Chemical vapor deposition of aluminum for ulsi applications

Aluminum has been used widely as a conducting material in the fabrication of integrated circuits, and chemical vapor deposition process for Al has been actively investigated for the application in ultra large scale integration. In this review, various precursors, mainly alkyl aluminum and alane compounds, and reaction mechanisms of these precursors in Al CVI) are described. Epitaxial growth and selectivity of the deposition are also discussed. In addition to thermal reactions, plasma and photochemical reactions are also briefly described.     

Thermal properties and crystalline structure of liquid crystalline poly(ethylene terephthalate‐co‐2(3)‐chloro‐1,4‐phenylene terephthalate)

Thermal properties and crystalline structure of liquid crystalline (LC) poly(ethylene terephthalate‐co‐2(3)‐chloro‐1,4‐phenylene terephthalate) [copoly(ET/CPT)] were investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetry (TGA), limiting oxygen index (LOI) measurement, electron dispersive X‐ray analysis (EDX), X‐ray diffractometry, and infrared spectrometry (IR). The thermal transition temperatures of copoly(ET/CPT) were changed with the composition. Copoly(ET/CPT) showed two thermal decomposition steps and the residues at 700°C and LOI values of copoly(ET/CPT) were almost proportional to its chlorine content. The activation energy of thermal decomposition of LC units was very low compared to that of poly(ethylene terephthalate)(PET) units. Crystal structure of copoly(ET/CPT) (20/80) was of triclinic system with the lattice constants of a = 9.98 A?, b = 8.78 A?, c = 12.93 A?, α = 97.4°, β = 96.1°, and γ = 90.8°, which is very close to that of poly(chloro‐p‐phenylene terephthlate) (PCPT) with the lattice constants of a = 9.51 A?, b = 8.61 A?, c = 12.73 A?, α = 96.8°, β = 95.4°, and γ = 90.8°. When copoly(ET/CPT)(50/50) was annealed at 220°C in vacuum, crystallization induced sequential reordering (CISR) was not observed but the heat of fusion was slightly increased due to the increase of the trans isomer content in PET units. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 84: 1286–1294, 2002; DOI 10.1002/app.10451     

A design and analysis of objective function-based unsupervised neural networks for fuzzy clustering

Fuzzy clustering has played an important role in solving many problems. In this paper, we design an unsupervised neural network model based on a fuzzy objective function, called OFUNN. The learning rule for the OFUNN model is a result of the formal derivation by the gradient descent method of a fuzzy objective function. The performance of the cluster analysis algorithm is often evaluated by counting the number of crisp clustering errors. However, the number of clustering errors alone is not a reliable and consistent measure for the performance of clustering, especially in the case of input data with fuzzy boundaries. We introduce two measures to evaluate the performance of the fuzzy clustering algorithm. The clustering results on three data sets, Iris data and two artificial data sets, are analyzed using the proposed measures. They show that OFUNN is very competitive in terms of speed and accuracy compared to the fuzzy c-means algorithm.     

Finding a maximum matching in a permutation graph

We present anO(n log logn) time algorithm for finding a maximum matching in a permutation graph withn vertices, assuming that the input graph is represented by a permutation.     

Selective Oxidation of Methanol to Formaldehyde Using Modified Iron-Molybdate Catalysts

Methanol selective oxidation to formaldehyde over a modified Fe-Mo catalyst with two different stoichiometric (Mo/Fe atomic ratio = 1.5 and 3.0) was studied experimentally in a fixed bed reactor over a wide range of reaction conditions. The physicochemical characterization of the prepared catalysts provides evidence that Fe₂(MoO₄)₃ is in fact the active phase of the catalyst. The experimental results of conversion of methanol and selectivity towards formaldehyde for various residence times were studied. The results showed that as the residence time increases the yield of formaldehyde decreases. Selectivity of formaldehyde decreases with increase in residence time. This result is attributable to subsequent oxidation of formaldehyde to carbon monoxide due to longer residence time.     

Rheological characteristics of mesophase pitch

Rheological characteristics of two pretreated petroleum pitches, during their transformation to mesophase, have been studied by using rotalional viscometer. Simultaneously, the formation, growth, coalescence of mesuphase spheres, and the alignment of coalesced mesophase were observed by Hot-Stage-Cinema-Microscope, discussed with the results of viscosity change and the Q.I. content. It is found that both pretreated pitches were Newtonian fluids at low temperature, but behaved pseudoplastics as increase of mesophase content above 390C. Shear thinning behaviour was also apparent in the shear rate range of 1.9–20 sec⁻¹ at temperature above 390C. The apparent viscosity-temperature curves of this pyrolysed pitches were much affected by the pretreatment conditions.     

Optimal reaction conditions for the minimization of energy consumption and by‐product formation in a poly(ethylene terephthalate) process

We determined the optimal reaction conditions to minimize the energy cost and the quantities of by‐products for a poly(ethylene terephthalate) process by using the iterative dynamic programming (IDP) algorithm. Here, we employed a sequence of three reactor models: the semibatch transesterification reactor model, the semibatch prepolymerization reactor model, and the rotating‐disc‐type polycondensation reactor model. We selectively chose or developed the reactor models by incorporating experimentally verified kinetic models reported in the literature. We established the model for the entire reactor system by connecting the three reactor models in series and by resolving some joint problems arising when different types of reactor models were interconnected. On the basis of the simulation results of the reactor system, we scrutinized the cause and effect between the reaction conditions and the final quality of the polymer product. Here, we set up the optimization strategy by using IDP on the basis of the integrated reactor model, and the process variables with significant influence on the properties of polymer were selected as control variables with the help of a simulation study. With this method, we could refine the reaction conditions at the end of each iteration step by contracting the spectra of control regions, and the iteration process finally stopped when the profile of the optimal trajectory converged. We also took the constraints on the control variables into account to guarantee polymer quality and to suppress side reactions. Constituting six different strategies by setting weighting vectors differently, we examined the differences in optimal trajectories, the trend of optimality, and the quality of the final polymer product. For each of the strategies, we conducted the optimization to examine whether the number‐average degree of polymerization approached the desired value. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 86: 993–1008, 2002     

Formulation of nondairy coffee whiteners with cottonseed protein isolates

Nondairy coffee whiteners were prepared on a pilot scale using four different glandless cottonseed protein isolates prepared by different processes. Bulk density, whitening capacity, cream separation and oil retention capacity of the whiteners were compared to those formulated with sodium caseinate and a commercial whitener. Glandless cottonseed protein isolates, prepared by conventional and aqueous extraction processes, are poor ingredients for coffee whitener production, showing poor whitening capacity, separation of proteins through sedimentation and separation of fat as a cream layer in a mixture with aqueous coffee. Succinylated cottonseed proteins showed many markedly improved characteristics as coffee whiteners. Ca. 50% replacement of sodium caseinate with succinylated cottonseed protein isolate did not affect the quality of whiteners compared to that of 100% sodium caseinate-based whitener.     

Investigation of structure development in polyamide 11 and polyamide 12 tubular film extrusion

The processability of single bubble polyamide 11 and polyamide 12 films was investigated. The development of crystalline structure and chain orientation of polyamide 11 and polyamide 12 films in single bubble film blowing was studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), wide angle X‐ray diffraction (WAXS), infrared (IR) spectroscopy, and birefringence. DSC measurements of both films revealed a spontaneous increase in glass transition temperature (T_g) and cold crystallization temperature (T_c) during aging at room conditions, with crystallinity and melting point remaining constant. Single bubble polyamide 11 and polyamide 12 films exhibited triclinic α and monoclinic γ crystals, respectively. The level of biaxial orientation was evaluated by calculating White‐Spruiell biaxial orientation factors with pole figure data. We were not able to produce biaxially oriented double bubble films with either polyamide 11 or polyamide 12.     

Intricate CSTR dynamics

Various dynamical characters of continuous stirred tank reaclors (CSTR) are introduced with respect to the effects of reaction types, extra thermal capacitance, periodic forcing, and coupling of CSTRs. The subject includes the classical dynamics of two-dimensional model and the variety of complex dynamics in three or higher dimensional systems such as periodic bifurcations to torus or chaos, aperiodic oscillations on invariant torus, and universal dynamics of alternating periodic-chaotic sequences with k.2^v-cycles for every natural number k. Particularly this review intends to bring about the problems that the engineers must be prepared to encounter in solving various physical systems including chemically reacting systems.