Performance and reliability of Gd2O3 and stacked Gd2O3-Eu2O3 metal-insulator-metal capacitors

Gd2O3-based metal-insulator-metal capacitors have been characterized with single layer (Gd2O3) and bilayer (Gd2O3/Eu2O3 and Eu2O3/Gd2O3) stacks for analog and DRAM applications. Although single layer Gd2O3 capacitors provide highest capacitance density (15 fF/mu m(2)), they suffer from high leakage current density, poor capacitance density-voltage linearity, and reliability. The stacked dielectrics help to reduce leakage current density (1.2x10(-5) A/cm(2) and 2.7 x 10(-5) A/cm(2) for Gd2O3/Eu2O3 and Eu2O3/Gd2O3, respectively, at -1 V), improve quadratic voltage coefficient of capacitance (331 ppm/V-2 and 374 ppm/V-2 for Gd2O3/Eu2O3 and Eu2O3/Gd2O3, respectively, at 1 MHz), and improve reliability, with a marginal reduction in capacitance density. This is attributed to lower trap heights as determined from Poole-Frenkel conduction mechanism, and lower defect density as determined from electrode polarization model.

Supplier selection based on supply chain ecosystem, performance and risk criteria

A supply chain ecosystem consists of the elements of the supply chain and the entities that influence the goods, information and financial flows through the supply chain. These influences come through government regulations, human, financial and natural resources, logistics infrastructure and management, etc., and thus affect the supply chain performance. Similarly, all the ecosystem elements also contribute to the risk. The aim of this paper is to identify both performances-based and risk-based decision criteria, which are important and critical to the supply chain. A two step approach using fuzzy AHP and fuzzy technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution has been proposed for multi-criteria decision-making and illustrated using a numerical example. The first step does the selection without considering risks and then in the next step suppliers are ranked according to their risk profiles. Later, the two ranks are consolidated into one. In subsequent section, the method is also extended for multi-tier supplier selection. In short, we are presenting a method for the design of a resilient supply chain, in this paper.

Multiple sub-row buffers in DRAM: unlocking performance and energy improvement opportunities

The twin demands of energy-efficiency and higher performance on DRAM are highly emphasized in multicore architectures. A variety of schemes have been proposed to address either the latency or the energy consumption of DRAMs. These schemes typically require non-trivial hardware changes and end up improving latency at the cost of energy or vice-versa. One specific DRAM performance problem in multicores is that interleaved accesses from different cores can potentially degrade row-buffer locality. In this paper, based on the temporal and spatial locality characteristics of memory accesses, we propose a reorganization of the existing single large row-buffer in a DRAM bank into multiple sub-row buffers (MSRB). This re-organization not only improves row hit rates, and hence the average memory latency, but also brings down the energy consumed by the DRAM. The first major contribution of this work is proposing such a reorganization without requiring any significant changes to the existing widely accepted DRAM specifications. Our proposed reorganization improves weighted speedup by 35.8%, 14.5% and 21.6% in quad, eight and sixteen core workloads along with a 42%, 28% and 31% reduction in DRAM energy. The proposed MSRB organization enables opportunities for the management of multiple row-buffers at the memory controller level. As the memory controller is aware of the behaviour of individual cores it allows us to implement coordinated buffer allocation schemes for different cores that take into account program behaviour. We demonstrate two such schemes, namely Fairness Oriented Allocation and Performance Oriented Allocation, which show the flexibility that memory controllers can now exploit in our MSRB organization to improve overall performance and/or fairness. Further, the MSRB organization enables additional opportunities for DRAM intra-bank parallelism and selective early precharging of the LRU row-buffer to further improve memory access latencies. These two optimizations together provide an additional 5.9% performance improvement.

Part II: A Fully Integrated RF PA in 28-nm CMOS With Device Design for Optimized Performance and ESD Robustness

In this paper, we report drain-extended MOS device design guidelines for the RF power amplifier (RF PA) applications. A complete RF PA circuit in a 28-nm CMOS technology node with the matching and biasing network is used as a test vehicle to validate the RF performance improvement by a systematic device design. A complete RF PA with 0.16-W/mm power density is reported experimentally. By simultaneous improvement of device-circuit performance, 45% improvement in the circuit RF power gain, 25% improvement in the power-added efficiency at 1-GHz frequency, and 5x improvement in the electrostatic discharge robustness are reported experimentally.

Enhanced cycling performance and high energy density of LiFePO4 based lithium ion batteries

LiFePO4 attracts a lot of attention as cathode materials for the next generation of lithium ion batteries. However, LiFePO4 has a poor rate capability attributed to low electronic conductivity and low density. There is seldom data reported on lithium ion batteries with LiFePO4 as cathode and graphite as anode. According to our experimental results, the capacity fading on cycling is surprisingly negligible at 1664 cycles for the cell type 042040. It delivers a capacity of 1170 mAh for 18650 cell type at 4.5C discharge rate. It is confirmed that lithium ion batteries with LiFePO4 as cathode are suitable for electric vehicle application. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Jet:progress in performance and understanding

In 1990 JET operated with a number of technical improvements which led to advances in performance and permitted the carrying out of experiments specifically aimed at improving physics understanding of selected topics relevant to the "NEXT STEP". The new facilities include beryllium antenna screens, a prototype lower hybrid current drive system, and modification of the NI system to enable the injection of He-3 and He-4. Continued investigation of the hot-ion H-mode produced a value of n(D)(0)tau-E(T)(i)(0) = 9 x 10(20)m-3s keV, which is near conditions required for Q(DT) = 1, while a new peaked density profile H-mode was developed with only slightly lower performance. Progress towards steady state operation has been made by achieving ELMy H-modes under certain operating conditions, while maintaining good tau-E values. Experimental simulation of He ash transport indicates effective removal of alpha-particles from the plasma core for both L and H mode plasmas. Detailed analyses of particle and energy transport have helped establish a firmer link between particle and energy transport, and have suggested a connection between reduced energy transport and reversed shear. Numerical and analytic studies of divertor physics carried out for the pumped divertor phase of JET have helped clarify the key parameters governing impurity retention, and an intensive model validation effort has begun. Experimental simulation of alpha-particle effects with beta-fast up to 8% have shown that the slowing down processes are classical, and have given no evidence of deleterious collective effects.

Evaluation of wheat or corn dried distillers' grains with solubles on performance and carcass characteristics of feedlot steers

[EN]A study was conducted on crossbred steers (n=275; 376±924 kg) to evaluate performance and carcass quality of cattle fed wheat or corn dried distillers’ grains with solubles (DDGS). The control ration contained 86.6% rolled barley grain, 5.7% supplement and 7.7% barley silage (DM basis). The four treatments included replacement of barley grain at 20 or 40% of the diet (DM basis) with wheat or corn DDGS. Steers were slaughtered at a common end weight of 645 kg with 100 steers randomly (n=20 per treatment) selected for determination of the retail yield of sub-primal boneless boxed beef (SPBBB). Data were analyzed as a completely randomized design using pen as the experimental unit. Feeding increasing levels of wheat DDGS led to a quadratic increase in dry matter intake (DMI) (P<0.01), whereas increasing levels of corn DDGS led to a quadratic decrease in DMI (P=0.01). Average daily gain was not influenced (P=0.13) by feeding wheat or corn DDGS, but cattle fed corn DDGS exhibited a quadratic increase (P=0.01) in gain:feed. As a result, a quadratic increase (P<0.01) in calculated NEg of the diet was observed as corn DDGS levels increased. A linear decrease (P=0.04) in days on feed (169, 166 and 154 d) was noted when increasing levels of wheat DDGS (0, 20 and 40%) were fed. Dressing percentage increased in a linear fashion with wheat DDGS (P<0.01) inclusion level and in a quadratic fashion (P=0.01) as corn DDGS inclusion level increased although other carcass traits were not affected (P=0.10) by treatment. The results indicate that replacement of barley grain with corn or wheat DDGS up to 40% of the diet (DM) can lead to superior performance (improved gain:feed or reduced days on feed, respectively) with no detrimental effect on quality grade or carcass SPBBB yield.