Abstract:
A semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the semiconductor device maintain an insulating distance between contact plugs and wiring lines formed on the contact plugs by using an etch mask pattern for forming contact holes. The device comprises a substrate comprising a plurality of conductive areas; an inter-layer insulating layer on the substrate having a plurality of contact holes through which the conductive areas are exposed; a first insulating layer covering the top surface of the inter-layer insulating layer; a plurality of contact plugs respectively connected to the plurality of conductive areas through the plurality of contact holes, the plurality of contact plugs having top surfaces a distance from each of which to a top surface of the substrate is less than a distance from the top surface of the inter-layer insulating layer to the top surface of the substrate; a plurality of ring-shaped insulating spacers covering inner sidewalls of the inter-layer insulating layer, inner sidewalls of the first insulating layer, and outer edge areas of top surfaces of the contact plugs so as to expose center areas of the top surfaces of the contact plugs in the contact holes; and a plurality of wiring lines above the first insulating layer and on the insulating spacers and respectively electrically connected to the plurality of contact plugs.
Abstract:
A semiconductor device may include plugs disposed in a zigzag pattern, interconnections electrically connected to the plugs and a protection pattern which is interposed between the plugs and the interconnections to selectively expose the plugs. The interconnections may include a connection portion which is in contact with plugs selectively exposed by the protection pattern. A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes, after forming a molding pattern and a mask pattern, selectively etching a protection layer using the mask pattern to form a protection pattern exposing a plug.
Abstract:
A semiconductor device includes: a gate pattern over a substrate; recess patterns provided in the substrate at both sides of the gate pattern, each having a side surface extending below the gate pattern; and a source and a drain filling the recess patterns, and forming a strained channel under the gate pattern.
Abstract:
An image conversion device and method of interpolating an input image by utilizing a motion estimation that is adaptive according to characteristics of the input image. The image conversion device includes a detection block to receive three consecutive input fields including a first field, a second field as a target interpolation field, and a third field, to determine which of the first field and the third field has a smaller difference value of field data with respect to the second field that is an interpolation target field, and to determine whether one of the first and third fields have a motion change that is greater than a predetermined threshold with respect to the second field, and an interpolation block to interpolate the second field by determining a selected motion estimation value between the one of the first and third fields having the smaller difference value and the second field, determining a third motion estimation value between the first field and the third field, applying different weights to the selected and third motion estimation values depending on whether one of the first and second fields have the motion change that is greater than the predetermined threshold, and mixing the weighted selected and third motion estimation values.
Abstract:
A spacer grid can be applied to close-spaced nuclear fuel rods. The spacer grid is directed to solve the problem in which, as the outer diameter of each nuclear fuel rod increases due to the use of dual-cooled nuclear fuel rods for improving cooling performance and obtaining high combustion and high output power, the gap between the neighboring nuclear fuel rods is narrowed to thus make it impossible to use an existing spacer grid. The spacer grid is a combination of unit grid straps, each of which has supports for supporting each of the nuclear fuel rods set in a narrow array and has a sheet shape, which are combined with each other. The supports are located at positions shifted from the longitudinal central line of each unit grid strap toward sub-channels.
Abstract:
A liquid lens comprises a cylindrical body having a pair of glass lenses which are coupled to upper and lower openings of the body, respectively; an aspheric transmitting partition lens inserted and fixed in the central portion of the body; an auto-focus lens section composed of a first insulating liquid layer and a first electrolyte layer which are filled under the transmitting partition lens so as to form an interface therebetween; an optical zoom lens section composed of a second insulating liquid layer and a second electrolyte layer which are filled above the transmitting partition lens so as to form an interface therebetween; and a minute auto-focus lens section composed of a third insulating liquid layer of which the upper surface comes in contact with the lower surface of the transmitting partition lens and of which the lower surface forms an interface with the first electrolyte layer such that the third insulating liquid layer is not mixed with the first electrolyte layer.
Abstract:
An apparatus for and method of estimating a motion vector for a video image block are provided. The apparatus includes an error calculation unit calculating a motion estimation error for a predetermined prediction motion vector of the image block, an information extraction unit extracting geometric information regarding the image block, an update motion vector generation unit generating an update motion vector based on the motion estimation error calculated by the error calculation unit and the geometric information extracted by the information extraction unit, and an addition unit adding the prediction motion vector to the generated update motion vector.
Abstract:
A semiconductor manufacturing device and a method thereof capable of processing semiconductor substrates having a large diameter in a state that the semiconductor substrates keep standing and are opposed to each other are disclosed. The semiconductor manufacturing device includes a reaction chamber for providing an airtight process space; a boat including a pair of susceptors as the processing device mounted to the reaction chamber; a driving device for rotating the susceptors; a heater; a loading device for inserting the heater into an inner space of the susceptors; a supply nozzle and an exhaust nozzle; and a lifting device for inserting the exhaust nozzle into the space between the holders. The semiconductor manufacturing device according to present invention can prevent the transformation of the semiconductor substrate and the contamination owing to the minute dust and maintain the uniform temperature gradient of the semiconductor substrate.
Abstract:
An apparatus for detecting whether an image signal is in a film mode, includes a first field buffer, a second field buffer and a third field buffer that sequentially buffer respective fields of the image signal by order of input, using the respective fields stored in the first, the second and the third field buffers. The apparatus for detecting whether an image signal is in the film mode, includes a motion information calculator calculating a motion information of the respective fields by comparing variations of a motion in the respective fields stored in the first and the third field buffers, a motion information buffer storing the motion information in unit of a predetermined number of fields, and a pattern matching unit determining whether the image signal is in the film mode by comparing the motion information of the respective fields stored in the unit of the predetermined number of fields with a pattern of the field having a predetermined periodicity in accordance with a 3:2 pull-down conversion, and by subsequently determining whether the motion information matches the pattern.
Abstract:
A deinterlacing apparatus and method use a buffer unit having a previous field buffer, a current field buffer, and a next field buffer to store, sequentially, individual fields of an image signal; calculate a Sum of Absolute Difference (SAD) value of a predetermined search region unit with reference to a next field stored in the next field buffer and a previous field stored in the previous field buffer; determine whether the predetermined search region is a still region and whether a source of the image signal is a film based on the SAD value; uses a 3D interpolation unit to output adaptively a temporal interpolation value and a spatial interpolation value based on motion information; and adaptively select a deinterlacing result based on the previous field, the next field, and an output of the 3D interpolation unit according to a signal outputted from the still region/film mode detection unit.