A 65 nm Embedded SRAM With Wafer Level Burn-In Mode, Leak-Bit Redundancy and Cu E-Trim Fuse for Known Good Die

We propose a wafer level burn-in (WLBI) mode, a leak-bit redundancy and a small, highly reliable Cu E-trim fuse repair for an embedded 6T-SRAM to achieve a known good die (KGD) SoC. We fabricated a 16 Mb SRAM with these techniques using 65 nm LSTP technology, and confirmed the efficient operations of these techniques. The WLBI mode enables simultaneous write operation for 6T-SRAM, and has no area penalty and a speed penalty of only 50 ps. The leak-bit redundancy for 6T-SRAM can reduce the infant mortality of the bare die, and improves the standby current distribution. The area penalty is less than 2%. The Cu E-trim fuse can be used beyond the 45 nm advanced process technology. The fuse requires no additional wafer process steps. Using only 1.2 V core transistors will allow CMOS technology scaling to enable fuse circuit size reduction. The trimming transistor is placed under the fuse due to there being no cracking around the trimmed position. We achieve the small fuse circuit size of 6 x 36 mum² using 65 nm technology.     

Improvement of cycling performance of Li1.1Mn1.9O4 at 60 °C by NiO addition for Li-ion secondary batteries

We report on electrochemical properties of NiO-blended spinel Li_1.1Mn_1.9O₄ at elevated temperature (60 °C). Thus, we employed two kinds of NiO powders, those are, larger particle size (>10 μm) and submicron-sized NiO powders obtained by a ball-milling. These NiO powders were blended to the spinel Li_1.1Mn_1.9O₄ as an additive for fabrication of cathode. The resulting discharge capacity for the larger NiO particle-blended Li_1.1Mn_1.9O₄ had similar electrochemical properties to the bare Li_1.1Mn_1.9O₄. On the other hand, submicron-sized NiO-blended Li_1.1Mn_1.9O₄ brought about slightly increased capacity and excellent capacity retention, maintaining its initial capacity of 99.2% at 25 °C and 94% at 60 °C when Li metal was employed as the anode. In Li-ion cell using graphite as the anode, the capacity retention was of about 80% during cycling at 60 °C, whereas C/Li_1.1Mn_1.9O₄ cell retained around 68% of its initial capacity. Such improved properties would be ascribed to the HF scavenging into the electrolyte by presence of the submicron-sized NiO particles in Li_1.1Mn_1.9O₄ cathode.     

Degradation of PL characteristics in strained layer multi-quantum well structure with atomic ordering structure

Clarification of the degradation mechanism of photoluminescence (PL) charac-teristics of InGaAsP compressively strained layer multi-quantum well (SL-MQW) structures on an InP substrate is studied to realize highly strained SL-MQW lasers with a large number of well layers. An unusual temperature-dependence of the PL peak wavelength is observed in the SL-MQW structure: the shift of the PL peak wavelength is reduced with change in measurement temperature. The degradation of PL characteristics is evaluated by the reduc-tion in the PL shift as well as an increase in PL linewidth and a decrease in PL peak intensity. The extent of the PL degradation increases with an increase in the number of well layers and an increase in strain. In the SL-MQW structure with degraded PL characteristics, the structure of CuPt-type atomic ordering is clearly observed for the first time in each barrier layer by high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HR-TEM) measurements. In the SL-MQW structure, neither dislocation nor three-dimensional nucleation is observed by TEM measurements. By increasing the growth temperature, elimination of the ordering structure as well as improvement in the PL characteristics have been confirmed even in the SL-MQW structure with a large amount of strain and a large number of well layers.     

Electrochemical characteristics of Sn film prepared by pulse electrodeposition method as negative electrode for lithium secondary batteries

In order to improve the cyclability of Sn negative electrode, we tried preparing the Sn film negative electrode by a pulse electrodeposition. Based on the SEM observations, the crystal grains of the Sn film after the pulse electrodeposition were comparatively homogeneous and their grain size was ca. 1 μm. The discharge capacity and the charge–discharge efficiency at the 1st cycle were 679.3 mAh g⁻¹ and 93.0%, respectively. The charge–discharge tests indicated that the initial electrochemical characteristic of Sn film electrode prepared by a pulse electrodeposition was much better than that of the Sn film electrode prepared by a constant current electrodeposition. The GD-OES profile suggested that Li⁺ ions were easily extracted during the discharge reaction. In addition, it was found that no exfoliation of the film was observed after the 1st discharge though the cracking in the film was observed after the 1st discharge. Consequently, the Sn film electrode prepared by a pulse electrodeposition exhibited a better cyclability for the initial 10 cycles compared to the Sn film electrode prepared by a constant current electrodeposition. By reducing the particle size and repressing the morphological change, the initial electrochemical characteristics were considerably improved.     

Novel mechanochemical process for synthesis of magnetite nanoparticles using coprecipitation method

A novel coprecipitation method using a high mechanical energy field as the synthesis reaction system of magnetite (Fe₃O₄) has been developed for preparing the superparamagnetic Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles with high crystallinity in water system. In the synthesis process, the suspension containing the precipitates of ferrous hydroxide and goethite was treated in a tumbling ball mill under a cooling condition. The mechanical energy generated by collision of ball media promoted the Fe₃O₄ formation reaction and simultaneously crystallized the formed Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles without using any conventional heating techniques by means of the mechanochemical effect. The collision energy of ball media was numerically analyzed by discrete element simulation of their motion in the ball mill. Size, crystallinity and magnetization of the Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles obtained under different ball-milling conditions were almost the same regardless of the amount of the collision energy. However, the reaction rate of Fe₃O₄ formation increased with the collision energy, which was analogous to increase of the reaction rate caused by increase of the heat energy applied to the reaction system. The reaction rate depended strongly on the number of collisions with the energy larger than a threshold value corresponding to the activation energy in this reaction system.     

Mutation analysis of the interaction of B-type cytochrome c oxidase with its natural substrate cytochrome c-551

Heme-copper oxidases in the respiratory chain are classified into three subfamilies: A-, B- and C-types. Cytochrome bo₃-type cytochrome c oxidase from thermophilic Bacillus is a B-type oxidase that is thought to interact with cytochrome c through hydrophobic interactions. This is in contrast to A-type oxidases, which bind cytochrome c molecules primarily through electrostatic forces between acidic residues in the oxidase subunit II and basic residues within cytochromes. In order to investigate the substrate-binding site in cytochrome bo₃, eight acidic residues in subunit II were mutated to corresponding neutral residues and enzymatic activity was measured using cytochrome c-551 from closely related Bacillus PS3. The mutation of E116, located at the interface to subunit I, decreased the k_cat value most prominently without affecting the K_m value, indicating that the residue is important for electron transfer. The mutation of D99, located close to the Cu_A site, largely affected both values, suggesting that it is important for both electron transfer and substrate binding. The mutation of D49 and E84 did not affect enzyme kinetic parameters, but the mutation of E64, E66 and E68 lowered the affinity of cytochrome bo₃ for cytochrome c-551 without affecting the k_cat value. These three residues are located at the front of the hydrophilic globular domain and distant from the Cu_A site, suggesting that these amino acids compose an acidic patch for a second substrate-binding site. This is the first report on site-directed mutagenesis experiments of a B-type heme-copper oxidase.     

A 45-nm Bulk CMOS Embedded SRAM With Improved Immunity Against Process and Temperature Variations

The variation tolerant assist circuits of an SRAM against process and temperature are proposed. Passive resistances are introduced to the read assist circuit with replica memory transistors to lower the wordline voltage accurately reflecting the process and temperature variations. For the sake of not only enlarging the write margin but also reducing power consumption and speed overhead, the divided dynamic power-line scheme based on a charge sharing is adopted. Test chips of 512-Kb SRAM macros and isolated memory cell TEGs are fabricated using 45-nm bulk CMOS technology. Two types of 6-T SRAM cells, whose sizes were 0.245 mum² and 0.327 mum² were designed and evaluated. From the measurement results, we achieved over 100-mV improvement for static noise margin, and 35 mV for write margin for both SRAM cells at 1.0-V worst condition by using assist circuitry. It enables the wordline level to keep higher voltage at the slowest condition than the typical process condition, which results in 83% improvement of the cell current compared with the conventional assist circuit. Furthermore, the minimum operating voltage in the worst case condition was improved by 170 mV, confirming a high immunity against process and temperature variations with less than 10% area overhead.     

A study of the damage on FIB-prepared TEM samples of AlxGa1-xAs

The damage produced by focused ion beam (FIB) milling on a TEM sample of AlGaAs crystals has been studied. The damage observed on the sidewall of an AlGaAs transmission electron microscopy (TEM) sample was an amorphous layer. The thickness of the amorphous layer linearly increased with an increase in FIB accelerating voltage from 5 to 30 kV. The thickness of the amorphous layer of Al(x)Ga(1-x)As was constant at 3 nm and was independent of the Al concentration x when the accelerating voltage was below 5 kV. The thickness of the amorphous layer of Al(x)Ga(1-x)As decreased with an increase in Al concentration x when the accelerating voltage was above 5 kV. FIB milling at 5 kV effectively minimizes the thickness of the amorphous layer and also provides flat sidewalls on multilayer samples of Al(x)Ga(1-x)As that are prepared for TEM and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).     

MRT letter: Expression of ATP sensor protein in Caenorhabditis elegans

Adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP) is the major energy currency and is involved in many biological processes. The ATP-monitoring system for cells in animals can be helpful to study the relationship between energy metabolism and biological processes. The fluorescent ATP biosensor ATeam (ATP indicator based on Epsilon subunit for Analytical Measurements), which has been reported to monitor ATP levels in cultured cells on the basis of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), was introduced into nematodes by microinjection and UV-irradiation method. To confirm whether ATeam functions as an ATP sensor in nematode cells, the authors measured FRET of ATeam in cells of transgenic nematode. The ATeam was expressed in target cells in nematode. In vulva cells, ATP levels in the cytosol were higher than those in mitochondria. ATeam also sensed ATP level change in cultured cells from the transgenic nematode. These experiments indicated that ATeam is available for detection of changes in ATP levels in nematode cells.     

A note on convergence of finite element solutions

The convergence of nodal displacements obtained by the finite element method is investigated for special element patterns in plane elasticity with the aid of the differential equation derived from the equilibrium condition at each node. The convergence of strains is also discussed. It is shown that averaging is an effective tool for obtaining approximations to strain for some kinds of mesh arrangement. It is also shown that the approach becomes inaccurate along force boundaries.