Low‐temperature‐applicable polymer‐stabilized blue‐phase liquid crystal and its Kerr effect

Abstract— A type of polymer‐stabilized blue‐phase liquid crystal, which can be used in a low‐temperature environment, is proposed. The blue‐phase range after polymerization was widened to more than 73°C, and the blue‐phase texture is very stable even at a temperature as low as ?35°C. The electro‐optical performances dependence on polymer concentration was investigated. The results indicate that the saturation voltage increases and the hysteresis enhances as the polymer concentration increases. The rise and decay times could reach as low as 391 and 789 μsec, respectively. Such material also shows good electro‐optical behavior at a temperature of ?35°C. In addition, the Kerr constant was tested under a uniformly distributed electric field to be 2.195 nm/V² at room temperature and 2.077 nm/V² at ?35°C. The Kerr constant tested under white‐light illumination was 1.975 nm/V², which shows a small dispersion.     

Highly efficient blue organic light‐emitting diode with high color purity using 4,4′‐N,N′‐dicarbazole‐biphyenyl (CBP) doped with 1,4‐bis[2‐(3‐N‐ethylcarbazoryl) vinyl]benzene (BCzVB)

Abstract— An efficient pure blue multilayer organic light‐emitting diode employing 1,4‐bis[2‐(3‐N‐ethylcarbazoryl)vinyl]benzene (BCzVB) doped into 4,4′‐N,N′‐dicarbazole‐biphyenyl (CBP) is reported. The device structure is ITO (indium tin oxide)/TPD (N,N′‐diphenyl‐N,N′‐bis (3‐methylphenyl)‐1,1′biphenyl‐4,4′diamine)/CBP:BCzVB/Alq₃ (tris‐(8‐hydroxy‐quinolinato) aluminum)/Liq (8‐hydroxy‐quinolinato lithium)/Al; here TPD was used as the hole‐transporting layer, CBP as the blue‐emitting host, BCzVB as the blue dopant, Alq₃ as the electron‐transporting layer, Liq as the electron‐injection layer, and Al as the cathode, respectively. A maximum luminance of 8500 cd/m² and a device efficiency of 3.5 cd/A were achieved. The CIE co‐ordinates were x = 0.15, y = 0.16. The electroluminescent spectra reveal a dominant peak at 448 nm and additional peaks at 476 nm with a full width at half maximum of 60 nm. The Föster energy transfer and, especially, carrier trapping models were considered to be the main mechanism for exciton formation on BCzVB molecules under electrical excitation.     

Low‐voltage and high‐transmittance blue‐phase liquid‐crystal device with slanted electrodes

Abstract— A low‐voltage (～10 V_rms) and high‐transmittance (～90%) polymer‐stabilized blue‐phase liquid‐crystal (BPLC) device with a slanted‐electrodes structure is proposed. Unlike the vertical‐field‐switching (VFS) mode in which oblique incident light and a vertical field are employed, the proposed device utilizes normal incident light and an oblique field. The slanted electrodes generate a strong and uniform oblique electric field, which contributes in obtaining low voltage and high transmittance. Moreover, no couple films or prism sheets are needed, which helps to enhance the optical efficiency and simplify of the device structure. This device has great potential application for emerging BPLC displays and photonic devices.     

H∞Fuzzy State‐Feedback Control Plus State‐Derivative‐Feedback Control Synthesis for Photovoltaic Systems

This paper addresses the problem of designing an H_∞fuzzy state‐ feedback (SF) plus state‐derivative‐feedback (SDF) control system for photovoltaic (PV) systems based on a linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach. The TS fuzzy controller is designed on the basis of the Takagi‐Sugeno (TS) fuzzy model. The sufficient condition is found such that the system with the fuzzy controller is asymptotically stable and an H_∞performance is satisfied. First, a dc/dc buck converter is considered to regulate the power output by controlling state and state‐derivative variables of PV systems. The dynamic model of PV systems is approximated by the TS fuzzy model in the form of nonlinear systems. Then, based on a well‐known Lyapunov functional approach, the synthetic is formulated of an H_∞fuzzy SF plus SDF control law, which guarantees the L₂‐gain from an exogenous input to the regulated output to be less than or equal to some prescribed value. Finally, to show effectiveness, the simulation of the PV systems with the proposed control is assessed by the computer programme. The proposed control method shows good performance for power output and high stability for the PV system.     

Dual‐band balanced coupler with wideband common‐mode suppression

A novel compact dual‐band balanced coupler with differential‐mode power division, broadband common‐mode, and common‐to‐differential‐mode conversion suppression is proposed. In these double‐functionality balanced‐coupler architectures, double‐sided parallel‐strip line 180° phase inverters are used to realize the broadband common‐mode rejection. Moreover, the frequency is tunable by changing the characteristic impedance of the transmission line. For practical verification, a balanced couplers (ε_r = 2.65, h = 0.5 mm, tan(δ_D) = 0.003) operation at 0.9/1.8 GHz is constructed in microstrip technology and tested.     

A reflective polarizer‐free display using dye‐doped polymer‐stabilized blue‐phase liquid crystals

Abstract— A reflective polarizer‐free display using dye‐doped polymer‐stabilized blue‐phase liquid crystal (DDPSBP‐LC) has been demonstrated. The mechanism is a combination of electrically tunable light absorption and Bragg reflection. In this paper, the influence of light absorption in DDPSBP‐LC by changing the dye concentration and absorption paths has been studied. Increased dye concentration can improve the contrast ratio of DDPSBP‐LC; however, the response time is the tradeoff. Increasing the cell gap can improve the contrast ratio of DDPSBP‐LC; however, the response time remains the same. The study of DDPSBP‐LC can help in shutter‐glass applications of 3‐D displays and electronic paper.     

Blue‐to‐red electroluminescence from organic light‐emitting field‐effect transistor using various organic semiconductor materials

Abstract— We succeeded in observing visible bright electroluminescence from blue to red in an organic field‐effect‐transistor structure. In particular, tetraphenylpyrene (TPPy) demonstrated a high photoluminescence efficiency of φ_PL ～ 70% and a maximum electroluminescence efficiency of η_EL ～ 10^?2%. The electroluminescence efficiency (ηEL) was enhanced by using a short source‐to‐drain channel length (L_SD < 1 μm). In addition, doping the TPPy layer with highly fluorescent rubrene molecules led to an #PL of ～100% and a maximum ηEL of 0.8%.     

A compact dual‐band zeroth‐order resonator antenna loaded with meander line inductor

A novel zeroth‐order resonator (ZOR) meta‐material (MTM) antenna with dual‐band is suggested using compound right/left handed transmission line as MTM. In this article, suggested antenna consists of patch through series gap, two meander line inductors, and two circular stubs. The MTM antenna is compact in size which shows dual‐band properties with first band centered at 2.47 GHz (2.05‐2.89 GHz) and second band is centered at 5.9 GHz (3.70‐8.10 GHz) with impedance bandwidth of (S₁₁ < ? 10 dB) 34.69% and 72.45%, respectively. At ZOR mode (2.35 GHz), the suggested antenna has overall dimension of 0.197λ_o × 0.07λ_o × 0.011λ_o with gain of 1.65 dB for ZOR band and 3.35 dB for first positive order resonator band which covers the applications like Bluetooth (2.4 GHZ), TV/Radio/Data (3.700‐6.425 GHz), WLAN (5‐5.16 GHz), C band frequencies (5.15‐5.35, 5.47‐5.725, or 5.725‐5.875 GHz) and satellite communication (7.25‐7.9 GHz). The radiation patterns of suggested structure are steady during the operating band for which sample antenna has been fabricated and confirmed experimentally. It exhibits novel omnidirectional radiation characteristics in phi = 0° plane with lower cross‐polarization values.     

A submillisecond‐response liquid crystal for color sequential projection displays

We report a new LC with low viscosity and high clearing point (T_c ~102 °C) for color‐sequential projection displays. Using a 1.95‐µm mixed‐mode twisted nematic cell, the averaged gray‐to‐gray response time is less than 1 ms, which is ~3.6× faster than the current state of the art. Such a mixed‐mode twisted nematic liquid‐crystal‐on‐silicon can be used for near‐to‐eye wearable projection displays and head‐up displays in vehicles.     

Modeling double‐side printed meander‐line inductors on printed circuit boards

A lumped element model for a double‐side printed meander‐line inductor with closed‐ form expressions for the electrical model parameters L, C, R_l, and R_c is presented. These structures are cheaper than coils and need less area per unit of inductance than single‐side printed meander‐line inductors. The model has been validated with measurements from 30 to 1000 MHz, finding a mean error in the inductance parameter of about 1%. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 13: 105–112, 2003.     

Reliable control design for composite‐driven scheme based on delay networked T‐S fuzzy system

This paper is focused on reliable controller design for a composite‐driven scheme of networked control systems via Takagi‐Sugeno fuzzy model with probabilistic actuator fault under time‐varying delay. The proposed scheme is distinguished from the other schemes as mentioned in this paper. Aims of this article are to solve the control problem by considering the H_∞, dissipative, and L₂?L_∞ constraints in a unified way. Firstly, to improve the efficient utilization of bandwidth, the adaptive composite‐driven scheme is introduced. In such a scenario, the channel transmission mechanism can be adjusted between adaptive event‐triggered generator scheme and time‐driven scheme. In this study, the threshold is dependent on a new adaptive law, which can be obtained online rather than a predefined constant. With a constant threshold, it is difficult to get the variation of the system. Secondly, a novel fuzzy Lyapunov‐Krasovskii functional is constructed to design the fuzzy controller, and delay‐dependent conditions for stability and performance analysis of the control system are obtained. Then, LMI‐based conditions for the existence of the desired fuzzy controller are presented. Finally, an inverted pendulum that is controlled through the channel is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Back‐channel‐etched thin‐film transistor using c‐axis‐aligned crystal In–Ga–Zn oxide

Our crystalline In–Ga–Zn oxide (IGZO) thin film has a c‐axis‐aligned crystal (CAAC) structure and maintains crystallinity even on an amorphous base layer. Although the crystal has c‐axis alignment, its a‐axis and b‐axis have random arrangement; moreover, a clear grain boundary is not observed. We fabricated a back‐channel‐etched thin‐film transistor (TFT) using the CAAC‐IGZO film. Using the CAAC‐IGZO film, more stable TFT characteristics, even with a short channel length, can be obtained, and the instability of the back channel, which is one of the biggest problems of IGZO TFTs, is solved. As a result, we improved the process of manufacturing back‐channel‐etched TFTs.     

Inorganic EL devices with high‐performance blue phosphor and application to 34‐in. flat‐panel televisions

Abstract— A high‐performance inorganic electroluminescence (EL) device has been successfully developed by using an EL structure with a thick dielectric layer (TDEL) and sputtered BaAl₂S₄:Eu blue phosphor. The luminance and efficacy were higher than 2300 cd/m² and 2.5 lm/W at L⁶⁰, 120 Hz, respectively. Furthermore, the luminance at L⁶⁰, 1.2 kHz was more than 23,000 cd/m². The phosphor layer has a single‐phase and a highly oriented crystalline structure. The phosphor also shows high stability in air. A 34‐in. high‐definition television (HDTV) has been developed by combining a TDEL structure and color‐conversion materials. The panels with an optimized color filter demonstrated a peak luminance of 350 cd/m², a color gamut of more than 100% NTSC, and a wide viewing angle similar to that of plasma‐display panels. The high reproducibility of the 34‐in. panels using our pilot line has been confirmed.     

Prospects of emerging polymer‐stabilized blue‐phase liquid‐crystal displays

Abstract— The prospects of emerging polymer‐stabilized blue‐phase liquid‐crystal displays, or more generally, Kerr‐effect‐induced isotropic‐to‐anisotropic transition, are analyzed with special emphases on the temperature effects. As the temperature increases, both the Kerr constant, induced birefringence, and response time decrease but at different rates. The proposed physical models fit well with experimental results. Some remaining technical challenges associated with this promising display technology are discussed.     

ANN‐based modeling of compact impedance‐varying transmission lines with applications to ultra‐wideband Wilkinson power dividers

The modeling of the physical and electrical characteristics of microstrip non‐uniform transmission lines (NTLs) utilizing artificial neural networks (ANNs) is investigated. The fundamental equations and constraints for designing variable impedance transmission lines are first presented. Then, a proof‐of‐concept example of a compact non‐uniform matching transformer and the counterpart modeled version is elaborated for source and load impedances Z_s and Z_l, respectively, at 0.5 GHz. For comparison purposes, weights and biases of the proposed ANN are established with three different training techniques; namely: backpropagation (BP), Quasi‐Newton (QN), and conjugate gradient (CG); at which the ABCD matrix, impedance variations, input port matching (S₁₁), and transmission parameter (S₂₁) are set as benchmarks to examine the validity of the trained model. The concept is then extended to model a NTL ultrawideband (UWB) Wilkinson power divider (WPD) with three resistors for improved isolation. S‐parameters derived from the trained ANN outputs are close to those obtained by the traditional time‐consuming optimization procedure, and show input and output ports matching and isolation of below ?10 dB, and acceptable values of transmission parameters over the 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz band. The resulting models outperform traditional optimizations in terms of simulation time and reserved resources with comparable accuracy. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 25:563–572, 2015.     

Improvement of electro‐optical properties of PSBP LCD using a double‐sided IPS electrode

Abstract— In this work, a low‐hysteresis polymer‐stabilized blue‐phase LCD is developed by controlling the polymerization temperature and using a double‐sided IPS (DS‐IPS) electrode. Compared to a conventional IPS LCD, this DS‐IPS LCD has a driving voltage of 45 V, which is lower than that, 62 V, of a conventional single‐sided IPS LCD. The transmittance is increased approximately 23%. The hysteresis is reduced to 0.44% which decreases as a function of the operating voltage. Furthermore, simulations of the maximum transmittance and operation voltage associated with the offset between the electrodes in the top and bottom substrates were also evaluated.     

A new finite sum inequality approach to delay‐dependent H∞ control of discrete‐time systems with time‐varying delay

This paper deals with delay‐dependent H_∞ control for discrete‐time systems with time‐varying delay. A new finite sum inequality is first established to derive a delay‐dependent condition, under which the resulting closed‐loop system via a state feedback is asymptotically stable with a prescribed H_∞ noise attenuation level. Then, an iterative algorithm involving convex optimization is proposed to obtain a suboptimal H_∞ controller. Finally, two numerical examples are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed method. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Compact tri‐band MIMO antenna based on quarter‐mode slotted substrate‐integrated‐waveguide cavity

A compact tri‐band multiple‐input‐multiple‐output (MIMO) antenna based on a quarter‐mode slotted substrate‐integrated‐waveguide (SIW) cavity is proposed. By etching a wide slot, a single SIW cavity is divided into two sub‐cavities with the same size. They are fed by coaxial ports to form two MIMO elements and high antenna isolation can be achieved by this slot. To obtain multi‐band operations, two narrow slots are cut in the upper sub‐cavity and the other two slots are etched in the lower sub‐cavity. Three eighth‐mode resonances with different areas can simultaneously occur in these antenna elements. A prototype with the overall size of 0.34λ₀ × 0.34λ₀ has been fabricated. The measured center frequencies of three operating bands are 2.31, 2.91, and 3.35 GHz, respectively. The measured gain at above frequencies is 4.52, 4.29, and 4.57 dBi, respectively. Moreover, the measured isolation is higher than 16.7 dB within the frequency of interest.     

Transflective blue‐phase liquid‐crystal display with corrugated electrode structure

Abstract— A transflective polymer‐stabilized blue‐phase liquid‐crystal display (BP‐LCD) with a corrugated electrode structure is proposed. To balance the optical phase retardation between the transmissive (T) and reflective (R) regions, two device structures are proposed. The first device structure has the same inclination angles but different cell gaps in the T and R regions. And the second device structure has the same cell gap but different inclination angles in the T and R regions. Both of the device structures can obtain well‐matched VT and VR curves. This display exhibits low operating voltage, high optical efficiency, and a wide viewing angle.     

Structured H∞‐control of infinite‐dimensional systems

We develop a novel frequency‐based H_∞‐control method for a large class of infinite‐dimensional linear time‐invariant systems in transfer function form. A major benefit of our approach is that reduction or identification techniques are not needed, which avoids typical distortions. Our method allows to exploit both state‐space or transfer function models and input/output frequency response data when only such are available. We aim for the design of practically useful H_∞‐controllers of any convenient structure and size. We use a nonsmooth trust‐region bundle method to compute arbitrarily structured locally optimal H_∞‐controllers for a frequency‐sampled approximation of the underlying infinite‐dimensional H_∞‐problem in such a way that (i) exponential stability in closed loop is guaranteed and that (ii) the optimal H_∞‐value of the approximation differs from the true infinite‐dimensional value only by a prior user‐specified tolerance. We demonstrate the versatility and practicality of our method on a variety of infinite‐dimensional H_∞‐synthesis problems, including distributed and boundary control of partial differential equations, control of dead‐time and delay systems, and using a rich testing set.