The use of cavities for gettering in silicon microelectronic devices

This paper presents results from an ongoing three-year project in which the use of microcavities to getter transition metal impurities in silicon-based microelectronic devices has been investigated. The paper reports on the results of a fundamental study of bubble growth mechanisms and on a systematic study of possible detrimental effects of cavity gettering on 1.2 μm p-type metal–oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors

Unstable, self-limiting thermochemical temperature oscillations in Macrozamia cycads

Field measurements and laboratory experiments on the Australian cycads Macrozamia lucida and Macrozamia macleayi demonstrate that their cones' diel peak thermogenic temperature increase varies systematically with cone stage, with single thermogenic temperature peaks occurring daily for up to 2 weeks and reaching 12°C above ambient at midstage. The initiation, magnitude and timing of those peaks are strongly modulated by ambient temperature; the period between successive thermogenic temperature peaks is not circadian, and light is neither necessary nor sufficient to initiate a thermogenic event. A mathematical analysis is developed that provides a unified explanation of the experimental results. It describes these unstable, self-limiting thermogenic events in terms of conservation of energy and a first-order chemical reaction rate model that includes an Arrhenius equation dependence of the cone's metabolic heating rate on the cone temperature