Defocusing image to pattern contact holes using attenuated phase shift masks

The patterning of contact holes by selecting out-of-focus image plane (defocus) using attenuated phase shift masks (APSM) has been studied. Defocus is found to enhance the image modulation at low partial coherence for contact holes with negative local average of mask function. Semi-dense holes up to 130 nm in 8% APSM have been printed by 0.5 μm defocus at a partial coherence of 0.31 using KrF scanner with highest numerical aperture of 0.68. However, these holes were closed with in-focus imaging. Defocus is also found to be beneficial for patterning the pitches that have extensive side lobes with in-focus imaging.     

Frequency domain identification of Wiener models

This paper proposes a frequency domain algorithm for Wiener model identifications based on exploring the fundamental frequency and harmonics generated by the unknown nonlinearity. The convergence of the algorithm is established in the presence of white noise. No a priori knowledge of the structure of the nonlinearity is required and the linear part can be nonparametric.     

Improving Communication in E-democracy Using Natural Language Processing

E-democracy, the design and development of new techniques for improving communication between public administration and citizens, is a major application field for natural language processing and language engineering. Helping citizens access information in a friendly, intuitive way is the primary objective of a global e-democracy framework. The E-democracy European Network project (EDEN) aimed at discovering whether a particular NLP (natural language processing) approach could further e-democracy by increasing citizens' participation in the decision-making process. The goal was twofold: to test whether e-democracy requirements could be meet using advanced linguistic technology and to test whether augmented phrase structure grammars (APSGs) were robust and well-assessed enough to use in a real-world environment. Also, the aim is to develop two toolsets to improve communication between PAs and citizens in the context of urban planning: a set of NLP-based tools to simplify access to information and knowledge and a set of forum and polling devices     

Complete mobile email management

Years have lapsed since the inauguration of the first Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) application. One of the main reasons for the lukewarm response so far may be attributed to the lack of a “Killer” application. Many companies and developers have attempted to replicate email services (an Internet Killer appplication) within the WAP realm, but till now, no significant success has been reported. This paper will first discuss on the key functions which are lacking in the present WAP-email service, and which are arguably necessary if a much larger user base is to be attracted to these services. A new system will be proposed which can enable the user to send files residing in a remote personal computer (PC) as attachments to his emails using WAP-enabled mobile devices. The implementation of the system will be presented in details. Issue relating to the connection to various types of email servers and the security of the system will also be addressed in the paper.     

Interaction bounds in multivariable control systems

Time-domain limitations due to right half-plane zeros and poles in linear multivariable control systems are studied. Lower bounds on the interaction are derived. They show not only how the location of zeros and poles are critical in multivariable systems, but also how the zero and pole directions influence the performance. The results are illustrated on the quadruple-tank process, which is a new multivariable laboratory process.