Reliability studies of MOCVD TiSiN and EnCoRe Ta(N)/Ta

Passivated single damascene copper SiO₂ damascene lines were evaluated in combination with TiSiN and Ta(N)/Ta diffusion barriers. Leakage current, breakdown and time-dependent dielectric breakdown properties were investigated on a wafer level basis for temperatures ranging between room temperature and 150 °C. It is found that the leakage performance of the wafers with a TiSiN barrier is better at room temperature, but at 150 °C the performance levels out with Ta(N)/Ta. Time-dependent dielectric breakdown measurements at 150 °C show that the lifetime of the interconnect is higher with the selected Ta(N)/Ta barrier than for TiSiN.     

Intelligent process analytics for CRM

Many organisations use decision models in their processes such as tables or trees to provide decision support to their operational divisions. For example, in fault management, customer contact centre operators usually use a decision model in the form of prescribed interviews. Based on the answers given by customers, the operator navigates through the decision model to reach an assessment of the problem. In order to achieve customer satisfaction and operational excellence, it is very important to constantly monitor the performance of a decision model not only on an overall level, but also on the level of individual decisions. In this paper we present a configurable business process analytics tool, known as the intelligent Universal Service Management System, that constantly monitors decision data and is capable of optimising the decisions based on high-level business objectives. We explain the various features of the software and show how it can be used to optimise decision processes. We also show how we can easily provide a customised version to monitor the performance of provision processes.     

Optical-transmission characteristics of optical-fiber cables and installed optical-fiber cable networks for WDM systems

Many cables containing 1.3-/spl mu/m zero-dispersion single-mode (SM) optical fibers are installed in trunk and access networks. Recently, there have been a number of studies on wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) systems designed to increase transmission capacity and flexibility. If we can construct WDM systems using SM optical-fiber cable networks designed to transmit using wavelengths in the 1.3-/spl mu/m window (O-band), this will prove very effective in reducing construction costs. It is therefore important to examine the wavelength dependence of the transmission characteristics of SM optical-fiber cables and networks that have already been installed and in which several optical fibers are joined. In this paper, we describe the measured optical characteristics of SM optical-fiber cables and installed optical-fiber cable networks at various wavelengths. The optical characteristics were stable in the 1.46 to 1.625-/spl mu/m wavelength range and we confirmed that the installed SM optical-fiber cable networks could be used for WDM system applications.     

Microscale Patterning of Mesoscopic PZN-PT Single Crystal Films by Crystal ion Slicing and Laser-Induced Etching

Advances in the fabrication of solid-solution single crystal relaxor ferroelectrics have made it possible to produce highly efficient piezoelectric crystals, and have attracted renewed interest in the use of these crystals for a new generation of piezoelectric transducers, actuators and sensors. Of particular interest is their incorporation into micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS). In this paper we report on the laser-induced wet chemical etching of lead zinc niobate-lead titanate (PZN-PT) in hydrochloric acid (HCl). Argon-ion laser radiation at power levels up to 4 W is focused to a spot diameter of about 15μm and results in the chemical etching of grooves at patterning speeds up to 5μm/sec. Crystal ion slicing, an ion-implant-based film separation technique, is used in combination with laser etching to form 5 to 10μm-thick patterned and freestanding films for incorporation into micro-electromechanical devices.     

Analytic models for the latency and steady-state throughput of TCP Tahoe, Reno, and SACK

Continuing the process of improvements made to TCP through the addition of new algorithms in Tahoe and Reno, TCP SACK aims to provide robustness to TCP in the presence of multiple losses from the same window. In this paper we present analytic models to estimate the latency and steady-state throughput of TCP Tahoe, Reno, and SACK and validate our models using both simulations and TCP traces collected from the Internet. In addition to being the first models for the latency of finite Tahoe and SACK flows, our model for the latency of TCP Reno gives a more accurate estimation of the transfer times than existing models. The improved accuracy is partly due to a more accurate modeling of the timeouts, evolution of cwnd during slow start and the delayed ACK timer. Our models also show that, under the losses introduced by the droptail queues which dominate most routers in the Internet, current implementations of SACK can fail to provide adequate protection against timeouts and a loss of roughly more than half the packets in a round will lead to timeouts. We also show that with independent losses SACK performs better than Tahoe and Reno and, as losses become correlated, Tahoe can outperform both Reno and SACK.     

A VQ-based blind image restoration algorithm

Learning-based algorithms for image restoration and blind image restoration are proposed. Such algorithms deviate from the traditional approaches in this area, by utilizing priors that are learned from similar images. Original images and their degraded versions by the known degradation operator (restoration problem) are utilized for designing the VQ codebooks. The codevectors are designed using the blurred images. For each such vector, the high frequency information obtained from the original images is also available. During restoration, the high frequency information of a given degraded image is estimated from its low frequency information based on the codebooks. For the blind restoration problem, a number of codebooks are designed corresponding to various versions of the blurring function. Given a noisy and blurred image, one of the codebooks is chosen based on a similarity measure, therefore providing the identification of the blur. To make the restoration process computationally efficient, the principal component analysis (PCA) and VQ-nearest neighbor approaches are utilized. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.     

二六族一维纳米结构--合成与结构分析

Various single crystalline Ⅱ - Ⅵ compound 1D nanostructures can be readily synthesized via a simple thermal evaporation process. The morphology characteristics ( nanowires vs. nanobelts, crystalline growth directions, termination surfaces, etc.) of these nanostructures can be discriminated by controlling the supersaturation of the source vapor (via the control of different fabrication parameters ).     

Mining constrained gradients in large databases

Many data analysis tasks can be viewed as search or mining in a multidimensional space (MDS). In such MDSs, dimensions capture potentially important factors for given applications, and cells represent combinations of values for the factors. To systematically analyze data in MDS, an interesting notion, called "cubegrade" was recently introduced by Imielinski et al. [2002], which focuses on the notable changes in measures in MDS by comparing a cell (which we refer to as probe cell) with its gradient cells, namely, its ancestors, descendants, and siblings. We call such queries gradient analysis queries (GQs). Since an MDS can contain billions of cells, it is important to answer GQs efficiently. We focus on developing efficient methods for mining GQs constrained by certain (weakly) antimonotone constraints. Instead of conducting an independent gradient-cell search once per probe cell, which is inefficient due to much repeated work, we propose an efficient algorithm, LiveSet-Driven. This algorithm finds all good gradient-probe cell pairs in one search pass. It utilizes measure-value analysis and dimension-match analysis in a set-oriented manner, to achieve bidirectional pruning between the sets of hopeful probe cells and of hopeful gradient cells. Moreover, it adopts a hypertree structure and an H-cubing method to compress data and to maximize sharing of computation. Our performance study shows that this algorithm is efficient and scalable. In addition to data cubes, we extend our study to another important scenario: mining constrained gradients in transactional databases where each item is associated with some measures such as price. Such transactional databases can be viewed as sparse MDSs where items represent dimensions, although they have significantly different characteristics than data cubes. We outline efficient mining methods for this problem.     

On trading wavelengths with fibers: a cost-performance based study

We consider the effect of multiple fibers on wavelength division multiplexing networks without wavelength conversion. We study networks with dynamic wavelength routing and develop accurate analytical models to compare various possible options using single- and multiple-fiber networks. We use results of an analytical model and simulation-based studies to evaluate the blocking performance and cost of multifiber networks. The number of fibers required providing high performance in multifiber networks and their costs are compared. A case is made for using multiple fibers in each link with fewer wavelengths instead of using a single fiber with many wavelengths. In particular, we show that a network with four fibers per link and with four wavelengths on each fiber without any wavelength conversion on any node yields similar same performance as the networks with one fiber per link and 16 wavelengths per fiber on each link and with full wavelength conversion capability on all nodes. In addition, the multifiber network may also offer the cost advantage depending on the relative cost of components. We develop a parametric cost model to show that multiple fibers in each link are an attractive option. Finally, such multifiber networks also has fault tolerance, with respect to a single fiber failure, already built into the system.