Fabrication and characterisation of novel Ge MOSFETs

As high-k dielectrics are introduced into commercial Si CMOS (Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) microelectronics, the 40 year channel/dielectric partnership of Si/SiO2 is ended and the door opened for silicon to be replaced as the active channel material in MOSFETs (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor). Germanium is a good candidate as it has higher bulk carrier mobilities than silicon. In addition, Si and Ge form a thermodynamically stable SiGe alloy of any composition, allowing Ge to be implemented as a thin layer on the surface of a standard Si substrate. This thesis is a practical investigation on several aspects of Ge CMOS technology. High-k dielectric Ge p-MOSFETs are electrically characterised. A large variation in interface state densities is demonstrated to be responsible for a threshold voltage shift and this is proportional to reciprocal peak mobility due to the Coulomb scattering of carriers by charged states. A theoretical mobility is fitted to that measured at 4.2 K and confirms that interface states are the main source of interface charged impurities. The model demonstrates a reduction in the interface charged impurity density in p-MOSFETs that underwent a PMA (Post Metallisation Anneal) in hydrogen atmosphere and that the anneal also reduces the RMS (Root Mean Square) dielectric/semiconductor interface roughness, from an average of 0.60 nm to 0.48 nm. High-k strained Ge p-MOSFETs are electrically characterised and have peak mobilities at 300 K (470 cm2 V-1 s-1) and 4.2 K (1780 cm2 V-1 s-1) far in excess of those measured for the unstrained Ge p-MOSFETs (285 cm2 V-1 s-1,785 cm2 V-1 s-1 respectively). Strained Ge n-MOSFETs perform significantly worse than standard Si P, - MOSFETs primarily due to a high source/drain resistance. A 10 nm thick SiGe-01 (On Insulator) layer with a Ge composition of 58% is obtained from a 55 nm Si0_88Ge1o2. initial layer on 100 nm Si-Ol substrate via the germanium condensation technique. For the first time, germanium is demonstrated to diffuse through the BOX (Buried OXide) during Ge-condensation and into the underlying Si substrate. An order of magnitude increase in the calculated ITOX (Internal Thermal OXidation) rate of the BOX in the final stages of Ge-condensation is hypothesised to be responsible for stopping this diffusion

Fabrication and characterisation of novel Ge MOSFETs

As high-k dielectrics are introduced into commercial Si CMOS (Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) microelectronics, the 40 year channel/dielectric partnership of Si/SiO2 is ended and the door opened for silicon to be replaced as the active channel material in MOSFETs (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor). Germanium is a good candidate as it has higher bulk carrier mobilities than silicon. In addition, Si and Ge form a thermodynamically stable SiGe alloy of any composition, allowing Ge to be implemented as a thin layer on the surface of a standard Si substrate. This thesis is a practical investigation on several aspects of Ge CMOS technology. High-k dielectric Ge p-MOSFETs are electrically characterised. A large variation in interface state densities is demonstrated to be responsible for a threshold voltage shift and this is proportional to reciprocal peak mobility due to the Coulomb scattering of carriers by charged states. A theoretical mobility is fitted to that measured at 4.2 K and confirms that interface states are the main source of interface charged impurities. The model demonstrates a reduction in the interface charged impurity density in p-MOSFETs that underwent a PMA (Post Metallisation Anneal) in hydrogen atmosphere and that the anneal also reduces the RMS (Root Mean Square) dielectric/semiconductor interface roughness, from an average of 0.60 nm to 0.48 nm. High-k strained Ge p-MOSFETs are electrically characterised and have peak mobilities at 300 K (470 cm2 V-1 s-1) and 4.2 K (1780 cm2 V-1 s-1) far in excess of those measured for the unstrained Ge p-MOSFETs (285 cm2 V-1 s-1,785 cm2 V-1 s-1 respectively). Strained Ge n-MOSFETs perform significantly worse than standard Si P, - MOSFETs primarily due to a high source/drain resistance. A 10 nm thick SiGe-01 (On Insulator) layer with a Ge composition of 58% is obtained from a 55 nm Si0_88Ge1o2. initial layer on 100 nm Si-Ol substrate via the germanium condensation technique. For the first time, germanium is demonstrated to diffuse through the BOX (Buried OXide) during Ge-condensation and into the underlying Si substrate. An order of magnitude increase in the calculated ITOX (Internal Thermal OXidation) rate of the BOX in the final stages of Ge-condensation is hypothesised to be responsible for stopping this diffusion.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Frugal hypothesis testing and classification

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2010.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-175).The design and analysis of decision rules using detection theory and statistical learning theory is important because decision making under uncertainty is pervasive. Three perspectives on limiting the complexity of decision rules are considered in this thesis: geometric regularization, dimensionality reduction, and quantization or clustering. Controlling complexity often reduces resource usage in decision making and improves generalization when learning decision rules from noisy samples. A new margin-based classifier with decision boundary surface area regularization and optimization via variational level set methods is developed. This novel classifier is termed the geometric level set (GLS) classifier. A method for joint dimensionality reduction and margin-based classification with optimization on the Stiefel manifold is developed. This dimensionality reduction approach is extended for information fusion in sensor networks. A new distortion is proposed for the quantization or clustering of prior probabilities appearing in the thresholds of likelihood ratio tests. This distortion is given the name mean Bayes risk error (MBRE). The quantization framework is extended to model human decision making and discrimination in segregated populations.by Kush R. Varshney.Ph.D

OBK: an online high energy physics' meta-data repository

ATLAS will be one of the four detectors for the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) particle accelerator currently being built at CERN, Geneva. The project is expected to start production in 2006 and during its lifetime (15-20 years) to generate roughly one petabyte per year of particle physics' data. This vast amount of information will require several meta-data repositories which will ease the manipulation and understanding of physics' data by the final users (physicists doing analysis). Metadata repositories and tools at ATLAS may address such problems as the logical organization of the physics data according to data taking sessions, errors and faults during data gathering, data quality or terciary storage meta-information. The OBK (Online Book-Keeper) is a component of ATLAS' Online Software - the system which provides configuration, control and monitoring services to the DAQ (Data AQquisition system). In this paper we will explain the role of the OBK as one of the main collectors and managers of meta-data produced online, how that data is stored and the interfaces that are provided to access it - merging the physics data with the collected metadata will play an essential role for future analysis and interpretion of the physics events observed at ATLAS. We also provide an historical background to the OBK by analysing the several prototypes implemented in the context of our software development process and the results and experience obtained with the various DBMS technologies used

Semantic Similarity of Spatial Scenes

The formalization of similarity in spatial information systems can unleash their functionality and contribute technology not only useful, but also desirable by broad groups of users. As a paradigm for information retrieval, similarity supersedes tedious querying techniques and unveils novel ways for user-system interaction by naturally supporting modalities such as speech and sketching. As a tool within the scope of a broader objective, it can facilitate such diverse tasks as data integration, landmark determination, and prediction making. This potential motivated the development of several similarity models within the geospatial and computer science communities. Despite the merit of these studies, their cognitive plausibility can be limited due to neglect of well-established psychological principles about properties and behaviors of similarity. Moreover, such approaches are typically guided by experience, intuition, and observation, thereby often relying on more narrow perspectives or restrictive assumptions that produce inflexible and incompatible measures. This thesis consolidates such fragmentary efforts and integrates them along with novel formalisms into a scalable, comprehensive, and cognitively-sensitive framework for similarity queries in spatial information systems. Three conceptually different similarity queries at the levels of attributes, objects, and scenes are distinguished. An analysis of the relationship between similarity and change provides a unifying basis for the approach and a theoretical foundation for measures satisfying important similarity properties such as asymmetry and context dependence. The classification of attributes into categories with common structural and cognitive characteristics drives the implementation of a small core of generic functions, able to perform any type of attribute value assessment. Appropriate techniques combine such atomic assessments to compute similarities at the object level and to handle more complex inquiries with multiple constraints. These techniques, along with a solid graph-theoretical methodology adapted to the particularities of the geospatial domain, provide the foundation for reasoning about scene similarity queries. Provisions are made so that all methods comply with major psychological findings about people’s perceptions of similarity. An experimental evaluation supplies the main result of this thesis, which separates psychological findings with a major impact on the results from those that can be safely incorporated into the framework through computationally simpler alternatives

The French occupation of Tübingen, 1945-1947: French policies and German reactions in the immediate post-war period

It is the intention of this thesis to make a contribution to the history of the French occupation of South-West Germany after the Second World War by presenting an empirical case study of French occupation policy in operation within a single community, i.e. Tübingen, during the period, 1945-1947. Little has as yet been written on French government policy toward Germany in the immediate post-war years - known as the "French thesis" it concentrated chiefly on effecting the dismemberment of Germany into a confederation of individual statue - despite the fact that the Allied occupation of Germany is a period of cardinal importance to historical research as a causal prelude to the establishment of the two post-war German states and of the Common Market. The microstudy model of research has been selected in order to provide a motor of analysis to trace developments within one community which were symptomatic of French occupation policy and of the "French thesis" on Germany. To this end thin microstudy will pursue two objectives: to describe Tübingen as a post-war community under French occupation; and to provide a series of comments on the "French thesis" during its period of predominance in the years, 1945-1947. The conclusions of this thesis are determined by these objectives. The main characteristics of the post-war occupation of Tübingen in the period, 1945-1947, are summarised with specific emphasis on the effects of the emergence of the community as the regional capital of Württemberg-Hohenzollern. The central exercise of this thesis remains, however, the examination of French government policy toward Germany. Consequently the latter section of the concluding chapter aims at isolating; specific features of this policy and commenting on their significance

Good government, governance, human complexity

Studi n. 50- Indice del volume #7- Part one. The Einaudian legacy: good government and the relation between private and public #21- Part two. Good government and public governance #119- Part three. Governance and liberty: the complexity of the human #22