The "square-root" relationship proposed by Ratkowsky et al. (J. Bacteriol. 149:1-5, 1982) for modeling the growth rate of bacteria below the optimum growth temperature was extended to cover, the full biokinetic temperature range. Two of the four parameters of this new nonlinear regression model represent minimum and maximum temperature bounds, respectively, for the predicted growth of the

Using electron-spin resonance (ESR), we demonstrate that several E′ variant precursors exist in a variety of technologically significant thermally grown thin SiO2 films on Si. The E′ variants include two varieties with the ubiquitous Eγ′ line shape (zero-crossing g=2.0005, O3≡Si⋅) and a second very narrow line shape (zero-crossing g=2.0019, structure unknown). We tentatively label the g=2.0019 defect EP for provisional E′ and distinguish the Eγ′ variants Eγn′ (neutral) and Eγp′ (positive). We combine ESR, capacitance versus voltage electrical measurements, and charge injection sequences to compare the electronic properties of the defects. We find that paramagnetic EP defects are positively charged while paramagnetic Eγ′ centers can be either positively charged or, under some circumstances, neutral. We find that EP precursors have a very large capture cross section for holes (σ=10−13 cm2) and that paramagnetic EP defects have an even larger capture cross section for electrons (σ=10−12 cm2). Both EP capture cross sections are an order of magnitude greater than those of the Eγp′ defects. We find that EP centers are distributed much more broadly throughout the oxide than either the Eγp′ or Eγn′ defects. We also find a two order of magnitude variation in EP density dependent upon processing variations. In addition, EP centers, unlike the Eγ′ variations, are not stable at room temperature. With their large capture cross section for holes and even larger capture cross section for electrons, EP defects may be relevant to device reliability and charge trapping under conditions of a low, relatively pure hole fluence such as in hot hole injection in short n-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors.

We demonstrate that at least two varieties of E′ defect precursors exist in a wide variety of conventionally processed thermal SiO2 thin films. We provisionally label the defects EP and E′γp. We find that EP defect capture cross sections exceed the corresponding E′γp values by an order of magnitude, that EP centers are distributed far more broadly throughout the oxides than are the E′γp defects, and that the EP resonance, unlike the E′γp resonance is not stable at room temperature.

A study has been conducted of the effects of deposition conditions on the radiation hardness of borophosphosilicate glass (BPSG). Films deposited by two common deposition techniques were evaluated using gamma cell testing, electron spin resonance (ESR), and capacitance voltage (CV) measurements. The results indicate that two stoichiometrically similar films can differ greatly in radiation tolerance depending on the deposition conditions.

Metal contamination levels are a growing concern in integrated circuit manufacturing because they degrade electrical performance. This work uses statistical design of experiments to determine deposition characteristics of metal contaminants onto silicon surfaces from process chemicals that are used in wafer cleaning. Copper, gold, molybdenum, silver, lead, chromium, tin, titanium, manganese, and tungsten were added to buffered oxide etchant and HF solutions. Wafers were immersed in these solutions and evaluated by total reflectance x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy surface analysis. Most contaminant deposition characteristics are simple, dependent on bath type and contamination level alone. Some contaminant deposition characteristics are complex, dependent on multifactors including bath type, contaminant level, and the presence of other contaminants as well.