Visual Cryptography Based on an Interferometric Encryption Technique

This paper presents a new method for a visual cryptography scheme that uses phase masks and an interferometer. To encrypt a binary image, we divided it into an arbitrary number of slides and encrypted them using an XOR process with a random key or keys. The phase mask for each encrypted image was fabricated under the proposed phase‐assignment rule. For decryption, phase masks were placed on any path of the Mach‐Zehnder interferometer. Through optical experiments, we confirmed that a secret binary image that was sliced could be recovered by the proposed method.     

Novel Diffusion‐Barrier Materials Against Oxygen for High‐Density Dynamic Random Access Memory Capacitors

A new design concept for diffusion barriers in high‐density memory capacitors is suggested, and both RuTiN (RTN) and RuTiO (RTO) films are proposed as sacrificial oxygen diffusion barriers. The newly developed RTN and RTO barriers show a much lower sheet resistance than various other barriers, including binary and ternary nitrides (reported by others), up to 800 °C, without a large increase in the resistance. For both the Pt/RTN/TiSi_x/n⁺⁺poly‐plug/n⁺ channel layer/Si and the Pt/RTO/RTN/TiSi_x/n⁺⁺poly‐plug/n⁺ channel layer/Si contact structures, contact resistance—the most important electrical parameter for the diffusion barrier in the bottom electrode structure of capacitors—was found to be as low as 5 kohm, even after annealing up to 750 °C. When the RTN film was inserted as a glue layer between the bottom Pt electrode layer and the TiN barrier film in the chemical vapor deposited (Ba,Sr)TiO₃ (CVD–BST) simple stack‐type structure, the RTN glue layer was observed to be thermally stable to temperatures 150 °C higher than that to which the TiN glue layer is stable. Moreover, the capacitance of the physical vapor deposited (PVD)–BST simple stack‐type structure adopted TiN glue layer initially degraded after annealing at 500 °C, and, thereafter, completely failed. In the case of the RTN and RTO/RTN glue layers, however, the capacitance continuously increased up to 550 °C. Thus, the new RTN and RTO films, which act as diffusion barriers to oxygen, are very promising materials for achieving high‐density capacitors.     

Syndrome: a light‐weight approach to improving TCP performance in mobile wireless networks

It is well known that the performance of TCP deteriorates in a mobile wireless environment. This is due to the fact that although the majority of packet losses are results of transmission errors over the wireless links, TCP senders still take packet loss as an indication of congestion, and adjust their congestion windows according to the additive increase and multiplicative decrease (AIMD) algorithm. As a result, the throughput attained by TCP connections in the wireless environment is much less than it should be. The key problem that leads to the performance degradation is that TCP senders are unable to distinguish whether packet loss is a result of congestion in the wireline network or transmission errors on the wireless links. In this paper, we propose a light‐weight approach, called syndrome, to improving TCP performance in mobile wireless environments. In syndrome, the BS simply counts, for each TCP connection, the number of packets that it relays to the destination host so far, and attaches this number in the TCP header. Based on the combination of the TCP sequence number and the BS‐attached number and a solid theoretical base, the destination host will be able to tell where (on the wireline or wireless networks) packet loss (if any) occurs, and notify TCP senders (via explicit loss notification, ELN) to take appropriate actions. If packet loss is a result of transmission errors on the wireless link, the sender does not have to reduce its congestion window. Syndrome is grounded on a rigorous, analytic foundation, does not require the base station to buffer packets or keep an enormous amount of states, and can be easily incorporated into the current protocol stack as a software patch. Through simulation studies in ns‐2 (UCB, LBNL, VINT network simulator, http://www‐mash.cs.berkeley.edu/ns/ ), we also show that syndrome significantly improves the TCP performance in wireless environments and the performance gain is comparable to the heavy‐weight SNOOP approach (either with local retransmission or with ELN) that requires the base station to buffer, in the worst case, a window worth of packets or states. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cryptanalysis of a dynamic ID‐based remote user authentication with key agreement scheme

A dynamic user authentication scheme allows a user and a remote server to authenticate each other without leaking the user's identity. In 2011, Wen and Li proposed an improved dynamic ID‐based remote user authentication with key agreement scheme for mobile and home networks. They claimed that their scheme was more secure than the scheme of Wang et al. However, we demonstrate that their scheme is vulnerable to the privileged insider, off‐line password guessing, impersonation, and server spoofing attacks. At the same time, it does not provide any user anonymity and forward secrecy property. Thus, it is not feasible for real‐life implementation.Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Wireless Energy Transfer System with Multiple Coils via Coupled Magnetic Resonances

A general equivalent circuit model is developed for a wireless energy transfer system composed of multiple coils via coupled magnetic resonances. To verify the developed model, four types of wireless energy transfer systems are fabricated, measured, and compared with simulation results. To model a system composed of n‐coils, node equations are built in the form of an n‐by‐n matrix, and the equivalent circuit model is established using an electric design automation tool. Using the model, we can simulate systems with multiple coils, power sources, and loads. Moreover, coupling constants are extracted as a function of the distance between two coils, and we can predict the characteristics of a system having coils at an arbitrary location. We fabricate four types of systems with relay coils, two operating frequencies, two power sources, and the function of characteristic impedance conversion. We measure the characteristics of all systems and compare them with the simulation results. The flexibility of the developed model enables us to design and optimize a complicated system consisting of many coils.     

16‐QAM‐Based Highly Spectral‐Efficient E‐band Communication System with Bit Rate up to 10 Gbps

This paper presents a novel 16‐quadrature‐amplitude‐modulation (QAM) E‐band communication system. The system can deliver 10 Gbps through eight channels with a bandwidth of 5 GHz (71‐76 GHz/81‐86 GHz). Each channel occupies 390 MHz and delivers 1.25 Gbps using a 16‐QAM. Thus, this system can achieve a bandwidth efficiency of 3.2 bit/s/Hz. To implement the system, a driver amplifier and an RF up‐/down‐conversion mixer are implemented using a 0.1 µm gallium arsenide pseudomorphic high‐electron‐mobility transistor (GaAs pHEMT) process. A single‐IF architecture is chosen for the RF receiver. In the digital modem, 24 square root raised cosine filters and four (255, 239) Reed‐Solomon forward error correction codecs are used in parallel. The modem can compensate for a carrier‐frequency offset of up to 50 ppm and a symbol rate offset of up to 1 ppm. Experiment results show that the system can achieve a bit error rate of 10^?5 at a signal‐to‐noise ratio of about 21.5 dB.     

Small‐Size and High‐Isolation MIMO Antenna for WLAN

A small‐sized (15 mm×30 mm) planar monopole MIMO antenna that offers high‐isolation performance is presented in this letter. The antenna is miniaturized using inductive coupling within a meander‐line radiator and capacitive coupling between a radiator and an isolator. High isolation is achieved by a T‐shaped stub attached to the ground plane between two radiators, which also contributes to the small size using a folded structure and the capacitive coupling with radiators. The proposed antenna operates for the WLAN band within 2.4 GHz to 2.483 GHz. The measured isolation (S₂₁) is about –30 dB, and the envelope correlation coefficient is less than 0.1.     

Bandwidth‐satisfied routing in multi‐rate MANETs by cross‐layer approach

Previous quality‐of‐service (QoS) routing protocols in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) determined bandwidth‐satisfied routes for QoS applications. Since the multi‐rate enhancements have been implemented in MANETs, QoS routing protocols should be adapted to exploit them fully. However, existing works suffer from one bandwidth‐violation problem, named the hidden route problem (HRP), which may arise when a new flow is permitted and only the bandwidth consumption of the hosts in the neighborhood of the route is computed. Without considering the bandwidth consumption to ongoing flows is the reason the problem is introduced. This work proposes a routing protocol that can avoid HRP for data rate selection and bandwidth‐satisfied route determination with an efficient cross‐layer design based on the integration of PHY and MAC layers into the network layer. To use bandwidth efficiently, we aim to select the combination of data rates and a route with minimal bandwidth consumption to the network, instead of the strategy adopted in the most previous works by selecting the combination with the shortest total transmission time. Using bandwidth efficiently can increase the number of flows supported by a network. Copyright 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Oxygen Surface Exchange at Grain Boundaries of Oxide Ion Conductors

The role of grain boundaries on oxygen surface exchange in an oxide ion conductor is reported. Atomic‐scale characterization of the microstructure and chemical composition near the grain boundaries of gadolinia‐doped ceria (GDC) thin films show the segregation of dopants and oxygen vacancies along the grain boundaries using the energy dispersive spectroscopy in scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM‐EDS). Kelvin probe microscopy is employed to verify the charge distribution near grain boundaries and shows that the grain boundary is positively charged, indicating a high concentration of oxygen vacancies. AC impedance spectroscopy on polycrystalline GDC membranes with thin interfacial layers with different grain boundary densities at the cathodes demonstrated that the cells with higher grain boundary density result in lower electrode impedance and higher exchange current density. These experimental evidences clearly show that grain boundaries on the surface provide preferential reaction sites for facilitated oxygen incorporation into the GDC electrolyte.