece. On the contrary, the geometry of the workpiece can be controlled at the lower supply voltage. Finally, the workpiece is first machined at the higher supply voltage, and then the supply voltage is switched to the lower one to achieve a uniform tungsten rod with 2£gm in diameter and 200£gm in length, or 100 in aspect ratio.

In a conventional nonvolatile memory (NVM), charge is stored in a ploy-silicon floating gate (FG) surrounded by dielectrics. But, it will suffer some limitations for continued scaling of the device structure. Therefore, the nanocrystal nonvolatile memory devices have been investigated to overcome the limit of the conventional floating gate NVM in recently years. Nanocrystal charge storage offers several advantages, the main one being the potential to use thinner tunnel oxide without sacrificing nonvolatility. This is a quite attractive proposition since reducing the tunnel oxide thickness is a key to lowering operating voltage and/or increasing operating speeds. In this thesis, we have fabricated tungsten (W) nanocrystals nonvolatile memory devices. A thin tungsten silicide (W5Si3) layer was deposited on tunnel oxide layer first. The following oxidation was performed in furnace system. The W element tends to segregate downward and precipitate on the tunnel oxide after thermal oxidation. In addition, the silicon element is oxidized into silicon dioxide surrounded tungsten nanocrystals. Also, the carrier gas, such as O2 and N2, were also added as the tungsten silicide deposition. The memory effect and the electrical reliability for W nanocrystals surrounded in different dielectric were also investigated in this study. In addition, the formation mechanism of W nanocrystals with additional silicon oxide capped on tungsten silicide was also investigated. The thicker silicon oxide can effectively control the thermal oxidation condition and prevent thin film degradation. However, the overall oxidation cause the memory window reduction and the electrical characteristics degradation, resulted from the partially oxidation of W nanocrystal to metal-incorporated dielectric. By contrast, we also demonstrated the structure that deposited the charge trapping layer by co-sputtered W and dielectric material as SiO2 or Si3N4 to directly form the W nanocrystal embedded in dielectrics. Besides, the W and Si directly deposited by co-sputtered to adjust the two elements contained ratio had investigated as well in this study. Furthermore, the memory effect and electrical characteristics for germanium (Ge) element incorporated W nanocrystal memory were also discussed. The additional storage element contributes the memory effect. In summary, the memory effect for W nanaocrystal embedded in different dielectric, the effect of the thermal treatment for additional silicon oxide incorporation, and the contribution of the Ge element to the memory effect can be obtained from the fabrication of W nanocrystal memory were finished in this study.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Michigan, 1930. / From Physical review, v. 36, October 1, 1930.

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