High performance of silicided silicon-sidewall source and drain (S4D) structure

A silicided silicon-sidewall source and drain (S⁴D) structure is proposed for sub-0.1-μm devices. The merit of the S⁴D structure is that the series resistance of the source and drain is significantly reduced since the silicide layer is attached very close to the gate electrode and the silicon sidewall can be doped very highly. Thus, very high drain current drive can be expected, Another advantage of this structure is that the source and drain extensions are produced by the solid-phase diffusion of boron from the highly doped silicon-sidewall. Thus, shallow extensions with very high doping can be realized. A 75-nm gate length pMOSFET fabricated with this structure is shown to exhibit excellent electrical characteristics     

P-MOSFET's with ultra-shallow solid-phase-diffused drain structureproduced by diffusion from BSG gate-sidewall

A p-MOSFET structure with solid-phase diffused drain (SPDD) is proposed for future 0.1-μm and sub-0.1-μm devices. Highly doped ultrashallow p⁺ source and drain junctions have been obtained by solid-phase diffusion from a highly doped borosilicate glass (BSG) sidewall. The resulting shallow, high-concentration drain profile significantly improves short channel effects without increasing parasitic resistance. At the same time, an in situ highly-boron-doped LPCVD polysilicon gate is introduced to prevent the transconductance degradation which arises in ultrasmall p-MOSFETs with lower process temperature as a result of depletion formation in the p⁺-polysilicon gate. Excellent electrical characteristics and good hot-carrier reliability are achieved     

Preparation of nickel-tungstate catalysts by a novel impregnation method

Nickel-tungstate/γ-alumina (NiW) catalysts were prepared by an incipient wetness impregnation method using citric acid as a complexing agent. Citric acid has been used by our research group in preparing cobalt-molybdate and nickel -molybdate catalysts. The extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) data of the impregnating solutions indicated that citric acid contributes to the formation of polytungstate anions that are smaller than the dodecatungstate ions formed when conventional ammoniacal solutions are used. Sulfided NiW catalysts prepared by using citric acid showed higher hydrogenation activity and hydrogenation selectivity than NiW catalysts prepared using the conventional ammoniacal solutions.     

Preparation of alumina and alumina-silica powders by wire explosion resulting from electric discharge

Wires of aluminium and aluminium-silicon alloys containing 5.2 and 12.1 wt% Si were exploded in air by electric discharge, and the properties of the powders obtained were examined. The powders consisted of large particles of several micrometres and very fine spherical ones, which were formed from the metallic droplets and vapours, respectively, and were mostly oxidized. The large particles decreased with an increase in the charged energy. Although the particle-size distribution was broad, the average particle sizes were small and were increased from 0.7 m to 1.3 m with an increase in the charged energy. These powders were identified as -alumina, amorphous alumina-silica compound and a small amount of the metal. The amorphous phase crystallized to mullite in the temperature range 1153–1243 K, and the crystallization temperature fell with increase in the charged energy because the amount of fine particles formed from the vapours increased.     

Accelerated Discovery of Potent Bioactive anti-TNFα Aptamers by Microbead-Assisted Capillary Electrophoresis (MACE)-SELEX

Dysregulation of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα), a pro-inflammatory cytokine, causes several diseases, making it an important therapeutic target. Here, we identified a novel DNA aptamer against human TNFα using in vitro selection, which included a high exclusion pressure process against non-binding and weak binders through microbead-assisted capillary electrophoresis (MACE) in only three rounds. Among the 15 most enriched aptamers, Apt14 exhibited the highest inhibitory activity for the interaction between TNFα and its cognate receptor in mouse L929 cells. For further improving the bioactivity of the aptamer, dimerization programed by hybridization was evaluated, resulting in the Apt14 dimer exhibited a twofold higher binding affinity and stronger inhibition compared to the monomer counterpart. Rapid identification of bioactive aptamers using MACE in combination with facile dimerization by hybridization accelerates the discovery of novel bioactive aptamers, paving the way toward replacing current monoclonal antibody therapy with the less expensive and non-immunogenic aptamer therapy.     

High-average-power femtosecond KrF excimer laser

Development of high-peak and high-average-power ultrashort pulse KrF excimer lasers is described. Technical issues of KrF excimer as the amplifying medium for the ultrashort pulses are dramatically improved, resulting in a 50 W average power with a pulse width of 480 fs at 200 Hz repetition rate     

A Genetic Algorithm Approach to Solving Stochastic Job-shop Scheduling Problems

This paper proposes a method for solving stochastic job-shop scheduling problems based on a genetic algorithm. The genetic algorithm was expanded for stochastic programming. In this expansion, the fitness function is regarded as representing fluctuations that may occur under stochastic circumstances specified by the distribution functions of stochastic variables. In this study, the Roulette strategy is adopted for selecting the optimum solution in terms of the expected value. Within this algorithm, it is expected that the individual that appears most frequently must give the optimum solution. The effectiveness of this approach is confimed by applying it to stochastic job-shop scheduling problems. I compare the approximately optimum solutions found by this approach with the truly or approximately optimum solutions obtained by other conventional methods, and discuss the performance and effectiveness of this approach.     

A system for synchronizing the nods of a CG character and a human using thermal image processing and a moving-average model

The purpose of this study was to develop a system for communication between a human and a computer generated (CG) character to make him or her more peaceful and cheerful. Nonverbal communication using such things as facial expression, a nod, or a hand gesture is very important for reciprocal communication between humans. In this study, an image registered by infrared rays which describes the thermal distribution of the face and neck has been used to develop a system for communication between a human and a CG character. The CG character can synchronize its nod with a person’s nod by predicting his or her nod angle. The measured feature parameter is input to a fuzzy algorithm system to obtain the nod angle of a person in front of an infrared camera, and then a moving-average model is used to predict the nod angle of the person. The average error of the nod angle obtained by the system has been estimated as about 5°. The CG character nods its head, not only when the human nods his or her head, but also when the human shakes his or her head to the left or right.