Rutile-type TiO2 thin film for high-k gate insulator

We investigated rutile-type titanium dioxide (TiO₂) films for possible use as a high-k gate insulator. The TiO₂ thin films were directly deposited on Si substrates using a RF magnetron sputtering method with a sintered oxide target. A single phase of rutile-type TiO₂ whose dielectric constant of approximately 75 was obtained when the film was deposited in an inert gas atmosphere and annealed at 800 °C in an oxidizing gas atmosphere. The oxygen ions were deficient in the as-deposited film, and consequently, a sufficient oxygen supply was needed to crystallize the film to a single phase of rutile during the post-annealing. However, the interfacial SiO₂ layer between the TiO₂ and the Si substrate simultaneously grew thicker than 2 nm. As the interfacial SiO₂ grew, the leakage current was decreased and the equivalent oxide thickness was increased, in the Au/rutile-type TiO₂/Si capacitor. Therefore, we concluded that the growth of the interfacial SiO₂ layer thicker than 2 nm is inevitable to form the single phase of rutile-type TiO₂ and to decrease the leakage.     

A Novel UWB Pulse Shape Modulation System

In this paper novel modified Hermite polynomial functions for use in impulse radio (ultra-wideband) communications are proposed. With these functions pulse shapes which are orthogonal and have nearly constant pulse width regardless of the pulse order are generated. These properties hold under the effects of differentiation. An M-ary communication system is constructed using these pulse shapes. A Matlab model for generating the pulses is designed and the effect of timing jitter on the performance of the system is investigated by computer simulation.     

A Study of Shadowing on Indoor Visible-Light Wireless Communication Utilizing Plural White LED Lightings

White LED is considered as a strong candidate for the future lighting technology. We have proposed an optical wireless communication system that employs white LEDs for indoor wireless networks. In this system, LED is used not only as a lighting device, but also as a communication device. The transmitter has large optical power and large emission characteristics to function as lighting device. And the system has specific wireless channel impulse response differing from infrared wireless communication. In this paper, we discuss about shadowing effect on the system utilizing plural LED lightings including the performance of ISI based on the impulse response. We consider the downlink transmission based on TDMA and evaluate the shadowing effect caused by pedestrians with computer simulation. When the shadowing often occurs at 800 Mb/s, the performance of outage call duration rate and blocking rate are improved by using 3 LED lightings compared with 1 or 2 LED lightings. And, we show that the system with the optimal number of the LED lighting is robust against shadowing and can accommodate more calls. Toshihiko Komine was born in Shizuoka, Japan, on November 17, 1978. He received the B.E. and M.E. degrees in Information and Computer Science from Keio University, Yokohama, Japan, in 2001 and 2003 respectively. He is currently studying for the Ph.D. degree at Department of Information and Computer Science, Keio University. His current research interests are optical wireless communications and LED communications. Shinichiro Haruyama is a professor at Department of Information and Computer Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University, Yokohama, Japan. He received an M.S. in engineering science from University of California at Berkeley in 1983 and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Texas at Austin in 1990. He worked for Bell Laboratories of AT{&}T and Lucent Technologies, U.S.A from 1991 to 1996, and for Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc. from 1998 to 2002. His research interests include reconfigurable system, system design automation, wireless communication, and visible light communication. Masao Nakagawa was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1946. He received the B.E., M.E. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Keio University, Yokohama, Japan, in 1969, 1971 and 1974 respectively. Since 1973, he has been with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Keio University, where he is now a Professor. His research interests are in CDMA, consumer Communications, Mobile communications, ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems), Wireless Home Networks, and Visible light Communication. He received 1989 IEEE Consumer Electronics Society Paper Award, 1999-Fall Best Paper Award in IEEE VTC, IEICE Achievement Award in 2000, IEICE Fellow Award in 2001. He was the executive committee chairman on International Symposium on Spread Spectrum Techniques and Applications in 1992 and the technical program committee chairman of ISITA (International Symposium on Spread Spectrum Techniques and Applications) in 1994. He is an editor of Wireless Personal Communications and was a guest editor of the special issues on “CDMA Networks I, II, III and IV” published in IEEE JSAC in 1994 (I and II) and 1996 (III and IV). He chairs the Wireless Home Link sub-committee in MMAC (Multimedia Mobile Access Communication Promotion Committee).     

Effect of intensified discharge in the vicinity of ribs on PDP performance

It was determined that the discharge in the vicinity of ribs should be intensified to obtain low‐voltage, high‐luminous efficacy, and high module efficiency. One possible way is to increase the space between ribs and the discharge surface. Even if the amount of space increases by only 2 or 3 µm, it still results in low discharge voltage, large discharge current, and high luminous efficacy. For that reason it might be important to control the micron‐sized particles included in the MgO crystal dispersed layers. Another preferable way is to use ribs with a low electric permittivity (ε) that are represented by porous ribs. Moreover, low‐ε ribs diffuses the high‐energy spots in plasma, resulting in a high luminous efficacy. They feature a significantly lower sustain voltage and a smaller parasitic capacitance as well to facilitate a help high module efficiency. Also, highly porous ribs are expected to increase their practical use in aspects of mechanical strength and impurity gas exhaustion.     

Links between Immune Cells from the Periphery and the Brain in the Pathogenesis of Epilepsy: A Narrative Review

Accumulating evidence has demonstrated that the pathogenesis of epilepsy is linked to neuroinflammation and cerebrovascular dysfunction. Peripheral immune cell invasion into the brain, along with these responses, is implicitly involved in epilepsy. This review explored the current literature on the association between the peripheral and central nervous systems in the pathogenesis of epilepsy, and highlights novel research directions for therapeutic interventions targeting these reactions. Previous experimental and human studies have demonstrated the activation of the innate and adaptive immune responses in the brain. The time required for monocytes (responsible for innate immunity) and T cells (involved in acquired immunity) to invade the central nervous system after a seizure varies. Moreover, the time between the leakage associated with blood–brain barrier (BBB) failure and the infiltration of these cells varies. This suggests that cell infiltration is not merely a secondary disruptive event associated with BBB failure, but also a non-disruptive event facilitated by various mediators produced by the neurovascular unit consisting of neurons, perivascular astrocytes, microglia, pericytes, and endothelial cells. Moreover, genetic manipulation has enabled the differentiation between peripheral monocytes and resident microglia, which was previously considered difficult. Thus, the evidence suggests that peripheral monocytes may contribute to the pathogenesis of seizures.     

New ring-opening polymerization via a π-allylpalladium complex

Summary A binary system of a palladium complex as catalyst and zinc alkoxide as initiator conducted a novel ring-opening polymerization of cyclic carbonate, i. e., 5,5-dimethyl-4-ethenyl-1,3-dioxan-2-one. The polymerization proceeded along with releasing carbon dioxide to produce the corresponding polyether. The -allylpalladium complex generated from the monomer with the catalyst is the key intermediate for this new polymerization. The propagating end is zinc alkoxide, which nucleophilically attacks the monomer activated as the -allylpalladium complex in the propagation.     

Nanocrystallization of Pd74Si18Au8 metallic glass

The crystallization process of Pd₇₄Si₁₈Au₈ amorphous alloy has been investigated by transmission electron microscopy, small angle X-ray scattering and three-dimensional atom probe techniques. Although literature suggests that the alloy decomposes into two glassy phases prior to the crystallization, we found that the crystallization occurs directly from a single amorphous phase by the primary crystallization of fcc Pd–Au solid solution, followed by the polymorphous crystallization of the remaining amorphous phase to a Pd₃Si phase.     

A wide view auto‐stereoscopic 3D display with an eye‐tracking system for enhanced horizontal viewing position and viewing distance

This paper describes the development of auto‐stereoscopic three‐dimensional (3D) display with an eye‐tracking system for not only the X‐axis (right–left) and Y‐axis (up–down) plane directions but also the Z‐axis (forward–backward) direction. In the past, the eye‐tracking 3D system for the XY‐axes plane directions that we had developed had a narrow 3D viewing space in the Z‐axis direction because of occurrence of 3D crosstalk variation on screen. The 3D crosstalk variation on screen was occurred when the viewer's eye position moved back and forth along the Z‐axis direction. The reason was that the liquid crystal (LC) barrier pitch was fixed and the LC barrier was able to control the only barrier aperture position. To solve this problem, we developed the LC barrier that is able to control the barrier pitch as well as the barrier aperture position in real time, corresponding to the viewer's eye position. As a result, the 3D viewing space has achieved to expand up to 320–1016 mm from the display surface in the Z‐axis direction and within a range of ±267 mm in the X‐axis direction. In terms of the Y‐axis direction, the viewing space is not necessary to be considered, because of a stripe‐shaped parallax barrier.