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In a process for producing an oriented inorganic crystalline film, a non-monocrystalline film containing inorganic crystalline particles is formed on a substrate by a liquid phase technique using a raw-material solution which contains a raw material and an organic solvent, where the inorganic crystalline particles have a layered crystal structure and are contained in the raw material. Then, the non-monocrystalline film is crystallized by heating the non-monocrystalline film to a temperature equal to or higher than the crystallization temperature of the non-monocrystalline film so that part of the inorganic crystalline particles act as crystal nuclei.

A method of forming a metal layer having excellent thermal and oxidation resistant characteristics using atomic layer deposition is provided. The metal layer includes a reactive metal (A), an element (B) for the amorphous combination between the reactive metal (A) and nitrogen (N), and nitrogen (N). The reactive metal (A) may be titanium (Ti), tantalum (Ta), tungsten (W), zirconium (Zr), hafnium (Hf), molybdenum (Mo) or niobium (Nb). The amorphous combination element (B) may be aluminum (Al), silicon (Si) or boron (B). The metal layer is formed by alternately injecting pulsed source gases for the elements (A, B and N) into a chamber according to atomic layer deposition to thereby alternately stack atomic layers. Accordingly, the composition ratio of a nitrogen compound (A-B-N) of the metal layer can be desirably adjusted just by appropriately determining the number of injection pulses of each source gas. According to the composition ratio, a desirable electrical conductivity and resistance of the metal layer can be accurately obtained. The atomic layers are individually deposited, thereby realizing excellent step coverage even in a complex and compact region. A metal layer formed by atomic layer deposition can be employed as a barrier metal layer, a lower electrode or an upper electrode in a semiconductor device.

Biocompatible materials may be configured into any number of implantable medical devices including intraluminal stents. The biocompatible material may comprise metallic and non-metallic materials in hybrid structures. In one such structure, a device may be fabricated with one or more elements having an inner metallic core that is biodegradable with an outer shell formed from a polymeric material that is biodegradable. Additionally, therapeutic agents may be incorporated into the microstructure or the bulk material.

An apparatus for launching a surfacewave onto a single conductor transmission line provides a launch including a flared, continuously curving cone portion; a coaxial adapter portion; a wire adapter portion for contacting the wire conductor which allows for a multiplicity of wire dimensions for either insulated or uninsulated wire, or a tri-axial wire adapter device enabling non-contacting coupling to a wire; and a longitudinal slot added to the flared cone, wire adapter, and coaxial adapter portions of the launch to allow direct placement of the launch onto existing lines, without requiring cutting or threading of those lines for installation.

The present invention relates to collagenous membranes produced from amnion, herein referred to as a collagen biofabric. The collagen biofabric of the invention has the structural integrity of the native non-treated amniotic membrane, i.e., the native tertiary and quaternary structure. The present invention provides a method for preparing a collagen biofabric from a placental membrane, preferably a human placental membrane having a chorionic and amniotic membrane, by decellularizing the amniotic membrane. In a preferred embodiment, the amniotic membrane is completely decellularized. The collagen biofabric of the invention has numerous utilities in the medical and surgical field including for example, blood vessel repair, construction and replacement of a blood vessel, tendon and ligament replacement, wound-dressing, surgical grafts, ophthalmic uses, sutures, and others. The benefits of the biofabric are, in part, due to its physical properties such as biomechanical strength, flexibility, suturability, and low immunogenicity, particularly when derived from human placenta.

A method of fabricating an organic film is provided. A non-reactive carrier gas is used to transport an organic vapor. The organic vapor is ejected through a nozzle block onto a cooled substrate, to form a patterned organic film. A device for carrying out the method is also provided. The device includes a source of organic vapors, a source of carrier gas and a vacuum chamber. A heated nozzle block attached to the source of organic vapors and the source of carrier gas has at least one nozzle adapted to eject carrier gas and organic vapors onto a cooled substrate disposed within the vacuum chamber.

Provided are a thin film transistor and a method of manufacturing the same. The thin film transistor may include a gate; a channel layer; a source and a drain, the source and the drain being formed of metal; and a metal oxide layer, the metal oxide layer being formed between the channel layer and the source and the drain. The metal oxide layer may have a gradually changing metal content between the channel layer and the source and the drain.

A method for forming and the structure of a vertical channel of a field effect transistor, a field effect transistor and CMOS circuitry are described incorporating a drain, body and source region on a sidewall of a vertical single crystal semiconductor structure wherein a hetero-junction is formed between the source and body of the transistor, wherein the source region and channel are independently lattice strained with respect the body region and wherein the drain region contains a carbon doped region to prevent the diffusion of dopants (i.e., B and P) into the body. The invention reduces the problem of short channel effects such as drain induced barrier lowering and the leakage current from the source to drain regions via the hetero-junction and while independently permitting lattice strain in the channel region for increased mobility via choice of the semiconductor materials. The problem of scalability of the gate length below 100 nm is overcome by the heterojunction between the source and body regions.

The transistor characteristics of a MIS transistor provided with a gate insulating film formed to contain oxide with a relative dielectric constant higher than that of silicon oxide are improved. After a high dielectric layer made of hafnium oxide is formed on a main surface of a semiconductor substrate, the main surface of the semiconductor substrate is heat-treated in a non-oxidation atmosphere. Next, an oxygen supplying layer made of hafnium oxide deposited by ALD and having a thickness smaller than that of the high dielectric layer is formed on the high dielectric layer, and a cap layer made of tantalum nitride is formed. Thereafter, the main surface of the semiconductor substrate is heat-treated.

First and second gate insulating films are formed so as to cover at least the upper corner of first and second fin-shaped semiconductor regions. The radius of curvature r1′ of the upper corner of the first fin-shaped semiconductor region located outside the first gate insulating film is greater than the radius of curvature r1 of the upper corner of the first fin-shaped semiconductor region located under the first gate insulating film and is less than or equal to 2×r1. The radius of curvature r2′ of the upper corner of the second fin-shaped semiconductor region located outside the second gate insulating film is greater than the radius of curvature r2 of the upper corner of the second fin-shaped semiconductor region located under the second gate insulating film and is less than or equal to 2×r2.

The invention is a method, system and computer program for automatically discovering concepts from a corpus of documents and automatically generating a labeled concept hierarchy. The method involves extraction of signatures from the corpus of documents. The similarity between signatures is computed using a statistical measure. The frequency distribution of signatures is refined to alleviate any inaccuracy in the similarity measure. The signatures are also disambiguated to address the polysemy problem. The similarity measure is recomputed based on the refined frequency distribution and disambiguated signatures. The recomputed similarity measure reflects actual similarity between signatures. The recomputed similarity measure is then used for clustering related signatures. The signatures are clustered to generate concepts and concepts are arranged in a concept hierarchy. The concept hierarchy automatically generates query for a particular concept and retrieves relevant documents associated with the concept.

The invention relates to membrane pumps for delivering liquids. More specifically, a pump is provided having a pump housing with a pump cavity formed between first and second wall portions thereof, and an pump membrane pump membrane having first and second membrane surfaces arranged within the pump cavity, whereby a pump chamber is provided between the first wall portion and the first membrane surface, and an actuation chamber is provided between the second wall and the second membrane surface. Inlet means comprising an inlet valve in fluid communication with the pump chamber, and outlet means comprising an outlet valve in fluid communication with the pump chamber are provided. The pump membrane has a maximum volume position, and a drained volume position in which the first membrane surface in a stretched state abuts the first wall. To drive the membrane, actuating means for periodically shifting the pump membrane between the maximum volume position and the drained volume position is provided, thereby, in a situation of use, providing a flow of fluid.

Interconnection elements for electronic components, exhibiting desirable mechanical characteristics (such as resiliency, for making pressure contacts) are formed by shaping an elongate element (core) of a soft material (such as gold) to have a springable shape (including cantilever beam, S-shape, U-shape), and overcoating the shaped elongate element with a hard material (such as nickel and its alloys), to impart a desired spring (resilient) characteristic to the resulting composite interconnection element. A final overcoat of a material having superior electrical qualities (e.g., electrical conductivity and/or solderability) may be applied to the composite interconnection element. The elongate element may be formed from a wire, or from a sheet (e.g., metal foil). The resulting interconnection elements may be mounted to a variety of electronic components, including directly to semiconductor dies and wafers (in which case the overcoat material anchors the composite interconnection element to a terminal (or the like) on the electronic component), may be mounted to support substrates for use as interposers and may be mounted to substrates for use as probe cards or probe card inserts. In one embodiment, a hybrid composite interconnection element is formed by mounting a core to an end of an flat elongate element formed from a sheet, and overcoating at least the core, the flat elongate element providing a "floating" support for the overcoated core, capable of absorbing non-planarities (tolerances) of an electronic component. Methods of fabricating interconnection elements on sacrificial substrates are described. Methods of fabricating tip structures and contact tips at the end of interconnection elements are described.

Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a gas distribution system which distributes the gas more uniformly into a process chamber. In one embodiment, a gas distribution system comprises a gas ring including an outer surface and an inner surface, and a gas inlet disposed at the outer surface of the gas ring. The gas inlet is fluidicly coupled with a first channel which is disposed between the outer surface and the inner surface of the gas ring. A plurality of gas outlets are distributed over the inner surface of the gas ring, and are fluidicly coupled with a second channel which is disposed between the outer surface and the inner surface of the gas ring. A plurality of orifices are fluidicly coupled between the first channel and the second channel. The plurality of orifices are spaced from the gas inlet by a plurality of distances, and have sizes which vary with the distances from the gas inlet as measured along the first channel, such that the size of the orifice increases with an increase in the distance between the orifice and the gas inlet as measured along the first channel.

A method forms a hydrocarbon-containing polymer film on a semiconductor substrate by a capacitively-coupled plasma CVD apparatus. The method includes the steps of: vaporizing a hydrocarbon-containing liquid monomer (C_αH_βX_γ, wherein α and β are natural numbers of 5 or more; γ is an integer including zero; X is O, N or F) having a boiling point of about 20° C. to about 350° C.; introducing the vaporized gas into a CVD reaction chamber inside which a substrate is placed; and forming a hydrocarbon-containing polymer film on the substrate by plasma polymerization of the gas.

Methods are provided for the synthesis and secretion of recombinant proteins preferably large mammalian proteins or hetero-multimeric proteins at high levels and for prolonged time in polyploid, preferably diploid yeast. These methods use various mating competent yeast, including Pichia. In a preferred embodiment, a first expression vector is transformed into a first haploid cell; and a second expression vector is transformed into a second haploid cell. The transformed haploid cells, each individually synthesizing a non-identical polypeptide, are identified and then genetically crossed or fused. The resulting diploid strains are utilized to produce and secrete fully assembled and biologically functional hetero-multimeric protein.

In a method of forming a thin layer for a semiconductor device through an ALD process and a CVD process in the same chamber, a semiconductor substrate is introduced into a processing chamber, and an interval between a showerhead and the substrate is adjusted to a first gap distance. A first layer is formed on the substrate at a first temperature through an ALD process. The interval between the showerhead and the substrate is additionally adjusted to a second gap distance, and a second layer is formed on the first layer at a second temperature through a CVD process. Accordingly, the thin layer has good current characteristics, and the manufacturing throughput of a semiconductor device is improved.