Automated low-power technique exploiting multiple supply voltagesapplied to a media processor

This paper describes an automated design technique to reduce power by making use of two supply voltages. The technique consists of structure synthesis, placement, and routing. The structure synthesizer clusters the gates off the critical paths so as to supply the reduced voltage to save power. The placement and routing tool assigns either the reduced voltage or the unreduced one to each row so as to minimize the area overhead. The reduced supply, voltage is also exploited in a clock tree to reduce power. Combining these techniques together, we applied it to a media processor chip. The combined technique reduced the power by 47% in random-logic modules and by 73% in the clock tree, while keeping the performance     

Development of a compact high-density microbial hydrogen reactor for portable bio-fuel cell system

The development of a compact high-density microbial reactor for hydrogen production is described with possible implications to use as a portable bio-fuel cell system. To construct the compact bioreactor, mainly, the cell density and immobilization methods were optimized in this paper. The encapsulation of hydrogen producing bacterium, Escherichia coli strain MC13-4, in alginate gel beads provided approximately three-fold increase in hydrogen production in comparison with the free cell suspension. The immobilized cells (cell density; O.D. 100) and 500 mM glucose solution were packed into a 20 mL glass bottle that was connected to the fuel cell. This system has generated electricity of over 20 mW for 20 min.     

Gate current in AlInAs/GaInAs heterostructure insulated-gatefield-effect transistors (HIGFETs)

A self-aligned WSi gate heterostructure insulated-gate field-effect transistor (HIGFET) with a gate length of 1 μm was fabricated using an AlInAs/GaInAs heterostructure grown by atmospheric pressure metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The gate current is investigated experimentally and theoretically. The measured gate current was found to be about two orders of magnitude higher than predicted by theory. The origin of this increase is unclear. However, the theoretical result suggests the possibility of reducing the gate current in AlInAs/GaInAs HIGFETs     

A novel soft-switched PWM current source inverter with voltageclamped circuit

This paper develops a new series resonant (current resonant) DC link inverter with a voltage clamped circuit. The proposed circuit has a fixed pulse frequency operation. The fixed pulse frequency at 20-50 kHz enables the system to work without audible noise, and to involve the much smaller-sized DC inductance and output capacitors compared with hard-switched current source inverters. The proposed circuit has a voltage clamped circuit which could control the voltage stress of the switches. In this paper, explanations of the new circuit configuration, the simulation, design considerations, and some experimental results are included     

Boroxine Nanotubes: Moisture‐Sensitive Morphological Transformation and Guest Release

Boroxines, (R‐BO)₃, which can be easily synthesized via a dehydration reaction of boronic acids, R–B(OH)₂, selectively self‐assemble in toluene into nanofibers, nanorods, nanotapes, and nanotubes, depending on the aromatic substituent (R). Spectroscopic measurements show that the nanotube consists of a J‐aggregate of the boroxine. Humidification converts the morphology from the nanotube to a sheet as a result of the hydrolysis of the boroxine components and subsequent molecular‐packing rearrangement from the J‐aggregate to an H‐aggregate. Such a transformation leads to the compulsive release of guest molecules encapsulated in the hollow cylinder of the nanotube. The hydrolysis and the molecular‐packing rearrangement described above are suppressed by coordination of pyridine to the boron atom, with the resulting moiety acting as a Lewis acid of the boroxine component. The pyridine‐coordinated nanotube is transformed into a helical coil by humidification. Guest release during the nanotube‐to‐helical‐coil transformation is much slower than during the nanotube‐to‐sheet transformation, but faster than from a nanotube that did not undergo morphological transformation. The storage and release of guest molecules from the boroxine nanotubes can be precisely controlled by adjusting the moisture level and the concentration of Lewis bases, such as amines.     

Enzymatic production of fructose 1,6-diphosphate using crude cell extract of Bacillus stearothermophilus

The enzymatic production of fructose 1,6-diphosphate (FDP) from glucose was performed in a batch reactor and a semibatch reactor using the crude cell extract of Bacillus stearothermophilus which contains all four enzymes required for the synthesis. The experimental results of the yield and the time courses of FDP production obtained using various enzyme concentrations were in good agreement with the theoretical predictions calculated based on the differential equations including the rate equations of the four enzymes, which were determined using the purified enzymes of B. stearothermophilus.     

Harmonic distortion due to laser modulation in multimode fibre optic analogue transmission

The effect of laser-diode frequency chirping on harmonic distortions in multimode fibre analogue transmission with direct intensity modulation was clarified experimentally with results in good agreement with the theory. The results show that the harmonic distortion can be greatly reduced by the reduction of the frequency chirping which accompanies diode-laser intensity modulation.     

Ten-port graded-index waveguide star coupler fabricated by dry ion diffusion process

A ten-port planar star coupler has been developed, utilising multimode waveguides easily formed in a glass substrate by evaporated silver ion diffusion. The waveguides have circular cross-sections with graded-index profile, which matches well to graded-index multimode fibres. Insertion loss of 6 dB and the loss variation of 0.8 dB were attaied.