A selective CVD tungsten-strapped polysilicon local interconnectiontechnology

A local interconnection technology utilizing polysilicon strapped with selective-chemical-vapor-deposited (CVD) tungsten has been developed. Both n- and p-channel MOS transistors have been successfully fabricated using this technology. Tungsten deposited on polysilicon is an attractive gate shunt and local interconnection material because of its low resistivity, immunity to dopant segregation and diffusion, and resistance to electromigration. A potential problem of this technology is the excessive diode leakage current associated with strapping shallow source/drain diodes with tungsten. The leakage is attributed to defects induced by the heavy source/drain implant, which can be effectively eliminated with a proper annealing procedure     

Multicluster,mobile, multimedia radio network

A multi-cluster, multi-hop packet radio network architecture for wireless adaptive mobile information systems is presented. The proposed network supports multimedia traffic and relies on both time division and code division access schemes. This radio network is not supported by a wired infrastructure as conventional cellular systems are. Thus, it can be instantly deployed in areas with no infrastructure at all. By using a distributed clustering algorithm, nodes are organized into clusters. The clusterheads act as local coordinators to resolve channel scheduling, perform power measurement/control, maintain time division frame synchronization, and enhance the spatial reuse of time slots and codes. Moreover, to guarantee bandwidth for real time traffic, the architecture supports virtual circuits and allocates bandwidth to circuits at call setup time. The network is scalable to large numbers of nodes, and can handle mobility. Simulation experiments evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme in static and mobile environments.This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Justice/Federal Bureau of Investigation, ARPA/CSTO under Contract J-FBI-93-112 Computer Aided Design of High Performance Wireless Networked Systems.     

Inverse halftoning and kernel estimation for error diffusion

Two different approaches in the inverse halftoning of error-diffused images are considered. The first approach uses linear filtering and statistical smoothing that reconstructs a gray-scale image from a given error-diffused image. The second approach can be viewed as a projection operation, where one assumes the error diffusion kernel is known, and finds a gray-scale image that will be halftoned into the same binary image. Two projection algorithms, viz., minimum mean square error (MMSE) projection and maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) projection, that differ on the way an inverse quantization step is performed, are developed. Among the filtering and the two projection algorithms, MAP projection provides the best performance for inverse halftoning. Using techniques from adaptive signal processing, we suggest a method for estimating the error diffusion kernel from the given halftone. This means that the projection algorithms can be applied in the inverse halftoning of any error-diffused image without requiring any a priori information on the error diffusion kernel. It is shown that the kernel estimation algorithm combined with MAP projection provide the same performance in inverse halftoning compared to the case where the error diffusion kernel is known.     

On computing undetected error probabilities on the Gilbert channel

Two methods for computing the probability of undetected error on the Gilbert (1960) channel are examined. First, using a method proposed by Kittel (1978), we study some standard cyclic redundancy codes and compare the results with those on the binary symmetric channel. Then we consider a general method of approximate code evaluation, proposed by Elliott, which involves P(m, n), the probability of m errors in a block of length n bits. A nonrecursive technique for computing P(m, n) on the Gilbert channel is described     

Quadtree based colour quantisation image compression

A new colour quantisation and quadtree based image compression scheme is proposed. The features of the new scheme are that colour palette ordering and requantisation of the decoded image for palette-based monitor displays are not required. Thus, fast decoding and displaying can be achieved     

Partial adaptive nulling on a monopulse phased array antenna system

A partial phase-only nulling (PPON) algorithm has been developed and evaluated on a 496-element monopulse phased array antenna system which employs five-bit phase shifters. Using this PPON algorithm allows nulls in the far-field pattern to be steered to the desired directions for a phased array equipped with low-resolution phase shifters to perform simultaneous nulling in the sum and two difference patterns in the environment of multiple jammers. Simulated and experimental patterns are illustrated     

X-band HBT VCO with high-efficiency CB buffer amplifier

A monolithic AlGaAs-GaAs HBT VCO with common-base (CB) buffer amplifier was demonstrated at X-band. Overall efficiency of 30% was achieved with 93-mW output power at 9.8 GHz. The MMIC chip is only 1 mm×2 mm, including the monolithic varactor diode. The circuit design offers several unique advantages: (1) the CB buffer amplifier reduces the frequency-pull effect from the external load; (2) the design for the oscillation condition and the output impedance match for power are separated; and (3) the overall efficiency can be high. A step-by-step design procedure is discussed     

A PLL clock generator with 5 to 10 MHz of lock range formicroprocessors

A microprocessor clock generator based on an analog phase-locked loop (PLL) is described for deskewing the internal logic control lock to an external system lock. This PLL is fully generated onto a 1.2-million-transistor microprocessor in 0.8-μm CMOS technology without the need for external components. It operates with a lock range from 5 to 110 MHz. The clock skew is less than 0.1 ns, with a peak-to-peak jitter of less than 0.3 ns for a 50-MHz system clock frequency     

Degenerate-cross-phase modulation of femtosecond laser pulses in a birefringent single-mode optical fiber

Degenerate-cross-phase modulation has been observed for femtosecond laser pulses propagating through a short birefringent single-mode optical fiber. The difference in the spectral broadening of the two output polarization components of a single laser pulse was attributed to the combination of self-phase modulation and degenerate-cross-phase modulation processes in the optical fiber. Theoretical simulations based on the solutions of the two coupled nonlinear Schrodinger equations are in good agreement with the measured results.