New Jersey Institute of Technology
Tias Kundu - First Place - Graduate Category
HYDROGEN/DEUTERIUM IMPLANTATION FOR SI/SIO2 INTERFACE PASSIVATION

The Si-SiO2 interface has become a focus of study with the trend to 
even smaller devices with thin gate oxides (<7nm region) in VLSI technology. 
One of the major defects giving rise to the interface states in the silicon band 
gap is the dangling bonds. Passivation of these bonds with hydrogen had been 
found to diminish their effect but leads to degradation of the device due to the 
effect of hot electron. Deuterium annealing has proved to improve the life time 
of the MOS devices for one level metal-dielectric structure but this technique 
is not very effective for a multi-level metal-dielectric structure. The present 
work investigates and optimizes incorporation of deuterium by ion implantation 
into the silicon substrate before the growth of thin gate oxides. Different 
implantation conditions were used for optimization to effectively passivate the 
silicon dangling bonds. Hydrogen implantation has also been carried out to study 
the isotope effect. The improvement in electrical and reliability characteristics
of deuterium implanted deices were investigated. The deuterium implanted devices 
showed an enhanced interface passivation. Soft and hard breakdown characteristics
of deuterium implanted device yielded better results compared to hydrogen 
implanted devices further confirming the isotope effect.


New Jersey Institute of Technology
Purushothaman Srinivasan - Second Place - Graduate Category
Modeling and simulation of SiGephotodetector for optical communication

The objective is to model and simulate the SiGephotodiode using a 
Device Simulator (Taurus-Device, a Synopsys based TCAD tool) and understand the 
steady-state and transient characteristics of the device with  i) changes in 
the doping concentration of the intrinsic layers ii) doping concentration of 
SiGe layers,  iii) thickness of SiGe/Si superlattice structure (SLS) and  iv)	 
mole fraction of SiGe.   The parameter that is studied to optimize them is the 
dark current of the photodiode. By dark current characteristics it is possible 
to estimate the electrical performance by observing the reverse bias breakdown 
voltage and reverse saturation current.   The main application of this 
photodiode is for optical communications and hence it is essential that the 
parameters involved needs to be optimized inorder to have maximum efficiency. 
The behavior of the diode is therfore studied for its wavelength and intensity 
variations as a measure of its optical performance. 


Stevens Institute of Technology
Mubashir Syed - Third Place - Graduate Category
Utilizing Beamforming for Random Access -. A Cross-Layer Paradigm

Adaptive beamforming has been shown to substantially improve the 
performance of  many a packet radio systems. We present here, a slotted Aloha 
based random access protocol designed to be employed in conjunction with 
adaptive beamforming, for use in a sectorized cellular wireless system. The 
focus is on a cross-layer design approach, in which information about the status 
of packet transmissions is utilized to dynamically adapt antenna beams among the 
sectors in a cell. This scheme is especially robust against network 
inefficiencies due to uneven and time-varying traffic load densities within the 
sectors of a cell. Simulation results demonstrate the substantial enhancement in 
throughput and delay performance accorded by the proposed scheme.



Fairleigh Dickinson University
Brenda Kasigwa - First Place - Undergraduate Category 
Voice Over Internet Protocol

Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) Voice over Internet Protocol is 
one form of Internet telephony which  encompasses voice, video, and data.  
VOIP has gained popularity for the obvious reason of being cost effective 
especially through the  intranets.  Other reasons include the need to integrate 
voice and data  networks, and the demand for multimedia communication.  Some 
of the  issues inhibiting popularity of VOIP include absence of standards,  
resulting in incompatibility of some systems, problems in voice quality,  
lack of security, and problems with integration with the public switched  
telephone networks.  For the future, the most promising areas for VOIP  
are within corporate intranets and commercial extranets that control who  
can use the network.  With the need for multimedia conferencing, ways  
will be found to ensure that VOIP is the trend of the future. 


Fairleigh Dickinson University
Edgar Argueta - Second Place - Undergraduate Category 
Energy Conservation Using Compact Flourescent Bulbs

Fluorescent lights have been around for a while. They are used in 
most buildings and they consist of a ballast and a gas filled tube. The ballast, 
usually magnetic or electronic, .sparks. the gas  making the tube glow with 
ultraviolet light exciting a white phosphor coating on the inside of the tube 
giving visible light.  Compact Fluorescent lamps (CFL.S) are a smaller version 
of the standard fluorescent lamps with the difference that they can directly 
replace standard incandescent bulbs. The CFL.s have the same brightness and 
color retention as that of the incandescent with the difference that it uses 
less energy to give the same amount of light output and lasts10 times longer.  
CFL.s are very energy friendly and replacing an incandescent bulb with a CFL of 
equal light output lessens energy consumption, reducing energy costs. If every 
household were to replace its incandescent bulbs with CFL's, the reduction of 
pollution would be equivalent to removing 1 million automobiles. 


Fairleigh Dickinson University
Todd DeLuck - Third Place - Undergraduate Category
Using power line structures for distributed AM broadcasting

Current AM radio broadcast schemes use multi-tower arrays 
commonly located in wetlands.  These plant locations have become less desirable 
with recent concerns for environmental impact.   Power line structures, which 
are in nearly all communities, can offer an alternate method of broadcast that 
would alleviate many environmental concerns and provide better coverage and 
reliability for broadcasters.  Using the natural loop or slot created by lines 
passing from tower to tower small antennas can be created.  By careful selection 
of antenna location, power and phasing a distribution network can be installed. 
These antennas can be fed with low power digital transmitters controlled by 
computer from a studio location.  With computer modeling software, current 
coverage patterns can be duplicated or improved, faults in the system can be 
compensated for and environmental impact can be virtually eliminated.  On the 
down side this proposed system would require a large upfront investment and 
a change in regulation by the FCC to begin implementation.