Submicron dry-etching behavior of β-FeSi2 thin films towards fabrication of photonic crystals

We have investigated dry-etching properties of polycrystalline β-FeSi₂ films formed by ion-beam sputter-deposition (IBSD) and the films epitaxially grown on Si by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) in order to realize fabrication of photonic crystals with several hundreds nanometers in dimension. Using reactive ion etching with magnetic neutral loop discharge (NLD) plasma, we succeeded in realizing a comparatively higher etching rate than that obtained by inductively coupled plasma (ICP). Both reactive ion etching and impact ion etching modes may contribute to etching of β-FeSi₂. We have fabricated a two-dimensional photonic crystal of β-FeSi₂ on Si substrates and confirmed its predicted photonic properties in a reflectance spectrum of polarized light.     

Numerical Study on High-Speed Optical RZ Pulse Transmission in Fiber Link With Dispersion-Slope Management

This paper presents a numerical study of the transmission of a 160-Gb/s return-to-zero pulse train in a fiber link, in which both the dispersion and the dispersion-slope are periodically compensated. Two types of slope-compensation are considered: one is lumped compensation at each repeater, and the other is distributed compensation that uses a slope-reversed negative dispersion fiber. It is predicted that distributed slope compensation will provide better performance than lumped slope compensation at each amplifying repeater. This tendency will hold irrespective of the strength of dispersion-management, though the strong dispersion-management will shorten the available transmission distance.     

Design and evaluation of robot patient for nursing skill training in patient transfer

We developed a robot patient for patient transfer training for simulating a patient’s performance during patient transfer and for enabling nurses to practice their nursing skills on it. To realize the robot patient, we focused on addressing the problems of designing its limb actions to enable it to respond to nurses’ operations. RC servos and electromagnetic brakes were installed in the joints to enable the robot to simulate a patient’s limb actions, such as embracing and remaining standing. To enable the robot to automatically respond to nurses’ operations, an identification method for these operations was developed that used voice commands and the features of the limbs’ posture measured by angle sensors installed in the robot’s joints. The robot patient’s performance was examined by a control test in which four experienced nursing teachers performed patient transfer with the robot patient and a human-simulated patient. The results revealed that the robot patient could successfully simulate the actions of a patient’s limbs according to the nursing teachers’ operations and that it is suitable for nursing skill training.     

An analytical study of the effect of a support geometry on frequency shift and support loss of piezoelectric ring-shaped resonators for healthcare and environmental applications

Ring-shaped resonators with one support have been designed in this work. The ring-shaped resonator reacts with a mass perturbation to provide eigenstate or frequency shifts which could transfer to electrical signals by piezoelectric effect. The aforementioned ring-shaped resonator is mainly comprised with a multilayer of Pt/Ti/PZT/Pt/Ti/SiO₂ deposited on the silicon-on-insulator wafer and expected to be a contour mode. In order to estimate the sensitivity of the ring-shaped resonator against the mass perturbation, the theoretical analysis was conducted by ANSYS from two aspects including: (a) the effect of support geometry on frequency shift and support loss (from view point of vibration mode shape); and (b) the mass application methodology. It is found that low-amplitude vibration area is smaller at narrow support, and frequency shift of trapezoid support is higher than that of rectangle support.     

Downscaling MODIS LST in the East African mountains using elevation gradient and land-cover information

Land-surface temperature (LST) is strongly affected by altitude and surface albedo. In mountain regions where steep slopes and heterogeneous land cover are predominant, LST can vary significantly within short distances. Although remote sensing currently provides opportunities for monitoring LST in inaccessible regions, the coarse resolution of some sensors may result in large uncertainties at sub-pixel scales. This study aimed to develop a simple methodology for downscaling 1 km Moderate Resolution Spectroradiometer (MODIS) LST pixels, by accounting for sub-pixel LST variation associated with altitude and land-cover spatial changes. The approach was tested in Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, where changes in altitude and vegetation can take place over short distances. Daytime and night-time MODIS LST estimates were considered separately. A digital elevation model (DEM) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), both at 250 m spatial resolution, were used to assess altitude and land-cover changes, respectively. Simple linear regressions and multivariate regressions were used to quantify the relationship between LST and the independent variables, altitude and NDVI. The results show that, in Kilimanjaro, altitude variation within the area covered by a 1 km MODIS LST pixel can be up to ±300 m. These altitude changes can cause sub-pixel variation of up to ±2.13°C for night-time and ±2.88°C for daytime LST. NDVI variation within 1 km pixels ranged between –0.2 and 0.2. For night-time measurements, altitude explained up to 97% of LST variation, while daytime LST was strongly affected by land cover. Using multivariate regressions, the combination of altitude and NDVI explained up to 94% of daytime LST variation in Kilimanjaro. Finally, the downscaling approach proposed in this study allowed an improved representation of the influence of landscape features on local-scale LST patterns.     

Potential effects in multi-resolution post-classification change detection

Change detection is one of the primary applications of remote-sensing data, and many techniques have been developed during the past three decades. Although frequently criticized and despite many alternatives, due to its simplicity and intuitive manner, post-classification change detection still remains one of the most applied techniques. Many studies in the field of change detection analysis acknowledge, for instance, the impact of misregistration, inconsistencies in classification schemes or differences in methods for image interpretation. However, there are additional, rarely studied influences that can cause large errors in change detection results, including integrating multi-resolution data, the adjacency effect and the minimum mapping units (MMUs) that are applied to the classification before change detection. This study demonstrates these effects for the complex land cover of the Alvarado mangrove area at the Mexican Gulf Coast, employing 10 m Système Pour l'Observation de la Terre 5 (SPOT-5) high geometric resolution (HRG)‐based and 57 m Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS) classifications. As a baseline, the proportion of the fine spatial resolution classes within the coarse spatial resolution cells were derived, from which proportional change matrices were computed. The analysis employs difference measures to compare change matrices and proportional maps. The impact of various tested resampling functions was negligible if coarse resolution data were refined. For coarsening fine spatial resolution data, change matrix comparison was comparatively small but yielded differences of approximately 20% in spatially explicit measures. Incorrect positional alignment indicated differences of up to 5% in the change matrix for a misregistration of 100 m and even higher spatially explicit differences (28%). The discrepancies due to the adjacency effect were rather low. MMUs of 25 ha resulted in differences of up to 36% in the change matrix. The magnitude of the discrepancies of all studied effects depends on the class diversity in the map, and some can also be related to the difference in spatial resolution.     

Passive piezoelectric single-side MEMS DC current sensor with five parallel PZT plates applicable to two-wire DC electric appliances without using cord separator

A passive (power-less), non-contact macro-scale piezoelectric bimorph DC current sensor to satisfy the increasing needs of DC power supply for monitoring the electricity consumption by either one-wire or two-wire appliance cord was proposed at our laboratory previously. In present study however, a MEMS-scale piezoelectric single-side DC current sensor, comprised of five parallel PZT plates, was further proposed and micro-fabricated for preliminarily examination. A micro magnet was fixed by manipulator onto the PZT cantilever tip to the theoretically pinpointed position of the center plate. Different from the results of the macro-scale piezoelectric bimorph DC current sensor, impulsive piezoelectric output voltages accompanying with a gradual decrease in decay were detected when the applied DC electric current was varied from 0.5 to 2.5 A. A linear relationship between the detected peak value of the impulse output voltage and the applied DC electric current was also obtained but with a higher slope compared to the result of the macro-scale piezoelectric bimorph DC current sensor.     

New monolithic AGC amplifier stabilising output DC level for 560 Mbit/s optical transmission

A new AGC amplifier stabilising the output DC level is proposed and monolithically integrated using 1 ?m Si-bipolar IC technology. First, it is proven that the proposed AGC amplifier is about ten times superior to the conventional one in regard of output DC level stability. Next, it is confirmed that the IC, which exhibits a 720 MHz bandwidth, 39 dB maximum gain and 60 dB gain dynamic range, is feasible for 560 Mbit/s optical transmission.     

Activities of the Research and Development Association for FutureElectron Devices

The organization and the activities of the Research and Development Association for Future Electron Devices are described. In addition, the main results of research on superlattice devices, three dimensional ICs, and bioelectronic devices are presented