Analysis of Effective Working Hours of Automatic Assembly Equipment for Aircraft Assembly Stations

To improve the accuracy of capacity analysis and prediction for the aircraft assembly stations,an approach for calculating the effective working hour(EWH)of automatic assembly equipment is introduced by using the dynamic mixed Weibull distribution(DMWD)model.Firstly,according to the features of aircraft assembling,a DMWD model considering the dynamic reliability of multiple subsystems and their synthetic effects on the whole equipment is established.A typical automatic drilling&riveting machine is selected as the research object,and the dynamic weights of reliability of three subsystems are modeled and solved.Subsequently the unknown parameters of the DMWD model are estimated based on maximum likelihood estimation(MLE)and Newton-Raphson method.Finally,the EWH of an automatic station is defined and modeled by using the solved dynamic reliability function.Based on the experimental study on a real automatic drilling&riveting machine from a wing panel assembly station,it is shown that the proposed DMWD and EWH models could effectively calculate the equipment reliability with full consideration of its multiple subsystems.The DMWD model is more suitable for improving the solution precision of EWH than the traditional three-parameter Weibull distribution.

A Comparative Study of Performance Between Operators With Work Discontinuity and Without Work Discontinuity

In situations where discontinuity in operation occurs, specifically in a country where coontractualization has an increasing trend, the performance level of operators after the work break is of great interest. Existing studies have found that the performance of an operator declines after her operation is completely stopped. However, when the operator performed other tasks （may it be similar or not from her previous task） during the work break, the performance after the work break seems to be affected at different level. Contractual and regular operators from a semiconductor and textile company were considered to replicate a discontinuous and continuous operation. The processing times of contractual workers before and after several months of work break were compared. Two types of work break were seen to have significant effect on an operator＇s performance after the work break, Type 1： 0% to 40% similarity from previous task and Type 2： 40% to 97% similarity from previous task. One can find that when 21% of tasks performed during the work break are similar to the operator＇s previous task, there would be no change in her performance upon returning. On the other hand, a 5% decline in performance was observed after work break type 1 and an 8.54% improvement after work break type 2. Also, a remission rate of 18% from end of stint 1 to start of stint 2 under work break type 1 was seen, while 8% for work break type 2. This may also be true to other industries. Thus, further study is suggested.

Chinese Citizens' Right To Work and Social Security Effectively Protected——An interview with Zheng Silin, minister of labor and social security

Following is an interview by staff reporters of the Human Rights magazine with Zheng Silin, Chinese minister of labor and social security. The interview was meant in part to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the implementation of the Labor Law of the People's Republic of China that falls on January 1,2005. We are publishing this transcript with a view to providing our readers with information about how China has worked persistently to protect citizens' right to work and social security and the achievements it has made in this regard. We need to remind our readers of the fact that back in March 2004, the National People's Congress, China's highest legislature, approved a recommendation for revision of China's Constitution. In accordance with the recommendation, the Constitution had one more clause added: The state shall establish and improve a social security system commensurate to the level of the economic and social development.

Fermi level pinning effects at gate–dielectric interfaces influenced by interface state densities

The dependences of Fermi-level pinning on interface state densities for the metal-dielectric, ploycrystalline silicon-dielectric, and metal silicide-dielectric interfaces are investigated by calculating their effective work functions and their pinning factors. The Fermi-level pinning factors and effective work functions of the metal-dielectric interface are observed to be more susceptible to the increasing interface state densities, differing significantly from that of the ploycrystalline silicon-dielectric interface and the metal silicide-dielectric interface. The calculation results indicate that metal silicide gates with high-temperature resistance and low resistivity are a more promising choice for the design of gate materials in metal-oxide semiconductor（MOS） technology.

Determination of Variables That Affect the Remission Rate of Sewing Operations in a Textile Company

In operations management, the learning curve has been an effective tool in estimating operator performance. However, discontinuities in work disrupt the learning process and a phenomenon called remission or forgetting occurs, resulting in increased time of performing the task upon resumption of work. The study aims to identify variables that significantly affect the remission rate of sewing operations in a manufacturing setting. Four variables--length of stint 1, percent Differenceat stint t, gender, and product family, were identified. Statistical analyses, such as paired t-test, correlation, regression, and analysis of variance （ANOVA） were conducted in order to observe the relationships between the dependent variable and independent variables. For the results of the first general regression, gender was found to be an insignificant variable in predicting remission rate, while product family, length of stint 1, and percent Differenceat stint I were statistically significant. Moreover, the final general regression, which excluded the insignificant gender variable and considered the （regrouped） product families, revealed that product family, length of stint 1, and percent Differenceat stint 1 were still statistically significant. Length of stint 1 had a moderately positive correlation with remission rate, while percent Differenceat stint i had a moderately negative correlation with remission rate. Also, percent Differenceat stint 1 was the largest contributor to the remission rate model. In terms of R2, the goodness-of-fit of the model is moderate. Finally, the model yielded an absolute error of 5.08%, indicating a high accuracy in predicting remission rate.

The effects of process condition of top-TiN and TaN thickness on the effective work function of MOSCAP with high-k/metal gate stacks

： We introduced a TaN/TiAl/top-TiN triple-layer to modulate the effective work function of a TiN-based metal gate stack by varying the TaN thickness and top-TiN technology process. The results show that a thinner TaN and PVD-process top-TiN capping provide smaller effective work function （EWF）, and a thicker TaN and ALD-process top-TiN capping provides a larger EWF; here, the EWF shifts are from 4.25 to 4.56 eV. A physical understanding of the dependence of the EWF on the top-TiN technology process and TaN thickness is proposed. Compared with PVD-TiN room temperature process, the ALD-TiN 400 ℃ process provides more thermal budget. It would also promote more Al atoms to diffuse into the top-TiN rather than the bottom-TiN. Meanwhile, the thicker TaN prevents the Al atoms diffusing into the bottom-TiN. These facts induce the EWF to increase.

Material properties and effective work function of reactive sputtered TaN gate electrodes

The resistivity, crystalline structure and effective work function （EWF） of reactive sputtered TaN has been investigated. As-deposited TaN films have an fcc structure. After post-metal annealing （PMA） at 900℃, the TaN films deposited with a N2 flow rate greater than 6.5 sccm keep their fcc structure, while the films deposited with a N2 flow rate lower than 6.25 sccm exhibit a microstructure change. The flatband voltages of gate stacks with TaN films as gate electrodes on SiO2 and HfO2 are also measured. It is concluded that a dipole is formed at the dielectric-TaN interface and its contribution to the EWF of TaN changes with the Ta/N ratio in TaN, the underneath dielectric layer and the PMA conditions.

An effective work-function tuning method of nMOSCAP with high-k/metal gate by TiN/TaN double-layer stack thickness

We evaluated the TiN/TaN/TiA1 triple-layer to modulate the effective work function （EWF） of a metal gate stack for the n-type metal-oxide-semiconductor （NMOS） devices application by varying the TiN/TaN thickness. In this paper, the effective work function of EWF ranges from 4.22 to 4.56 eV with different thicknesses of TiN and TaN. The thinner TiN and/or thinner in situ TaN capping, the closer to conduction band of silicon the EWF is, which is appropriate for 2-D planar NMOS. Mid-gap work function behavior is observed with thicker TiN, thicker in situ TaN capping, indicating a strong potential candidate of metal gate material for replacement gate processed three-dimensional devices such as FIN shaped field effect transistors. The physical understandings of the sensitivity of EWF to TiN and TaN thickness are proposed. The thicker TiN prevents the A1 diffusion then induces the EWF to shift to mid-gap. However, the TaN plays a different role in effective work function tuning from TiN, due to the Ta-O dipoles formed at the interface between the metal gate and the high-k layer.

Device parameter optimization for sub-20nm node HK/MG-last bulk FinFETs

Sub-20 nm node bulk FinFET PMOS devices with an all-last high-k/metal gate （HK/MG） process are fabricated and the influence of a series of device parameters on the device scaling is investigated. The high and thin Fin structure with a tapered sidewall shows better performance than the normal Fin structure. The punch through stop layer （PTSL） and source drain extension （SDE） doping profiles are carefully optimized. The device without SDE annealing shows a larger drive current than that with SDE annealing due to better Si crystal regrowth in the amorphous Fin structure after source/drain implantation. The band-edged MG has a better short channel effect immunity, but the lower effective work function （EWF） MG shows a larger driveability. A tradeoff choice for different EWF MGs should be carefully designed for the device＇s scaling.

Effect of gate engineering in submicron GaAs MESFET for microwave frequency applications

We present an approach of GaAs MESFET incorporating the gate engineering effect to improve immunity against the short channel effects in order to enhance the scaling capability and the device performance for microwave frequency applications. In this context, a physics-based model for I–V characteristics and various microwave characteristics such as transconductance, cut-off frequency and maximum frequency of oscillation of submicron triple material gate（TM） GaAs MESFET are developed. The reduced short channel effects have also been discussed in combined designs i.e. TM, DM and SM in order to show the impact of our approach on the GaAs MESFETs-based device design. The proposed analytical models have been verified by their good agreement with 2D numerical simulations. The models developed in this paper will be useful for submicron and microwave analysis for circuit design.