Residual stress evaluation in resin-molded IC chips using finite element analysis and piezoresistive gauges

The high residual stress in a resin-molded electronic package sometimes makes the electronic functions unstable. Therefore the residual stress in electronic packages, especially on the top surfaces of semiconductor chips, should be evaluated. The objective of this study is to present a simple method for evaluating residual stress in resin-molded semiconductor chips using a combination of experimental and numerical methods. The actual residual stress of the packaging process was measured by using test chips that included piezoresistive gauges. A linear thermoelastic finite element analysis was then carried out using a three-dimensional model. The finite element analysis was performed under a stress-free temperature determined by the temperature dependence of the residual stress, which was experimentally measured by using the piezoresistive test chips. The measured residual stress using the test chips agreed well with the results of the finite element analysis. It was therefore confirmed that the present evaluation method, combining experimental and numerical methods, is reliable and reasonable.     

High performance of silicided silicon-sidewall source and drain (S4D) structure

A silicided silicon-sidewall source and drain (S⁴D) structure is proposed for sub-0.1-μm devices. The merit of the S⁴D structure is that the series resistance of the source and drain is significantly reduced since the silicide layer is attached very close to the gate electrode and the silicon sidewall can be doped very highly. Thus, very high drain current drive can be expected, Another advantage of this structure is that the source and drain extensions are produced by the solid-phase diffusion of boron from the highly doped silicon-sidewall. Thus, shallow extensions with very high doping can be realized. A 75-nm gate length pMOSFET fabricated with this structure is shown to exhibit excellent electrical characteristics     

The impact of scaling down to deep submicron on CMOS RF circuits

Recent papers reporting CMOS RF building blocks have aroused great expectations for RF receivers using deep-submicron technologies. This paper examines the trend in CMOS scaling, in order to establish the required current levels and achievable performance for different feature sizes, if robust, easily manufacturable designs are to be implemented for cellular applications. The boundary conditions (system-level constraints) for such designs, in terms of the number of trimmed and untrimmed external components and the roles they play in relaxing active circuit requirements, are emphasized throughout to make comparison of active RF circuits meaningful. At 1 GHz, 0.25-μm CMOS appears to be the threshold for robust, low-NF RF front ends with current consumption competitive with today's BJT implementations     

1.5 nm direct-tunneling gate oxide Si MOSFET's

In this paper, normal operation of a MOSFET with an ultra-thin direct-tunneling gate oxide is reported for the first time. These high current drive n-MOSFET's were fabricated with a 1.5 nm direct-tunneling gate oxide. They operate well at gate lengths of around 0.1 μm, because the gate leakage current falls in proportional to the gate length, while the drain current increases in inverse proportion. A current drive of more than 1.0 mA/μm and a transconductance of more than 1,000 mS/mm were obtained at a gate length of 0.09 μm at room temperature. These are the highest values ever obtained with Si MOSFET's at room temperature. Further, hot-carrier reliability is shown to improve as the thickness of the gate oxide is reduced, even in the 1.5 nm case. This work clarifies that excellent performance-a transconductance of over 1,000 mS/mm at room temperature-can be obtained with Si MOSFET's if a high-capacitance gate insulator is used     

Filling behavior of UV nanoimprint resin observed by using a midair structure mold

The filling behavior of resin during UV nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL) was observed by using a “midair structure mold” and by changing the imprint pressure. The midair structure molds were fabricated by electron beam lithography (EBL) using hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) as a negative tone resist. After the fabrication of midair structure mold, two types of surface treatment molds, which were with or without release coating, were prepared. Using these molds, the filling behavior of a UV curable resin was investigated at various pressures. The results indicate that a pressure of approximately 1.2 MPa is necessary for complete filling in the case of molds treated with a release agent. This method demonstrates effect of a release coating for UV-NIL.     

An unsteady flow structure on a heated rotating disk under mixed convection

A flow field under mixed convection on a heated rotating disk has been measured using an ultrasonic velocity profiler (UVP). The measured velocity field is a spatio‐temporal one as a function of radial coordinates and time. The objective of this paper is to clarify the vortex structure caused by the instability between buoyancy and centrifugal force. The vortex appears under typical conditions of Reynolds numbers and Grashof numbers and it moves toward the outside of the disk. This behavior can be classified into two patterns. The size of the vortex structure decreases with an increasing Reynolds number and increases with the Grashof number. The traveling velocity of the vortex increases with the Grashof number. Moreover, it decreases with an increasing Reynolds number in spite of increasing centrifugal force. According to these results, the region dominated by natural, forced, and mixed convection is classified in the relationship between Reynolds and Grashof numbers. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 34(6): 407–418, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20074     

Mutational analysis of structure--activity relationships in human tumor necrosis factor-alpha

To determine the region of human tumor necrosis factor-alpha(TNF-), essential for cytotoxic activity against mouse L-M cells,single amino-acid-substituted TNF- mutant proteins (muteins)were produced in Escherichia coli by protein engineering techniques.An expression plasmid for TNF- was mutagenized by passage throughan E.coli mutD5 mutator strain and by oligonucleotide-directedmutagenesis. Approximately 100 single amino-acid-substitutedTNF- muteins were produced and assayed for cytotoxic activity.The cytotoxic activities of purified TNF- muteins, e.g. TNF-31T,-32Y, -82D, -85H, -115L, -141Y, -144K and -146E, were < 1%of that of parent TNF-. These results indicate that the integrityof at least four distinct regions of the TNF- molecule is requiredfor full biological activity. These regions are designated asfollows: region I, from position 30 to 32; region II, from position82 to 89; region III, from position 115 to 117; region FV, fromposition 141 to 146. In addition, TNF-141Y could not completelycompete with parent TNF- for binding to the receptor. This demonstratesthat region IV, and at least aspartk acid at position 141, mustbe involved in the TNF receptor binding site.     

Serum Amyloid A3 Promoter-Driven Luciferase Activity Enables Visualization of Diabetic Kidney Disease

The early detection of diabetic nephropathy (DN) in mice is necessary for the development of drugs and functional foods. The purpose of this study was to identify genes that are significantly upregulated in the early stage of DN progression and develop a novel model to non-invasively monitor disease progression within living animals using in vivo imaging technology. Streptozotocin (STZ) treatment has been widely used as a DN model; however, it also exhibits direct cytotoxicity to the kidneys. As it is important to distinguish between DN-related and STZ-induced nephropathy, in this study, we compared renal responses induced by the diabetic milieu with two types of STZ models: multiple low-dose STZ injections with a high-fat diet and two moderate-dose STZ injections to induce DN. We found 221 genes whose expression was significantly altered during DN development in both models and identified serum amyloid A3 (Saa3) as a candidate gene. Next, we applied the Saa3 promoter-driven luciferase reporter (Saa3-promoter luc mice) to these two STZ models and performed in vivo bioluminescent imaging to monitor the progression of renal pathology. In this study, to further exclude the possibility that the in vivo bioluminescence signal is related to renal cytotoxicity by STZ treatment, we injected insulin into Saa3-promoter luc mice and showed that insulin treatment could downregulate renal inflammatory responses with a decreased signal intensity of in vivo bioluminescence imaging. These results strongly suggest that Saa3 promoter activity is a potent non-invasive indicator that can be used to monitor DN progression and explore therapeutic agents and functional foods.     

Microstructure of ion-implanted region in TiNi alloy

TiNi alloy samples implanted with various fluences of 3 MeV Cu²⁺ ions were characterized by transmission electron microscope (TEM) and X-ray diffractometer. Cross-sectional TEM images of the samples showed that amorphous region was seen at the fluence of 10¹⁴ ions cm^?2 in case of ion implantation at 300 K of the substrate temperature, but in case of ion implantation at 100 K it did not appear even at 10¹⁵ ions cm^?2. These results were also confirmed by X-ray diffraction profiles of the same samples. Consequently, the extent of microstructure change of TiNi alloy by ion implantation was different depending on the substrate temperature.