Abstract: A chemical mechanical polishing aqueous dispersion comprises abrasives in a concentration of not more than 1.5% by mass, wherein the abrasives comprise ceria and have an average dispersed particle diameter of not less than 1.0 ?m. A chemical mechanical polishing method comprises polishing an insulating film by the use of the chemical mechanical polishing aqueous dispersion. By the use of the chemical mechanical polishing aqueous dispersion, occurrence of polishing scratches can be suppressed without lowering a removal rate.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a decoding apparatus that performs soft-decision decoding on a linear block code, the apparatus including a hard-decision decoder configured to perform hard-decision decoding on a received word using a hard-decision decoding algorithm; and a soft-decision decoder configured to perform, using a soft-decision algorithm, soft-decision decoding merely on a received word for which the hard-decision decoder has failed in the hard-decision decoding.

Abstract: The cleaning composition which comprises organic polymer particles (A) having a crosslinked structure and a surfactant (B) and is used after chemical mechanical polishing. The cleaning method of a semiconductor substrate is a method for cleaning semiconductor substrate given after chemical mechanical polishing, by the use of the cleaning composition. The process for manufacturing a semiconductor device including a step of chemically and mechanically polishing a semiconductor substrate and a step of cleaning the semiconductor substrate obtained after the chemical mechanical polishing, by the cleaning method.

Abstract: To provide a polishing composition which is suitable particularly for an application to polish a wafer containing tungsten, and a polishing process employing such a polishing composition. The polishing composition of the present invention comprises a colloidal silica and hydrogen peroxide. The pH of the polishing composition is from 5 to 8.5, and the concentration of iron ions in the polishing composition is at most 0.02 ppm. The polishing composition preferably further contains phosphoric acid or a phosphate.

Abstract: A chemical mechanical polishing method of the present invention comprises conducting polishing by the use of a chemical mechanical polishing aqueous dispersion (A) containing abrasive grains and then conducting polishing by the use of a chemical mechanical polishing aqueous composition (B) containing at least one organic compound having a heterocyclic ring in addition to the chemical mechanical polishing aqueous dispersion (A). Also A chemical mechanical polishing agent kit of the present invention comprises the chemical mechanical polishing aqueous dispersion (A) and the chemical mechanical polishing aqueous composition (B). The polishing method and the polishing agent kit can prevent an increase of dishing and corrosion of wiring portion to enhance the yield.

Abstract: To provide a polishing composition which is suitable particularly for an application to polish a wafer containing tungsten, and a polishing process employing such a polishing composition. The polishing composition of the present invention comprises a colloidal silica and hydrogen peroxide. The pH of the polishing composition is from 1 to 4, and the concentration of iron ions in the polishing composition is at most 0.02 ppm. The polishing composition preferably further contains phosphoric acid or a phosphate.

Abstract: Disclosed is a chemical mechanical polishing aqueous dispersion comprising (A1) first fumed silica having a specific surface area of not less than 10 m2/g and less than 160 m2/g and an average secondary particle diameter of not less than 170 nm and not more than 250 nm and (A2) second fumed silica having a specific surface area of not less than 160 m2/g and an average secondary particle diameter of not less than 50 nm and less than 170 nm. Also disclosed is a chemical mechanical polishing method using the chemical mechanical polishing aqueous dispersion. According to the chemical mechanical polishing aqueous dispersion and the chemical mechanical polishing method, a chemical mechanical polishing process wherein a barrier metal layer and a cap layer can be efficiently removed by polishing and damage to an insulating film material of a low dielectric constant present in the underlying layer is reduced can be carried out.

Abstract: An OFDM receiver may include OFDM-signal receiving means for receiving an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal; channel-characteristic estimating means for estimating a channel characteristic using pilot signals in the OFDM signal received by the OFDM-signal receiving means; and transmission-distortion compensating means for applying, on the basis of the channel characteristic estimated by the channel-characteristic estimating means, processing for compensating for transmission distortion to the OFDM signal received by the OFDM-signal receiving means. The channel-characteristic estimating means may include plural kinds of time-direction-channel estimating means used for the estimation of a channel characteristic, and switching control means for switching these estimating means according to a state of a channel.

Abstract: A method of embedding an additional layer of error correction into an error correcting code, wherein information is encoded into code words of said code over a first Galois field and wherein a number of code words are arranged in the columns of a code block comprising a user data sub-block and a parity data sub-block, provides an additional layer of error correction that can be easily implemented without losing compatibility improving the error correction capabilities. The method includes the steps of: encoding the rows of at least the user data sub-block separately or in groups using a horizontal error correcting code over a second Galois field larger than the first Galois field to obtain horizontal parities, and embedding the horizontal parities as additional layer in the error correcting code.

Abstract: To provide a polishing composition particularly useful for an application to polish a conductor layer made of copper in a semiconductor wiring process, and a polishing process employing it. A polishing composition comprising an anionic surfactant and a nonionic surfactant, characterized in that the composition is prepared so that the water contact angle of the surface of an object to be polished, after being polished by the composition, would be at most 60°.

Abstract: A chemical mechanical polishing aqueous dispersion comprises abrasives (A) containing ceria, an anionic water-soluble polymer (B) and a cationic surfactant (C), wherein the amount of the anionic water-soluble polymer (B) is in the range of 60 to 600 parts by mass based on 100 parts by mass of the abrasives (A) containing ceria, and the amount of the cationic surfactant (C) is in the range of 0.1 to 100 ppm based on the whole amount of the chemical mechanical polishing aqueous dispersion.

Abstract: The present invention is particularly applied to serial concatenated coding and serial concatenated trellis coded modulation. In second encoding 107, which is inner coding, a sequence that is not encoded or that is encoded so as to produce a finite impulse response and a sequence that is encoded so as to produce an infinite impulse response are output. In interleaving 106 before the second encoding 107, the sequences are permuted so as not to be mixed with each other.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for recording or reproducing data in which high performance encoding and a high efficiency decoding are realized to lower the decoding error rate. A magnetic recording and/or reproducing apparatus 50 includes, in a recording system, a modulation encoder 52 for modulation encoding input data in a predetermined fashion and an interleaver 53 for interleaving data supplied from the modulation encoder 52 to re-array the data sequence.

Abstract: An aqueous dispersion for chemical mechanical polishing contains water, a polyvinylpyrrolidone having a weight-average molecular weight exceeding 200,000, an oxidant, a protective film-forming agent and abrasive grains, the protective film-forming agent containing a first metal compound-forming agent which forms a water-insoluble metal compound, and a second metal compound-forming agent which forms a water-soluble metal compound. The aqueous dispersion is capable of uniformly and stably polishing a metal film at low friction without causing defects in a metal film and an insulating film.

Abstract: The object of the present invention is to provide a process for chemical mechanical polishing of semiconductor substrate that is particularly useful for chemical mechanical polishing a wafer having a wiring pattern and an insulating layer having a low dielectric constant is formed between wiring patterns, interlayers in the case of a multi-layer wiring and the like in the process of producing a semiconductor device, and an aqueous dispersion for chemical mechanical polishing which is used in this process.

Abstract: A chemical/mechanical polishing method for polishing an object to be polished with an irregular surface, having a substrate with convexities and concavities, a stopper layer formed on the convexities of the substrate, and an embedded insulating layer formed to cover the concavities of the substrate and the stopper layer, wherein the method is characterized comprising a first polishing step of flattening the embedded insulating layer using a slurry (A) which can maintain the polishing speed at 500 ?/min or less and a second polishing step of further polishing the embedded insulating layer to cause the stopper layer on the convexities to be exposed using a slurry (B) which can maintain the polishing speed at 600 ?/min or more. The method is useful for flattening wafers during shallow trench isolation (STI) in manufacturing semiconductor devices.

Abstract: It is an object of the invention to provide an aqueous dispersion for CMP that produces no scratches on polishing surfaces and that polishes with an adequate rate, when used for polishing of copper and the like. The aqueous dispersion of the invention contains water and polymer particles composed of a polymer with a specific functional group, and it may also contain a complexing agent, a compound that forms a passivation film on polishing surfaces and/or an oxidizing agent. The specific functional group is a functional group that can react with the metals of polishing surfaces or that can form a cation, and it is preferably selected from among amino, pyridyl and acrylamide groups. The polymer can be obtained using a initiator and/or monomer possessing the specific functional group. The polymer may also have a crosslinked structure.

Abstract: A chemical mechanical polishing aqueous dispersion, including: (A) inorganic particles; (B) at least one type of particles selected from the group consisting of organic particles and organic-inorganic composite particles; (C) at least one compound selected from the group consisting of quinolinecarboxylic acid, quinolinic acid, a divalent organic acid (excluding quinolinic acid), and a hydroxyl acid; (D) at least one compound selected from the group consisting of benzotriazole and benzotriazole derivatives; (E) an oxidizing agent; and (F) water, the chemical mechanical polishing aqueous dispersion containing the component (A) in an amount of 0.05 to 2.0 wt % and the component (B) in an amount of 0.005 to 1.5 wt %, having a ratio (WA/WB) of the amount (WA) of the component (A) to the amount (WB) of the component (B) of 0.1 to 200, and having a pH of 1.0 to 5.0.

Abstract: An image processing and inspection system includes a master device (10) having a video camera (40) and a first controller (20) responsible for processing and inspecting the image of an object (1) in accordance with inspection criteria. Intercommunicated (12) with the master device (10) is a personal computer (100) equipped with a second monitor (120), and a second input member (102,104). The motion-picture taken by the camera (40) for inspection on the side of the master device (10) is transmitted to the computer (100) so as to be displayed on the second monitor (120) as a real-time image of the object (1) for easy confirmation of the object on the side of the computer (100), thereby enabling to determine the inspection criteria on the side of the computer (100) while monitoring the real-time image of the object (1).

Abstract: A chemical mechanical polishing aqueous dispersion, including: (A) abrasives; (B) an organic acid; (C) benzotriazole or a benzotriazole derivative; (D) a poly(meth)acrylate; (E) an oxidizing agent; and (F) water, the abrasives (A) being included in the chemical mechanical polishing aqueous dispersion in an amount of 2 to 10 wt %.