Embedded nano channels fabricated by non-selective reverse contact UV nanoimprint lithography technique

In this work, a novel nanofabrication technique is presented, namely “Reverse contact Ultraviolet Nanoimprint Lithography” (RUVNIL). It is based on reverse nanoimprint lithography and ultraviolet contact lithography. It provides flexibility in building complex three-dimensional structures allowing selective imprint over pre-patterned surfaces with or without residual layer in opposition to what is often encountered in the normal NIL process. We have investigated and optimized the imprinting parameters that are required for three-dimensional nanofabrication and applied it to the fabrication of nano-fluidic channels. This lithography technique is a very promising process for three-dimensional nanofabrication.     

Charge storage and memory effect in graphene quantum dots – PEG600 hybrid nanocomposite

We report an easy, one step, low cost method to obtain a hybrid composite material consisting in graphene quantum dots (GQDs) embedded in a polymeric – poly(ethylene glycol) bis (carboxymethyl) ether – matrix. Optical measurements show the excitation wavelength dependent photoluminescence of the GQDs – PEG₆₀₀. In comparison with self-passivated GQDs, the composite exhibits a blue shifted photoluminescence, as well as additional emission peaks in the range of 570–600 nm. These features are explained by the presence of new electronic surface states induced by the polymeric matrix as it was demonstrated by the electrochemical measurements. The transport properties consist in a large clockwise hysteresis presenting high and low resistance states, also two distinctive regions of negative differential resistance. The photocurrent decay and the transient currents indicate a large charge storage and confirm the existence of trap charge levels. The experimental findings suggest that the leading mechanism underling the transport is Simmons Verderber. We demonstrated the switching properties of GQDs – PEG₆₀₀ for applications in non-volatile memory by performing standard sequence memory tests.     

Hybrid ARQ schemes employing coded modulation and sequencecombining

In this paper, we propose and analyze two hybrid automatic-repeat-request (ARQ) schemes employing bandwidth efficient coded modulation and coded sequence combining. In the first scheme, a trellis-coded modulation (TCM) is used to control channel noise; while in the second scheme a concatenated coded modulation is employed. The concatenated coded modulation is formed by cascading a Reed-Solomon (RS) outer code and a block coded modulation (BCM) inner code. In both schemes, the coded modulation decoder, by performing sequence combining and soft-decision maximum likelihood decoding, makes full use of the information available in all received sequences corresponding to a given information message. It is shown, by means of analysis as well as computer simulations, that both schemes are capable of providing high throughput efficiencies over a wide range of signal-to-noise ratios. The schemes are suitable for large file transfers over satellite communication links where high throughput and high reliability are required     

Fast Growth of Thin MAPbI3 Crystal Wafers on Aqueous Solution Surface for Efficient Lateral‐Structure Perovskite Solar Cells

Solar‐grade single or multiple crystalline wafers are needed in large quantities in the solar cell industry, and are generally formed by a top‐down process from crystal ingots, which causes a significant waste of materials and energy during slicing, polishing, and other processing. Here, a bottom‐up technique that allows the growth of wafer‐size hybrid perovskite multiple crystals directly from aqueous solution is reported. Single‐crystalline hybrid perovskite wafers with centimeter size are grown at the top surface of a perovskite precursor solution. As well as saving raw materials, this method provides unprecedented advantages such as easily tunable thickness and rapid growth of the crystals. These crystalline wafers show high crystallinity, broader light absorption, and a long carrier recombination lifetime, comparable with those of bulk single crystals. Lateral‐structure perovskite solar cells made of these crystals demonstrate a record power conversion efficiency of 5.9%.     

An Analysis of a Distributed Switching Network with Integrated Voice and Data in Support of Command and Control

This paper explores the potential for increased transmission efficiency of military tactical command and control data links through voice/data integration. The relationship between voice and data communications as they are employed in support of Military Command is examined, and operational advantages to the integration of voice and data are enumerated. A message processing/handling paradigm of the command and control process is introduced. Past analyses are extended to include tactical data links, and an evaluation of the relative advantages of various degrees of voice/data integration over tactical data links and networks is presented. It is shown that it is generally more efficient for voice and data traffic to share voice-equivalent channels on a statistical contention basis than for voice and data to operate over separate dedicated data link voice-equivalent channels. Important exceptions to this rule are duly noted. Finally a hybrid scheme, where a thin-line capability is reserved for a special class of data and/or voice and where the remainder supports an integrated voice-data operation, is described and analyzed. This scheme is shown to be practical and to result in little loss of efficiency over the more complete voice/data integration analyzed earlier.     

The simultaneous interpolation of antenna radiation patterns inboth the spatial and frequency domains using model-based parameterestimation

The Pade rational function fitting model commonly used for model-based parameter estimation (MBPE) in the frequency domain is enhanced to include spatial dependence in the numerator and denominator coefficients. This allows the function to interpolate an antenna radiated electric field pattern in both the frequency and spatial domains simultaneously, such that a single set of coefficients can be used to accurately reconstruct an entire radiation pattern at any frequency in the fitting-model range. A simple procedure is introduced for transforming interpolated electric fields into gain patterns using input impedance versus frequency curves also obtained via MBPE. The utility of this method is demonstrated by applying it to a dipole antenna over a frequency range of 150-950 MHz and using a polynomial representation in &thetas; for the coefficient spatial dependence. It is also used to estimate radiation patterns for a three-element Yagi array between the frequencies of 470 and 500 MHz using a binomial representation for the spatial variation that includes terms dependent on &thetas; as well as φ. The use of this method for interpolating radiation patterns has at least two significant advantages; one being large compression ratios for the amount of data that must be stored to accurately reproduce patterns and the other being a significant decrease in the amount of time required for modeling problems with large computational domains     

Nanoimprint Lithography and the Role of Viscoelasticity in the Generation of Residual Stress in Model Polystyrene Patterns

Understanding polymer deformation during the nanoimprinting process is key to achieving robust polymer nanostructures. Information regarding this process can be extracted from monitoring the decay of the imprinted polymer patterns during thermal annealing. In the present work, the effect of both the molar mass and the imprinting temperature on the pattern decay behavior during thermal annealing is investigated. Previously, it was found that the decay rate is fastest for a highly entangled polymer due to the elastic recovery caused by the residual stress created during the imprinting process. The present paper demonstrates that this residual stress level can be modified through control of the imprinting temperature. These results are contrasted with those for an unentangled polymer over a similar range of imprinting temperatures, where it is found that the pattern decay is controlled by simple Newtonian flow. In particular, the pattern decay is well described by surface‐tension‐driven viscous flow, and no imprinting‐temperature effect is observed during thermal annealing. It is shown that the stability of the film against pattern decay can be optimized for moderately entangled polymer films. This effect is attributed to the competition between the effect of increased viscosity with increasing molar mass and increased residual stresses with entanglements. These observations provide guidance for the optimization of imprinting process in terms of selection of molar mass and processing temperatures.     

采用FDTD/FVTD混合算法分析蝶形微带天线

用FDTD和FVTD混合算法分析了蝶形微带天线的反射损失.在适于矩形网格的区域采用常规的非均匀FDTD算法,在微带贴片天线的斜边或PEC弯曲表面处采用FVTD算法,重叠区域的场通过邻近场的线性插值得到.程序仿真和实际测量结果的比较表明在较宽的频带内,该算法在不损失精度,不显著增加CPU时间和内存的情况下,极大地降低了常规FDTD所要求的网格密度.     

Coherent optical-fibre sensors with modulated laser sources

Coherent optical-fibre sensing based on environmentally induced phase modulation can be extremely sensitive, but interferometric detection limits dynamic range. This letter examines a separate class of applications where the very high sensitivity is not required, but where remote optical sensing of relatively large physical variations is desirable. We describe a system whereby source modulation may be used to determine the state of a remote interferometer accurately and unambiguously over phase modulations from a fraction of an optical wavelength to tens or even hundreds of wavelengths. The concept may also be utilised as the basis of a multiplexed sensor highway, and preliminary results are reported.     

Force control for hydraulic load simulator using self-tuning grey predictor – fuzzy PID

Hydraulic systems play an important role in modern industry for the reason that hydraulic actuator systems have many advantages over other technologies with electric motors, as they possess high durability and the ability to produce large forces at high speeds. Therefore, the hydraulic actuator has a wide range of application fields such as hydraulic punching, riveting, pressing machines, and molding technology, where controlled forces or pressures with high accuracy and fast response are the most significant demands. Consequently, many hybrid actuator models have been developed for studying how to control forces or pressures with best results.This paper presents a kind of hydraulic load simulator for conducting performance and stability testing related to the force control problem of hydraulic hybrid systems. In the dynamic loading process, perturbation decreases control performance such as stability, frequency response, and loading sensitivity decreasing or bad. In order to improve the control quality of the loading system while eliminating or reducing the disturbance, a grey prediction model combined with a fuzzy PID controller is suggested. Furthermore, fuzzy controllers and a tuning algorithm are used to change the grey step size in order to improve the control quality. The grey prediction compensator can improve the system settle time and overshoot problems. Simulations and experiments on the hydraulic load simulator are carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed control method when applied to hydraulic systems with various external disturbances encountered in real working conditions.     

Random-Forests-Based Network Intrusion Detection Systems

Prevention of security breaches completely using the existing security technologies is unrealistic. As a result, intrusion detection is an important component in network security. However, many current intrusion detection systems (IDSs) are rule-based systems, which have limitations to detect novel intrusions. Moreover, encoding rules is time-consuming and highly depends on the knowledge of known intrusions. Therefore, we propose new systematic frameworks that apply a data mining algorithm called random forests in misuse, anomaly, and hybrid-network-based IDSs. In misuse detection, patterns of intrusions are built automatically by the random forests algorithm over training data. After that, intrusions are detected by matching network activities against the patterns. In anomaly detection, novel intrusions are detected by the outlier detection mechanism of the random forests algorithm. After building the patterns of network services by the random forests algorithm, outliers related to the patterns are determined by the outlier detection algorithm. The hybrid detection system improves the detection performance by combining the advantages of the misuse and anomaly detection. We evaluate our approaches over the Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining 1999 (KDD’99) dataset. The experimental results demonstrate that the performance provided by the proposed misuse approach is better than the best KDD’99 result; compared to other reported unsupervised anomaly detection approaches, our anomaly detection approach achieves higher detection rate when the false positive rate is low; and the presented hybrid system can improve the overall performance of the aforementioned IDSs.      

Rapid Thermal Processing: A New Step Forward in Microelectronics Technologies

Comparative analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of RTP systems and diffusion furnaces (DFs) in terms of the cost efficiency and performance is presented. RTP systems outperform DFs when high temperatures and short processing times are required. The latter are preferable in the case of long-term processes, where large periods of loading/unloading and cooling have a minor effect of the throughput. The performance of the equipment is estimated by conducting such processes as the growth of a gate dielectric, TiSi₂formation, and formation of shallow p–njunctions. Short processing times, high heating rates, high purity of process gases, and the possibility of quickly changing over between various process gases are those advantages of RTP that allow this approach to be viewed as a promising way for manufacturing submicron ICs. It is shown that RTP will dominate in the production of sub-0.25-m ICs and may be a contributory factor for future advances in microelectronic technologies.     

Terahertz Absorption Characteristics of NiCr Film and Enhanced Absorption by Reactive Ion Etching in a Microbolometer Focal Plane Array

Nano – scale metallic films have been proven to be an effective terahertz (THz) absorption layer in uncooled infrared (IR) microbolometers operated in THz spectral range. Optimized absorption can be achieved by adjusting the thickness of metallic film. Nickel – chromium (NiCr) thin films are deposited on the diaphragms of 320 × 240 VO_x – based infrared focal plane arrays (IRFPA). Absorption measurements of the diaphragms with different thicknesses of NiCr (5 to 40 nm) agree reasonably well with the predicted absorption. To improve THz absorption further, a reactive ion etching (RIE) process applied to the dielectric support layer is first suggested, which generates nano – scale surface structures and increases the effective surface area of NiCr absorption film. This provides an effective way which is easy to accomplish and compatible with the manufacturing process of microbolometer IRFPAs to improve THz absorption and detection sensitivity.     

Homogeneous CoO on Graphene for Binder‐Free and Ultralong‐Life Lithium Ion Batteries

Ultralong cycle life, high energy, and power density rechargeable lithium‐ion batteries are crucial to the ever‐increasing large‐scale electric energy storage for renewable energy and sustainable road transport. However, the commercial graphite anode cannot perform this challenging task due to its low theoretical capacity and poor rate‐capability performance. Metal oxides hold much higher capacity but still are plagued by low rate capability and serious capacity degradation. Here, a novel strategy is developed to prepare binder‐free and mechanically robust CoO/graphene electrodes, wherein homogenous and full coating of β‐Co(OH)₂ nanosheets on graphene, through a novel electrostatic induced spread growth method, plays a key role. The combined advantages of large 2D surface and moderate inflexibility of the as‐obtained β‐Co(OH)₂/graphene hybrid enables its easy coating on Cu foil by a simple layer‐by‐layer stacking process. Devices made with these electrodes exhibit high rate capability over a temperature range from 0 to 55 °C and, most importantly, maintain excellent cycle stability up to 5000 cycles even at a high current density.     

Temperature range specification of system gain for microwave radio equipment mounted externally

At the higher microwave frequencies, where radio systems are designed with a fade margin to overcome precipitation fading, the temperature range over which this fade margin is required may not have previously been considered. There is substantial evidence that both precipitation fading and multipath fading are temperature-dependent. As a result, the specified required system gain can be significantly reduced, at and towards the extremes of the temperature range, from that needed to meet the maximum precipitation fading. This should result in lowering the cost of the equipment.     

Oriented Multiwalled Organic–Co(OH)2 Nanotubes for Energy Storage

In energy storage materials, large surface areas and oriented structures are key architecture design features for improving performance through enhanced electrolyte access and efficient electron conduction pathways. Layered hydroxides provide a tunable materials platform with opportunities for achieving such nanostructures via bottom‐up syntheses. These nanostructures, however, can degrade in the presence of the alkaline electrolytes required for their redox‐based energy storage. A layered Co(OH)₂–organic hybrid material that forms a hierarchical structure consisting of micrometer‐long, 30 nm diameter tubes with concentric curved layers of Co(OH)₂ and 1‐pyrenebutyric acid is reported. The nanotubular structure offers high surface area as well as macroscopic orientation perpendicular to the substrate for efficient electron transfer. Using a comparison with flat films of the same composition, it is demonstrated that the superior performance of the nanotubular films is the result of a large accessible surface area for redox activity. It is found that the organic molecules used to template nanotubular growth also impart stability to the hybrid when present in the alkaline environments necessary for redox function.     

Digital image elasto-tomography: combinatorial and hybrid optimization algorithms for shape-based elastic property reconstruction

Results from the application of three nonlinear stiffness reconstruction algorithms to two simple cylindrical geometries are presented in this paper. Finite-element simulated harmonic motion data with added noise were initially used to represent a measured surface displacement dataset for each geometry. This motion was used as input to gradient-descent, combinatorial optimization, and hybrid reconstruction algorithms that aimed to reconstruct two shape-based parameters describing the internal stiffness of the geometry. Both the combinatorial optimization and hybrid algorithms showed significant advantages in reconstructed parameter accuracy when compared with the traditional gradient-descent approach, with success metrics improving by 13--28%. Results from the hybrid algorithm applied to silicone phantom displacements demonstrated for the first time the ability of this type of algorithm to reconstruct internal stiffness using only experimentally measured surface motion data. Improvements in the sophistication of the hybrid approach should lead to improved accuracy in reconstructed solutions, as well as enabling reconstructions where the geometry is less straightforward.