Reliability studies of MOCVD TiSiN and EnCoRe Ta(N)/Ta

Passivated single damascene copper SiO₂ damascene lines were evaluated in combination with TiSiN and Ta(N)/Ta diffusion barriers. Leakage current, breakdown and time-dependent dielectric breakdown properties were investigated on a wafer level basis for temperatures ranging between room temperature and 150 °C. It is found that the leakage performance of the wafers with a TiSiN barrier is better at room temperature, but at 150 °C the performance levels out with Ta(N)/Ta. Time-dependent dielectric breakdown measurements at 150 °C show that the lifetime of the interconnect is higher with the selected Ta(N)/Ta barrier than for TiSiN.     

pH control of the condensation reaction and its effect on the properties of formaldehyde/urea resins

The conditions of the preparation of formaldehyde/urea (F/U) resins have been supervised with the aim to reduce formaldehyde emission by influencing the ratio of methylene/dimethylene-ether-bridge linkages in the product. The most crucial point of this task is to keep the pH values of the reacting mixtures on the required level. The effect of formic acid, unevitably present in industrial formaldehyde solutions, was neutralized by applying a new buffer system, containing boric acid and ethylene glycol.     

A GPC method to determine the composition of two component copolymers

Summary The hydrolytic degradation of Kevlar 49 fibers when dissolved in H₂SO₄ is characterized from (i) Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), CNH analyses and optical microscopy studies of insoluble crystals formed in the PPTA-H₂SO₄ dope and (ii) the rates of H₂SO₄-catalyzed hydrolysis of model compound aromatic amides. After hydrolysis of a PPTA amide linkage, the amide linkage adjacent to the freshly formed-COOH macromolecular end group rapidly hydrolyses resulting in the formation of terephthalic acid which then forms insoluble crystals in the PPTA-H₂SO₄ dope.Dedicated to Professor Dragutin Fle on the occasion of his 70th birthdaySupported in part by U.S. Department of Energy, LL National Laboratory under Contract W-7405-Eng-48     

The role of the surface free energy in the selection of a suitable excipient in the course of a wet-granulation method

Pellets containing metronidazole were produced in a centrifugal granulator, with hydroxypropylcellulose (Klucel LF®) as binding agent, and corn starch, microcrystalline cellulose (Vivapur 101®) and lactose as excipients. The wettability of the pharmaceutical powders was assessed by means of contact angle measurements, and the dispersive and polar surface energies were determined. The spreading coefficients, the work of adhesion and the work of cohesion were calculated and correlated with the pellet properties (friability, bulk and tapped density, and porosity). The aim was to investigate the role of the surface free energy of one- and two-component powder compositions in pellet production. The interactions between the particles were found to be connected with the measured pellet parameters. It was concluded that, in the course of the growth of the pellets, the particle sizes of the pharmaceutical powders and the interactions between them are important. If the work of cohesion of the binder is lower than the work of cohesion of the substrate and the work of adhesion, then the optimal amount of the binding agent is that which coats the particles uniformly in minimal quantity and in continuous layer.     

Turk-2, a multi-modal chess player

In this paper we present Turk-2, a hybrid multi-modal chess player with a robot arm and a screen-based talking head. Turk-2 can not only play chess, but can see and hear the opponent, can talk to him and display emotions. We were interested to find out if a simple embodiment with human-like communication capabilities enhances the experience of playing chess against a computer. First, give an overview of the development road to multi-modal communication with computers. Then we motivate our research with a hybrid system, we introduce the architecture of Turk-2, we describe the human experiments and its evaluation. The results justify that multi-modal interaction makes game playing more engaging, enjoyable – and even more effective. These findings for a specific game situation provide yet another evidence of the power of human-like interaction in turning computer systems more attractive and easier to use.     

Investigation of the Equivalence of National Dew-Point Temperature Realizations in the ?50?°C to +?20?°C Range

In the field of humidity quantities, the first CIPM key comparison, CCT-K6 is at its end. The corresponding European regional key comparison, EUROMET.T-K6, was completed in early 2008, about 4?years after the starting initial measurements in the project. In total, 24 NMIs from different countries took part in the comparison. This number includes 22 EURAMET countries, and Russia and South Africa. The comparison covered the dew-point temperature range from ?50?°C to +20?°C. It was carried out in three parallel loops, each with two chilled mirror hygrometers as transfer standards in each loop. The comparison scheme was designed to ensure high quality results with evenly spread workload for the participants. It is shown that the standard uncertainty due to the long-term instability was smaller than 0.008?°C in all loops. The standard uncertainties due to links between the loops were found to be smaller than 0.025?°C at ?50?°C and 0.010?°C elsewhere. Conclusions on the equivalence of the dew-point temperature standards are drawn on the basis of calculated bilateral degrees of equivalence and deviations from the EURAMET comparison reference values (ERV). Taking into account 16 different primary dew-point realizations and 8 secondary realizations, the results demonstrate the equivalence of a large number of laboratories at an uncertainty level that is better than achieved in other multilateral comparisons so far in the humidity field.     

Effect of dietary supplementation of Spirulina (Arthrospira platensis) and Thyme (Thymus vulgaris) on rabbit meat appearance,oxidative stability and fatty acid profile during retail display

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of Spirulina and Thyme supplementation on rabbit meat during retail display. At weaning 294 rabbits were allocated to 7 different treatments (42 rabbits/treatment). Rabbits of the control group (C) received a diet without any supplementation throughout the experiment (5–11 weeks of age). The other groups were fed diets containing 5% Spirulina (S), 3% Thyme (T) or both supplements (ST) for the whole trial (5–11 weeks; treatments S, T and ST), or for a part of the growing period (8–11 weeks; treatments C–S, C–T and C–ST). Colour parameters, pH, water holding capacity and drip loss were determined on fresh and stored Longissimus dorsi muscle of 5 rabbits/treatment. Spirulina- and Thyme-supplemented diets had a significant effect on redness and yellowness of Longissimus dorsi. Drip loss was significantly reduced in C–T and T groups that also showed the highest content of α-tocopherol and n − 3 fatty acids content and the lower lipid oxidation.     

Theory of the adiabatic passage in two-level quantum systems with superpositional initial states

Abstract

An analytic theory of the adiabatic passage (AP) regime of interaction of short frequency chirped laser pulses with a two-level quantum system (QS) being initially in the superpositional quantum state is presented. We show that the initial value of the non-diagonal elements of the density matrix can influence the dynamics of the population transfer during the action of the laser pulse, but do not influence essentially the final populations of the states of the QS obtained at the end of the interaction near the AP regime. A novel solution to the Bloch equations is obtained in the form of a converging power series generalizing the ordinary AP solution.     

Value prediction in hls allocation problems using intellectual properties

A value approximation-based global search algorithm is suggested to solve resource-constrained allocation in high level synthesis problems. Value approximation is preferred, because it can start by using expert heuristics, can estimate the global structure of the search problem, and can optimize heuristics. We are concerned by those allocation problems that have hidden global structure that value approximation may unravel. The value approximation applied here computes the cost of the actual solution and estimates the cost of the solution that could be achieved upon performing a global search on the hidden structure starting from the actual solution. We transcribed the allocation problem into a special form of weighted CNF formulae to suit our approach. We also extended the formalism to pipeline operations. Comparisons are made with expert heuristics. Scaling of computation time and performance are compared.