Week 6 - COMSOL, Kava, and Kratum

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Tuesday, July 13, 2021

By:

Roberto Gauna

The past few weeks I have been inverstigating how well an AFM probe can image metallic strips embedded in substrate materials

This sort of measurement is of interest to manufacturers who are now beginning to explore 3D integrated chips

Now that we have reached a limit of how small we can get transistors, 3D integration is a natural direction to explore.

However metal embedded inside substrate isn't the easiest to probe and test

This project's goals has been to see how well we can image and distinguish between substrate embedded metallic strips

After several weeks of just getting setup I finall have some presentable results

Now my days are filled with me making small adjustments to my models, running them for hours, and coming back to my laptop every 2 hours to make sure my remote connection doesn't close..

As much as I want to upload some results, I recently found out that my results are inaccurate sooo I'd like to find the source of this error before uploading anything for the world to judge

 

Outside of work I of course went to the beach a bunch and tracked a bunch of sand back to my place and my car

I also went to a cool warehouse looking place called Kamp Kava, where I enjoyed some Kava and Kratum

For those that are not familiar (I am no expert myself) Kava annd Kratum are plants that have some pretty mild relaxation properties

The consumption of these plants has been growing in popularity in recent years, since they provide an alternative to other drugs (alcohol and for some reason opiods are cited a lot?)

In my very limited experience I have found that both plants are typically (somehow) served as drinks.

Kratum leaves are crushed up into a powder and disolved into some solvent; in my case they served it with some gatorade and ginger, and another drink was like a banana cream pie. Not bad. Would recommend.

Kratum leaves come in 3 types: Green, White, and some other color I can't remember. Each has it's own supposed property (energy, relaxation, ?). I could definitely feel a bit of a pep in my step after my kratum drinks, but not as much as I would with a coffee. So overall a good experience

Kava on the other hand is another plant, which through a similar process is made into a drink. However, Kava tastes like dirt and I haven't seen anybody try to mask the flavor for some reason. I haven't exactly tried a lot of Kava, but both times the drink tasted like dirt and made me nauseous .. would not recommend if you find yourself at a place that make kava drinks. I've heard of similar experiences where Kava made people sick, but I also wated some down like 8 cups of it when I could barely stomach 1. I guess everyone has their own level of tolerance to dirt flavor ..

 

Until next week

 

-Rob

Roberto Gauna