Measurement and modeling of self-heating in SOI nMOSFET's

Self-heating in SOI nMOSFET's is measured and modeled. Temperature rises in excess of 100 K are observed for SOI devices under static operating conditions. The measured temperature rise agrees well with the predictions of an analytical model and is a function of the silicon thickness, buried oxide thickness, and channel-metal contact separation. Under dynamic circuit conditions, the channel temperatures are much lower than predicted from the static power dissipation. This work provides the foundation for the extraction of device modeling parameters for dynamic operation (at constant temperature) from static device characterization data (where temperature varies widely). Self-heating does not greatly reduce the electromigration reliability of SOI circuits, but might influence SOI device design, e.g., requiring a thinner buried oxide layer for particular applications and scaled geometries     

Pd-Ge contact to n-GaAs with the TiW diffusion barrier

Pd-Ge based ohmic contact to n-GaAs with a TiW diffusion barrier was investigated. Electrical analysis as well as Auger electron spectroscopy and the scanning electron microscopy were used to study the contact after it was subjected to different furnace and rapid thermal annealing and different aging steps. All analyses show that TiW can act as a good barrier metal for the Au/Ge/Pd/n-GaAs contact system. A value of 1.45 × 10⁻⁶ Ω-cm² for the specific contact resistance was obtained for the Au/TiW/Ge/Pd/n-GaAs contact after it was rapid thermally annealed at 425°C for 90 s. It can withstand a thermal aging at 350°C for 40 h with its ρ_c increasing to 2.94 × 10⁻⁶Ω-cm² and for an aging at 410°C for 40 h with its ρ_c increasing to 1.38 × 10⁻⁵ Ω-cm².     

Resilient metal spring network silicone-matrix composite for separable interconnections

Resilient metal spring silicone-matrix conducting composites for separable interconnections in electronics were fabricated by the impregnation of silicone into a preform comprising randomly oriented C-shaped Cu-Be springs and a small proportion of Sn-Pb solder, which served to connect the springs at some of their intersections. Composites containing 6.1-9.8 vol.% total filler exhibited volume electrical resistivity 0.5-1.0 mΩ.cm and contact resistivity (with copper) 11-17 mΩ.cm². A compressive stress of about 30 kPa was needed for the low contact resistivity to be reached. The volume 17-26% and the contact resistivity increased by 5% after heating in air at 130-150°C for seven days. Composites containing <9 vol.% total filler showed no stress relaxation for seven days at 6.0% strain.     

A New Variable Diffusion Drying Model for the Second Falling Rate Period of Paddy Dried in a Rapid Bin Dryer

The objectives of this article is to propose a new drying model for the second falling rate period known as the variable diffusion controlled period that follows after the first falling rate period and to propose a new method to determine the second critical moisture content that separates these two periods. Experimental work on paddy drying at minimum fluidization velocity was carried out in a rapid bin dryer. The effects of operating temperatures (60-120°C) and bed depths (2-6 cm) on the paddy drying characteristics were investigated. It was found that the normalized drying rate of paddy was proportional to the normalized moisture content in the first falling rate period but in the second falling rate period, the normalized drying rate of the material varies exponentially with the normalized moisture content. The different relationship between the normalized drying rate and the normalized moisture content in the first and second falling rate periods indicate that two different mechanism of moisture transport are at work. The new exponential model of the second falling rate period and the linear model of the first falling rate period were found to fit the experimental data very well. Derivation from variable diffusion equation shows that the linear model is the result of constant diffusion coefficient whereas the new exponential model is the result of linear diffusion coefficient. This also implies that the first falling rate period is a constant diffusion controlled period and the second falling rate period is a variable diffusion controlled period. In addition, drying kinetics data of a drying process that fits the exponential model over a very slow drying period will show that the drying process is under the effect of a linear diffusion coefficient. It was also found that the proposed new method to determine the second critical moisture content that distinguishes between the first and second falling rate periods by using a sudden change in the value of the drying rate gradient to a much lower value at that point is more rigorous and yet simpler than the method of determining the specific location of the receding drying boundary since it is based on the behavior of the actual drying kinetic data.     

A new predictive search area approach for fast block motion estimation

According to the observation on the distribution of motion differentials among the motion vector of any block and those of its four neighboring blocks from six real video sequences, this paper presents a new predictive search area approach for fast block motion estimation. Employing our proposed simple predictive search area approach into the full search (FS) algorithm, our improved FS algorithm leads to 93.83% average execution-time improvement ratio, but only has a small estimation accuracy degradation. We also investigate the advantages of computation and estimation accuracy of our improved FS algorithm when compared to the edge-based search algorithm of Chan and Siu (see IEEE Trans. Image Processing, vol.10, p.1223-1238, Aug. 2001); experimental results reveal that our improved FS algorithm has 74.33% average execution-time improvement ratio and has a higher estimation accuracy. Finally, we further compare the performance among our improved FS algorithm, the three-step search algorithm, and the block-based gradient descent search algorithm.     

Electrotunable Non‐reciprocal Laser Emission from a Liquid‐Crystal Photonic Device

A liquid crystal (LC) photonic device with an anisotropic optical heterojunction structure has been fabricated. The device has a phase‐retarding nematic LC (NLC) layer sandwiched between two polymer cholesteric LC films with right‐handed helices of different pitches. Electrotunable non‐reciprocal light transmittance and unidirectional circularly polarized (CP) lasing emission have been successfully demonstrated for this device structure. Two left CP (LCP) lasing emission peaks are observed at the edges of the overlapping region between the two photonic bands in the structure and are shifted upon the application of a voltage. In contrast, a non‐reciprocal right CP (RCP) lasing emission peak emerges at one of the band edges and diminishes upon the application of a voltage. These phenomena are interpreted based on the selective reflection of RCP light and the reorientation of the NLC molecules by the application of a voltage.