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RESEARCH
AREAS
HIGH
TEMPERATURE MATERIALS
| Materials technology for
MEMS that can withstand the high temperature environments is
one of the current focus points of ongoing research. Engineering
of the bulk material making up the micro-components as well
as engineering of surfaces are under study. The overall theme
of the high-temperature coating materials effort is aimed at
improving current EBPVD technology to achieve better microstructural
control of the entire thermal barrier coating (TBC) structure.
Advanced plasma technology is the main tool to this end. The
microstructure and properties (film porosity, texture, and residual
stress) of vapor deposited ceramic thin films are manipulated
by low energy ion bombardment during growth. On this basis,
various ceramic and ceramic composite thin-film coatings have
been deposited at LSU using Inductively-Coupled-Plasma (ICP)
assisted hybrid Chemical-Vapor-Deposition/Physical-Vapor-Deposition
(CVD/PVD). The high-density ICP technology will be coupled with
EBPVD technology. The addition of low-energy ion bombardment
is expected to offer increased control of TBC coating microstructures
not achievable with EBPVD alone. |
Ti-C:H
Coated Ni Microposts |
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