Chemical-mechanical planarization (CMP) of metals is described as mechanically accelerated corrosion, erosion corrosion, or metallic corrosion enhanced by wear. This article reviews the history, process, chemistry, electrochemistry, and defect issues for CMP. It provides an overview of CMP through a schematic illustration of CMP process equipment. The applications of CMP to tungsten and copper alloys are of prime interest in the semiconductor industry. The article discusses copper CMP and tungsten CMP in detail and analyzes polishing mechanism during CMP by application of direct current potentiodynamic polarization and alternating current impedance measurements. It concludes with information on chemically induced defects such as pitting corrosion, galvanic corrosion, and chemical etching.

This article describes the applications, methods, and limitations of five principal nondestructive test methods, namely, penetrant testing, magnetic-particle testing, eddy current testing, radiographic testing, and ultrasonic testing. The article also provides guidance for the method selection for respective applications.

Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) is a major materials characterization technique that can provide information in a short analysis time. It is used for quantitative compositional analysis of thin films, layered structures, or bulk materials and to measure surface impurities of heavy elements on substrates of lighter elements. This article focuses on RBS and its principles, such as collision kinematics, scattering cross section, and energy loss. It describes the channeling effect and the operation of the RBS equipment. The article also provides information on the applications of RBS.

Plastic deformation can occur in metals from various mechanisms, such as slip, twinning, diffusion creep, grain-boundary sliding, grain rotation, and deformation-induced phase transformations. This article emphasizes on the mechanism of slip and twinning under cold working conditions. It discusses the factors on which the structures developed during plastic deformation depend. These factors include crystal structure, amount of deformation, composition, deformation mode, and deformation temperature and rate. The article illustrates the microstructural features that appear after substantial deformation when revealed through metallographic investigation.

Analysis of bifilms provides a simple, powerful, and elegant concept to explain many features of the metallurgy of castings. This article describes the effects of bifilms in metals. Mechanisms for the entrainment of bifilms are reviewed. The article describes the effect of furling and unfurling on mechanical properties of the solidified cast metal. It provides a discussion on the mechanisms of unfurling to determine the casting properties of the metals. These include gas precipitation, shrinkage, linear contraction, dendrite pushing, and nucleation and growth of intermetallics. The article also describes the role of bifilm defects in fracture.

This article provides a detailed account of the basic concepts of Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS). It begins with a description of the principles of RBS, as well as the effect of channeling in conjunction with backscattering measurements and the effect of energy loss under this condition. This is followed by a section on equipment used in RBS analysis. Channel-energy conversion, energy-depth conversion, and separation of the dechanneling background are then discussed as the main steps of RBS data analysis. The article also discusses the applications of RBS—including composition of bulk samples, thin-film composition and layer thickness, impurity profiles, damage depth profile, and surface peak—as well as the various codes developed to simulate it.

This article describes the fundamental aspects of three nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods of solid-state welds in terms of operation principles. These methods are radiography, ultrasound, and eddy current methods. The article provides examples of these NDE techniques performed on various types of flaws resulting from solid-state welding processes.

A number of nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods, such as radiography, ultrasound, and eddy current, are available to detect flaws in solid materials. This article describes the fundamental aspects of these NDE methods in terms of operation principles. It presents some examples of the methods performed on various types of flaws resulting from solid-state welding processes.

The study of the physical properties of ductile solids subjected to shock wave loading is undertaken to understand how the thermodynamic conditions and strain rate affect material response. This article presents a description of a range of possible experimental techniques to quantify the structure/property effects of planar shock waves on ductile materials (metals and alloys) due to the wave propagation through the material. The techniques include explosive-driven shock-loading methods, shock-loading methods using exploding foil and laser-driven impactors, gas/powder launcher-driven shock loading methods, and radiation-driven shock-loading methods. Design parameters for shock recovery fixtures, spallation fixtures, and the flyer-plate experiment, are also discussed.

An important activity in metalworking facilities is the testing of raw materials for characteristics that ensure the integrity and quality of the products made. This article reviews the common material parameters that can have a direct or indirect influence on workability and product quality. These include strength, ductility, hardness, strain-hardening exponent, strain-rate effects, temperature effects, and hydrostatic pressure effects. The article also reviews the material behavior characteristics typically determined by mechanical testing methods. It discusses various mechanical testing methods, including the tension test, plane-strain tension test, compression test, plane-strain compression test, partial-width indentation test, and torsion test. Aspects of testing particularly relevant to workability and quality control for metalworking processes are also described. Finally, the article details the various factors influencing workability in bulk deformation processes and formability in sheet-metal forming.

Thermal spray processes involve complete or partial melting of a feedstock material in a high-temperature flame, and propelling and depositing the material as a coating on a substrate. This article describes the properties of sprayed electronic materials, including dielectrics, conductors, and resistors, and discusses their implications and associated limitations for device applications and potential remedial measures. The article presents specific examples of electrical/electronic device applications, including electromagnetic interference/radio-frequency interference shielding, planar microwave devices, waveguide devices, sensing devices, solid oxide fuel cells, heating elements, electrodes for capacitors and other electrochemical devices.

This article reviews how process variations influence the characteristics of thermal spray coatings. It describes various specimen preparation techniques, which allow accurate microstructural analysis. These techniques include sectioning, cleaning, mounting, planar grinding, fine grinding, rough polishing, and etching. The article provides information on the problems associated with specimen preparation. It concludes with a discussion on the various methods of analysis for thermal spray coatings.

This article describes the Schottky defect and the Frenkel defect in oxides. It provides information on the p-type metal-deficit oxides and n-type semiconductor oxides. The article discusses diffusion mechanisms and laws of diffusion proposed by Fick. It explains the oxide texture of amorphous and epitaxy oxide layers and presents equations for various oxidation reaction rates. The article reviews different theories to describe the oxidation mechanism. These include the Cabrera-Mott, Hauffe-IIschner, Grimley-Trapnell, Uhlig, and Wagner theories.

This article provides an overview of the types of weld discontinuities that are characteristic of specialized welding processes. These welding processes include electron-beam welding, plasma arc welding, electroslag welding, friction welding, resistance welding, and diffusion welding. The article also describes the common inspection methods used to detect these discontinuities.

Metallographic analysis is primarily a collection of visual and imaging techniques that provide an insight into the background of a material or part and its behavior. Metallic specimens, both porous and pore-free, are opaque, and as a result, an optical examination must be performed on carefully prepared planar (two-dimensional) surfaces. This article discusses the preparation sequence of ferrous powders, which is normally separated into several well-defined steps: sample selection, sectioning, mounting, grinding, polishing, drying, and chemical etching and/or coating. It provides several suggestions to promote and encourage the safety of those performing metallographic preparation and analysis.

This article provides a summary of the concepts discussed in the articles under the Section “Fundamentals of Corrosion” in ASM Handbook, Volume 13A: Corrosion: Fundamentals, Testing, and Protection. In this section, the thermodynamic aspects of corrosion are descried first followed by a group of articles discussing the fundamentals of aqueous corrosion kinetics. The fundamentals of gaseous corrosion are addressed next. The fundamental electrochemical reactions of corrosion and their uses are finally described.

This article discusses the inspection/reference standards that are absolutely critical for proper application of ultrasonic inspection systems. Many of the standards and specifications for ultrasonic inspection require the use of standard reference blocks. The article lists the variables that should be considered when selecting standard reference blocks and describes the three types of standard blocks ordinarily used for calibration or reference: area-amplitude blocks, distance-amplitude blocks, and blocks of the type sanctioned by the International Institute of Welding. It reviews the determination of area-amplitude and distance-amplitude curves of a straight-beam pulse-echo ultrasonic inspection system. The article discusses the three principal conventional manual ultrasonic sizing techniques: 6 dB drop technique, maximum-amplitude technique, and 20 dB drop technique. It provides information on the dimension-measurement applications of ultrasonic inspection methods.

Due to the recent requirement of higher integration density, solder joints are getting smaller in electronic product assemblies, which makes the joints more vulnerable to failure. Thus, the root-cause failure analysis for the solder joints becomes important to prevent failure at the assembly level. This article covers the properties of solder alloys and the corresponding intermetallic compounds. It includes the dominant failure modes introduced during the solder joint manufacturing process and in field-use applications. The corresponding failure mechanism and root-cause analysis are also presented. The article introduces several frequently used methods for solder joint failure detection, prevention, and isolation (identification for the failed location).

Electropolishing is an electrochemical process that involves anodic dissolution of a metal specimen (anode electrode) in an electrolytic cell. This article reviews the two-electrode and three-electrode systems for electropolishing. It presents the equations of anodic reactions and the selection criteria of electrolyte for electropolishing. The article also describes the mechanism of electropolishing and the effect of electropolishing on properties of metals.

This article provides information on the general structural features and origins of metals. The characteristic structural features of single-phase metals and alloys, such as grain structure and substructure, are discussed. The article also describes the major types of multiphase structures and macrostructure of metals and alloys.