A Note on Loaded Line Synthesis (Correspondence)

The purpose of this note is to present an alternate derivation of a formula for the synthesis of a loaded line. The problem is to determine the values of the normalized susceptances a and c mounted an exact quarter-wavelength apart along a uniform line. These are arranged in the order a, c, c,. . .c, a to achieve a loaded line with a given phase shift and perfect match. In order to analyze a particular line design for standing-wave ratio and phase shift over a band of frequencies on a digital computer, it is worthwhile to know the values of the susceptances to many more decimal places than one would achieve from a simple graph.     

WiFi access point pricing as a dynamic game

We study the economic interests of a wireless access point owner and his paying client, and model their interaction as a dynamic game. The key feature of this game is that the players have asymmetric information - the client knows more than the access provider. We find that if a client has a "web browser" utility function (a temporal utility function that grows linearly), it is a Nash equilibrium for the provider to charge the client a constant price per unit time. On the other hand, if the client has a "file transferor" utility function (a utility function that is a step function), the client would be unwilling to pay until the final time slot of the file transfer. We also study an expanded game where an access point sells to a reseller,which in turn sells to a mobile client and show that if the client has a web browser utility function, that constant price is a Nash equilibrium of the three player game. Finally, we study a two player game in which the access point does not know whether he faces a web browser or file transferor type client, and show conditions for which it is not a Nash equilibrium for the access point to maintain a constant price.     

Bugged balls for tough calls [ball tracking systems]

This paper presents a soccer ball containing a transmitter that reveals the exact location of the ball on the pitch. It is a coin-size radio transmitter that broadcasts a pulsed signal in the 2.4 gigahertz band to a dozen receivers mounted on floodlight masts and near the sidelines. The receivers relay the pulses to a central computer, which then calculates the ball's exact location. The main goal of this transmitter is to help referees with tough calls, such as when a goalkeeper intercepts a ball on the fly after it has crossed the goal line. In such a case, the system would send a vibratory alert to a special wristwatch worn by the referee, signaling that the ball went over the goal.     

Thermoelectric Module Design Under a Given Thermal Input: Theory and Example

Established thermoelectric theory enables direct calculation of the power output and conversion efficiency if the temperature difference across a module is given. However, in some applications such as those using a radioisotope or solar radiation as a heat source, the thermal input remains constant while the temperature difference varies with the geometry of the thermoelectric module. In this paper, a theoretical framework for thermoelectric module design under a given thermal input is presented. It provides a convenient approach for module geometry optimization. The usefulness of the theory is demonstrated through a design study, in which an appropriate thermoelement length for a solar thermoelectric system is determined by considering conflicting requirements for a longer length to obtain a greater temperature difference and for a shorter length to produce a larger power output.     

Equivalent transformations for the mixed lumped Brune-type sectionand uniform transmission line

As an analytical method for nonuniform transmission lines (NTLs) equivalent transformations are extended to a more general case, namely a mixed lumped Brune-type section and a uniform transmission line (unit element, UE). Circuits consisting of a cascade connection of a lumped Brune section and a UE are equivalent to one consisting of a cascade connection of a nonuniform transmission line whose characteristic impedance distribution is expressed with a trigonometric function and a lumped Brune section. This equivalent transformation method is easily applied to a circuit consisting of a lumped C section and a UE. The equivalent circuit is a circuit consisting of an NTL and a lumped C section. In this case, the characteristic impedance distribution of the NTL may be expressed in terms of a hyperbolic function. Exact network functions of the NTLs are easily obtained from the equivalent circuits without solving the telegrapher's equation. By considering the limiting case of these equivalent transformations, equivalent transformations for circuits consisting of a cascade connection of a lumped resonance circuit and a circuit and a uniform transmission line are derived     

A quad-rotor system for driving and flying missions by tilting mechanism of rotors: From design to control

This article presents the hybrid design and control of a quad-rotor system called Flymobile. Flymobile is a combined system of a mobile robot and a quad-rotor system aimed to perform both flying and driving tasks. Flymobile performs flying tasks in the same way as conventional quad-rotor systems while the tilting mechanism of each rotor allows Flymobile to navigate in its terrain for a driving task. The body frame with rotors is implemented by a calibration process through a test-bed equipped with a force sensor. The triangular wheel frame is designed to mimic motions of a mobile robot with three passive wheels. Sensor data of a gyro and an accelerometer are filtered and used for controlling the attitude of the system. Focusing on a practical approach of implementing a hybrid system, a non model-based approach is applied to control Flymobile. Experimental studies are demonstrated to show the feasibility of performing both driving and flying missions.     

In situ HREM study on the structural instability of isolated nanometre-sized alloy particles in the Sn-Bi system

The structural instability of isolated nm-sized alloy particles has been investigated by in situ transmission electron microscopy, using particles in the Sn-Bi system. In a pure tin (Sn) particle, no structural fluctuation was induced under electron-beam irradiation. In a tin-rich solid solution particle, an orientational fluctuation took place at a rate of approximately once per 1-3 s. In a high concentration alloy particle with a two-phase microstructure, a structural fluctuation occurred at a rate of a few hertz. Namely, the fluctuation became more frequent with increasing bismuth (Bi) concentration, no matter whether it consists of a single phase or multiple phases. A good parallelism can be found between this fluctuation enhancement with bismuth concentration and the fact that the free-energy difference between a solid particle and the corresponding liquid one decreases continuously with bismuth concentration and approaches a value close to zero at the eutectic composition. These results lead to a view that a nm-sized solid particle exhibits a structural instability under electron-beam irradiation when the free-energy difference between a solid particle and the corresponding liquid one is reduced to a value close to zero.     

Virtual impedance control for a regional dynamic voltage restorer

A dynamic voltage restorer (DVR) can be installed in a middle-voltage (MV) power grid, to concurrently protect a cluster of sensitive loads from voltage sags. To further improve its efficiency and reduce the difficulty in its implementation, a novel control strategy for operating such a DVR as a virtual impedance in series with sensitive loads is proposed in this paper. In addition to its usual function of compensating for voltage sags, such a DVR can also operate as a virtual inductance, to function as a fault current limiter (FCL) during a downstream fault, or a virtual capacitance, to function as a series compensator (SC) to compensate the voltage loss along the feeder line during heavy load. Based on a dual-loop control design, strategies for operating a DVR as a series virtual inductance and a virtual capacitance are proposed, and methods for tuning the parameter values and a stability analysis of the whole system are presented. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method are verified by simulations using the PSCAD software, and experimental results obtained using a prototype DVR are presented.     

Identification of the source of an interferer by comparison with known carriers using a single satellite

We describe a method for identifying the source of a satellite interferer using a single satellite. The technique relies on the fact that the strength of a carrier signal measured at the downlink station varies with time due to a number of factors, and we use a quantum‐inspired algorithm to compute a “signature” for a signal, which captures part of the pattern of variation that is a characteristic of the uplink antenna. We define a distance measure to numerically quantify the degree of similarity between two signatures, and by computing the distances between the signature for an interfering carrier and the signatures of the known carriers being relayed by the same satellite at the same time, we can identify the antenna that the interferer originated from, if a known carrier is being relayed from it. As a proof of concept, we evaluate the performance of the technique using a simple statistical model applied to measured carrier data.     

Computer-aided design of a Si avalanche photodiode

A computer-aided design of a Si avalanche photodiode is presented. As an example, the design of the boron diffused photodiode with a desired time constant is carried out. The choice of an area of an active region is not affected by a diffusion condition but primarily by a substrate impurity concentration. For a very high speed response a moderate substrate impurity concentration must be selected. For a longer time constant than about 0.1 ns an increasing area of an active region is acceptable with a decreasing substrate impurity concentration. In a lightly doped substrate, a uniform multiplication of an active region cannot occur. Using the usual diffusion technique the acceptable highest resistivity of a substrate is about 1-2 Ω.cm. The capacitance of the guard ring occupies a considerable part in a total capacitance. Calculated results are in good agreement with experimental results.     

Delay Analysis of All-Optical Packet-Switching Ring and Bus Communications Networks

We study the delay performance of all-optical packet communication networks configured as ring and bus topologies employing cross-connect switches (or wavelength routers). Under a cross-connect network implementation, a packet experiences no (or minimal) internal queueing delays. Thus, the network can be implemented by high speed all-optical components. We further assume a packet-switched network operation, such as that using a slotted ring or bus access methods. In this case, a packet's delay is known before it is fed into the network. This can be used to determine if a packet must be dropped (when its end-to-end delay requirement is not met) at the time it accesses the network. It also leads to better utilization of network capacity resources. We also derive the delay performance for networks under a store-and-forward network operation. We show these implementations to yield very close average end-to-end packet queueing delay performance. We note that a cross-connect network operation can yield a somewhat higher queueing delay variance levels. However, the mean queueing delay for all traffic flows are the same for a cross-connect network operation (under equal nodal traffic loading), while that in a store-and-forward network increases as the path length increases. For a ring network loaded by a uniform traffic matrix, the queueing delay incurred by 90% of the packets in a cross-connect network may be lower than that experienced in a store-and-forward network. We also study a store-and-forward network operation under a nodal round robin (fair queueing) scheduling policy. We show the variance performance of the packet queueing delay for such a network to be close to that exhibited by a cross-connect (all-optical) network.     

Maximum likelihood parameter estimation of textures using aWold-decomposition based model

We present a solution to the problem of modeling, parameter estimation, and synthesis of natural textures. The texture field is assumed to be a realization of a regular homogeneous random field, which can have a mixed spectral distribution. On the basis of a 2-D Wold-like decomposition, the field is represented as a sum of a purely indeterministic component, a harmonic component, and a countable number of evanescent fields. We present a maximum-likelihood solution to the joint parameter estimation problem of these components from a single observed realization of the texture field. The proposed solution is a two-stage algorithm. In the first stage, we obtain an estimate for the number of harmonic and evanescent components in the field, and a suboptimal initial estimate for the parameters of their spectral supports. In the second stage, we refine these initial estimates by iterative maximization of the likelihood function of the observed data. By introducing appropriate parameter transformations the highly nonlinear least-squares problem that results from the maximization of the likelihood function, is transformed into a separable least-squares problem. The solution for the unknown spectral supports of the harmonic and evanescent components reduces the problem of solving for the transformed parameters of the field to a linear least squares. Solution of the transformation equations then provides a complete solution of the field-model parameter estimation problem. The Wold-based model and the resulting analysis and synthesis algorithms are applicable to a wide variety of texture types found in natural images.     

Remote-controlled platoon merging via coder-estimator sequence algorithm for a communication network

In this paper, a platoon-merging control system is considered as a remotely located system with a state represented by a stochastic process. In this system, it is common to encounter situations where a single decision maker controls a large number of subsystems, and observation and control signals are sent over a communication channel with finite capacity and significant transmission delays. Unlike a classical estimation problem where the observation is a continuous process corrupted by additive noise, there is a constraint that the observation must be coded and transmitted over a digital communication channel with finite capacity. A recursive coder-estimator sequence is a state estimation scheme based on observations transmitted with finite communication capacity constraint. In this paper, we introduce a stochastic model for the lead vehicle in a platoon of vehicles in a lane considering the angle between the road surface and a horizontal plane as a stochastic process. In order to merge two platoons, the lead vehicle of the following platoon is controlled by a remote control station. Using the coder-estimator sequence, the remote control station designs the feedback controller. The simulation results show that the inter-vehicle distance and the deviation from the desired inter-vehicle distance are well regulated.     

Power Reflection and Transmission Coefficients for Meander‐Line Polarizers with a Chiral Slab

This paper presents a theoretical investigation of power reflection and transmission coefficients for a meander‐line polarizer placed periodically on a chiral slab. It is assumed that a linearly polarized transverse magnetic wave is incident on a chiral slab from the air region. In the analysis, we derive the electric and magnetic fields in the modal form in the air and chiral regions. We obtain power reflection and transmission coefficients in a straightforward manner after matching the tangential components of the electric and magnetic fields at the boundaries. We present numerical results for the power reflection and transmission coefficients versus frequency and incident angle for different values of the chirality admittance. A meander‐line polarizer placed on a dielectric slab can convert a linearly polarized wave to a circularly polarized wave. The design parameters for a meander‐line polarizer are the dimensions of the meander‐line and the values of the dielectric slab. Replacing a dielectric slab with a chiral slab introduces a new independent parameter which controls the wave polarization.     

Systems-in-foil – Devices,fabrication processes and reliability issues

Systems-in-foil are a new class of electronics in which a full system is integrated into a flexible end product. In this paper, we discuss current research activities and state-of-the-art in this field. Furthermore, some of the associated and expected reliability issues will be addressed on the basis of three examples. As a first example we discuss a flexible large area polymeric organic light-emitting (OLED) device. The reliability targets of these devices require protection against the detrimental influence of water. As a second example, we describe a technology for embedding thinned Si chips between polymeric foils where a careful selection of the base materials is important to account for thermal expansion differences. Finally, as a third example, a novel technology for embedding conductive circuitry in a polymeric foil is discussed in which a good matching of the elastic moduli of the polymeric foil and the embedded circuitry is crucial for the flexibility robustness.     

A double-gate-type static-induction thyristor

A double-gate-type static-induction thyristor (DG-SIThy) with a high blocking voltage and a high current rating has been fabricated. In this paper, a basic operational mechanism, a fabrication procedure, and the electrical characteristics of the DG-SIThy are described. In the DG-SIThy, both electron injection and hole injection are controlled by signals applied to two gale regions so that the DG-SIThy is capable of higher frequency operations than a single-gate SIThy. In the DG-SIThy, described here, both a cathode and a gate (first gate) regions have been fabricated on one side of a semiconductor wafer and both an anode and gate.(second gate) regions on another side. For realizing the DG-SIThy with a high blocking voltage and a high current rating, we have tried attentively to form a p-n junction on one side of the wafer without influencing the p-n junction on the other side, and have developed a new counter-doping technique for epitaxial growth and an improved package structure for a compression-mounted device. The DG-SIThy fabricated with these techniques has shown a for-Ward blocking voltage of 1000 V, an average current rating of 100 A, and a forward voltage drop of 1.44 V at the rated anode current. A turn-on time of 0.95 its and a turn-off time of 0.48 µs have been observed at the rated anode current and at anode voltages of 650 and 550 V, respectively. As already speculated, the DG-SIThy shows a higher switching speed and a lower forward drop than the single-gate SIThy.     

Modeling the flow-level performance of hierarchical modulation in?OFDMA-based networks

Hierarchical Modulation (HM) is a means to enhance the spectral efficiency of a system by superposing, in terms of modulation, an additional stream for a given user with good radio conditions on a basic stream of a user with worse radio conditions. This, in turn, increases the throughput of the former user and hence the overall performance of the whole system. We consider, in this work, such a performance at the flow level, for a realistic dynamic setting where users come to the system and leave it after a finite duration corresponding, for instance, to the completion of a file transfer. We specifically model and quantify, both analytically and via simulations, the gain thus achieved and propose two extensions to the basic HM algorithm: a first one in which a user with bad radio conditions is also superposed on one with better radio conditions and a second one in which a user of one type is further superposed on a user of the same type as well.     

Analysis of a strip in a waveguide

An analysis and an experimental study of a strip in a transverse plane of a rectangular waveguide below cutoff are presented. This work is a preliminary step in analyzing a stripline-fed slot antenna array in which each stripline feed is enclosed in a rectangular waveguide below cutoff. A numerical method is developed to solve a “pseudo” mixed-potential integral equation for the current on the strip excited by a delta-gap source at some point along the strip. The Green's function for dipole sources in the rectangular waveguide is used in the spectral and spatial representations and Shanks' transform is employed to speed up the convergence of the doubly infinite series. Numerical and experimental results are presented for a monopole fed at one wall of a rectangular waveguide and for a bottom-fed and bottom-loaded strip in a rectangular waveguide     

Ultra-Low-Power Interface Chip for Autonomous Capacitive Sensor Systems

Traditionally, most of the sensor interfaces must be tailored towards a specific application. This approach results in a high recurrent design cost and time to market. On the other hand, generic sensor interface design reduces the costs and offers a handy solution for multisensor applications. This paper presents a generic sensor interface chip (GSIC), which can read out a broad range of capacitive sensors. It contains capacitance-to-voltage converters, a switched-capacitor amplifier, an analog-to-digital converter, oscillators, clock generation circuits and a reference circuit. The system combines a very low-power design with a smart energy management, which adapts the current consumption according to the accuracy and speed requirements of the application. The GSIC is used in a pressure and an acceleration monitoring system. The pressure monitoring system achieves a current drain of 2.3 muA for a 10-Hz sample frequency and an 8-bit accuracy. In the acceleration monitoring system, we measured a current of 3.3 muA for a sample frequency of 10 Hz and an accuracy of 9 bits