Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Polyset Company, Inc.

US Government As Represented by the Secretary of the Army

Toh-Ming Lu

Gwo-Ching Wang

Shyam P Murarka

Thomas Parker

Fu Tang

Nikhil Ashok Koratkar

Rahul Mukherjee

John F McDonald

Ramkrishna Ghoshal

Eklavya Singh

Pei-I Wang

Atul Kumar

Mark J DelaRosa

Pulickel Madhavapanicker Ajayan

Xi-Cheng Zhang

James A Moore

Linda S Schadler Feist

Steven Robert Soss

Sabrina L Lee

John Joseph Senkevich

Kevin E Mello

Lu You

Guang-Rong Yang

Shao-Ning Mei

Guang Rong Yang

Bin Wang

Tansel Karabacak

Yiping Zhao

Yuchuan Chen

Nachiket R Raravikar

Guangrong Yang

John Robert Barthel

A lithium-based energy storage system includes an electrolyte and an electrode. The electrode has a conformal coating of parylene. The parylene forms an artificial solid electrolyte interface (SEI). The electrode may include a material chosen from silicon, graphene-silicon composite, carbon-sulfur, and lithium. The use of parylene to form a conformal coating on an electrode in a lithium-based energy storage system is also disclosed.

Scalable silicon anodes and the role of parylene films in improving electrode performance characteristics in energy storage systems

A nanostructure includes a plurality of metal nanoblades positioned with one edge on a substrate. Each of the plurality of metal nanoblades has a large surface area to mass ratio and a width smaller than a length. A method of storing hydrogen includes coating a plurality of magnesium nanoblades with a hydrogen storage catalyst and storing hydrogen by chemically forming magnesium hydride with the plurality of magnesium nanoblades.

Ultrathin magnesium nanoblades

The present invention relates to a method for forming a conformal coating having a reactive surface. In the method, an ultrathin layer composed of a polymer having repeating units derived from unsubstituted p-xylylene, substituted p-xylylene, phenylene vinylene, phenylene ethynylene, 1,4-methylene naphthalene, 2,6-methylene naphthalene, 1,4-vinylene naphthalene, 2,6-vinylene naphthalene, 1,4-ethynylene naphthalene, 2,6-ethynylene naphthalene, combinations thereof, precursors therefor or combinations of precursors therefor, is deposited on a substrate by a thermal CVD process. The ultrathin layer is optionally exposed to a source of oxygen and then exposed to a reagent selected from ammonium hydroxide, tetramethylammonium hydroxide, ammonium sulfide, dimethyl sulfide, thioacetic acid, sodium hydrosulfide, sodium sulfide, hydrazine, acetamide and combinations thereof. The surface may be modified readily after the treatment.

Surface modification of CVD polymer films

Structures employing siloxane epoxy polymers as diffusion barriers adjacent conductive metal layers are disclosed. The siloxane epoxy polymers exhibit excellent adhesion to conductive metals, such as copper, and provide an increase in the electromigration lifetime of metal lines. In addition, the siloxane epoxy polymers have dielectric constants less then 3, and thus, provide improved performance over conventional diffusion barriers.

Siloxane epoxy polymers as metal diffusion barriers to reduce electromigration

A method and an apparatus for fabricating an integrated circuit entail directing a vapor flux toward a substrate surface from a plurality of directions associated with a plurality of azimuth angles, and selecting a deposition angle of the vapor flux, relative to a normal incidence, to obtain a substantially conformal film. The surface feature can be associated with, for example, one or more vias and/or one or more trenches.

Enhanced step coverage of thin films on patterned substrates by oblique angle PVD

Semiconductor devices employing siloxane epoxy polymers as low-&#x3ba; dielectric films are disclosed. The devices include a semiconductor substrate, one or more metal layers or structures and one or more dielectric films, wherein at least one dielectric film in the devices is a siloxane epoxy polymer. Use of siloxane epoxy polymers is advantageous, in part, because the polymers adhere well to metals and have dielectric constants as low as 1.8. Thus, the disclosed semiconductor devices offer much better performance than devices fabricated using conventional dielectric materials. Furthermore, the siloxane epoxy polymer dielectrics are fully curable at low temperatures, exhibit low leakage currents, and remain stable at temperatures greater than 400&#xb0; C. making them particularly attractive for use in the semiconductor industry

Siloxane epoxy polymers for low-k dielectric applications

Structures and methods for preventing fluorine diffusion from a fluorinated dielectric material having a low dielectric constant are disclosed. Various fluorine diffusion barriers are described, each of which comprises doped or undoped silicon in combination with tantalum, tantalum nitride, tantalum silicide, cobalt, cobalt silicide, or mixtures thereof. Fluorine diffusion from fluorinated dielectrics is stopped by the barriers at temperatures as high as 450&deg; C. In practice, one of the disclosed fluorine diffusion barriers is positioned between a fluorine-containing insulator and a conductive metal interconnect or metal interconnect diffusion barrier, thereby preventing diffusion of the fluorine atoms into the adjacent interconnect/barrier.

Fluorine diffusion barriers for fluorinated dielectrics in integrated circuits

An ultrafast all-optical nonlinear switch. The switch has as components a substrate and a material disposed on the substrate. In one embodiment, the material includes a plurality of single-walled carbon nanotubes and a polymer forming a composite. Preferably, the polymer is polyimide. In another embodiment, the material includes a plurality of single-walled carbon nanotubes incorporated into a silica. The nanotube loading in the material is less than about 0.1 wt %. The material is a substantially transparent, third-order nonlinear optical material. The switch has a switching speed of less than 1 picosecond for light with a wavelength of about 1.55 micrometers. Also disclosed is a process for preparing the ultrafast all-optical nonlinear switch.

Ultrafast all-optical switch using carbon nanotube polymer composites

Cobalt thin films were prepared by atomic layer deposition (ALD). The precursor cobalt(II) acetylacetonate &lsqb;Co(C H O ) &rsqb; was used to selectively deposit films onto iridium substrates using hydrogen reduction. Cobalt growth was observed on SiO , silicon, fluorinated silica glass (FSG), and tantalum when silane was used as a reducing agent.

Atomic layer deposition of cobalt from cobalt metallorganic compounds

A method of depositing a polymer film onto a semiconductor wafer is provided which includes the steps of connecting the wafer to one terminal of a voltage source, connecting an electrode to an other pole of the voltage source and placing the electrode and substrate in superposed orientation to form a parallel plate capacitor, wherein an electric field is produced between the electrode and substrate. The parallel plate capacitor is placed in a chamber where pressure andc temperature are maintained at predetermined levels and gaseous monomers of the desired film to be polymerized are introduced into the chamber. The gaseous monomers are then permitted to flow between the electrode and wafer while the voltage of the electric field is maintained at a level sufficient to polarize the monomers without breaking their chemical bonds wherein the polarized monomers react to form a polymer film on the wafer at an enhanced rate.

Increase of deposition rate of vapor deposited polymer by electric field

A partially ionized beam (PIB) deposition technique is used to heteroepitally deposit a thin film of CoGe.sub.2 (001) on GaAs (100) substrates 14. The resulting epitaxial arrangement is CoGe.sub.2 (001) GaAs (100). The best epitaxial layer is obtained with an ion energy 1100 eV to 1200 eV and with a substrate temperature of approximately 280.degree. Centigrade. The substrate wafers are treated only by immersion in HF:H.sub.2 O 1:10 immediately prior to deposition of the epitaxial layer. Contacts grown at these optimal conditions display ohmic behavior, while contacts grown at higher or lower substrate temperatures exhibit rectifying behavior. Epitaxial formation of a high melting point, low resistivity cobalt germanide phase results in the formation of a stable contact to n-GaAs.

Ohmic contact to Gallium Arsenide using epitaxially deposited Cobalt

A PA-F polymer film is formed using a mixture of 1,4-bis (trifluoromethyl) benzene (TFB) and a halogen initiator. This mixture is provided to a low pressure reactor containing a metal catalyst. The reactor is operated at a sufficient temperature to form a reactive monomer by a chemical reaction at the surface of the catalyst. The reactive monomer is condensed on the surface of a substrate cooled to a temperature sufficiently low to induce polymerization of the reactive monomer to form a PA-F polymer film. In general, the proportion of halogen initiator is about 0.25 to 50% by volume relative to the total volume of the TFB/halogen initiator mixture. The reactor is operated at a temperature of about 200.degree. to 700.degree. C. and a pressure of less than about one torr. In addition, the surface of the substrate is maintained at a temperature of about -30.degree. C. to room temperature. In the preferred approach, the halogen initiator is dibromotetrafluoro-p-xylene (DBX) and the proportion of DBX is about 1 to 5%.

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Loudonville, NY, United States of America

Toh-Ming Lu