An AlGaAs-GaAs dual-wavelength photodetector with 500 Å resolution

An Au-(N)Al_0.07Ga_0.93As-(n)GaAs Schottky barrier dual-wavelength photodetector with 500 Å resolution has been developed. By varying the reverse bias, the photothreshold of the detector can be changed from 0.82 to 0.87 μm. The diode can thus be applied to demultiplex two optical signals with respective wavelengths of 0.8 and 0.85 μm. This provides a useful detector for use in a dual-channel optical communication system. The principle is based on the band readjustment effect which is due to the interaction of the closely-spaced Au-AlGaAs Schottky barrier and the AlGaAs-GaAs heterojunction.     

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.     

A 9‐Bit 80‐MS/s CMOS Pipelined Folding A/D Converter with an Offset Canceling Technique

A 9‐bit 80‐MS/s CMOS pipelined folding analog‐to‐digital converter employing offset‐canceled preamplifiers and a subranging scheme is proposed to extend the resolution of a folding architecture. A fully differential dc‐decoupled structure achieves high linearity in circuit design. The measured differential nonlinearity and integral nonlinearity of the prototype are ×0.6 LSB and ×1.6 LSB, respectively.     

Self‐Healing Reduced Graphene Oxide Films by Supersonic Kinetic Spraying

The industrial scale application of graphene and other functional materials in the field of electronics has been limited by inherent defects, and the lack of simple deposition methods. A simple spray deposition method is developed that uses a supersonic air jet for a commercially available reduced graphene oxide (r‐GO) suspension. The r‐GO flakes are used as received, which are pre‐annealed and pre‐hydrazine‐treated, and do not undergo any post‐treatment. A part of the considerable kinetic energy of the r‐GO flakes entrained by the supersonic jet is used in stretching the flakes upon impact with the substrate. The resulting “frozen elastic strains” heal the defects (topological defects, namely Stone‐Wales defect and C₂ vacancies) in the r‐GO flakes, which is reflected in the reduced ratio of the intensities of the D and G bands in the deposited film. The defects can also be regenerated by annealing.     

The biomechanics of lumbar graded facetectomy under anterior-shear load

In this paper, an anatomically accurate three-dimensional finite-element (FE) model of the human lumbar spine (L2-L3) was used to study the biomechanical effects of graded bilateral and unilateral facetectomies of L3 under anterior shear. The intact L2-L3 FE model was validated under compression, tension, and shear loading and the predicted responses matched well with experimental data. The gross external (translational and coupled) responses, flexibilities, and facet load were delineated for these iatrogenic changes. Results indicted that unilateral facetectomy of greater than 75% and bilateral facetectomy of 75% or more resection markedly alter the translational displacement and flexibilities of the motion segment. This study suggests that fixation or fusion to restore strength and stability of the lumbar spine may be required for surgical intervention of greater than 75% facetectomy.     

Enhancement of Cu nucleation in Cu-MOCVD by Pd sputtering pretreatment

Cu electroplating which emerges as a viable Cu filling technique for damascene processing relies on the presence of a smooth and continuous Cu seed layer. Metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) may be the most promising technique to deposit the Cu seed layer. Plasma pretreatment is widely used as a precleaning technique which is essential for the enhancement of Cu nucleation in Cu-MOCVD. New pretreatment techniques which can replace plasma pretreatments are proposed in this paper. Pd sputtering, Pd–HF dipping or Pd-CVD pretreatment will possibly enhance Cu nucleation significantly if it is conducted on barrier metal films prior to Cu-MOCVD. It was found that Pd sputtering is more effective in enhancing Cu nucleation than direct plasma H₂ precleaning. Pd sputtering pretreatment is effective for a variety of barrier metals including Ta, TiN, TaN and TaSiN. The mechanism through which Cu nucleation is enhanced may be as follows: a thin Pd buffer layer formed by sputtering shields the barrier metal substrate surface with adsorbed oxygen atoms making Cu nucleation difficult and provides preferred sites for Cu nucleation.     

An iterative FEM for scattering by a 3-D cavity-backed aperture

A finite-element method (FEM)-based hybrid method (or iterative FEM) is successfully applied to a three-dimensional (3-D) scattering problem without the effect of internal resonance. With only a small number of meshes around a 3-D scatterer, this FEM is shown to give an accurate result through several iterative updates of the boundary conditions. To confirm the efficiency of this method, scattering from a 3-D cavity-backed aperture is analyzed and the results obtained are compared with the same obtained by another conventional method     

Informed public against false rumor in the social media era: Focusing on social media dependency

This study explores how the public’s belief in false rumors about Middle East Respiratory Syndrome that spread across South Korea related to their accuracy-oriented information seeking as well as the moderating effects of people’s reasons for using social networking services (SNS). The survey results show that perceived credibility of false rumors did not affect accuracy-oriented information seeking. However, a significant result was shown in the moderating effect, such that SNS informational dependency interacted with false rumor credibility on accuracy-oriented information seeking. Overall, this study specifically identifies and discusses differences in SNS dependency and accuracy-oriented information seeking in the context of rumor communication to examine the construction of an informed public. Theoretical contributions of this study are discussed.     

Single, Depolarized, CW Supercontinuum-Based Wavelength-Division-Multiplexed Passive Optical Network Architecture With C-Band OLT, L-Band ONU, and U-Band Monitoring

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel bidirectional wavelength-division-multiplexed passive optical network architecture that fully utilizes the superior optical properties of an incoherent continuous-wave (CW) supercontinuum (SC) source. The proposed architecture, which incorporates low-cost Fabry-Perot laser diodes that have been wavelength locked by spectrum-sliced beams from a depolarized 130-nm-bandwidth CW SC source, is based on a unique wavelength band allocation scheme of the C-band for an optical line terminal (OLT), the L-band for optical network units (ONUs), and the U-band for channel monitoring. A cost-effective network that features a single broadband source at the OLT, and no additional wavelength- band-selective monitoring beam reflector at each ONU can be readily achieved. The experimental demonstration presented in this paper is carried out at a data rate of 622 Mb/s over a 25-km standard single-mode fiber.     

Experimental Demonstration of 1.25-Gb/s Radio-Over-Fiber Downlink Using SBS-Based Photonic Upconversion

We experimentally demonstrate a radio-over-fiber downlink system using a stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS)-based photonic upconversion technique. The Brillouin selective amplification characteristic of SBS is incorporated to generate the 11-GHz band radio-frequency (RF) carrier. The dual-electrode Mach-Zehnder optical modulator, which is used to carry the broadband data in the optical carrier instead of the optical sideband, is adopted along with the SBS-based carrier generation setup. To vindicate the broadband capabilities of the proposed scheme, 1.25-Gb/s pseudorandom bit sequence data is carried in the optical carrier. Error-free operation of the 1.25-Gb/s downlink is achieved without critical power penalties after the 13-km fiber transmission.