I posted some pictures yesterday from AFM last week.  I got back onto the AFM today and re-scanned the megasonics cleaned virginia semiconductor wafers.  For each image, the top and bottom panels are the height and ZSensor scans, respectively.  All scans are 10um x 10um.  I did a linear analysis of the ZSensor data for…

Because of the recent discoloration problems I observed with 24 hour diffusion using w670 and 673, I decided to try a shorter time point. 673 had a couple more samples to spare, so I tried an 8 hour diffusion experiment.  No discoloration was observed: This is the normal color of the wafer.  Slits were not…

I got some wafers from Chris last week(?) that had undergone different Megasonics cleaning treatments by the manufacturer.  We’re trying to figure out if these treatments are actually cleaning the wafers.  I’ve been having trouble getting the AFM to stay in the “right” mode for imaging with these wafers.  However, I have gotten some images….

While wafers 670 and 673 did not hold up to diffusion experiments, they were strong enough to perform pressurized separations using the pressure cell.  Each experiment lasted for 40min, although the average flow was only about 5ul for this duration. 673 has a pore cutoff around 30nm (refer to Dave’s post).  The following gel shows…

I’ve processed all the images used in the water permeability studies and found the following statistics from these images: Mean Diameter Mean Area Median Diameter Median Area Porosity Area Weighted Diameter 90th percentile Diameter I calculated the theoretical water permeability for each sample we’ve used and compared that to the experimental permeability using these statistics…

I’m having trouble getting the PDMS to cure on the NC. When I first started these experiments in August, the PDMS seemed to cure on the NC without a problem. Now, when I remove the PDMS + NC from the oven, after heating for 2+ hours at the highest setting, I notice that the PDMS…

This is the original contact angle study performed using the DeLouise Lab’s Rame-Hart contact angle measurement tool.   The entire study was performed on 8/1/06-8/10/06. Observations: Contact angles of non-plasma oxidized samples start ~60 degrees and increase over about 10 hrs to ~75 degrees. Keeping the samples in diH2O halts this gradual increase. Plasma oxidized samples…

There’s been a flurry of activity regarding Jess’ recent discoloration post.  Specifically, there is a discussion about the recent materials changes that have taken place due to the rebuilt CVC sputterer.  This post is meant to supplement the ongoing materials discussion.  I have noticed that films deposited post-rebuild seem to have less background texture and…

Wafers 670 and 673 were made to have different cutoffs. I set up diffusion experiments with two chips from each wafer using protein standards. However after removing samples after 24 hours I noticed that both chips from w670 had fully discolored and the chips from w673 seem to have partially discolored. In all three cases…