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The effects of different process parameters on tribology and surface defects were studied till date, but there has been a very minimal study to understand the effect of slurry temperature during Copper Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP). The surface defects such as dishing, erosion and metal loss amount for more than 50% of the defects that hamper the device yield and mainly the electrical properties during the manufacturing process. In this research, the effect of slurry temperature on tribology, surface defects and electrical properties during copper CMP employing different pad materials and slurries has been explored. Experiments were conducted at different slurry temperatures maintaining all the other process parameters constant. Post polished copper samples were analyzed for their dishing and metal loss characteristics. From the results, it was seen that the coefficient of friction and removal rate increased with increase in slurry temperature during polishing with both types of polishing pads. This increase in removal rate is attributed to a combined effect of change in pad mechanical properties and chemical reaction kinetics. The experimental data indicated that the increase in slurry temperature results in an increase in amounts of metal dishing and copper metal loss for one type of slurry and defects decrease with increase in slurry temperature for other type of slurry. This phenomenon indicates the effect of temperature on chemical reaction kinetics and its influence on defect generation. This can be attributed due to the change in pad asperities due to change in pad mechanical properties and chemical kinetics with change in slurry temperature. The slurry temperature has an effect not only on the surface defects and tribology but also on the change in pad mechanical properties. The copper thin films peeled off at higher polishing temperatures, leading to adhesion failure. With increase in temperature the copper crystallinity, hardness and modulus increased. Further with increase in the defects the electrical properties of the devices also degraded drastically and even failed to operate at higher levels of dishing and metal loss. This research is aimed at understanding the physics governing the defect generation during CMP.

Κύριος σκοπός της εργασίας είναι η υλοποίηση ενός υπολογιστικού συστήματος με Scratch pad μνήμη και η διαχείριση της μνήμης μέσω ενσωματωμένου λογισμικού. Αρχικά παρουσιάζονται τα πλεονεκτήματα και τα μειονεκτήματα ενός συστήματος που χρησιμοποιεί μνήμη Scratch pad σε σύγκριση με ένα αντίστοιχο σύστημα με cache. Μετά σχεδιάζουμε το σύστημα μας χρησιμοποιώντας την γλώσσα περιγραφής υλικού VHDL και λαμβάνουμε πειραματικές μετρήσεις οι οποίες προκύπτουν από την μέτρηση των κύκλων εκτέλεσης ενός αντιπροσωπευτικού προγράμματος. Η προτεινόμενη αρχιτεκτονική με Scratch pad και η τεχνική προγραμματισμού της αποφέρουν μια βελτίωση της απόδοσης κατά 36% σε σχέση με την αντίστοιχη αρχιτεκτονική με cache. Αυτό οφείλεται στις σημαντικά λιγότερες αστοχίες που παρουσιάζει η Scratch pad όταν προγραμματιστεί κατάλληλα καθώς ο DMA ελεγκτής έχει τη δυνατότητα να μεταφέρει τα δεδομένα παράλληλα με την εκτέλεση του προγράμματος. / The main purpose of this master thesis is the implementation of a computer system using scratch pad memory including memory management via embedded software. Initially we present the pros and cons of a system using scratch pad memory, in comparison to a system using cache memory. We then design our system using the hardware description language VHDL and we compare the performance with an equivalent architecture using cache memory. This is done by counting the clock cycles needed in order to run a sample program. The proposed scratch pad architecture and the programming technique used produced a 36% better performance in comparison to an equivalent cache memory architecture. This is due to the less misses that a scratch pad memory presents, when programmed efficiently.

Rapporten presenterar ett tillvägagångssätt att med moderna medel angripa en av äldre tidens kryptotekniker, bokchiffer, där nummer utifrån boktexter utgör kryptotexten. Ett speciellt fall som varit olöst i närmare 200 år, det så kallade Beale-kryptot, kommer att vara huvudområdet och tillskillnad från den klassiska metodiken att medels penna och papper räkna och lösa, tillåta datorn att snabba på den långdragna arbetsprocessen. Ett inför rapporten skapat datorprogram kommer att användas, ett program som dels klarar av att replikera den gamla metodiken, dels att introducera nya lösningsgångar och dels att presentera statistik över dokument som undersöks. Programmet kan presentera de lösningarna man sedan vill titta närmare på i dekrypterad form, något som blir intressant både ur ett replikerbarhetsperspektiv men också om nya intressanta dokument dyker upp under den statistiska testningen.Testfallen resulterar inte i några nya intressanta nycklar, men visar på att metoden är rättvisande då ett historiskt löst dokument får markanta utstickande resultat.

Purpose: Current literature reports that between 7 and 14% of young, healthy women have stress urinary incontinence (SUI). No gold standard exists for quantifying urine leakage, although pad tests have been used in older, parous populations. The aim of this study was to determine the reliability and accuracy of a new pad test for young, healthy women with SUI. Methods: The pad test consisted of measuring quantity of leakage after the following activities: stair running, standing up from sitting, curl-ups, running on the spot, jumping jacks, jumping on a mini-trampoline and coughing vigorously. Bladder volume was standardised by having the volunteers drink one litre of water one hour prior to the testing. The volunteers performed the pad test on two consecutive days. Results: Sixteen nulliparous women between the ages of 18 and 30 years (7 controls and 9 with SUI) participated in this study. The mean increase in pad weight was 0.64 g (± 0.50) in the continent group and 11.89 g (± 20.32) in the group with SUI. There was no significant difference in pad weight between the testing sessions (p=0.228), however the test was not able to elicit measureable urine loss in 3 participants with SUI. Pad weights between the two groups of women were significantly different (p=0.023). The test re-test ICC for the continent group was 0.845 (95% CI: 0.139–0.973) and 0.782 (95% CI: -0.040–0.952) for the group with SUI. Significance: The results of this study support the use of this pad test in healthy young women with SUI; it appears to be reliable and challenging enough to cause measureable urine loss in the majority, and it may be useful for diagnosing and quantifying SUI without urodynamic studies.

Στην παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία, γίνεται η περιγραφή των χαρακτηριστικών των VLIW επεξεργαστών, συγκριτικά με άλλους επεξεργαστές, και στη συνέχεια αναλύεται ο τρόπος με τον οποίο υλοποιήθηκε ένα σύστημα, βασισμένο στη VLIW αρχιτεκτονική. Επιπλέον, παρουσιάζονται τα χαρακτηριστικά των Scratch-pad μνημών, συγκρίνοντάς τα με αυτά των Cache, ενώ υλοποιούνται Scratch-pad μνήμες, στις οποίες θα γίνεται η αποθήκευση των εντολών και των δεδομένων προγραμμάτων που θα εκτελεί ο επεξεργαστής VLIW. Τέλος, αναπτύχθηκε μια εφαρμογή επεξεργασίας εικόνας, με σκοπό να γίνει ο έλεγχος της συμπεριφοράς του συστήματος. / This project describes the characteristics of VLIW processors, compared to other types of processors, and analyses the way in which a system, based on the VLIW architecture, was created. In addition, Scratch-pad memories are compared to Cache memories and added to the system, in order to store the instructions and data of programs being executed by the VLIW processor. Finally, an image processing algorithm was developed with a view to simulate the system's behavior.

Transcutaneous gas monitoring of oxygen and carbon dioxide is animportant method for monitoring the oxygenation and ventilation inprematurely born infants. The amount of gas diffusing through theskin is very small and current technology rely on heating of theskin to increase the gas amount, where transcutaneous oxygenrequires the highest temperature. Heating damages the delicate skinof the infants and is a major concern among the nurses administeringthe treatment. In this thesis we have investigated a prototype and developedcomponents for a novel transcutaneous gas monitor capable ofperforming transcutaneous carbon dioxide measurements on adultswithout any external heating with a fast start-up time compared toconventional monitors. The technology is based on a microplasmasource developed at the Microsystems Technology department atUppsala university. The thesis has focused on producing three key components of theprototype. Firstly the controller board and radio frequency (RF)amplifier, previously two separate circuit boards, have beencombined into one. The design also incorporates improvementsregarding the power supply of the board, where a buck converterinstead of a linear regulator is used to step down most of thevoltage. This eliminates the need to use a heat sink to remove heatgenerated during voltage transformation. Secondly a sensor pad hasbeen developed from a silicone-based material which is soft,flexible and self-adhesive, allowing it to be placed anywhere on thepatient without tape or glue. And lastly techniques have beendeveloped to efficiently turn the raw data collected from the plasmasource into a usable carbon dioxide concentration signal. Though the plasma-based transcutaneous gas monitoring is yet farfrom clinical trials, the technology has shown promising results andit is deemed to be a viable alternative with better performance inpatient comfort, sensitivity and response time.

abstract: Advances in electronics technology and innovative manufacturing processes have driven the semiconductor industry towards extensive miniaturization & ever greater integration of chip design. One consequence of this sustained evolution has been the growing relative cost of accessing off-chip components with external memory being one of the dominant contributors. In embedded systems and applications, where power consumption and cost are extremely crucial factors, the use of on chip Scratch Pad Memories (SPMs) has proven to be a good alternative to caches. SPMs are more efficient than on-chip caches in a wide variety of aspects including energy consumption, power dissipation, speed performance, area, and timing predictability. However, at the same time, they entail explicit software-level management. Specifically, the system performance depends upon overlay scheme for mapping code and data onto the size-limited SPMs. It has been found that for applications with large code sizes, the overlay overhead cost becomes significant. This work aims to evaluate and implement pre-fetching as a performance improvement technique for SPMs. It is implemented in code overlay manager, provided with the Cell Broadband Engine (CBE) Synergistic Processing Unit (SPU) compiler from IBM, spu-gcc. Four different approaches proposed in this work use profiling information to predict pre-fetch calls. The pre-fetching technique achieves considerable performance improvement by hiding some of the code overlay cost behind active computations by fetching the required code segment in advance into SPM. Experimental results supporting this claim are obtained using the IBM Cell architecture platform with substantial gain of more than 30%. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Computer Science 2011

This study reports on an investigation of the effectiveness of the "Positive Approach to Discipline" (PAD) system for classroom management. The data from the study were analyzed by the analysis of variance with repeated measures. The data indicate several implications for the utilization of the PAD system for classroom management. The findings of the study indicate that, 1) teachers utilizing the PAD system significantly reduced the number of students referred to administration, and 2) teachers utilizing the PAD system significantly reduced the number of Black students referred to administration, and 3) the PAD system was effective in reducing the number of students suspended from school.