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A radio-frequency magnetron sputter was used to deposit a 60 nm TiO[Formula: see text] film on a W-coated Si substrate at room temperature. Subsequently, a 100 nm Ni film was deposited using a thermal evaporator to form a Ni/TiO[Formula: see text]/W structure. Numerous oxygen vacancies and defects were present in the TiO[Formula: see text] film. The current–voltage characteristics indicate that Schottky emission dominated the conduction mechanism of the Ni/TiO[Formula: see text]/W structure. Because of Schottky barrier modulation, analog resistive switching of the Ni/TiO[Formula: see text]/W structure can be performed using consecutive voltage sweepings or voltage pulses. Various pulse waveforms were used to demonstrate synaptic potentiation and depression.

In this work, two stacked gate dielectrics of Al2O3/tetraethyl-orthosilicate (TEOS) oxide were deposited by using the equivalent capacitance with 100-nm thick TEOS oxide on the patterned InGaZnO layers to evaluate the electrical characteristics and stability improvement of amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) devices, including positive bias stress (PBS) and negative bias stress (NBS) tests. Three different kinds of gate dielectrics (Al2O3, TEOS, Al2O3/TEOS) were used to fabricate four types of devices, differing by the gate dielectric, as well as its thickness. As the Al2O3 thickness of Al2O3/TEOS oxide dielectric stacks increased, both the on-current and off-current decreased, and the transfer curves shifted to larger voltages. The lowest ∆Vth of 0.68 V and ∆S.S. of &minus, 0.03 V/decade from hysteresis characteristics indicate that the increase of interface traps and charge trapping between the IGZO channel and gate dielectrics is effectively inhibited by using two stacked dielectrics with 10-nm thick Al2O3 and 96-nm thick TEOS oxide. The lowest ∆Vth and ∆S.S. values of a-IGZO TFTs with 10-nm thick Al2O3 and 96-nm thick TEOS oxide gate dielectrics according to the PBS and NBS tests were shown to have the best electrical stability in comparison to those with the Al2O3 or TEOS oxide single-layer dielectrics.

The cache memory has been a predominant component in modern chips, easily taking up more than 50% of the silicon area. It is then desirable to make the cache memory flexible for different needs. Therefore, many modern processor chips allow users to configure a part of the cache memory as the scratch-pad memory (SPM), a high-speed internal memory for rapid data access. However, such approach uses only the data RAM of the cache memory while leaving the tag RAM unused and thus wasting its capacity. This paper presents a cache organization, called Tag-SPM architecture, which allows the tag RAM to be used as the SPM and thus increases its capacity. It is accomplished with small Tag/Data-SPM controllers and four additional multiplexers in the cache organization. The proposed Tag-SPM architecture has been implemented with an academic ARM-based microprocessor with 4-/4-kB four-way set-associative instruction/data caches at the register transfer level level. Experiments show that the proposed architecture boosts the SPM capacity by 12.5% and requires only 0.08% area (434 gates) overhead without impairing the cache’s circuit speed in TSMC’s 90-nm standard cell implementation. Furthermore, the power overhead is negligible. When the Tag-SPM architecture is applied to typical cache systems, such as in ARM’s Cortex-A5 and Cortex-A53 processors, additional 12.5% SPM space per way can also be gained in both cases. The analyses show that our Tag-SPM architecture is a highly cost-effective way to boost the SPM space.

(Ca0.2Sr0.8)3(ZrxTi1-x)2O7 (x = 0.02-0.1) ceramic prepared by the solid state method was investigated for its microstructure and microwave dielectric properties. The correlation between the microstructure and microwave dielectric properties was also investigated. By increasing x from 0.01 to 0.06, the dielectric constant and Q×f value of the specimen could be increased from 72 to a maximum of 74, and from 11000 GHz to a maximum of 18000 GHz, respectively. The εr value of 74, the Q×f value of 18,000 GHz, and the τf value of 418 ppm/oC were obtained for (Ca0.2Sr0.8)3(Zr0.06Ti0.94)2O7 ceramics sintering at 1520oC for 4h, and (Ca0.2Sr0.8)3(ZrxTi1-x)2O7 (x = 0.02-0.1) is proposed as a suitable material candidate for application in microwave ceramic temperature sensing antenna.

// Hsiao-Wei Kao 1, * , Chao-Yu Pan 1, 2, * , Chun-Hung Lai 1 , Chew-Wun Wu 3 , Wen-Liang Fang 3 , Kuo-Hung Huang 3 and Wen-Chang Lin 1, 2 1 Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan 2 Institute of Biomedical Informatics, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan 3 Department of Surgery, Veterans General Hospital and National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Wen-Chang Lin, email: wenlin@ibms.sinica.edu.tw Keywords: microRNA, liquid biopsy, urine samples, gastric cancer Received: December 08, 2016 Accepted: March 14, 2017 Published: April 07, 2017 ABSTRACT Many reports have implicated that microRNAs involve in cancer development and progression, such as miR-155 in breast cancers and miR-196 in gastric cancers. Furthermore, microRNAs are more stable than typical protein-coding gene mRNAs in varieties of clinical samples including body fluids. This suggests that they are potentially valuable biomarkers for cancer monitoring. In this study, we have used urine samples of gastric cancer patients to demonstrate the feasibility of urine microRNAs for gastric cancer detection. Urine samples of gastric cancer patients were extracted for total RNA, which were examined for the expression of miR-21-5p using quantitative stem-loop PCR. Our results demonstrated that miR-21-5p could be detected in small amounts of urine samples with good stability, and the expression levels of miR-21-5p were reduced following surgical removal of gastric cancer tissues. These results implicate that urine miR-21-5p could be utilized as a novel non-invasive biomarker of gastric cancer detection and monitoring.

A Cu/SiO2/Pt structure is usually used to study the resistive memory properties of an electrochemical resistive random access memory. It can be reversibly switched between low- and high-resistance states by using DC voltages in the atmosphere. However, its resistive switching behavior disappears in a vaporless environment because no conducting filaments can be formed within the Cu/SiO2/Pt structure. This study inserted a graphene oxide (GO) layer to fabricate a Cu/GO/SiO2/Pt structure that could be resistively switched in a vaporless environment. The X-ray photoelectron spectra depth profile of the Cu/GO/SiO2/Pt structure showed that oxygen-related groups of the GO film reacted with the Cu electrode. The GO film assisted Cu ionization in a vaporless environment, and Cu ions could migrate in an electrical field to the Pt electrode. Cu conducting filaments were formed and ruptured by different polarity voltages, and the resistance of the Cu/GO/SiO2/Pt structure could be reversibly switched in a vaporless environment. A schematic model was proposed to explain the switching mechanisms in the atmosphere and a vaporless environment.

Ga-doped ZnO (GZO)/metal/GZO structures were fabricated on glass substrates to be the transparent conducting layers in this study. GZO films and metal films were deposited at room-temperature by a radio-frequency sputter and a thermal evaporator, respectively. The GZO/Ag/GZO (GAG) structures had poor electrical and optical properties due to the formation of Ag islands on the GZO layer. A 1-nm Cu seed layer was deposited on the GZO layer to fabricate the GZO/Ag/Cu/GZO (GACG) structure to improve its electrical and optical properties. The GACG structure had sheet resistance of 9 [Formula: see text], average visible transmittance of 86% and figure of merit of [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text]. In addition, the sheet resistance of the GACG structure kept almost the same after annealing at [Formula: see text]C in atmosphere for more than 5 h, which showed good thermal stability.

This paper carried out a new concept design of wind collection, a vertical tubular wind collector. Using two key-point design: backed-forcing step and cylindering flow design the structure of main body. The finite volume method is applied to solve the Navier-Stokes equations, and the steady-state flow field analysis is simulated with the realizable k-e turbulence model. The height of the exit groove is changed (0D ∼ 4D), and the effects of different inlet wind speed (5m/s ∼ 12.5m / s) on the inlet were discussed. The result shows that increasing the groove cutting height increases the local low pressure zone at the outlet, and the low pressure vortex increases. The suction effect is the best while the cylindrical rear produces a stable symmetrical vortex system.

Li2MgTiO4 (LMT) ceramics which are synthesized using a conventional solid-state reaction route. The LMT ceramic sintered at 1250°C for 4 h had good microwave dielectric properties. However, this sintering temperature is too high to meet the requirement of low-temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC). In this study, the effects of B2O3 additives and sintering temperature on the microstructure and microwave dielectric properties of LMT ceramics were investigated. The B2O3 additive forms a liquid phase during sintering, which decreases the sintering temperature from 1250°C to 925°C. The LMT ceramic with 8 wt% B2O3 sintered at 925°C for 4 h was found to exhibit optimum microwave dielectric properties: dielectric constant 15.16, quality factor 64,164 GHz, and temperature coefficient of resonant frequency -28.07 ppm/°C. Moreover, co-firing of the LMT ceramic with 8 wt% B2O3 and 20 wt% Ag powder demonstrated good chemical compatibility. Therefore, the LMT ceramics with 8 wt% B2O3 sintered at 925°C for 4 h is...

The effects of the CF 4 plasma treatment on resistive memory devices were investigated. First, a 20-nm SiO x film was deposited on a CF 4 -treated W/TiN/SiO 2 /Si substrate using a radio-frequency magnetron sputter, and then a Cu top electrode was deposited to form a Cu/SiO x /CF 4 -treated W structure. The CF 4 plasma treatment deposited fluorine atoms on the tungsten surface, reducing the interface thickness between the SiO x layer and tungsten electrode, and effectively stabilized the resistive switching and improved the switching dispersion. The CF 4 -treated sample showed good memory properties including a reliable non-volatile memory, non-destructive readout, stable switching voltages, and high resistance ratio of 10 5 .

Since the cache system has been a predominant part in modern SoC's and its capacity is sometimes larger than necessary for specific applications, it is desirable to enhance the role of the cache system to beyond its original purpose (performance improvement). In this paper we propose a versatile data cache, called DT (data/trace) cache, by making it to function simultaneously as a regular data cache and as a trace buffer for real time software debugging and monitoring. It is accomplished by modifying the cache organization such that a portion of the cache ways can be configured as a trace buffer during the run time. The trace buffer stores the trace produced by some trace generation hardware while the rest portion of the data cache keeps its original role. The trace can be dumped out using the existing cache write back circuitry. The integration of a DT cache with an instruction cache, an academic ARM7 processor and a trace generator has been accomplished at RTL level. The hardware overhead is very minor and does not impair the global critical path delay. For a 16 KB (8 ways, 512 lines, 8 words) DT cache with only 1 way as the trace buffer, it is capable of storing 12771 cycles of the program trace at the cost of merely 553 gates and slight increase in cache miss rate on the average. The experiments show that the DT cache is a highly cost-effective approach for real time on-chip trace buffering.

Microwave dielectric properties and microstructures of (Ca0.8Sr0.2)ZrO3 ceramics prepared by the conventional solid-state route have been studied. The values of the dielectric constant (εr) were 22-26. The Q×f values of 10400–11500 GHz were obtained when the sintering temperatures were in the range of 1400–1490°C. The temperature coefficient of the resonant frequency τf was not sensitive to the sintering temperature. The εr value of 26, the Q×f value of 11500 GHz, and the τf value of-9 ppm/°C were obtained for (Ca0.8Sr0.2)ZrO3 ceramics sintering at 1490°C. The ceramic, (Ca0.8Sr0.2)ZrO3 is proposed as a suitable candidate material for application in highly selective microwave ceramic passive components.

The microstructure and dielectric properties of the (Ca0.3Sr0.1)Sm0.4TiO3 ceramics with various sintering conditions have been investigated. The compounds were prepared by the conventional solid-state route with various sintering temperatures from 1340 to 1400°C and sintering duration from 3 h. The resultant microwave dielectric properties were analyzed based upon the densification, the X-ray diffraction patterns and the microstructures of the ceramics. The correlation between the microstructures, the microwave dielectric properties and sintering behaviors was also examined. The εr value of 96.7 and Q×f value of 11,600 GHz were obtained for (Ca0.3Sr0.1)Sm0.4TiO3 ceramics sintering at 1370°C for 3 h. The (Ca0.3Sr0.1)Sm0.4TiO3 ceramics had suitable dielectric properties can find applications in microwave devices such as resonator, filter and antenna.

Thermal coating growth of ZnTe thermoelectric films were deposited on n-type Si substrate is studied. Structural analysis through x-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were sensitive to the RTA treatment. The electrical properties and microstructure of these films were investigated with special emphasis on the effects of various annealing temperatures from 600°C to 800°C by RTA technique. The highest carrier concentration, lowest resistivity and mobility at an annealing temperature of 700°C are 3.5×1015cm-3, 0.25 Ω-cm, and 49 cm2V-1S-1. The resultant electrical properties have made ZnTe films as very interesting materials for thermoelectric device applications.

The resistance switching behavior in sputtered Ti/ZrO2/Pt sandwiched structure was investigated for nonvolatile memory application. Multiple current-voltage measurements reveal highly uniform distribution of the conduction current and switching voltage. This bipolar resistive switching driven by bias of proper magnitude and polarity is interpreted by filament model. The reset threshold increases with the compliance setting imposed on the turn-on transition, while the switching currents in high and low resistance states are not varied for different top-electrode areas. Both characteristics are ascribed to the electro-chemical reactions of field-induced reduction-oxidation processes.

N-type ZnO nanorod arrays and p-type NiO thin films have been prepared on the ITO substrates by chemical bath deposition (CBD) and sol-gel spin coating method, respectively, then followed by thermal treatment at 400 °C for 1 h. The ZnO nanorod arrays have length of around 1.5 μm and diameter of around 55 nm; the thickness of the NiO film is around 340 nm with average grain size of 22 nm. The sensing properties of the n-type ZnO and the p-type NiO for the detection of aqueous ethanol solutions at room temperature are investigated using electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The EIS results reveal that the series resistance (Rs) is as low as 27 Ω; the charge-transfer resistance (Rct) remarkably contributes to the sensing properties of the ethanol sensor, and decreases with a decreasing concentration (99.5%-1%) from 17.0 kΩ to 2.6 kΩ. An equivalent circuit with capacitors and resistors was developed to investigate the conduction process according to complex impedance (Nyquist) diagrams. In low concentration range, the electron conduction process is dominated by the Rct and a constant phase element (CPE); however, in high concentration ethanol solution, the conduction process is dominated by polarization and decomposition of the absorbed water with larger Rct observed. Moreover, I-V measurements were carried out to evaluate the sensitivity of n-ZnO and p-NiO nanostructures at room temperature.

article i nfo We prepared anatase TiO2 films by sol-gel method under three thermal firing conditions to investigate the bipolar resistive switching (BRS) and unipolar resistive switching (URS) in Ag/TiO2/Pt structure. The devices are URS in an air atmosphere at 760 Torr, while those in an oxygen ambience at 1 Torr show BRS accompany- ing with forming-free and self-compliance. By examining the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spec- trum, different non-lattice oxygen content is observed. High concentration of oxygen vacancy is expected under oxygen-deficient treatment, and that would determine the electrode/oxide interface property and in- duce switching mode of polarity dependent or not. An improved performance of operation voltage dispersion down to 0.5 V and endurance up to 3000 cycles is obtained for those in reducing Ar.

The physical and optical properties of P2O5-Al2O3-ZnO glasses doped with different concentration of Yb3+ions were investigated. The experimental results indicated that density, chemical durability, glass transition temperature (Tg) and glass softening temperature (Td) of glasses increase with increasing the Yb2O3content of glasses. However, the coefficient of thermal expansion (α) for glasses decrease with increasing the Yb2O3content. From the results of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, the numbers of (-P-O-P-) bonds decrease and (-P-O-M+-) bonds increase with increasing the Yb2O3content. Increase of non-bridge oxygen (-P-O-M+-) raise the refractive index of glasses. Moreover, the results of absorption spectra indicate that the absorption peak of glasses are observed at both wavelengths of 916nm and 977nm. As increasing the concentration of Yb2O3, the absorption efficiencies become stronger. In accordance with the results of fluorescence spectra, the fluorescence emission of glasses are detected at wavelengths of 970nm, 995nm, 1020nm and 1048nm, respectively. The intensity of the fluorescence emission peaks significantly decrease at wavelengths of 970nm and 995nm as the concentration of Yb2O3increases. However, the intensity of the fluorescence emission peaks significantly increase at wavelength of 1048nm under the same condition.

The microstructure and electrical properties of ZnTe films were investigated by using thermal evaporation with emphasis on the effects of a deposition temperature. Microstructure, crystallinity, carrier concentration, resistivity, and mobility are shown to be dependent on the deposition temperature. The highest carrier concentration of 9.1×1014 cm-3, the lowest resistivity of 9.9 Ω-cm and the largest mobility of 667 cm2V-1S-1 are presented at a deposition temperature of 580oC, respectively. The ZnTe thin films using thermal evaporation can find applications in solar cell or light emitting diodes.

A Cu/Pt nanoparticle (Pt-NP)-embedded SiO 2 /Pt structure was fabricated to investigate its resistive switching behavior. The resistive switching behavior may be explained by the filament model with the electrochemical reaction. The Pt-NPs enhanced the local electric field to facilitate the filament formation and to decrease the operating voltages. In addition, the non-uniform distribution of the electric field caused the formation of a Cu filament on a Pt-NP, which decreased the switching dispersion. A simulation of the electric field in a Pt-NP embedded SiO 2 layer was used to investigate the influence of Pt-NPs on the resistive switching behavior.

Sol–gel deposited Ag/TiO2/Pt tri-layers exhibit unipolar resistive switching (URS) with a negative turn-on voltage when fired in air. Variation in both the turn-on voltage and the on-state current at turn-off threshold is observed in successive current–voltage (I–V) measurements. Based on the same composition and processing flow, bipolar resistive switching (BRS) showing positive turn-on voltage by contrast is obtained by applying two alternative procedures: one procedure under oxygen ambience and another one in which indium–tin oxide is used as the bottom electrode. Conduction mechanisms induced by reduction/oxidation reactions explain how firing ambient and bottom electrode affect the switching mode, as well as the distinct turn-on voltage polarity. URS and BRS are related to the amount of ambient oxygen and the arrangement of internal oxygen vacancy, thus determining whether the direction-independent thermochemical heating or polarity-dependent electrochemical oxidation near the anode interface is responsible for the filament rupture. Additionally, the space-charge-limited transport is analyzed to examine how URS and BRS-activated samples significantly differ from each other. Importantly, the temperature-dependent I–V data helps to elucidate the dominant carrier behavior in the regime of low and high electric field.

Sputtered Ti/ZrO2/Pt is investigated for its bi-stable conduction and transition properties. The transition voltage and current vary with the current compliance setting, while the conduction currents in on and off states show different dependence on the top electrode diameter. Both results provide insights into the resistive switching mechanism by the filament model. Impedance measurement in off state is made at 25°C–100°C. The extracted intercept resistance corresponds to those in low field by full-log current-voltage representation. Transport characteristics in high and low conduction states are interpreted by these temperature-dependent resistance and impedance data.

Electrical current-voltage characteristics of sputtered ZrO 2 thin films showing resistance change were examined in this study. The conduction and switching currents were compared on samples with top electrode of 150, 250, and 350 μm in diameter. The size independence of current magnitude implied the presence of an uneven filamentary path over the electrode area. The effect of current compliance was then discussed in the scheme of filament mechanism. The on-state current and turn-off threshold were both observed to increase with current compliance, which could be attributed to an increase in filament diameter.

This study investigated the conduction properties of sputtered ZrO2 exhibiting reversible and stable resistance change. Similar current distributions in on/off conduction and set/reset switching were observed in top electrodes with a diameter of 150, 250, and 350 µm. The size independence of current magnitude implied the presence of an uneven filamentary path over the electrode area. Increased current compliance was imposed on the turn-on process, and the observed increase in on-state current and turn-off threshold was attributed to incremental filament diameter. Variations in current conduction and resistance switching were analyzed by monitoring sweeping bias limits in both positive and negative polarities. These experimental observations were interpreted based on the aspect ratio of channels comprising conductive and oxidized filament portions, thereby elucidating the characteristics of filamentary resistive switching.

Since 3D graphic applications have reached mobile devices and known a tremendous expansion, graphic processors' power consumption has become a major challenge in mobile SoC design. We propose a high-level hardware agnostic model endorsed by GPU energy consumption measurements under specific 3D graphic applications running. The modeling method comprises of two phases where the first phase is GPU hardware dependent, whereas the second phase takes graphics API trace information only per a target application. Our model shows an average relative error as small as −5.43% in a run-time of 2 seconds for the well-known benchmark glmark2.

The electrical properties of evaporated ZnTe films were investigated with emphasis on the effects of an annealing temperature from 600oC to 800oC by RTA technique. Crystallinity, carrier concentration, sheet resistance, and mobility are shown to be dependent on the annealing temperature. The highest carrier concentration and lowest sheet resistance are 7.9×1015cm-3and 9300 Ω/□ at an annealing temperature of 700oC, respectively. The mobility was found to vary from 20 to 50 cm2V-1S-1. The ZnTe thin films using thermal evaporation can find applications in solar cell or light emitting diodes

Tm3+ and Dy3+ co-doped zinc-aluminum phosphate glasses were prepared in this study. Judd-Ofelt theory has been used to evaluate the three intensity parameters Ω2, Ω4 and Ω6 form the experimental oscillator strengths. The luminescence properties were investigated by excitation and emission spectra. White light emission could be induced by combined blue and yellow bands under UV excitation, and the variety of excitation wavelength could change the luminescence color.

Vanadium-based oxides are prepared on graphite substrates by an anodic deposition technique. The plating bath is 0.2 M VOSO 4 solution with NaCH 3 COO addition. A scanning electron microscope and an X-ray diffractometer are used to characterize the deposits; the analyses indicate that the porous Na-doped V 2 O 5 electrodes with a nano-crystalline nature are obtained. Supercapacitor properties of the oxide electrodes are studied using cyclic voltammetry in KCl aqueous electrolyte. The data show that the deposited oxides can exhibit ideal capacitive behavior over a potential range of 1 V; the optimum specific capacitance is ∼180 F/g. A lower deposition potential leads to a higher porosity of the oxide, resulting in a better high-rate supercapacitor performance of the electrode.

Aluminum nitride has been acknowledged as an important industrial material because of its unique combination of high thermal conductivity and high electrical resistivity. Although there have been several excellent reviews on the synthesis of aluminum nitride, little has been mentioned on the combustion synthesis of AlN. In this work, the combustion synthesis methods for synthesis of AlN are reviewed and classified according to the phases involved in the reaction, the types of reactants (and additives) used and the design principles for the synthesis processes. Problems critical to combustion synthesis of AlN to obtain products with high product yields and low impurity contents are summarized and discussed.

The microstructure and dielectric properties of the complex perovskite Nd(Col/2Ti1/2)03ceramics with 60P2O5-15ZnO-5La2O3-5Al2O3-5N2O-5MgO-5Yb2O3glass additions from 1-2 wt% were prepared with the conventional solid-state route have been investigated. The resultant microwave dielectric properties were analyzed based upon the densification, the X-ray diffraction patterns and the microstructures of the ceramics. Doping with 60P2O5-15ZnO-5La2O3-5Al2O3- 5N2O-5MgO-5Yb2O3glass (up to 2 wt%) can effectively promote the densification of Nd(Co1/2Ti1/2)O3ceramics at low sintering temperature. A distinct sintering temperature reduction (100-200°C) can be achieved by adding 60P2O5-15ZnO-5La2O3-5Al2O3-5N2O-5MgO-5Yb2O3glass to the Nd(Co1/2Ti1/2)O3ceramics. The correlation between the microstructures and the microwave dielectric properties was also examined. The Nd(Co1/2Ti1/2)O3ceramics with 60P2O5-15ZnO-5La2O3- 5Al2O3-5N2O-5MgO-5Yb2O3glass additions can find applications in microwave devices requiring low sintering temperature.

This paper describes microstructure and optical characteristics of ZnO-doped CeO2thin films were deposited by sol-gel method with various preheating and annealing temperatures. Particular attention will be paid to the effects of an annealing treatment in air ambient on the physical properties. The deposited films were characterized using X-ray diffraction. The surface morphologies of annealed film were examined by scanning electron microscopy. Optical properties of the ZnO-doped CeO2thin films were obtained by UV-visible recording spectrophotometer. The dependence of the optical properties and microstructure characteristics on thermal treatment was also investigated.

Reversible bi-stable on and off conduction states are examined on Cu/NiO/Pt structure prepared by thermal oxidation of deposited Ni layer. Unipolar resistive switching behavior is obtained with negative operation voltage and the on-state current decreases with temperature. This transition polarity and temperature dependence both agree with the presence of p-type NiO conduction and the diffusive Cu top electrode. The current-voltage plots in full-log interpret different off state conduction properties in low and high electric field, and also help to perceive the temperature effect on off-state current. The off-state impedance spectroscopy at 25°C−85°C provides consistent observation on the off-state transport characteristics.

The microwave dielectric properties and microstructures of an Mg(Zr0.05Ti0.95)O3 ceramic system have been investigated. The compounds were prepared by the conventional solid-state route with various pressure conditions from 25 to 100 Kg/cm2 and sintered at 1420oC for 4 h. The structure and microstructure were analyzed using X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy techniques. The Mg(Zr0.05Ti0.95)O3 had excellent dielectric properties: Q×f ~ 194,000 (GHz), εr ~ 17.9, and τf ~ -43 ppm/oC for the sample at 90 Kg/cm2.

This paper describes microstructure characteristics of MgAl2O4 thin films were deposited by sol-gel method with various preheating temperatures and annealing temperatures. Particular attention will be paid to the effects of a thermal treatment in air ambient on the physical properties. The annealed films were characterized using X-ray diffraction. The surface morphologies of treatment film were examined by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. At a preheating temperature of 300oC and an annealing temperature of 700oC, the MgAl2O4 films with 9 μm thickness possess a dielectric constant of 9 at 1 kHz and a dissipation factor of 0.18 at 1 kHz.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short noncoding RNAs (~22 nt) that play important roles in the pathogenesis of human diseases by negatively regulating gene expression. Here, we examined the relationship between miR-196a and gastric cancer. By the analysis of 72 gastric cancer samples, we found that the expression level of miR-196a microRNA significantly increased in primary gastric cancer tissues versus adjacent normal tissues. In addition, extracellular miR-196a detected in conditioned medium was strongly correlated with its cellular expression status and increased circulating miR-196a in patient serum was associated with gastric cancer disease status and relapse. Furthermore, ectopic expression of miR196a microRNA promoted the epithelial-mesenchymal transition and migration/invasion capabilities of transfected cells, suggesting its oncogenic potential in gastric cancer progression. Altogether, our data demonstrate that miR-196a exerts an oncogenic role in gastric cancer and miR-196a may be a novel biomarker for detecting gastric cancer and for monitoring disease recurrence. V

This paper presents a novel approach to make the on-chip instruction cache of a SoC to function simultaneously as a regular instruction cache and a real-time program trace compressor, named trace-capable cache (TC-cache). It is accomplished by exploiting the dictionary feature of the instruction cache with a small support circuit attached to the side of the cache. Compared with related work, this work has the advantage of utilizing the existing instruction cache, which is indispensable in modern SoCs, and thus saves significant amount of hardware resource and power consumption. The TC-cache can be configured to work simultaneously as the instruction cache and the trace compressor, named the online mode, or exclusively as the trace compressor, named the bypass mode. The RTL implementation of a 4 KB trace-capable instruction cache, a 4 KB data cache, and an academic ARM processor core has been accomplished. The experiments show that the TC-cache achieves average compression ratio of 90 percent with a very small hardware overhead of 3,652 gates (1.1 percent). It takes only 0.2 percent additional system power for the online mode operation. In addition, the trace support circuit does not impair the global critical path. Therefore, the proposed approach is a highly feasible on-chip debugging/monitoring solution for SoCs, even for cost-sensitive ones such as consumer electronics. Furthermore, the same concept can be applied to the data cache to compress the data address trace as well.

This study explores a series of optical, physical and structural properties based on P2O5-Al2O3-ZnO (ZAP) with glass doped 1 mol% Tb2O3, which changed the composition ratio between ZnO and P2O5. The structure and optical of glasses were studies by Raman spectra and fluorescence spectra. The Raman spectra with the zinc content increases, the 650-810 cm-1 at the P-­O­-P bond has no shift, but the intensity of the absorption peak decreased. The fluorescence intensity increases with the ZnO content increases. The glass density and refractive index also increases with the ZnO content increases.