Voltage‐Mode 1.5 Gbps Interface Circuits for Chip‐to‐Chip Communication

In this paper, interface circuits that are suitable for point‐to‐point interconnection with an over 1 Gbps data rate per pin are proposed. To achieve a successful data transfer rate of multi‐gigabits per‐second between two chips with a point‐to‐point interconnection, the input receiver uses an on‐chip parallel terminator of the pass gate style, while the output driver uses the pullup and pulldown transistors of the diode‐connected style. In addition, the novel dynamic voltage level converter (DVLC) has solved such problems as the access time increase and valid data window reduction. These schemes were adopted on a 64 Mb DDR SRAM with a 1.5 Gbps data rate per pin and fabricated using a 0.10 µm dual gate oxide CMOS technology.     

A smartphone‐based U‐Healthcare system for real‐time monitoring of acute myocardial infarction

In recent years, medical service has been evolving from systems designed around centralized hospitals to Ubiquitous Healthcare (U‐Healthcare). U‐Healthcare system can facilitate real‐time monitoring of patient states, and can provide medical checkups and management whenever and wherever the medical staff deems necessary. U‐Healthcare services can provide chronic condition monitoring in the early stages of diseases and help execute decisive medical action in emergencies. However, thus far, the application of U‐Healthcare systems has been limited to diseases such as obesity, diabetes, etc. Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is among the most critical chronic diseases and requires early detection and treatment. In this paper, we propose an AMI diagnostic software technique and protocol that can support real‐time communication between the patient and medical personnel. Our monitoring and diagnostic system has been developed using a protocol based on ISO/IEEE 11073. When data is transferred from the patient's smartphone to a server in hospital, the medical personnel consult the patient's biosensor data to determine the status of the relevant disease and provide appropriate medical service. The relevant information is sent back to the patient's smartphone through a wireless network, and patients can view their data in graphical format through their smartphone. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Binary blends of nylons with ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymers: Morphological,thermal, rheological,and mechanical behavior

Binary blends of ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymers, containing 62 (EVOH-62) and 71 (EVOH-71) mole percent vinyl alcohols, with nylons (nylon-6, nylon-6/12, and nylon-12) have been prepared from melt mixing in a twin screw compounding machine. Morphological, thermal, rheological, and mechanical properties were determined. EVOH-62/nylon-6 and EVOH-71/nylon-6 blends showed homogeneous phase morphologies in the nylon-6-rich region, and fine phase separations (c.a. 2 × 10^?7 m) in the EVOH-rich region. Melting point depression, positive deviations in viscosity and flexural modulus, and negative deviation in impact strength from the simple additive rule were generally observed. And the results were possibly interpreted in terms of compatibility and increased nylon/EVOH interactions over the nylon/nylon interactions. On the contrary, clean phase separations in large domains were observed from EVOH-71/nylon-6/12 and EVOH-71 /nylon-12 blends. Fibrillation was also obtained from EVOH rich blends. Probably due to the incompatible nature of these blends, yield at low rate of shear and a mechanical property drop were also observed.     

Exhaustive Output Arbitration of Input Buffered Switch with Buffered Crossbar

We propose a new arbitration method for an input buffered switch with a buffered crossbar. In the proposed method, an exhaustive polling method is used to decrease the synchronization. Using an approximate analysis, we explain how the proposed method improves the switch performance. Also, using computer simulations, we show the proposed method outperforms the previous methods under burst traffic.     

Selective Photothermal Tumor Therapy Using Nanodiamond‐Based Nanoclusters with Folic Acid

This paper describes the fabrication and evaluation of folic acid (FA)‐conjugated nanodiamond (ND) nanoclusters for selective photothermal tumor therapy. ND nanoclusters with surface carboxyl groups are aminated using ethylenediamine and conjugated with FA via carbodiimide chemistry. The temperature of an aqueous ND dispersion (10 μg mL^?1) is increased to 54 °C upon laser exposure for 5 min. FA‐ND nanoclusters are preferentially taken up by KB cells (folate receptor positive) compared to WI‐38 (folate receptor negative) cells, suggesting specificity for tumor cells that overexpress folate receptors. Cell viability tests reveal that FA‐ND nanoclusters effectively and selectively ablate KB cells upon near‐infrared (NIR) laser exposure. In addition, fluorescence microscopy images confirm that only KB cells treated with FA‐ND nanoclusters are ablated in a spot (200 μm in diameter) by NIR laser exposure. In an animal model, a large amount of FA‐ND nanoclusters is accumulated into tumor tissue, resulting in dramatically reduced tumor volume post‐NIR laser exposure as compared to ND nanoclusters.     

Improvement of the cell performance in the ZnS/Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells by the sputter deposition of a bilayer ZnO : Al film

ZnS is a candidate to replace CdS as the buffer layer in Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ (CIGS) solar cells for Cd‐free commercial product. However, the resistance of ZnS is too large, and the photoconductivity is too small. Therefore, the thickness of the ZnS should be as thin as possible. However, a CIGS solar cell with a very thin ZnS buffer layer is vulnerable to the sputtering power of the ZnO : Al window layer deposition because of plasma damage. To improve the efficiency of CIGS solar cells with a chemical‐bath‐deposited ZnS buffer layer, the effect of the plasma damage by the sputter deposition of the ZnO : Al window layer should be understood. We have found that the efficiency of a CIGS solar cell consistently decreases with an increase in the sputtering power for the ZnO : Al window layer deposition onto the ZnS buffer layer because of plasma damage. To protect the ZnS/CIGS interface, a bilayer ZnO : Al film was developed. It consists of a 50‐nm‐thick ZnO : Al plasma protection layer deposited at a sputtering power of 50 W and a 100‐nm‐thick ZnO : Al conducting layer deposited at a sputtering power of 200 W. The introduction of a 50‐nm‐thick ZnO : Al layer deposited at 50 W prevented plasma damage by sputtering, resulting in a high open‐circuit voltage, a large fill factor, and shunt resistance. The ZnS/CIGS solar cell with the bilayer ZnO : Al film yielded a cell efficiency of 14.68%. Therefore, the application of bilayer ZnO : Al film to the window layer is suitable for CIGS solar cells with a ZnS buffer layer. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Thermal Resistance Measurement of LED Package with Multichips

Thermal transient measurements of high power GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with multichip designs are presented and discussed in the paper. Once transient cooling curve was obtained, the structure function theory was applied to determine the thermal resistance of packages. The total thermal resistance from junction to ambient considering optical power is 19.87 K/W, 10.78 K/W, 6.77 K/W for the one-chip, two-chip and four-chip packages, respectively. The contribution of each component to the total thermal resistance of the package can be determined from the cumulative structure function and differential structure function. The total thermal resistance of multichip packages is found to decrease with the number of chips due to parallel heat dissipation. However, the effect of the number of chips on thermal resistance of package strongly depends on the ratio of partial thermal resistance of chip and that of slug. Therefore, an important thermal design rule for packaging of high power multichip LEDs has been analogized.     

Strain‐Visualization with Ultrasensitive Nanoscale Crack‐Based Sensor Assembled with Hierarchical Thermochromic Membrane

As eidetic signal recognition has become important, displaying mechanical signals visually has imposed huge demands for simple readability and without complex signal processing. Such visualization of mechanical signals is used in delicate urgent medical or safety‐related industries. Accordingly, chromic materials are considered to facilitate visualization with multiple colors and simple process. However, the response and recovery time is very long, such that rapid regular signals are unable to be detected, i.e., physiological signals, such as respiration. Here, the simple visualization of low strain ≈2%, with ultrasensitive crack‐based strain sensors with a hierarchical thermochromic layer is suggested. The sensor shows a gradient color change from red to white color in each strain, which is attributed to the hierarchical property, and the thermal response (recovery) time is dramatically minimized within 0.6 s from 45 to 37 °C, as the hierarchical membrane is inspired by termite mounds for efficient thermal management. The fast recovery property can be taken advantage of in medical fields, such as monitoring regular respiration, and the color changes can be delicately monitored with high accuracy by software on a mobile phone.