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Based on recent progress on laser-based wafer dicing equipment and process, the partners adixen, Fraunhofer IISB and JENOPTIK investigated the use of a vacuum based decontamination process to dry and to decontaminate the substrate surface of the diced wafers from water residuals, which are a side-effect of the TLS (thermal laser separation) approach. The decontamination process was achieved by using an adixen vacuum drying module prototype further to the JENOPTIK TLS dicing process. Within the frame of the European collaborative project SEAL, supported by the European Commission, experimental assessment was conducted by Fraunhofer IISB (research institution) together with JENOPTIK and Adixen.

World Health Organisation has established various Topic Advisory Groups to serve as planning and coordinating advisory bodies in the update and revision process for specific areas of the ICD. A Revision Steering Group oversees the overall revision process. Working groups organised by the Topic Advisory Groups (TAG) review the proposals. A TAG for rare diseases was established in April 2007 as rare diseases should now be traceable in mortality and morbidity information systems. The production of the basic information needed to establish an Alpha draft of the classification of rare diseases has been assigned to Orphanet and may serve as a template for the whole revision process, as rare diseases are present in all areas of medicine. Currently, the Orphanet database includes over 6,000 distinct phenotypes which are classified according to published classifications. These classification systems are mainly based on scientific grounds (aetiology and mechanism). To complement these classifications, Orphanet has developed a strictly clinical in-house classification to meet the needs of clinicians: they can be viewed on the Orphanet website. They serve to elaborate a proposal for the ICD revision. The first revised chapters currently circulating among experts and expert groups for review are Haematology, Endocrinology, Nutrition, Metabolism and Immunology. The next chapters to be considered are Neurology, Malformation and Multi-systemic diseases. Input from the Rare Disease Community is expected. It is the responsibility of TAG members to contact experts from their region of the world to ensure the widest possible consultation. The alpha draft of the chapters which have already been revised will be published in April 2010 and the beta draft, for field testing, is planned for 2011.The budget of the working group on coding and classification of rare diseases is currently provided by a grant of the European Commission supporting the activities Rare Disease Task Force’s Scientific Secretariat.

Within the frame of the European R&D project the so called "HYMNE" project, lead by STM, advanced vacuum decontamination processes had been demonstrated to be efficient on wafer substrates in order to remove airborne molecular contamination (moisture, VOC..), to avoid crystalline defects after dry etching process and to improve yield for sub 90 nm technologies. Further to these significant results on wafers, a pool of partners investigated new methods and processes based on vacuum technology for photomask decontamination. These studies were carried out in the frame of the European R&D CRYSTAL project, focusing on photomask defect reduction. Today, vacuum process is not very widespread in photomask environment: in fab environment nor in mask manufacturing cycle. However such vacuum substrate decontamination could be also efficiently applied in order to reduce AMC contamination, which is one of the root causes of haze and crystalline defects. In this paper, we report for the first time, vacuum process investigations on pellicled photomasks that could be applied in fab environment, as well as vacuum process investigations on patterned blank that could be integrated into mask manufacturing cycle. First, vacuum process had been investigated on pellicled photomasks, including parameter influences. Goal is to renew and replace the environment under the pellicle by clean environment. During the process, specific care has to be taken on pellicle behavior under vacuum. The challenge is indeed to manage the pellicle during the vacuum process without damaging it, especially after several decontamination cycles. Finally, repeatability tests have also been successfully carried out and will be reported. We also report advanced vacuum process on patterned blank that could be integrated into mask manufacturing flow. Such procedure is an efficient complementary process in order to outgas contaminants from photomasks, and in order to reduce AMC residues (especially sulfate) in mask manufacturing cycle. Experimental results will be reported.

Having codes for each and every rare disease (RD) would help European and national health authorities obtain a better knowledge of healthcare pathways and of their impact on specialised health care services (centres of expertise for instance) and on budget. It would also allow having sound data on the epidemiology and natural history of RD, and provide data for clinical research which is critically needed in this field. Improved codification for rare diseases is cited as a priority in the Council Recommendation on an action in the field of rare diseases (2009). Currently, only a small fraction of rare diseases have codes in international nomenclatures, making it impossible to trace patients with rare diseases in health information systems on a national and international level. Most European countries use ICD 10 or 9 in their health information systems, some (UK, Belgium, Spain) have decided to adopt SNOMED CT. The number of rare diseases which have a specific code in these two nomenclatures is limited: 466 in ICD10 and 2 883 in SNOMED-CT. In order to provide a common nomenclature specific for rare diseases, Orphanet has established, with the support the European Commission, a nomenclature and classification of RD. The nomenclature and classification are based on scientific publications and on expert advice. It is aligned with every medical terminology in use both in the clinical than in research settings, allowing for interoperability between different coding systems. Terms in the Orphanet nomenclature were introduced in the next ICD11 which is expected by 2017, and will be integrated into SNOMED CT thanks to a partnership between Orphanet and IHTSDO. The Orphanet nomenclature is freely available to download from www.orphadata.org in seven languages (Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish), and is released twice a year as a PDF document downloadable at http://www.orpha.net[2].

Most rare diseases are absent in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD10) and those with a specific code are often misclassified. As a consequence, morbidity and mortality due to rare diseases is invisible in health information systems. To overcome this difficulty, Orphanet (http://www.orpha.net) has established a partnership with WHO to ensure a fair representation of rare diseases in general. Orphanet has collected all published expert classifications and established a database of phenotypes indexed with ICD10 codes, MIM codes, genes, mode of inheritance, age of onset and class of prevalence. Phenotypes are assigned to as many classification systems as necessary to represent them. The Orphanet nomenclature of rare diseases is a stable one, directly exploitable by information systems and available on request. A WHO Topic Advisory Group on rare diseases has been established to manage the revision process. The first revised chapters currently circulating among experts and expert groups for review are Haematology, Endocrinology, Nutrition, Metabolism, Immunology, Neurology and Malformations. Revised chapters follow a primarily clinical approach, only secondarily an aetiological one up to the gene level. When several possible names are available for a disease, descriptive names formed in accordance with a clinical approach are preferred. Every entity is assigned a unique identification number. Rare diseases affecting several body systems are included in every relevant chapter, as ICD11 will be poly-axial, but a main code is proposed to allow for linearisation, according to the most severe involvement and/or the specialist most likely to be relied on for the management of the disease. The rare disease community is invited to take an active part as the results will condition the visibility of all activities in the field. All the revised chapters open for comments are available on http://www.eucerd.eu