EM 388F
EM 388F Term Paper: Subcritical Cracking of Low-k Dielectrics
Abstract
With the scaling of VLSI, ultra low-k dielectrics with porosity are being introduced to reduce the capacitance coupling. But due to the weak bonding strengths, low-k dielectrics may fail by environmental-assisted subcritical cracking, fracture at stresses far below the loads required for catastrophic failure, causing reliability issues. In this term paper, several references are reviewed to investigate the mechanism of subcritical cracking at multiscale levels.
EM388F Term Paper: Fracture of Orthotropic Materials under Mixed Mode Loading
The objective of this paper is to analyze the fracture of orthotropic materials, with emphasis on wood.
EM 388F Term Paper: Theory and analysis tech for the use of a DCB specimen for determining the toughness of PC-3 Prostate Cancer
A double cantilever beam (DCB)
specimen is created by affixing the two halves together using a bi-layer of
PC-3 prostate cancer cells. The specimen is pinned at a bottom corner, and the
upper corner on the same end is displaced with the force-displacement profile
being recorded. This upper corner is displaced until the crack, a portion of
the specimen where cell grown has been selectively inhibited, propagates
through the cell layer. The critical value of force at which the crack
propagates through the cell layer is used, in conjunction with the initial
crack length, to determine the toughness via the compliance-energy method (Ripling, et al. 1971). A method for performing a FE analysis of the
EM 388F Term Paper
Assignment: Each student completes a term paper of selected topics that (a) addresses a fracture phenomenon in materials or structures, and (b) involves analyses using fracture mechanics. The project contributes 25% of the final grade, distributed as follows: