Large Area Monolayer Doping Development

One of the challenges facing the semiconductor industry as the scale of transistors shrink into nanometer sizes is the creation of ultra-shallow junctions. Furthermore, device geometry is morphing from planar to 3-dimensional structures which increases the need for conformal ultra-shallow junctions. The industry has relied on ion implantation to push the boundary of semiconductor doping, however effects such as transient enhanced diffusion caused by lattice damaged by implantation have impeded the creation of the desired ultra-shallow junctions. A new technique known as monolayer doping is one strategy to help solve both ultra-shallow junction formation as well as conformal doping. Monolayer doping relies on a self-assembled monolayer of a dopant containing compound covalently bonded to the silicon lattice which is then driven into the silicon by a rapid thermal anneal. This technique has been demonstrated at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) previously on the small scale of pieces of wafers. To enhance the characterization of this technique the process was scaled up to accommodate full 6 inch wafers which can then be easily run through the RIT Semiconductor & Microsystems Fabrication Laboratory (SMFL). A container and process were developed which successfully doped 6 inch wafers when compared to previously collected data. The wafers were run through a standard process in the SMFL to create devices for characterization. Monolayer doping research at RIT now has an easier and faster means of doping wafers for any future research planned

Methyl chloride and the U.S. cigarette.

Various brands and types of cigarettes were purchased at retail locations in southern California. Volatile gas samples were analyzed using multicolumn/multidetector gas chromatography. Results showed methyl chloride (CH(3)Cl) levels as much as four orders of magnitude higher than typical urban levels, about 30-500 ppmv (1.5-5.3 mg/cigarette), compared with about 500 pptv in urban air. The concentration of CH(3)Cl correlated well with the levels of both CO (r (2) = 0.63) and CO(2) (r (2) = 0.77), showing the link between CH(3)Cl and combustion. In some brands, CH(3)Cl levels were well above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's maximum exposure limit of 200 ppmv. Light branded cigarettes tended to have higher CH(3)Cl levels than the heavier and filtered brands, possibly showing the dependence of cigarette packing on CH(3)Cl production. In addition, CH(3)Cl emitted from cigarette smoke may prove to be an important anthropogenic source of CH(3)Cl in the United States, at about 5%

Identifying structural changes with unsupervised machine learning methods

Unsupervised machine learning methods are used to identify structural changes using the melting point transition in classical molecular dynamics simulations as an example application of the approach. Dimensionality reduction and clustering methods are applied to instantaneous radial distributions of atomic configurations from classical molecular dynamics simulations of metallic systems over a large temperature range. Principal component analysis is used to dramatically reduce the dimensionality of the feature space across the samples using an orthogonal linear transformation that preserves the statistical variance of the data under the condition that the new feature space is linearly independent. From there, k-means clustering is used to partition the samples into solid and liquid phases through a criterion motivated by the geometry of the reduced feature space of the samples, allowing for an estimation of the melting point transition. This pattern criterion is conceptually similar to how humans interpret the data but with far greater throughput, as the shapes of the radial distributions are different for each phase and easily distinguishable by humans. The transition temperature estimates derived from this machine learning approach produce comparable results to other methods on similarly small system sizes. These results show that machine learning approaches can be applied to structural changes in physical systems

Human Factors and the International Space Station

The purposes of this panel are to inform the human factors community regarding the challenges of designing the International Space Station (ISS) and to stimulate the broader human factors community into participating in the various basic and applied research opportunities associated with the ISS. This panel describes the variety of techniques used to plan and evaluate human factors for living and working in space. The panel members have contributed to many different aspects of the ISS design and operations. Architecture, equipment, and human physical performance requirements for various tasks have all been tailored to the requirements of operating in microgravity

Cascading Globalization and Local Response: Indian Fishers’ Response to Export Market Liberalization

Scholars have long debated whether trade liberalization has positive or negative effects on resource use and ecosystems. This study examines the conditions under which resource use increases or decreases in response to reduced trade barriers, specifically after the 2008 World Trade Organization decision that led the United States to reduce anti-dumping duties on Indian shrimp. At the district level in South India, fishing fleet expansion was correlated with access to global market information via mobile phones. Model simulations indicate that increased mobile phone saturation could expand fish- ing effort sufficiently to deplete multiple marine species groups, while other species benefit from the loss of predators. However, scenario analysis suggests that regulatory interventions could mitigate these ecosystem pressures while still permitting fishers to benefit from increased access to global market information

AFTER THE PARADIGM OF CONTEMPORARY PHYSICS IN ARCHITECTURE: SPATIAL POSSIBILITIES AND VARIATIONS

Living in the age of scientific, technological and digital revolution changes our attitude towards information. It is inevitable to start approaching information not only as a product of fashionable digital media behavior, but also as a particular accumulation of facts and activities, transferable bits of matter, which influence our environment. Architecture not only exerts spatial influence on our environment, but also it structures its processes. Acting as such, architecture is involved into direct representation of informational flows via organizing spatial systems. Therefore, in the digital era, design gets more related to transforming different informational modes into spatial structures. Transformations of information provide rich possibilities for conceptualizing space; such transformations could be achieved by different methodologies. This paper uses the concept of space in contemporary physics, namely the self-organizational behavior of the spacetime framework, in order to explore various ways of coding information in design. Analyzing String theory and its follower M – theory, the research derives a method for spatial organization of cause-and-effect activities resulting in a unified approach towards design methodology. This paper explores the concept of movement in the space-time framework, namely the movement in various dimensions and in non-Euclidean geometry, in order to develop a system for achieving a particular design control over informational activities. Using the topology of spacetime in String heory and M-theory, a topology produced as an outcome from that particular movement behavior, the research proposes a way to handle an informational status in the environment spatially. Such a design approach, becoming more and more necessary in the age of the digital, opens room not only for mere spatial variations, but also for a direction towards new design morphology; a morphology in which architecture obtains new spatial value, reaching beyond the label of visionary desig

Sensory Electrical Stimulation Improves Foot Placement during Targeted Stepping Post-Stroke

Proper foot placement is vital for maintaining balance during walking, requiring the integration of multiple sensory signals with motor commands. Disruption of brain structures post-stroke likely alters the processing of sensory information by motor centers, interfering with precision control of foot placement and walking function for stroke survivors. In this study, we examined whether somatosensory stimulation, which improves functional movements of the paretic hand, could be used to improve foot placement of the paretic limb. Foot placement was evaluated before, during, and after application of somatosensory electrical stimulation to the paretic foot during a targeted stepping task. Starting from standing, twelve chronic stroke participants initiated movement with the non-paretic limb and stepped to one of five target locations projected onto the floor with distances normalized to the paretic stride length. Targeting error and lower extremity kinematics were used to assess changes in foot placement and limb control due to somatosensory stimulation. Significant reductions in placement error in the medial–lateral direction (p = 0.008) were observed during the stimulation and post-stimulation blocks. Seven participants, presenting with a hip circumduction walking pattern, had reductions (p = 0.008) in the magnitude and duration of hip abduction during swing with somatosensory stimulation. Reductions in circumduction correlated with both functional and clinical measures, with larger improvements observed in participants with greater impairment. The results of this study suggest that somatosensory stimulation of the paretic foot applied during movement can improve the precision control of foot placement