Characterization of copper grain growth limitations inside narrow wires depending of overburden thickness

With the downscaling of feature dimensions, copper interconnects exhibit properties differing from bulk or film material. Resistivity increases and limits electrical performances, and reliability of interconnects becomes a more important challenge for each new technological node. In this study, we present an approach of copper grain growth control inside narrow wires by adding a step between the copper electro-chemical deposition (ECD) and the chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP). This step corresponds to a partial CMP step (pre-CMP) and is applied after ECD and before anneal in order to modify the copper overburden thickness. Depending on the targeted thickness, copper grain growth occurs during anneal with different efficiencies. Crystallization and grain growth behaviour inside wires is investigated with focused ions beam (FIB). We present here our methodology for sample preparation and characterization. Results are focused on electrical variations and on morphological aspects of copper crystallization and grain growth inside lines observed with various overburden thicknesses.     

Transverse Thermoelectricity in a Tilted Metallic Multilayer Structure

Thermoelectricity is investigated in a material designed to show anisotropic transport properties: Copper/constantan/copper $ \cdot \cdot \cdot $ multilayer structures were prepared by sintering of a compressed stack of alternating foils of these materials and are described by effective “in-plane” properties $S_\parallel $ and $k_\parallel $ for the Seebeck-coefficient and the thermal conductivity along the layers, and “out-of-plane”-properties $S_ \bot $ and $k_ \bot $ along the stack axis. Samples in form of thin slabs prepared by cutting the stack obliquely to the stack axis showed thermoelectric fields transverse to temperature gradients across the slab due to off-diagonal elements in the Seebeck-tensor, and may be used as devices for detection of laser radiation.     

Flight Test Results of a Thermoelectric Energy Harvester for Aircraft

The idea of thermoelectric energy harvesting for low-power wireless sensor systems in aircraft and its practical implementation was recently published. The concept of using a thermoelectric generator (TEG) attached to the aircraft inner hull and a thermal storage device to create an artificial temperature gradient at the TEG during take-off and landing from the temperature changes of the fuselage has passed initial tests and is now subject to flight testing. This work presents preflight test results, e.g., vibration and temperature testing of the harvesters, the practical installation of two harvesting devices inside a test plane, and the first test flight results. Several flight cycles with different flight profiles, flight lengths, and outside temperatures have been performed. Although the influence of different flight profiles on the energy output of the harvester can be clearly observed, the results are in good agreement with expectations from numerical simulations with boundary conditions evaluated from initial climate chamber experiments. In addition, the flight test demonstrates that reliable operation of thermoelectric energy harvesting in harsh aircraft environments seems to be feasible, therefore paving the way for realization of energy-autonomous, wireless sensor networks.     

Adaptive Call Admission Control for QoS/Revenue Optimization in CDMA Cellular Networks

In this paper, we show how online management of both quality of service (QoS) and provider revenue can be performed in CDMA cellular networks by adaptive control of system parameters to changing traffic conditions. The key contribution is the introduction of a novel call admission control and bandwidth degradation scheme for real-time traffic as well as the development of a Markov model for the admission controller. This Markov model incorporates important features of 3G cellular networks, such as CDMA intra- and inter-cell interference, different call priorities and soft handover. From the results of the Markov model the threshold for maximal call degradation is periodically adjusted according to the currently measured traffic in the radio access network. As a consequence, QoS and revenue measures can be optimized with respect to a predefined goal. To illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed QoS/revenue management approach, we present quantitative results for the Markov model and a comprehensive simulation study considering a half-day window of a daily usage pattern.     

Internal drift effects on the diffusion of Ag in CdTe

Anomalous diffusion profiles of Ag in single crystalline CdTe were observed using the radiotracer ¹¹¹Ag. The diffusion anneals were performed at 800 K under Cd or Te vapor and in vacuum with low Ag concentrations. The measured Ag profiles directly reflect the distribution of the self-interstitials and vacancies of the Cd sublattice and are the result of chemical self-diffusion which describes the variation of the deviation from stoichiometry of the binary crystal as a function of depth and time. It turned out that the spread of the Ag dopant essentially is determined by the drift of the charged defects within the electric field caused by the distribution of the extrinsic and intrinsic defects.     

Electric Properties of Semiconductor Nanopillars

We studied the electrical transport through epitaxial, 8 nm long and about 100 nm diameter, GaAs pillars. They are fabricated with molecular beam epitaxy using a self-assembling method called local droplet etching. The nanopillars are embedded in an AlGaAs tunneling barrier between two epitaxial GaAs layers. Because of the epitaxial growth, the pillars are connected to these GaAs layers without additional interfaces. They thus can be considered as electronic point contacts between three-dimensional electron reservoirs. Voltage-current characteristics of the structures feature a characteristic asymmetry that is not observed in reference samples. Furthermore, the behavior of the resistance in magnetic fields applied parallel and perpendicular to the current direction is compared for samples with and without pillars. Clear differences are found that are associated with current-carrying states in the pillars.     

Antibacterial Surface Coatings from Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles Embedded in Poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide) Hydrogel Surface Layers

Despite multiple research approaches to prevent bacterial colonization on surfaces, device‐associated infections are currently responsible for about 50% of nosocomial infections in Europe and significantly increase health care costs, which demands development of advanced antibacterial surface coatings. Here, novel antimicrobial composite materials incorporating zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NP) into biocompatible poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) hydrogel layers are prepared by mixing the PNIPAAm prepolymer with ZnO NP, followed by spin‐coating and photocrosslinking. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) characterization of the composite film morphology reveals a homogeneous distribution of the ZnO NP throughout the film for every applied NP/polymer ratio. The optical properties of the embedded NP are not affected by the matrix as confirmed by UV‐vis spectroscopy. The nanocomposite films exhibit bactericidal behavior towards Escherichia coli (E. coli) for a ZnO concentration as low as ≈0.74 μg cm^?2 (1.33 mmol cm^?3), which is determined by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. In contrast, the coatings are found to be non‐cytotoxic towards a mammalian cell line (NIH/3T3) at bactericidal loadings of ZnO over an extended period of seven days. The differential toxicity of the ZnO/hydrogel nanocomposite thin films between bacterial and cellular species qualifies them as promising candidates for novel biomedical device coatings.     

Nanometric Micelles with Photo‐Triggered Cytotoxicity

The development of a photo‐responsive micellar system capable of triggering cell death is reported. Precursors of the micelles are synthesized by connecting a lipophilic chain to a hydrophilic polyethylene glycol via a photo‐labile nitrobenzyl group. The resulting amphiphilic units are self‐assembled in water forming 12 nm micelles that are readily internalized into cells. Upon photo‐irradiation, micelles undergo cleavage and yield a cytotoxic nitrosobenzaldehyde derivative, which significantly inhibits the proliferation of MDA‐MB‐231 cells under standard in vitro conditions.     

Efficient medium arbitration of FSAN‐compliant GPONs

The steadily rising demand for multimedia and data services, the falling cost and omnipresence of Ethernet and the maturity of passive optical networks (PON) technology, promise to radically change the landscape in the local loop. The heart of a gigabit PON system (recently standardized by FSAN/ITU) is the medium access controller (MAC), which arbitrates access to the upstream link among users with fluctuating traffic demands and effects the multiplexing and concentration policy. At the same time, it has to safeguard the service quality and enforce the parameters agreed in the service level agreements (SLAs) between the users and the service provider. In this paper, a MAC protocol designed to serve any mix of services according to their quality of service (QoS) needs, employing four priority levels along with a high number of logically separate data queues is presented. The architecture and implementation in hardware of a MAC algorithm capable of allocating bandwidth down to a resolution of a byte with QoS differentiation is the focus of this paper. It employs the bandwidth arbitration tools of the FSAN/ITU G.984.3 standard and maps SLA parameters to GPON service parameters to create an efficient, fair and flexible residential access system. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Solid-State Synthesis and Thermoelectric Properties of Sb-Doped Mg2Si Materials

Sb-doped magnesium silicide compounds have been prepared through ball milling and solid-state reaction. Materials produced were near-stoichiometric. The structural modifications have been studied with powder x-ray diffraction. Highly dense pellets of Mg₂Si_1?x Sb _x (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.04) were fabricated via hot pressing and studied in terms of Seebeck coefficient, electrical and thermal conductivity, and free carrier concentration as a function of Sb concentration. Their thermoelectric performance in the high temperature range is presented, and the maximum value of the dimensionless figure of merit was found to be 0.46 at 810 K, for the Mg₂Si_0.915Sb_0.015 member.