Nano vanadyl‐phthalocyanine crystals fabricated on KBr substrate

Vanadyl‐phthalocyanine (VOPc) thin films deposited on a KBr substrate by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) consist of nano‐VOPc crystals epitaxially grown. The nano‐VOPc crystals acquire a square shape as a result of annealing at 150^°C. The size of the nano‐crystals is controllable by changing the conditions of MBE deposition and thermal treatment. The growth processes of nano‐crystals on the KBr substrate are elucidated experimentally and are shown to be closely related to strong interaction between the VOPc molecules and the KBr substrate. Their mechanisms can be explained in terms of surface diffusion of the VOPc molecules on the KBr substrate. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 163(2): 41–48, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20645     

Magnetic properties of PLD‐fabricated ND‐Fe‐B film magnets and their applications to millimeter‐size motors

We succeeded in depositing 200‐ to 300‐µm‐thick Nd‐Fe‐B film magnets with (BH)_max of approximately 55 kJ/m³ on Fe substrates by the PLD method. In addition, we confirmed that a millimeter‐size motor, which was prepared from the obtained film, rotates at 15,160 rpm under a no‐load test. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 159(2): 1–6, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20215     

Threshold voltage extraction techniques adaptable from sub‐micron CMOS to large‐area oxide TFT technologies

This paper proposed simple and accurate threshold voltage (V _TH ) extraction techniques, which can be directly adaptable to various semiconductor technologies ranging from deep sub‐micron complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor to large‐area thin‐film transistor devices. These techniques are developed using multiple circuits, namely, a dynamic source follower, an inverter with a diode‐connected load and a current mirror topology, which allow a direct determination of V _TH . As the proposed techniques are experimented with large‐area emerging technologies, which have a stable single type (n‐type) transistor, all the designs employed in this work are confined to only n‐type transistors for a fair comparison. The semiconductor technologies under consideration are standard complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (65 and 130 nm) and oxide (indium–gallium–zinc–oxide and zinc–tin–oxide) thin‐film transistors. In order to validate the accuracy of the proposed techniques, extracted V _TH from these methods are compared against the value from linear transfer characteristics. The resulting relative error is within 5%, reinforcing proposed techniques suitability to different semiconductor technologies ranging from deep sub‐micron to large‐area transistors. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Degradation of direct‐tunneling gate oxide under hot hole injection

The degradation of ultrathin SiO₂ films accompanied by the hole direct tunneling is investigated using a substrate hot hole (SHH) injection technique. Hot holes from the substrate as well as cold holes in the inversion layer are injected into the gate oxides in p‐channel MOSFETs with p⁺ poly‐Si gates, while the gate bias is kept low enough to avoid simultaneous electron injection from the gate. During the SHH stress, in contrast to the case of thicker oxide films, a strong correlation is observed between the oxide film degradation and the injected hole energy, whereas no degradation occurs due to the hole direct tunneling from the inversion layer. These experimental findings indicate the existence of threshold energy for trap creation process, which has been predicted by the theoretical study of hole‐injection‐induced structural transformation of oxygen vacancy in SiO₂. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 140(4): 54–61, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.2008     

Magnetic properties of Pr‐Fe‐Co‐V‐W‐Si‐B system exchange spring magnets

The melt‐spun ribbons of Pr‐Fe‐Co‐V‐W‐Si‐B system alloys were prepared by single roller rapid‐quenching method. The effects of composition, surface velocity, and heat treatment on the magnetic properties were investigated. The P₉sFe₇₁Co₈V_0.5W_0.5Si_0.5B_10.5 alloy ribbons prepared at a surface velocity of 12.5 m/s were crystallized by heat treatment, and the optimum heat‐treatment condition was found to be at 575°C for 3 min, for which the magnetic properties were (BH)_max = 136.1 kJ/m³, J_r = 0.93 T, H_cJ = 652.2 kA/m, and H_cB = 528.3 kA/m. The temperature coefficients of J_r and H_cJ for the ribbons crystallized from melt‐spun ribbons of Pr₉Fe₇₁Co₈V_0.5W_0.5Si_0.5B_10.5 alloy were α(J_r)_ave = ?0.057%/°C and α(H_cJ) = ?0.450%/°C. The value of (B)_max for the compression molding Pr₉Fe₇₁Co₈V_0.5W_0.5Si_0.5B_10.5 isotropic bonded magnet prepared by using the ribbons annealed at 575°C for 3 min is 80.0 kJ/m³, and the density is 6.24 Mg/m³. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 157(3): 10–16, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20211 Copyright © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Implementation of the symmetric doped double‐gate MOSFET model in Verilog‐A for circuit simulation

Recently we developed a model for symmetric double‐gate MOSFETs (SDDGM) that, for the first time, considers the doping concentration in the Si film in the complete range from 1×10¹⁴ to 3×10¹⁸ cm⁻³. The model covers a wide range of technological parameters and includes short channel effects. It was validated for different devices using data from simulations, as well as measured in real devices. In this paper, we present the implementation in Verilog‐A code of this model, which allows its introduction in commercial simulators. The Verilog‐A implementation was optimized to achieve reduction in computational time, as well as good accuracy. Results are compared with data from 2D simulations, showing a very good agreement in all transistor operation regions. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A 0.7‐dB NF, +8.2‐dBm IIP3 CMOS low noise amplifier using frequency selective feedback

A CMOS amplifier employing the frequency selective feedback technique using a shunt feedback capacitor is designed and measured. The proposed amplifier can achieve a high IIP3 (input referred third‐order intercept point) by reducing the third‐ and second‐order nonlinearity contributions to the IMD3 (third‐order intermodulation distortion), which is accomplished using a capacitor as the frequency selective element. Also, the shunt feedback capacitor improves the noise performance of the amplifier. By applying the technique to a cascode LNA using 0.18‐µm CMOS technology, we obtain the NF of 0.7 dB, an IIP3 of +8.2 dBm, and a gain of 15.1 dB at 14.4 mW of power consumption at 900 MHz. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Electrodeposited Co‐Pt thin films with high coercivity

Co‐Pt alloy film magnets were prepared by electrodeposition. After annealing as‐deposited films with face‐centered‐cubic (fcc) crystal structure, the structure of films with 24 to 50 at.% Co content transformed from disordered fcc phase to ordered face‐centered‐tetragonal (fct) L1₀ phase. It was clarified that Co‐Pt film magnets with a Co content of 43 at.% have high coercivity of approximately 880 kA/m. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 157(4): 7–12, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20216     

Vertical‐type organic device using thin‐film ZnO transparent electrode

We propose a double heterojunction organic light‐emitting diode (OLED) using a zinc oxide (ZnO) film, which works as a transparent and electron injection layer. The crystal structure of the ZnO films as a function of Ar/O₂ flow ratio and the basic characteristics of the OLED depending on the ZnO sputtering conditions are investigated. Excellent characteristics of the novel OLED were obtained, as high as 470 cd/m² at 22 V and 7.6 mA/cm². The results obtained here demonstrate that the vertical organic light‐emitting transistor (OLET) using a ZnO layer as an electron injection layer is promising as a key element for flexible sheet displays. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 158(2): 49–55, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20151     

Low‐resistive and transparent AZO films prepared by PLD in magnetic field

Al₂O₃‐doped ZnO (AZO) thin films have been deposited onto glass substrates using a split target consisting of AZO (1 wt%) and AZO (2 wt%) by pulsed laser deposition with an ArF excimer laser (λ = 193 nm, 15 mJ, 10 Hz, 0.75 J/cm²). By applying a magnetic field perpendicular to the plume, the lowest resistivity of 8.54 × 10^?5Ω·cm and an average transmittance exceeding 91% over the visible range were obtained at a target‐to‐substrate distance of 25 mm for approximately 279‐nm‐thick AZO film (1.8 wt%) grown at a substrate temperature of 230 °C in vacuum. From cross‐sectional TEM observations and the XRD spectrum, a reason why the low resistivity (54 × 10^?5Ω·cm) was reproducibly obtained was considered to be due to the fact that a disorder of crystal growth originating in the vicinity of the interface between the substrate and the film was suppressed by application of the magnetic field and the c‐axis orientation took preference, giving rise to the increase of mobility. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 151(2): 40–45, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20026     

0.3‐V bulk‐driven programmable gain amplifier in 0.18‐µm CMOS

A new solution for an ultra low voltage bulk‐driven programmable gain amplifier (PGA) is described in the paper. While implemented in a standard n‐well 0.18‐µm complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) process, the circuit operates from 0.3 V supply, and its voltage gain can be regulated from 0 to 18 dB with 6‐dB steps. At minimum gain, the PGA offers nearly rail‐to‐rail input/output swing and the input referred thermal noise of 2.37 μV/Hz^1/2, which results in a 63‐dB dynamic range (DR). Besides, the total power consumption is 96 nW, the signal bandwidth is 2.95 kHz at 5‐pF load capacitance and the third‐order input intercept point (IIP₃) is 1.62 V. The circuit performance was simulated with LTspice. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fabrication of flat micro‐gap electrodes for molecular electronics

Recently, organic molecular electronic devices such as molecular thin‐film transistors have received considerable attention as possible candidates for next‐generation electronic and optical devices. This paper reports on fabrication technologies of flat metallic electrodes on insulating substrates with a micrometer separation for high‐performance molecular device evaluation. The key technologies of fabricating planar‐type electrodes are the liftoff method by the combination of bilayer photoresist with overhang profile, electron beam evaporation of thin metal (Ti and Au) films, and SiO₂‐CMP (Chemical Mechanical Polishing) method of CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition)‐deposited TEOS (tetraethoxysilane)–SiO₂ layer. The raggedness of the electrode/insulator interface and the electrode surface of the micro‐gap electrodes were less than 3 nm. The isolation characteristics of fabricated electrodes were on the order of 10¹³ ohms at room temperature, which is sufficient for evaluating electronic properties of organic thin‐film devices. Finally, pentacene FET (Field Effect Transistor) characteristics are discussed fabricated on the micro‐gap flat electrodes. The mobility of this FET was 0.015 cm²/Vs, which was almost on the order of the previous results. These results suggest that high‐performance organic thin‐film transistors can be realized on these advanced electrode structures. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 152(2): 39–46, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20152     

Microstructure and magnetic properties of aerosol‐deposited Sm‐Fe‐N thick films

In this study, the relationship among magnetic properties, Aerosol Deposition (AD) conditions, and microstructures in Sm‐Fe‐N AD films was investigated. The maximum thickness of 145µm was obtained under AD conditions of gas flow rate (gfr)=6liters/min for 10 min. The density of Sm‐Fe‐N films was in the range of 5.43 to 6.24g/cm³, that is, 71 to 81% of the X‐ray density of the Sm₂Fe₁₇N₃ compound reported (7.67g/cm³). The Sm‐Fe‐N AD films showed remanence in the range of 0.38 to 0.42 T, that is, 61 to 68% of that of the Sm‐Fe‐N host powder (0.62 T). The coercivities increased from 1.16 to between 1.74 and 1.79 T after the deposition because the grain size decreased from 1.94µm to 0.32µm. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 158(1): 8–13, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20214     

Harmonic analysis of the output voltage of a third‐harmonic‐injected inverter for LSM drives

The superconducting magnetic leviation railway system (MAGLEV) under development in Japan uses pulse‐width‐modulation (PWM) inverter for driving a linear synchronous motor (LSM). The inverter output voltage contains nonnegligible harmonics which cause harmonic resonances in the LSM system, and therefore harmonics of the output voltage have been analyzed in order to control such harmonic resonances. This paper applies a third‐harmonic injection method to the inverter for the purpose of enhancing the output voltage without changing the circuit configuration. It performs harmonic analysis of the output voltage of the inverter based on the third‐harmonic injection. Validity of the harmonic analysis is verified by computer simulation. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 160(1): 71–78, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ).     

CPW‐fed compact thin‐film UWB antenna with dual band‐notched characteristics

This paper presents a new compact thin‐film ultrawideband (UWB) antenna with dual band‐notched characteristics. The antenna contains a rectangular slot with a fork‐like tuning stub. To achieve the dual band‐notched characteristics, narrow and U‐shaped slots are inserted on the radiator. This antenna is printed on a Mylar film substrate of 0.3 mm thickness with a dielectric constant of 3.2. The antenna has compact dimensions of 34.5 × 27.3 mm². It operates in the frequency range 2.9–11.3 GHz with impedance matching covering the entire bandwidth and reasonable radiation properties. It also exhibits dual band‐notched characteristics. One of the notched frequencies is in the range 3.3–3.7 GHz (WiMAX band) and the other in the range 5.1–5.8 GHz (WLAN band). The antenna is designed and simulated by using the commercial IE3D software, which is based on the method of moments. The antenna was fabricated and measured using Agilent E363B PNA network analyzers. The characteristics of the fabricated antenna show high correlation with those obtained from the simulation. The results confirm that the proposed antenna can achieve notch performance for WLAN and WiMAX communication systems and is also suitable for various portable UWB applications. © 2014 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Nd–Fe–B thick films prepared at the high deposition rate of 90 µm/h

After a postannealing process, the magnetic properties of pulsed laser deposition (PLD)‐made Nd–Fe–B film magnets prepared at the deposition rate of 20–90 µm/h showed constant values, and the average values of H_c, B_r and (BH)_max were 1050 kA/m, 0.6 T, and 60 kJ/m³, respectively. The obtained results were comparable to those previously reported. In conclusion, it was found that a maximum deposition rate of 90 µm/h could be achieved without deterioration of magnetic and mechanical properties. © 2007 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Growth of thick and low‐doped 4H‐SiC epitaxial layers in a vertical radiant‐heating VPE reactor

A new vertical radiant‐heating reactor has been designed and constructed for thick SiC vapor‐phase epitaxy (VPE). Growth of 4H‐SiC epitaxial layers is performed under a reduced pressure as low as 6.7 × 10³ Pa. A high growth rate exceeding 16 µm/h has been achieved in the reactor. Smooth surface is obtained by controlling the input C/Si ratio of source gases, and we have demonstrated growth of very thick layers over 160 µm with a mirrorlike morphology. Low‐background doping in the 10¹³ cm^?3 range (n‐type) and intentional n‐type doping in a range from low 10¹⁵ to low 10¹⁹ cm^?3 have also been demonstrated. We have performed photoluminescence spectroscopy and deep level transient spectroscopy to check impurities and intrinsic defects in the epitaxial layers, and the spectra show that the layers have a good purity and quality. © 2002 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 138(4): 18–25, 2002; DOI 10.1002/eej.1134     

A low‐voltage band‐gap reference circuit with second‐order analyses

A new band‐gap reference (BGR) circuit employing sub‐threshold current is proposed for low‐voltage operations. By employing the fraction of V_BE and the sub‐threshold current source, the proposed BGR circuit with chip area of 0.029mm² was fabricated in the standard 0.18µm CMOS triple‐well technology. It generates reference voltage of 170 mV with power consumption of 2.4µW at supply voltage of 1 V. The agreement between simulation and measurement shows that the variations of reference voltage are 1.3 mV for temperatures from ?20 to 100^°C, and 1.1 mV per volt for supply voltage from 0.95 to 2.5 V, respectively. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The preparation of ZnGa2O4 doped with Mn‐Mg and Tm for green and blue phosphors

Phosphor powders of zinc gallate (ZnGa₂O₄) with Mg and Mn for green and Tm‐Mg for blue luminescence were prepared by solid state reaction method for their improved luminescent properties. Green‐luminescence emitting ZnMnGa₂O₄ reached maximum intensity at Mn = 0.005 mol% and further improvement was achieved by the addition of Mg²⁺. Tm‐Mg based zinc gallate phosphor exhibited a strong blue emission, centered at ∼420 nm with the maximum intensity achieved for 0.003 mol% of Mg and 0.015 mol% of Tm. This study established the possibilities of controlling the luminescent characteristics of zinc gallate by adding various elements. © 2006 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Mitigation of third‐harmonic voltage for three‐phase four‐wire distribution system based on a series active filter for neutral conductor

This paper proposes a series active filter for mitigation of the third‐harmonic voltage in a three‐phase four‐wire power distribution system in a building. The active filter which consists of a single‐phase inverter can suppress the harmonic voltage of the system. The active filter is characterized by acting not only as a capacitor but also as a resistor for the third‐harmonic components. A Hilbert transformer is applied to the controller of the active filter in order to realize accurate third‐harmonic detection on a single‐phase active filter. Measurement results of harmonic distortion of source voltage in a building is also shown in this paper. It is clarified in a simulation and experiment that the active filter can suppress the third‐harmonic voltage without increasing neutral conductor current. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 150(1): 62–70, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.10379