A miniature UWB planar monopole antenna with 5-GHz band-rejection filter and the time-domain characteristics

A planar monopole antenna with a staircase shape and small volume (25/spl times/26/spl times/1 mm/sup 3/) is proposed in this paper. With the use of a half-bowtie radiating element, the staircase-shape, and a modified ground plane structure, the proposed antenna has a very wide impedance bandwidth measured at about 11.6 GHz (2.9-14.5 GHz, bandwidth ratio about 1:5) below VSWR 2 including the WLAN band notched in the vicinity of 5 GHz. An omnidirectional radiation pattern is obtained. The group delay which is an indication of linearity between two proposed antennas is less than 1 ns. The electrical characteristics in terms of frequency and time domains and physical ones of the proposed antenna make it attractive for use in ultrawideband (UWB) systems.     

Effect of Hot Band Annealing on Magnetic Properties in 3% Si Grain‐oriented Electrical Steels

Hot band annealing is known to be a prerequisite for good magnetic properties irrespective of manufacturing methods in grain‐oriented Fe‐3 wt.% Si electrical steels. In this study, the effects of hot band annealing on magnetic properties were investigated in 3% grain‐oriented electrical steels of low soluble AI contents and one‐stage cold rolling. Microstructure and precipitate distribution were compared with hot band annealing conditions. Secondary recrystallization behaviour with hot band annealing condition was also discussed.     

Synthesis and Characterization of Nanocapsules of a-Fe(NiCoAl) Solid-solution

α-Fe(NiCoAl) solid-solution nanocapsules were prepared with pure powders of Fe, Ni, Co and Al by the plasma arc-discharging using a copper crucible. The shapes of the nanocapsules are in polyhedrons with the core/shell structure. The body centered cubic (BCC) phase is formed in the core. The size of the nanocapsules is in the range of 10~120 nm and the thickness of the shell is 4~11 nm. Saturation magnetization Js=150 Am2/kg and coercivity iHC=24.3 kA/m are achieved for the nanocapsules.     

The LabMatrix system

The LabMatrix^™ is a prototyping system designed to give the user a practical and versatile platform for testing microfluidic applications in the fields of health care and life sciences. The LabMatrix^™ system consists of a microfluidic breadboard and cover that align and secure a series of specially designed LabMatrix^™ microfluidic chips. Chips are easily arranged and rearranged into a user-defined fluidic network. The LabMatrix^™ system is designed with maximum flexibility in mind, providing the user with a means to prototype a wide range of microfluidic applications in a short period.     

Context Switching in a Run-Time Reconfigurable System

A distinguishing feature of reconfigurable computing over rapid prototyping is its ability to configure the computational fabric on-line while an application is running. Conventional reconfigurable computing platforms utilize commodity FPGAs, which typically have relatively long configuration times. Shrinking the configuration time down to the nanosecond region opens possibilities for rapid context switching and virtualizing the computational resources. An experimental context-switching FPGA, called the CSRC, has been created by BAE Systems, and gives researchers the opportunity to explore context-switching applications. This paper presents results obtained from constructing both control-driven and data-driven context switching applications on the CSRC device, along with unique properties of the run-time and compile-time environment.     

Comments on “Quadratic stabilization of continuous timesystems with state-delay and norm-bounded time-varyinguncertainties”

In the above mentioned paper by Mahmoud-Muthairi (ibid. vol.39 (1994)) a sufficient condition for memoryless stabilization of a class of uncertain linear systems with a variable-state delay and norm-bounded time-varying uncertainties is derived in terms of an algebraic Riccati equation. This Riccati equation depends on several free matrix variables, and a subsequent result in the paper, Theorem 2, states that failure or success of the stabilization algorithm is independent of the selection of these matrix variables. In this paper, we give a counterexample to this Theorem 2 as well as providing a fix     

A Multivariate T2 Control Chart for Skewed Populations Using Weighted Standard Deviations

This paper proposes a heuristic method of constructing multivariate T² control charts for skewed populations based on ‘weighted standard deviations’, obtained by decomposing the standard deviation into upper and lower deviations according to the direction and degree of skewness. The proposed method adjusts the variance–covariance matrix of quality characteristics and modifies the ellipsoidal probability density function contour of the multivariate normal distribution to a shape similar to that of the skewed distribution. False alarm rates and out‐of‐control average run lengths of the proposed control chart are compared with those of the standard control chart for multivariate lognormal, Weibull and gamma distributions, and the results show that considerable improvement over the standard method can be achieved when the distribution is skewed. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Structural and electrochemical properties of vanadium oxide thin films grown by d.c. and r.f. reactive sputtering at room temperature

Vanadium oxide thin films were grown at room temperature by direct current and radio-frequency reactive sputtering systems to compare the structural and electrochemical properties. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and Fourier transform infrared measurements reveal that the composition of the as-deposited films consists of the V₂O₅ phase regardless of the deposition methods. Wide-angle X-ray diffraction measurements show that the crystallinity of the as-deposited V₂O₅ films is different depending on the deposition method. Films deposited by direct current reactive sputtering were amorphous, whereas films deposited by radio-frequency reactive sputtering were crystalline. Scanning electron microscopy measurements show that the V₂O₅ films grown by radio-frequency reactive sputtering had a large grain size but the films grown by direct current reactive sputtering were amorphous. Charge–discharge measurements taken at room temperature with a constant current clearly indicate that the films grown by direct current sputtering demonstrated typical amorphous behavior, whereas the V₂O₅ films grown by radio-frequency sputtering demonstrated the discharge behavior of crystalline V₂O₅. The origin of the structural and electrochemical properties of film grown by radio-frequency reactive sputtering is a self-bias effect. The self-bias effect induces ion bombardment during the growth of vanadium oxide thin film. These results suggest that direct current reactive sputtering is more desirable for growing amorphous V₂O₅ thin film than radio-frequency reactive sputtering.     

Preparation of AZ91D Slurries for Semi-Solid Forming Using Al8 ( Mn, Fe) 5 Precipitates

During the solidification of the AZ91D-alloys, the Al8(Mn, Fe)5 phase is generally precipitated in the melt in advance of the precipitation of the primary α-Mg. The basic principle for manufacturing AZ91D-alloy slurries for semi solid forming is to use the Al8(Mn, Fe)5 precipitates as the heterogeneous nucleation sites for primary α-Mg phases. Microscopic analysis for the location of the Al8(Mn, Fe)5 precipitate explains that the Al8(Mn, Fe)5 precipitate is the effective heterogeneous nucleation site for the primary α-Mg phase. It was also observed that increase of the Mn content in the melt and the cooling rate below to the solid/liquid two-phase region resulted in smaller and more globular primary α-Mg due to the increase of heterogeneous nucleation sites. It was found that the average α-Mg diameter grew as a function of t0.278, where t is the holding time at the solid/liquid two-phase region. This would be attributed to the Ostwald type ripening and coalescence between primary α-Mg phases. The cooling rate below to the solid/liquid two-phase region, Mn content in AZ91D alloy, and the holding time and temperature affected on the quality of slurry.     

The effects of refractive index heterogeneity within kidney tissue on multiphoton fluorescence excitation microscopy

Although multiphoton fluorescence excitation microscopy has improved the depth at which useful fluorescence images can be collected in biological tissues, the reach of multiphoton fluorescence excitation microscopy is nonetheless limited by tissue scattering and spherical aberration. Scattering can be reduced in fixed samples by mounting in a medium whose refractive index closely matches that of the fixed material. Using optical 'clearing', the effects of refractive index heterogeneity on signal attenuation with depth are investigated. Quantitative measurements show that by mounting kidney tissue in a high refractive index medium, less than 50% of signal attenuates in 100 μm of depth.