Performance of CMOS Devices in Silicon-on-Sapphire Films After Solid-Phase Epitaxial Growth With Rapid Electron-Beam Heating

The crystal quality of 0.3-μm-thick as-grown epitaxial silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) was improved using solid-phase epitaxy (SPE) by implantation with silicon to 1015 ions/cm2 at 175 keV and rapid annealing using electron-beam heating, n-channel and p-channel transistormobilities increased by 31 and 19 percent, respectively, and a reduction in ring-oscillator stage delay confirmed that crystal defects near the upper silicon surface had been removed. Leakage in n-channel transistors was not significantly affected by the regrowth process but for p-channel transistors back-channel leakage was considerably greater than for the control devices. This is attributed to aluminum released by damage to the sapphire during silicon implantation. © 1985 IEEE

Redundancy quantification in the safety assessment of existing concrete beam-and-slab bridges

In current practice the strength evaluation of a bridge system is typically based on firstly using elastic analysis to determine the distribution of load effects in the elements and then checking the ultimate section capacity of those elements. Ductility of the components in most bridge structures permits local yield and subsequent redistribution of the applied loads from the most heavily loaded elements. As a result a bridge can continue to carry additional loading even after one member has yielded, which has conventionally been adopted as the "failure criterion" in bridge strength evaluation. This means that a bridge with inherent redundancy has additional reserves of strength such that the failure of one element does not result in the failure of the complete system. For these bridges warning signs will show up and measures can be undertaken before the ultimate collapse is happening. This paper proposes a rational methodology for calculating the ultimate system strength and including in bridge evaluation the warning level due to redundancy. © 2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London.

Re-mobilization of pile shaft friction after an earthquake

During strong earthquakes, significant excess pore pressures can develop in saturated soils. After shaking ceases, the dissipation of these pressures can cause significant soil settlement, creating downward-acting frictional loads on piled foundations. Additionally, if the piles do not support the full axial load at the end of shaking, then the proportion of the superstructure's vertical loading carried by the piles may change as a result of the soil settlement, further altering the axial load distribution on piles as the soil consolidates. In this paper, the effect of hydraulic conductivity and initial post-shaking pile head loading is investigated in terms of the changing axial load distribution and settlement responses. The investigation is carried out by considering the results from four dynamic centrifuge experiments in which a 2 × 2 pile group was embedded in a two-layer profile and subjected to strong shaking. It is found that large contrasts in hydraulic conductivity between the two layers of the soil model affected both the pile group settlements and axial load distribution. Both these results stem from the differences in excess pore pressure dissipation, part of which took place very rapidly when the underlying soil layer had a large hydraulic conductivity.