Synthesis of silicon oxynitride from a polymeric precursor

Proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR) spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and gas chromatography (GC) have been used to study the products of ammonolysis of dichloromethylsilane in diethyl ether at 0 °C. Results indicate that the major products are trimethylcyclotrisilazane and tetramethylcyclotetrasilazane. Hydrolysis of the cyclosilazanes has also been qualitatively investigated. A simple and useful method for the identification of cyclosilazanes has been developed using the ¹H NMR technique.     

The hydration phase and pore structure formation in the blends of sulfoaluminate-belite cement with Portland cement

Sulfoaluminate-belite (SAB) cements are an attractive class of low-energy cements from the viewpoint of saving energy and releasing less CO₂ into the atmosphere during their production. Their hydraulic activity, however, does not match that of the ordinary Portland cement (PC) and needs improvement before they can be used on their own. However, SAB cements when blended with PC have the potential to be used effectively in traditional applications as shown by this study. Mortars made with blends of SAB cements and PC, and a cement-to-sand ratio of 1:3 by weight and a water-to-cement ratio of 0.5, indicate a superior protection against corrosion of steel to those made with blends of PC and blast-furnace slag (BFSPC). The prepared mortars were stored at 20 °C for 90 days under either a 60% relative humidity (RH)-dry air, or 100% RH-wet air conditions. With further improvement in the SAB cement quality through better understanding of their characteristics, a genuine competition between SAB/PC and BFSPC can be expected in practice.     

Testability-analysis driven test-generation of analogue cores

A new definition of the testability transfer factor for circuit components that provides better sensitivity with respect to parametric deviations is presented. New equations for the testability measures in a mixed-signal core are given. Testability analysis is used for test-pattern generation and for consideration of inserting wrapper cells. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the approach.     

Asymptotic stress intensity factor density profiles for smeared-tip method for cohesive fracture

The paper presents a computational approach and numerical data which facilitate the use of the smeared-tip method for cohesive fracture in large enough structures. In the recently developed K-version of the smeared tip method, the large-size asymptotic profile of the stress intensity factor density along a cohesive crack is considered as a material characteristic, which is uniquely related to the softening stress-displacement law of the cohesive crack. After reviewing the K-version, an accurate and efficient numerical algorithm for the computation of this asymptotic profile is presented. The algorithm is based on solving a singular Abel's integral equation. The profiles corresponding to various typical softening stress-displacement laws of the cohesive crack model are computed, tabulated and plotted. The profiles for a certain range of other typical softening laws can be approximately obtained by interpolation from the tables. Knowing the profile, one can obtain with the smeared-tip method an analytical expression for the large-size solution to fracture problems, including the first two asymptotic terms of the size effect law. Consequently, numerical solutions of the integral equations of the cohesive crack model as well as finite element simulations of the cohesive crack are made superfluous. However, when the fracture process zone is attached to a notch or to the body surface and the cohesive zone ends with a stress jump, the solution is expected to be accurate only for large-enough structures.     

Graft copolymerization of different mixtures of acrylic monomers on amylopectin. Swelling behavior

Hydroxylic and nonhydroxylic acrylates—methyl acrylate (MA), ethyl acrylate (EA), butylacrylate (BA), hydroxypropyl methacrylate (HPMA), ethylenglycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA), and mixtures of HPMA–MA, HPMA–EA, HPMA–BA in a 50/50 feed composition—were grafted onto amylopectin with different amounts of crosslinking agent, EGDMA. Percent of total conversion, percent crude grafting, and influence of pH in water content were studied. In this sense it was only at pH 10 when a real variation in the water content could be seen. It was also proved that the highest values were obtained when one of the comonomers was EGDMA with a 34 mol% of the initial feed composition. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Sphere Lower Bound for Rotated Lattice Constellations in Fading Channels

We study the error probability performance of rotated lattice constellations in frequency-flat Nakagami-m block-fading channels. In particular, we use the sphere lower bound on the underlying infinite lattice as a performance benchmark. We show that the sphere lower bound has full diversity. We observe that optimally rotated lattices with largest known minimum product distance perform very close to the lower bound, while the ensemble of random rotations is shown to lack diversity and perform far from it.     

Influence of deposition parameters on hole mobility in polymorphous silicon

Time-of-flight transient photoconductivity measurements reveal a monotonic increase with the deposition pressure in the hole mobility in polymorphous silicon for samples deposited under hydrogen dilution. With helium dilution, a maximum mobility that matches the highest value from H-dilution samples is measured at the intermediate pressure of 1.4 Torr. The deposition rate of those samples is twice the rate for the H-dilution ones. For the samples with the best hole mobilities, the valence-band tail is comparable to the one of standard hydrogenated amorphous silicon.     

Phase method for monitoring the permittivity of different media

A nondestructive method was developed for rapidly monitoring the permittivities of solid, liquid, and gaseous materials, based on measuring the phase difference of signals passing along two transmission lines and comparing the parameters of the “standard” and “investigated” media. The design of a volume-integral microwave transducer is considered together with its operating principle and its range of application. Translated from Izmeritel'naya Tekhnika, No. 4, pp. 53–55, April, 1996.     

Josephson junction with an amorphous silicon barrier

A Josephson junction Nb/Si/Nb with a 10 nm thick amorphous silicon barrier is studied. The upper electrode contains a 2 nm thick sublayer of amorphous phase adjacent to the barrier, as revealed by cross-sectional TEM. Thus, the junction can be considered as a S-I-N-S system with the N layer represented by amorphous niobium. Peculiarities in the I–V and Δ(T) dependencies are observed and explained as a consequence of a proximity effect present in the upper electrode.