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Les filières avancées CMOS et photonique nécessitent des procédés d’implantation utilisant des conditions beaucoup plus agressives en terme de dose et d’énergie que pour les générations de dispositifs précédentes. Cela n’est pas sans conséquences sur les étapes technologiques suivantes notamment l’étape de retrait de la résine implantée par plasma. En effet, pendant l’implantation, la résine subit le bombardement des ions et une couche modifiée appelée « croûte » se forme à la surface. Il est difficile de retirer cette couche sans laisser de résidus et sans consommer les matériaux en présence avec les procédés de retrait actuels et les chimies conventionnelles. Ce travail de thèse se concentre dans un premier temps sur la caractérisation de la résine implantée afin de comprendre les modifications induites par l'implantation dans la résine et la mise en place d’un protocole expérimental pour étudier ces résines. Le phénomène prépondérant observé est la réticulation de la résine ainsi qu’une diminution de la quantité d’oxygène et d’hydrogène contenus dans la résine ce qui a pour conséquence une augmentation de sa densité et de sa dureté. Fort de cette compréhension, les procédés de retrait de la résine plasma par les chimies conventionnelles ou de nouvelles chimies ont été étudiés, le but étant de ne pas laisser de résidus, d’avoir le minimum d'impact sur les substrats et d’atteindre une vitesse de retrait la plus rapide possible. Les chimies oxydantes ont montré les plus grandes vitesses de retrait mais des résidus de SiO2 provenant de la pulvérisation du substrat sont toujours présents. Au contraire, les chimies réductrices sont efficaces pour retirer les résidus mais ont une vitesse de retrait plus faible. Avec ces chimies contenant de l’hydrogène, deux phénomènes ont pu être observés : le popping et le blistering qui correspondent respectivement à la formation de bulles dans la résine et dans le substrat. Ces phénomènes ont été étudiés et des solutions ont été apportées. / Stripping photoresist after High Dose Implantation (HDI) is becoming a critical step with the increase of both implantation acceleration energy and dose. During this step, the photoresist is bombarded by the ions and a modified layer called “crust” is formed at the surface. This layer is difficult to remove with current processes and plasma chemistries without leaving residues and damaging the materials in presence. This study focuses first on the implanted photoresist characterization to understand the photoresist modifications induced by the implantation on the setting of robust experimental protocols. The major phenomenon observed is the resist crosslinking with a decrease of the oxygen and hydrogen content which results in an increase of photoresist density and hardness. Thanks to this understanding, the dry strip process using standard or alternative chemistries has been studied in terms of residues removal efficiency, impact on substrate and ashing rate. The oxidative chemistries allow to achieve the highest ashing but some SiO2 residues coming from substrate sputtering remain. On the contrary, the reductive chemistries are efficient to remove residues but the ashing rate is lower. Besides with such chemistries containing hydrogen, two phenomena are observed: photoresist popping and blistering in the silicon substrate. These issues are studied and solutions are proposed.

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of cryotheapy versus no treatment in preventing blistering and tearing of the hands of twenty-six male college age gymnastics students at Utah State University. The subjects were tested with a hand dynamometer to determine differences in grip strength between right and left hands. Two groups of thirteen subjects each were formed to equalize the differences in grip strength. During the experimental period of four class sessions totaling two hours, subjects participated in various activities on the horizontal bar, parallel bars, anG rings which rec.,ui red simultaneous gripping by both hands. Whenever a subject experienced a burning sensation in the skin of his hands, he went immediately to tn ice water bath (100 C) and soaked one hand for thirty seconds. One group treated only the stronger hand, while the other group treated only the weaker hard. After treatment, the hand was dried and workout continued. When the skin tore on a subject's hand, he reported to the recorder and treated the tear by carefully trimming away a ll the loose skin. He was a lso encouraged to apply a disinfectant. The tear was measured and given a classification as to whether it was a 1st, 2nd, or 2rd degree tear, with a corresponding weighted value. Training continued unless the tear was serious. The data was subjected to the t distribution test for significance to de!ermine whether the cryotherapy was successful in preventing tearing of the skin on the treated hand. The res ul ts of the t test indicated a significant reduction in the amount of tearing that occurred on the treated hands of the subjects . Results of the t test for two sample means showed that there was no significant difference whether a subject treated the weaker hand or the stronger hand at the . 05 level of significance.

Abstract Transmembrane collagen XVII (BP180) is a structural component of hemidesmosomes that connects the two layers of skin. Collagen XVII is associated with both autoimmune and inherited bullous skin diseases. Mutations in collagen XVII gene cause junctional epidermolysis bullosa, and in the diseases of the pemphigoid group autoantibodies target collagen XVII. In this work, collagen XVII was studied in both junctional epidermolysis bullosa and gestational pemphigoid. Two novel glycine substitution mutations were found in the largest collagenous domain of collagen XVII. Analysis of recombinantly produced mutated proteins showed that these novel mutations and previously described glycine substitution mutations decrease the thermal stability of collagen XVII ectodomain. In addition, these mutations were found to cause intracellular accumulation of the mutated proteins and affect the post-translational modifications of collagen XVII. Meanwhile, an in-frame deletion of nine amino acids had no effect on the thermal stability or secretion of the collagen XVII ectodomain. Gestational pemphigoid autoantigen collagen XVII has been mainly studied in the skin, and its expression and function during pregnancy are so far largely unknown. For the first time, collagen XVII was shown to be expressed by cytotrophoblasts of the first trimester human placenta and by cultured cytotrophoblasts. Transmigration assay of cytotrophoblasts indicated that collagen XVII promotes trophoblast invasion, and may thus have a role in placental formation. In addition, significant amounts of in vivo produced collagen XVII were found in the amniotic fluid throughout pregnancy. Collagen XVII expression was also observed in hemidesmosomes of amniotic membranes and in cells cultured from amniotic fluid. These findings suggest that collagen XVII could have a function, albeit so far unknown, during pregnancy.

Thin film cadmium telluride (CdTe) technology is the most important competitor for silicon (Si) based solar cells. Pulsed direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering is a new technique has been developed for thin film CdTe deposition. This technique is industrially scalable and provides uniform coating. It is also possible to deposit thin films at low substrate temperatures. A series of experiments are presented for the optimisation of the cadmium chloride (CdCl2) activation process. Thin film CdTe solar cells require CdCl2 activation process to improve conversion efficiencies. The role of this activation process is to increase the grain size by recrystallisation and to remove stacking faults. Compaan and Bohn [1] used the radio-frequency (RF) sputtering technique for CdTe solar cell deposition and they observed small blisters on CdTe layer surface. They reported that blistering occurred after the CdCl2 treatment during the annealing process. Moreover, void formation was observed in the CdTe layer after the CdCl2 activation process. Voids at the cadmium sulphide (CdS)/CdTe junction caused delamination hence quality of the junction is poor. This issue has been known for more than two decades but the mechanisms of the blister formation have not been understood. One reason may be the stress formation during CdTe solar cells deposition or during the CdCl2 treatment. Therefore, the stress analysis was performed to remove the defects observed after the CdCl2 treatment. This was followed by the rapid thermal annealing to isolate the CdCl2 effect by simply annealing. Small bubbles observed in the CdTe layer which is the first step of the blister formation. Using high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), it has been discovered that argon (Ar) working gas trapped during the deposition process diffuses in the lattice which merge and form the bubbles during the annealing process and grow agglomeration mainly at interfaces and grain boundaries (GBs). Blister and void formation were observed in the CdTe devices after the CdCl2 treatment. Therefore, krypton (Kr), neon (Ne) gases were used as the magnetron working gas during the deposition of CdTe layer. The results presented in this thesis indicated that blister and void formation were still existing with the use of Kr an Ne. Xe, which has a higher atomic mass than Kr, Ne, Ar, Cd and Te, was used as the magnetron working gas and it resulted in surface blister and void free devices.

No description available.