Analyses of the practical adhesion strengths of the metal/polymer interfaces in electronic packaging

There is a plethora of techniques to measure the adhesion strength of metal/polymer interfaces. However, the practical adhesion strength, which is the work done in separating the film from the substrate (or one film from another), is very sensitive to the test methods and the mechanical effects, such as the residual stress, thickness and mechanical properties of the layers, strain rate, and phase angle. Deriving intrinsic-adhesion properties of the interfaces, which are independent of such parameters, from the practical adhesion-strength measurements is a formidable task. In the present work, data from the three commonly used adhesion tests; pull-out, 90°-peel, and T-peel tests are compared with the intrinsic-adhesion properties of the interface, such as the interface-fracture toughness or the interface-fracture energy, and their implications are discussed. Material systems analyzed were Cu-based lead frame/epoxy-molding compound (EMC) and Cu/Cr/polyimide.     

Working memory and articulation rate in children with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy.

A. D. Baddeley, N. Thomson, and M. Buchanan (1975) suggested that articulatory rehearsal rate determines the amount of verbal material that can be maintained in working memory. In the current study, 12 children with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy (SDCP) and 38 normal children were tested on measures of articulation rate and memory span for 1-, 2-, and 3-syllable words. Across all conditions, articulation rate for the SDCP group was significantly slower than for the normal group; nonetheless, memory span was equivalent for both groups. This finding implies that covert rehearsal proceeded normally for the SDCP group, in spite of decrements in speech rate. Thus, the relationship between overt and covert rehearsal rates differs for children with SDCP compared with normal children. Findings from the current study further suggest that normal speech rates are not necessary for development of normal covert rehearsal rates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Controller for digital audio power amplifier with bit stream input

A new controller for a digital audio amplifier with bit stream input is proposed. The proposed controller has excellent features such as wide error correction range and no limitation on the modulation index. The controller is implemented in the half-bridge class-D amplifier and performance is verified through experiments.     

Recursive solution of inverse natural convection problems by means of mode reduction

 A recursive method based on the Kalman filtering is developed to solve inverse natural convection problems of estimating the unsteady nonuniform wall heat flux from temperature measurements in the flow. By employing the Karhunen–Loève Galerkin procedure that reduces the Boussinesq equation to a small set of ordinary differential equations, the computational difficulties associated with the Kalman filtering for the partial differential equations are overcome. The present method is assessed through several numerical experiments, and is found to yield satisfactory results. Received 20 January 2001 / Accepted 31 May 2001     

Patterns of knowledge production: The case of information and telecommunication sector in Korea

In recent years, the topic of knowledge production has been widely investigated in the advanced countries. However, the process by which knowledge is produced in the developing countries has not been fully explored or characterized. In Korea, the science and engineering fields strongly reflect systems of knowledge production in the universities and demonstrate the dynamics of systems of innovation for knowledge production. Through using a case study including data for knowledge production, in the field of information and telecommunication, the following general trends were observed. Firstly, there has been a trend towards increasing the capabilities for knowledge production, via domestic and foreign collaboration. Secondly, there has been an increasing trend towards the diversification of knowledge sources such as university-industry, and university-public research institutes. Finally, the establishment of a nation's knowledge base is influenced by governmental research and development policies. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A One‐Kilobit PQR‐CMOS Smart Pixel Array

The photonic quantum ring (PQR) laser is a three dimensional whispering gallery (WG) mode laser and has anomalous quantum wire properties, such as microampere to nanoampere range threshold currents and √T‐dependent thermal red shifts. We observed uniform bottom emissions from a 1‐kb smart pixel chip of a 32×32 InGaAs PQR laser array flip‐chip bonded to a 0.35 µm CMOS‐based PQR laser driver. The PQR‐CMOS smart pixel array, now operating at 30 MHz, will be improved to the GHz frequency range through device and circuit optimization.     

Electrotunable Non‐reciprocal Laser Emission from a Liquid‐Crystal Photonic Device

A liquid crystal (LC) photonic device with an anisotropic optical heterojunction structure has been fabricated. The device has a phase‐retarding nematic LC (NLC) layer sandwiched between two polymer cholesteric LC films with right‐handed helices of different pitches. Electrotunable non‐reciprocal light transmittance and unidirectional circularly polarized (CP) lasing emission have been successfully demonstrated for this device structure. Two left CP (LCP) lasing emission peaks are observed at the edges of the overlapping region between the two photonic bands in the structure and are shifted upon the application of a voltage. In contrast, a non‐reciprocal right CP (RCP) lasing emission peak emerges at one of the band edges and diminishes upon the application of a voltage. These phenomena are interpreted based on the selective reflection of RCP light and the reorientation of the NLC molecules by the application of a voltage.