Title: Molecular dynamics modelling of water nanodroplet impingement on silicon dioxide and silicon nitride substrates

Authors: Salil Desai; Ravindra D. Kaware

Addresses: Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering, North Carolina A&T State University, 423 McNair Hall, 1601 E. Market Street, Greensboro, NC 27411, USA ' 2301 R Street, Auburn, NE 68305, USA

Abstract: This paper reports the study of a droplet-based scalable micro/nanomanufacturing process using molecular dynamics (MD) modelling. The objective of the study is to understand the nanodroplet impingement and spreading mechanism on silicon dioxide (SiO₂) and silicon nitride (Si₃N₄) substrates with different impingement velocities. The dependence of dynamic contact angle on the initial droplet velocity was investigated for hydrophilic and hydrophobic substrate interactions. Higher rebound effect and thereby slower wetting rates were observed for the SiO₂-water system as compared to the Si₃N₄-water system for the same magnitudes of impingement velocities. The MD simulation results were validated using the molecular kinetic theory. Findings of this research are expected to establish the required process controls in droplet-based scalable nanomanufacturing for precision deposition of nanoscale features.

Keywords: molecular dynamics; direct-write technology; nanodroplet impingement; substrate wetting; nanomanufacturing; nanodroplets; nanotechnology; modelling; silicon dioxide substrates; silicon nitride substrates; SiO2; SiN4; process control; precision deposition.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNM.2014.066281

International Journal of Nanomanufacturing, 2014 Vol.10 No.5/6, pp.432 - 452

Received: 14 Feb 2013
Accepted: 25 Oct 2013
Published online: 20 Dec 2014 *

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