Bibliothek

Notizen: This study was undertaken to investigate the effect of various forms of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) upon postmenopausal women while controlling as many variables as possible. It was felt that the age, duration of amenorrhoea and the general health of the patients should be as comparable as possible and that each patient should provide her own pretherapy and posttherapy control data. In addition, it was felt that any placebo effect should be investigated and the patients were therefore randomly allocated to placebo tablets or one of six available forms of HRT. The age/sex registers of two large general practices were scrutinized and all women between 49 and 54 years of age were asked to cooperate; for a variety of reasons only 56 women were suitable and willing to take part in the project, yielding 8 women for each of the seven possible therapy groups. Blood samples were taken at 7-day intervals three times before therapy was given and the mean of the three values was used as the control value. The women returned on day 21 of each subsequent therapy cycle for six consecutive months and finally three months after discontinuing therapy. From the data the following broad conclusions can be drawn: (i) some women have classic symptoms of hot flushes and sweating despite high endogenous oestrogen concentrations; (ii) vaginal cytology is a relatively poor indicator of endogenous oestrogen status; (iii) while follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) concentrations are reduced on HRT neither is decreased to anywhere near premenopausal values while prolactin is unaffected; (iv) plasma cholesterol levels are reduced on HRT, the pulse rate is slower and both systolic and diastolic blood pressure are reduced to a small but significant extent; (v) there is no adverse effect upon blood clotting; and (vi) most women experience significant or complete relief of symptoms on all forms of HRT as do some women taking a placebo. The combined preparations containing an oestrogen and progestogen produced vaginal bleeding in only 80 per cent of the women. Thus protection by regular endometrical shedding may not be afforded to all women. As vaginal bleeding is unacceptable to most women if they can achieve the same symptomatic relief without inducing menstruation, it is suggested that women have a low dose oestrogen preparation prescribed cyclically for 6 to 12 months. If therapy is to be maintained for a longer time, uterine curretage should be undertaken at regular intervals to exclude the possibility of endometrial carcinoma developing.

Notizen: The bonding chemistry of various GaAs-to-oxide/GaAs bonded samples was investigated using multiple internal transmission Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy for thermally annealed and thermocompression annealed samples. The oxides used in these investigations included a native GaAs oxide as well as two compositions of borosilicate glass (BSG) deposited by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD). For the thermally annealed samples, the hydrogen-bonded H2O/OH groups on the hydrophilic surface form a room temperature bond without the application of pressure. Chemical changes at the wafer-bonded interface occur in two temperature regions. For anneals between 200 and 400 °C for 1 h in N2, the H2O/OH groups react and evolve H that becomes absorbed within the oxide. The LPCVD BSG oxide was chemically unaltered during anneals in this temperature range, however, the GaAs native oxide underwent chemical modification. Initially, the GaAs oxide consisted of As(III)–O and Ga–O related oxides. The As(III)–O oxides react to form free As and Ga–O during annealing between 200 and 400 °C. For anneals between 500 and 600 °C, the reaction of H2O/OH groups continue and the H becomes infrared inactive, most likely forming H2 voids at the bonded interface. In addition, As(V)–O related oxides were observed during thermal annealing in this temperature range. No detectable chemical changes in the BSG were observed over the temperature range investigated. Samples that were annealed under an estimated 1–10 MPa of pressure had similar chemical changes to thermally annealed samples.© 2001 American Institute of Physics.

Notizen: We describe the implementation of a crossed graded parabolic x-ray mirror system that is suitable for incorporation into both conventional and high resolution x-ray diffraction systems. A novel optical alignment system has been devised that permits independent adjustment of the positions and the angular settings of the mirrors. This alignment system is simple and inexpensive to construct, yet is mechanically stable and easy to use. The crossed mirror system has been successfully introduced into both protein crystallography and high resolution x-ray diffraction systems. © 2000 American Institute of Physics.

Notizen: In0.44Ga0.56As (3% mismatch) films 3 μm thick were grown simultaneously on a conventional GaAs substrate, glass-bonded GaAs compliant substrates employing glasses of different viscosity, and a twist-bonded GaAs compliant substrate. High-resolution triple-crystal x-ray diffraction measurements of the breadth of the strain distribution in the films and atomic force microscopy measurements of the film's surface morphology were performed. The films grown on the glass-bonded compliant substrates exhibited a strain distribution whose breadth was narrowed by almost a factor of 2 and a surface roughness that decreased by a factor of 4 compared to the film simultaneously grown on the conventional substrate. These improvements in the film's structural quality were observed to be independent of the viscosity of the glass-bonding media over the range of viscosity investigated and were not observed to occur for the film grown on the twist-bonded substrate. © 1999 American Institute of Physics.

Notizen: A polymer or metallo-organic precursor solution may be transferred from the channels of a stamp to a substrate producing a micron or submicron scale pattern. The stamped polymer pattern is used as a mask for device fabrication. The stamped metallo-organic precursor solution is heat treated to produce a metal or ceramic pattern directly. Here we report conditions that optimize the filling of channels, the debonding of the solution from the channels during evaporation, and the transfer of the pattern to a substrate. We show that poor wetting can optimize these conditions. © 1999 American Institute of Physics.

Notizen: High-frequency integrated circuit applications of GaSb-based materials are hampered by the lack of a suitable lattice-matched insulating substrate. Wafer bonding was used to fabricate InAs/AlSb/GaSb-based heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) on an insulating sapphire substrate through a low temperature bonding process that results in a high bond strength and permitted the mechanical and chemomechanical removal of the initial GaSb substrate. The use of selective etches allows for the retention of the epitaxial device layers over virtually the entire wafer area. Minimal degradation of the transferred layers occurred in the bonding and substrate removal process. The resulting transferred structures were fabricated into functional HBTs exhibiting a dc current gain of ∼5. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.

Notizen: Plasma-treated oxide layers are commonly used in wafer bonding applications. Borosilicate glass (BSG) layers deposited by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition treated with an O2 plasma in reactive ion etching mode for 5 min at 0.6 W/cm2 and rinsed with DI H2O readily bond to GaAs and Si. The chemical role of this prebonding treatment was investigated using attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy. The peak intensities for both the Si–O and B–O absorbance bands decreased in intensity as a result of the plasma treatment is consistent with the uniform sputtering of 9.8 nm±0.8 nm of BSG. Polarization dependent ATR-FTIR revealed that the H2O/OH absorbance bands decreased in peak intensity with the OH groups being preferentially oriented perpendicular to the sample surface after the plasma treatment. The subsequent DI H2O rinse restores the water to the surface while removing B2O3 from the BSG layer. This prebonding treatment, therefore, results in a hydrophilic bond, but alters the composition of the BSG film at the bonded interface. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.

Notizen: Highly mismatched films (In0.44Ga0.56As, 3% mismatch) grown well beyond their critical thickness (to 3 μm) on GaAs glass-bonded compliant substrates exhibit surfaces four times smoother and strain distributions twice as narrow as films grown simultaneously on conventional GaAs substrates. The compliant substrates consist of a thin (∼10 nm) GaAs template layer bonded via a borosilicate glass to a mechanical handle wafer. The improvement of highly mismatched films grown well beyond their critical thickness on compliant substrate structures is commonly modeled in terms of an elastic partitioning of strain from the film to the thin (∼10 nm) single-crystal template layer. The present study is a direct test for this mechanism of elastic compliance. A comparison is reported of the strain in 92 nm In0.09Ga0.91As films and 76 nm In0.03Ga0.97As films grown simultaneously on conventional GaAs substrates and the compliant substrates responsible for the improved structural quality of In0.44Ga0.56As films. Elastic partitioning of strain from the mismatched film to the 10 nm template layer prior to the onset of misfit dislocations is not observed for films grown on these glass-bonded compliant substrates. © 2000 American Institute of Physics.

Notizen: Microscale bipolymer features have been fabricated by microstamping. Rigid silicon stamps with microwells as small as 40 fl in volume were used. Bipolymer columns, 2 μm by 2 μm in cross section and 10 μm tall, were stamped from these small microwells. The top 1.5 μm of each column was made of polyetherimide with the remaining 8.5 μm being made from an ethyl cyanoacrylate. The ability to accurately fabricate microscale features consisting of more than one polymer has many potential uses. As an example, the potential use of bipolymer features in nerve guides is discussed. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.

Notizen: Oriented crystallization of GaSb on patterned, oxidized Si substrates was achieved by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The Si substrate was formed by patterning an array of inverted square pyramids having {111} sidewall facets, using lithography and anisotropic etching in KOH. The orientation and structure of GaSb crystals, at various stages of the growth, were examined by scanning electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction. X-ray diffraction pole figure analysis shows that {111} planes of GaSb are predominantly parallel to the {111} planes of the inverted pyramids. Extra (111) spots observed in the x-ray diffraction pole figure are interpreted in terms of multiple twinning of GaSb. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.