SBIRSTTR Success Stories: Challenges and Outlook

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SBIR/STTR Success Stories Challenges and Outlook

• J. M. Williams(1,2), C.C. Klepper(1,2)
• R. C. Hazelton (2) E. J. Yadlowsky(2)
• Brontek Delta Corporation,
• Radford, VA 24141
• 2. HY-Tech Research Corporation, Radford, VA 24141

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If this is such a great idea, why are you
going for SBIR funding?
Anonymous SBIR Reviewer, Circa 2005
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Agencies

• National Science Foundation
• Department of Energy
• Department of Defense
• National Institutes of Health

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Partners

• AAMURI
• U. Alabama Birmingham
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory
• Y-12 National Security Complex

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Why Boron?

• Boron Properties and Applications
• Hardest elemental material other than diamond.
  33 GPa value is higher hardness than that of most
  industrial hard materials such as SiC, Al2O3,
  B4C, etc. for which hardness values are about 20
  GPa. Wear resistant coatings.
• Potentially self-lubricious, because the surface
  oxide can react with moisture to form boric acid,
  a solid lubricant. Wear resistant coatings.
• Favorable heats of mixing with most transition
  metals. Strong reactive bonding at coatings
  interface with most structural materials, in
  contrast to coatings of compounds. Coatings.
• Small atom Easy to diffuse into the metal
  matrix. Easy to deposit with enough energy to
  penetrate surface oxides.

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Boron Properties and Applications

• Excellent corrosion resistsnce, specifically for
  halidessalt pitting, HCl, HF, etc. Coatings
• Putatively biocompatible for orthopedics and
  other.
• Can reduce many surface oxides, which are
  barriers to adhesion. Coatings
• Main p-dopant for Si in the semiconductor
  industry. Acute need for low energy B for
  shallow junction doping.
• Nuclear Good neutron moderator with high
  thermal neutron capture cross section. Neutron
  detection.
• Other Superconducting MgB2, Highest Seebeck
  coefficient.

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Boron Technologies

• Cathodic Arc (Vacuum Arc) for surface treatments
  and coatings
• Microwave Sintering for solid bodies

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Best Applications Thus Far

• Orthopedic Coatings
• Shallow Junction Doping of B p-dopant,
  Semiconductor Industry

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Patents

• 3 patents issued
• 1 provisional (orthopedics)

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Principles and Tutorial Information from Anders
Group Illustrates Cathodic Arc Technology.

• Carbon arcbouncy particles as with B.
• Macroparticle Emission.
• Ducting and Transport of Plasma (or fully space
  charge compensated low-energy ion beam ).
• Macroparticle filtering.

macroparticle reflected from coil
Carbon Plasma Ducted Through a Sigmoidal Coil
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HY-Techs Filtered B Arc Source
400 mA B filtered plasma out. Then ducted to
original direction (not shown).
2A B plasma beam in
High countercurrents in blades (2) steer plasma
through.
Surrounding the deflection chamber above is a
complex set of baffles designed by a computer
study of particle reflection kinematics to trap
the particles for up to 10 bounces after
reflection from the blades. Design by Hazelton
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Particle Comparison, CoCrMo Alloy, Boron Coated
Unfiltered
Filtered
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Orthopedics

• For wear partners of UHMWPE and CoCrMo alloy,
  bone loss is caused primarily by wear particles
  of the UHMWPE.
• Result of NIH program The 150 nm B coating on
  the alloy has huge effect in reducing UHMWPE
  wear, and does not wear itself.
• Prediction of biocompatibility was born out.
• A Phase II contract is pending and the process
  can probably be commercial.

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Non-destructive coating analysis at AAMURI

• RBS-IBA spectrum of a coated area, not on the
  wear track.
• Thickness (150nm) easily obtained.
• Operating at C resonance (4.27 MeV) enhances
  detection of only contaminant (2 at)

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Comparison of wafers/h processing rate at a dose
of 1E15/cm2 for conventional implanters, the
ClusterIon technique of SemEquip, Inc and the
cathodic arc technique. This comparison started
with campaign literature of SemEquip, comparing
its capability with that of a conventional
implanter.
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SemEquip ClusterIon (TM)
Other
Applied Materials
Varian VSEA
Axcelis
Tier 2 TOOL MAKERS (Ion Implanters)
750 M/year for boron tools
Intel
Texas Instruments
AMD
Several Others
Tier 3 End Users (Chip Makers)
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Conclusions

• Boron technology has several promising
  applications.
• SBIR support absolutely essential to
  bootstrapping in the technology.
• Institutional partnering absolutely essential for
  development.
• Possible model for platform technology
  development.