Electrochemical behaviors of SnO and Sn anodes for lithium rechargeable batteries

Electrochemical behaviors of Sn and SnO anodes are studied. Charging/discharging curves show irreversible capacities at the first cycle in both Sn and SnO electrodes. The irreversible capacity loss in Sn electrode is due to the incomplete Li removal from Sn after the first cycle. Although the largest capacity loss in SnO electrode is a result from the lithia formation during the first discharge, additional capacity loss arises from the residual Li in metallic Sn owing to the aggregation of Sn upon repeated cycling. Contrary to the previous studies, Li₂₂Sn₅ phase is not observed in the discharge product in Sn and SnO electrodes. The LiSn alloy electrode shows almost 100% cycling efficiency at the first cycle due to the pre-existing Li.     

A HW/SW Partitioner for Multi-Mode Multi-Task Embedded Applications

An embedded system is called a multi-mode embedded system if it performs multiple applications by dynamically reconfiguring the system functionality. Further, the embedded system is called a multi-mode multi-task embedded system if it additionally supports multiple tasks to be executed in a mode. In this paper, we address an important HW/SW partitioning problem, that is, HW/SW partitioning of multi-mode multi-task embedded applications with timing constraints of tasks. The objective of the optimization problem is to find a minimal total system cost of allocation/mapping of processing resources to functional modules in tasks together with a schedule that satisfies the timing constraints. The key success of solving the problem is closely related to the degree of the amount of utilization of the potential parallelism among the executions of modules. However, due to an inherently excessively large search space of the parallelism, and to make the task of schedulability analysis easy, the prior HW/SW partitioning methods have not been able to fully exploit the potential parallel execution of modules. To overcome the limitation, we propose a set of comprehensive HW/SW partitioning techniques which solve the three subproblems of the partitioning problem simultaneously: (1) allocation of processing resources, (2) mapping the processing resources to the modules in tasks, and (3) determining an execution schedule of modules. Specifically, based on a precise measurement on the parallel execution and schedulability of modules, we develop a stepwise refinement partitioning technique for single-mode multi-task applications, which aims to solve the subproblems 1, 2 and 3 effectively in an integrated fashion. The proposed techniques is then extended to solve the HW/SW partitioning problem of multi-mode multi-task applications (i.e., to find a globally optimized allocation/mapping of processing resources with feasible execution schedule of modules). From experiments with a set of real-life applications, it is shown that the proposed techniques are able to reduce the implementation cost by 19.0 and 17.0% for single- and multi-mode multi-task applications over that by the conventional method, respectively.     

Optimization of electron beam focusing for gated carbon nanotube field emitter arrays

We fabricated gated field emitter arrays with a novel focusing structure of electron beams, where the focusing electrode concentrically surrounded each gate hole. Carbon nanotube emitters were screen printed inside an amorphous-Si concave well far below the gate. It was theoretically and experimentally verified that the concave well structure effectively focused the emitted electron beams to their designated phosphor pixels by modulating focusing gate voltages. For the vacuum packaged field emission displays with the pixel specification fitting high-definition televisions, color reproducibility of approximately 71% was achieved at the brightness of 400 cd/m/sup 2/.     

Driver injury severity: an application of ordered probit models

This paper describes the use of ordered probit models to examine the risk of different injury levels sustained under all crash types, two-vehicle crashes, and single-vehicle crashes. The results suggest that pickups and sport utility vehicles are less safe than passenger cars under single-vehicle crash conditions. In two-vehicle crashes, however, these vehicle types are associated with less severe injuries for their drivers and more severe injuries for occupants of their collision partners. Other conclusions also are presented; for example. the results indicate that males and younger drivers in newer vehicles at lower speeds sustain less severe injuries.     

Tribological approaches to material removal rate during chemical mechanical polishing

In this study, the effect of the friction and wear of a polishing pad on the material removal rate of a silicon oxide wafer was investigated during chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) with ceria slurry. Further, the effect of surface properties of the polishing pad, such as surface roughness and hardness, on the variation in the material removal rate was examined. From a tribological viewpoint, the in-situ friction force was monitored during the CMP process, and wear of the polishing pad was controlled by different types of conditioners. After CMP, the pad surface roughness was measured by optical profiling and scanning electron microscopy. Experimental results showed that the material removal rate was almost linearly proportional to the friction force between the pad and the wafer surface, irrespective of the properties of the pad. Experiments on the dependency of the pad wear rate on the material removal rate showed that the material removal rate increased with a decrease in the pad wear rate. Experiments and pad characterization confirmed that such a correlation was attributed to the pad surface roughness and the friction force.     

Electrochemical characteristics of nano-sized MoO2/C composite anode materials for lithium-ion batteries

A nano-sized MoO₂/C composite was synthesized using a spray pyrolysis technique, and investigated as an anode material for Li-ion batteries. Spherical MoO₂/C particles with the monoclinic phase were obtained without any impurities, and with a primary particle size in the range 30–50 nm. Structural variation of the prepared MoO₂/C during Li⁺ insertion was examined by in situ X-ray diffraction and selected area electron diffraction analyses. The structural analysis results indicated that no conversion reaction was activated in the MoO₂/C composite. The electrochemical tests demonstrated that the rate-capability and capacity retention of the synthesized materials were improved significantly, which could be attributed to the effective carbon distribution and nano-sized primary particle resulting from the low-synthesis temperature. Therefore, control of the powder morphology and minimization of the primary particle size are found to be essential for achieving the enhanced electrochemical properties in MoO₂ anode materials.