A novel method for the analysis of clay minerals using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy is presented. Clay mineral suspensions are dried on a Si wafer substrate for transmission infrared (IR) analysis. Four natural Source Clays from the Source Clays Repository of The Clay Minerals Society, SWy-2, SAz-1, SHCa-1 and KGa-1b, as well as the synthetic hectorite, Laponite RD, were analyzed using the described method with signal to noise (s/n) ratios in excess of 100,000 for the strongly absorbing Si-O stretching frequency. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images show that the mineral films possess suitable uniformity and low surface roughness for transmission IR measurements that is confirmed by minimal deviations in the baseline of collected IR spectra. The IR spectra are generated and peak locations are compared to previously reported values, generated from KBr pellet and attenuated total reflectance methods.

The deflection (curvature) of embedded single-crystal silicon chips was investigated by rocking curve X-ray diffraction techniques at two significant manufacturing stages in the process chain of printed circuit boards with embedded components. An overview of the curvature deduction by two different approaches was presented: (1) the measurement of the variation of the rocking curve maximum as a function of the lateral sample position along a specific traverse; the slope in such a diagram is then proportional to the corresponding curvature in that direction. (2) The evaluation of the rocking curve width; here the peak width is inversely proportional to the curvature at known beam diameter, diffraction angle, and beam divergence. It was shown that the rocking curve method is applicable to determine the curvature inside single crystalline chips. Furthermore, the method is also suitable to determine the curvature of fully embedded or encapsulated chips. Additionally the absorption of the radiation in the embed medium was quantitatively discussed. The curvature of two different prepared samples was determined at temperatures up to 200 °C in a heating stage attached to the diffractometer device.

In this work, we report the preparation of ultrathin submicro- and nanoporous cellulose films onto Si (100). The effect of different experimental conditions of preparation on the film surface morphology was studied, namely the role of the film casting method (spin- versus dip-coating), solvent (toluene or tetrahydrofuran), substrate pretreatment (hydrophilicity degree), and regeneration procedure with HCl vapors (two consecutive dips followed by regeneration or regeneration after each dip). The surface morphological structures presented in this work were never obtained before without the use of templates. A rather regular two-dimensional pore network was obtained onto the less hydrophilic Si substrate (contact angle≅68°), after two consecutive dips (with an intercalary rotation of 180º) in trimethylsilyl cellulose diluted in toluene and regeneration at the end. All the surfaces were characterized by atomic force microscopy.