Low force activated cold welding of microelectronics

 

We were contacted by Michelle Lukas, a student one of us knew from the minor nanotechnology at Saxion, to make a cover image for her bachelor thesis. Her graduation work consisted of research on ‘cold welding’ with gold nanodots. By pressing together two layers of the silicone Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) coated with nanodots, one could make a bond without applying heat or an other form of conventional bonding techniques, thus it is referred to as cold welding.

She wanted a cover for her thesis, but not a conventional one. The style had to be artistic, fresh and young. Together we discussed the style, and agreed that probably a halftone design would fit her needs. Of course, halftone is an obvious choice when the subject is “nanodots”, but nevertheless we believed when applied right it could make a fantastic cover design.

The cover represents two PDMS layers coming together, coated with nanodots. The nanodots fuse together to form a droplet at the bottom, to show the concept of liquidification. The pattern of the nanodots is dithered (a technique we tried for the first time), that is: the size and distribution of the dots is the same everywhere (unlike halftone), and only the absence of dots gives the illusion of a gradient. This graduate change from 100% dots to 0% dots is referred to as dithering.
Furthermore some fresh looking halftone shapes filled with smooth gradients were included to represent the PDMS.