Bandpass filters with reconfigurable transmission zeros using varactor-tuned tapped stubs

In this letter, bandpass filters with one or two tunable transmission zeros are proposed. The reconfigurable transmission zeros are implemented through varactors in combination with tapped quarter-wavelength stubs. Based on mixed mode simulations including EM simulation and circuit simulation, the proposed filters were designed and fabricated on low-cost FR4 board. The measurement results verified the design concepts.     

Scale Up from Small Oven-Drying Tests of Mineral Concentrate to Pilot-Scale Drying with a Heated Pad

While Fickian diffusion models are commonly used in other applications, there are few reports of them being applied to the batch drying of a mineral concentrate. Diffusion coefficients estimated from small-scale oven-drying tests were used to predict the drying behavior of a concentrate sample 1 m × 1 m in area and 50 cm deep, with a heated bottom pad. These pilot-scale tests included both daily turning of the sample and turning every three days. The excellent quantitative agreement between the predicted and observed pilot-scale behavior gives a high level of confidence in the model predictions and suggests that a Fickian diffusion model is adequate to predict the behavior of mineral concentrates at the low moisture contents used here.     

Chemische Zusammensetzung und Mikrostruktur polymerabgeleiteter Gläser und Keramiken im System Si–C–O. Teil 2: Charakterisierung der Gefügeausbildung mittels hochauflösender Durchstrahlungselektronenmikroskopie und Feinbereichsbeugung

Chemical Composition and Microstructure of Polymer‐Derived Glasses and Ceramics in the Si–C–O System. Part 2: Characterization of microstructure formation by means of high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy and selected area diffraction Liquid or solid silicone resins represent the economically most interesting class of organic precursors for the pyrolytic production of glass and ceramics materials on silicon basis. As dense, dimensionally stable components can be cost‐effectively achieved by admixing reactive filler powders, chemical composition and microstructure development of the polymer‐derived residues must be exactly known during thermal decomposition. Thus, in the present work, glasses and ceramics produced by pyrolysis of the model precursor polymethylsiloxane at temperatures from 525 to 1550 °C are investigated. In part 1, by means of analytical electron microscopy, the bonding state of silicon was determined on a nanometre scale and the phase separation of the metastable Si–C–O matrix into SiO₂, C and SiC was proved. The in‐situ crystallization could be considerably accelerated by adding fine‐grained powder of inert fillers, such as Al₂O₃ or SiC, which permits effective process control. In part 2, the microstructure is characterized by high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy and selected area diffraction. Turbostratic carbon and cubic β‐SiC precipitate as crystallization products. Theses phases are embedded in an amorphous matrix. Inert fillers reduce the crystallization temperature by several hundred °C. In this case, the polymer‐derived Si–C–O material acts as a binding agent between the powder particles. Reaction layer formation does not occur. On the investigated pyrolysis conditions, no crystallization of SiO₂ was observed.     

Evanescently coupled photodiodes integrating a double-stage taper for 40-Gb/s applications-compared performance with side-illuminated photodiodes

The design, fabrication, and performance of double-stage taper photodiodes (DSTPs) are reported. The objective of this work is to develop devices compatible with 40-Gb/s applications. Such devices require high efficiency, ultrawide band, high optical power handling capability, and compatibility with low-cost module fabrication. The integration of mode size converters improves both the coupling efficiency and the responsivity with a large fiber mode diameter. Responsivity of 0.6 A/W and 0.45 A/W are achieved with a 6-/spl mu/m fiber mode diameter and cleaved fiber, respectively, providing relaxed alignment tolerances (/spl plusmn/1.6 /spl mu/m and /spl plusmn/2 /spl mu/m, respectively), compatible with cost-effective packaging techniques. DSTPs also offer a wide bandwidth greater than 40 GHz and transverse-electric/transverse-magnetic polarization dependence lower than 0.2 dB. Furthermore, a DSTP saturation current as high as 11 mA results in optical power handling greater than +10 dBm and a high output voltage of 0.8 V. These capabilities allow the photodiode to drive the decision circuit without the need of a broad-band electrical amplifier. The DSTP devices presented here demonstrate higher responsivities with large fiber mode diameter and better optical power handling capabilities and are compared with classical side-illuminated photodiodes.     

A base-band NDS electrode configuration for HACT devices

Heterostructure Acoustic Charge Transport (HACT) devices have been fabricated with a new nondestructive sense (NDS) electrode structure that provides for the recovery of base-band signals without the use of an integrating capacitor. This electrode structure provides an output signal comprising an RF carrier at the SAW frequency, amplitude modulated by the sampled input signal which has been delayed by a period proportional to the output electrodes distance from the input diode. The output of the NDS electrode structure is subsequently demodulated to provide the base-band signal     

Digital cellular-its roots and its future

Cellular radio started in the early 1980s by using analog technologies. Research in voice coding, modulation, and channel coding resulted in second-generation cellular radio based on digital technologies, which were introduced in the early 1990s. These were all based on advanced time division multiple access technology, resulting in better capacity and lower cost. Today, these digital technologies-based on the Global System for Mobility, digital Advanced Mobile Phone System, and personal digital cellular-have more than 100 million subscribers worldwide. The next step is to introduce wide-band packet services for wireless Internet up to 2 Mb/s. These so-called third-generation systems (Universal Mobile Telecommunications Services, IMT2000) are planned to be introduced in the early 2000s     

A hybrid spreading/despreading function with good SNR performancefor band-limited DS-CDMA

Code-division multiple-access (CDMA) implemented with direct-sequence spread spectrum (DS/SS) signaling is a promising multiplexing technique for cellular telecommunications services. The efficiency of a direct-sequence spread-spectrum code-division multiple-access (DS-CDMA) system depends heavily on the shape of the spectrum of the spread signal. Maximum efficiency is obtained with an ideal brick-wall bandpass spectrum. There are two approaches toward achieving such a spectrum. One is to use a simple spreader that produces a broad spectrum and then follow it with a precise, high order filter to band limit the spectrum. A second approach, which is the approach taken in this paper, is to use a spreader that produces a spectrum close to the ideal spectrum and then employ a simple filter to control the out-of-band power. The proposed spreader/despreader is based on a simple hybrid function and can be easily implemented. An analysis provides a compact expression for the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of a RAKE receiver. The expression includes the effects of baseband, intermediate frequency (IF) and RF filtering as well as the effects of the spectral densities of the spreading/despreading functions. The analysis shows that the proposed spreader/despreader yields superior performance over a conventional pseudo noise (PN) spreading/despreading mechanism     

Shear horizontal wave propagation in periodically layeredcomposites

The transverse resonance approach to guided wave analysis is applied to shear horizontal (SH) wave propagation in periodically layered composites. It is found for SH waves that at high values of the guided wavevector β, the wave energy is trapped in the slower of the two media and propagates accordingly at the slower wavespeed. At low values of β, however, the modes demonstrate a clustering behavior, indicative of the underlying Floquet wave structure. The number of modes in a cluster is observed to correlate with the number of unit cells in the layered plate. New physical insights into the behavior of these systems are obtained by analyzing the partial waves of the guided SH modes in terms of Floquet waves. We show that the fast and slow shear waves in the periodically layered composite play an analogous role to the longitudinal and shear partial waves comprising Lamb waves in a homogeneous plate     

Densification involved in the UV-based photosensitivity of silicaglasses and optical fibers

A comprehensive survey of photosensitivity in silica glasses and optical fiber is reviewed. Recent work on understanding the mechanisms contributing to germanium or aluminum doped fiber photosensitivity is discussed within the framework of photoelastic densification models     

A wafer level monitoring method for plasma-charging damage usingantenna PMOSFET test structure

A novel monitoring method for plasma-charging damage is proposed. This method performs a quick and accurate evaluation using antenna PMOSFET. It was found that not only hot-carrier (HC) lifetime but transistor parameters such as initial gate current and substrate current were changed according to the degree of plasma-charging damage. However, the present work suggests that monitoring the shift of drain current after a few seconds of HC stress is a more accurate method to indicate plasma-charging damage. The monitoring method using the present test structure is demonstrated to be useful for realizing highly reliable devices