Tandem-pulsed gas metal arc welding (TP-GMAW) simultaneously uses two wire-electrodes to enhance the material deposition rate, leading to the generation of a finger-shaped penetration as one of the arcs penetrates deeper than the other. On the other hand, workpiece vibration is one of the techniques used to control the microstructure of weld metal and a heat-affected zone. It is incidentally found that a specific vibration condition changes the finger-shaped penetration into pan-bottom shaped penetration in the TP-GMAW even though the vibration energy is much lower than the arc energy. Microstructure observation and elemental analysis are carried out for the welds fabricated without vibration and with three kinds of vibration modes, namely sine, random, and shock. The specific sine-mode vibration exhibits pan-bottom. The other modes of vibration in the same welding conditions exhibited invariable finger-shaped penetration. The Si atoms as a tracer distribute uniformly in the sine-mode. However, Si atoms segregate at the bottom of the finger-shaped weld metal with the random-mode and shock-mode workpiece vibrations. The weld pool shape change is prominent at a specific frequency. A resonance phenomenon between the droplet flow pattern and the molten material flow in the weld pool is likely to play a vital role in the change.

The authors studied the characteristics of Si/Al2O3/(Ta/Nb)Ox/Al2O3/SiO2/Pt charge trap capacitors fabricated by atomic layer deposition and postmetallization annealing at 400 °C. Al2O3 and (Ta/Nb)Ox films are amorphous and have negligible fixed charges. In program mode, a flatband voltage (Vfb) drastically shifts toward the positive direction at a short program time of 10−4 s. A large Vfb shift of approximately 4 V arises after programming at 1 mC/cm2 because there is a large difference in the conduction band offset between the (Ta/Nb)Ox-charge trapping layer (TNO-CTL) and the Al2O3-blocking layer (AlO-BL) (1.8 eV). In the retention mode, most of the trapped electrons in the TNO-CTL transfers across the Al2O3-tunneling layer (AlO-TL) rather than the AlO-BL. The thickness of the AlO-TL affects the Vfb shift degradation behavior in the retention mode. The injected electrons are dominantly located at the TNO-CTL/ALO-BL interface, determined from the thickness dependence of the TNO-CTL on the Vfb shift.