Characterization of B4C-SiC ceramic composites prepared by ultra-high pressure sintering

Additive-free boron carbide (B₄C) – silicon carbide (SiC) ceramic composites with different B₄C and β-SiC powders ratio were densified using the high-pressure “anvil-type with hollows” apparatus at 1500 °C under a pressure of 4 GPa for 60 s in air. The effect of starting powders ratio on the composites sintering behavior, relative density, microstructural development, and thermomechanical properties was studied. The sintered samples hardness was found to be in the range from 24 to 31 GPa. The thermal conductivity measurements, conducted in the temperature range from room temperature to 1000 °C, showed that the thermal diffusivity of sintered samples was between 6 and 9.5 mm²/s whereas the thermal conductivity was in the range from 16 to 28 W/(m K). The results of this study show that the high-pressure sintering can be a very effective low-temperature densification method for the obtainment of additive-free B₄C - β-SiC ceramic composites.     

Nonlinear time-domain analysis of injection-locked microwave MESFEToscillators

In this paper, injection-locked MESFET oscillators are analyzed using several numerical models. The injection-locking behavior of the van der Pol equation and of a more complex representation using the Curtice-Cubic MESFET model are investigated. Analysis and experimental results are compared for an NE71083 transistor oscillator operating at 0.5 GHz. The deficiencies of using a van der Pol oscillator model are pointed out. Time-domain results from the complex model exhibiting multicycle and apparently chaotic behaviors are also examined, and point to problems with common nonlinear simulation techniques for these circuits     

Circuit-based versus full-wave modelling of active microwave circuits

Modern full-wave computational tools enable rigorous simulations of linear parts of complex microwave circuits within minutes, taking into account all physical electromagnetic (EM) phenomena. Non-linear components and other discrete elements of the hybrid microwave circuit are then easily added within the circuit simulator. This combined full-wave and circuit-based analysis is a must in the final stages of the circuit design, although initial designs and optimisations are still faster and more comfortably done completely in the circuit-based environment, which offers real-time solutions at the expense of accuracy. However, due to insufficient information and general lack of specific case studies, practitioners still struggle when choosing an appropriate analysis method, or a component model, because different choices lead to different solutions, often with uncertain accuracy and unexplained discrepancies arising between the simulations and measurements. We here design a reconfigurable power amplifier, as a case study, using both circuit-based solver and a full-wave EM solver. We compare numerical simulations with measurements on the manufactured prototypes, discussing the obtained differences, pointing out the importance of measured parameters de-embedding, appropriate modelling of discrete components and giving specific recipes for good modelling practices.     

Synthesis and rheological study of some maleic acid and fumaric acid stereoregular polyesters

Summary First unsaturated polyester fibers were prepared starting from stereoregular, macromolecular poly(octamethylene fumarate). Fibers obtained from octamethylene copolyesters of fumaric and terephthalic acids manifested improved mechanical properties and higher melting points. All unsaturated polyester fibers prepared in the study, based on the homopolymer and on copolymers of fumaric acid, even those containing as low as 10% of fumaric acid residues, are able to be covalently bonded to an unsaturated polyester matrix.For part 7, see Jaovi M.S., et al., Makromol. Chem. (submitted)     

On the application of fuzzy-based flow control approach to High Altitude Platform communications

Most of the research effort in the field of HAP communications until now has been invested in the physical layer of the protocol stack, and in the radio related issues in particular. However, the overall system throughput is limited by the performance of the transport layer. Since HAPs will be used in networks with different topological complexity, various kinds of wireless communications links, bit error rates, and various mixtures of multimedia traffic, the control flow in such networks may present itself as a non-linear and stochastic process. Therefore we introduced a fuzzy control of the throughput in the TCP. Our approach is based on the off-line synthesis of the Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy controller based on the simulation data and on-line flow control by the synthesized controller that is built in the conventional TCP. In the paper we present the ns2-based simulation results.     

Surface resistivity estimation by scanning surface potential microscopy

Nickel was sputter deposited on a glass with a thin film thickness of 600 nm under either in an argon atmosphere or under a partial pressure of nitrogen of either 1.3 x 10(-4) or 4 x 10(-4) mbar. Atomic force microscopy and scanning surface potential microscopy (SSPM) were used to study the morphology and to estimate the surface resistivity of the obtained Ni thin films taking into account surface-roughness effects. For the three samples investigated, the surface resistivity values as estimated using SSPM were in good agreement with the results obtained by standard four-point probe measurements.