A 1-V 10.7-MHz switched-opamp bandpass /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ modulator using double-sampling finite-gain-compensation technique

A 1 V switched-capacitor (SC) bandpass sigma-delta (/spl Sigma//spl Delta/) modulator is realized using a high-speed switched-opamp (SO) technique with a sampling frequency of up to 50 MHz, which is improved ten times more than prior 1 V SO designs and comparable to the performance of the state-of-the-art SC circuits that operate at much higher supply voltages. On the system level, a fast-settling double-sampling SC biquadratic filter architecture is proposed to achieve high-speed operation. A low-voltage double-sampling finite-gain-compensation technique is employed to realize a high-resolution /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ modulator using only low-DC-gain opamps to maximize the speed and to reduce power dissipation. On the circuit level, a fast-switching methodology is proposed for the design of the switchable opamps to achieve a switching frequency up to 50 MHz. Implemented in a 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS process (V/sub TP/=0.82 V and V/sub TN/=0.65 V) and at 1 V supply, the modulator achieves a measured peak signal-to-noise-and-distortion ratio (SNDR) of 42.3 dB at 10.7 MHz with a signal bandwidth of 200 kHz, while dissipating 12 mW and occupying a chip area of 1.3 mm/sup 2/.     

Solution of Helmholtz equation by Trefftz method

The application of the Trefftz method for calculating wave forces on offshore structures is presented. Indirect and direct formulations using complete and non-singular systems of Trefftz functions for the Helmholtz equation are posed in this paper. An effective technique using different interpolation functions for the velocity potential and wave force are suggested to improve the computational accuracy of the wave force. The numerical examples show that the present method is highly efficient and accurate.     

Optimal transfer trees and distinguishing trees for testing observable nondeterministic finite-state machines

The fault-state detection approach for blackbox testing consists of two phases. The first is to bring the system under test (SUT) from its initial state to a targeted state t and the second is to check various specified properties of the SUT at t. This paper investigates the first phase for testing systems specified as observable nondeterministic finite-state machines with probabilistic and weighted transitions. This phase involves two steps. The first step transfers the SUT to some state t' and the second step identifies whether t' is indeed the targeted state t or not. State transfer is achieved by moving the SUT along one of the paths of a transfer tree (TT) and state identification is realized by using diagnosis trees (DT). A theoretical foundation for the existence and characterization of TT and DT with minimum weighted height or minimum average weight is presented. Algorithms for their computation are proposed.     

Modeling electromigration lifetime under bidirectional currentstress

Electromigration reliability of interconnect under bidirectional current stress has been studied in a wide frequency range (mHz to 200 MHz). Experimental results show that the AC lifetime rises with the stress current frequency. The current density exponent and the activation energy of AC lifetime are found to be twice that of DC lifetime. Pure AC current stress failure at extremely high current density is believed to result from thermal migration of metal at hot/cold transition points     

Recent Development of Cognitive and Neuropsychological Assessment in Asian Countries.

There is a growing trend of research in neuropsychological assessment in Asia: The mean number of published studies increased from 1.8 in the 1980s to 16.0 in 2 recent years. About 40% of the studies reviewed concerned test development or adaptation, with the latter greatly outnumbering the former. To facilitate the test selection for clinical use, 36 clinical measures were evaluated based on some statistical criteria. The results showed that only 8 neuropsychological tests (5 Chinese. 2 Korean, and 1 Japanese) met the criteria. Given that Asian and Western populations differ on certain cognitive processes, future development of neuropsychological assessment measures in Asia should move from the adaptation of Western tests toward the construction of original tests with better ecological validity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Numerical simulation of aerosol collection in filters with staggered parallel rectangular fibres

 In this paper, filters with rectangular fibres arranged in a staggered and parallel array and placed transverse to the flow are studied numerically. A two- dimensional flow field is obtained by solving Navier–Stokes equations with the control volume method. Periodic boundary conditions are introduced in the calculation. In order to achieve higher accuracy, a second-order upwind scheme is adopted and a fine mesh is arranged near the fibre and the symmetrical plane of the flow field where large gradients in velocity are expected. Particle trajectories are calculated by solving the corresponding Lagrangian equation of motion to obtain the collection efficiency of a single rectangular fibre, in which positions of the approaching particles on the inlet plane of the flow field are randomly distributed according to the Monte-Carlo principle. The simulation considers all the important mechanisms of particle capture including interception, inertial impaction and Brownian motion. Effects of fibre aspect ratio, filter packing density, particulate size and Reynolds number on the collection efficiency are numerically determined. The volumetric packing density ranges from 0.4 to 4% and the particle diameter is from 0.01 μm to 2 μm. Reynolds number based on the height of computational domain varies from 20 to 100 and the aspect ratio is from 0.1 to 10. Simulations with and without Brownian motion are carried out for different Reynolds numbers, packing densities and aspect ratios and the results show that Brownian effects are significant for particles smaller than 1 μm. Received 25 May 2001     

A new boundary integral equation for notch problem of plane elasticity

A new boundary integral equation for the notch problem of plane elasticity is formulated in this paper. In the formulation, the distributed dislocation density is taken to be the unknown function and the resultant force function to be the right-hand term in the resulting integral equation. As a result the integral equation derived contains a logarithmic kernel. The equation is compact in form and convenient for computation. The accuracy of the method is demonstrated through a number of numerical examples.     

An electromigration failure model for interconnects under pulsedand bidirectional current stressing

An electromigration failure model which can be used to project the electromigration lifetime under pulsed DC and AC current stressing has been reported. The experimental results indicate that different metallization systems (Al-2%Si, Al4%Cu/TiW, and Cu) show similar failure behaviors, which can be explained and predicted by this model. The pulsed DC lifetime is found to be longer than DC lifetime, and the AC lifetime is found to be very much longer. This recognition can provide significant relief to circuit designs involving metals carrying pulsed DC and AC currents, and allow a more aggressive design to improve circuit density and speed     

Apply geometric duality to energy-efficient non-local phenomenon awareness using sensor networks

A powerful concept to cope with resource limitations and information redundancy in wireless sensor networks is the use of collaboration groups to distill information within the network and suppress unnecessary activities. When the phenomena to be monitored have large geographical extents, it is not obvious how to define these collaboration groups. This article presents the application of geometric duality to form such groups for sensor selection and non-local phenomena tracking. Using a dual-space transformation, which maps a non-local phenomenon (e.g., the edge of a half-plane shadow) to a single point in the dual space and maps locations of distributed sensor nodes to a set of lines that partitions the dual space, one can turn off the majority of the sensors to achieve resource preservation without losing detection and tracking accuracy. Since the group so defined may consist of nodes that are far away in physical space, we propose a hierarchical architecture that uses a small number of computationally powerful nodes and a massive number of power constrained motes. By taking advantage of the continuity of physical phenomena and the duality principle, we can greatly reduce the power consumption in non-local phenomena tracking and extend the lifetime of the network.