Universität Stuttgart
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Item Open Access Mass-producible micro-optical elements by injection compression molding and focused ion beam structured titanium molding tools(2020) Ristok, Simon; Roeder, Marcel; Thiele, Simon; Hentschel, Mario; Guenther, Thomas; Zimmermann, André; Herkommer, Alois; Giessen, HaraldItem Open Access Injection compression molded microlens arrays for hyperspectral imaging(2018) Röder, Marcel; Drexler, Marc; Rothermel, Thilo; Meissner, Thomas; Guenther, Thomas; Zimmermann, AndréItem Open Access FIB-SEM tomography for porosity characterization of inkjet printed nanoparticle gold ink(2024) Ruehl, Holger; Reguigui, Hajer; Guenther, Thomas; Zimmermann, AndréInkjet printing is a versatile technology for the manufacturing of electronic devices to be used in various applications [1,2]. Common inks to create conductive layers are suspensions of a solvent with metal nanoparticles such as gold or silver [3]. After the deposition and solidification of an ink on a substrate, the metal nanoparticles are sintered to realize the conductivity of the printed layer. A porous, solid metal matrix remains, whereby the conductivity of the metal layer tends to be dependent on the porosity. To characterize the porosity of inkjet printed conductive layers, focused ion beam-scanning electron microscope (FIB-SEM) tomography is suggested as a potential characterization method in the presented study. For the experiment, a wafer diced silicon substrate with size of 10 x 10 mm² was used, onto which a 1.2 µm thin layer of commercially available nanoparticle gold ink was inkjet printed and then sintered. Subsequently, a four-step procedure for the FIB-SEM tomography-based porosity characterization was performed: 1) FIB preparation of the volume of interest (VOI), 2) serial sectioning including image acquisition, 3) image processing and 4) 3D-reconstruction and porosity analysis. The steps 1) and 2) were conducted using a FIB-SEM dual beam system ZEISS AURIGA 40 (Carl Zeiss Microscopy Deutschland GmbH, Germany). Prior to serial sectioning, a thin platinum layer was FIB induced deposited on top of the inkjet printed gold layer. A cube-shaped VOI with the size 5000 x 6000 x 5000 nm³ was then prepared by FIB milling. The surface to be sectioned was end face polished and a line trench serving as a reference marker for the image processing was milled along the VOI. The prepared VOI prior to FIB sectioning is shown in Figure 1. a). Next, the serial sectioning was conducted. The ion acceleration voltage was set to 30 kV. The aperture current was set to 50 pA, resulting in an ion beam spot size of 12.5 nm, which corresponds to the section slice thickness. No melting and re-sintering of the solid metal structure could be observed during sectioning. SEM images of the revealing surface areas were acquired with 1024 x 768 pixels image resolution and a pixel size of 5.82 nm. Both a secondary electron (SE) detector as well as a backscattered electron (BSE) detector were used for imaging. In total, a 2D stack of 368 SEM images was recorded. For comparison of individual sections, Figure 1. b) and c) show BSE detector images of the cross-sectioned VOI after slice 70 and slice 140. One can clearly see that the size and distribution of sintered metal particles varies along the VOI, forming a porosity network within the solid gold. Since the images acquired with the BSE detector presented a higher contrast and thus, a better distinction between the pores and the metal structure, these images were used for the image processing and final porosity analysis, for which the software AVIZO (Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., USA) was used. First, the 2D images were aligned to correct for the shifts which occurred during the serial sectioning. Then, a sub-VOI was cropped out to exclude the reference line. The new 3D VOI was of a size of 3026 x 1164 x 2750 nm³, representing a stack of BSE detector images ranging from slice 30 to 250. Noise interference was minimized by applying a Gaussian filter. Afterwards, thresholding was applied as a segmentation technique to differentiate between pores and the solid gold as well as erosion as morphological operation. As a result, a reconstructed 3D model of the pores located in the solid gold was obtained, as shown in Figure 2. a). Using this 3D pore model, the number of pores and their diameters within the VOI could be determined. For the calculation of the pore diameters, each pore was considered to be of a spherical shape. A total of 1509 pores was counted. The pore diameter distribution is shown in the box plot in Figure 2. b). As it can be obtained from Figure 2. b), a pore size of 23 nm represents the lower quartile, while a pore size of 112 nm represents the upper quartile. The median pore size is 44 nm, while the mean is 63 nm, which indicates a trend towards smaller pores surrounded by larger pores. Based on the obtained results, FIB-SEM tomography with subsequent image processing is assessed by the authors to be a proper method to characterize the porosity of inkjet printed conductive layers, which was tested by means of a nanoparticle gold ink.Item Open Access Review on excess noise measurements of resistors(2023) Walter, Daniela; Bülau, André; Zimmermann, AndréIncreasing demands for precision electronics require individual components such as resistors to be specified, as they can be the limiting factor within a circuit. To specify quality and long-term stability of resistors, noise measurements are a common method. This review briefly explains the theoretical background, introduces the noise index and provides an insight on how this index can be compared to other existing parameters. It then focuses on the different methods to measure excess noise in resistors. The respective advantages and disadvantages are pointed out in order to simplify the decision of which setup is suitable for a particular application. Each method is analyzed based on the integration of the device under test, components used, shielding considerations and signal processing. Furthermore, our results on the excess noise of resistors and resistor networks are presented using two different setups, one for very low noise measurements down to 20 µHz and one for broadband up to 100 kHz. The obtained data from these measurements are then compared to published data. Finally, first measurements on commercial strain gauges and inkjet-printed strain gauges are presented that show an additional 1/fα component compared to commercial resistors and resistor networks.Item Open Access Bending setups for reliability investigation of flexible electronics(2021) Saleh, Rafat; Barth, Maximilian; Eberhardt, Wolfgang; Zimmermann, AndréItem Open Access Adhesion-induced demolding forces of hard coated microstructures measured with a novel injection molding tool(2023) Schoenherr, Maximilian; Ruehl, Holger; Guenther, Thomas; Zimmermann, André; Gundelsweiler, BerndThe demolding of plastic parts remains a challenging aspect of injection molding. Despite various experimental studies and known solutions to reduce demolding forces, there is still not a complete understanding of the effects that occur. For this reason, laboratory devices and in-process measurement injection molding tools have been developed to measure demolding forces. However, these tools are mostly used to measure either frictional forces or demolding forces for a specific part geometry. Tools that can be used to measure the adhesion components are still the exception. In this study, a novel injection molding tool based on the principle of measuring adhesion-induced tensile forces is presented. With this tool, the measurement of the demolding force is separated from the actual ejection step of the molded part. The functionality of the tool was verified by molding PET specimens at different mold temperatures, mold insert conditions and geometries. It was demonstrated that once a stable thermal state of the molding tool was achieved, the demolding force could be accurately measured with a comparatively low force variance. A built-in camera was found to be an efficient tool for monitoring the contact surface between the specimen and the mold insert. By comparing the adhesion forces of PET molded on polished uncoated, diamond-like carbon and chromium nitride (CrN) coated mold inserts, it was found that a CrN coating reduced the demolding force by 98.5% and could therefore be an efficient solution to significantly improve demolding by reducing adhesive bond strength under tensile loading.Item Open Access Leiterplattenbasierte Sensoren mit Ausleseelektroniken auf Basis von Zeitmesstechnik(2024) Bülau, André; Zimmermann, André (Prof. Dr.-Ing.)Item Open Access Image analysis based evaluation of print quality for inkjet printed structures(2023) Horter, Tim; Ruehl, Holger; Yang, Wenqi; Chiang, Yu-Sheng; Gläser, Kerstin; Zimmermann, AndréInkjet printing for printed electronics is a growing market due to its advantages, including scalability, various usable materials and its digital, pixel based layout design. An important quality factor is the wetting of the ink on the substrate. This article proposes a workflow to evaluate the print quality of specific layouts by means of image analysis. A self-developed image analysis software, which compares a mask with the actual layout, enables a pixel-based analysis of the wetting behavior by the implementation of two parameters called over- and underwetting rate. A comparison of actual and targeted track widths can be performed for the evaluation of different parameters, such as the tested plasma treatment, drop spacing (DS) and substrate temperature. To prove the functionality of the image analyses tool, the print quality of Au structures inkjet printed on cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) substrates was studied experimentally by varying the three previously mentioned parameters. The experimental results showed that the wetting behavior of Au ink deposited on COC substrates influences various line widths differently, leading to higher spreading for smaller line widths. The proposed workflow is suitable for identifying and evaluating multiple tested parameter variations and might be easily adopted for printers for in-process print quality control in industrial manufacturing.