Effect of Vacancy Distribution on the Thermal Conductivity of Ga<Subscript>2</Subscript>Te<Subscript>3</Subscript> and Ga<Subscript>2</Subscript>Se<Subscript>3</Subscript>

Our group has focused attention on Ga₂Te₃ as a natural nanostructured thermoelectric material. Ga₂Te₃ has basically a zincblende structure, but one-third of the Ga sites are structural vacancies due to the valence mismatch between Ga and Te. It has been confirmed that (1) vacancies in Ga₂Te₃ exist as two-dimensional (2D) vacancy planes, and (2) Ga₂Te₃ exhibits an unexpectedly low thermal conductivity (κ), most likely due to highly effective phonon scattering by the 2D vacancy planes. However, the effect of the size and periodicity of the 2D vacancy planes on κ has been unclear. In addition, it has also been unclear whether only the 2D vacancy planes reduce κ or if point-type vacancies can also reduce κ. In the present study, we tried to prepare Ga₂Te₃ and Ga₂Se₃ with various vacancy distributions by controlling annealing conditions. The atomic structures of the samples were characterized by means of transmission electron microscopy, and κ was evaluated from the thermal diffusivity measured by the laser flash method. The effects of vacancy distributions on κ of Ga₂Te₃ and Ga₂Se₃ are discussed.     

Enhanced Performance of I2‐Free Solid‐State Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells with Conductive Polymer up to 6.8%

An iodine‐free solid‐state dye‐sensitized solar cell (ssDSSC) is reported here, with 6.8% energy conversion efficiency—one of the highest yet reported for N719 dye—as a result of enhanced light harvesting from the increased transmittance of an organized mesoporous TiO₂ interfacial layer and the good hole conductivity of the solid‐state‐polymerized material. The organized mesoporous TiO₂ (OM‐TiO₂) interfacial layer is prepared on large‐area substrates by a sol‐gel process, and is confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and grazing incidence small‐angle X‐ray scattering (GISAXS). A 550‐nm‐thick OM‐TiO₂ film coated on fluorine‐doped tin oxide (FTO) glass is highly transparent, resulting in transmittance increases of 8 and 4% compared to those of the bare FTO and conventional compact TiO₂ film on FTO, respectively. The high cell performance is achieved through careful control of the electrode/hole transport material (HTM) and nanocrystalline TiO₂/conductive glass interfaces, which affect the interfacial resistance of the cell. Furthermore, the transparent OM‐TiO₂ film, with its high porosity and good connectivity, exhibits improved cell performance due to increased transmittance in the visible light region, decreased interfacial resistance ( Ω ), and enhanced electron lifetime ( τ ). The cell performance also depends on the conductivity of HTMs, which indicates that both highly conductive HTM and the transparent OM‐TiO₂ film interface are crucial for obtaining high‐energy conversion efficiencies in I₂‐free ssDSSCs.     

Measurement of nonlinear mechanical properties of PDMS elastomer

This paper presents the measurement of the nonlinear mechanical properties of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomer based on the mixing ratio of base polymer to curing agent. Strip-type PDMS samples with different mixing ratios were prepared using a simple coating, curing, and cutting process. A cyclic uniaxial tension test with a fixed magnitude of applied strain and a single-pull-to-failure tension test were performed with a micro-tensile tester at room temperature.Our new finding is that when the PDMS is mixed with excessive curing agent, stress softening occurs and residual strain exists in cyclic tension tests when the magnitude of the applied strain increases. For the PDMS-05 samples, in which the mixing ratio of base polymer to curing agent was 5 to 1, there were large differences in the stresses for the same strain level under loading and unloading during the first cycle with a 100% fixed strain amplitude, but the softening effect of the stress in the PDMS dropped rapidly starting from the second cycle.Nonlinear mechanical Neo-Hookean, third-order Mooney, and second-order Ogden models of three different PDMS films were computed from the stress-strain data. The results showed that all models were preferable for the small strain region of PDMS compared with other models. In the nonlinear, large strain region, only the second-order Ogden model properly described the mechanical behavior of the PDMS, while the Neo-Hookean and third-order Mooney-Rivlin models were too stiff or flexible in the measurement range. The bulk modulus of PDMS increased with the amount of curing agent in it. Therefore, the second-order Ogden model is preferable for analyzing the PDMS structure over the entire measurement range. This could provide reasonable mechanical models of PDMS for rapid computational prototyping and for designing active and passive components from PDMS.     

Biometric bits extraction through phase quantization based on?feature level fusion

Biometric bits extraction has emerged as an essential technique for the study of biometric template protection as well as biometric cryptosystems. In this paper, we present a non-invertible but revocable bits extraction technique by means of quantizing the facial data from two feature extractors in the phase domain, which we coin as aligned feature-level fusion phase quantization (AFPQ). In this technique, we utilize helper data to achieve the revocability requirement of bits extraction. The feature averaging and remainder normalization technique are integrated with the helper data to reduce feature variance within the same individual and increase the distinctiveness of bit strings of different individuals to achieve good recognition performance. A scenario in which the system is compromised by an adversary is also considered. As a generic technique, AFPQ can be easily extended to multiple different biometric modalities.     

部分响应连续相位调制信号在卫星移动信道中的误比特率性能分析

该文给出了组合卫星移动信道中采用差分相位检测(DPD)和最大比组合(MRC)的部分响应连续相位调制(PRCPM)信号的误比特率计算公式,并给出了有关数值计算结果。     

A signal-alignment theory in rolling-based lightwave transmissionsystems

A theory to support signal alignment in rolling-based lightwave transmission systems is developed. The theory originates from the transmission system environment, which consists of three basic building blocks-multiplexer, scrambler, and permuter. These building blocks are represented by mathematical operators, on the basis of which mathematical expressions of the whole transmission system become possible. The mathematical operators are directly translated into number operators which help detect and identify the received signals in the form of a table-the signal-detection table. The signal-detection tables play a central role in the signal-alignment theory, since any transmission system can be represented by its corresponding signal-detection table. The entries in the signal-detection tables are closely correlated so that the tables can be uniquely characterized by their corresponding characteristic expressions. Various types of signal-detection tables are examined, and solutions to align transmitted signals and to reduce signal-alignment time in rolling-based lightwave transmission systems are exemplified through scrambler-permuter configurations     

感应自加热重熔无铅焊料凸台的剪切失效模式

通过两次高频感应重熔制备了Cu焊盘上S n3．5Ag焊料和Sn3．0Ag0．5Cu焊料凸台,并进行了120℃下的老化试验以及老化试件的剪切强度试验,分析了不同老化时间下两种无铅焊料凸台的剪切断裂模式。焊料凸台的剪切载荷-位移曲线的特征以及对焊料凸台剪切断口的扫描电镜形貌分析结果表明,不同老化时间下无铅焊料凸台的剪切断裂表现为塑性、韧性和脆性三种断裂模式。对凸台焊料合金的组织以及界面观察结果表明,随老化时间不断生长的脆性金属间化合物层以及焊料组织粗大是致使断裂失效模式转变的根本原因。     

Comments on "A carry-free 54 b/spl times/54 b multiplier using equivalent bit conversion algorithm"

For original paper see ibid., vol. 36, no. 10, p. 1538-1545 (Oct. 2001). In the aforementioned paper by Kim et al., a multiplier is presented which produces the result in radix-2 signed-digit representation. It is claimed that this representation can be converted into conventional magnitude representation by an algorithm which has no carry propagation. To the commenters this algorithm seems incorrect. The critical situation is a string which consists of a sequence of zeros followed by a -1; in such a case a carry is needed and the algorithm proposed is deemed incorrect. Consequently, it is pointed out that the proposed algorithm produces a correct multiplication result in conventional magnitude representation only if the signed-digit string does not have a sequence of 0's followed by a -1. The commenters show a multiplication example using the proposed conversion algorithm in which this situation occurs.     

Performance analysis of error propagation effects in the DFE for ATSC DTV receivers

The paper analyzes the error propagation phenomenon in the decision feedback equalizer (DFE) for the receivers of Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) digital television (DTV) and presents the performance upper-limits of the DFE by comparing various error propagation cases and the no-error propagation case. As one approach to the performance limit, we consider a blind DFE, adopting a trellis decoder with a trace-back depth of 1 as a decision device. Through simulation, we show how much the DFE performance in ATSC DTV receivers is affected by error propagation. We found that while blind equalization is preferable to decision-directed (DD) equalization at signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) values less than 18 dB, DD equalization is superior to blind equalization at SNR values greater than 18 dB. In addition, symbol error rate curves quantitatively show that the performance difference in the DFE caused by error propagation becomes clearer at the trellis decoder following the DFE. The analysis results presented are very informative for developing equalization algorithms for ATSC DTV receivers.