Fault detection for control of wastewater treatment plants.

Interest in real-time model-based control is increasing as more and more facilities are being asked to meet stricter effluent requirements while at the same time minimizing costs. It has been identified that biological process models and automated process control technologies are being used at wastewater treatments plants throughout the world and that great potential for optimising biotreatment may exist with the integration of these two technology areas. According to our experience, wastewater treatment plants are indeed looking for ways to successfully integrate their modelling knowledge into their process control structure; however, there are practical aspects of this integration that must be addressed if the benefits of this integration are to be realised. This paper discusses the practical aspects of monitoring, filtering and analysing real sensor data with an aim to produce a reliable real-time data stream that might be used within a model-based control structure. Several real case study examples are briefly discussed in this paper.     

Measurement and Identification of the Parameters of SPICE-Models of a Bipolar Transistor

A method of measuring and identifying the static parameters of a bipolar transistor is considered. The characteristic of the transistor, from which the parameters of the model are determined, is chosen depending on what group the calculated parameters belong to. The characteristics are measured in such a way that the equations of the model describing them can be reduced to the simplest form.     

X-ray or UV adjustment of MOS threshold voltage: Analytical and numerical modeling

A model is formulated that describes how radiation-induced charge accumulates in the gate oxide of a MOS structure and how it decays through tunneling and thermal emission. The model is used in a numerical analysis of the x-ray or UV adjustment of threshold voltage in MOS-circuit manufacture. The limits of this process technique are evaluated.     

Second harmonic generation from a ferroelectric film

We derive an expression for transmittivity (T_SHG) of second harmonic generation (SHG) signals from a ferroelectric (FE) film. Intensities of up and down fields in the medium are investigated in relation to T_SHG. The derivations are made based on undepletion of input fields and nonlinear wave equation derived from the Maxwell equations. We present two cases: film without mirrors and with partial mirrors. Expressions for the newly derived nonlinear susceptibility coefficients of SHG for real crystal symmetry [J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 19 (2002) 2007] are used to get more realistic results. Variations in T_SHG with respect to film thickness are illustrated.     

1/f noise in large-area Hg<Subscript>1−x</Subscript>Cd<Subscript>x</Subscript>Te photodiodes

The 1/f noise in photovoltaic (PV) molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE)-grown Hg_1−xCd_xTe double-layer planar heterostructure (DLPH) large-area detectors is a critical noise component with the potential to limit sensitivity of the cross-track infrared sounder (CrIS) instrument. Therefore, an understanding of the origins and mechanisms of noise currents in these PV detectors is of great importance. Excess low-frequency noise has been measured on a number of 1000-μm-diameter active-area detectors of varying “quality” (i.e., having a wide range of I-V characteristics at 78 K). The 1/f noise was measured as a function of cut-off wavelength under illuminated conditions. For short-wave infrared (SWIR) detectors at 98 K, minimal 1/f noise was measured when the total current was dominated by diffusion with white noise spectral density in the mid-10⁻¹⁵A/Hz^1/2 range. For SWIR detectors dominated by other than diffusion current, the ratio, α, of the noise current in unit bandwidth i_n(f = 1 Hz, V_d = −60 mV, and Δf = 1 Hz) to dark current I_d(V_d = −60 mV) was α_SW-d = i_n/I_d ∼ 1 × 10⁻³. The SWIR detectors measured at 0 mV under illuminated conditions had median α_SW-P = i_n/I_ph ∼ 7 × 10⁻⁶. For mid-wave infrared (MWIR) detectors, α_MW-d = i_n/I_d ∼ 2 × 10⁻⁴, due to tunneling current contributions to the 1/f noise. Measurements on forty-nine 1000-μm-diameter MWIR detectors under illuminated conditions at 98 K and −60 mV bias resulted in α_MW-P = i_n/I_ph = 4.16 ± 1.69 × 10⁻⁶. A significant point to note is that the photo-induced noise spectra are nearly identical at 0 mV and 100 mV reverse bias, with a noise-current-to-photocurrent ratio, α_MW-P, in the mid 10⁻⁶ range. For long-wave infrared (LWIR) detectors measured at 78 K, the ratio, α_LW-d = i_n/I_d ∼ 6 × 10⁻⁶, for the best performers. The majority of the LWIR detectors exhibited α_LW-d on the order of 2 × 10⁻⁵. The photo-induced 1/f noise had α_LW-P = i_n/I_ph ∼ 5 × 10⁻⁶. The value of the noise-current-to-dark-current ratio, α appears to increase with increasing bandgap. It is not clear if this is due to different current mechanisms impacting 1/f noise performance. Measurements on detectors of different bandgaps are needed at temperatures where diffusion current is the dominant current. Excess low-frequency noise measurements made as a function of detector reverse bias indicate 1/f noise may result primarily from the dominant current mechanism at each particular bias. The 1/f noise was not a direct function of the applied bias.     

Effect of Sb implantation on copper silicides formation and morphology after annealing of Cu/Si structures

In this work, the solid state reaction between a thin film of copper and silicon has been studied using Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and microprobe analysis. Cu films of 400 and 900 Å thicknesses are thermally evaporated on Si(1 1 1) substrates, part of them had previously been implanted with antimony ions of 5×10¹⁴ or 5×10¹⁵ at. cm⁻² doses. The samples are heat-treated in vacuum at temperatures in the range 200–700 °C for various times. The results show the growth and formation of Cu₃Si and Cu₄Si silicides under crystallites shape dispatched on the sample surface, independently of the implantation dose. On the other hand, it is established that the copper layer is less and less consumed as the antimony dose increases, resulting in the accumulation of Sb⁺ ions at silicide/Si interface and in the silicide layer close to surface. The exposure of samples to air at room temperature shows the stability of Cu₄Si phase whereas the Cu₃Si silicide disappears to the benefit of the silicon dioxide formation. The observed phenomena are discussed.     

Evaluation and optimization of package processing and design through solder joint profile prediction

Solder joints are generated using a variety of methods to provide both mechanical and electrical connection for applications such as flip-chip, wafer level packaging, fine pitch, ball-grid array, and chip scale packages. Solder joint shape prediction has been incorporated as a key tool to aid in process development, wafer level and package level design and development, assembly, and reliability enhancement. This work demonstrates the application of an analytical model and the Surface Evolver software in analyzing a variety of solder processing methods and package types. Bump and joint shape prediction was conducted for the design of wafer level bumping, flip-chip assembly, and wafer level packaging. The results from the prediction methodologies are validated with experimentally measured geometries at each level of design.     

Analytic models for the latency and steady-state throughput of TCP Tahoe, Reno, and SACK

Continuing the process of improvements made to TCP through the addition of new algorithms in Tahoe and Reno, TCP SACK aims to provide robustness to TCP in the presence of multiple losses from the same window. In this paper we present analytic models to estimate the latency and steady-state throughput of TCP Tahoe, Reno, and SACK and validate our models using both simulations and TCP traces collected from the Internet. In addition to being the first models for the latency of finite Tahoe and SACK flows, our model for the latency of TCP Reno gives a more accurate estimation of the transfer times than existing models. The improved accuracy is partly due to a more accurate modeling of the timeouts, evolution of cwnd during slow start and the delayed ACK timer. Our models also show that, under the losses introduced by the droptail queues which dominate most routers in the Internet, current implementations of SACK can fail to provide adequate protection against timeouts and a loss of roughly more than half the packets in a round will lead to timeouts. We also show that with independent losses SACK performs better than Tahoe and Reno and, as losses become correlated, Tahoe can outperform both Reno and SACK.     

Optimal pilot waveform assisted modulation for ultrawideband communications

Ultrawideband (UWB) transmissions induce pronounced frequency-selective fading effects in their multipath propagation. Multipath diversity gains can be collected to enhance performance, provided that the underlying channel can be estimated at the receiver. To this end, we develop a novel pilot waveform assisted modulation (PWAM) scheme that is tailored for UWB communications. We select our PWAM parameters by jointly optimizing channel estimation performance and information rate. The resulting transmitter design maximizes the average capacity, which is shown to be equivalent to minimizing the mean-square channel estimation error, and thereby achieves the Crame/spl acute/r-Rao lower bound. Application of PWAM to practical UWB systems is promising because it entails simple integrate-and-dump operations at the frame rate. Equally important, it offers a flexible UWB channel estimator, capable of striking desirable rate-performance tradeoffs depending on the channel coherence time.     

Effect of the Distribution of Manganese Ions on the Properties of Mn-Doped (Ba,Y)TiO3 PTCR Ceramics

The electrical properties and microstructure of (Ba,Y)TiO₃ PTCR ceramics were studied. The results indicate that the Mn ions increase the intergranular barrier height and produce a high-resistance layer on the grain surface. The temperature-dependent resistances of the grain bulk, surface layer, and grain boundaries, the temperature coefficient of resistance, and the magnitude of the varistor effect were assessed as a function of Mn content.