CAREER: Nano-Engineered Surfaces: Fabrication and Mechanical and Tribological Properties

微机电系统（MEMS）有望彻底改变从汽车到生物医学的几乎所有产品类别。然而，由于摩擦学问题，导致此类设备无法高效可靠地工作，从而经常发生灾难性故障。该职业发展计划的目标是建立纳米工程表面（NESs）的综合研究和教育计划，用于微型系统（如MEMS）的摩擦学应用。将研究一种新的MEMS工艺兼容的纳米表面工程工艺，以生产各种纳米形貌工程表面（NTESs）。这些独特的NTESs将使用自组装单层（sam）和纳米级润滑剂进行修饰，以提供优越的NESs摩擦学性能，从而为困扰MEMS摩擦学问题提供解决方案。该研究的具体目标是：1)理解和控制新的纳米表面工程工艺，以生产具有可控纳米形貌的表面；2)开发将纳米级润滑剂应用于NTESs的工艺；3)研究NTESs的摩擦学和润湿特性，并将这些特性与表面形貌和化学联系起来。拟议项目的成功将通过提高两个数十亿美元/年行业的产品可靠性来造福社会：MEMS和计算机硬盘驱动器行业。它还将使纳米表面工程在摩擦学应用之外的疏水性和生物医学应用中成为可能。这项研究为培养学生，特别是女性和少数民族，在纳米制造和纳米摩擦学等新兴领域提供了大量的机会。透过“荷花效应示范单位”的外展活动，将提高中学生对工程专业的认识和兴趣。

Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) hold great promise to revolutionize nearly every product category, from automotive to biomedical. However, catastrophic failures often occur due to tribological issues preventing such devices from being efficient and reliable. The goal of this career-development plan is to establish an integrated research and education program in nano-engineered-surfaces (NESs) for tribological applications in miniaturized systems, such as MEMS. A novel MEMS process compatible nano-surface-engineering process will be studied to produce a wide range of nano-topography-engineered surfaces (NTESs). These unique NTESs will be modified with self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) and nanoscale lubricants to provide superior tribological performances of the NESs, thus providing solutions to plaguing MEMS tribology issues. The specific objectives of the proposed research are to 1) understand and control the new nano-surface-engineering process to produce surfaces with controllable nano-topographies, 2) develop processes to apply nanoscale lubricants to the NTESs, and 3) study the tribological and wetting properties of the NESs and correlate these properties to surface topography and chemistry. The success of the proposed project will benefit society through increased product reliability of two multi-billion dollar/year industries: MEMS and computer hard drive industries. It will also enable nano-surface-engineering for hydrophobic and biomedical applications beyond tribological applications. This research offers abundant opportunities to train students, especially women and minorities, in the emerging fields of nanomanufacturing and nanotribology. The outreach activities through the Lotus-Effect Demonstration Unit will increase high school students' awareness of and interest in the engineering profession.