The influence of design and process parameters on the reliability of CMOS integrated circuits

As system reliability becomes increasingly dependent on integrated circuit reliability it is essential to achieve high reliability at low cost. In this paper we will discuss the reliability of CMOS I.C.'s. Design and manufacturing considerations which are used to build reliability into the product will be discussed. Industry standard accelerated life testing was used to evaluate the product in epoxy packages.     

A Two-Channel Picture Coding System: I--Real-Time Implementation

The two-channel system previously reported has been implemented in hardware using system parameters appropriate to consumer television. The basic system divides the spectrum into lowand high-frequency spatial components. The lows are coarsely sampled and finely quantized and the highs finely sampled and coarsely quantized using a companded, randomized quantizer. The purpose of this experiment was to demonstrate the potential of the system for low-cost practical application, to study the effect of the character of the randomizing noise, and to ascertain that there were no deleterious effects due to interlace, motion, or input noise. Theoretical noise calculations were qualitatively confirmed.     

Supraomohyoid neck dissection in the treatment of T1/T2 squamous cell carcinoma of oral cavity

BACKGROUND: Recent studies in patients with previously untreated T1 and T2 squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the tongue and floor of the mouth have shown a relationship between tumor thickness, neck metastasis, and survival. Our study was conducted to determine the indication of elective neck dissection in patients with early oral cavity SCC. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Sixty-seven patients were stratified by stage (T1 and T2 NO), and those in each stage were randomized to receive one of two types of treatment; resection alone (RA) or resection plus elective supraomohyoid neck dissection (RSOND). Fifty-two patients (78%) were men and 15 (22%) were women. The median age was 57 years old (range 34 to 95). RESULTS: Twenty-six (39%) patients had tumor in the floor of the mouth and 41 (61%), in the tongue. Using the criteria of the Union Internationale Contre le Cancer (UICC), 1987, we classified 31 tumors (46%) as T1 lesions and 36 (54%) as T2 lesions. Thirty patients had a tumor thickness < or = 4 mm and 37 had a tumor thickness > 4 mm. Thirty-three (49%) patients were treated with RA, and 34 patients (51%) were treated with RSOND. Seven (21%) patients of the RSOND group had occult cervical metastasis. There were recurrences in 14 (42%) patients of the RA group and 8 (24%) patients of the RSOND group. The disease-free survival rates at 3.5 years for RA and RSOND patients were 49%, and 72%, respectively. The impact of sex, age, site, cancer stage, and tumor thickness was assessed by the Mantel-Haenszel chi-square procedure. Later stage (P = 0.05) and increased tumor thickness (P = 0.005) were significantly associated with treatment failures. CONCLUSION: Neck dissection remains mandatory in the early stage of oral SCC, because of better survival rates compared to RA and the poor salvage rate. In particular, patients with tumor thickness > 4 mm treated with RSOND had significant benefit on disease-free survival.     

A study of the Pd/C catalyst for synthesis of hydroxylamine

Palladium dispersed on active carbon (Pd/C) is used as a catalyst in the synthesis of hydroxylamine. Alkaline precipitation was used to prepare the catalyst. It was found that the controlling factor was the size of palladium crystal, which in turn was chiefly determined by the PdCl₄^2-/Pd(OH)₂ conversion stage. The sintering and crystal growth of Pd was the main reason for the decay of the catalyst. The sintering mechanism was found to follow the Ostwald ripening model.     

Burning radionuclide question: what happens to iodine, cesium and chlorine in biomass fires?

Authorization is an important functionality that every hospital information system (HIS) should provide. An authorization mechanism permits information to be accessed only by properly authorized users. Authorization models and mechanisms have been widely investigated within the framework of HISs. However, their implementation into existing systems, that do not any longer meet increased authorization requirements, requires a major redesign effort. This paper describes a front end authorization mechanism that has been developed in an attempt to enhance the security features of an existing HIS without extensive modifications to the system structure.     

Flow patterns in gas-assisted injection molding process in a channel

The flow field of a long bubble steadily expelling a viscous fluid confined by two closely located parallel plates is examined. In order to investigate the influence of bubble size on the flow field, a theoretical bubble profile is used to replace the complicated procedure for computing simultaneously the interface between the gas surface and fluid flows. The present study showed the two typical flow patterns and also a third flow pattern of the stagnation point moving in the region of the bubble tip front during transformation of the two typical flow patterns. The vorticity patterns are also drawn for various bubble profiles and are examined for their effect on the flow. The velocity field is also presented from two different viewpoints and the phenomena is examined. The stagnation point located on the center line between the bubble tip to the upstream is only found in the small range of in a channel, where λ is ratio of the bubble width to the distance between two parallel plates.     

Effect of molecular weight of an anionic dispersant on the properties of BaTi4O9 slurries

The colloidal stability of BaTi₄O₉ (BT₄) aqueous suspensions with poly(acrylamide‐co‐4‐carboxylamino‐4‐oxo‐2‐butenate) (PAC) of different molecular weights at pH 9 has been investigated by means of zeta potential, adsorption, sedimentation, and particle size measurements. The results indicate that PAC could improve the dispersion of the particles from agglomeration. The resulting suspensions became more stabilized, and contained powder with smaller particle size. Consequently, the compacts with PAC exhibited better properties in terms of density and dielectric constant than those without any polymer present. The performance of PAC increased with decreasing polymer molecular weight. Clearly, PAC1 (M_w = 1.8 × 10⁴) was most effective in dispersing the BT₄ particles, and stabilizing the ceramic suspensions. This is attributed to the highest adsorption of this polymer onto BT₄ powder, and causes strongest electrostatic repulsions among solid particles. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012