This study focuses on the influence of boron doping in FinFET Lightly Doped Drain (LDD) region. By modulating the concentration of boron, the maximum of electric field can be reduced to improve the ...reliability in hot carrier stress (HCS), while the initial electric characteristics of boron doped devices do not change a lot, compared with those of the standard (STD) device. Even though Boron doping may cause slight decreases in transconductance (gm) and Ion, but it can effectively improve the reliability of the device. The reduction of the electric field affected by boron is demonstrated in the simulation. Careful adjustment is needed to prevent the maximum of the electric field from shifting to the other side of LDD and causing the rise of the electric field rise. In this study, the electric characteristic of LDD boron doping in FinFET structure is comprehensively analyzed.
In this work, the issue of abnormal two-stage hot carrier injection (HCI) degradation in n-type lateral double-diffused MOS (LDMOS) transistors is explored. The degradation mechanism is divided into ...two stages. The first stage is the electron injection into the interface layer (IL) caused by the impact ionization that occurs under the contact field plate (CFP), resulting in the degradation of the ON-current (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\textit{I}_{\text{on}}\text{)}</tex-math> </inline-formula>. The second stage of deterioration is the positive bias temperature instability (PBTI) effects caused by Joule heating, which leads to defects in the SiO<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">_{\text{2}}</tex-math> </inline-formula>/Si interface, and injects electrons in the channel into SiO<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">_{\text{2}}</tex-math> </inline-formula>, which increases the subthreshold swing (S.S) of the device and causes the threshold voltage (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\textit{V}_{\text{th}}\text{)}</tex-math> </inline-formula> to shift. It has been proved by temperature variation experiments and technology computer-aided design (TCAD) simulations that HCI will indeed produce severe PBTI effects and lead to device degradation during long-term HCI.
This study focuses on the interaction between the oxide layer area of a transistor and its ferroelectric layer area. An experimental comparison of transistor oxide layer area demonstrates that the ...larger the ratio of oxide to ferroelectric layers, the larger the on/off ratio, thus improving performance. A subsequent experiment aimed to further demonstrate this in different sized devices, and changing the ratio of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\text{A}_{\text {HZO}}/\text{A}_{\text {SiO2}} </tex-math></inline-formula> (the area of HfZrO x divided by oxide layer) showed the same tendency as above, but also produced an unexpected finding in that a comparison of on/off ratio exhibits an abnormal electric characteristic. This study discusses this abnormal electric characteristic and proposes an explanatory physical model.
Water and electricity shortages constitute a global energy crisis that cannot be ignored. The sun is an unlimited source of energy, and oceans provide abundant water and renewable energy resources. ...In this study, poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)/graphene solar evaporator membranes are fabricated for simultaneous freshwater production and power generation. Graphene addition transformed the PVDF crystal from the α‐phase to the piezoelectric self‐assembly β‐phase. The resulting membrane is used to convert the mechanical energy of waves to electrical energy. The membrane has an output voltage of 2.6 V (±1.3 V) and an energy density of 2.11 Wm−2 for 1 Hz simulated waves, which are higher than values reported in the literature. The stacked graphene and polymer formed a wood‐lumens‐like mesoporous structure with a photothermal effect. Under one sun illumination, the water production rate is 1.2 kg m−2 h−1, and the solar‐thermal energy conversion efficiency is 84%. Finally, a prototype is built to prove a single evaporator's feasibility that can simultaneously obtain freshwater and generate electricity. Thus, this membrane serves as an ocean wave power generation device that can provide all‐weather energy generation, convert stored electrical energy into thermal energy at night and on cloudy days, and continuously provide safe drinking water.
Here, a PVDF/graphene composite solar evaporator is proposed that could simultaneously obtain water and electricity. The membrane can be driven by ocean waves to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. The energy density can reach up to 2.11 Wm−2. It can convert the accumulated electric energy even at night and on cloudy days into heat energy and continue to retrieve safe drinking water. This work provides the possibility of obtaining both water and electricity from a single solar evaporator.
Visually challenged people (VCPs) face many difficulties in their routine life. Usually, in many cases, they need to depend upon others, which makes them unconfident in an unfamiliar environment. ...Thus, in this paper, we present an aid that helps in detecting obstacles and water puddles in their way. This system comprises a walking stick and Android-based applications (APPs). The walking stick is embedded with Raspberry Pi and programmable interface controller (PIC) as a control kernel, sensors, a global position system (GPS) module, and alert-providing components. Sensors help to detect obstacles, and the VCP is informed through vibrations or a buzzer according to the obstacle detected. The GPS module receives the coordinates of the VCP's location, and the location can be tracked by parents using an APP. Another important APP is used, called an emergency APP, by which the VCP can communicate with parents or friends immediately by just shaking his/her cell phone or pushing the power button four times in 5 s in panic situations. We used fewer components to make the device simple, lighter, and cozy with very good features. This device will help VCPs to live an independent life up to some extent (with security), which ultimately will increase their confidence level in an unknown environment.
Electrolysis of water to generate hydrogen fuel is an attractive renewable energy storage technology. However, grid-scale fresh-water electrolysis would put a heavy strain on vital water resources. ...Developing cheap electrocatalysts and electrodes that can sustain seawater splitting without chloride corrosion could address the water scarcity issue. Here we present a multilayer anode consisting of a nickel–iron hydroxide (NiFe) electrocatalyst layer uniformly coated on a nickel sulfide (NiSx) layer formed on porous Ni foam (NiFe/NiSx-Ni), affording superior catalytic activity and corrosion resistance in solar-driven alkaline seawater electrolysis operating at industrially required current densities (0.4 to 1 A/cm²) over 1,000 h. A continuous, highly oxygen evolution reactionactive NiFe electrocatalyst layer drawing anodic currents toward water oxidation and an in situ-generated polyatomic sulfate and carbonate-rich passivating layers formed in the anode are responsible for chloride repelling and superior corrosion resistance of the salty-water-splitting anode.
With the potential to generate numerous connection requests, an explosive growth in the volume of data traffic and the number of mobile and machine-to-machine devices has drawn new attention to the ...radio access network. Surging random-access attempts cause not only severe preamble collisions but downlink resource shortage as well, thus degrading the performance of the random-access procedure. However, the effect of downlink resource shortage on system performance has yet to be comprehensively studied. In addition, most existing random-access contention resolution mechanisms sacrifice random-access channel (RACH) throughput for a high success probability, and thus, the price is that low-throughput mechanisms need a lot of time to deal with access attempts. In this paper, we evaluate the medium-access-control (MAC)-level performance for the four-step random-access procedure in Long-Term Evolution (LTE) systems, both with and without constrained downlink resources. Furthermore, we propose a novel RACH contention resolution scheme, i.e., the dynamic backoff (DB) scheme. DB can achieve high RACH throughput, yielding a high random-access success probability under various RACH overloaded scenarios.
Endothelial Dysfunction in Primary Aldosteronism Chen, Zheng-Wei; Tsai, Cheng-Hsuan; Pan, Chien-Ting ...
International journal of molecular sciences,
10/2019, Volume:
20, Issue:
20
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Primary aldosteronism (PA) is characterized by excess production of aldosterone from the adrenal glands and is the most common and treatable cause of secondary hypertension. Aldosterone is a ...mineralocorticoid hormone that participates in the regulation of electrolyte balance, blood pressure, and tissue remodeling. The excess of aldosterone caused by PA results in an increase in cardiovascular and cerebrovascular complications, including coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, stroke, transient ischemic attack, and even arrhythmia and heart failure. Endothelial dysfunction is a well-established fundamental cause of cardiovascular diseases and also a predictor of worse clinical outcomes. Accumulating evidence indicates that aldosterone plays an important role in the initiation and progression of endothelial dysfunction. Several mechanisms have been shown to contribute to aldosterone-induced endothelial dysfunction, including aldosterone-mediated vascular tone dysfunction, aldosterone- and endothelium-mediated vascular inflammation, aldosterone-related atherosclerosis, and vascular remodeling. These mechanisms are activated by aldosterone through genomic and nongenomic pathways in mineralocorticoid receptor-dependent and independent manners. In addition, other cells have also been shown to participate in these mechanisms. The complex interactions among endothelium, inflammatory cells, vascular smooth muscle cells and fibroblasts are crucial for aldosterone-mediated endothelial dysregulation. In this review, we discuss the association between aldosterone and endothelial function and the complex mechanisms from a molecular aspect. Furthermore, we also review current clinical research of endothelial dysfunction in patients with PA.
The development of reliable and robust diagnostic tests is one of the most efficient methods to limit the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by the severe acute ...respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). However, most laboratory diagnostics for COVID-19, such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), are expensive, time-consuming, and require highly trained professional operators. On the other hand, the lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) is a simpler, cheaper device that can be operated by unskilled personnel easily. Unfortunately, the current technique has some limitations, mainly inaccuracy in detection. This review article aims to highlight recent advances in novel lateral flow technologies for detecting SARS-CoV-2 as well as innovative approaches to achieve highly sensitive and specific point-of-care testing. Lastly, we discuss future perspectives on how smartphones and Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be integrated to revolutionize disease detection as well as disease control and surveillance.
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