Thin film transistors fabricated by in-situ doped unhydrogenated polysilicon films obtained by solid phase crystallization

International audienceHigh mobility low temperature (≤ 600°C) unhydrogenated in-situ doped polysilicon thin film transistors are made. Polysilicon layers are grown by a LPCVD technique and crystallized in vacuum by a thermal annealing. Source and drain regions are in-situ doped. Gate insulator is made of an APCVD silicon dioxide. Hydrogen passivation is not performed on the transistors. One type of transistors is made of two polysilicon layers, the other one is constituted of a single polysilicon layer. The electrical properties are better for transistors made of single polysilicon layer: a low threshold voltage (1.2 V), a subthreshold slope S = 0.7 V/dec, a high field effect mobility (≈ 100 cm2/Vs) and a On/Off state current ratio higher than 107 for a drain voltage Vds = 1 V. At low drain voltage, for both transistors, the Off state current results from a pure thermal emission of trapped carriers. However, at high drain voltage, the electrical behavior is different: in the case of single polysilicon TFTs, the current obeys the field-assisted (Poole-Frenkel) thermal emission model of trapped carriers while for TFTs made of two polysilicon layers, the higher Off state current results from a field-enhanced thermal emission

Genome-wide association analyses identify new Brugada syndrome risk loci and highlight a new mechanism of sodium channel regulation in disease susceptibility

Brugada syndrome (BrS) is a cardiac arrhythmia disorder associated with sudden death in young adults. With the exception of SCN5A, encoding the cardiac sodium channel NaV1.5, susceptibility genes remain largely unknown. Here we performed a genome-wide association meta-analysis comprising 2,820 unrelated cases with BrS and 10,001 controls, and identified 21 association signals at 12 loci (10 new). Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-heritability estimates indicate a strong polygenic influence. Polygenic risk score analyses based on the 21 susceptibility variants demonstrate varying cumulative contribution of common risk alleles among different patient subgroups, as well as genetic associations with cardiac electrical traits and disorders in the general population. The predominance of cardiac transcription factor loci indicates that transcriptional regulation is a key feature of BrS pathogenesis. Furthermore, functional studies conducted on MAPRE2, encoding the microtubule plus-end binding protein EB2, point to microtubule-related trafficking effects on NaV1.5 expression as a new underlying molecular mechanism. Taken together, these findings broaden our understanding of the genetic architecture of BrS and provide new insights into its molecular underpinnings

Synthetic Nanoparticles for Vaccines and Immunotherapy

The immune system plays a critical role in our health. No other component of human physiology plays a decisive role in as diverse an array of maladies, from deadly diseases with which we are all familiar to equally terrible esoteric conditions: HIV, malaria, pneumococcal and influenza infections; cancer; atherosclerosis; autoimmune diseases such as lupus, diabetes, and multiple sclerosis. The importance of understanding the function of the immune system and learning how to modulate immunity to protect against or treat disease thus cannot be overstated. Fortunately, we are entering an exciting era where the science of immunology is defining pathways for the rational manipulation of the immune system at the cellular and molecular level, and this understanding is leading to dramatic advances in the clinic that are transforming the future of medicine.1,2 These initial advances are being made primarily through biologic drugs– recombinant proteins (especially antibodies) or patient-derived cell therapies– but exciting data from preclinical studies suggest that a marriage of approaches based in biotechnology with the materials science and chemistry of nanomaterials, especially nanoparticles, could enable more effective and safer immune engineering strategies. This review will examine these nanoparticle-based strategies to immune modulation in detail, and discuss the promise and outstanding challenges facing the field of immune engineering from a chemical biology/materials engineering perspectiveNational Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grants AI111860, CA174795, CA172164, AI091693, and AI095109)United States. Department of Defense (W911NF-13-D-0001 and Awards W911NF-07-D-0004

Mechanical stability of the CMS strip tracker measured with a laser alignment system

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Test beam performance measurements for the Phase I upgrade of the CMS pixel detector

A new pixel detector for the CMS experiment was built in order to cope with the instantaneous luminosities anticipated for the Phase I Upgrade of the LHC. The new CMS pixel detector provides four-hit tracking with a reduced material budget as well as new cooling and powering schemes. A new front-end readout chip mitigates buffering and bandwidth limitations, and allows operation at low comparator thresholds. In this paper, comprehensive test beam studies are presented, which have been conducted to verify the design and to quantify the performance of the new detector assemblies in terms of tracking efficiency and spatial resolution. Under optimal conditions, the tracking efficiency is (99.95 ± 0.05) %, while the intrinsic spatial resolutions are (4.80 ± 0.25) μm and (7.99 ± 0.21) μm along the 100 μm and 150 μm pixel pitch, respectively. The findings are compared to a detailed Monte Carlo simulation of the pixel detector and good agreement is found.Peer reviewe