A comparison of transformation methods for evaluating two‐dimensional weakly singular integrals

Accurate numerical evaluation of integrals arising in the boundary element method is fundamental to achieving useful results via this solution technique. In this paper, a number of techniques are considered to evaluate the weakly singular integrals which arise in the solution of Laplace's equation in three dimensions and Poisson's equation in two dimensions. Both are two‐dimensional weakly singular integrals and are evaluated using (in a product fashion) methods which have recently been used for evaluating one‐dimensional weakly singular integrals arising in the boundary element method. The methods used are based on various polynomial transformations of conventional Gaussian quadrature points where the transformation polynomial has zero Jacobian at the singular point. Methods which split the region of integration into sub‐regions are considered as well as non‐splitting methods. In particular, the newly introduced and highly accurate generalized composite subtraction of singularity and non‐linear transformation approach (GSSNT) is applied to various two‐dimensional weakly singular integrals. A study of the different methods reveals complex relationships between transformation orders, position of the singular point, integration kernel and basis function. It is concluded that the GSSNT method gives the best overall results for the two‐dimensional weakly singular integrals studied. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High dynamic range InP HBT delta-sigma analog-to-digital converters

To date, the development of multifunction multicarrier digital receivers for cellular base station and military communications applications has been limited by the demanding dynamic range requirements for the analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The use of oversampling delta-sigma modulators provides a promising approach to overcoming the dynamic range barriers Nyquist-rate converters face in the same applications. This paper discusses issues involved in the design of high-speed high dynamic range wide-band delta-sigma ADCs for such communications applications. Test results of prototype designs are also presented. The delta-sigma modulators described in this paper operate at sampling frequencies ranging from 1 to 2.5 GHz with center frequencies ranging from dc to 100 MHz, providing between 74 and 84.2 dB signal-to-noise ratio (12 and 13.7 bits) for bandwidths of 25 and 12.5 MHz, respectively. The loop filters are continuous-time low-pass and bandpass implementations of order 6 and 10, and were fabricated in an InP heterojunction bipolar (HBT) technology. A typical tenth-order design consumes 6 W of power and occupies a die area of 23.5 mm/sup 2/.     

Generalized multiuser orthogonal space-division multiplexing

This paper addresses the problem of performing orthogonal space-division multiplexing (OSDM) for downlink, point-to-multipoint communications when multiple antennas are utilized at the base station (BS) and (optionally) all mobile stations (MS). Based on a closed-form antenna weight solution for single-user multiple-input multiple-output communications in the presence of other receiver points, we devise an iterative algorithm that finds the multiuser antenna weights for OSDM in downlink or broadcast channels. Upon convergence, each mobile user will receive only the desired activated spatial modes with no cochannel interference. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of OSDM among the number of mobile users, the number of transmit antennas at the BS, and the number of receive antennas at the MS, are also derived. The assumption for the proposed method is that the BS knows the channels for all MS's and that the channel dynamics are quasi-stationary.     

Hopping and optical absorption of electrons in nano-porous crystal 12CaO·7Al2O3

Recently it has been discovered that a nano-porous main group oxide 12CaO·7Al₂O₃ (C12A7) can be converted from a wide-gap insulator to a good transparent conductor. Using ab initio modelling we explain good conductivity of this material by very small barriers for hopping of localised electrons between neighbouring positive cages. We show that optical absorption of C12A7 in infrared region and at energies higher than 2.7 eV is due to inter-cage and intra-cage electron transitions, respectively. The proposed mechanisms can be useful in further search for conducting transparent media.     

影色迷人的小天地--夏新LC-17HWT1液晶电视

液晶电视具有图像逼真、画质细腻、层次丰富、立体感强，以及高亮度、宽视角、高清晰等优点；而且轻薄、省电、无闪烁、无辐射，可有效减轻人们的视觉疲劳；液晶电视的接口也极为丰富，可接驳电脑、DVD等音视频设备，现在一些厂家还将读取Flash卡的功能整合进了液晶电视，这让液晶电视具备了更多的数码味道。在一些发达国家，液晶电视已向许多家庭的厨房、起居室和浴室渗透，这让液晶电视的超薄、壁挂、平面、节能环保的优点充分显示出来。而夏新LC-17HWT1液晶电视则是这一方面的佼佼者。     

GaN and AlGaN high-voltage rectifiers grown by metal-organic chemical-vapor deposition

In this paper, we report the study of the electrical characteristics of GaN and AlGaN vertical p-i-n junctions and Schottky rectifiers grown on both sapphire and SiC substrates by metal-organic chemical-vapor deposition. For GaN p-i-n rectifiers grown on SiC with a relatively thin “i” region of 2 μm, a breakdown voltage over 400 V, and forward voltage as low as 4.5 V at 100 A/cm² are exhibited for a 60-μm-diameter device. A GaN Schottky diode with a 2-μm-thick undoped layer exhibits a blocking voltage in excess of ∼230 V at a reverse-leakage current density below 1 mA/cm², and a forward-voltage drop of 3.5 V at a current density of 100 A/cm². It has been found that with the same device structure and process approach, the leakage current of a device grown on a SiC substrate is much lower than a device grown on a sapphire substrate. The use of Mg ion implantation for p-guard rings as planar-edge terminations in mesageometry GaN Schottky rectifiers has also been studied.     

Magnet Safety Assessment for ITER

The ITER magnet system consists of structurally linked sets of toroidal (TF) and poloidal (PF) field coils, central solenoid (CS), and various support structures. The coils are superconducting, force flow Helium cooled with a Kapton-Glass-Epoxy multilayer insulation system. The stored magnetic energy is about 100GJ in the TF system and 20GJ in the PF-CS. Coils and structure are maintained at 4 K by enclosing them in a vacuum cryostat. The cryostat, comprising an outer envelope to the magnets, forms most of the second radioactivity confinement barrier. The inner primary barrier is formed by the vacuum vessel, its ports and their extensions. To keep the machine size within acceptable bounds, it is essential that the magnets are in close proximity to both of the nuclear confinement barriers. The objective of the magnet design is that, although local damage to one of the barriers may occur in very exceptional circumstances, large scale magnet structural or thermal failure leading to simultaneous breaching of both barriers is not credible. Magnet accidents fall into three categories: thermal (which includes arcing arising from insulation failure and local overheating due to discharge failure in the event of a superconductor quench), structural (which includes component mechanical failure arising from material inadequacies, design errors and exceptional force patterns arising from coil shorts or control failures), and fluid (Helium release due to cooling line failure). After a preliminary survey to select initial faults conceivable within the present design, these faults are systematically analyzed to provide an assessment of the damage potential. The results of this damage assessment together with an assessment of the reliability of the monitoring and protective systems, shows that the magnets can operate with the required safety condition.     

Management of multidimensional discrete data

Spatial database management involves two main categories of data: vector and raster data. The former has received a lot of in-depth investigation; the latter still lacks a sound framework. Current DBMSs either regard raster data as pure byte sequences where the DBMS has no knowledge about the underlying semantics, or they do not complement array structures with storage mechanisms suitable for huge arrays, or they are designed as specialized systems with sophisticated imaging functionality, but no general database capabilities (e.g., a query language). Many types of array data will require database support in the future, notably 2-D images, audio data and general signal-time series (1-D), animations (3-D), static or time-variant voxel fields (3-D and 4-D), and the ISO/IEC PIKS (Programmer's Imaging Kernel System) BasicImage type (5-D). In this article, we propose a comprehensive support ofmultidimensional discrete data (MDD) in databases, including operations on arrays of arbitrary size over arbitrary data types. A set of requirements is developed, a small set of language constructs is proposed (based on a formal algebraic semantics), and a novel MDD architecture is outlined to provide the basis for efficient MDD query evaluation.