Ground plane fin-shaped field effect transistor (GP-FinFET): A FinFET for low leakage power circuits

In this paper, a fin-shaped field effect transistor (FinFET) structure which uses ground plane concept is proposed and theoretically investigated. The ground plane reduces the coupling of electric field between the source and drain reducing drain-induced barrier lowering (DIBL). To assess the performance of the proposed structure, some device characteristics of the structure have been compared with those of silicon on insulator-FinFET (SOI-FinFET) and Bulk-FinFET structures (where the BOX layer covers all the regions except the channel region). In addition, we compare different characteristics of static random access memory (SRAM) cells based on the proposed device structure as well as SOI-FinFET and Bulk-FinFET structures. The characteristics include standby power consumption, and read static noise margin (SNM). Finally, the behavior of the proposed device in the presence of dimensional variations (channel length and thin film thickness variations) and random dopant fluctuation (RDF) are studied and compared with those of the other two structures. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

The expression of prostate-specific antigen in invasive breast carcinoma and its relationship with routine clinicopathologic parameters

Background: Invasive breast carcinoma is one of the most common cancers of women. Parameters such as lymph node status, tumor grade, and the status of hormone receptors are among the main prognostic determinants of this cancer. Immunohistochemical detection of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is widely used to identify metastatic prostatic adenocarcinoma. However, its immunoreactivity has been found in some non-prostatic tissues. This study was conducted to assess PSA expression in invasive breast carcinoma and its relationship with routine clinicopathologic parameters. Materials and Methods: 100 formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded invasive breast carcinoma tissue specimens from the pathology archive of Alzahra hospital (Isfahan, Iran) were studied for the expression of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), HER2/neu, and PSA by immunohistochemistry. Stained sections were classified according to the intensity of staining and the percentage of cells showing PSA staining. The relationship between PSA expression and other markers, age, lymph node status, tumor subtype, and tumor grade was then studied. Results: No association was found between PSA expression on one hand and PR, Her2/neu, age, lymph node status, tumor grade, and tumor subtype on the other. PSA score was reversely correlated with ER expression (P = 0.015). Conclusion: Despite the reverse relationship between PSA expression and the immunoreactivity of ER, PSA expression was not correlated with other prognostic factors. Therefore, the detection of PSA by immunohistochemistry does not seem to be a significant prognostic parameter in patients with invasive breast carcinoma