Barrier layer effect of tantalum on the electromigration in sputtered copper films on hydrogen silsesguioxane and SiO2

As IC devices scale down to the submicron level, the resistance-capacitance (RC) time delays are the limitation to circuit speed. A solution is to use low dielectric constant materials and low resistivity materials. In this work, the influence of underlying barrier Ta on the electromigration (EM) of Cu on hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) and SiO₂ substrates was investigated. The presence of a Ta barrier not only improves the adhesion between Cu and dielectrics, but also enhances the crystallinity of Cu film and improves the Cu electromigration resistance. The activation energy obtained suggests a grain boundary migration mechanism and the current exponent calculated indicates the Joule heating effect.     

Isothermal interphase diffusion with consecutive reactions

For multi-step heterogeneous consecutive reactions affected entirely by interphase diffusion under isothermal condition, the equations for the effectiveness factors, the surface concentrations and the point yields were derived in terms of the Damkoehler numbers or the measurables from the mass balances set up on the assumption that the mass-transfer rate balances the surface-reaction rate at steady state. From the analyses of the equations derived, the effectiveness factors for the intermediate steps and the surface concentrations of intermediates were understood to be enhanced by the measurables inclusive of the concentrations and the mass-transfer coefficients. Then the effect of the concentrations was concluded to be most significant. The effects of these measurables to the effectiveness factors and the surface concentrations were qualitatively discussed for simple consecutive reactions and also for additive consecutive reactions. Especially, as for two-step additive consecutive reactions, the effects of measurables η Da and the concentrations to the effectiveness factors were examined with graphical presentations. Finally, the brief discussion of the dependency of the Damkoehler number upon reaction time and the effect of the Renolds number and diffusivity to the extent of the mass-transfer resistance were presented.     

Factors affecting the activity of anammox bacteria during start up in the continuous culture reactor.

Factors affecting cultivation of extremely slow-growing bacteria (anaerobic ammonium oxidiser, doubling time 11 days) were investigated by using upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors which can maintain high solid retention time. The effects of concentrations of DO, free ammonia (FA), and nitrite on activation of anammox activity were tested during the start-up period. The reactor was inoculated with granular sludge collected from a full-scale UASB reactor used for treating brewery wastewater, and sludge from a piggery wastewater treatment plant and rotating biological contactor treating sewage. Results of continuous operation showed that concentrations of DO, free ammonia (FA) and nitrite in the reactors played a key role in stimulating the anammox activity during start-up period. It is crucial to keep DO below 0.2 ppm, FA below 2 mg/L and nitrite nitrogen below 35 mg/L to cultivate anammox cells in the continuous bioreactor. When the levels of DO, FA and nitrite in the influent were controlled at less than the inhibition levels, the anammox activity increased gradually in the anaerobic condition. Addition of hydrogen sulphide into the reactor enhanced anammox activity in the continuous culture. Through the SEM, TEM and FISH analysis, anammox bacteria were detected in the granular sludge after 3 months of continuous operation.     

Application of Code Approach for Emergency Evacuation in a Rail Station

This paper presents an emergency evacuation analysis during a mid-platform train fire in an underground rail station. A time-based evacuation scenario is developed taking into account the stairway inaccessibility due to smoke blockage. The calculation approach in NFPA 130 is then applied to a parametric study of this time-based scenario and its reliability is examined using a micro-simulation model. Both methods give consistent predictions of the exiting times. The results demonstrate that with the division of the station into two zones, the exiting time could not meet the code requirements, whereas it does meet the required exiting time without the division. Such division is due to smoke blockage and creates an uneven ratio of the occupant load to the available exiting capacity. This shows that appropriate consideration of the fire and smoke effects is important for station egress evaluation. Other issues such as the fire growth rate and the pre-evacuation time are also discussed.     

Damaged layer characteristics in micro-endmilling of copper using an ultrahigh-speed air spindle

This paper presents an investigation on the characteristics of damaged layer in micro-machining by using the ultrahigh-speed air spindle. The damaged layer in metal cutting is derived from plastic deformation and transformation of metal structure. In this study, micro-cutting force, surface roughness, and plastic deformation layer according to the variation of machining conditions were investigated by experiments. The damaged layer was measured using optical microscope for the samples prepared by metallographic techniques. Its scale was dependent on cutting process parameters, especially feed per tooth. According to experimental results, it was verified that the thickness of damaged layer was increased with increasing of feed per tooth and cutting depth, also thickness of damaged layer was reduced in down-milling compared to upmilling during micro-endmilling operation.     

Extensions of LDA by PCA mixture model and class-wise features

Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) is a data discrimination technique that seeks transformation to maximize the ratio of the between-class scatter and the within-class scatter. While it has been successfully applied to several applications, it has two limitations, both concerning the underfitting problem. First, it fails to discriminate data with complex distributions since all data in each class are assumed to be distributed in the Gaussian manner. Second, it can lose class-wise information, since it produces only one transformation over the entire range of classes. We propose three extensions of LDA to overcome the above problems. The first extension overcomes the first problem by modelling the within-class scatter using a PCA mixture model that can represent more complex distribution. The second extension overcomes the second problem by taking different transformation for each class in order to provide class-wise features. The third extension combines these two modifications by representing each class in terms of the PCA mixture model and taking different transformation for each mixture component. It is shown that all our proposed extensions of LDA outperform LDA concerning classification errors for synthetic data classification, hand-written digit recognition, and alphabet recognition.     

High Gd Concentration GaGdN Grown at Low Temperatures

GaGdN layers were grown at temperatures below 300°C by radio-frequency plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on sapphire substrates. GaGdN samples with high Gd concentration as high as 12.5% were obtained by lowering the growth temperature. X-ray diffraction results showed no obvious secondary phase, which means that the phase separation can be suppressed by the growth at low temperatures. All samples, including those grown at room temperature, showed ferromagnetic characteristics. Photoluminescence emission was observed, though spectra exhibit broad and sharp luminescence bands related to many kinds of defects. It is suggested that electrons coming from defects, especially, nitrogen vacancy, stabilize ferromagnetism, and that the carrier-induced ferromagnetism occurs in the low-temperature-growth GaGdN.     

2D Image Construction from Low Resolution Response of a New Non‐invasive Measurement for Medical Application

This paper presents an application of digital signal processing to data acquired by the radio imaging method (RIM) that was adopted to measure moisture distribution inside the human body. RIM was originally developed for the mining industry; we are applying the method to a biomedical measurement because of its simplicity, economy, and safety. When a two‐dimensional image was constructed from the measured data, the method provided insufficient resolution because the wavelength of the measurement medium, a weak electromagnetic wave in a VHF band, was longer than human tissues. We built and measured a phantom, a model simulating the human body, consisting of two water tanks representing large internal organs. A digital equalizer was applied to the measured values as a weight function, and images were reconstructed that corresponded to the original shape of the two water tanks. As a result, a two‐dimensional image containing two individual peaks corresponding to the original two small water tanks was constructed. The result suggests the method was applicable to biomedical measurement by the assistance of digital signal processing. This technique may be applicable to home‐based medical care and other situations in which safety, simplicity, and economy are important.     

ZJ510L-B汽车用高强度热轧板的试制

珠钢150t电弧炉-LF(VD)-CSP(紧凑式带材生产)流程试生产的5～8mm ZJ510L-B(0．16C--1．22Mn)汽车用高强度热轧板的铁素体晶粒尺寸为6．0～9．2μm，带状组织为1．5～2．5级，强度极限σb562～610MPa，延伸率δ5 32．0％～38．6％。文中还分析和提出了带状组织的形成原因和改进措施。