Hafnium or zirconium high-k fab cross-contamination issues

Hf and Zr contamination during immersion in process solutions is most likely to occur in neutral and caustic solutions. Both Hf and Zr contamination are introduced onto the wafer surface if they are present in an ammonium hydroxide peroxide mixture solution (which is caustic), but such contamination is removed using existing acid cleans. Large amounts of wafer-to-wafer cross contamination occurs in plasma etch tools. Particles can cause cross contamination in a thermal reactor during high-temperature anneals of high-k dielectric layers. Residual surface cross contamination does not diffuse into the wafers during thermal processing. If contamination remains on a wafer, gate oxide integrity degradation is only observed at high concentrations. Near surface minority carrier lifetime is also affected, but bulk lifetime is not.     

Monolayer assembly and striped architecture of Co nanoparticles on organic functionalized Si surfaces

We present a new strategy to fabricate a monolayer assembly of Br-terminated Co nanoparticles on functionalized Si surfaces by using chemical covalent bonding and microcontact printing method. Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of the Co nanoparticles formed on the hydroxyl-terminated Si surface exhibit two-dimensional island networks with locally ordered arrays via covalent linkage between nanoparticles and surface. On the other hand, SAMs of the nanoparticles on the aminopropyl-terminated Si surface show an individual and random distribution over an entire surface. Furthermore, we have fabricated striped architectures of Co nanoparticles using a combination of microcontact printing and covalent linkage. Microcontact printing of octadecyltrichlorosilane and selective covalent linkage between nanoparticles and functionalized Si surfaces lead to a hybrid nanostructure with selectively assembled nanoparticles stripes on the patterned functionalized Si surfaces. PACS 81.07.Ta; 61.46.+w; 81.16.Dn; 81.16.Be; 68.37.Hk; 82.80.Pv     

The emission wavelength tuning of InAs/InP quantum dots with thin GaAs, InGaAs, InP capping layers by MOCVD

InAs quantum dots (QDs) were grown on InP substrates by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The width and height of the dots were 50 and 5.8 nm, respectively on the average and an areal density of 3.0×10¹⁰ cm⁻² was observed by atomic force microscopy before the capping process. The influences of GaAs, In_0.53Ga_0.47As, and InP capping layers (5–10 ML thickness) on the InAs/InP QDs were studied. Insertion of a thin GaAs capping layer on the QDs led to a blue shift of up to 146 meV of the photoluminescence (PL) peak and an InGaAs capping layer on the QDs led to a red shift of 64 meV relative to the case when a conventional InP capping layer was used. We were able to tune the emission wavelength of the InAs QDs from 1.43 to 1.89 μm by using the GaAs and InGaAs capping layers. In addition, the full-width at half-maximum of the PL peak decreased from 79 to 26 meV by inserting a 7.5 ML GaAs layer. It is believed that this technique is useful in tailoring the optical properties of the InAs QDs at mid-infrared regime.     

Digital wireless sensor server using an adaptive smart-antenna/retrodirective array

A wireless sensor server is developed based on a reconfigurable active smart-antenna/retrodirective array. The system can serve as both a retrodirective array transponder and a smart-antenna receiver simply by changing the frequency of the local oscillator applied to the mixers, enabling it to utilize its hardware best to suit its communication environment. When operating as a direct-conversion receiver, the receiver array successfully demodulates a quaternary phase-shift keying (QPSK) modulated signal with circuit gain of 7 dB, and E/sub b//N/sub 0/ for BER=10/sup -4/ is approximately 12 dB without any error correction. In the retrodirective array mode, the system provides 20 dB circuit gain and 20 dB radio-frequency/intermediate-frequency isolation at the center frequency as well as phase conjugation, exhibiting excellent retrodirectivity. The mixers perform phase conjugation and modulation simultaneously, enabling the transmission of locally stored data. The local data is successfully extracted by an interrogator.     

Fabrication of V-grooved inner stripe GaAs-AlGaAs quantum-wire lasers

V-grooved inner stripe (VIS) GaAs-AlGaAs quantum-wire (QWR) lasers were successfully fabricated by, combining two-step metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) growth with a wet-etching technique. In order to achieve low threshold current density and high reliability, a conductive stripe width (W), a thickness (t/sub p-CBL/), and a doping concentration (n/sub p-CBL/) of the p-GaAs current-blocking layer (CBL) were determined to be W=1.2 /spl mu/m, t/sub p-CBL/=2 /spl mu/m, and n/sub p-CBL/=1/spl times/10/sup 18/ cm/sup -3/. The leakage currents passing through the CBL were also estimated using a modified P-SPICE. Thus far, a threshold current of 45 mA and an output power of 4 mW at 51 mA have been achieved under room-temperature pulsed operation for some devices with uncoated facets.     

Design and performance evaluation of a new medium access controlprotocol for local wireless data communications

This paper proposes a new medium access control protocol for wireless data communications in local area, called the reservation-based multiple access with variable frame length (RMAV). We design RMAV under the consideration that the population of wireless terminals and the system load frequently change and are almost unpredictable in wireless data communications. RMAV is based on the slot reservation scheme and adopts a frame structure with variable length. The frame length increases as the number of active terminals and/or the system load increases. We evaluate the performance of RMAV by analysis and computer simulation. Due to its adaptability to traffic patterns, RMAV offers short delay in light load conditions and high throughput in heavy load conditions     

Double-Layer antireflection coating design for semi-infinite one-dimensional photonic Crystals

A theoretical formalism is established for double-layer (DL) antireflection coating (ARC) on a one-dimensional (1-D) photonic crystal (PC). Conventional DL-ARC for a bulk is equally applicable for a 1-D PC when the bulk substrate index is replaced with the optical admittance, which can be obtained from the electromagnetic Bloch waves of the infinite 1-D PC. Numerical calculations are performed for a model structure composed of GaAs and AlAs-oxide layers to confirm the validity of the theory. In terms of realization and practicality, this DL-ARC is expected to be superior to the single-layer version.     

Flux observer with online tuning of stator and rotor resistancesfor induction motors

This paper proposes an adaptive flux observer for induction motors, where stator and rotor resistances are estimated in online environments. The variation of motor parameters during operation degrades the performance of the controller and the flux observer. Among the parameters of induction motors, rotor resistance is a crucial one for flux estimation, and stator resistance also becomes critical in the low-speed region. Under the persistent excitation condition, the proposed method estimates the actual values of stator and rotor resistances simultaneously, which guarantees the exact estimation of the rotor flux. The persistent excitation condition is not satisfied when the electric torque of an induction motor is absent due to the lack of rotor currents. Even in this case, the proposed method achieves the correct estimation of the rotor flux. Simulations and actual experiments show that the rotor flux is estimated in all operating conditions and that both resistances converge to their actual values when the electrical motor torque exists     

A simple statistical modeling of random phase reference in holographic memory

We present a simple modeling of random phase reference in holographic memory. The proposed model is analyzed by a statistical approach. Improvement on selectivity using random phase reference is shown in comparison with uniform phase plane wave reference and Gaussian beam reference. This simple and efficient model provides a physical insight and is verified by some experiments.