A wafer level monitoring method for plasma-charging damage usingantenna PMOSFET test structure

A novel monitoring method for plasma-charging damage is proposed. This method performs a quick and accurate evaluation using antenna PMOSFET. It was found that not only hot-carrier (HC) lifetime but transistor parameters such as initial gate current and substrate current were changed according to the degree of plasma-charging damage. However, the present work suggests that monitoring the shift of drain current after a few seconds of HC stress is a more accurate method to indicate plasma-charging damage. The monitoring method using the present test structure is demonstrated to be useful for realizing highly reliable devices     

Determinants of national media attention

This study employed two perspectives to investigate media attention given women congressional candidates. The first perspective is that media attention may be explained by typical and normal media processes, such as focusing on incumbents. The second perspective considers a partisan explanation in which media attention is weighted more to Democratic candidates than Republican candidates. This study employs two established sources, Vanderbilt's Television News Index and Abstract and Information Access's National Newspaper Index , to examine the national media attention of Democratic and Republican women congressional candidates in 1990 and 1992. The investigation determined that media attention is related to whether the candidates are running for the Senate or House, incumbency, and state population. The results also reveal that party is a statistically significant factor associated with media attention. The investigation also determined that ethnic candidates tend to receive slightly less attention from the print media than nonethnic candidates.     

Automatic tuning of decentralized PID controllers for MIMO processes

An automatic tuning algorithm for decentralized PID control in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) plants is presented. This algorithm generalizes the authors' recent auto-tuner for two-input two-output systems to any number of inputs and outputs. The algorithm consists of two stages. In the first, the desired critical point, which consists of the critical gains of all the loops and a critical frequency, is identified. The auto-tuner identifies the desired critical point with almost no a priori information about the process. During the identification phase all controllers are replaced by relays, thus generating limit cycles with the same period in all loops. It is shown that each limit cycle corresponds to a single critical point of the process. By varying the relays parameters different points can be determined. The auto-tuner contains a procedure which converges rapidly to the desired critical point while maintaining the amplitudes of the process variables as well as of the manipulated variables within prespecified ranges. In the second stage, the data of the desired critical point is used to tune the PID controllers by the Ziegler-Nichols rules or their modifications. This paper focuses on the first stage. The steady-state process gains, which are required for the appropriate choice of the desired critical point, are determined by the auto-tuner in closed-loop fashion simultaneously with the identification of the critical point. The identification of the process gains is achieved at no extra plant time. Based upon a large number of simulated cases, the proposed auto-tuner seems to be efficient and robust. The paper discusses the underlying principles of the auto-tuner and its properties and capabilities are demonstrated via examples.     

Electrical linewidth test structures fabricated in monocrystallinefilms for reference-material applications

The physical widths of reference features incorporated into electrical linewidth test structures patterned in films of monocrystalline silicon have been determined from Kelvin voltage measurements. The films in which the test structures are patterned are electrically insulated from the bulk-silicon substrate by a layer of silicon dioxide provided by SIMOX (Separation by the IMplantation of OXygen) processing. The motivation is to facilitate the development of linewidth reference materials for critical-dimension (CD) metrology-instrument calibration. The selection of the (110) orientation of the starting silicon and the orientation of the structures' features relative to the crystal lattice enable a lattice-plane-selective etch to generate reference-feature properties of rectangular cross section and atomically planar sidewalls. These properties are highly desirable for CD applications in which feature widths are certified with nanometer-level uncertainty for use by a diverse range of CD instruments. End applications include the development and calibration of new generations of CD instruments directed at controlling processes for manufacturing devices having sub-quarter-micrometer features     

A unified diode model for circuit simulation

A new commercially available diode model is described. This unified model is capable of simulating the widest range of diode technologies of any presently available. The emphasis of this paper is on describing the model's extensive features and flexibility in the different domains of operation and is of particular interest in power applications     

Soft commutation in capacitive idling converters

The capacitive idling converters derived from the Cuk, SEPIC, Zeta, and flyback topologies allow soft commutation of power switches without the need for additional circuitry, making it possible to increase the switching frequency while maintaining high efficiency     

Scientific and artistic investigation of multi-dimensional fractals on the AT & T pixel machine

The pipelined architecture and parallel organization of the AT&T Pixel Machine image computer are described and demonstrated with applications for the visualization of multidimensional fractals, particularly linear fractals and quaternion/ stacked Julia sets. Techniques for pushing the Pixel Machine to its peak abilities are described and apply to more recent parallel image computers as well.     

Partitioned encoding schemes for algorithm-based fault tolerance inmassively parallel systems

Considers the applicability of algorithm based fault tolerance (ABET) to massively parallel scientific computation. Existing ABET schemes can provide effective fault tolerance at a low cost For computation on matrices of moderate size; however, the methods do not scale well to floating-point operations on large systems. This short note proposes the use of a partitioned linear encoding scheme to provide scalability. Matrix algorithms employing this scheme are presented and compared to current ABET schemes. It is shown that the partitioned scheme provides scalable linear codes with improved numerical properties with only a small increase in hardware and time overhead