Language of Study: Japanese

Subject Major: Mechanical Engineering, Comparative Cultural Studies

Country of Study: Japan

Title of Work: Chemical Mechanical Polishing Process: Changing Slurry Concentration

Abstract: While at Kyushu University located in Fukuoka, Japan, I joined Professor Kurokawa’s Chemical Mechanical Polishing Precision Machining lab. In this lab, the three main metals that are experimented with is Alumina, Titanium, and Zirconia. While researching different topics that other students were doing, I have come to realize that there is not a lot of research on the concentration of the colloidal silica has not been researched as extensively as some other topics in the field. The lab only used an 8% concentration on all of their research experiments because it has been found that 8% is the best to be used for the experiments. A concentration of 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% was being experimented with to further investigate if the concentration of the slurry has a major factor in smoothing out the surface of the metals.

Title of Work (IGP Language): 化学機械研磨プロセス：スラリー濃度の変更

Abstract (IGP Language):

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Elevator Pitch Transcript: Hello, my name is Brittany Taga and I am currently studying Mechanical Engineering and Comparative Cultural Studies with an emphasis in East Asia. I am minoring in Chinese, Japanese and Mathematics. Last year, I studied abroad in Fukuoka, Japan at Kyushu University.

While in Japan, I researched Chemical Mechanical Polishing Process, also known as CMP, under Professor Kurokawa in the Precision Machining Department. My research topic was changing the concentration of colloidal silica, slurry, in the range of 5%-20%. The main goal of this research is to analyze if low slurry concentration has a significant effect in flattening three main metals, Alumina, Titanium, and Zirconia. I would first analyze the 25mm by 25mm metal specimens before polishing. Then, the metal through the polishing process. After the cleaning process, a thorough analyzation of the metal specimens takes place. The main tools used for this process is the lext laser microscope and the chemical mechanical polisher.

This research can be used for is to better bone regrowth and robotics. Through this research, tolerancing can also be precise on a microscopic level. This research can also help improve the main concentration that the lab currently uses, 8%.

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Full-Length Video Transcript: Hello, my name is Brittany Taga and I will be talking about my experience and my studies. I am currently studying Mechanical Engineering and Comparative Cultural Studies with an emphasis in East Asia. I am also minoring in Chinese, Japanese, and Mathematics.
For my study abroad, I went to Fukuoka Japan and studied at Kyushu University. I was able to further my knowledge in mechanical engineering and Japanese. Some credits did not transfer right and did not come back right. I was able to experience a different type of learning. Japan only teaches once a week for 90 minutes, and some professors would be able to answer questions while others kept on lecturing. Sometimes when I would try to email the teachers and I wouldn't get a reply. I had to ask before or after the class and pull them aside to have them go over a concept that I was not able to understand. I would try to get a better explanation. As shown in the picture, I am with the plaque in front of the school and this picture was taken the day we went to explore the school, it was very fun and picturing the future was also fun. Bryce and Melissa have helped me through this experience and I do not think I would have been able to do this without them. In this picture, is a picture of my speaking class. We were able to become very close because some of us were also in the same grammar class and I do not think I would have been able to adjust the way I did without the help of my fellow international classmates. We were also able to build a strong relationship. We were able to talk about the different experiences we came across and talked about what to do if we were to get into the situation again. One of my great friends is Ujjal, he is an incoming master's student studying mechanical engineering. He came a semester early to get a better handle on the language and again, he was a huge help in guiding us while we were there.
During my stay, I studied Precision Machining before COVID-19. This department specifically specialized in Chemical Mechanical Polishing, CMP, which I will get into later. Optical measurement and evaluation, this is performed by having mirrors spaced out between each other and have light be reflected against each other and would measure metal impurities through light. There is also conformal coating and electro spray application for MEMS, Low power laser processing with surface excitation. This research is mainly being able to apply an electric current to the coating that would be applied to the metal when polishing. I was not able to see this kind of research because I was studying with master students but I was able to see what students have done in the past for this topic. My specific topic is CMP: Concentration of colloidal silica, slurry. The picture here shows a machine that measures the tooth of the gear to determine the measurements. When the gears are made not every tooth is smooth and this machine is what helps create a better measurement of the gear's teeth. This is useful for robotics when the gears would have a certain tolerancing.
My research in general was next to the lab and I didn't have to go to the warehouse. The warehouse had another machine where they would scan the metal for impurities. I was changing the slurry concentration from 5-20% on increments of 5. My main goal was to examine the impact that slurry concentration can have during the CMP process and to see if there was a more significant concentration that would have an effect on the surface of the specimens. The lab currently uses 8% concentration. While I was picking out my topic, I came across research that talked about 60-90% concentration or 50-80% concentration and not a lot of the lower concentration of slurry. Although these results are valuable, the lab uses a low concentration of slurry and since there was not a lot of research on lower concentration slurry, this made me choose the topic. The idea was that once I was done with this topic, I would then go onto another way to see if it could be applied. As seen in this picture, this is the polishing machine. There would be a load on top of it so that there is a constant force being applied to the metals along with the holder and this machine controls how fast the metals are being polished. We are also able to control how much slurry is being put on the polisher. We were able to polish the different metals and later on, I would use the LEXT microscope to examine the specific impurities in the metal through different lenses. The main metals that were used is titanium, alumina, and zirconia. I would have to cut 25 by 25 mm specimens and with that, we were able to further examine the materials for energy, robotics, and to better human development. Unfortunately, COVID-19 hit, and I had to come back to America.
When I came back to America, I started to research under Dr. Ciocanel with double layer electric capacitors. I had to research the materials that were used to create these capacitors that would create a longer lasting battery. For materials, I researched composite materials and activated carbon. With these materials, we were planning to get the battery into the shell of the electrical component. For example, for a car, we were planning to see if we could get the battery into the shell of the car instead of having a huge space for it. If we can get rid of the battery, can replace the space with some other feature. Specifically, I ran a lot of simulations in Matlab and would compare and contrast the different figures.
Japanese has three different alphabets, Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Kanji is based of Chinese and I find it that now a days, Chinese/Mandarin uses simplified characters while Japanese uses traditional characters. I find that with these different characters, I was able to match the languages together but there are different grammar uses and some characters. For example, 'Wo' in Chinese means 'I' but in Japanese it means 'gamansuru' which means 'to be patient', I believe. While in Japan, I have also realized that some of the Kanji was more understandable with the help of knowing Chinese simplified characters. It would click a little more when I saw Kanji characters. Sometimes the meanings would not match up but then some of them completely matched up. For example, 'song' in Chinese means to send and the same character in Japanese, 'okuru' also means to send, like you are sending a letter. Japanese has furigana while Chinese has that one character.
My cultural experience in Japan is interesting. This picture is of me at an art exhibit at Fukuoka castle and I thought it would be nice to show what kind of events they would have here as well. I was in a tea ceremony class and sometimes the teacher would invite us to attend tea ceremonies. We would go to different tea ceremonies that were in different temples. I did meet more people and we were able to go kimono shopping with one of the teachers here. She was very nice and was able to help us learn how to properly dress and how to properly fold our hands for tea ceremony.
We went to Tokyo for New Year's and I found it interesting because we were able to experience a more Shinto religious type of New Year's. They had a lot of year of the rat decorations. We were able to throw the coins and bow and do a little prayer and I found that interesting because we celebrate New Year's but we do not have to go to a church or something to celebrate. Since we are in Tokyo, we went to Disneyland. I found this interesting too because we do not get to see these characters in traditional kimonos. Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse in kimonos with bamboo behind them. While in Tokyo, we also met up with another NAU student and were able to celebrate New Year's together. She accidently got cut off. Thank you for being here. Sorry for not using a lot of Japanese, I regretfully forgot some vocabulary and grammar. Sorry!
Thank you for watching and I hope you enjoy the rest of this event.

Keywords

Japanese, Mechanical Engineering, CMP Process, Precision Machining