Electrical characteristics of highly reliable ultrathin hafniumoxide gate dielectric

Electrical and reliability properties of ultrathin HfO₂ have been investigated. Pt electroded MOS capacitors with HfO₂ gate dielectric (physical thickness ~45-135 Å and equivalent oxide thickness ~13.5-25 Å) were fabricated. HfO₂ was deposited using reactive sputtering of a Hf target with O₂ modulation technique. The leakage current of the 45 Å HfO₂ sample was about 1×10^-4 A/cm ² at +1.0 V with a breakdown field ~8.5 MV/cm. Hysteresis was <100 mV after 500°C annealing in N₂ ambient and there was no significant frequency dispersion of capacitance (<1%/dec.). It was also found that HfO₂ exhibits negligible charge trapping and excellent TDDB characteristics with more than ten years lifetime even at V_DD=2.0 V     

Nifedipine-induced gingival overgrowth in rats: brief review and experimental study

The first case report of gingival overgrowth induced by nifedipine (NIF), a calcium-beta blocker, was in 1984. However, the association between gingival alterations and the drug therapy of sodium diphenyl hydantoinate was initially described in 1939. The purpose of the experimental study was to examine the effect of NIF on gingival morphology in an animal model. Forty-five male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 3 groups. Animals in each group daily received NIF in dimethyl sulfoxide by gastric feeding at a dosage of 0 (control), 30, or 50 mg/kg body weight for 9 weeks. Gingival gross morphology was assessed tri-weekly from stone models obtained from the mandibular incisal region. Animals were sacrificed at the end of study and tissue blocks were processed for histopathologic and histometric evaluation. Histometric analysis was performed at 5 selected tissue levels. Macro- and microscopic significantly increased gingival dimensions were demonstrated in NIF-treated animals compared to control. Although a fibrovascular tissue was observed in the tooth-gingiva interface for both NIF-treated and control animals, it was thicker and appeared earlier in NIF-treated animals. The results of the present study suggest that gingival overgrowth can be induced by NIF in rats and that the gingival overgrowth appears dose dependent.     

Warm-temperature tensile ductility in Al−Mg alloys

Several binary and ternary Al alloys containing from 2.8 to 5.5 wt pct Mg were tested in tension at elevated temperatures (200°C to 500°C) over a range of strain rates (10⁻⁴ to 2.0 s⁻¹). Tensile ductilities of up to 325 pct were obtained in binary Al−Mg alloys with coarse grains deformed in the solute-drag creep regime. Under test conditions in which solute-drag creep controls deformation, Mg in concentrations from 2.8 to 5.5 wt pct neither affects tensile ductility nor influences strain-rate sensitivity or flow stress significantly. Strength is shown to increase with increasing Mg concentration, however, in the power-law-break down regime. The solute-drag creep process, which leads to superplastic-like elongations, is shown to have no observable grain-size dependence in a binary Al−Mg material. Ternary alloying additions of Mn and Zr are shown to decrease the strain-rate sensitivity during solute-drag creep, negatively influencing ductility. An important cause of reduced ductility in the ternary alloys during creep deformation is found to be a transition from necking-controlled failure in the binary alloys to cavitation-controlled failure in the ternary alloys investigated. An increase in ternary element concentration, which can increase the relative volume percentage of proeutectic products, increases cavitation.     

Superplasticity in intermetallic alloys and ceramics

Surprisingly, certain materials which are commonly seen as brittle may exhibit superplastic behavior under the proper conditions, and the ability to use superplastic forming methods on intermetallics and ceramics opens a realm of possibilities. By using unique processing techniques, superplasticity has been observed in such advanced materials as nickel silicides (Ni₃Si), yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia (YTZ) and an Al₂O₃-reinforced YTZ composite (Al₂O₃/YTZ).     

New regime of homogeneous flow in the deformation map of metallic glasses: elevated temperature nanoindentation experiments and mechanistic modeling

The character of plastic deformation in metallic glasses is investigated through instrumented nanoindentation experiments on amorphous Pd₄₀Ni₄₀P₂₀ and Mg₆₅Cu₂₅Gd₁₀. Using a customized experimental apparatus, nanoindentation experiments have been conducted over four decades of indentation strain rate and from ambient temperature up to the glass transition, allowing rapid evaluation of an extensive deformation map with only small volumes of experimental material. At low rates and temperatures, inhomogeneous or serrated flow is observed, owing to the discrete operation of individual shear bands. Two distinct regimes of homogeneous flow can be identified. The first, expected, regime of homogeneous flow corresponds to the onset of viscous deformation at high temperatures and low rates, and is well described by existing mechanistic models. The second homogeneous regime occurs at high deformation rates even well below the glass transition, and arises when deformation rates exceed the characteristic rate for shear band nucleation, kinetically forcing strain distribution. By extending an existing model for glass deformation to explore shear band nucleation kinetics, this second regime is quantitatively rationalized and the natural frequency for shear band nucleation is extracted from the data. From this analysis the critical radius of a shear band as it transitions from nucleation to propagation is estimated to be in the submicron range.     

论化学气相沉积（CVD）金刚石技术最新发展

描述了国内外化学气相沉积（CVD）金刚石技术研究及产业最新进展,介绍了CVD金刚石的基本生产方法、加工手段、产品类型及应用领域。通过对国内外CVD金刚石技术及产品研究最新进展情况的介绍,指出了我国与世界先进的（CVD）金刚石技术存在的差距．阐述了CVD金刚石市场发展存在的问题并提出改进的建议。