The through-silicon via (TSV) technology is widely used in 3-D integrated circuit (3-D IC) devices. However, the TSV could cause great thermal stress due to the mismatch of the thermal expansion between different materials, which affects the performance of the 3-D IC. In this work, a finite element model of the 3-D IC device with both internal pin-fin microchannels and all-copper interconnection is established. A substructure model is further developed and validated against the results obtained from the full model. Then, the thermal-mechanical performances of the TSV structure under thermal cycling loads are investigated based on the substructure model. The results show that the maximum stress locates at the edge of the interface between TSV_copper and memory, and the deformation on the TSV_copper-memory interface is dominated by shearing, which may cause the debonding of the interface. Moreover, the influences of the TSV structure parameters on the maximum thermal stress and TSV_copper's electrical resistance are analyzed. Then, the TSV structure is further optimized to reduce the stress and improve the electrical conductivity. Compared with the original design, the maximum von Mises stress and TSV_copper resistance of the optimized structure can be reduced by 18.4% and 40.6%, respectively.

Nano-cutting is an important development direction of the modern manufacturing technology. However, the research on the mechanism underlying nano-cutting lags far behind the practical application, which restricts the development of this advanced manufacturing technology. The chip formation process is the basic process of nano-cutting, and it is of key importance for the mechanism research of nano-cutting. In this paper, the nano-tensile behavior of single crystal copper was studied based on the molecular dynamics simulations. The toughness and brittleness characteristics of the copper at different temperatures were analyzed. Then, the molecular dynamics simulations of nano-cutting for single crystal copper with different toughness and brittleness were studied. The crystal structure, cutting force, stress–strain distribution and atomic motion characteristics were systematically investigated. The nano-chip formation mechanism of single crystal copper was revealed. The results show that the chip is formed through two ways, namely the shear and extrusion. The material near the free surface of the workpiece undergoes continuous shear slip and periodic long-distance slippage along the primary shear direction, forming the block chip in which the FCC and HCP structures are orderly distributed. The material near the tool-chip interface is extruded by the tool, block chip and stagnation zone to form the flowing chip with amorphous structure. As the temperature increases, the occurrence frequency of long-distance slippage in the block chip increases, while the slippage degree decreases. Besides, with the increase in temperature, the thickness of block chip formed by shear slip decreases, while the thickness of flowing chip formed by extrusion increases.

The flexible joint is an important part in ultra-short-radius drilling tools, and its structural parameters and motion characteristics are key factors affecting the success of drilling. In this work, a new type of ball cage flexible joint, which is applied in 5″ and 5.5″ cased wells, was proposed based on the working principle of the ball cage universal joint. A structural parameter design method for the ball cage flexible joint was established according to the geometric coordination relation and material strength theory. Using this new method, the length, diameter, and window size of the ball cage flexible joint were analyzed. The multi-body motion process was further analyzed using a multi-body dynamics method, and then the motion characteristics, such as impact contact force, isokinetic characteristics, transfer efficiency, deflection torque and so on, were studied. Based on the above analyses, the structural parameters of the designed joint were optimized by means of the orthogonal test method. Results demonstrate that the experimental ball cage flexible joint has excellent isokinetic transmission characteristic, which can effectively suppress vibration and shock caused by changes in rotational speed. The transmission efficiency of the structure was 89.8%, while the power loss rate was 0.102%. According to the orthogonal test analysis, the optimal structure of the flexible joint has a ball seat diameter of 80 mm, a ball head diameter of 62 mm, and a ball key diameter of 16 mm. It is important to note that the ball key diameter was the most influential factor on the flexible joint internal contact force. The ball key contact force varied periodically, and there was a significant phase difference between the contact forces of different balls. On the other hand, with an increase in the flexible joint working angle, the deflection torque increased gradually, and the vibration amplitude of the torque increased. This work can provide reference for the parameter optimization design of the new flexible joint.

A ball cage flexible drill pipe is a new type of ultra-short-radius drilling tool, which consists of multiple flexible joints hinged together. During the drilling process, the flexible members will come into contact and wear, which reduces the efficiency of load transfer. The multi-body collision contact dynamics model was proposed to study the performance of the ball cage flexible drill pipe. The method considered the influence of the borehole curvature. The kinematic equations of the ball cage flexible drill pipe were established. The Lankarani–Nikravesh collisional contact model was used to characterize the normal contact force, and the Coulomb friction model was used to describe the tangential contact force. The multi-body motion state of the flexible drill pipe was simulated, the contact force distribution of the flexible drill pipe during the motion cycle was analyzed, and the influence of the borehole curvature radius on the size of the flexible joints and the contact force was studied. The results show that the running form of the ball cage flexible drill pipe shows a “folded” shape compared with the initial form; the contact force of different flexible joints is in a state of fluctuation; the normal contact force is much larger than the tangential contact force; the matching relationship between the borehole curvature and the length and radius of the flexible joints is derived, which provides criteria for the design of the flexible joints to ensure the reliability of the flexible drill pipe in large curvature borehole; the borehole curvature has an important influence on the collision contact force and load transfer efficiency of flexible drill pipe.