Neocera (United States)

Abstract Background The chemotherapy regime containing the Carboplatin–Gemcitabine combination is frequently used for improving outcomes in patients affected by metastatic breast cancer. Platinum compounds were included in the recent ESC Guidelines on cardio–oncology as potential agents which may lead to myocardial infarction, thrombosis and, rarely, heart failure. In this instance it is essential for a strict cardiological follow–up to be carried out during and after treatment. Case report: We present a clinical case report of a 38–year–old woman who was receiving standard oncology treatment for stage IV breast adenocarcinoma. The patient underwent chemotherapy cycles containing the Carboplatin–Gemcitabine combination, with a good response to treatment. It came to our attention for severe dyspnoea, which arose several days before, not compatible with her oncological situation. Transthoracic echocardiography showed severe left ventricular dysfunction (EF 25%; GLS – 9.2%; NT–proBNP 10000 pg/mL), which was not present during earlier tests, and circumferential pericardial effusions, mainly localised along the free wall of the right ventricle, non–haemodynamically significant. Lung ultrasound also showed the presence of pulmonary congestion and bilateral pleural effusions. In the circumstances, she was admitted to the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit for continuation of diagnostic treatment. She then received endo–venous diuretic treatment and haemodynamically supported with Noradrenaline and inotropic agents. A cycle of Levosimendan was performed with an excellent response. Once haemodynamic compensation was re–established, the patient underwent a cardiac CMR which excluded cardiomyopathies and myocarditis and a coronarography was performed which showed no significant lesions in the coronary arteries. After 18 days of hospitalisation in our department, the patient showed an improvement in EF (EF 38%, GLS –12.5%, NT–proBNP 2000 pg/mL), and then she was referred to the oncologist for immunological treatment. Conclusions The diagnosis of cardiotoxicity may not be straightforward due to the aspecificity of the symptoms, its silent progression or because of several comorbidities. Moreover, cardiac damage from chemotherapy is considered reversible if identified early. Treatment is based on the withdrawal of therapy and treatment of symptoms, given that these may be different and unpredictable.

Abstract Process challenges and other technology challenges have slowed the implementation of 3D technology into high volume manufacturing well behind the original ITRS expectations. Nevertheless, although full implementation suffered delays, 2.5D through the use of interposer and TSV 3D devices are being already produced, especially in memory devices. These 3D devices (System-in-Package (SiP), wafer-level packaging, Through-Silicon-Vias (TSV), stacked-die, etc.) present major challenges for Failure Analysis (FA) that require novel nondestructive, true 3D Failure Localization techniques. 3D Magnetic field Imaging (MFI), recently introduced, proved to be a natural, useful technique for non-destructively mapping 3D current paths in devices that allowed for submicron vertical resolution. In this paper, we apply this novel technique for 3D localization of an electrically failing complex 2.5D device combining 4Hi-High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) devices and a processor unit on a Si interposer.

Abstract In this paper we show an efficient workflow that combines Magnetic Field Imaging (MFI) and Dual Beam Plasma Focused Ion Beam (DB-PFIB) for fast and efficient Fault Isolation and root cause analysis in 2.5/3D devices. The work proves MFI is the best method for Electric Fault Isolation (EFI) of short failures in 2.5/3D Through Silicon Via (TSV) triple stacked devices in a true non-destructive way by imaging the current path. To confirm the failing locations and to do Physical Failure Analysis (PFA), a DB-PFIB system was used for cross sectioning and volume analysis of the TSV structures and high resolution imaging of the identified defects. With a DB-PFIB, the fault is exposed and analyzed without any sample prep artifacts seen in mechanical polishing or laser preparation techniques and done in a considerably shorter amount of time than that required when using a traditional Gallium Focused Ion Beam (FIB).

Magnetic Current Imaging (MCI) has been used for more than a decade to localize shorts and leakages in packages non-destructively. Now that packages are becoming more complex with multiple dies inside the same package, MCI is showing its effectiveness in localizing these complicated shorts non-destructively when the Failure Analysis (FA) engineer does not know from Automated Test Equipment (ATE) if the fault location is in the die or package or which die. We show in this paper that the FA lab can be simplified by the introduction of MCI as a one stop Fault Isolation (FI) tool for all shorts and leakages.

We report a phenomenon of pulsed electron beam generation in a low-pressure gas discharge device. The cathode of the device is of simple geometry without a hollow cavity that is employed in the transient hollow cathode discharge (THCD) devices. The discharge and beam characteristics are measured and found to be similar to that of THCDs such as pseudospark and channelspark.

Results from dielectric and structural measurements on epitaxial SrTiO$_3$/BaZrO$_3$ superlattices reveal properties that cannot be explained simply in terms of those measured on single films of the constituent materials. For large superlattice periodicities (20/20 and 38/38 structures, i.e. samples in which each SrTiO3 and BaZrO3 layer are 20 or 38 unit cells thick, respectively), the capacitance-voltage curves indicate room-temperature ferroelectricity. For smaller periodicities (7/7 and 15/15), anti-ferroelectric-type behavior is observed, suggesting strong coupling between individual polar layers. This is consistent with recent second-harmonic generation results [A.Q. Jiang et al., J. Appl. Phys. 93, 1180 (2003)] of ordering in SrTiO$_3$/BaTiO$_3$ superlattices. However, both constituents of the structures investigated here are paraelectric. Strain-induced room-temperature ferroelectricity in SrTiO$_3$ and distance-dependent coupling between these layers are proposed as mechanisms leading to the observed behavior.

Superconducting, monolithic magnetically tunable microwave filters have been designed and fabricated demonstrating high tuning ranges (up to 19%) at a center frequency of 10 GHz. These filters are based on fully epitaxial YBa2Cu3O7 (YBCO) thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition onto liquid-phase epitaxy yttrium iron garnet (YIG) layers on gadolinium iron garnet (GGG) substrates. Mechanisms resulting in variations of the bandwidth and insertion losses upon tuning are analyzed and understood in terms of the material properties of YIG and GGG.