Research: Effect of Island Position on System Energy

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This animation shows the energy associated with positioning an island at different points within a pattered substrate system. It begins with a normalized characteristic length of zero (with strain energy much more relevent than surface energy), and steadily increases the normalized characteristic length until it has a value of one (with the relevance of surface energy relative to strain energy increasing in kind).

When strain energy is most significant (low normalized characteristic length), the preferred island position is at the top of the substrate feature. This makes sense, as that location will offer the highest effective compliance for the relaxation of strain energy.

As surface energy becomes more significant relative to strain energy (increasing normalized characteristic length), there is a transition in preferred island position from the raised portion of the pattern to the depressed portion. This also makes sense, as the depressed position will have lower overall surface area due to the rise of the substrate to meet the island walls.