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The rising trend in large scale integration and design complexity has greatly increased the need f o r eficient design error diagnosis. W e present techniques for fast and efficient error diagnosis of digital circuits by eliminating to a large extent the set of false candidates identified by the diagnosis. The elimination of false candidate regions is conducted via distinguishing x's, flipping of values at the output of candidate regions, and combination of these techniques. Our algorithms help to improve both the speed and resolution of error diagnosis. Experimental results on combinational benchmark circuits showed that up to 92% improvement in diagnostic resolution and 74 96 speedup over the original region-based diagnosis can be achieved with our approaches.

Crystallization of hydrogenated amorphous silicon thick films deposited by dc glow discharge on molybdenum substrates was studied by Raman scattering and x-ray diffraction. Investigation was made as a function of amorphous silicon film deposition temperature. On heating the films at a rate of 5 °C/min to 650 °C for various times, it was observed that the film deposited at 300 °C started crystallization faster than the film deposited at 150 °C. The degree of cirystallinity increased with increasing annealing time for all the films. However, at all annealing times, the degree of crystallinity for the annealed film deposited at 150 °C was higher than that of the annealed film deposited at 300 °C, indicating that the crystallization growth rate was higher for the film deposited at a lower temperature. These results were consistent with the dark conductivity measurements. The film deposited at 150 °C showed a photoresponse which increased with increasing annealing time whereas no photoresponse was observed for the film deposited at 300 °C. This was probably due to the degree of crystallinity and grain size being much larger for the film deposited at 150 °C than the film deposited at 300 °C.

Preparation of porcelain restorations that match the natural dentition has been a subject of great concern for many years. An understanding of the process by which the colour and translucency of fixed restorations are planned and obtained so as to replicate the colour of its adjacent teeth is important for achieving an esthetic restoration. This study was done to study the effect of fabrication procedures such as ceramic thickness and number of firing cycles on the colour of metal ceramic restorations. Metal ceramic samples with three different ceramic thicknesses; 0.5, 1 and 1.5 mm (N = 30, n = 10 per group) were fabricated. A3 shade of [VMK 95, VITA Zahnfabrik, Bad Sackingen, Germany] ceramic was used for the fabrication of samples. Samples were subject to multiple firing cycles and colour was measured after 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 8th and 10th firing cycle. Colour measurement was done objectively using spectrolino (Gretag Macbeth Inc., Germany) spectrophotometer. 'Repeated measures ANOVA' test was used for doing statistical analysis. No significant change was noticed in any of the four colour parameters between the baseline reading after second firing uptil the tenth firing for any of the three groups with different ceramic thicknesses. There was a consistent rise in L* or lightness of colour as the thickness of ceramic increased. Between group I and group III there was a consistent shift of a* axis towards the blue green side and there was a consistent shift in b* axis towards purple-blue with an increase in ceramic thickness. It was observed that there was a change in ΔE with a change in ceramic thickness. There was a change of about two units between group I and group II and a change of about one unit between group II and group III. Change in ΔE between group I and group III was the most significant, being about three units. It was concluded from the study that multiple firing cycles during fabrication of metal ceramic restorations do not have any effect on colour while colour varies with change in ceramic thickness.

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon thick films deposited by dc glow discharge on molybdenum substrates were annealed by a pulsed Nd:glass laser. Mass spectrometry showed hydrogen remaining in all the laser annealed films. The amount of hydrogen remaining decreased with decreasing scan rate. The hydrogen evolved upon heating at 365 °C and mainly at 658 °C before laser annealing, but at 365, 575 (Mainly) and 645 °C after laser annealing, indicating weakening of the silicon-hydrogen bonding after laser annealing. The presence of hydrogen inhibited crystallization, as indicated by Raman scattering. The photo and dark conductivity of the film increased by one and three orders of magnitude respectively with increasing laser energy density up to 12 J/cm2 at a fixed scan rate. This Means that the photoresponse was decreased with laser annealing, in spite of the associated increase in crystallinity. This photoresponse decrease is attributed to the hydrogen evolution.

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