Reducing Calorie Intake May Not Help You Lose Body Weight

Background Previously a meta-analysis found that multi-vitamin/mineral supplementation reduced mild psychiatric symptoms. To establish mechanisms, and to pin-point the individuals most likely to benefit, the role of various polymorphisms were examined. Supplementation was found to influence mild-psychiatric symptoms depending on the form of particular genes: genes that are risk factors for psychiatric disease and influence mechanisms by which drugs act. Methods In a double-blind trial young healthy males rated psychiatric symptoms, before and after taking vitamin/mineral supplements for three months, and the response was related to single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with catecholamines and serotonin. Outcomes With rs1800497 (Taq1A; dopamine D2 receptor), those with the CT allele benefitted from a vitamin/mineral supplement. Similarly with rs1800955 (DRD4 – dopamine D4 receptor), the mood of those with the CC allele benefitted selectively. With rs6296 (HTR1B) only those with the GC alleles responded, and with rs6311 (HTR2A) supplementation produced a beneficial response in those with the GG allele. With rs1050565 (5HTT gene - Human Serotonin Transporter gene) supplementation increased the mental health of those with the AA allele. Interpretation In a situation where a substantial proportion of patients do not benefit from drug therapy, and there is an element of trial and error when prescribing, it was proposed that future work should consider distinguishing patients depending on various polymorphisms and micro-nutrient status. In those with particular alleles, we should consider if drug administration and vitamin / mineral status interact synergistically to influence the therapeutic outcom

Ultrathin TaN/Ta barrier modifications to fullfill next technology node requirements

A physical vapor deposition tool for 300 mm wafers was coupled with an angle resolved photoelectron spectroscopy tool (ARXPS) and used to study the growth of TaN single layer and TaN/Ta double layer diffusion barriers. The nitrogen content of TaN was adjusted by controlling the nitrogen flow and by varying the deposition power. We describe a process recipe that allows us to decrease the TaN thickness while still maintaining the Ta layer in the low resistivity -phase. The process recipe was developed on blanket wafers and evaluated in a test structure for high performance CMOS products

Interface engineering for the TaN/Ta barrier film deposition process to control Ta-crystal growth

As a consequence of device shrinking the resistivity of the widely used TaN/Ta double barrier layer becomes an increasingly important parameter for device speed beyond the 32 nm technology node. In this study we describe the optimization of the deposition of TaN/Ta stacks in such a way that tantalum nitride layer thickness is minimized and tantalum grows in the favorable conducting -phase. In the first part of the study we used in situ ARXPS to investigate the growth of different tantalum nitride layers on SiO2 and SiOCH as a function of deposition time, nitrogen flow and deposition power. In the second part we analyzed the crystalline phase of a 20 nm thick tantalum layer deposited on top of the same series of tantalum nitride layers characterized in the growth study. The main findings are the appearance of tantalum carbide and tantalum silicide as interface species for the deposition on SiOCH and only tantalum silicide for the deposition on SiO2. We found that -tantal um grows preferably on tantalum carbide and nitrogen rich intermediate layers whereas silicide at the interface promotes the growth of -tantalum. To verify these findings we studied two additional modifications of the interface. A lower bias power for a deposition of tantalum nitride on SiO2 was used to confirm the role of tantalum silicide and a thermal treatment of a thin tantalum layer on SiOCH was applied to confirm the role of tantalum carbide. Finally, the contact resistance in via chains on patterned wafers for four selected processes showed the same trends as the sheet resistance of the corresponding barrier films on blanket wafer experiments

ALD Ta2O5 and Hf-doped Ta2O5 for BEOL compatible MIM

Decoupling MIM capacitors are typically implemented to reduce power supply noise. In this work we reported characterization of Atomic Layer Deposited (ALD) Ta2O5 and Hf-doped Ta2O5 high-k MIM capacitors. We investigated the impact of precursor choice and HfO2 addition on material, electrical and reliability characteristics of MIM capacitors. We demonstrated MIM capacitors with high capacitance density, low leakage and excellent reliability which are also suitable for BEOL integration