High-efficiency LEDs based on <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>-GaSb/<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-GaSb/<Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>-GaInAsSb/<Emphasis Type="Italic">P</Emphasis>-AlGaAsSb type-II thyristor heterostructures

A new type of light-emitting diodes (LEDs), a high-efficiency device based on an n-GaSb/p-GaSb/n-GaInAsSb/P-AlGaAsSb thyristor heterostructure, with the maximum emission intensity at wavelength λ = 1.95 μm, has been suggested and its electrical and luminescent characteristics have been studied. It is shown that the effective radiative recombination in the thyristor structure in the n-type GaInAsSb active region is provided by double-sided injection of holes from the neighboring p-type regions. The maximum internal quantum efficiency of 77% was achieved in the structure under study in the pulsed mode. The average optical power was as high as 2.5 mW, and the peak power in the pulsed mode was 71 mW, which exceeded by a factor of 2.9 the power obtained with a standard n-GaSb/n-GaInAsSb/P-AlGaAsSb LED operating in the same spectral range. The approach suggested will make it possible to improve LED parameters in the entire mid-IR spectral range (2–5 μm).     

Underdetermined BSS Based on <Emphasis Type="Italic">K</Emphasis>-means and AP Clustering

Underdetermined blind source separation (UBSS) is a hard problem to solve since its mixing system is not invertible. The well-known “two-step approach” has been widely used to solve the UBSS problem and the most pivotal step is to estimate the underdetermined mixing matrix. To improve the estimation performance, this paper proposes a new clustering method. Firstly, the observed signals in the time domain are transformed into sparse signals in the frequency domain; furthermore, the linearity clustering of sparse signals is translated into compact clustering by normalizing the observed data. And then, the underdetermined mixing matrix is estimated by clustering methods. The K-means algorithm is one of the classical methods to estimate the mixing matrix but it can only be applied to know the number of clusters in advance. This is not in accord with the actual situation of UBSS. In addition, the K-means is very sensitive to the initialization of clusters and it selects the initial cluster centers randomly. To overcome the fatal flaws, this paper employs affinity propagation (AP) clustering to get the exact number of exemplars and the initial clusters. Based on those results, the K-means with AP clustering as initialization is used to precisely estimate the underdetermined mixing matrix. Finally, the source signals are separated by linear programming. The experimental results show that the proposed method can effectively estimate the mixing matrix and is more suitable for the actual situation of UBSS.     

Low-Power FPGA-Implementation of <Emphasis Type="Italic">atan</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">Y</Emphasis>/<Emphasis Type="Italic">X</Emphasis>) Using Look-Up Table Methods for Communication Applications

This paper presents an architecture for the computation of the atan(Y/X) operation suitable for broadband communication applications where a throughput of 20 MHz is required. The architecture takes advantage of embedded hard-cores of the FPGA device to achieve lower power consumption with respect to an atan(Y/X) operator based on CORDIC algorithm or conventional LUT-based methods. The proposed architecture can compute the atan(Y/X) with a latency of two clock cycles and its power consumption is 49% lower than a CORDIC or 46% lower than multipartite approach.

Temperature dependence of the band structure of 3<Emphasis Type="Italic">C</Emphasis>, 2<Emphasis Type="Italic">H</Emphasis>, 4<Emphasis Type="Italic">H</Emphasis>, and 6<Emphasis Type="Italic">H</Emphasis> SiC polytypes

The temperature dependences of significant energy extrema at the high-symmetry points Γ, X, L, K, M, A, and H of the Brillouin zone in the cubic and hexagonal modifications of SiC, as well as the energies of the main interband transitions at these points, were calculated for the first time by the empirical-pseudopotential method. The effect of the temperature dependence of the electron-phonon interaction on the crystal band structure was taken into account via the Debye-Waller factors, and the contribution of the linear expansion of the lattice was accounted for via the temperature dependence of the linear-expansion coefficient. The special features of the temperature dependences of the energy levels and of energies of the interband and intraband transitions are analyzed in detail. The results of the calculations are in good agreement with the known experimental data on the characteristics of SiC-based p-n structures operating in the breakdown mode. For example, the temperature coefficient of the energy of the X_1c–X_3c transition, which is responsible for the narrow violet band in the breakdown-electroluminescence spectra of reverse-biased p-n junctions, was found to be significantly smaller than the temperature coefficients for the interband transitions (from the conduction to valence band). This fact is quite consistent with the experimental curve of the temperature coefficient of the emission spectrum, which has a minimum in the same wavelength range.     

3<Emphasis Type="Italic">C</Emphasis>-SiC <Emphasis Type="Italic">p-n</Emphasis> structures grown by sublimation on 6<Emphasis Type="Italic">H</Emphasis>-SiC substrates

Sublimation epitaxy in a vacuum has been employed to grow n-and p-type 3C-SiC layers on 6H-SiC substrates. Diodes have been fabricated on the basis of the p-n structure obtained, and their parameters have been studied by measuring their current-voltage and capacitance-voltage characteristics and by applying the DLTS and electroluminescence methods. It is shown that the characteristics of the diodes studied are close to those of diodes based on bulk 3C-SiC. A conclusion is made that sublimation epitaxy can be used to fabricate 3C-SiC p-n structures on substrates of other silicon carbide polytypes.     

An ultra-low-power CMOS symmetrical OTA for low-frequency <Emphasis Type="Italic">G</Emphasis><Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">m</Emphasis></Subscript>-<Emphasis Type="Italic">C</Emphasis> applications

In this paper an ultra-low-power CMOS symmetrical operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) for low-frequency G _m -C applications in weak inversion is presented. Its common mode input range and its linear input range can be made large using DC shifting and bulk-driven differential pair configuration (without using complex approaches). The symmetrical OTA was successfully verified in a standard CMOS 0.35-μm process. The measurements show an open loop gain of 61 dB and a unit gain frequency of 195 Hz with only 800 mV of power supply voltage and just 40 nW of power consumption. The transconductance is 66 nS, which is suitable for low-frequency G _m -C applications.     

A DLTS study of 4<Emphasis Type="Italic">H</Emphasis>-SiC-based <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-<Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis> junctions fabricated by boron implantation

Deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) has been used to study p-n junctions fabricated by implantation of boron into epitaxial 4H-SiC films with n-type conductivity and the donor concentration (8–9) × 10¹⁴ cm⁻³. A DLTS signal anomalous in sign is observed; this signal is related to recharging of deep compensating boron-involved centers in the n-type region near the metallurgical boundary of the p-n junction.     

Thin-film polycrystalline <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>-ZnO/<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-CuO heterojunction

Results of X-ray diffraction and spectral-optical studies of n-ZnO and p-CuO films deposited by gas-discharge sputtering with subsequent annealing are presented. It is shown that, despite the difference in the crystal systems, the polycrystallinity of n-ZnO and p-CuO films enables fabrication of a heterojunction from this pair of materials.     

Light-Harvesting in <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>-ZnO/<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-Silicon Heterojunctions

Zinc oxide (ZnO) films were deposited onto Si to form n-ZnO/p-Si heterojunctions. Under the illumination of by both ultraviolet (UV) light and sunlight, obvious photovoltaic behavior was observed. It was found that the conversion efficiency of the heterojunctions increased significantly with increasing thickness of the ZnO film, and the mechanism for light-harvesting in the heterojunctions is discussed. The results suggest that ZnO films may be helpful to increasing the harvesting of UV photons, thus decreasing the thermalization loss of UV energy in Si-based solar cells.     

Recombination of charge carriers in the GaAs-based <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-<Emphasis Type="Italic">i</Emphasis>-<Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis> diode

It is established that the radiative recombination of charge carriers plays a substantial role in the GaAs-based p-i-n diodes at high densities of the forward current. It is shown experimentally that the diodes operating in microwave integrated circuits intensely emit light in the IR range with wavelengths from 890 to 910 nm. The obtained results indicate the necessity of taking into account the features of recombination processes in the GaAs-based microwave p-i-n diodes.     

Electrical Breakdown in Pure <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>- and <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-Si

The results of calculations of the dependences of the kinetic coefficients of impact ionization and thermal recombination on an electric field in pure silicon are presented. By analogy with germanium, the dependences of the breakdown field Е_br on the material compensation ratio K are calculated. The validity of such calculation is justified in detail. The Е_br(K) curves are presented and compared with experimental data in the weak-compensation region. Matching with experimental results at which satisfactory agreement between theory and experiment is observed is performed.     

Electrical properties of <Emphasis Type="Italic">n-</Emphasis>GaN/<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-SiC heterojunctions

Epitaxial GaN layers were grown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) on commercial (CREE Inc., USA) p⁺-6H-SiC substrates (Na ? Nd ≈ 7.8 × 10¹⁷ cm^s?3) and n⁺-6H-SiC Lely substrates with a predeposited p⁺-6H-SiC layer. A study of the electrical properties of the n-GaN/p-SiC heterostructures obtained confirmed their fairly good quality and demonstrated that the given combination of growth techniques is promising for fabrication of bipolar and FET transistors based on the n-GaN/p-SiC heterojunctions.     

Electrical properties of <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>-ZnO/<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-CuO heterostructures

The n-ZnO/p-CuO heterostructure is prepared, and its I-V characteristic is measured. It is shown that the heterostructure conductivity is primarily determined by the CuO layer and the n-ZnO/p-CuO heterojunction itself.     

High-temperature nuclear-detector arrays based on 4 <Emphasis Type="Italic">H</Emphasis>-SiC ion-implantation-doped <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis><Superscript>+</Superscript>-<Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis> junctions

Results obtained in a study of spectrometric characteristics of arrays of four detectors based on 4H-SiC ion-implantation-doped p ⁺-n junctions in the temperature range 25–140 °C are reported for the first time. The junctions were fabricated by ion implantation of aluminum into epitaxial 4H-SiC layers of thickness ≤45 μm, grown by chemical vapor deposition with uncompensated donor concentration N _d ? N _a = (4–6) × 10¹⁴ cm^?3. The structural features of the ion-implantation-doped p ⁺-layers were studied by secondary-ion mass spectrometry, transmission electron microscopy, and Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy in the channeling mode. Parameters of the diode arrays were determined by testing in air with natural-decay alpha particles with an energy of 3.76 MeV. The previously obtained data for similar single detectors were experimentally confirmed: the basic characteristics of the detector arrays, the charge collection efficiency and energy resolution, are improved as the working temperature increases.     

Electrodeposition of <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-Type Sb<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript>Te<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">y</Emphasis></Subscript> Thermoelectric Films

Thermoelectric Sb _x Te _y films were potentiostatically electrodeposited in aqueous nitric acid electrolyte solutions containing different concentrations of TeO₂. Stoichiometric Sb _x Te _y films were obtained by applying a voltage of −0.15 V versus saturated calomel electrode (SCE) using a solution consisting of 2.4 mM TeO₂, 0.8 mM Sb₂O₃, 33 mM tartaric acid, and 1 M HNO₃. The nearly stoichiometric Sb₂Te₃ films had a rhombohedral structure, R[`3]m R\bar{3}m , with a preferred orientation along the (015) direction. The films had hole concentration of 5.8 × 10¹⁸/cm³ and exhibited mobility of 54.8 cm²/Vs. A more negative potential resulted in higher Sb content in the deposited Sb _x Te _y films. Furthermore, it was observed that the hole concentration and mobility decreased with increasingly negative deposition potential, and eventually showed insulating properties, possibly due to increased defect formation. The absolute value of the Seebeck coefficient of the as-deposited Sb₂Te₃ thin film at room temperature was 118 μV/K.     

Implementation of a field programmable gate array for wireless control of a <Emphasis Type="Italic">lab</Emphasis>-<Emphasis Type="Italic">on</Emphasis>-<Emphasis Type="Italic">a</Emphasis>-<Emphasis Type="Italic">robot</Emphasis>

We report the design of a digital system to wirelessly control microchip capillary electrophoresis (CE) equipment and a mobile unit for chemical analysis. The digital system consists of an embedded processor designed for digital control, decoding and applying of wirelessly-transmitted test parameters, data acquisition, and mobility control. The design is implemented on a field programmable gate array (FPGA) and its development board interfaces with four digital-to-analog converters on a newly-designed 3-channel high voltage power supply, electrochemical detector, wireless modems for communications with a base unit, mobile platform motor controllers, GPS sensor, and an air micropump. The FPGA allows for all the interfacing hardware to perform CE and transmission of the data acquired from the interfacing electrochemical detector. The work described herein extends the utilization of microchip capillary electrophoresis to include remotely controlled field applications.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Nframe</Emphasis>: A privacy-preserving with non-frameability handover authentication protocol based on (<Emphasis Type="Italic">t</Emphasis>, <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>) secret sharing for LTE/LTE-A networks

Seamless handover between the evolved universal terrestrial radio access network and other access networks is highly desirable to mobile equipments in the long term evolution (LTE) or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) networks, but ensuring security and efficiency of this process is challenging. In this paper, we propose a novel privacy-preserving with non-frameability handover authentication protocol based on (t, n) secret sharing to fit in with all of the mobility scenarios in the LTE/LTE-A networks, which is called Nframe. To the best of our knowledge, Nframe is the first to support protecting users’ privacy with non-frameability in the handover process. Moreover, Nframe uses pairing-free identity based cryptographic method to secure handover process and to achieve high efficiency. The formal verification by the AVISPA tool shows that Nframe is secure against various malicious attacks and the simulation result indicates that it outperforms the existing schemes in terms of computation and communication cost.     

A simplified QRD-<Emphasis Type="Italic">M</Emphasis> signal detection algorithm for MIMO-OFDM systems

QR Decompositon with an M-algorithm (QRD-M) has good performance with low complexity, which is considered as a promising technique in Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) detections. This paper presented a simplified QRD-M algorithm for MIMO Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) systems. In the proposed scheme, each surviving path is expanded only to partial branches in order to carry out a limited tree search. The nodes are expanded on demand and sorted in a distributed manner, based on the novel expansion scheme which can pre-determine the children’s ascending order by their local distances. Consequently, the proposed scheme can significantly decrease the complexity compared with conventional QRD-M algorithm. Hence, it is especially attractive to VLSI implementation of the high-throughput MIMO-OFDM systems. Simulation results prove that the proposed scheme can achieve a performance very close to the conventional QRD-M algorithm.     

Study of the impurity photoconductivity in <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-InSb using epitaxial <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis> <Superscript>+</Superscript> contacts

The optical absorption coefficient α in p⁺-InSb layers (with hole concentrations of p ≈ 1 × 10¹⁷–1.2 × 10¹⁹ cm^–3), grown by liquid-phase epitaxy on p-InSb substrates, is measured in the spectral range of 5-12 µm at 90 K, and the impurity photoconductivity is measured (at 60 and 90 K) in p⁺–p structures. It is found that a in the p⁺ layers reaches a value of 7000 cm^–1 (at p ≈ 2 × 10¹⁹ cm^–1). It is shown that the measured substrate value of (α ≈1–3 cm^–1) is overestimated in comparison with estimates (α ≈ 0.1 cm^–1) based on comparing the photoconductivity data. This discrepancy is explained by the fact that the optical transitions of holes responsible for photoconductivity are obscured by the excitation of electrons to the conduction band. The photoionization cross section for these transitions does not exceed 1 × 10^–15 cm².