Effect of frequency and pulse-on time of high power impulse magnetron sputtering on deposition rate and morphology of titanium nitride using response surface methodology

Titanium nitride thin films were deposited on silicon by high power impulse magnetron sputtering(HiPIMS)method at different frequencies(162-637 Hz)and pulse-on time(60-322μs).Response surface methodology(RSM)was employed to study the simultaneous effect of frequency and pulse-on time on the current waveforms and the crystallographic orientation,microstructure,and in particular,the deposition rate of titanium nitride at constant time and average power equal to 250 W.The crystallographic structure and morphology of deposited films were analyzed using XRD and FESEM,respectively.It is found that the deposition rate of HiPIMS samples is tremendously dependent on pulse-on time and frequency of pulses where the deposition rate changes from 4.5 to 14.5 nm/min.The regression equations and analyses of variance(ANOVA)reveal that the maximum deposition rate(equal to(17±0.8)nm/min)occurs when the frequency is 537 Hz and pulse-on time is 212μs.The experimental measurement of the deposition rate under this condition gives rise to the deposition rate of 16.7 nm/min that is in good agreement with the predicted value.

The Design and Management of Intelligent Systems in Mechanical Domestic Water Meters

The design and implementation of mechanical domestic water meters in current industrial organization and intellectual properties have been registered as an invention to solve the problems of current meters. The device operation includes inquiry of printing, subscription connection and disconnection in an emergency. This system includes a software and hardware parts on the users and the control center connecting with two-way mobile phone. Central control software sends the message through the wireless telecommunication lines to the user’s software, requesting the desired information and also provides the commands needed to be sent through the same. The same information can also be submitted to the control center. Through the same way, some of advantages of this method are as follows: installing on existing meters, cheap cost of inquiry call meter, the possibility of declaring illegal manipulation to the control center, the exchange of information using information encoding, and manipulating digital meters applying minor changes.

Effect of BCD Plasma on a Bacteria Cell Membrane

Cell membrane rupture is considered to be one of the probable mechanisms for bacterial inactivation using barrier corona discharge （BCD） plasma. In this paper, the effect of the BCD plasma on the Escherichia coli （E. coli） bacteria cell wall was investigated through two analytical methods; Adenosine-5-triphosphate （ATP） assay and Atomic Force Microscopy （AFM）. The ATP assay results indicate an increase in the ATP content of samples which were exposed to the BCD plasma. This implies the bacteria cell rupture. Moreover, AFM images confirm a serious damage of the bacteria cell wall under the influence of the bactericidal agents of the plasma.