Analysis of PLR for Shared Switch Fabrics

A modular upgrade design for packet transport switch nodes is presented where packet loss is dramatically reduced by intra‐module and inter‐module buffer sharing. This modular design offers significant cost and power reduction in a high‐data‐rate system where buffers are highly costly and power‐greedy.     

Text-line extraction in handwritten Chinese documents based on an energy minimization framework

Text-line extraction in unconstrained handwritten documents remains a challenging problem due to nonuniform character scale, spatially varying text orientation, and the interference between text lines. In order to address these problems, we propose a new cost function that considers the interactions between text lines and the curvilinearity of each text line. Precisely, we achieve this goal by introducing normalized measures for them, which are based on an estimated line spacing. We also present an optimization method that exploits the properties of our cost function. Experimental results on a database consisting of 853 handwritten Chinese document images have shown that our method achieves a detection rate of 99.52% and an error rate of 0.32%, which outperforms conventional methods.     

Lowering customer’s switching cost using B2B services for telecommunication companies

A B2B transaction is a transaction between organizations. However, the ripple effects of a B2B transaction can reach the members of the organization and generate additional economic impact. Enterprise LTE (Long term evolution) is a newly introduced B2B service in the South Korean telecommunications market. While it provides secure and fast telecommunications services to businesses, it can also affect the employees’ utility in the business, since the service provider can provide a variety of additional services to employees who use the same telecommunications provider for their mobile devices. In this study, we empirically analyze how B2B and Enterprise LTE services affect consumer churn-in in the telecommunications market. We estimate consumer benefit based on the additional services provided after the introduction of the B2B service using conjoint analysis. We also estimate consumer switching cost for changing one’s mobile telecommunications service provider using contingent valuation method. By comparing these values, we analyze the switching probability of employees when B2B services are introduced at their workplace. The results show that in order to maximize revenue, considering the revenue gained from new subscribers and from fees for providing additional services, lowering service fees for additional services and maximizing market share are advisable.     

Amorphous Ta-nanocrystalline RuOx diffusion barrier for lower electrode of high density memory devices

The effects of the amount of RuO₂ added in the Ta film on the electrical properties of a Ta-RuO₂ diffusion barrier were investigated using n⁺⁺-poly-Si substrate at a temperature range of 650–800°C. For the Ta layer prepared without RuO₂ addition, Ta₂O₅ phase formed after annealing at 650°C by reaction between Ta and external oxygen, leading to a higher total resistance and a non-linear I-V curve. Meanwhile, in the case of the Ta film being deposited with RuO₂ incorporation, not only a lower total resistance and ohmic characteristics exhibited, but also the bottom electrode structure was retained up to 800°C, attributing to the formation of a conductive RuO₂ crystalline phase in the barrier film by reaction with the indiffused oxygen because of a Ta amorphous structure formed by chemially strong Ta-O or Ta-Ru-O bonds and a large amount of conductive RuO₂ added. Since a kinetic barrier for nucleation in formation of the crystalline Ta₂O₅ phase from an amorphous Ta(O) phase is much higher than that of crystalline RuO₂ phase from nanocrystalline RuO_x phase, the formation of the RuO₂ phase by reaction between the indiffused oxygen and the RuO_x nanocrystallites is kinetically more favorable than that of Ta₂O₅ phase.     

Frequency-Domain Measurement Method for the Analysis of ESD Generators and Coupling

A method for analyzing electrostatic discharge (ESD) generators and coupling to equipment under test in the frequency domain is proposed. In ESD generators, the pulses are excited by the voltage collapse across relay contacts. The voltage collapse is replaced by one port of a vector network analyer (VNA). All the discrete and structural elements that form the ESD current pulse and the transient fields are excited by the VNA as if they were excited by the voltage collapse. In such a way, the method allows analyzing the current and field-driven linear coupling without having to discharge an ESD generator, eliminating the risk to the circuit and allowing the use of the wider dynamic range of a network analyzer relative to a real-time oscilloscope. The method is applicable to other voltage-collapse-driven tests, such as electrical fast transient, ultrawideband susceptibility testing but requires a linear coupling path.     

Reverse‐Conducting IGBT Using MEMS Technology on the Wafer Back Side

In this paper, we present a 600‐V reverse conducting insulated gate bipolar transistor (RC‐IGBT) for soft and hard switching applications, such as general purpose inverters. The newly developed RC‐IGBT uses the deep reactive‐ion etching trench technology without the thin wafer process technology. Therefore, a freewheeling diode (FWD) is monolithically integrated in an IGBT chip. The proposed RC‐IGBT operates as an IGBT in forward conducting mode and as an FWD in reverse conducting mode. Also, to avoid the destructive failure of the gate oxide under the surge current and abnormal conditions, a protective Zener diode is successfully integrated in the gate electrode without compromising the operation performance of the IGBT.     

Filtering of colored noise for speech enhancement and coding

Scalar and vector Kalman filters are implemented for filtering speech contaminated by additive white noise or colored noise, and an iterative signal and parameter estimator which can be used for both noise types is presented. Particular emphasis is placed on the removal of colored noise, such as helicopter noise, by using state-of-the-art colored-noise-assumption Kalman filters. The results indicate that the colored noise Kalman filters provide a significant gain in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), a visible improvement in the sound spectrogram, and an audible improvement in output speech quality, none of which are available with white-noise-assumption Kalman and Wiener filters. When the filter is used as a prefilter for linear predictive coding, the coded output speech quality and intelligibility are enhanced in comparison to direct coding of the noisy speech     

Safe,Stable Cycling of Lithium Metal Batteries with Low‐Viscosity,Fire‐Retardant Locally Concentrated Ionic Liquid Electrolytes

Ionic liquid (IL) electrolytes with concentrated Li salt can ensure safe, high‐performance Li metal batteries (LMBs) but suffer from high viscosity and poor ionic transport. A locally concentrated IL (LCIL) electrolyte with a non‐solvating, fire‐retardant hydrofluoroether (HFE) is presented. This rationally designed electrolyte employs lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI), 1‐methyl‐1‐propyl pyrrolidinium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide (P13FSI) and 1,1,2,2‐tetrafluoroethyl 2,2,3,3‐tetrafluoropropyl ether (TTE) as the IL and HFE, respectively (1:2:2 by mol). Adding TTE enables a Li‐concentrated IL electrolyte with low viscosity and good separator wettability, facilitating Li‐ion transport to the Li metal anode. The non‐flammability of TTE contributes to excellent thermal stability. Furthermore, synergy between the dual (FSI/TFSI) anions in the LCIL electrolyte can help modify the solid electrolyte interphase, increasing Li Coulombic efficiency and decreasing dendritic Li deposition. LMBs (Li||LiCoO₂) employing the LCIL electrolyte exhibit good rate capability (≈89 mAh g^?1 at 1.8 mA cm^?2, room temperature) and long‐term cycling (≈80% retention after 400 cycles).     

Fabrication and characterisation of CMOS compatible silicon nanowire biosensor

A silicon nanowire (SiNW) biosensor for label-free and real-time detection has been fabricated by complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology. For the detection of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) used as a biomarker of prostate cancer the SiNW surface was modified to immobilise the antibody of PSA (anti-PSA). Real-time monitoring reveals the change in conductivity of the SiNW on specific binding of PSA to anti-PSA. For 355 nm SiNW, the response to 10 ng/ml of PSA was 7.3 .