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Boron penetration through 5 nm to 8 nm gate dielectrics grown in O2 or N2O via RTO increases exponentially with decreasing oxide thickness. A physical model describes the thickness dependence observed for boron penetration. The model enables prediction of the minimum oxide thickness required to inhibit boron penetration. The significance of boron-induced threshold voltage variation in ULSI technologies is studied.

Identification technology based on biometrics is a branch of research that employs the unique individual traits of humans to authenticate identity, which is the most secure method of identification based on its exceptional high dependability and stability of human biometrics. Common biometric identifiers include fingerprints, irises, and facial sounds, among others. In the realm of biometric recognition, fingerprint recognition has gained success with its convenient operation and fast identif ication speed. Different fingerprint collecting techniques, which supply fingerprint information for fingerprint identification systems, have attracted a significant deal of interest in authentication technology regarding fingerprint identification systems. This work presents several fingerprint acquisition techniques, such as optical capacitive and ultrasonic, and analyzes acquisition types and structures. In addition, the pros and drawbacks of various sensor types, as well as the limits and benefits of optical, capacitive, and ultrasonic kinds, are discussed. It is the necessary stage for the application of the Internet of Things (IoT). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) power transistors based on AlGaN/GaN heterojunction, p-GaN gate has been the gate topology commonly used to deplete the two dimensional electron gas (2-DEG) and achieve a normally-OFF behavior. But fully recessed MIS gate GaN power transistors or MOSc-HEMTs have gained interest as normally-OFF HEMTs thanks to the wider voltage swing and reduced gate leakage current when compared to p-GaN gate HEMTs. However the mandatory AlGaN barrier etching to deplete the 2-DEG combined with the nature of the dielectric/GaN interface generates etching-related defects, traps, and roughness. As a consequence, the threshold voltage (VTH) can be unstable, and the electron mobility is reduced, which presents a challenge for the integration of a fully recessed MIS gate. Recent developments have been studied to solve this challenge. In this paper, we discuss developments in gate recess with low impact etching and atomic layer etching (ALE) alongside surface treatments such as wet cleaning, thermal or plasma treatment, all in the scope of having a surface close to pristine. Finally, different interfacial layers, such as AlN, and alternative dielectrics investigated to optimize the dielectric/GaN interface are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of different high κ dielectrics such as HfO2, ZrO2, and Al2O3 thin films were studied as an alternative material for the possible replacement of traditional SiO2. These large areas, as well as conformal dielectrics thin films, were grown by the atomic layer deposition technique on a p-type silicon substrate at two different deposition temperatures (150 and 250 °C). Atomic force microscopic study reveals that the surface of the films is very smooth with a measured rms surface roughness value of less than 0.4 nm in some films. After the deposition of the high κ layer, a top metal electrode was deposited onto it to fabricate metal oxide semiconductor capacitor (MOSCAP) structures. The I–V curve reveals that the sample growth at high temperatures exhibits a high resistance value and lower leakage current densities. Frequency-dependent (100 kHz to 1 MHz) C–V characteristics of the MOSCAPs were studied steadily. Furthermore, we have prepared a metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor device with Al-doped ZnO as a channel material, and the electrical characteristic of the device was studied. The effect of growth temperature on the structure, surface morphology, crystallinity, capacitance, and dielectric properties of the high κ dielectrics was thoroughly analyzed through several measurement techniques, such as XRD, atomic force microscopy, semiconductor parameter analysis, and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the possibilities of two methods for monitoring Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) process parameters: multi-grid probe, which makes it possible, in particular, to determine the energy distribution of ions of one- or two-component plasma and spectrum analyzer of the glow discharge plasma electromagnetic radiation signal based on the Prony–Fourier multichannel inductive spectral analysis sensor. The energy distribution curves of argon ions in the low-voltage operation mode of ion sources with closed electron current have been analyzed. With a decline in the discharge current, the average ion energy decreases, and the source efficiency (the ratio of the average ion energy W to the discharge voltage U) remains approximately at the same level of W/U ≈ 0.68, ..., 0.71 in the operating voltage range of the source. The spectrum analyzer system can obtain not only the spectra at the output of the sensor, but also the deconvolution of the spectrum of the electromagnetic radiation signal of the glow discharge plasma. The scheme of a spectrum analyzer is considered, which can be used both for monitoring and for controlling the processing process, including in automated PVD installations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single crystals of a new quaternary oxide, barium hexadecayttrium tetrasilicon tritriacontaoxide, BaY16Si4O33, were obtained from a melt-solidified sample prepared by heating a mixture of BaCO3, Y2O3, and SiO2 at 2073 K. X-ray crystal structure analysis revealed that Ba(SiO4)4 orthosilicate clusters in which a Ba atom is surrounded by four SiO4 tetrahedra were isolated in a framework composed of Y and O in the structure of BaY16Si4O33. The dielectric constant measured for polycrystalline ceramics of BaY16Si4O33 sintered at 1953 K was 13 (298 K, 1 MHz), and the thermal expansion coefficient was 8.70 × 10-6 K-1 (298-873 K), which are close to the values previously reported for Y2O3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Boron-doped cuprous oxide (Cu2O:B) thin films were deposited on glass and silicon substrates via radio frequency (rf) magnetron co-sputtering at room temperature using metallic copper and boron targets. The influence of B doping on the morphology of Cu2O was studied using X-ray diffraction and spectrometric techniques. Optical transparency and bandgap of the doped films were improved compared to intrinsic Cu2O thin film. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirms that Cu is in + 1 valance state even after doping. Electrical characteristics suggest enhanced p-type conductivity and reduction in resistivity with boron doping, due to the increase in charge carriers. Cu2O:B/c-Si heterojunction shows good rectifying (~ 104) behavior, and the small ∆Ev and high ∆Ec obtained from the flat band diagram suggests its potential application as hole-selective layer in c-Si solar cell. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of antimicrobial drug resistance among pathogenic bacteria and fungi is one of the most significant health issues of the 21st century. Recently, advances in nanotechnology have led to the development of nanomaterials, particularly metals that exhibit antimicrobial properties. These metal nanomaterials have emerged as promising alternatives to traditional antimicrobial therapies. In this review, a broad overview of metal nanomaterials, their synthesis, properties, and interactions with pathogenic micro‐organisms is first provided. Secondly, the range of nanomaterials that demonstrate passive antimicrobial properties are outlined and in‐depth analysis and comparison of stimuli‐responsive antimicrobial nanomaterials are provided, which represent the next generation of microbiocidal nanomaterials. The stimulus applied to activate such nanomaterials includes light (including photocatalytic and photothermal) and magnetic fields, which can induce magnetic hyperthermia and kinetically driven magnetic activation. Broadly, this review aims to summarize the currently available research and provide future scope for the development of metal nanomaterial‐based antimicrobial technologies, particularly those that can be activated through externally applied stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aluminum oxide (Al2O3) has emerged as a potential dielectric material and exhibited an excellent passivation property on silicon surface. However, such oxide layer is extremely sensitive to γ-ray irradiation. In this work, deep-level transient spectroscopy has been applied to study the influence of γ-ray irradiation on the passivation properties of atomic layer deposited Al2O3 on silicon. It is shown that γ-ray irradiation leads to a significant increase of interface state density (Dit). Meanwhile, its energy distribution is broadened and shifts deeper with respect to the top of valence band, and therefore evolves into more efficient recombination centers for carriers. Besides, capacitance-voltage (C-V) curves shows a progressive shift toward the negative voltages with increased radiation doses. This indicates the hole trapping in Al2O3, which can neutralize the negatively charged defects and therefore degrade its field-effect passivation. Hence, the passivation quality of Al2O3 on silicon deteriorates significantly after γ-ray radiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we introduce a transparent fingerprint sensing system using a thin film transistor (TFT) sensor panel, based on a self-capacitive sensing scheme. An armorphousindium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO) TFT sensor array and associated custom Read-Out IC (ROIC) are implemented for the system. The sensor panel has a 200 × 200 pixel array and each pixel size is as small as 50 μm × 50 μm. The ROIC uses only eight analog front-end (AFE) amplifier stages along with a successive approximation analog-to-digital converter (SAR ADC). To get the fingerprint image data from the sensor array, the ROIC senses a capacitance, which is formed by a cover glass material between a human finger and an electrode of each pixel of the sensor array. Three methods are reviewed for estimating the self-capacitance. The measurement result demonstrates that the transparent fingerprint sensor system has an ability to differentiate a human finger's ridges and valleys through the fingerprint sensor array. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal atomic layer-deposited (ALD) aluminum oxide (Al2O3) acquires high negative fixed charge density (Qf) and sufficiently low interface trap density after annealing, which enables excellent surface passivation for crystalline silicon. Qf can be controlled by varying the annealing temperatures. In this study, the effect of the annealing temperature of thermal ALD Al2O3 films on p-type Czochralski silicon wafers was investigated. Corona charging measurements revealed that the Qf obtained at 300°C did not significantly affect passivation. The interface-trapping density markedly increased at high annealing temperature (>600°C) and degraded the surface passivation even at a high Qf. Negatively charged or neutral vacancies were found in the samples annealed at 300°C, 500°C, and 750°C using positron annihilation techniques. The Al defect density in the bulk film and the vacancy density near the SiOx/Si interface region decreased with increased temperature. Measurement results of Qf proved that the Al vacancy of the bulk film may not be related to Qf. The defect density in the SiOx region affected the chemical passivation, but other factors may dominantly influence chemical passivation at 750°C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High permittivity (k) gate dielectric films are widely studied to substitute SiO2 as gate oxides to suppress the unacceptable gate leakage current when the traditional SiO2 gate oxide becomes ultrathin. For high-k gate oxides, several material properties are dominantly important. The first one, undoubtedly, is permittivity. It has been well studied by many groups in terms of how to obtain a higher permittivity for popular high-k oxides, like HfO2 and La2O3. The second one is crystallization behavior. Although it's still under the debate whether an amorphous film is definitely better than ploy-crystallized oxide film as a gate oxide upon considering the crystal boundaries induced leakage current, the crystallization behavior should be well understood for a high-k gate oxide because it could also, to some degree, determine the permittivity of the high-k oxide. Finally, some high-k gate oxides, especially rare earth oxides (like La2O3), are not stable in air and very hygroscopic, forming hydroxide. This topic has been well investigated in over the years and significant progresses have been achieved. In this paper, I will intensively review the most recent progresses of the experimental and theoretical studies for preparing higher-k and more stable, in terms of hygroscopic tolerance and crystallization behavior, Hf- and La-based ternary high-k gate oxides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electrical properties of DC reactive sputtered zirconium-nitride metallized metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) and metal-insulator-metal (MIM) devices on TiO2/p-Si and TiO2/ZrN films were studied using capacitance-voltage (C-V) and current-voltage (I-V) measurements at room temperature. Capacitances of the ZrN/TiO2/p-Si MOS device were measured in accumulation mode and inversion mode, from which flat band capacitance was found to be 2.86pF, which corresponds to flat band voltage of −1.7 V. Fixed oxide charged density and interface state density was found to be 1.63× 1010 cm−2 and 6.3× 1011 cm−2 eV−1. I-V characteristics revealed that the leakage current density was of 0.5 mA/cm2 in accumulation mode and 2 mA/cm2 in inversion mode at a field of 0.12 MV/cm, respectively. Dielectric breakdown of ZrN/TiO2/p-Si device was found to be 0.12 MV/cm in accumulation mode. Based on the C-V and I-V characteristics, the ZrN/TiO2/ZrN structure showed no variation in the capacitance value as the bias voltage was changed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zirconium dioxide films grown by atomic layer deposition from ZrCl[SUB4] and H[SUB2]O at substrate temperatures of 500-870 K were characterized using spectroscopic methods. A significant influence of the phase composition on absorption and photoluminescence spectra was observed. The band-gap energies determined from absorption spectra of films with monoclinic structure grown at 670-870 K ranged from 5.25 to 5.28 eV. Low-temperature (10 K) photoexcitation of these films resulted in a non-elementary emission band with the maximum at 4.25-4.35 eV, tentatively assigned to the radiative decay of self-trapped excitons. The low-energy edges of the excitation spectra coincided with the edges of intrinsic absorption. A film that was grown at 500 K and contained tetragonal ZrO[SUB2] with large amounts of impurities had an absorption edge at 5.26 eV and wide emission band at 3.0 eV, which could be excited at as low photon energy as 4.9 eV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thermal atomic layer deposition (ThALD) of yttrium oxide (Y2O3) was developed using the newly designed, liquid precursor, Y(EtCp)2(iPr2-amd), as the yttrium source in combination with different oxygen sources, such as ozone, water and even molecular oxygen. Saturation was observed for the growth of the Y2O3 films within an ALD window of 300 to 450 °C and a growth per cycle (GPC) up to 1.1 Å. The resulting Y2O3 films possess a smooth and crystalline structure, while avoiding any carbon and nitrogen contamination, as observed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The films showed strong resistance to fluorine-containing plasma, outperforming other resistant materials, such as silicon oxide, silicon nitride and alumina. Interestingly, the hydrophilic character exhibited by the film could be switched to hydrophobic after exposure to air, with water contact angles exceeding 90°. After annealing under N2 flow at 600 °C for 4 min, the hydrophobicity was lost, but proved recoverable after prolonged air exposure or intentional hydrocarbon exposure. The origin of these changes in hydrophobicity was examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of nitridation treatment on the band alignment between few-layer MoS2 and HfO2 has been investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The valence (conduction) band offsets of MoS2/HfO2 with and without nitridation treatment were determined to be 2.09 ± 0.1 (2.41 ± 0.1) and 2.34 ± 0.1 (2.16 ± 0.1) eV, respectively. The tunable band alignment could be attributed to the Mo-N bonding formation and surface band bending for HfO2 triggered by nitridation. This study on the energy band engineering of MoS2/HfO2 heterojunctions may also be extended to other high-k dielectrics for integrating with two-dimensional materials to design and optimize their electronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract of the article "The prevalence and risk factors for disordered sleep in children with cerebral palsy in WA" by K. Langdon and others, is presented.

An abstract of the article "Clinical and developmental features of atypically developing premature infants with no neurological problems" by Seval Kutluturk and others, is presented.

An abstract of the article "Factors associated with respiratory morbidity in children, adolescents, and young adults with cerebral palsy" by Katherine Langdon and others is presented.

A pH-responsive supramolecular nanoparticles was constructed through the electrostatic interaction from anionic sulfobutyl ether-[beta]-cyclodextrin ([SBE.sub.7]-[beta]-CD) and two positively charged chitosan (CS-75% and CS-95%). The prepared nanoparticles were characterized by UV-vis absorption spectra, x-ray diffraction, dynamic light scattering, transmission electron microscopy, and zeta potential. It was found that the CS/[SBE.sub.7]-[beta]-CD nanoparticles can be disassembly by increasing pH value and reassembled by reducing to the original pH value. To explore the potential of the obtained nanoparticles as a drug delivery vehicle, a negatively charged anticardio cerebrovascular drug sodium ferulate (SF) was loaded. The result indicated that the SF could be efficiently encapsulated in its nanoparticle nucleus under simulated gastric conditions with lower pH (pH 2.0), while effective release is triggered in a simulated intestinal environment with higher pH (pH 8.5). The assembly/disassembly behavior and drug loading/release property make CS/[SBE.sub.7]-[beta]-CD nanoparticles promising candidates for pH stimulation responsive drug delivery system, which has a broad application prospect in the treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, diabetes and other chronic diseases. KEYWORDS chitosan, pH-controlled release, sodium ferulate, sulfobutyl ether-[beta]- cyclodextrin, supramolecular nanoparticles, 1 | INTRODUCTION In the past few decades, controllable supramolecular nanoassembly constructed by several kinds of weak noncovalent interactions [1,2] have attracted considerable research interest because of their ease of [...]