A qualitative energy-based unified representation for buildings

This paper presents the development of energy-based unified representations for buildings called Archi Bond Graphs and then specialises them as qualitative Archi Bond Graphs that combine graphical representations and qualitative equations. They can be applied to simulations of people behaviour and people-energy behaviour in space-people systems, building energy flows and building energy variations in different building energy systems, and energy interactions between these building subsystems. The applicability of qualitative Archi Bond Graphs is demonstrated through a building simulation for the dynamic energy interactions between the space-people system and building energy systems, including lighting system, and hydraulic system in a town-house design.     

Enhanced Thermal Stability and Efficiency of Polymer Bulk‐Heterojunction Solar Cells by Low‐Temperature Drying of the Active Layer

This study addresses two key issues, stability and efficiency, of polymer solar cells based on blended poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and [6,6]‐phenyl‐C61‐butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) by demonstrating a film‐forming process that involves low‐temperature drying (?5 °C) and subsequent annealing of the active layer. The low‐temperature process achieves 4.70% power conversion efficiency (PCE) and ～1250 h storage half‐life at 65 °C, which are significant improvements over the 3.39% PCE and ～143 h half‐life of the regular room‐temperature process. The improvements are attributed to the enhanced nucleation of P3HT crystallites as well as the minimized separation of the P3HT and PCBM phases at the low drying temperature, which upon post‐drying annealing results in a morphology consisting of small PCBM‐rich domains interspersed within a densely interconnected P3HT crystal network. This morphology provides ample bulk‐heterojunction area for charge generation while allowing for facile charge transport; moreover, the P3HT crystal network serves as an immobile frame at heating temperatures less than the melting point (T_m) of P3HT, thus preventing PCBM/P3HT phase separation and the corresponding device degradation.     

Field theoretical treatment of H-plane waveguide junctionswith anisotropic medium

A method based on the equivalence principle and cavity field expansions is used to analyze an H-plane waveguide junction containing an anisotropic (ferrite or composite ferrite) post. Using the equivalence principle, magnetic surface currents are introduced at the imaginary boundaries chosen between the central region of the junction and the waveguides. The electric displacement in the junction can be completely expressed in terms of a solenoidal set. On the other hand, the magnetic induction in the junction must be expressed in terms of a solenoidal set and an irrotational set. Continuing the tangential magnetic field at the imaginary boundaries leads to a matrix equation, the unknowns of which are the amplitudes of the scattered waveguide modes. Using this method, H-plane waveguide junctions with ferrite and composite ferrite posts are considered. The numerical results show excellent agreement with previously published experimental and theoretical results     

Low Area/Power Synthesis Using Hybrid Pass Transistor/CMOS Logic Cells in Standard Cell-Based Design Environment

This brief presents a logic synthesis flow that depends on the popular Synopsys Design Compiler to perform logic translation and minimization based on the standard cell library with both pass transistor logic (PTL) and CMOS logic cells. The hybrid PTL/CMOS logic synthesis can generate appropriate circuits considering various design constraints. The proposed multilevel PTL logic cells are automatically constructed from only a few basic cells. Postlayout simulations with UMC 90-nm technology are presented based on the standard cell library with pure PTL, pure CMOS, or hybrid PTL/CMOS cells. Experimental results show that, in most cases, pure PTL circuits have smaller area and power, whereas CMOS circuits, in general, have smaller delay.      

An alternative method to fabricate the planar-type resonant-cavity light-emitting diodes by using silicon oxide for short-reach communications

In this article, the silicon oxide (SiO_x) planarization technique is presented to fabricate the 650-nm resonant-cavity light-emitting diodes (RCLEDs). The performances of RCLEDs are characterized by forward voltage, light output power, external quantum efficiency, emission spectrum, and dynamic response. As a result, the device with the SiO_x-planarized layer exhibits a low operating voltage of 2.3 V at 20 mA, a maximum light output power of 304 μW at 15 mA, and the best external quantum efficiency of 3% at 1.2 mA. In addition, the SiO_x-planarized device exhibits temperature insensitivity as compared to the device without it. The RCLED with a 30-μm diameter shows the maximum 3 dB frequency bandwidth of 275 MHz at a driving current of 40 mA. Finally, the RCLED with a SiO_x-planarized layer shows a clear eye-opening feature as operating at 100 Mbit/s at 20 mA. These results indicate that such LEDs are excellent candidates for use in high-speed short-reach plastic optical fiber communications.     

Perturbed-TEM analysis of transmission lines with imperfectconductors

A perturbed-transverse electromagnetic (TEM) approach to studying the detailed current distribution and the propagation constant of a multiconductor transmission line system with imperfect conductors is discussed. The perturbed fields are derived assuming that the fields outside the conductors are TEM waves of the corresponding lossless system and those inside the conductors satisfy the transverse magnetic (TM) modal equations. These fields are then inserted into a perturbational formula to obtain the propagation constant of the lossy system. The current distribution and the propagation constant (which clearly illustrates the loss mechanism due to the skin effect and the proximity effect) of a lossy two-wire system are presented as an example     

A Novel Pt/In0.52Al0.48As Schottky Diode-Type Hydrogen Sensor

On the basis of a Pt/In_0.52Al_0.48As metal-semiconductor structure, a novel hydrogen sensor is fabricated and demonstrated. The studied Pt/In_0.52Al_0.48As Schottky diode-type hydrogen sensor exhibits significant sensing performance including high relative sensitivity ratio of about 2600% (under the 1% H₂/air gas and V_R=-0.5 V at 30 degC), large current variation of 310 muA (under the 1% H₂/air gas and V_R=-5 V at 200 degC), widespread reverse-voltage regime (0~-5 V), stable hydrogen-sensing current-voltage (I-V) curves, and fast transient response time of 1.5 s. The calculated Schottky barrier-height change and series-resistance variation, from the thermionic-emission model and Norde method, are 87.0 meV and 288 Omega, respectively (under the 1% H₂/air gas at 30 degC). The hydrogen concentrations and operating temperatures tested in this letter are in the range of 15 ppm-1% H₂/air and 30 degC-250 degC, respectively. Based on the excellent integration compatibility with InP-based electronic devices, the studied device provides the potentiality in high-performance sensor-array applications     

Thermal reliability and performances of InGaP schottky contact with Cu/Au and Au/Cu-MSM photodetectors

We report the Schottky performance and thermal reliability of a wide bandgap InGaP layer in contact with a Cu/Au metallic system. An effective Schottky barrier height of 0.97 eV and an ideality factor of 1.21 can be achieved. The thermal reliability of the resultant Schottky barrier diodes was analyzed using Auger electron spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. The thermal reliability could be main tained up to 450°C. The failure mechanism was attributable to the decomposition of the InGaP layer and the interdiffusion of the chemical elements at higher temperature. Insensitive photoresponsivity with the in cident optical power was found for the resultant Au/Cu-metal-semiconductor-metalphotodetectors (MSM-PDs). According to the measured temporal response of the Au/Cu-MSM-PDs, the operation frequency could be above 10 GHz.     

Comparative investigation of InP/InGaAs heterostructure-emitter tunneling and superlattice bipolar transistors

In this article, the characteristics of InP/InGaAs heterostructure-emitter bipolar transistors with 30 n-InP layer tunneling layers and a five-period InP/InGaAs superlattice are demonstrated and comparatively investigated by experimentally results and analysis. In the three devices, a 200 Å n-In_0.53Ga_0.47As layer together with an n-InP tunneling emitter layer (or n-InP/n-InGaAs superlattice) forms heterostructure emitter to decrease collector-emitter offset voltage. The results exhibits that the largest collector current and current gain are obtained for the tunneling transistor with a 30 Å n-InP tunneling emitter layer. On the other hand, some of holes injecting from base to emitter will be blocked at n-InP/n-InGaAs heterojunction due to the relatively small hole transmission coefficient in superlattice device, which will result in a considerable base recombination current in the n-InGaAs layer. Therefore, the collector current and current gain of the superlattice device are the smallest values among of the devices.     

Fabrication and Characterization of Benzocyclobutene Optical Waveguides by UV Pulsed-Laser Illumination

Buried-type benzocyclobutene (BCB) optical waveguides fabricated by UV pulsed-laser illumination are proposed and comprehensively characterized in this paper. The fabrication process is greatly simplified as compared to conventional dry-etched ridge-type BCB waveguides. The measured propagation loss at 1548 nm is as low as 0.6 dB/cm due to the buried waveguide structure. And the produced refractive index change is dependent upon the number of laser shots such that single-mode waveguides with different mode sizes can be tailored for efficient coupling. Furthermore, rigorous analyses of surface damage threshold, rms roughness, and chemical characteristics under different illumination conditions are presented to illustrate the design considerations and the chemical mechanism of the UV-induced BCB waveguides