Rocket-triggered lightning experiments on zinc oxide arresters and their applications to power transmission lines

In measurements of rocket-triggered lightning current and voltage performed between 1986 and 1995 on the mountain top of Okushishiku in the Kanazawa area, the authors succeeded in artificially inducing winter lightning to arresters. Using the data obtained from those measurements, we analyzed the energy absorption characteristics of surge arresters, such as are installed on every transmission line tower for three phrases, by EMTP. The energy withstand capability of an individual arrester was verified to be approximately the same as the expected value. The analysis results for the energy share of each arrester connected in parallel showed that the usual light duty arresters installed on every tower have the possibility to be able to absorb extreme winter lightning energy even if the lightning hits the power line directly. © 1998 Scripta Technica. Electr Eng Jpn, 122(4): 25–33, 1998     

Inter-vehicle communication: technical issues on vehicle controlapplication

Mutual exchange of status data between vehicles in close proximity is the basis for safe vehicle operation. Application areas range from driver assistance/warning to fully autonomous driving. To enable this data exchange we need an intervehicle communication (IVC) system. Vehicles involved in mutual data exchange form a kind of local area network; however, the characteristics of this network are quite different from those of conventional networks. The configuration of this kind of network changes from time to time, in terms of organization, proximity group, group position, and relative position; therefore, it is very challenging to establish. The authors have been working on this problem from the point of view of communication media and protocol. The characteristics and requirements of IVC are discussed, and several preliminary communication protocols are proposed. The authors also present some experimental results from the implementation of a function integrating communication by infrared ray with a gap-measuring technique by the vision system     

Oxygen-permselectivity in new type polyorganosiloxanes with carboxyl group on the side chain

Summary Oxygen-permselectivity through polyorganosiloxanes with carboxyl group on the side chain is discussed in terms of the differences between the O₂, N₂ diffusion coefficients or their solubility coefficients. The oxygen-selectivity increases from 2 to 5 with the increase in the carboxyl component of the side chain. Especially the selectivity in the diffusion coefficient is found to more contribute to the oxygenpermselectivity in comparison with that of the solubility coefficient. But the permeation coefficient decreases with the permselectivity.This work was partially supported by a Grand-in-Aid from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Japan.     

Analysis and Design of a Dynamic Predistorter for WCDMA Handset Power Amplifiers

This paper presents a dynamic predistorter (PD), which linearizes the dynamic AM-AM and AM-PM of a wideband code division multiple access handset power amplifier (PA). The dynamic PD allows an adjacent channel leakage power ratio (ACPR) improvement of 15.7 dB, which is superior to conventional PDs that linearize static AM-AM and AM-PM. The dynamic PD was designed using an HBT generating nonlinearity, a short circuit at the baseband (les4 MHz), and a load circuit for the HBT at the RF fundamental band (ap1.95 GHz). Volterra-series analysis was performed to understand the mechanism of the dynamic PD. The analysis revealed that the short circuit at the baseband enabled the dynamic PD generating third-order intermodulation distortion (IMD3) with opposite phase to the fundamental tone (i.e., antiphase IMD3). The antiphase IMD3 allows dynamic gain compression, which linearizes the dynamic gain expansion of a PA with low quiescent current. The analysis also revealed that the IMD3 amplitude of the dynamic PD can be adjusted by load impedance at the RF fundamental band, which enables the gradient of dynamic AM-AM and AM-PM to be optimized to linearize the PA. The fabricated two-stage InGaP/GaAs HBT PA module with the dynamic PD exhibited an ACPR of -40 dBc and a power-added efficiency of 50% at an average output power of 26.8 dBm with a quiescent current of 20 mA     

A practical high-latchup immunity design methodology for internalcircuits in the standard cell-based CMOS/BiCMOS LSIs

A practical high-latchup-immunity design methodology is proposed for high-density internal circuits in standard cell-based CMOS/BiCMOS LSIs. Both locally injected trigger current and uniformly generated trigger current were measured using a new test structure. Focusing on the difference in the well shunt resistance between local and uniform trigger currents, a practical latchup-free guideline based on an analytical model for uniformly generated trigger current in the well is presented for the periodic placement of well contacts dependent on parasitic device parameters, on generated trigger current level, and a layout pattern size     

Q-factor definition and evaluation for spiral inductors fabricated using wafer-level CSP technology

A novel Q-factor definition and evaluation method are proposed for low-loss high-Q spiral inductors fabricated by using the wafer-level chip-size package (WLP) on silicon substrates, where the copper wiring technology with a polyimide isolation layer is used. In conventional Q-factor evaluation for inductors, a short-circuited load condition is used, where the Q factor is represented by using Y-parameters as Q=Im{1/Y/sub 11/}/Re{1/Y/sub 11/}. This conventional method provides a Q factor of 20 with 2-5-nH inductance around 3.9 GHz. However, since structures for the spiral inductors are asymmetrical, the short-circuited load condition and short-circuited source condition give different Q values, respectively. The Q-value differences of approximately 100% have often been observed in the WLP. The differences mainly come from differences in loss estimation. In a novel method, a complex conjugate impedance-matching condition is retained both at an input port and an output port of the inductor. The maximum available power gain (G/sub AMAX/) is introduced to evaluate the energy loss in one cycle. This condition provides a unique insertion loss of passive devices. Thus, the difference of the Q factor depends only on the difference of magnetic and electric energy. The difference of the Q value is reduced.     

High-speed and low-driving-Voltage thin-sheet X-cut LiNbO/sub 3/ Modulator with laminated low-dielectric-constant adhesive

We present a novel thin-sheet X-cut LiNbO/sub 3/ optical modulator structure which can be fabricated by precise polishing and lapping to obtain a thinner LiNbO/sub 3/ substrate for a lower driving voltage in addition to velocity matching and impedance matching. We demonstrated that the fabricated modulator had a driving voltage V/spl pi/ of 2 V and zero chirp for 40-Gb/s operation and had a high potential for suppressed dc drift, and long-term reliability.     

40 Gbit/s electroabsorption modulators with impedance-controlled electrodes

A novel travelling-wave electroabsorption optical modulator, electrically matched for 50 /spl Omega/ loads of driving circuit drivers, was developed. The scattering parameter of electric reflection (S/sub 11/) from this modulator is less than -20 dB at 20 GHz. It can thus enable a 40 Gbit/s, 2 km SMF transmission with a 0.3 dB penalty at a 1.3 /spl mu/m wavelength.     

Low-power chip interconnection by dynamic termination

A low-power dynamic termination scheme is proposed and demonstrated as a way to reduce power dissipation for high-speed data transport. In this scheme, the transmission lines are terminated only if the signals change. The gate of a switching MOS transistor connected to a termination resistor is driven by differentiating the transmission signal with a resistor and a capacitor. The power dissipation of the terminating resistor can be reduced to 1/5 in the conventional determination scheme, and overshoot can be reduced to 1/5 that in the open scheme. This scheme is promising for use with palm-top equipment, facilitating high-speed low power operation     

Characterization of polymer-adhesive interfaces on a nanometre scale by elemental mapping and image EELS using EFTEM

Energy-filtering transmission electron microscopy (EFTEM) was applied for investigating interfaces between a polymer and an adhesive. The sample employed in this work is polybutylene terephtharate (PBT) sheets laminated with an epoxy adhesive. It was found that heat aging of the PBT at 180 degrees C in air for > 9 h prior to adhesion decreases the adhesion strength drastically. To investigate this unfavourable aging effect on the adhesion strength, we performed elemental mapping and image EELS using EFTEM. A weak boundary layer with a thickness of < 50 nm was visualized at the PBT-adhesive interface by elemental mapping in the sample subjected to the heat aging and image EELS revealed the origin of this layer. Thus, we clearly correlated the nanoscale interfacial structure with the adhesion strength by EFTEM.