This study evaluated the effects of particle temperature on deposition efficiency and critical velocity in kinetic spraying. A wide range of pressures and preheat temperatures of the process gas were used in these experiments to vary both particle velocity and temperature, and a bronze (Cu-Sn alloy) powder was deposited onto aluminum and bronze substrates. The deposition efficiency of the coatings was measured, and the critical velocity was estimated. The experimental results showed that the critical velocities of the bronze feedstock deposited onto either an aluminum or bronze substrate were different and that the critical velocity was strongly dependent on the particle temperature, which when increased, caused the critical velocity to decrease. Increasing the gas pressure caused an increase in particle velocity, while increases in the gas temperature not only affected the particle velocity but also the particle temperature. In our experiments, the critical velocity decreased by 50 m/s when the process gas temperature increased by 100 °C.

Accurate characterization of the nitrogen concentration and distribution in ultra thin nitrided silicon gate oxide plays the same important role as the fabrication technology itself during the development of 90nm and beyond gate oxide manufacturing process. Based on the measurement results of XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) as reference, a correlation study was taken between XPS and AES (Auger electron spectroscopy) data in this paper. The study shows that, by optimizing the experiment conditions of AES such as beam energy, beam current and take off angle, and introducing proper corrective factor, AES can be used as a useful and reliable characterization tool during the monitoring measurement of Nitrogen concentration in ultra thin (<2nm) nitrided silicon gate oxide.