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The University of Tennessee The Department of Chemical Engineering |
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The University of Tennessee The Department of Chemical Engineering |
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Air Force Office of Scientific Research Tribological Program Review Meeting - 2006 Wright-Patterson Air Force Base |
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As part of the Program Review, Andrey Voevodin and Ben Phillips of the Air Force Research Lab arranged a tour of the facilities at AFRL associated with the tribological program. Part of this tour included a stop at their chambers for film growth. They have an ultra-high vacuum sputtering chamber connected to a graphical user interface designed in-house using LabView. They invited David Keffer to sit down at the controls and grow some films, under the expert tutelage of Dr. Colin Baker. The chamber can grow films on six discs simultaneously. Starting with a silicon wafer, David turned on the laser to start sputtering a titanium film to act as transition layer from the silicon. Next David started sputtering YSZ (Yttria-stabilized Zirconia). He followed that up with a top coat of titanium-nitride and silver. Later that afternoon, the discs were laser etched. At dinner that night, Andrey presented the discs to various PIs at the meeting. One is shown in the image above. It should be pointed out that this was David's first chance to grow a film. It was fun! |