A negative Vth cell architecture for highly scalable,excellently noise-immune, and highly reliable NAND flash memories

A new, negative V_th cell architecture is proposed where both the erased and the programmed state have negative V_th. This architecture realizes highly scalable, excellently noise-immune, and highly reliable NAND flash memories. The program disturbance that limits the scaling of a local oxidation of silicon (LOCOS) width in a conventional NAND-type cell is drastically reduced. As a result, the scaling limit of the LOCOS width decreases from 0.56 to 0.45 μm, which leads to 20% isolation width reduction. The proposed cell is essential for the future scaled shallow trench isolated cells because improved program disturb characteristics can be obtained irrespective of the process technology or feature size. New circuit techniques, such as a PMOS drive column latch and a V_cc-bit-line shield sensing method are also utilized to realize the proposed cell operation. By using these novel circuit technologies, array noise, such as a source-line noise and an inter bit line capacitive coupling noise, are eliminated. Consequently, the V_th fluctuation due to array noise is reduced from 0.7 to 0.1 V, and the V_th distribution width decreases from 1.2 to 0.6 V. In addition to the smaller cell size and the high noise immunity, the proposed cell improves device reliability. The read disturb time increases by more than three orders of magnitude, and a highly reliable operation can be realized     

Molecular dynamics simulation of pressure effect on phase transition behaviour and dynamics in the isotropic and discotic nematic phases

Molecular dynamics simulation was performed at constant temperature and pressure to investigate the effect of pressure on molecular dynamics for disc-shaped molecules. The generic Gay-Berne model, GB(0.345, 5.0, 1, 3), was used to study the phase transition behaviour, and translational and rotational dynamics, under two different reduced pressures P^?, 10.0 and 20.0. Obvious shifts were detected in the transition temperatures. Both systems have the same phase sequence with different pressures: isotropic, discotic nematic and columnar phases. Translational motion is characterised by the parallel and perpendicular components of diffusion coefficients, with respect to the director in the orientational ordered phase. With regard to rotational dynamics, the correlation time of the first-rank orientational time autocorrelation function, which corresponds to end-over-end rotational motion of a molecule, has been investigated. A clear jump in the temperature dependence of the correlation time has been found at the isotropic-nematic phase transition point. The retardation factor g_|| as a function of the reduced temperature T^?/T_NI^? shows an apparent pressure effect on the rotational dynamics.     

Propagation Path Visibility Estimation for Radio Local Distribution Systems in Built-Up Areas

For the design of radio local distribution systems in densely built-up areas, estimating how many subscribers are in sight from a nodal station is important. This paper proposes a method for estimating probability of success of line-of-sight paths termed visibility. Method validity is confirmed bypractical field examinations.     

Ion-implanted and permalloy hybrid magnetic bubble memory devices

Hybrid bubble memory devices have been proposed and operated with the memory density of 4 Mbit/cm². In the hybrid bubble memory devices, minor loops are composed of ion-implanted tracks with 4-µm period, and major lines and functional parts including block-replicate and swap gates are composed of Permalloy tracks with a longer period of 12 µm. Passive junctions between ion-implanted and Permalloy tracks have been developed, introducing the tapered ion-implantation technique. Improving the characteristics of the functional parts composed of Permalloy tracks, the hybrid bubble memory devices with block-replicate and swap gates have been operated, and the feasibility of the devices has been confirmed. In addition, the possibility of higher memory density has been shown.     

Significant improvement of magnetic properties and corrosion resistance in evaporated Co-Ni recording media

An addition of a very small amount of Pr in Co-Ni films of a recording medium improves both corrosion resistance and frequency response. The columnar grains, which are induced by oblique incidence of evaporation, becomes remarkably finer by the addition of rare-earth elements. The TEM image of the cross section of the films shows a dense packed structure. High magnetization and a better corrosion resistance are considered to be due to the dense packed structure. The fine grain improves the frequency response. Among several rare-earth elements, especially Pr doping yields a best recording performance.     

Hermetic seal of ceramics and metals joints by an Al-Si interlayer

Journal of Materials Science Letters -     

Enhanced renal toxicity by inorganic mercury in metallothionein-null mice

To elucidate a protective role of metallothionein (MT) in the manifestation of inorganic mercury toxicity, we studied the susceptibility of MT-null mice to the renal toxicity of mercuric chloride. Because the MT-null (J) mice are a genetic background of 129/Sv strain, the 129/Sv mice were used as wild-type controls. Nine-week-old male MT-null (J) and 129/Sv mice were given subcutaneous injections of mercuric chloride at doses of 10 to 40 micromol/kg. The basal MT level in the kidney of MT-null (J) mice was undetectable (<0.2 microg/g of tissue) and approximately 2.5 microg/g of tissue in 129/Sv mice. The sensitivity to the renal toxicity of mercuric chloride was markedly enhanced in the MT-null (J) mice compared with the 129/Sv mice. The renal mercury level was similar for the MT-null (J) and 129/Sv mice at 4 hr after the injection of mercuric chloride (20 micromol/kg) but became significantly lower in MT-null (J) mice than in 129/Sv mice at 24 and 72 hr. Based on the present results, we conclude that MT is an important protective factor against the renal toxicity caused by inorganic mercury and that it may play a major role in the retention of mercury in the kidney.     

Bipolar transistor selected P-channel flash memory cell technology

A novel BIpolar Transistor Selected (BITS) P-channel flash memory cell is proposed, where a bipolar transistor embedded in the source region of the cell amplifies cell-read-current and acts as a select transistor. With this cell, not only a very low 1.5 V non-word-line-boosting read operation, but also a sector-erase operation are successfully achieved with only a small cell-size increase over the conventional NOR cell. Moreover, this cell technology maintains all the advantages of the P-channel DIvided-bit-line NOR (DINOR) flash memory     

Administration-time-dependent effects of diltiazem on the 24-hour blood pressure profile of essential hypertension patients

Cells of the central nervous system (CNS) normally do not express detectable levels of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) Class I antigens. However, MHC Class I expression can be induced after virus infection. We tested the hypothesis that virus-induced Class I expression is mediated by lymphocytes or cytokines using lymphocyte- and cytokine-deficient mice. We used Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus (TMEV), which induces CNS demyelination that maps genetically to the D region of MHC Class I and is associated with high levels of Class I products. TMEV infection of severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) and recombination activation gene-1-deficient mice, which lack B and T lymphocytes, resulted in equivalent H-2D and H-2K expression in brain and spinal cord, according to analysis of the area and intensity of immunoperoxidase staining. Class I antigens were demonstrated as early as 6 hours after infection, and they were more widely distributed than viral RNA, indicating that expression was induced indirectly via a soluble factor. To determine whether cytokines induced the expression, we infected mice lacking receptors for interferon-alpha/beta (IFN-alpha/beta R (-/-)), interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma R(-/-)), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFRp55(-/-)). TMEV-infected IFN-gamma R(-/-) and TN-FRp55(-/-) mice expressed Class I antigens in the CNS, whereas IFN-alpha/beta R(-/-) mice did not, establishing that IFN-alpha/beta mediated the expression. In contrast to the equivalent expression in SCID mice, we observed greater area and higher intensity of H-2D versus H-2K antigens in infected SCID mice reconstituted with normal spleen cells. Collectively, the data indicate that after TMEV infection, early generalized MHC Class I expression is mediated by IFN-alpha/beta independently of lymphocytes, but the differential regulation of H-2D over H-2K may be controlled by B and/or T lymphocytes.     

The effects of air pollution and climatic factors on atmospheric corrosion of marble under field exposure

The atmospheric corrosion of marble was evaluated in terms of SO₂ concentration as air pollution and climatic factors such as rainfall, relative humidity, temperature and so on under the field exposure. Marble of calcite type (CaCO₃) was exposed to outdoor atmospheric environment with and without a rain shelter at four test sites in the southern part of Vietnam for 3-month, 1- and 2-year periods from July 2001 to September 2003. The thickness loss of marble was investigated gravimetrically. X-ray diffraction and X-ray fluorescent methods were applied to study corrosion products on marble. The corrosion product of marble was only gypsum (CaSO₄ · 2H₂O) and was washed out by rain under the unsheltered exposure condition. It was found that the most substantial factors influencing the corrosion of marble were rainfall, SO₂ concentration in the air and relative humidity. Based on the results obtained, we estimated the dose-response functions for the atmospheric corrosion of marble in the southern part of Vietnam.