STI process steps for sub-quarter micron CMOS

This paper presents Shallow Trench Isolation (STI) process steps for sub-1/4 μ CMOS technologies. Dummy active areas, vertical trench sidewalls, excellent gap filling, counter mask etch step and CMP end point detection, have been used for a 0.18 μm CMOS technology. Electrical results obtained with a 5.5 nm gate oxide thickness show good isolation down to 0.3 μm spacing. Good transistor performances have been demonstrated.     

Frequency and etiology of calf losses and calf diseases before weaning in cow-calf farms. II. Microbiological and parasitological diagnoses in diarrheic calves]

Diarrhea is the most frequently diagnosed disease in Swiss cow-calf farms. During an longitudinal study conducted in 105 cow-calf farms in Switzerland in 1993-95, blood and fecal samples were collected from diarrheic calves and from calves that died because of diarrhea. Campylobacter spp. were detected in 42%, E. coli (VTEC) in 32%, rotavirus in 33%, coronavirus in 13%, coccidia in 43% and helminths in 8% of the cases. In some samples Yersinia pseudotuberculosis were isolated. The BVD-virus antigen was not detected in any of the calves examined. In most cases concurrent infection with several enteropathogens was diagnosed. Specific causes of diarrhea were therefore difficult to establish. The bacteriological findings of this study have implication for food safety: VTEC, Campylobacter spp. Yersinia spp. and cryptosporidia are considered as potential causes on zoonoses.     

An investigation of carbon nanotube jet grinding

Since their observation in 1976 and 1991, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have generated much interest due to their properties and potential applications. CNTs are tubular carbon molecules with remarkable mechanical, electrical, chemical and thermal properties, which make them useful in various applications. Industries producing CNTs via the fluidized bed chemical vapor deposition technique face challenges related to the size of CNT bundles. The two main challenges are agglomeration and agglomerate size distribution control. A solution to these challenges involves the use of jet mills to grind the CNT agglomerates. The goal of this study was to determine whether the nanotubes could be ground with air jets using a commercial jet mill and apply a two-parameter model to describe the grinding process. The present study has indicated that air-jet grinding of CNTs is feasible with a typical commercial jet mill. This paper presents the effect of operational parameters on the arithmetic mean diameter of the ground product. Sonic velocity through the grinding nozzles was required to obtain reasonable grinding rates and relatively narrow particle size distributions. This occurs at high air to solids feedrate ratios. Additionally, a simple attrition model can describe the grinding process in the spiral jet mill.     

Minimizing the number of tool switches on a flexible machine

This article analyzes a tool switching problem arising in certain flexible manufacturing environments. A batch of jobs have to be successively processed on a single flexible machine. Each job requires a subset of tools, which have to be placed in the tool magazine of the machine before the job can be processed. The tool magazine has a limited capacity, and, in general, the number of tools needed to produce all the jobs exceeds this capacity. Hence, it is sometimes necessary to change tools between two jobs in a sequence. The problem is then to determine a job sequence and an associated sequence of loadings for the tool magazine, such that the total number of tool switches is minimized. This problem has been previously considered by several authors; it is here revisited, both from a theoretical and from a computational viewpoint. Basic results concerning the computational complexity of the problem are established. Several heuristics are proposed for its solution, and their performance is computationally assessed.     

A URI-based approach for addressing fragments of media resources on the Web

To make media resources a prime citizen on the Web, we have to go beyond simply replicating digital media files. The Web is based on hyperlinks between Web resources, and that includes hyperlinking out of resources (e.g., from a word or an image within a Web page) as well as hyperlinking into resources (e.g., fragment URIs into Web pages). To turn video and audio into hypervideo and hyperaudio, we need to enable hyperlinking into and out of them. The W3C Media Fragments Working Group is taking on the challenge to further embrace W3C??s mission to lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing a Media Fragment protocol and guidelines that ensure the long-term growth of the Web. The major contribution of this paper is the introduction of Media Fragments as a media-format independent, standard means of addressing media resources using URIs. Moreover, we explain how the HTTP protocol can be used and extended to serve Media Fragments and what the impact is for current Web-enabled media formats.     

Conception assistée par ordinateur des circuits intégrés monolithiques hyperfréquences

Computer aided design of microwave monolithic integrated circuits must combine two different fields. The first domain is the simulation of microwave circuits taking into account non linear aspects development of time domain and harmonic balance simulation algorithms specialized for microwave circuits. In the second place are found, the layout algorithms which were developed for logic circuits (on Si or GaAs). The association of these two types of algorithms leads to the constitution of aCad workstation for microwave monolithic integrated circuits. Two examples of design and realization of integrated circuits with these tools are presented.     

On the role of conserved proline residues in the structure and function of Clostridium pasteurianum 2[4Fe-4S] ferredoxin

The widespread occurrence of Pro residues adjacent to Cys ligandsin the sequences of [4Fe-4S] electron transfer proteins hasnot yet found a functional basis. The two such Pro of Clostridiumpasteurianum 2[4Fe-4S] ferredoxin have been probed by site-directedmutagenesis. Any one of them, but not both simultaneously, canbe substituted without impairing the proper folding of the protein.The reduction potentials of the ferredoxin variants fall ina narrow range of <20 mV above the potential of the nativeprotein. The biological activities with C.pasteurianum hydrogenaseand pyruvate-ferredoxin oxidoreductase do not change significantly,except when Lys replaces Pro. In these cases, the data suggestthat the two clusters of 2[4Fe-4S] ferredoxin may not alwaysbe equivalent in the interaction with the redox partners. Destabilizationof the structure has been observed as the consequence of theProl9 or Pro48 substitutions. Using 2-D NMR, this effect hasbeen associated with perturbations of both the hydrogen bondnetwork and one amino acid side chain around the [4Fe-4S] clusters.Thus, the conserved Pro found in the binding motif of [4Fe-4S]clusters in proteins strongly stabilizes the active site butdoes not play an essential role in the mechanism of electrontransfer.     

Zinc Coated Steel/Epoxy Adhesive Systems: Investigation of the Interfacial Zone by FTIR Spectroscopy

The present study takes advantage of the ability of Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) for the analysis of ultrathin organic films on metals. FTIR in the reflection mode (IRRAS) is used in order to study the interaction of ultrathin films of dicyandiamide (hardener of most one-pack epoxy resins) with various substrates, model ones such as gold or zinc and industrial ones such as steel and zinc-coated steels.

Pure zinc surfaces and, to a lesser extent, zinc-coated steels are shown to react with dicyandiamide after heating at 180°C, as evidenced by the frequency shift of the absorption band (at about 2200 cm^-1) characteristic for nitrile groups. As real systems consist of thick layers of a fully formulated adhesive cured onto a metallic substrate, the direct investigation of such a buried interphase is no longer possible by FTIR and by most of the known spectroscopies. Some mechanically tested specimens are then analysed, after failure, by FTIR microspectrometry. The spectra obtained, corresponding to the fracture initiation zone which is about 100 μm in diameter, advocate for the presence of an ultrathin layer of modified polymer still covering the substrate.