The electrolytic conductivities and limiting reduction and oxidation potentials for various organic liquid electrolytes based on quaternary onium salts have been measured to find better electrolytes for electrical double-layer capacitors. An electrolyte composed of tetraethylammonium cation, tetrafluoroborate anion, and propylene carbonate solvent showed well-balanced performance of high electrolytic conductivity, a wide stable potential window and resistance to hydrolysis. Among quaternary onium salts, triethylmethylammonium, ethylmethylpyrrolidinium, and tetramethylenepyrrolidinium tetrafluoroborate salts exhibited higher electrolytic conductivity than the conventional tetraethylammonium salt due to their much greater solubility.Ref. 25.

The electron transfer reactions between various copper(II) complexes and two-electron donors, such as ascorbic acid and 3,5-di-t-butylcatechol, were investigated. Mononuclear copper(II) complexes with a distorted tetrahedral and a trigonal bipyramidal structure, and some binuclear complexes were readily reduced to copper(I) complexes by the two-electron donors, but not mononuclear planar copper(II) complexes. The catalytic activities of these copper(II) complexes for the oxidation of 3,5-di-t-butylcatechol by O2 were studied in relation to the above reactions.

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With wide application of low-dielectric constant (low-k) dielectric materials in multilevel VLSI circuits, the long-term reliability of such materials is rapidly becoming one of the most critical challenges for technology development. Among all the reliability issues, low4 time dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) is commonly considered a crucial problem. In this study, the effect of process variations on chemical-vapor deposited (CVD), carbon doped oxide dielectrics comprised of Si, C, 0, and H (SiCOH) TDDB degradation at the 65nm technology node is investigated. SiCOH TDDB is found to be sensitive to all aspects of integration.Based on extensive experimental data, an electrochemical-reactioninduced, three-step degradation model is proposed to explain the SiCOH dielectric breakdown process. Finally, we demonstrate that with careful process and materials optimization, a superior SiCOH TDDB performance at the 65nm technology node can be achieved for 300" fabrication. The projected lifetime, based on a conservative modeling approach and aggressive test structure is far beyond the most stringent reliability target. [