3LCAA - Measuring the Hydro-affinity via 3 Contact Angles

05/04/2023

A presentation from our research group at the Arizona State University Physics Undergraduate Research Symposium by Abbie Elison, Cornell Engineering Class of 2026.

TITLE

Angular Dependence of Surface Energy with Crystal Directions of LiNbO3 (110) for Nano-Bonding to Si and α-quartz SiO2

AUTHORS
Abbie Elison , M. Sahal, S. Prakash, S. Swaminathan, R. Rane, B. Baker, S.R. Narayan, J. Kintz, L. Puglisi , R.J. Culbertson , N. Herbots

ABSTRACT
- LiNbO3 is a piezo-electric that, when mono-lithically integrated to Si-based materials, yields voice activated chips.
Current bonding methods include hetero-epitaxy and Direct Wafer Bonding (DWB). However, hetero-epitaxy causes lattice strain, since the lattice constant of LiNbO3 is heavily mismatched with Si (100) and α-quartz SiO2 (100). Thermal expansion mismatch during DWB causes fractures of LiNbO3. Also, LiNbO3 decomposes into Li2O5 and Li+ at T > 493K. Instead, this work uses Nano-BondingTM, /1/ (NB) and Surface Energy Engineering to modify surface energies into ‘far-from-equilibrium’ states so that when nano-contacted, a 2D-precursor phase forms to catalyze bonding.
Three Liquid Contact Angle Analysis (3LCAA) can map different angular directions on 6” LiNbO3 (110), Si (100), and α-quartz SiO2 (100) wafers. Water contact angles are found to vary significantly, by 50%, from 41.8 ± 1.5° to 59.8 ± 1.5°, as a function of crystal direction. Correlation between surface structure and surface energies along different crystal directions will be discussed.
/1/Herbots et al. US Pat. 6613677 (2003), 7,851,365 (2010), 9,018,077 (2015), 9,589,801 (2017), pend. (2020)

PRESENTER BIOGRAPHY
As of Spring 2023, Abbie Elison is a Cornell Scholar, and engineering sophomore at Cornell University. She gave the above presentation when she was a graduating senior at BASIS Peoria High School Class of 2021. She had been conducting research with Professor Herbots' research team since Fall 2019, learning laboratory techniques such as clean-room methods and three liquid contact angle analysis. After the COVID-19 lockdown, Abbie focused her research effort on Nano-Bonding€ (room temperature Direct Wafer Bonding) of Piezo-electrics On Silicon (PiezoOnSi). During the pandemic, s
he built her own clean room and laminar flow hood at home to continue experiments for surface energy analysis.
She presented her research progress in a poster at the virtual American Physical Society 4 Corners (APS-4C) Meeting in October 2020 and in an oral presentation at the virtual APS March 2021 Meeting. She won second place in Materials Science at the 2021 Arizona Science & Engineering Fair. She has an abstract accepted at the 2021 Annual Meeting of the American Vacuum Society.
Abbie is presently conducting her BASIS Peoria Senior Research Project and writing her first scholarly article on PiezoOnSi.

TITLE: Angular Dependence of Surface Energy with Crystal Directions of LiNbO3 (110) for Nano-Bonding to Si and α-quartz SiO2AUTHORS Abbie Elison , M. Sahal, ...

14/01/2022

As COVID-19 cases rise, please help keep ERs open for emergencies

ERs are for emergenciesWith the Omicron variant spreading rapidly, Arizona has seen more COVID-19 cases in the past week than any other week of the pandemic. Alongside this increase, we’ve seen more people seeking care in hospital emergency rooms and more people seeking COVID-19 testing.

Both of these are challenging in their own right. But one avoidable problem is occurring: Hospitals report that people with no symptoms or mild symptoms are seeking COVID-19 tests at emergency rooms instead of designated testing sites. This is making it more difficult to care for people facing medical emergencies.

Arizona’s hospitals are already strained caring for both COVID-19 patients, the vast majority of whom aren’t vaccinated, and others who need medical attention. With emergency rooms on the front lines of the COVID-19 response, we need everyone to help make sure ERs are reserved for immediate medical needs.

Alternatives to the ER for those not experiencing a medical emergency include your primary care physician, a local community health clinic, urgent care centers, or telehealth services available through many insurance companies.

Of course, if you have a medical emergency, or are experiencing symptoms like trouble breathing, uncontrolled bleeding, altered mental state, or signs of a stroke or heart attack, don’t hesitate to go to an emergency room to get the attention you need.

Here are some testing options, most of them free:

Our website has a map showing hundreds of testing locations across the state.
In the Phoenix area, ASU, the city of Phoenix, and Maricopa County have testing locations.
Pharmacies including CVS and Walgreens offer testing.
Home tests can be purchased in stores and online.
If your health concern is less urgent or involves COVID-19 testing, please take advantage of these alternatives to ensure doctors and nurses in hospital emergency rooms are ready to provide care for those in urgent need of it.

With the Omicron variant spreading rapidly, Arizona has seen more COVID-19 cases in the past week than any other week of the pandemic. Alongside this increase, we’ve seen more people seeking care in hospital emergency rooms and more people seeking COVID-19 testing.

11/12/2021

Researchers at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA have identified rare, naturally occurring T cells that are capable of targeting a protein found in SARS-CoV-2 and a range of other coronaviruses.

The findings suggest that a component of this protein, called viral polymerase, could potentially be added to COVID-19 vaccines to create a longer-lasting immune response and increase protection against new variants of the virus.

Most COVID-19 vaccines use part of the spike protein found on the surface of the virus to prompt the immune system to produce antibodies. However, newer variants — such as delta and omicron — carry mutations to the spike protein, which can make them less recognizable to the immune cells and antibodies stimulated by vaccination. Researchers say that a new generation of vaccines will likely be needed to create a more robust and wide-ranging immune response capable of beating back current variants and those that may arise in the future.

One way to accomplish this is by adding a fragment of a different viral protein to vaccines — one that is less prone to mutations than the spike protein and that will activate the immune system’s T cells. T cells are equipped with molecular receptors on their surfaces that recognize foreign protein fragments called antigens. When a T cell encounters an antigen its receptor recognizes, it self-replicates and produces additional immune cells, some of which target and kill infected cells immediately and others which remain in the body for decades to fight that same infection should it ever return.

The researchers focused on the viral polymerase protein, which is found not only in SARS-CoV-2 but in other coronaviruses, including those that cause SARS, MERS and the common cold. Viral polymerases serve as engines that coronaviruses use to make copies of themselves, enabling infection to spread. Unlike the spike protein, viral polymerases are unlikely to change or mutate, even as viruses evolve.

To determine whether or not the human immune system has T cell receptors capable of recognizing viral polymerase, the researchers exposed blood samples from healthy human donors (collected prior to the COVID-19 pandemic) to the viral polymerase antigen. They found that certain T cell receptors did, in fact, recognize the polymerase. They then used a method they developed called CLInt-Seq to genetically sequence these receptors. Next, the researchers engineered T cells to carry these polymerase-targeting receptors, which enabled them to study the receptors’ ability to recognize and kill SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses.

More than 5 million people have died from COVID-19 worldwide. Current vaccines provide significant protection against severe disease, but as new, potentially more contagious variants emerge, researchers recognize that vaccines may need to be updated — and the new UCLA findings point toward a strategy that may help increase protection and long-term immunity. The researchers are now conducting further studies to evaluate viral polymerase as a potential new vaccine component.

The study was published online on December 9, 2021, in the journal Cell Reports.

Reference: “HLA-A*02:01 restricted T cell receptors against the highly conserved SARS-CoV-2 polymerase cross-react with human coronaviruses” by Pavlo A. Nesterenko, Jami McLaughlin, Brandon L. Tsai, Giselle Burton Sojo, Donghui Cheng, Daniel Zhao, Zhiyuan Mao, Nathanael J. Bangayan, Matthew B. Obusan, Yapeng Su, Rachel H. Ng, William Chour, Jingyi Xie, Yan-Ruide Li, Derek Lee, Miyako Noguchi, Camille Carmona, John W. Phillips, Jocelyn T. Kim, Lili Yang, James R. Heath, Paul C. Boutros and Owen N. Witte, 9 December 2021, Cell Reports.
DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.110167

Pavlo Nesterenko, a UCLA graduate student, is the study’s first author; the corresponding author is Dr. Owen Witte, who holds the presidential chair in developmental immunology in the UCLA Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics and is founding director emeritus of the Broad Stem Cell Research Center. A full list of co-authors is available in the journal.

The research was supported by the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, a Ruth L. Kirschstein Institutional National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health and the UCLA W.M. Keck Foundation COVID-19 Research Award Program.

Researchers at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA have identified rare, naturally occurring T cells that are capable of targeting a protein found in SARS-CoV-2 and a range of other coronaviruses. The findings suggest that a component of this pr

01/10/2021

A metal made from the second-most abundant element on Earth has become scarce, threatening everything from car parts to computer chips and throwing up another hurdle for the world economy.

The shortage in silicon metal, sparked by a production cut in China, has sent prices up 300% in less than two months. It’s the latest in a litany of disruptions, from snarled supply chains to a power crunch, that are creating a destructive mix for companies and consumers.

The worsening situation has forced some companies to declare force majeure. On Friday, Norwegian chemicals manufacturer Elkem ASA said it and several other companies making silicone-based products suspended some sales due to to the shortage.

A metal made from the second-most abundant element on Earth has become scarce, threatening everything from car parts to computer chips and throwing up another hurdle for the world economy.

11/02/2021

Building on nearly two decades of unparalleled advancement, Arizona State University moved up to sixth out of 759 universities in the nation for total research expenditures among universities without a medical school, according to the latest National Science Foundation (NSF) Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) rankings.

With a total of $639.6 million in expenditures in fiscal year 2019, an increase of nearly $22 million from the previous year, ASU research has continued an upward trend and is among the leaders in research. At No. 6, ASU ranks alongside MIT, University of California-Berkeley, Georgia Tech and Purdue University and ahead of Carnegie Mellon University, Princeton and the University of Georgia. Since 2002, ASU research expenditures have grown more than fivefold, going from $123 million to nearly $640 million today.

In the most recent HERD rankings, ASU placed No. 26 overall among public institutions (of 405 total) in research expenditures, putting it alongside the University of Texas-Austin, Purdue University, Michigan State University and the University of Arizona and ahead of the University of Virginia, University of Alabama, University of Iowa and North Carolina State University.

ASU ranked No. 43 for all universities nationwide (of 916 total) with or without a medical school in FY19, placing it alongside the University of Illinois, the University of Texas-Austin, Purdue University, Michigan State University and ahead of the University of Chicago, California Institute of Technology and Princeton University.

Federal agencies, led by NASA and including NSF, Health and Human Services, the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense have invested substantial research dollars in ASU, along with investment from businesses, nonprofits and philanthropic sources, as well as state and local grants.

Each year through the HERD survey, the NSF updates its list of where the money for research is going. It’s a way to look under the hood of the machinery of a university to see how well the engines that power research are running. ASU’s rise in the HERD survey underscores its strength in research funding — and the confidence that major agencies and others have in ASU research.

“Research is a critical component of how we address the grand challenges we are collectively facing in today’s world,” said Sally C. Morton, executive vice president of ASU’s Knowledge Enterprise. “We must encourage, support and rely on solid scientific insights to help us persevere.

“I am confident we have the capabilities to discover impactful solutions to pandemics, climate change, cybersecurity and emerging health issues — all of which will challenge humankind well into the future. Through the transdisciplinary approach of talented ASU faculty and researchers, we are well-positioned to take on these challenges and work together to create a better future.”

Building on nearly two decades of unparalleled advancement, ASU moved up to sixth out of 759 universities in the nation for total research expenditures among universities without a medical school, according to the latest National Science Foundation Higher Education Research and Development rankings.

11/03/2020

A fun way to say - "What's new?" See over Lambda and remember a fundamental relationship between
- a wave speed in m/s (annotated "c"),
- a wave frequency (annotated by the Greek letter "nu" in 1/s or cycles/s)
- a wave's wavelength (annotated by the Greek letter "lambda" in m)

So what is nu? It is c/lambda 😆

What's new (nu)? See over Lambda!

28/11/2018

02/11/2018

Ryan Van Haren presents his work using 3LCAA at the American Physical Society Four Corners and Texas Meeting in Las Cruces, New Mexico

His TITLE was
"Detecting Surface Energy Correlation with Crystal Orientation
in Native Oxides Grown on Si(100) and Si(111)
Using Three Liquid Contact Angle Analysis (3LCAA)

AUTHORS:
Ryan Trey Van Haren2,
Edgar Ocampo Landeros2,
Matthew T Bade2,
Alvaro O Martinez2,
Yash Pershad2,
Sabrina M Suhartono2,
Ryan P Francis2,
Nicole H. Herbots2, 1,
Shawn Whaley2,
Robert J Culbertson2,
Harshini Thinakaran4,
Abijith Krishnan3I

INSTITUTIONS (ALL):
1. SiO2 Innovates, Tempe, AZ, United States.
2. Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States.
3. Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States.
4. BASIS HS Scottsdale, Scottsdale, AZ, United States.

ABSTRACT:

The motivation of this research is to establish quantitative analysis of the total surface energy density γT of semiconductor and oxide surfaces, including probing the contribution of Lifsh*tz-Van der Waals molecular interactions and electron acceptor and donor interactions.

The goal of this work is to establish whether a difference in the surface energy of native oxides onSi(100) and Si(111) can be detected using Three Liquid Contact Angle Analysis (3LCAA) metrology. Si(100) andSi(111) differ in their areal surface density by 12%, with Si(100) exhibiting 6.8 × 1014atoms/cm2 density while Si(111)exhibits a higher density of 7.8 × 1014 atoms/cm2. The motivation of this research is to establish quantitative analysisof the total surface energy density γT of semiconductor and oxide surfaces, including probing the contribution ofLifsh*tz-Van der Waals molecular interactions and electron acceptor and donor interactions. Such a metrology canthen correlate surface structure and density to the reliability and lifespan of integrated electronic sensors hermeticallysealed via NanoBondingTM [1]. Highly polished hydrophobic surfaces with low roughness RMS yield low total surfaceenergies because these surfaces exhibit few dangling bonds, surface defects, and impurities. These threecharacteristics negatively impact hermetic bonding in integrated electronic sensors exposed to saline environments bypermitting fluid percolation and mobile ion diffusion. Measuring surface energy via 3LCAA makes it possible toestimate the number of dangling bonds, surface defects, and impurities on the surface of a material; and determinethe optimal materials for hermetically sealed electronic sensors. 3LCAA with 18 MegaOhms Deionized water,glycerine, and alpha-bromonaphthalene is used to measure the total surface energy density γT. Based on the VanOss theory, γT can be computed by combining the contributions to the surface energy due to three distinct interactionscharacteristic of insulators and semiconductors: (1) surface interaction of the surface with molecular dipoles, known asthe Lifsh*tz-Van der Waals energy, γLW, (2) surface interaction with electron donors, γ+, and (3) electron acceptors, γ-. 3LCAA is performed in a class 100 hood using the Sessile Drop method to extract the contact angle by fitting anellipse to the full drop, using multiple droplets for each liquid. Each droplet is only a few μl in volume in order to avoidgravitational effects; measurements are taken quickly after the droplets are placed to avoid the effects of evaporation.Native SiO2/Si(100) yields a total surface energy γT of 51 ± 3 mJ/m2. This energy is lower than γT for Si(111), 57 ± 2mJ/m2 by 11% ± 6%. Measurements of the Lifsh*tz-Van der Waals surface energy component γLW for Si(100) yield37 ± 1 mJ/m2 which is lower than γLW for Si(111), 39 ± 1 mJ/m2 by 5% ± 3%. Therefore, 3LCAA can detect, with anaccuracy of a few percent, changes in the surface energy of native oxides. In this work, 3LCAA can accuratelydemonstrate that the surface energy γT of native oxides on the two different crystal orientations studied, Si(100) andSi(111), scales linearly with the difference in surface areal density.[1] US Patent 9,018,077, (2015) Herbots et al

Ryan Trey Van Haren Ryan Francis Yash Pershad Harshini Thinakaran Sabrina Suhartono Alvaro Martinez Jr. Edgar Ocampo Shawn Whaley Robert Culbertson Abi Krishnan Alex Love Brimhall Barry Wilkens Grady Day SiO2 Innovates Friends Who Like ASU SIO2 CIMD Clean Room Lab ASU SIO2 Combined Ion & Molecular Beam Deposition Clean Room Laboratory Ender Davis Patty Laureano Antúnez Ross Bennett-Kennett Patricia Glass Lauren Puglisi Pierre Thilmany AccuAngle Analytics MicroDrop Diagnostics Friends Who Like HemaDrop HemaDrop - an accurate technology to analyze blood composition from a drop

Detecting Surface Energy Correlation with Crystal Orientation in Native Oxides Grown on Si(100) and Si(111) Using Three Liquid Contact Angle Analysis (3LCAA) | Request PDF. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309175195_Detecting_Surface_Energy_Correlation_with_Crystal_Orientation_in_Native_Oxides_Grown_on_Si100_and_Si111_Using_Three_Liquid_Contact_Angle_Analysis_3LCAA [accessed Nov 02 2018].
https://youtu.be/r2uCwLn38xo