Fundamental and third-order harmonic modelocking of an Er:Yb:glasslaser

Fundamental harmonic modelocking operation at 2.5 GHz of an Er:Yb:glass laser by an LiNbO₃ phase modulator has been achieved in a compact resonator configuration. A comparison with third-order harmonic modelocking of the same laser in a folded cavity is presented     

Amplitude response of Fabry-Perot frequency discriminators

The amplitude noise responses of optical-frequency-discriminating systems, based on Fabry-Perot cavities with intensity noise compensation, are analyzed considering also the effect of the resonator transient. From the point of view of amplitude noise immunity, systems based on transmission or reflection alone behave in a quite similar way within the discriminator bandwidth, whereas a proper combination of both these signals not only increases the sensitivity to frequency noise but also allows for higher rejection to amplitude noise.     

High-frequency-stability diode-pumped Nd:YAG lasers with the FM sidebands method and Doppler-free iodine lines at 532 nm

The FM spectroscopy technique has been applied to two frequency-doubled Nd:YAG lasers to achieve absolute frequency stabilization against the hyperfine structure components of the rovibronic P(54) 32-0 iodine line at 532 nm. A fractional frequency stability of 2 x 10(-13) tau(-1/2) has been obtained for integration times in the range of 1 ms < tau < 10 s. For longer integration times the stability level remains below 10(-13), reaching a minimum value of 4.6 x 10(-14) at 100 s. This high stability level is, to our knowledge, the best value achieved against iodine lines by this locking method and for a fully transportable system.     

Improvement of Sliding-Scale Analog-to-Digital Converters through Weighted Averaging

Several figures of merit for characterizing an analog-to-digital converter are considered. It is shown that the sliding scale method of improving through averaging the performance of a converter can be made more effective by introducing variable statistical weights in the averaging procedure. It is found that a parabolic weighting function is the optimum for the differential linearity, if the channel boundaries are independently random distributed with equal variance. Moreover it is shown, through a computer simulation, that this weighting function is more convenient than a rectangular one to improve also a local differential linearity, while it is equivalent as far as correction of channel centroid errors is concerned. A triangular weighing function is found to be slightly worse than the parabolic one as far as overall differential linearity is concerned but somewhat better from the point of view of local behaviour.     

A 0.18 μm CMOS direct down-converter for highly integrated 3G receivers

This paper presents the design of a high dynamic range direct down-converter for 3G cell-phone applications. The mechanisms responsible for second-order intermodulation distortion are discussed in details, leading to the following design strategy: the transconductor is degenerated by means of an RC filter, an LC network resonating at RF frequency loads the switching pair and carefully matched resistors are used in the output load. Prototypes realized in 0.18 μm CMOS show: +78 dBm IIP2 minimum among 40 samples, +10 dBm IIP3, 4 nV/√Hz input-referred noise density while burning only 4 mA from 1.8 V.     

10 kHz-linewidth diode-pumped Er:Yb:glass laser

A single-mode Er:Yb:phosphate glass laser pumped at 980 nm by an InGaAs diode laser is reported. The laser emits over 15 mW output power with 6% slope efficiency. The measured linewidth is 10.6 kHz and the RIN power is less than 140 dB/Hz.<>     

A fully integrated 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS direct conversion receiver front-end with on-chip LO for UMTS

This paper presents a 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS direct-conversion IC realized for the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS). The chip comprises a variable gain low-noise amplifier, quadrature mixers, variable gain amplifiers, and local oscillator generation circuits. The solution is based on very high dynamic range front-end blocks, a low-power superharmonic injection-locking technique for quadrature generation and continuous-time dc offset removal. Measured performances are an overall gain variable between 21 and 47 dB, 5.6 dB noise figure, -2 dBm out-of-band IIP3, -10 dBm in-band IIP3, 44.8-dBm minimum IIP2, and -155-dBc/Hz phase noise at 135 MHz from carrier frequency, while drawing 21 mA from a 1.8-V supply.     

Very accurate high-frequency noise spectral analysis of P-channelFET's

A bench-unit instrument to interface single FET devices to spectrum analyzers for noise investigation has been realized. It consists of an ultra low-noise amplifier which raises the noise of the device-under-test well above the intrinsic limits of the analyzers. It is estimated that the intrinsic contribution of the amplifier is 100 pV/√Hz in the frequency range 100 Hz to 10 MHz. Preliminary results lead to the possibility to analyze PMOSEET devices, belonging to a 0.8 μm CMOS technology, for which a noise model is proposed     

Expression of aquaporin-4 in fast-twitch fibers of mammalian skeletal muscle

OBJECT: Ependymomas in children continue to generate controversy regarding their histological diagnosis and grading. optimal management, and possible prognostic factors. To increase our knowledge of these tumors the authors addressed these issues in a cohort of children with prospectively staged ependymomas treated with radiotherapy and chemotherapy. METHODS: Children between the ages of 2 and 17.3 years harboring an intracranial ependymoma confirmed by a central review of the tumor's pathological characteristics were treated according to Children's Cancer Group Protocol 921 from 1986 to 1992. Treatment following surgery and postoperative tumor staging (including brain computerized tomography or magnetic resonance [MR] imaging, spinal MR imaging or myelography, and cerebrospinal fluid cytological investigation) included craniospinal irradiation with a local boost to the primary tumor and patient randomization to receive adjuvant chemotherapy with either 1) CCNU, vincristine, and prednisone, or 2) the eight-drugs-in-1-day regimen. Centralized review of the tumor pathological characteristics revealed 20 ependymomas and 12 anaplastic ependymomas in the 32 children included in the study. Diagnoses made at the individual institutions included anaplastic (malignant) ependymoma (15 patients), ependymoma (four patients), ependymoblastoma (nine patients), ependymoastrocytoma (one patient), and primitive neuroectodermal tumor (three patients), which were discordant with the centralized review diagnosis in 22 of 32 cases. Only three of the 32 patients had metastatic disease (two with M and one with M3 stages). At surgery, 47% of tumors were estimated to be totally resected. Among the 14 of 17 patients who suffered a relapse and were evaluated for site of relapse, 10 (71%) had an isolated local relapse, three (21%) had concurrent local and metastatic relapse, and only one (7%) had an isolated metastatic relapse. Kaplan-Meier estimates of 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival rates were 50 +/- 10% and 64 +/- 9%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Predictors of PFS duration included an estimate of the extent of resection made at surgery (total compared with less than total, p = 0.0001) and the amount of residual tumor on postoperative imaging as verified by centralized radiological review (< or = 1.5 cm2 compared with > 1.5 cm2, p < 0.0001). No other factors, including centrally reviewed tumor histopathological type, location, metastasis and tumor (M and T) stages, patient age, race, gender, or chemotherapy treatment regimen significantly correlated with PFS duration. The pattern of predominantly local relapse and the important influence of residual tumor or the extent of resection on PFS duration confirms a prevailing impression that local disease control is the major factor in the prediction of outcome of ependymoma. Survival rates were comparable with those reported by other investigators who have treated patients with similar doses of radiation and no chemotherapy.     

Singlemode passive Q-switched ruby laser

Results are reported on a passiveQ-switched ruby laser utilizing a special rooftop prism cavity. With a 40 cm long resonator, a single transverse and longitudinal mode has been obtained. With a 3 meter long resonator, a single transverse mode self-locked beam has been obtained.