A novel SONOS-type flash device with stacked charge trapping layer

Although enhancement in electrical properties of flash devices with HfO₂ charge trapping layer has been reported, there are serious problems in retention characteristics. In this work, a novel SONOS-type flash device with TaN/Al₂O₃/HfO₂/Si₃N₄/SiO₂/Si structure is presented. Experimental results show that the program/erase speeds of the proposed devices can be enhanced by over one thousand times and the retention characteristic is improved as well.     

Timing Recovery in Digital Subscriber Loops Using Baud-Rate Sampling

Sampled-data techniques are the most practical means of obtaining the necessary signal processing functions for timing recovery in the VLSI implementation of a digital subscriber loop transceiver. The sampled-data timing recovery techniques described in this paper are applicable to both echo cancellation and time-compression multiplexing systems. Timing recovery using baud-rate sampling in conjunction with a special pulse-shaping and timing function fulfills all the objectives for timing recovery in this application. It recovers a timing phase that has minimum precursor intersymbol interference, and makes possible the combination of decision feedback equalizer and echo canceler, reducing the convergence time and increasing the step size. The pulse-shaping function can be performed either in the transmitter by means of digital coding, or in the receiver by means of analog filtering. In the latter case, the transmitted pulse is compatible with more conventional approaches. The proposed partial-response line coding, a special form of AMI coding, is less susceptible to line impairments if detected as a two-level signal. Performance by analysis, simulation, and experimental measurements is reported on a variety of cable configurations, some including bridged taps. Analysis of jitter performance leads to design techniques for reducing the jitter magnitude.     

Modeling and Control of Oxygen Transfer in High Purity Oxygen Activated Sludge Process

A dynamic mathematical model for the high purity oxygen activated sludge process, which incorporates structured biomass, gas–liquid interactions and control systems, was developed. The model was calibrated using pilot plant data associated with the development of the West Point Treatment Plant near Seattle, Wash. The calibrated model was used to simulate oxygen transfer rates for various operating conditions. Simulations showed that an optimal control system can reduce aerator power by 33% as compared to a conventional design, and reduce average oxygen feed gas by as much as 18%. Vent gas purity control dramatically reduced the peak aerator horsepower required to maintain set point dissolved oxygen concentration during high loadings. Step feed operation reduced the stag-to-stage variation in aerator horsepower and also reduced the required peak power. Predicted power savings for a 605,000?m3/day plant were $500,000 per year at current power costs.     

Synthesis and Sintering of Large Batches of Barium Zirconate Nanopowders

The acrylamide gelification process is a fast, inexpensive, reproducible, and easily scaled up chemical method for obtaining nanopowders of BaZrO₃ that can be used for sintering crucibles and many electronic applications. This method enables the production of 100 g of high-purity powders in one run, using simple laboratory equipment and low-cost raw materials. The gelification process, synthesis temperature, and gas conditions required for obtaining high-quality powders were the subjects of the present study. Fine powders were sintered to full density at 1450°C, making the fabrication of BaZrO₃ crucibles possible for many laboratories.     

Error-rate analysis for multirate DS-CDMA transmission schemes

We analyze and compare the error performance of a dual-rate direct-sequence code-division multiple-access (DS-CDMA) system using multicode (MCD) and variable-spreading gain (VSG) transmission in the uplink. Specifically, we present two sets of results. First, we consider an ideal additive white Gaussian noise channel. We show that the bit-error rate (BER) of VSG users is slightly lower than that of MCD users if the number of low-rate interferers is smaller than a specific threshold. Otherwise, they exhibit similar error performance. Second, we look at multipath fading channels. We show that with diversity RAKE reception, the VSG user suffers from a larger interference power than the MCD user if the channel delay spread is small. The reverse is true for a large delay spread. However, a larger interference power in this case does not necessarily lead to higher error probability. Essentially, our results for both cases show that: 1) in addition to the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR), the difference in error performance between the two systems strongly depends on the distributions of multiple-access and multipath interference; 2) for practical cellular communications, performances for both systems are expected to be similar most of the time.     

Kinematic analysis of patients with spinal muscular atrophy during spontaneous breathing and mechanical ventilation

Dinoseb is a herbicide known to inhibit photosystem II electron transfer like DCMU, triazine and phenolic-type herbicides. The mutant Din7 of the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, selected for resistance to dinoseb, and the mutant Ins2, constructed by the insertion of the kanamycin resistance cassette into the drgA gene, were cross-resistant to other nitrophenolic herbicides (DNOC, 2,4-dinitrophenol) and to the cell inhibitor metronidazole but not to the photosystem II inhibitors DCMU or ioxynil. The Din7 mutant had the same characteristics of photosystem II inhibition by dinoseb as the wild type. This result suggested the existence of another site for dinoseb inhibition. The wild type cells modified dinoseb to a non-toxic product that gave an absorption spectrum similar to that of dithionite treated dinoseb containing reduced nitro groups. In contrast, the Din7 mutant did not modify dinoseb. These phenomena were controlled by the drgA gene encoding a protein which showed similarity to several enzymes having nitroreductase activity. The addition of superoxide dismutase to the medium relieved the toxic effect of dinoseb in wild type cells but not in Din7. It is proposed that in wild type cells of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 the DrgA protein is involved in detoxification of dinoseb via the reduction of the nitro group(s) and this process is accompanied by the formation of toxic superoxide anions. Mutations blocking the activity of the DrgA protein lead to the development of resistance to nitrophenolic herbicides and metronidazole.     

Field-dependence of the area-density of 'cold' electron emission sites on broad-area CVD diamond films

A high area density of field-induced electron emission sites has been observed on broad-area (12 mm in diameter) CVD diamond films deposited on molybdenum substrates. Furthermore, it was found that the density increased with the electric field applied to the surface of the films. These findings indicate that the CVD diamond film has to be seen as a potentially favoured candidate among electronic materials for the development of new types of cold cathode electron source.<>     

Enhanced reliability for low-temperature gate dielectric of MOS devices by N2O or NO plasma nitridation

Silicon MOS capacitors fabricated solely by low-temperature processes (under 600 °C) are treated with nitridation using N₂O or NO plasma. Their properties are investigated at room temperature under high-field stress. It is found that both kinds of plasmas are effective in improving the gate-oxide hardness against stress-induced damage, which is characterized by a smaller shift in flatband voltage and smaller increase in interface states after the stress. Moreover, NO-nitrided device shows better performance than N₂O-nitrided one. These results show that plasma nitridation has positive effects on the reliability of low-temperature-fabricated devices, which play an important role in flat-panel display systems on glass.     

Improving hydrogenation efficiency of polycrystalline silicon thin film transistors by a new approach

In this paper, a new hydrogenation process of poly-Si thin film for the fabrication of poly-Si thin film transistors (TFTs) is proposed. In the new approach, the hydrogenation of TFTs is performed before deposition of contact metal. N-channel and p-channel poly-Si TFTs with various channel lengths and widths were fabricated with the new and conventional processes for comparison. The results verified that the efficiency of hydrogenation has been improved remarkably by the new process. The field-effect mobility of carriers, the on state current, threshold voltage and the on/off states current ratio have been greatly improved, and the trap state density has been reduced significantly.     

Application of a model-based optimisation methodology for nutrient removing SBRs leads to falsification of the model.

Recently, a model-based optimisation methodology for SBR operation has been developed and an optimal operation scenario proposed to improve N and P removal in a pilot-scale SBR. In this study, this optimal operation scenario was implemented and evaluated. The results of the implementation showed that the SBR performance was improved by approximately 50 and 40% for total nitrogen and phosphorous removal, respectively, which was better than predicted by the model. However, the long-term SBR performance was found to be unstable, particularly owing to settling problems developed after the implementation. When confronted with reality, the model used for the optimisation of the operation was found to be invalid. The model was unable to predict the nitrite build-up provoked by the optimal operation scenario. These results imply that changing the operation of an SBR system using a model may significantly change the behaviour of the system beyond the (unknown) application domain of the model. This is simply because the mechanistic models currently do not cover all the aspects of activated sludge systems, e.g. settling and adaptation of the microbial community. To further improve model-application practices, expert knowledge (not contained in the models) can be valuable and should be incorporated into model-based process optimisations.