A retrospective cohort mortality study was conducted of workers engaged in nuclear technology development and employed for at least 6 months at Rocketdyne (Atomics International) facilities in California, 1948-1999. Lifetime occupational doses were derived from company records and linkages with national dosimetry data sets. International Commission on Radiation Protection (ICRP) biokinetic models were used to estimate radiation doses to 16 organs or tissues after the intake of radionuclides. Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) compared the observed numbers of deaths with those expected in the general population of California. Cox proportional hazards models were used to evaluate dose-response trends over categories of cumulative radiation dose, combining external and internal organ-specific doses. There were 5,801 radiation workers, including 2,232 monitored for radionuclide intakes. The mean dose from external radiation was 13.5 mSv (maximum 1 Sv); the mean lung dose from external and internal radiation combined was 19.0 mSv (maximum 3.6 Sv). Vital status was determined for 97.6% of the workers of whom 25.3% (n = 1,468) had died. The average period of observation was 27.9 years. All cancers taken together (SMR 0.93; 95% CI 0.84-1.02) and all leukemia excluding chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) (SMR 1.21; 95% CI 0.69-1.97) were not significantly elevated. No SMR was significantly increased for any cancer or for any other cause of death. The Cox regression analyses revealed no significant dose-response trends for any cancer. For all cancers excluding leukemia, the RR at 100 mSv was estimated as 1.00 (95% CI 0.81-1.24), and for all leukemia excluding CLL it was 1.34 (95% CI 0.73-2.45). The nonsignificant increase in leukemia (excluding CLL) was in accord with expectation from other radiation studies, but a similar nonsignificant increase in CLL (a malignancy not found to be associated with radiation) tempers a causal interpretation. Radiation exposure has not caused a detectable increase in cancer deaths in this population, but results are limited by small numbers and relatively low career doses.

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We report on the operation of an integrated gated cathode device using a single vertically aligned carbon nanofiber as the field emission element. This device is capable of operation in a moderate vacuum for extended periods of time without experiencing a degradation of performance. Less than 1% of the total emitted current is collected by the gate electrode, indicating that the emitted electron beam is highly collimated. As a consequence, this device is ideal for applications that require well-focused electron emission from a microscale structure.

The digital electrostatic electron beam array lithography concept under development at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory proposes performing direct write electron beam lithography with a massively parallel array of electron emitters operating simultaneously within a digitally programmable microfabricated field emitter array (FEA). Recently we have concentrated our research efforts on the field emission (FE) properties of deterministically grown vertically aligned carbon nanofibers (VACNFs). We have measured the FE properties of isolated VACNFs using a moveable current probe and found that they have low FE turn-on fields and can achieve stable emission for extended periods of time in moderate vacuum. In order to use the VACNF in microfabricated FEA devices we have subjected them to a variety of processing phenomenon including reactive ion etching and plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, and found them to be quite robust. Using these processes we have fabricated operational gated cathode structures with single VACNFs cathodes. The issues involved in this fabrication process and the performance of these devices are discussed.

A concept for maskless digital electrostatically focused e-beam array direct-write lithography (DEAL) has been developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This concept incorporates a digitally addressable field-emission array (DAFEA) integrated into a logic and control circuit implemented as an integrated circuit. The design goal is for 3 000 000 individually addressable field-emission cathodes with a 4 μm by 8 μm pitch on a single ∼1 cm2 integrated circuit. The DAFEA design includes built-in electrostatic focusing for each emitter with feedback dose-control circuits to drive each emitter for tightly controlled electron delivery. With the electrostatic focusing, an array of ∼460 of these integrated circuits (up to 30 across by ∼23 rows deep) are suspended on a back plane ∼100 μm above a 300 mm semiconductor wafer. This arrangement could lithographically expose an entire 300 mm wafer, with 30 nm pixels, in less than 45 s, with every wafer pixel redundantly illuminated eight times allowing gray-scale edge placement. Only ∼1.5 cm of wafer motion is required for complete wafer exposure. High-speed data paths are proposed to program the patterns into the DAFEA to be written to the wafer. The DEAL concept thus requires no mask and can be extended to the 10 nm linewidth regime.

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Updated analyses of mortality data are presented on 46,970 workers employed 1948-1999 at Rocketdyne (Atomics International). Overall, 5,801 workers were involved in radiation activities, including 2,232 who were monitored for intakes of radionuclides, and 41,169 workers were engaged in rocket testing or other non-radiation activities. The worker population is unique in that lifetime occupational doses from all places of employment were sought, updated and incorporated into the analyses. Further, radiation doses from intakes of 14 different radionuclides were calculated for 16 organs or tissues using biokinetic models of the International Commission on Radiation Protection (ICRP). Because only negligible exposures were received by the 247 workers monitored for radiation activities after 1999, the mean dose from external radiation remained essentially the same at 13.5 mSv (maximum 1 Sv) as reported previously, as did the mean lung dose from external and internal radiation combined at 19.0 mSv (maximum 3.6 Sv). An additional 9 years of follow-up, from December 31,1999 through 2008, increased the person-years of observation for the radiation workers by 21.7% to 196,674 (mean 33.9 years) and the number of cancer deaths by 50% to 684. Analyses included external comparisons with the general population and the computation of standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) and internal comparisons using proportional hazards models and the computation of relative risks (RRs). A low SMR for all causes of death (SMR 0.82; 95% CI 0.78-0.85) continued to indicate that the Rocketdyne radiation workers were healthier than the general population and were less likely to die. The SMRs for all cancers taken together (SMR 0.88; 95% CI 0.81-0.95), lung cancer (SMR 0.87; 95% CI 0.76-1.00) and leukemia other than chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) (SMR 1.04; 95% 0.67-1.53) were not significantly elevated. Cox regression analyses revealed no significant dose-response trends for any cancer. For all cancers excluding leukemia, the RR at 100 mSv was estimated as 0.98 (95% CI 0.82-1.17), and for all leukemia other than CLL it was 1.06 (95% CI 0.50-2.23).