Watermark-Induced High-Density Via Failures in Submicron CMOS Fabrication (May 2006)

High via resistance was detected in the high-density via structure in our 0.15-mum back-end-of-line (BEOL) yield monitoring test vehicle. A localized insulating layer was found on top of the plug in test vehicle causing high via resistance. The failure was attributed to watermark-induced contaminants on top of the W plug. It was shown that the failure could be avoided by eliminating watermark formation on the wafer in the post-chemical-mechanical polishing scrub process.     

Investigation of Pretreated Silicon Wafers for CVD Growth of Diamond Film

Difference between lattice constants of silicon (Si) and diamond is approximately 52%. Therefore Si_1—xC_x which has a lattice constant between two materials should be formed on Si substrate to be diamond nucleation sites and reduce the stress between the diamond film and Si substrate. Si wafers with carbonization and dc-biasing pretreatment were prepared in a microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD) system, then they were investigated by Raman spectroscopy, Photoluminescence (PL), chemical etching and scanning electron microscope (SEM) to study the pretreatment effect. This was achieved by studying a series of samples pretreated by carbonization and dc-biasing.     

Global dynamics of Chua Corsage Memristor circuit family: fixed-point loci,Hopf bifurcation,and coexisting dynamic attractors

Nonlinear Dynamics - This paper presents an in-depth and rigorous mathematical analysis of a family of nonlinear dynamical circuits whose only nonlinear component is a Chua Corsage Memristor (CCM)...     

Relaxation of Excited States in C60

The static study has shown that the excited state with electron-hole pair in C₆₀ can cause the distortion of the bond structure to form a polaron-like exciton with symmetry D_5d. This paper further reveals the relaxation process from the initial electron-hole pair state to the polaron-like exciton by solving the dynamical equations. The relaxation time of this dynamical process can be determined from the time-dependent bond distortion with time step 4 femtoseconds.     

大气光学湍流廓线探测方法研究进展

激光在大气传输过程中,由于湍流折射率的随机起伏会引起波前畸变、光斑漂移、闪烁等一系列光学湍流效应,因此严重制约了遥感成像系统和激光通信技术的发展.通过分析大气光学湍流对多个领域的影响,指出了探测大气光学湍流廓线的重要意义.要想获取光学湍流的时空分布规律并准确评估光学湍流对光学成像或激光传输系统的影响,就必须对光学湍流进...     

Accumulation of biopolymers in activated sludge biomass

In this study, activated sludge bacteria from a conventional wastewater treatment process were induced to accumulate polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) under different carbon-nitrogen (C:N) ratios. As the C:N ratio increased from 20 to 140, specific polymer yield increased to a maximum of 0.38 g of polymer/g of dry cell mass while specific growth yield decreased. The highest overall polymer production yield of 0.11 g of polymer/g of carbonaceous substrate consumed was achieved using a C:N ratio of 100. Moreover, the composition of polymer accumulated was dependent on the valeric acid content in the feed. Copolymer poly (3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) [P(3HB-co-3HV)] was produced in the presence of valeric acid. The 3-hydroxyvalerate (3HV) mole fraction in the copolymer was linearly related tovaleric content in the feed, which reached a maximum of 54% when valeric acid was used as sole carbon source. When the 3HV U in the polymer increased from 0–54 mol%, the melting temperature decreased from 178° to 99°C. Thus, the composition, and hence the mechanical properties, of the copolymer produced from activated sludge can be controlled by adjusting the mole fraction of valeric acid in the feed medium.     

Invariance and efficiency of convex representations

We consider two notions for the representations of convex cones G-representation and lifted-G-representation. The former represents a convex cone as a slice of another; the latter allows in addition, the usage of auxiliary variables in the representation. We first study the basic properties of these representations. We show that some basic properties of convex cones are invariant under one notion of representation but not the other. In particular, we prove that lifted-G-representation is closed under duality when the representing cone is self-dual. We also prove that strict complementarity of a convex optimization problem in conic form is preserved under G-representations. Then we move to study efficiency measures for representations. We evaluate the representations of homogeneous convex cones based on the “smoothness” of the transformations mapping the central path of the representation to the central path of the represented optimization problem. Research of the first author was supported in part by a grant from the Faculty of Mathematics, University of Waterloo and by a Discovery Grant from NSERC. Research of the second author was supported in part by a Discovery Grant from NSERC and a PREA from Ontario, Canada.     

Two-mode interference photonic waveguide switch

Based on the two-mode interference principle and the free-carrier plasma dispersion effect, a two-mode interference (TMI) photonic waveguide switch with double carrier injection has been designed and fabricated for application in fiber-optic communications. It consists of an input Y-branch with single-mode ridge waveguides, a TMI waveguide coupling section, and an output Y-branch with single-mode ridge waveguides. The single-mode waveguides and the two-mode waveguide are composed of a SiGe waveguide layer on a Si substrate. The width of the TMI region of the switch is two times that of the single-mode waveguide. On the top of the TMI region and one side of the TMI region, two abrupt p-n junctions are made to inject the carriers into the optical modulation region; on the other side of the TMI region, an abrupt carrier collection region is made to collect the carriers when they are forward biased, so that the double carrier injection photonic waveguide switch has the lowest injection current density. The waveguide layers are made of SiGe/Si material, and the rib waveguides are realized by reactive ion etching. The carrier injection regions and the carrier collection region are formed by ion implantation. The input and output facets of the waveguides were ground and polished by a mechanical method. The switch was characterized by using a 1310-nm InGaAsP/InP heterostructure laser diode. Its insertion loss and ON-state crosstalk were measured to be 2.74 and -15.5 dB, respectively, at a total switching current of 110 mA. The switching time is 180 ns, and the fastest switching time is up to 30 ns.     

Policy-based QoS-management architecture in an integrated UMTS and WLAN environment

Strong demands for public wireless broadband services will require more capacity than even that can be,supplied by advanced mobile cellular systems like the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System. The increasing popularity of WLANs has prompted mobile network operators to consider their deployment in high-density usage areas like indoor/outdoor public hotspots to provide complementary broadband access to their UMTS networks. In order to provide consistent QoS control over an integrated UMTS and WLAN system, a policy-based multidomain QoS management architecture is proposed in this article. Different UMTS-WLAN interworking scenarios are discussed to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed architecture.     

Planar laterally oxidized vertical-cavity lasers for low-threshold high-density top-surface-emitting arrays

We introduce a novel device architecture that enables the fabrication of low threshold high density vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) arrays. Our structure relies on a group of small via holes to access a buried AlGaAs layer for lateral oxidation. In contrast to the conventional method of exposing mesa sidewalls through etched pillars, this technique provides our VCSEL's with the benefits of oxide confinement without sacrificing wafer planarity. Maintaining wafer planarity is essential for the easy fabrication and contacting of densely packed devices. The devices operate at 827 nm, with a minimum threshold current of 200 /spl mu/A, and a maximum output power of 3.15 mW.