Transient behavior of subthreshold characteristics of fullydepleted SOI MOSFETs

It has been found that the subthreshold currents of fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (SOI) MOSFETs show a transient behavior under certain front-gate and back-gate voltage conditions. The cause of this anomaly is explained, and applications for the phenomenon are pointed out. Particularly, a simple way to measure the silicon film thickness is suggested     

Electrical properties of N2O/NH3 plasma grownoxynitride on strained-Si

Growth of ultrathin (<100 Å) oxynitride on strained-Si using microwave N₂O and NH₃ plasma is reported. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results indicate a nitrogen-rich layer at the strained-Si/SiO₂ interface. The electrical properties of oxynitrides have been characterized using a metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) structure. A moderately low value of insulator charge density (6.1×10¹⁰ cm^-2) has been obtained for NH₃ plasma treated N₂O oxide sample. Nitrided oxide shows a larger breakdown voltage and an improved charge trapping properties under Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) constant current stress     

A mixed-signal RAM decision-feedback equalizer for disk drives

A mixed-signal RAM decision-feedback equalizer (DFE) that operates at 90 Mb/s is described. In the analog domain, the DFE subtracts intersymbol interference caused by the past four outputs. The equalized signal is fed into a nonuniform flash analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to produce the decision output and error signal used to adapt the RAM contents in the digital domain. With a 5 V supply voltage, the power dissipation is 260 mW during steady-state operation. The active area is 4.5 mm² in a 1 μm CMOS process     

A new eicosapentaenoic acid formed from arachidonic acid in the coralline red algaeBossiella orbigniana

Aqueous extracts of the coralline red algaeBossiella orbigniana have been shown to catalyze the enzymatic oxidation of arachidonic acid to a previously unreported ω6 eicosapentaenoic acid product. This unique fatty acid contains a conjugated tetraene with absorption maxima at 293, 306, and 321 nm, and was identified by spectral methods as 5(Z),8(Z),10(E),12(E),14(Z)-eicosapentaenoic acid. The compound was given the trivial name bosseopentaenoic acid. Under experimental conditions, production of bosseopentaenoic acid was linear up to 2 hr and dioxygen was consumed. Bosseopentaenoic acid, along with several other conjugated tetraenes, was also present in the algae endogenously as revealed by a comparison of the ultraviolet (UV) spectra and the high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) pattern of the purified product and the organic extract ofBossiella.     

Numerical evaluation of dyadic diffraction coefficients andbistatic radar cross sections for a perfectly conducting semi-infiniteelliptic cone

In this paper, the scattering of electromagnetic waves by a perfectly conducting semi-infinite elliptic cone is treated. The exact solution of this boundary value problem in problem-adapted spheroconal coordinates in the form of a spherical multipole expansion is of poor convergence if both the source point and the field point are far away from the cone's tip. Therefore, an appropriate sequence transformation of these series expansions (we apply the Shanks transformation) is necessary to numerically determine the dyadic diffraction coefficients and bistatic radar cross sections (RCS) for an arbitrary elliptic cone. Our far-field data for an elliptic cone, a circular cone, and a plane angular sector are compared with some other results obtained with the aid of quite different methods     

The free vibration of skew plates using the hierarchical finite element method

The hierarchical finite element method is used to determine the natural frequencies and modes of flat, isotropic skew plates. A number of such plates with different boundary conditions—including free edges and point supports—are considered in this paper. The dependence of frequency on skew angle, aspect ratio and Poisson's ratio is investigated, though succinctness prohibits a complete study exploring the full interrelation of these parameters. Extensive results are presented in diagrammatic, graphical, and tabular format; these are shown to be in very good agreement with the work of other investigators, and should prove a valuable source of data for use by engineers and scientists.     

Analytic physics-based expressions for the empirical parameters ofthe Statz-Pucel MESFET model

The authors present a novel approach to the evaluation of the DC parameters of a semiempirical MESFET model: starting from the analytical expression of the drain current derived from a previously proposed physics-based model, they provide a method to calculate the empirical DC parameters of the so-called Raytheon model. The comparison between computed and measured DC characteristics is quite satisfactory on GaAs microwave FETs of 1 μm or more gate length. By adding to the results obtained in this work an adequate model of the stray capacitances, the circuit performance can be optimized using the technological characteristics of active devices     

Solder engineering for optoelectronic packaging

In addition to providing electrical connections, solder is useful in the formation of passive, precision alignments for optoelectronic packaging. Different designs have demonstrated micrometer-level alignment accuracies, and the aligned structures are becoming more and more complex. Solder engineering has been successfully introduced into the field of optoelectronics, and it is expected to be applied to many other areas demanding low-cost, precision alignments.