Properties of Bi-doped PbTe layers grown by liquid phase epitaxy under controlled Te vapor pressure

Effects of Bi doping in PbTe liquid-phase epitaxial layers grown by the temperature difference method under controlled vapor pressure (TDM-CVP) are investigated. For Bi concentrations in the solution, x_Bi, lower than 0.2 at.%, an excess deep-donor level (activation energy E_d≈0.03–0.04 eV) appears, and Hall mobility is low. In contrast, for x_Bi>0.2 at.%, Hall mobility becomes very high, while carrier concentration is in the range of 10¹⁷ cm⁻³. Inductive coupled plasma (ICP) emission analysis shows that, for x_Bi=1 at.%, Bi concentration in the epitaxial layer is as high as N_Bi=2.3–2.7 × 10¹⁹ cm⁻³. These results indicate that Bi behaves not only as a donor but also as an acceptor, and the nearest neighbor or very near donor-acceptor (D-A) pairs are formed, so that strong self-compensation of Bi takes place. Carrier concentration for highly Bi-doped layers shows a minimum at a Te vapor pressure of 2.2 × 10⁻⁵ torr for growth temperature 470°C, which is coincident with that of the undoped PbTe.     

Microstructure and thermal behavior of Sn-Zn-Ag solders

The microstructure and thermal behavior of the Sn-Zn-Ag solder were investigated for 8.73–9% Zn and 0–3.0% Ag. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis shows the Ag-Zn compound when the solder contains 0.1% Ag. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis results indicate that Ag₅Zn₈ and AgZn₃ become prominent when the Ag content is 0.3% and above. Meanwhile, the Zn-rich phase is refined, and the Zn orientations gradually diminish upon increase in Ag content. The morphology of the Ag-Zn compound varies from nodular to dendrite structure when the Ag content increases. The growth of the Ag-Zn compounds is accompanied by the diminishing of the eutectic structure of the Sn-9Zn solder. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) investigation reveals that the solidus temperature of these solders exists at around 198°C. A single, sharp exothermic peak was found for the solders with Ag content less than 0.5%. Liquidus temperatures were identified with the DSC analysis to vary from 206°C to 215°C when the Ag content ranges from 1.0% to 3.0%     

Optimization of black oxide coating thickness as an adhesion promoter for copper substrate in plastic integrated-circuit packages

Copper-oxide coating applied onto the copper substrate has emerged as an alternative to metallic coatings to improve adhesion with polymeric adhesives and molding compounds. The interfacial-bond strengths between the black oxide-coated Cu substrate and epoxy-based, glob-top resin were measured in button-shear tests, and the failure mechanisms were identified from the fracture-surface examination. The emphasis was to establish the correlation between the coating thickness, the surface roughness, and the interfacial adhesion with respect to treatment time. It was found that at the initial stage of treatment a thin layer of flat, cuprous oxide developed, above which fibrillar-cupric oxide was formed with further treatment until saturation with densified fibrils at about 150 sec. The interfacial-bond strength between the oxide-coated copper substrate and glob-top resin increased gradually with increasing treatment time, until the bond strength reached a plateau constant after a treatment for about 150 sec. There was a functional similarity between the oxide thickness, the surface roughness, and the interface-bond strength with respect to treatment time. A treatment time of 150 sec is considered an optimal condition that can impart the highest interface adhesion.     

Far-infrared detector based on HgTe/HgCdTe superlattices

HgTe/Hg_0.05Cd_0.95Te superlattices (SLs) were grown on (112)B oriented Cd_0.96Zn_0.04 Te substrates using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The SLs, consisting of 100 periods of 80-Å-thick HgTe wells alternating with 77-Å-thick Hg_0.05Cd_0.95Te barriers, were designed to operate as detectors in the far-infrared (FIR) region. Infrared absorption spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Hall effect measurements, and x-ray diffraction were used to characterize the superlattice layers. A series of annealing experiments were initiated to quantify the temperature-dependent interdiffusion of the HgTe wells and Hg_0.05Cd_0.95Te barriers and consequently their degradation, which shifts the absorption edges of the SLs to higher energies, since a high-temperature ex situ anneal is normally required in order to produce the p-type material required for a photovoltaic detector. Results from infrared absorption spectroscopy, TEM, and Hall effect measurements for the annealed samples are presented. A FIR SLs single-element photoconductive (PC) device was designed and fabricated. Both material characterization and device testing have established the applicability of the HgTe/Hg_0.05Cd_0.95Te SLs for the FIR region.     

Low-resistance polysilicon process in contact application for high density devices

For the lowest resistance, it is required to have the epitaxial silicon contact between the silicon plug and the substrate and good step coverage at the high aspect-ratio contact holes, simultaneously. In this work, a double polysilicon (DPS) deposition technique was proposed for the requirements. The first, thin silicon layer is deposited in a single-wafer process chamber with an in-situ H₂-RTP (rapid thermal process) treatment for the epitaxial contact, and the second silicon layer is formed in a batch-type furnace for good step coverage. From chain resistance, Kelvin R_c, and current-voltage (I–V) measurement, the DPS process meets both low resistance and good uniformity, so that it suggests a breakthrough in the small-sized, semiconductor device application.     

An Efficient Time-Based Checkpointing Protocol for Mobile Computing Systems over Mobile IP

Time-based coordinated checkpointing protocols are well suited for mobile computing systems because no explicit coordination message is needed while the advantages of coordinated checkpointing are kept. However, without coordination, every process has to take a checkpoint during a checkpointing process. In this paper, an efficient time-based coordinated checkpointing protocol for mobile computing systems over Mobile IP is proposed. The protocol reduces the number of checkpoints per checkpointing process to nearly minimum, so that fewer checkpoints need to be transmitted through the costly wireless link. Our protocol also performs very well in the aspects of minimizing the number and size of messages transmitted in the wireless network. In addition, the protocol is nonblocking because inconsistencies can be avoided by the piggybacked information in every message. Therefore, the protocol brings very little overhead to a mobile host with limited resource. Additionally, by taking advantage of reliable timers in mobile support stations, the time-based checkpointing protocol can adapt to wide area networks.     

Cataracts and cell-phone radiation

A concern that is often expressed about microwave radiation is the induction of cataracts. The formation of lens opacities in the eyes of laboratory animals following acute microwave exposure is well established. It is generally accepted that acute exposure to higher levels of CW radiation causes various degrees of lens opacification in laboratory animals at many microwave frequencies. However, the exact conditions under which these changes may occur in human beings are a subject of debate. Nevertheless, linear extrapolations of computed results indicate that the incident density required for the human eye to reach the cataractogenic threshold may only be slightly lower than that needed for rabbits.     

Effective improvement of high-k Hf-silicate/silicon interface with thermal nitridation

The electrical properties of polysilicon gate MOS capacitors with hafnium silicate (HfSiO) dielectric, with and without NH/sub 3/ nitridation, were investigated. The results show that with NH/sub 3/ nitridation prior to deposition of HfSiO can effectively tune the flatband voltage close to that of conventional oxide and significantly improve the leakage properties over SiO/sub 2/ (three orders reduction). Furthermore, the excellent interface quality has been evidenced by the result of immunity against soft breakdown with NH/sub 3/ nitridation.     

Spectral efficiency of distributed antenna system with random antenna layout

The downlink capacity potential of a distributed antenna system (DAS) with random antenna layout is investigated. A low complexity sub-optimal power allocation scheme among transmit antennas is proposed. Simulation results show that with the same antenna density DAS outperforms a co-located antenna system (CAS) in terms of average and outage spectral efficiency.     

Modeling frame synchronization for UMTS high-speed downlink packet access

Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) specification TR 25.950 proposed high-speed downlink packet access for the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS). In this mechanism, an active set of cells is defined for every user equipment (UE) communication session. The cell with the best wireless link quality (called the serving cell) in the active set is selected for communication with the UE. When the wireless link quality of the old serving cell degrades below some threshold, a new serving cell in the active set is selected to continue the communication session. Our previous work proposed a high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) overflow control scheme with four frame synchronization algorithms to switch the serving cell, and formally proved the correctness of the scheme. We propose an analytic model to investigate the performance of these frame synchronization algorithms, and show how the user movement patterns affect the control message delivery costs of these algorithms.