Active flying-height control slider using MEMS thermal actuator

Today’s head/disk interface design has a wide flying height distribution due to manufacturing tolerances, environmental variations, and write-induced thermal protrusion. To reduce the magnetic spacing loss caused by these effects, we developed an active head slider with a nano-thermal actuator. The magnetic spacing of these sliders can be controlled in situ during drive operations. After simulating the heat transfer in the slider to obtain the thermal deformation of the air-bearing surface, we fabricated a thermal actuator using thin-film processing. An evaluation done using a read/write tester showed a linear reduction in the magnetic height as electric power was applied to the actuator. The actuator’s stroke was 2.5 nm per 50 mW with a time constant of 1 ms. There was no significant impact on the reliability of the read element.     

Mapping of the receptor-associated protein (RAP) binding proteins on living fibroblast cells using an atomic force microscope

The distribution of the receptor-associated protein (RAP) binding protein and the adhesion forces between RAP and its binding protein on living fibroblast cells were examined using an atomic force microscope (AFM). The distribution of RAP binding protein was obtained on 256 (16x16) locations in 2x2 micro m sections over the surface of living cells. The adhesion forces between RAP and the binding protein were measured with an AFM tip functionalized with RAP. In the presence of RAP in the scanning solution, the number of force curves with large adhesion force decreased. These results indicate that the adhesive forces observed here represent specific binding between RAP and the binding protein. This method will be a useful application of AFM to examine receptors on cell surfaces in high resolution.     

Low Amplified Spontaneous Emission Threshold from Organic Dyes Based on Bis‐stilbene

Advanced organic laser dyes exhibiting high solubility and bipolar behavior are developed based on a structure combining bis‐stilbene with carbazole (BSBCz). The materials show high photoluminescence quantum yields and large radiative rate constants in solutions, crystals, and blend and neat films. The introduction of alkyl groups significantly improves the solubility of BSBCz, and solution‐processed films of the alkyl‐substituted derivatives exhibit amplified spontaneous emission thresholds as low as 0.59 µJ cm^?2, which is comparable to those of vacuum‐deposited BSBCz films. On the other hand, cyano‐substitution on BSBCz (BSBCz‐CN) increases electron‐accepting properties, resulting in a bathochromic shift of the emission wavelength and improved bipolar behavior. In a BSBCz‐CN‐doped film, a low ASE threshold of 0.63 µJ cm^?2 is achieved, which is one of the lowest values for organic laser dyes with green emission. In addition, organic light‐emitting diodes based on BSBCz‐CN neat films exhibit external quantum efficiencies of 1.8% and could withstand injection of high current densities of up to 500 A cm^?2 under pulse operation. These properties along with low excited‐state absorption cross sections make these materials an outstanding addition to the existing library of organic laser dyes, especially for consideration in electrically pumped lasers.     

A White LED Driver Using a Buck–Boost Converter

For mobile backlighting applications, a white LED (WLED) driver using a buck–boost converter is proposed in this letter. Unlike conventional converters using boost converters, 2×/1.5× charge pumps, and so on, the proposed converter offers the negative stepped‐down voltage to drive the LED's cathode only when the input voltage is insufficient to drive a 1× transfer mode. Furthermore, unlike the LED backlight using charge pumps, the proposed converter can adjust the output voltage by controlling the duty factor of the clock pulse. Thus, the proposed converter can realize high power efficiency. The validity of the proposed converter is confirmed by simulations and experiments. © 2010 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Power factor control for inverters under high penetration of distributed generation

The paper proposes a method to select a power factor for an inverter of distributed power generation systems to keep appropriate voltage of a power system with the high penetration of inverter-interfaced generation. The increase of inverter-interfaced power sources, such as wind and photovoltaic power generation, arouses concerns on the voltage fluctuations in a power system. While constant power factor control of an inverter has been studied as a means to stabilize the voltage of a power system, there still remains room to improve the control. The proposed method in the paper selects the power factor based on the R/X ratio of the looking-back impedance into the interconnected power system. By normalizing the related variables, a general formula is derived for the power factor, and the resultant relationship between the apparent power and voltage of an inverter becomes identical irrespective of the R/X ratio with the control. Sample studies show that, by operating an inverter with the power factor, voltage fluctuations are effectively suppressed even for a power system with the high penetration of inverter-interfaced generation.     

Localizing Oxygen Lattice Evolutions Eliminates Oxygen Release and Voltage Decay in All-Mn-Based Li-Rich Cathodes

All-Mn-based Li-rich cathodes Li₂MnO₃ have attracted extensive attention because of their cost advantage and ultrahigh theoretical capacity. However, the unstable anionic redox reaction (ARR), which involves irreversible oxygen releases, causes declines in cycling capacity and intercalation potential, thus hindering their practical applications. Here, it is proposed that introducing stacking-fault defects into the Li₂MnO₃ can localize oxygen lattice evolutions and stabilize the ARR, eliminating oxygen releases. The thus-made cathode has a highly reversible capacity (320 mA h g⁻¹) and achieves excellent cycling stability. After 100 cycles, the capacity retention rate is 86% and the voltage decay is practically eliminated at 0.19 mV per cycle. Attributing to the stable ARR, samples show reduced stress–strain and phase transitions. Neutron pair distribution function (nPDF) measurements indicate that there is a structure response of localized oxygen lattice distortion to the ARR and the average oxygen lattice framework is well-preserved which is a prerequisite for the high cycle reversibility.