Influence of oxygen partial pressure on structural, electrical, and optical properties of Al-doped ZnO film prepared by the ion beam co-sputtering method

Aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO) films were prepared at room temperature by ion beam co-sputtering system under various oxygen partial pressures. The structural, electrical, and optical properties of the films were studied by XRD, XPS, Hall measurement, and spectrometer. The AZO film with low resistivity, 7.8 × 10^?4 Ω cm, and high transparency, ~80 %, was obtained at the optimum oxygen partial pressure of 1.3 × 10^?4 Torr and the intense (002) diffraction peak was observed simultaneously. Different optical band gaps observed in the films prepared under various oxygen partial pressures are closely related to the carrier concentrations in the films. Three O_1s components were applied to fit the XPS O_1s spectra. They consist of adsorbed oxygen species, oxygen in O-Zn bonds surrounded by oxygen vacancies, and oxygen in the O-Zn bonds. Two components, Zn in Zn–O bonds and Zn with higher than +2 oxidation states, were used to fit Zn_2p3/2 spectra. It was found that the increase of film’s resistivity which may result from the drops in the oxygen vacancy, Zn interstitial, carrier concentration, and grain size. No apparent transmission change of the film in the visible light region as a function of oxygen partial pressure was detected.     

Dynamic performance measures for tools with multi-state wear processes and their applications for tool design and selection

Traditional models to evaluate the reliability and performance of tools are binary models, working (success) or failure, to classify the state of the tool. Most machine tools degrade with time and thus a multi-state discrete classification is more realistic for the continuous degradation of the tool. We propose a non-homogeneous continuous-time Markov process model for tool degradation, because the length of time the machine tool stays in a certain state depends not only on the current state, but also on how long the tool has been in the current state. The traditional reliability and life performance measures focus on the mean time between failure or the failure rate. The performance measures must capture the total experience of the manufacturer over the target life of the tool and the impact of its degradation on the quality of the products to the downstream customers. We propose several new measures for tool performance. These measures can be used to evaluate different tool designs or we can use them to select the best tool for a certain application based on the economic/disutility functions.     

Electrolytic deposition of hydroxyapatite coating on thermal treated Ti-40Zr

In this study, hydroxyapatite (HA) was coated on both thermal treated and untreated Ti-40Zr substrates by means of electrolytic deposition. It was predicted that the HA layer would increase the bioactivity and osteoconductivity of the Ti-40Zr substrate, and a thermal treatment would improve the bonding strength between the HA layer and Ti-40Zr substrate, and prevent the corrosion of the Ti-40Zr substrate. First, the Ti-40Zr samples were annealed at various temperatures (200, 300, 400, 500 and 600°C respectively). After annealing, samples were immersed in a Ca(NO₃)₂ · 4H₂O and (NH₄)₃PO₄ · 3H₂O solution for the electrolytic deposition of the HA coating. Various analyses of the coating were conducted, including surface morphology, phase structure, corrosion resistance, biocompatibility, and bond strength between HA and Ti-40Zr. Experimental results indicated that the bonding strength of the HA coating on the thermal treated Ti-40Zr was markedly improved when compared to that of the HA coating on an untreated Ti-40Zr alloy. The corrosion resistance of Ti-40Zr was also improved by the use of the thermal treatment, as shown by a potentiodynamic polarization test. Finally, osteoblast-like cells cultured on the HA coating surface were found to have proliferated on all samples.     

Improving the quality of fresh‐cut pineapples with ascorbic acid/sucrose pretreatment and modified atmosphere packaging

The effects of pretreatment and modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) on the quality of fresh‐cut pineapples stored at 4°C were evaluated for 7 days. The pretreatment was conducted by immersing the pineapple slices in a solution containing 0.25% ascorbic acid and 10% sucrose for 2min. MAP contained 4% oxygen, 10% carbon dioxide and 86% nitrogen. Both the pretreatment and MAP could reduce the respiration rate, ethylene production, textural and colour deteriorations, as well as the overall sensory deterioration in fresh‐cut pineapples. MAP could restrain the growth of microbes, but the pretreatment showed little effect. Fresh‐cut pineapples exhibited wet surface and off‐flavour after storage at 4°C for 3 days, while the pretreatment and MAP maintained the quality for up to 7 days. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Transient Green’s Tensor for a Layered Solid Half-Space With Different Interface Conditions

Pulsed ultrasonic techniques can be and have been used to examine the interface conditions of a bonded structure. To provide a theoretical basis for such testing techniques we model the structure as a layer on top of a half-space, both of different elastic properties, with various interface bonding conditions. The exact dynamic Green’s tensor for such a structure is explicitly derived from the three-dimensional equations of motion. The final solution is a series. Each term of the series corresponds to a successive arrival of a “generalized ray” and each is a definite line integral along a fixed path which can be easily computed numerically. Willis’ method is used in the derivation. A new scheme of automatic generation of the arrivals and ray paths using combinatorial analysis, along with the summation of the corresponding products of reflection coefficients is presented. A FORTRAN code is developed for computation of the Green’s tensor when both the source and the detector are located on the top surface. The Green’s tensor is then used to simulate displacements due to pulsed ultrasonic point sources of known time waveform. Results show that the interface bonding conditions have a great influence on the transient displacements. For example, when the interface bonding conditions vary, some of the first few head waves and regular reflected rays change polarities and amplitudes. This phenomenon can be used to infer the quality of the interface bond of materials in ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation. In addition the results are useful in the study of acoustic microscopy probes, coatings, and geo-exploration.     

ESCSD – expert system for control system design

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to design an expert system for control system design. The architecture of ESCSD is designed and implemented using CLIPS, which is an expert system building tool. The achievements of ESCSD are extracting the heuristics of design approaches, building design methods into knowledge‐bases, partitioning of knowledge‐bases, and providing explanation facilities. The user interface of ESCSD is icon‐based with pop‐up menus for user selections. We have demonstrated in this paper that this kind of user interface is better than previous similar systems, where complex dialogues are required. Also, due to the flexible partitions of the knowledge‐bases, ESCSD can be implemented successfully on the IBM PC with a limited 640K‐byte MSDOS environment. It is further explained that, regardless of the computer size, the knowledge‐bases must be partitioned into the smallest entities to allow future expansion. Several design examples are fully illustrated to clarify the advantages of using the expert system to design control systems.     

Polarization-Dependent Periodic Pulse Oscillation in a Diode-Laser-Pumped and Intracavity Frequency-Doubled Nd:YVO 4 Laser

We demonstrate that two cross-polarized longitudinal modes can have 50% higher conversion efficiency than two parallel-polarized longitudinal modes in a diode-laser-pumped and intracavity frequency-doubled Nd:YVO(4) laser when operated under periodic pulse oscillation. Through simulations of the rate equations for primary frequency intensities and gains, we also verify that this effect can be attributed to gain competition and complementary conversion coefficient between second-harmonic and sum-frequency generations.     

A study of ZnGa2O4 phosphor prepared by the solid method

In this study, the mixtures of ZnO and Ga2O3 powder with addition of LiCl flux were fired, the raw material mixing ratio, doping with Mn2+ and firing atmosphere effects on phosphor characteristics were investigated. When fired at 1200 °C, its phosphor powder emits a broad-band spectrum range between 375 nm to 700 nm, with a peak at 470 nm. The optimal composition of phosphors is about ZnO/Ga2O5=47/53. Manganese-doped ZnGa2O4, fired in air, exhibits two new emission bands with peaks at 506 nm (Mn2+ emission centre) and 666 nm (Mn4+ emission centre). However, if fired under vacuum, the emission spectrum presents only the 506 nm peak with increased intensity. The 666 nm emission peak derived from a little Mn2 oxidized to Mn4+ which substituted Ga3+ to occupy the B sites of the spinel structure. The emission intensity of the 506 nm peak of Zn1-xMnxGa2O4 is strongest when [Mn2+] x=0.006 and decreases markedly as the concentration of Mn2+ exceeds x=0.01. Most of the substitutional Mn2+ doping species in spinel ZnGa2O4 occupy the zinc sites. The luminescent band was associated to the spin-forbidden transition, 4T1(4G)6A1 (6S). © 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers     

Testing of programmable analog neural network chips

Artificial neural network chips can achieve high-speed performance in solving complex computational problems for signal and information processing applications. These chips contain regular circuit units such as synapse matrices that interconnect linear arrays of input and output neurons. The neurons and synapses may be implemented in an analog or digital design style. Although the neural processing has some degree of fault tolerance, a significant percentage of processing defects can result in catastrophic failure of the neural network processors. Systematic testing of these arrays of circuitry is of great importance in order to assure the quality and reliability of VLSI neural network processor chips. The proposed testing method consists of parametric test and behavioral test. Two programmable analog neural chips have been designed and fabricated. The systematic approach used to test the chips is described, and measurement results on parametric test are presented.This research was partially supported by DARPA under Contract MDA 972-90-C-0037 and by National Science Foundation under Grant MIP-8904172.