Plasma Etch Processes for Embedded FRAM Integration

We describe the etch processes used for integration of embedded ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) within a standard CMOS logic flow. The ferroelectric module is inserted following front-end contact formation and prior to backend integration using only two additional mask levels: capacitor pattern and bi-level via pattern. The single-mask stack etch process employs a TiAlN hardmask to define Ir/IrO_x/PZT/IrO_x/Ir capacitors. Protective sidewalls can be formed using an etchback process. The bi-level via etch and subsequent metal fill processes complete the FRAM module formation. Functional 4 MB arrays embedded with 5 levels of Cu/FSG integration have been demonstrated.     

Very large temperature-induced absorptive loss in high Te-containing chalcogenide fibers

The change in the absorption loss relative to room temperature of the infrared (IR)-transmitting Ge/sub 15/As/sub 35/Se/sub (50-x)/Te/sub x/ glass fibers in the temperature range of -110/spl deg/C/spl les/T/spl les/110/spl deg/C was investigated. The attenuation increased significantly at T/spl ges/40/spl deg/C. This is mainly attributed to thermally activated free carriers associated with the semimetallic character of the Te atom. For /spl lambda//spl les/4.2 /spl mu/m, the loss due to electronic and free-carrier absorption was strongly affected by temperature. In the wavelength region of 5-11 /spl mu/m, the loss was mainly due to free-carrier absorption. Beyond /spl lambda//spl ges/11 /spl mu/m, multiphonon absorption dominated the loss spectrum at T/spl les/60/spl deg/C while free-carrier absorption contributed mainly to the total loss at T/spl ges/80/spl deg/C.     

Spectroscopy and laser operation of Nd:ZBAN glass

The results of a study of the spectroscopic and laser properties of a Nd³⁺ doped fluoride glass are presented. Threshold energies and slope efficiencies are reported along with the stimulated emission cross section for the laser transition. The effect of excited state absorption of pump photons on the slope efficiency is investigated     

A Ti:Al2O3 master-oscillator/power-amplifiersystem

The authors have constructed a multistage Ti:Al₂O₃ master-oscillator/power-amplifier system which generates 115-ns, 0.38-J pulses at 800 nm. The system is tunable from 760 to 825 nm and has a repetition rate of 10 Hz. Measurements of the output pulse demonstrate near-diffraction-limited performance and a Fourier-transform-limited bandwidth of ~4 MHz     

DC-DC电源的设计考虑:在成本、尺寸和性能之间取得平衡

任何电源设计都要对尺寸、成本和性能进行平衡。任何新项目的第一步都是按这三个参数的重要性对其进行排序,作为设计过程的总指导方针。然而,这里面的成本还包括产品的设计成本——其中包括产品销售(COGS)和设计工作的成本。富有经验的设计人员的工作效率更高,因为他们熟悉设计过程、拓扑结构、元器件和潜在的设计困难,还能够判断在什么时候和什么情况下进行额外的设计和定制才值得。     

OAM mechanisms in MPLS layer 2 transport networks

This article describes OAM in MPLS layer 2 transport networks. MPLS networks used to transport layer 2 traffic are referred to as MPLS layer 2 transport networks. They may be used to connect legacy layer 2 networks and/or provide layer 2 service to a user over a MPLS network. As legacy layer 2 networks migrate to use MPLS for transport, the role of MPLS OAM mechanisms is becoming increasingly important. This is because the converged network must offer the same OAM functionality as existing layer 2 networks. This article emphasizes the importance of end-to-end OAM, while emulating existing layer 2 services using MPLS transport. End-to-end fault detection is described in the context of various layer 2 over MPLS transport network models. The article focuses on state-of-the-art MPLS label switched path and pseudo wire OAM mechanisms being developed by the IETF. This includes fault detection and isolation mechanisms such as LSP-Ping, bidirectional forwarding detection, and virtual circuit connectivity verification. The applicability of each of these mechanisms is given. In some cases it may be possible to carry layer 2 OAM cells end-to-end, while in other cases this may not be possible. The relationship between segment-based OAM mechanisms and end-to-end OAM is described for each of these cases.     

Leading One Detection Hyperbolic CORDIC with Enhanced Range of Convergence

This paper focuses on developing an area efficient hyperbolic Coordinate Rotation Digital Computer (CORDIC) algorithm with performance improvement. The algorithm eliminates the need of scale factor calculation in the Range of Convergence (ROC). At the same time the range of convergence offered is higher than the conventional CORDIC ROC in the hyperbolic rotation mode. Being the only kind of algorithm in hyperbolic rotation with sign sequence μ?=?1 always, one complete operation requires just 5 iterations. Thus the pipelined implementation has 5 stages which provides a 50% increase in throughput in comparison to conventional CORDIC. As far as the area improvement is considered, 16-bit processor can be realized using 56% less number of full adders required by Flat-CORDIC. The x and y datapath are based on series expansion of hyperbolic functions. The complete algorithm design along with pipelined architecture implementation is detailed.     

Estimation of lung's air volume and its variations throughout respiratory CT image sequences

A respiratory image-sequence-segmentation technique is introduced based on a novel image-sequence analysis. The proposed technique is capable of segmenting the lung's air and its soft tissues followed by estimating the lung's air volume and its variations throughout the image sequence. Accurate estimation of these two parameters is very important in many applications related to lung disease diagnosis and treatment systems (e.g., brachytherapy), where the parameters are either the variables of interest themselves or are dependent/independent variables. The concept of the proposed technique involves using the image sequence's combined histogram to obtain a reasonable initial guess for the lung's air segmentation thresholds. This is followed by an optimization process to find the optimum threshold values that best satisfy the lung's air mass conservation and tissue incompressibility principles. These threshold values are consequently applied to estimate the lung's air volume and its variations throughout respiratory Computed Tomography (CT) image sequences. Ex vivo experiments were conducted on porcine left lungs in order to demonstrate the performance of the proposed technique. The proposed method was initially validated using a breath-hold CT image sequence with known air volumes inside the lung, where results show that the proposed technique outperforms single-histogram-based methods. This was followed by demonstrating the proposed technique's application in a 4-D-CT respiratory sequence, where the air volume inside the lung was unknown. Consistency of the obtained results in the latter experiment with tissue near incompressibility principle was validated. The results indicate a very good ability of the proposed method for estimating the lung's air volume and its variations in a respiratory image sequence.     

Low voltage current mirrors with enhanced bandwidth

This paper presents an improved low voltage cascode and flipped voltage follower (FVF) based current mirror with the enhancement of the bandwidth obtained by using a compensation resistor between the gates of the primary transistor pair. In this technique a carefully determined resistance is used in the diode connected MOS transistor of the current mirror for enhancing the bandwidth. Active realization of the compensation resistance using MOS operating in the triode region has also been applied to both the cascode and FVF based current mirror circuits. The proposed circuits have been simulated using PSpice for 0.25 μm CMOS technology and the obtained results are compared with their uncompensated topologies to show their effectiveness.