W. T. Pike

H2O at the Phoenix Landing Site

Phoenix Ascending The Phoenix mission landed on Mars in March 2008 with the goal of studying the ice-rich soil of the planets northern arctic region. Phoenix included a robotic arm, with a camera attached to it, with the capacity to excavate through the soil to the ice layer beneath it, scoop up soil and water ice samples, and deliver them to a combination of other instruments—including a wet chemistry lab and a high-temperature oven combined with a mass spectrometer—for chemical and geological analysis. Using this setup, Smith et al. (p. 58) found a layer of ice at depths of 5 to 15 centimeters, Boynton et al. (p. 61) found evidence for the presence of calcium carbonate in the soil, and Hecht et al. (p. 64) found that most of the soluble chlorine at the surface is in the form of perchlorate. Together these results suggest that the soil at the Phoenix landing site must have suffered alteration through the action of liquid water in geologically the recent past. The analysis revealed an alkaline environment, in contrast to that found by the Mars Exploration Rovers, indicating that many different environments have existed on Mars. Phoenix also carried a lidar, an instrument that sends laser light upward into the atmosphere and detects the light scattered back by clouds and dust. An analysis of the data by Whiteway et al. (p. 68) showed that clouds of ice crystals that precipitated back to the surface formed on a daily basis, providing a mechanism to place ice at the surface. A water ice layer was found 5 to 15 centimeters beneath the soil of the north polar region of Mars. The Phoenix mission investigated patterned ground and weather in the northern arctic region of Mars for 5 months starting 25 May 2008 (solar longitude between 76.5° and 148°). A shallow ice table was uncovered by the robotic arm in the center and edge of a nearby polygon at depths of 5 to 18 centimeters. In late summer, snowfall and frost blanketed the surface at night; H2O ice and vapor constantly interacted with the soil. The soil was alkaline (pH = 7.7) and contained CaCO3, aqueous minerals, and salts up to several weight percent in the indurated surface soil. Their formation likely required the presence of water.

Microscopy capabilities of the Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer

The Phoenix microscopy station, designed for the study of Martian dust and soil,consists of a sample delivery system, an optical microscope, and an atomic force microscope. The combination of microscopies facilitates the study of features from the millimeter to nanometer scale. Light-emitting diode illumination allows for full color optical imaging of the samples as well as imaging of ultraviolet-induced visible fluorescence. The atomic force microscope uses an array of silicon tips and can operate in both static and dynamic mode.

Microscopy analysis of soils at the Phoenix landing site, Mars: Classification of soil particles and description of their optical and magnetic properties

The optical microscope onboard the Phoenix spacecraft has returned color images (4 ?m pixel?1) of soils that were delivered to and held on various substrates. A preliminary taxonomy of Phoenix soil particles, based on color, size, and shape, identifies the following particle types [generic names in brackets]: (1) reddish fines, mostly unresolved, that are spectrally similar to (though slightly darker than) global airborne dust [red fines], (2) silt? to sand?sized brownish grains [brown sand], (3) silt? to sand?sized black grains [black sand], and (4) small amounts of whitish fines, possibly salts [white fines]. Most particles have a saturation magnetization in the range 0.5?2 Am2 kg?1 as inferred from their interaction with magnetic substrates. The particle size distribution has two distinct peaks below 10 ?m (fines) and in the range 20–100 ?m (grains), respectively, and is different from that of ripple soils in Gusev crater. In particular medium to large sand grains appear to be absent in Phoenix soils. Most sand grains have subrounded shape with variable texture. A fractured grain (observed on sol 112) reveals evidence of micrometer?sized crystal facets. The brown sand category displays a large diversity in color including shiny, almost colorless particles. Potential source regions for these grains may be the Tharsis volcanoes or Heimdal crater (20 km east of the landing site). The black grains are suggested to belong to a more widespread population of particles with mafic mineralogy. The absence of black/brown composite grains is consistent with different formation pathways and source regions for each grain type.

A novel capillary-effect-based solder pump structure and its potential application for through-wafer interconnection

Through-wafer electrical interconnection is a critical technology for advanced packaging. In this paper, a novel capillary-effect-based solder pump has been proposed and analyzed, which could produce interconnects through and between silicon dies. The principle of this pump is to use the surface tension of a molten solder, introduced in the form of balls, to drive sufficient material into a deep reactive-ion etched hole to form a through-wafer conductive path. The solder pump structure uses unwettable through-wafer holes of different diameters together with wettable metallization on two dies to provide the pressure differential and flow path. Using multiple feed holes and a single via hole complete through-wafer interconnects are demonstrated.

Determination of the dynamics of micromachined lateral suspensions in the scanning electron microscope

A lateral suspension, suitable for a microseismometer application, has been fabricated using deep reactive-ion etching. The critical dynamic parameters of the suspension, namely the normal modes along the compliant axis and the damping, have been determined from slow-scan imaging in an environmental scanning electron microscope. The results show the presence of an unwanted spurious mode which can be attributed to the finite mass of the suspension. An analytical solution yields good agreement with observations. Damping is shown to be dominated by viscous effects, with the suspension material only limiting performance at high vacuum.

Patterning of platinum (Pt) thin films by chemical wet etching in Aqua Regia

The chemical and physical properties of platinum (Pt) make it a useful material for microelectromechanical systems and microfluidic applications such as lab-on-a-chip devices. Platinum thin-films are frequently employed in applications where electrodes with high chemical stability, low electrical resistance or a high melting point are needed. Due to its chemical inertness it is however also one of the most difficult metals to pattern. The gold standard for patterning is chlorine RIE etching, a capital-intensive process not available in all labs. Here we present simple fabrication protocols for wet etching Pt thin-films in hot Aqua Regia based on sputtered Ti/Pt/Cr and Cr/Pt/Cr metal multilayers. Chromium (Cr) or titanium (Ti) is used as an adhesion layer for the Pt. Cr is used as a hard masking layer during the Pt etch as it can be easily and accurately patterned with photoresist and withstands the Aqua Regia. The Cr pattern is transferred into the Pt and the Cr mask later removed. Only standard chemicals and cleanroom equipment/tools are required. Prior to the Aqua Regia etch any surface passivation on the Pt is needs to be removed. This is usually achieved by a quick dip in dilute hydrofluoric acid (HF). HF is usually also used for wet-etching the Ti adhesion layer. We avoid the use of HF for both steps by replacing the HF-dip with an argon (Ar) plasma treatment and etching the Ti layer with a hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) based etchant.

Design, fabrication and testing of a micromachined seismometer with NANO-G resolution

We have designed a high resolution microseismometer by combining a low-resonant-frequency, high-quality-factor suspension with a sensitive lateral capacitive transducer under electromagnetic feedback control. It has been fabricated and tested to demonstrate for the first time a micromachined seismometer capable of resolving the Earths ambient seismicity and with the best acceleration resolution of any micromachined device to date, with a self noise down to 4ng/√(Hz).

Improved design of micromachined lateral suspensions using intermediate frames

A complete analysis of the translational and rotational modes of a model lateral suspension is presented. The derived formulae quantify spurious-mode resonant frequencies for cross-axis translation and rotation, and on-axis translation, and can provide very simple expressions for the rejection ratios in terms of the geometry of the suspensions. It is shown that the introduction of intermediate frames, coupling equivalent points of the lateral suspension either side of the suspended mass, can provide much improved dynamics. To investigate the derived relationships, suspensions have been fabricated using through-wafer deep reactive-ion etching (DRIE). Using analysis of the suspension dynamics under the rastered beam of a scanning electron microscope, the various modes of the suspension have been visualized and quantified. These observations are in good agreement with the derived formulae, taking into account the actual profile of the beams fabricated in DRIE. Further finite element analysis across a broad range of suspensions is consistent with the derived formulae. A design heuristic is provided for rapidly optimizing micromachined lateral suspensions by incorporating intermediate frames.

A micromachined angular-acceleration sensor for geophysical applications

This paper presents an angular-acceleration sensor that works as either an angular accelerometer or a gravity gradiometer and is based on the micro electromechanical system (MEMS) technology. The changes in the angle of the sensor mass are sensed by a rotational capacitive array transducer that is formed by electrodes on both the stator and rotor dies of the flip-chip-bonded MEMS chip (21 mm × 12.5 mm × 1 mm). The prototype was characterized, demonstrating a fundamental frequency of 27 Hz, a quality factor of 230 in air, and a sensitivity of 6 mV/(rad/s2). The demonstrated noise floor was less than 0.003 rad/s2/ Hz within a bandwidth of 0.1 Hz to 10 Hz, which is comparable with the conventional angular accelerometer and is better than the other reported MEMS sensors in low-frequency ranges. The features of small size and low cost suggest that this MEMS angular-acceleration sensor could be mounted on a drone, a satellite or even a Mars rover, and it is promising to be used for monitoring angular accelerati...

Dual wavelength optical metrology using ptychography

We describe an experimental implementation of ptychography to optical metrology, in particular topography measurement, in combination with the dual wavelength method. This is the first published account of the application of the dual wavelength method to ptychography or any other phase retrieval method in order to obtain surface height information over a wide range of scales, from small fractions of a wavelength up to many tens of wavelengths, in reflection mode. Moreover, the work presented here is the first report on the application of lensless reflection mode ptychography. Advantages of the ptychographic dual wavelength method are compared with other optical topography measurement techniques, especially with respect to the experimental procedures and constraints and the analysis of the data. We show that dual wavelength ptychography can remove material-specific phase changes which adversely affect topography measurements using white light profilometry.