Optimising nanometric CMOS logic cells for low-power,low-energy,and noise margin

In this paper, we present a multi-objective optimisation technique for transistor sizing in the variation-prone nanometric complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) logic cells. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the technique, we have used the common figures-of-merit, such as power, energy, and static noise margin. By using examples of different logic cells, we have demonstrated how competing design goals can be tackled effectively. We show that concurrent improvements in multiple figures-of-merit are possible using the proposed method.     

Role of Photoinitiators in the UV Curing of Urethane Acrylate

Polymeric films were prepared under UV radiation with tetraacrylated urethane oligomer in combination with N-vinyl pyrrolidone (NVP) using a set of four photoinitiators (Irg 907, Irg 651, Irg 369, and Irg 184). The study evaluates optimum photoinitiator concentration and radiation dose. Various film properties such as gel content, swelling ratio in acetone, pendulum hardness, tensile strength, and elongation at break were determined. These formulated solutions were coated on wood substrates, and gloss and hardness of the film cured on the wood substrate were determined. Some of these properties are compared with those of the films cured on the glass plates. Irg 369 is found to be the best photoinitiator to produce better films, both on glass plate and on wood substrate.     

Start-up study of biohydrogen production from palm oil mill effluent in a lab-scale up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket fixed-film reactor

A start-up study of lab-scale up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket fixed-film reactor (UASFF) was conducted to produce biohydrogen from palm oil mill effluent (POME). The reactor was fed with POME at different hydraulic retention time (HRT) and organic loading rate (OLR) to obtain the optimum fermentation time for maximum hydrogen yield (HY). The results showed the HY, volumetric hydrogen production rate (VHPR), and COD removal of 0.5–1.1 L H₂/g COD_consumed, 1.98–4.1 L H₂ L^?1 day^?1, and 33.4–38.5%, respectively. The characteristic study on POME particles was analyzed by particle size distribution (PSD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The microbial Shannon and Simpson diversity indices and Principal Component Analysis assessed the alpha and beta diversity, respectively. The results indicated the change of bacterial community diversity over the operation, in which Clostridium sensu stricto 1 and Lactobacillus species were contributed to hydrogen fermentation.     

Study of silver electrodeposition in deep eutectic solvents using atomic force microscopy

The electrodeposition of metals in ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents leads to deposits with significantly different morphologies to those seen with aqueous solutions. The classical methods of fitting amperometric data to nucleation and growth mechanisms do not fit the data well in ionic systems and tend to focus on the short time-scale aspects of nucleation. In the current study, ex-situ AFM was used to model crystallite sizes and distributions by digitising and modelling the images. The deposition of silver from a deep eutectic solvent was chosen as it has been studied by several groups with a variety of techniques. The crystallite size data obtained from AFM and chronoamperometry for long time-scale deposition studies are compared and it is shown that the trends are similar, but there is a discrepancy in the nuclear number density of approximately an order of magnitude. The nuclear number density was found to be consistent with aqueous nucleation studies once differences in concentration and mass transport were accounted for.     

Graphene oxide grafted poly(acrylic acid) synthesized via surface initiated RAFT as a pH-responsive additive for mixed matrix membrane

Incorporation of nanostructured materials into the membrane matrix is a new strategy to improve mechanical and performance properties. Graphene oxide (GO) is one of the advantageous carbon-based nanomaterials, which recently has been used extensively in this field. However, in the most cases, the surface modification of GO has been considered for the creation of new properties like a response to different stimuli such as temperature, pH, and pressure. In the present study, a well-defined poly(acrylic acid) was grafted on GO using reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer polymerization technique. This modified GO was incorporated into the mixed matrix membrane as a pH-sensitive additive and its effect on the membrane performance was investigated. The membrane with 5 wt % of modified GO provides better hydrophilicity, flux, antifouling, and rejection properties and so the effect of pH change on the aforementioned characteristic properties was studied for this membrane. It is indicated that modified membrane shows different behaviors in acidic and alkaline conditions. In addition, excellent heavy metal separation was observed among rejection tests, especially for Hg ions. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47213.     

Utility of silver‐coated fabrics as electrodes in electrotherapy applications

The present study deals with the deposition of silver particles onto knitted fabrics for possible applications in electrotherapy. The performance of silver‐coated fabrics was evaluated based on number of properties such as electrical conductivity, physiological comfort, antibacterial, and durability. Furthermore, the conductive fabrics were subjected to various repeated extensions and change in electrical resistivity was examined to simulate the performance of electrodes under various movements of human body. With increase in extension till 80%, very small change in volume electrical resistance was observed and after 90% extension, the electrical resistance was found to increase significantly. The volume resistance was found to remain constant for repeated extensions of over 100 cycles and also there was insignificant change in electrical resistivity when constant current was applied over prolonged time. The utility of silver‐coated fabrics can be expected as flexible textile electrodes in transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation electrotherapy applications. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135, 46357.     

Photocatalytic removal of NOx over immobilized BiFeO<Subscript>3</Subscript> nanoparticles and effect of operational parameters

Perovskite type BiFeO₃ (BFO) was synthesized by sol-gel auto-combustion method. Synthesized BFO was immobilized on the micro slides glass plates by sol-gel dip-coating method. The sample was characterized by XRD, FESEM, UV-Vis DRS, and BET techniques. The XRD pattern confirmed the perovskite structure, and from the Debye-Scherrer equation the average crystalline size was calculated as 19 nm. The FE-SEM images of prepared BFO showed porous structure with low agglomeration. The band gap energy was calculated about 2.13 eV, and the specific surface area (SSA) of prepared BFO nanostructure was obtained 55.1m² g^?1. The photocatalytic activity of prepared pure and immobilized BFO was investigated in the removal of NOx under UV irradiation, in the batch photoreactor. The effects of operational parameters such as initial concentration of NOx, light intensity and amount of coated photocatalyst, under identical conditions, were investigated. The results showed that the highest conversion of NOx was obtained as 35.83% in the 5 ppm of NOx with 1.2 g immobilized BFO and under 15 W illumination lamp.     

Diffusion augmented complex adaptive IIR algorithm for training widely linear ARMA models

In this paper, our aim is to propose a fully distributed adaptive algorithm for learning the parameters of a widely linear autoregressive moving average model by measurements collected by a network. To this end, we consider a connected network where every node uses the augmented complex adaptive infinite impulse response (ACA-IIR) filter as the learning rule. We firstly formulate the learning problem as an optimization problem and resort to stochastic gradient optimization argument to solve it and derive the proposed algorithm, which will be referred to as diffusion ACAIIR (DACA-IIR) algorithm. We also introduce a reduced-complexity version of the DACA-IIR algorithm. We use both synthetic and real-world signals in our simulations where the results show that the proposed cooperative algorithm outperforms the noncooperative solution.     

Structural,elastic, optoelectronic and magnetic properties of $$\mathbf{CdHo }_\mathbf{2}{} \mathbf{S}_\mathbf{4}$$ spinel: a first-principle study

We report the results of the full-potential linearized augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) calculations on the structural, elastic, optoelectronic and magnetic properties of \(\hbox {CdHo}_{2}\hbox {S}_{4}\) spinel. Both the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) and Trans-Blaha modified Becke-Johnson potential (TB-mBJ) are used to model the exchange-correlation effects. The computed lattice parameter, internal coordinate and bulk modulus are in good agreement with the existing experimental data. According to the calculated elastic moduli, \(\hbox {CdHo}_{2}\hbox {S}_{4}\) is mechanically stable with a ductile nature and a noticeable elastic anisotropy. The ferromagnetic phase of \(\hbox {CdHo}_{2}\hbox {S}_{4}\) is energetically favourable compared to non-magnetic one, with a high magnetic moment of about 8.15 \(\upmu _{\mathrm{B}}\). The calculated band structure demonstrates that the title compound is a direct band gap semiconductor. The TB-mBJ yields a band gap of \(\sim \)1.86 and \(\sim \)2.17 eV for the minority and majority spins, respectively. The calculated optical spectra reveal a strong response in the energy range between the visible light and the extreme UV regions.     

Design of X‐band Moreno cross‐guide coupler based on superformula curves

This article deals with the design of Moreno cross‐guide couplers based on supershapes for X‐band applications. Crossed‐waveguide couplers are mainly used due to their compact structures. In these couplers, cross‐aperture structures are usually employed to offer flat coupling and high isolation. In the present article, the possible shapes for apertures and metal inserts that can be derived by the superfomula curves are explored and the effects of variations of superformula parameters are investigated on the performance of Moreno coupler. Finally, the proposed Moreno coupler is validated through fabrication and measurement. The experimental validation shows an excellent agreement with the simulated results. In the frequency range from 8 to 12.5 GHz, the measured coupling value changes from 18.8 to 20.8 dB and the directivity is better than 38 dB and 29 dB from 8 to 11 GHz and 11 to 12.5 GHz, respectively. The results are valuable for the design and evaluation of broadband high directive waveguide couplers.