A 1.6-GByte/s DRAM with flexible mapping redundancy technique andadditional refresh scheme

We implemented 72-Mb direct Rambus DRAM with new memory architecture suitable for multibank. There are two novel schemes: flexible mapping redundancy (FMR) technique and additional refresh scheme. This paper shows that multibank reduces redundancy area efficiency. But with the FMR technique, this 16-bank DRAM realizes the same area efficiency as a single-bank DRAM. In other words, FMR reduces chip area by 13%. This paper also describes that additional refresh scheme reduces data retention power to 1/4. Its area efficiency is about four times better than that of the conventional redundancy approach     

Effect of a dietary supplement containing glucosamine hydrochloride, chondroitin sulfate and quercetin glycosides on symptomatic knee osteoarthritis: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study

BACKGROUND: Oral glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate, alone and in combination, have been used worldwide for the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA), but their efficacy is controversial. This clinical study was aimed at investigating the potential of a dietary supplement containing glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate in combination with derivatives of quercetin, a naturally occurring flavonoid, (GCQ supplement) for knee OA care. RESULTS: A randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled study was conducted in 40 Japanese subjects with symptomatic knee OA. Subjects were randomly assigned to GCQ supplement (1200 mg glucosamine hydrochloride, 60 mg chondroitin sulfate and 45 mg quercetin glycosides per day) or placebo and the treatment and follow‐up were continued for 16 weeks. The results of symptomatic efficacy assessment based on Japanese Orthopaedic Association criteria showed that scores for two of the four symptom/function subscales, as well as the aggregate scores, were significantly improved at week 16 or earlier in the GCQ group compared to the placebo group. Moreover, analyses of cartilage metabolism biomarkers showed a trend of improvement in type II collagen synthesis/degradation balance in the GCQ group during follow‐up. CONCLUSION: GCQ supplement was thought to be more effective than placebo in decreasing the intensity of knee OA‐associated clinical symptoms. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry     

Pervaporation of methanol/dimethyl carbonate using SiO2 membranes with nano‐tuned pore sizes and surface chemistry

Porous silica membranes with different pore sizes (average pore size: 0.3–1.2 nm) and surface chemistry were prepared from SiO₂, steam‐treated SiO₂, SiO₂? ZrO₂, and SiO₂? TiO₂ by sol‐gel processing, and were applied to the pervaporation (PV) separation of methanol (MeOH) /dimethyl carbonate (DMC) mixtures at 50°C. Although SiO₂? ZrO₂ membranes demonstrated a separation factor of <10, the SiO₂ porous membranes had an increased separation factor from 10–160. Silica membranes with an average pore size of 0.3 nm showed the highest permselectivity of methanol with a separation factor of 140 and a methanol flux of 180 mol/(m²h) for MeOH 50 mol% at 50°C. To characterize the surface property of SiO₂ membranes, SiO₂ powdered samples were used for an adsorption experiment of vapor (MeOH, DMC) in single and mixed systems, revealing increased MeOH selective adsorption for SiO₂ powders with hydrophilic and small pores, which was consistent with PV performance. © 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2011     

Formation of anisotropic diffraction gratings in a polymer-dispersed liquid crystal by polarization modulation using a spatial light modulator

Anisotropic diffraction gratings based on a holographic polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (HPDLC) are realized by interferometric exposure using a spatial light modulator (SLM). The SLM is used in the HPDLC grating formation for anisotropic holographic recordings of two-dimensional polarization states for an incident light beam. The diffraction efficiency for P-polarization and the distinctive ratio of diffraction efficiency in P-polarization to that in S-polarization increases with the signal level applied to the SLM. The resulting volume gratings exhibit diffraction efficiency of more than 60% and a distinctive ratio of diffraction over 100. The microscopic origin of the anisotropic property is investigated by an optical polarizing microscope. The novel characteristics of the anisotropic diffraction properties of HPDLC are applied to an image reconstruction technique.     

Sensitive detection and identification of organic liquids using the second derivative of surface plasmon resonance near-infrared spectra

Sensitive detection of near-infrared (NIR) spectra of several organic liquids has been carried out by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) NIR spectroscopy. For all the liquids, 50- to 100-fold enhancements of the absorption peaks were obtained in the combination band region 4500-4000 cm(-1) using a gold film with a thickness of 14 nm. The SPR peak shows up as an unnecessary broadband peak or trend in an SPR-NIR spectrum, and it was difficult to separate it from the absorption signals. In order to remove the contribution of SPR from the raw SPR-NIR spectrum, the second-order derivative has been employed. The second derivative of the SPR-NIR spectrum was reasonably comparable to that of the corresponding transmittance spectrum. Two simple algorithms for sample identification from the second-derivative data have been proposed. One is similarity, which directly compares the second-derivative spectrum of an unknown sample with that of a known reference sample. The other is fitness, which is defined as a ratio of the common part of absorption peak wavenumbers of the sample and the reference. Although both methods are unfit for the identification of a minor component in a mixture, a major component can be definitely identified by choosing an informative wavenumber region. It was found that the wavenumber region 4250-4080 cm(-1) is especially useful for the identification of similar molecules such as normal alkanes.     

Potential of far-ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy as a highly sensitive analysis method for aqueous solutions. Part II: monitoring the quality of semiconductor wafer cleaning solutions using attenuated total reflection

Far-ultraviolet (FUV) spectroscopy combined with attenuated total reflection (ATR) is employed for direct measurement of the concentrations of semiconductor wafer cleaning fluids such as SC-1 (aqueous solution of NH(3) and H(2)O(2)) and SC-2 (aqueous solution of HCl and H(2)O(2)). FUV spectra of these aqueous solutions in the 170-200 nm region are highly sensitive to changes in both hydrogen bonding and hydration. Although ATR measurement results in lower absorptivity compared to transmittance measurement, it is possible to increase absorption with greater evanescent wave penetration depth using a low refractive index internal reflection element (IRE). We adopt quartz as an IRE material. Since the refractive index of quartz becomes lower than that of water in the low energy side of an intense absorption band due to the n --> sigma* transition of water, the quartz IRE yields non-total reflection wavelength regions. However, near 175 nm the effective absorptivity of the tail of water's absorption band can be successfully enlarged, making the FUV-ATR technique suitable for measuring the concentrations of the components in the semiconductor wafer cleaning fluids. In the present study we prepared the same cleaning fluids as those used in actual semiconductor fabrication and measured their FUV-ATR spectra in the 150-300 nm wavelength range. It was found that even with the quartz IRE one can measure FUV-ATR spectra under total reflection conditions at 175 nm or above. We created calibration models for predicting both NH(3) and H(2)O(2) in the concentration ranges of 0-10% in SC-1 using multiple linear regression (MLR). The standard deviations of the models were 0.033% and 0.265% for NH(3) and H(2)O(2), respectively. The same procedure was repeated under the same conditions for HCl and H(2)O(2) in SC-2, yielding corresponding values of 0.018% for HCl and 0.178% for H(2)O(2).     

Applicability of clinker ash as fill material in steel strip-reinforced soil walls

The generation of coal ash by coal-fired thermal power plants has increased in recent years. This study focuses on the use of a type of coal ash, clinker ash, in place of sandy soil as a fill material in soil structures. Clinker ash is an excellent geomaterial to use as backfill for soil structures because it is lightweight and has high shear strength and permeability. In this study, to determine the applicability of clinker ash as a backfill material for steel strip-reinforced soil walls, a series of laboratory pullout tests was conducted on different types of clinker ash to investigate the pullout behaviour of a ribbed strip from a layer of clinker ash and to evaluate the influence of the overburden pressure and the degree of compaction on the maximum pullout resistance. The correlation between the physical properties of clinker ash and the maximum pullout resistance was investigated on the basis of the test results. Additionally, the results of the pullout tests were compared with those of in-situ pullout tests. Furthermore, the usefulness of clinker ash was evaluated by applying the pullout test results to the standard design method for reinforced soil walls and comparing the results with the material constants for commonly used sandy soil. The main conclusions of the study are as follows: (1) The tests performed here confirmed that clinker ash has excellent frictional properties compared with sandy soil. (2) The frictional properties of clinker ash exceed the proposed design values given in the manual describing the reinforced soil wall method. (3) The application of clinker ash in reinforced soil walls is effective from the viewpoint of frictional properties.     

Development of DNP-Enhanced High-Resolution Solid-State NMR System for the Characterization of the Surface Structure of Polymer Materials

A dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP)-enhanced cross-polarization/magic-angle spinning (DNP/CP/MAS) NMR system has been developed by combining a 200 MHz Chemagnetics CMX-200 spectrometer operating at 4.7 T with a high-power 131.5 GHz Gyrotron FU CW IV. The 30 W sub-THz wave generated in a long pulse TE ₄₁⁽¹⁾ _{{41}}^{{(1)}} mode with a frequency of 5 Hz was successfully transmitted to the modified Doty Scientific low-temperature CP/MAS probe through copper smooth-wall circular waveguides. Since serious RF noises on NMR signals by arcing in the electric circuit of the probe and undesired sample heating were induced by the continuous sub-THz wave pulse irradiation with higher powers, the on-off sub-THz wave pulse irradiation synchronized with the NMR detection was developed and the appropriate setting of the irradiation time and the cooling time corresponding to the non-irradiation time was found to be very effective for the suppression of the arcing and the sample heating. The attainable maximum DNP enhancement was more than 30 folds for C1 ¹³ C-enriched D-glucose dissolved in the frozen medium containing mono-radical 4-amino-TEMPO. The first DNP/CP/MAS ¹³ C NMR spectra of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) sub-micron particles were obtained at the dispersed state in the same frozen medium, indicating that DNP-enhanced ¹H spins effectively diffuse from the medium to the PMMA particles through their surface and are detected as high-resolution ¹³ C spectra in the surficial region to which the ¹H spins reach. On the basis of these results, the possibility of the DNP/CP/MAS NMR characterization of the surface structure of nanomaterials including polymer materials was discussed.     

An experimental 295 MHz CMOS 4K×256 SRAM using bidirectionalread/write shared sense amps and self-timed pulsed word-linedrivers

An experimental 4 K word by 256 b CMOS synchronous SRAM employing read/write shared sense amplifiers and self-timed pulsed word-lines is described. The read/write shared sense amplifier allows the RAM to have 256 I/Os and the self-timed pulsed word-line scheme reduces power consumption. Fully differential I/O buses, laid out in fourth metal over the memory cell arrays, use a 0.3 V differential swing. The SRAM is fabricated in a 0.35 μm four-layer metal CMOS process employing a 6-T SRAM cell measuring 5.2 μm×6.6 μm. The die measures 13.22 mm×4.80 mm. The SRAM operates at 295 MHz with a 3.3 V supply, achieving a bandwidth of 9.44 Gbyte/s