Search

Toshio Kinoshita,1 Shinichiro Fujimoto,1 Yukio Ishikawa,2 Hitomi Yuzawa,1 Shunji Fukunaga,1 Mikihito Toda,3 Kenji Wagatsuma,3 Yoshikiyo Akasaka,2 Toshiharu Ishii,2 Takanori Ikeda11Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, 2Department of Pathology, 3Division of Interventional Cardiology, Toho University Faculty of Medicine, Ohta City, Tokyo, JapanAbstract: Behçet’s disease is a multisystemic vascular inflammatory disease, but concurrent cardiac diseases, such as acute myocardial infarction, are rare. Several complications may arise after coronary intervention for coronary lesions that interfere with treatment, and the incidence of coronary arterial complications due to invasive therapy remains unclear. Further, the long-term outcomes in patients with Behçet’s disease after stenting for acute myocardial infarction have not been described. The present report describes a 35-year-old Japanese man with Behçet’s disease who developed acute myocardial infarction. A coronary aneurysm developed at the stenting site of the left anterior descending coronary artery, along with stenosis in the left anterior descending segment proximal to the site. Although invasive therapy was considered, medication including immunosuppressants was selected because of the high risk of vascular complications after invasive therapy. The coronary artery disease has remained asymptomatic for the 4 years since the patient started medication. This case underscores the importance of considering the incidence of coronary arterial complications and of conservative treatment when possible.Keywords: Behçet’s disease, myocardial infarction, coronary arterial complications, percutaneous coronary intervention, immunosuppressants

We have applied a combinatorial technique to fabricate work function (WF) tuned Pt-W alloy films and used the films as metal electrodes for HfO2/SiO2/Si capacitors. As the ratio, RPt, of Pt to W changes from 0 to 1, the WF value varies continuously from 4.7 to 5.5 eV. This tunability enables us to systematically investigate the effect of WF variation on electrical properties. After a forming gas annealing process, the values of flatband voltage (Vfb) from capacitance-voltage properties are almost constant, regardless of the WF variation, because of oxygen vacancy formation that results in Fermi level pinning. On additional oxidizing gas annealing (OGA), the effect of WF value on Vfb becomes dominant. However, the difference in Vfb between W and Pt is 0.34 V, which is much smaller than the observed WF difference of 0.8 eV. We attribute this phenomenon to the lowering of the effective WF due to an electric dipole, induced by oxygen vacancy formation at the metal/HfO2 interface. Moreover, a decrease in Vfb in W-rich regions was observed following the OGA, suggesting the formation of a W-O bond at the interface. These results clearly indicate that the control of bonding states at the metal/HfO2 interfaces on an atomic scale is essential for the realization of a combination of metal and high-k dielectric films in future complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of TiN deposition on thin HfO2 films formed on Si substrates was studied using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and a monoenergetic positron beam. For the predeposition sample, the positrons implanted into Si were found to diffuse toward the HfO2/Si interface under the influence of the electric field, suggesting the presence of negative charges in HfO2. After TiN was deposited by chemical vapor deposition, no large change in the defect species was observed. After TiN was deposited by physical vapor deposition, however, positive charges were introduced at the TiN/HfO2 interface, which were associated with the incorporation of nitride into HfO2 and/or the plasma damage at the surface of HfO2, and the resultant formation of positively charged oxygen vacancies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of nitridation on open volumes in thin HfSiOx films fabricated on Si substrates by atomic layer deposition was studied using monoenergetic positron beams. For HfSiOx, positrons were found to annihilate from the trapped state due to open volumes which exist intrinsically in an amorphous structure. After plasma nitridation, the size of open volumes decreased at a nitrogen concentration of about 20 at. %. An expansion of open volumes, however, was observed after postnitridation annealing (PNA) (1050 °C, 5 s). We found that the size of open volumes increased with increasing nitrogen concentration in HfSiOx. The change in the size of open volumes was attributed to the trapping of nitrogen by open volumes, and an incorporation of nitrogen into the amorphous matrix of HfSiOx during PNA. We also examined the role of nitrogen in HfSiOx using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and first principles calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deals with a study which investigated the influence of the growth direction and the solidification speed on crystal quality of the silicon (Si)-on-insulator (SOI) film by laser recrystallization. Relation between liquid-solid interface and planes responsible for crystal growth; Growth direction of recrystallized Si films; Crystalline orientation of the SOI film.

Studies the influence of deposition pressure on epitaxial crystalline film quality. Details on the experiment; Results of the study; Discussion of findings.