M2i is proud to announce that on June 21, 2019, Mohammad Bazrafshan Fadan, who has been working on the M2i-TTW co-organized research project “Roughness and Adhesion Effects on Pre-Sliding Friction: Modelling and Experiments” successfully defended his dissertation. He obtained his PhD cum laude.

Mohammad started his PhD in 2015 at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Laboratory of Surface Technology and Tribology, Faculty of Engineering Technology, University of Twente, led by prof. dr. ir Dick Schipper. He received daily supervision from dr. ir. Matthijn de Rooij. Before starting his PhD Mohammad obtained his MSc in Mechanical Engineering in 2011 from Iran University of Science and Technology.

In his research, a collaborative project with ASML, the control of friction and adhesion at a wafer-waferstage interface has been investigated in relation with high precision and stability of the positioning mechanisms of a lithography machine. The thesis develops a BEM (Boundary Element Method) model for an adhesive frictional contact of a rough interface, representing the wafer-waferstage interface, along with experiments to verify the validity of the model. The developed model consists of two main effects which are interacting with one another: adhesion and pre-sliding friction.

The developed BEM model, as the output of the thesis, can be used as a tool to design textures on the waferstage in order to achieve a desirable level of friction and adhesion aiming at a higher level of precision, stability, and durability during the lithography process.

We would like to wish Mohammad success in his future career.