Self-aligning planarization and passivation for integration applications in III-V semiconductor devices

This work reports an easy planarization and passivation approach for the integration of III-V semiconductor devices. Vertically etched III-V semiconductor devices typically require sidewall passivation to suppress leakage currents and planarization of the passivation material for metal interconnection and device integration. It is, however, challenging to planarize all devices at once. This technique offers wafer-scale passivation and planarization that is automatically leveled to the device top in the 1-3-/spl mu/m vicinity surrounding each device. In this method, a dielectric hard mask is used to define the device area. An undercut structure is intentionally created below the hard mask, which is retained during the subsequent polymer spinning and anisotropic polymer etch back. The spin-on polymer that fills in the undercut seals the sidewalls for all the devices across the wafer. After the polymer etch back, the dielectric mask is removed leaving the polymer surrounding each device level with its device top to atomic scale flatness. This integration method is robust and is insensitive to spin-on polymer thickness, polymer etch nonuniformity, and device height difference. It prevents the polymer under the hard mask from etch-induced damage and creates a polymer-free device surface for metallization upon removal of the dielectric mask. We applied this integration technique in fabricating an InP-based photonic switch that consists of a mesa photodiode and a quantum-well waveguide modulator using benzocyclobutene (BCB) polymer. We demonstrated functional integrated photonic switches with high process yield of >90%, high breakdown voltage of >25 V, and low ohmic contact resistance of /spl sim/10 /spl Omega/. To the best of our knowledge, such an integration of a surface-normal photodiode and a lumped electroabsorption modulator with the use of BCB is the first to be implemented on a single substrate.     

Maximization of total surface area of Pt-SnO<Subscript>2</Subscript>/Al<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript> catalyst by the Taguchi method

The maximization of the total surface area of Pt-SnO₂/Al₂O₃ catalyst was studied by using the Taguchi method of experimental design. The catalysts were prepared by sol-gel method. The effects of HNO₃, H₂O and aluminum nitrate concentrations and the stirring rate on the total surface area were studied at three levels of each. L₉ orthogonal array leading nine experiments was used in the experimental design. The parameter levels that give maximum total surface area were determined and experimentally verified. In the range of conditions studied it was found that, medium levels of HNO₃ and H₂O concentration and lower levels of aluminum nitrate concentration and stirring rate maximize the total surface area.     

Films formed from polystyrene latex/clay composites: A fluorescence study

This study reports a steady-state fluorescence (SSF) technique for studying film formation from surfactant-free polystyrene (PS) latex and Na-montmorillonite (SNaM) composites. The composite films were prepared from pyrene (P)-labeled PS particles and SNaM clay at room temperature and annealed at elevated temperatures in 10-min intervals above glass transition temperature (t₃) of polystyrene. During the annealing processes, the transparency of the film improved considerably. Scattered light (I_s) and fluorescence intensity (I_p) from P were measured after each annealing step to monitor the stages of film formation. Evolution of transparency of composite films was monitored by using photon transmission intensity, I_tr. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to detect the variation in physical structure of annealed composite films. Minimum film formation temperature, T_q, and healing temperatures, T_h, were determined. Void closure and interdiffusion stages were modeled and related activation energies were determined. It was observed that both activation energies increased as the percent of SNaM was increased in composite films.     

Studying high impact fix-inducing changes

As software systems continue to play an important role in our daily lives, their quality is of paramount importance. Therefore, a plethora of prior research has focused on predicting components of software that are defect-prone. One aspect of this research focuses on predicting software changes that are fix-inducing. Although the prior research on fix-inducing changes has many advantages in terms of highly accurate results, it has one main drawback: It gives the same level of impact to all fix-inducing changes. We argue that treating all fix-inducing changes the same is not ideal, since a small typo in a change is easier to address by a developer than a thread synchronization issue. Therefore, in this paper, we study high impact fix-inducing changes (HIFCs). Since the impact of a change can be measured in different ways, we first propose a measure of impact of the fix-inducing changes, which takes into account the implementation work that needs to be done by developers in later (fixing) changes. Our measure of impact for a fix-inducing change uses the amount of churn, the number of files and the number of subsystems modified by developers during an associated fix of the fix-inducing change. We perform our study using six large open source projects to build specialized models that identify HIFCs, determine the best indicators of HIFCs and examine the benefits of prioritizing HIFCs. Using change factors, we are able to predict 56 % to 77 % of HIFCs with an average false alarm (misclassification) rate of 16 %. We find that the lines of code added, the number of developers who worked on a change, and the number of prior modifications on the files modified during a change are the best indicators of HIFCs. Lastly, we observe that a specialized model for HIFCs can provide inspection effort savings of 4 % over the state-of-the-art models. We believe our results would help practitioners prioritize their efforts towards the most impactful fix-inducing changes and save inspection effort.     

Revealing determinants of two‐phase dynamics of P53 network under gamma irradiation based on a reduced 2D relaxation oscillator model

This study proposes a two‐dimensional (2D) oscillator model of p53 network, which is derived via reducing the multidimensional two‐phase dynamics model into a model of ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) and Wip1 variables, and studies the impact of p53‐regulators on cell fate decision. First, the authors identify a 6D core oscillator module, then reduce this module into a 2D oscillator model while preserving the qualitative behaviours. The introduced 2D model is shown to be an excitable relaxation oscillator. This oscillator provides a mechanism that leads diverse modes underpinning cell fate, each corresponding to a cell state. To investigate the effects of p53 inhibitors and the intrinsic time delay of Wip1 on the characteristics of oscillations, they introduce also a delay differential equation version of the 2D oscillator. They observe that the suppression of p53 inhibitors decreases the amplitudes of p53 oscillation, though the suppression increases the sustained level of p53. They identify Wip1 and P53DINP1 as possible targets for cancer therapies considering their impact on the oscillator, supported by biological findings. They model some mutations as critical changes of the phase space characteristics. Possible cancer therapeutic strategies are then proposed for preventing these mutations’ effects using the phase space approach.Inspec keywords: physiological models, cellular biophysics, cancer, difference equations, delays, enzymes, biochemistry, molecular biophysics, gamma‐rays, radiation therapyOther keywords: two‐phase dynamics model, P53 network, gamma irradiation, 2D relaxation oscillator model, ATM model, Wip1 variables, p53‐regulators, cell fate decision, excitable relaxation oscillator, Wip1 time delay, state‐dependent delay differential equation, cell cycle arrest, cell apoptosis, cancer therapies, Wip1 overexpression, Wip1 downregulation, ATM deficiency, Mdm2 overexpression, Mdm2 downregulation, mutation effects, phase space approach     

Multiobjective evolutionary clustering of Web user sessions: a case study in Web page recommendation

In this study, we experiment with several multiobjective evolutionary algorithms to determine a suitable approach for clustering Web user sessions, which consist of sequences of Web pages visited by the users. Our experimental results show that the multiobjective evolutionary algorithm-based approaches are successful for sequence clustering. We look at a commonly used cluster validity index to verify our findings. The results for this index indicate that the clustering solutions are of high quality. As a case study, the obtained clusters are then used in a Web recommender system for representing usage patterns. As a result of the experiments, we see that these approaches can successfully be applied for generating clustering solutions that lead to a high recommendation accuracy in the recommender model we used in this paper.     

Dual Polymer Conditioning of Water Treatment Residuals

Conditioning of either wastewater biosolids or water treatment residuals conventionally utilizes a single polymer to improve subsequent dewatering. The sequential addition of two polymers has been reported to enhance biosolids dewaterability, but comparable benefits have not been demonstrated for water treatment residuals. This paper evaluated the use of cationic and nonionic polymers, singly and in combination (dual), to investigate whether dual polymer conditioning of residuals offers any advantages, and to determine whether the results could be accommodated by current mechanistic understandings. For this purpose, lab-scale tests used capillary suction time (CST), supernatant viscosity, zeta potential, streaming current, turbidity, floc size, and rheometric analyses. Comparisons of CST and viscosity results for single and dual polymer additions indicated that dual polymer use gave moderately improved dewaterability, possibly due to the increased mixing utilized for dual polymer addition. Using a cationic polymer produced a less turbid supernatant. Zeta potential and streaming current were not good indicators of conditioning efficacy when a nonionic polymer was used. Rheometric analyses were only meaningful in one selected method for treatment of the data: the area under the rheogram up to a shear rate of 30?inverse?s. Overall, implementation of dual polymer use does not appear warranted.     

Experiments and simulations of short-pulse laser-pumped extreme ultraviolet lasers

Recent experimental work on the development of extreme ultraviolet lasers undertaken using as the pumping source the VULCAN laser at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory is compared to detailed simulations. It is shown that short duration (/spl sim/picosecond) pumping can produce X-ray laser pulses of a few picosecond duration and that measurement of the emission from the plasma can give an estimate of the duration of the gain coefficient. The Ehybrid fluid and atomic physics code developed at the University of York is used to simulate X-ray laser gain and plasma emission. Two postprocessors to the Ehybrid code are utilized: 1) to raytrace the X-ray laser beam amplification and refraction and 2) to calculate the radiation emission in the kiloelectronvolt photon energy range. The raytracing and spectral simulations are compared, respectively, to measured X-ray laser output and the output of two diagnostics recording transverse X-ray emission. The pumping laser energy absorbed in the plasma is examined by comparing the simulations to experimental results. It is shown that at high pumping irradiance (>10/sup 15/ Wcm/sup -2/), fast electrons are produced by parametric processes in the preformed long scalelength plasmas. These fast electrons do not pump the population inversion and so pumping efficiency is reduced at high irradiance.