Fabrication, assembly, and characterization of molecular electronic components

One of the ultimate miniaturizations in nanotechnology is molecular electronics, where devices will consist of individual molecules. There are many complications associated with the use of molecules in electronic devices, such as the electronic perturbations in the molecule associated with being bonded to an electrode, how electrons traverse the metal-molecule junction, and the difficulty of macroscopically addressing single to very few molecules. Whether fabricating a test structure or a usable device, the use of self-assembly is fundamental to the fabrication of molecular electronic devices. We will discuss how to fabricate self-assembled monolayers into test assemblies and how to use intermolecular interactions to direct molecules into desired positions to create nanostructures and to connect functional molecules to the outside world. These assemblies serve as test structures for measurements on single or bundled molecules. The development of several experimental techniques, including various scanning probes, mercury drop junctions, break junctions, nanopores, crossed wires, and other techniques using nanoparticles have enabled the ability to test these structures and make reproducible measurements on single molecules. Many of these methods have been developed to test molecules with potential for integration into devices such as oligo (phenylene-ethynylene) molecules and other /spl pi/-conjugated molecules, in ensemble or single-molecule measurements.     

TEM Studies of High Temperature Corrosion Behaviour of TiAl Intermetallics with Surface Modifications

The oxidation/sulphidation behaviour of a Ti‐46.7Al‐1.9W‐0.5Si alloy with a TiAl₃ diffusion coating was studied in an environment of H₂/H₂S/H₂O at 850^oC. The kinetic results demonstrate that the TiAl₃ coating significantly increased the high temperature corrosion resistance of Ti‐46.7Al‐1.9W‐0.5Si. The SEM, EDX, XRD and TEM analysis reveals that the formation of an Al₂O₃ scale on the surface of the TiAl₃‐coated sample was responsible for the enhancement of the corroison resistance. The Ti‐46.7Al‐1.9W‐0.5Si alloy was also modified by Nb ion implantation. The Nb ion implanted and as received sampels were subjected to cyclic oxidation in an open air at 800^oC. The Nb ion implantation not only increased the oxidation resistance but also substantially improved the adhesion of scale to the substrate.     

Self-organized public-key management for mobile ad hoc networks

In contrast with conventional networks, mobile ad hoc networks usually do not provide online access to trusted authorities or to centralized servers, and they exhibit frequent partitioning due to link and node failures and to node mobility. For these reasons, traditional security solutions that require online trusted authorities or certificate repositories are not well-suited for securing ad hoc networks. We propose a fully self-organized public-key management system that allows users to generate their public-private key pairs, to issue certificates, and to perform authentication regardless of the network partitions and without any centralized services. Furthermore, our approach does not require any trusted authority, not even in the system initialization phase.     

A multiwinding modeling method for high frequency transformers and inductors

This paper presents a method to obtain an electric model for transformers and inductors, including both frequency and geometry effects in the windings, which can be linked with existing core models. One-dimensional distributions for magnetic and electric fields are assumed, and from Maxwell's equations an equivalent electric circuit is easily obtained. This equivalent circuit has been included in analog simulators (Spice, AnalogWorkBench, Saber ...), and comparisons between measured and simulated results are shown, both in time domain and in AC sweep, which verify the model accuracy. The model described in this paper allows designers to deal with key issues in the design of high-frequency magnetic components (copper losses, leakage inductance, skin and proximity effects) by using analog simulators, which are usually more familiar to them than finite-element analysis tools.     

On the convergence of the inverses of Toeplitz matrices and its applications

Many issues in signal processing involve the inverses of Toeplitz matrices. One widely used technique is to replace Toeplitz matrices with their associated circulant matrices, based on the well-known fact that Toeplitz matrices asymptotically converge to their associated circulant matrices in the weak sense. This often leads to considerable simplification. However, it is well known that such a weak convergence cannot be strengthened into strong convergence. It is this fact that severely limits the usefulness of the close relation between Toeplitz matrices and circulant matrices. Observing that communication receiver design often needs to seek optimality in regard to a data sequence transmitted within finite duration, we define the finite-term strong convergence regarding two families of matrices. We present a condition under which the inverses of a Toeplitz matrix converges in the strong sense to a circulant matrix for finite-term quadratic forms. This builds a critical link in the application of the convergence theorems for the inverses of Toeplitz matrices since the weak convergence generally finds its usefulness in issues associated with minimum mean squared error and the finite-term strong convergence is useful in issues associated with the maximum-likelihood or maximum a posteriori principles.     

Extracting Light from Polymer Light‐Emitting Diodes Using Stamped Bragg Gratings

In this paper, we describe a method for increasing the external efficiency of polymer light‐emitting diodes (LEDs) by coupling out waveguided light with Bragg gratings. We numerically model the waveguide modes in a typical LED structure and demonstrate how optimizing layer thicknesses and reducing waveguide absorption can enhance the grating outcoupling. The gratings were created by a soft‐lithography technique that minimizes changes to the conventional LED structure. Using one‐dimensional and two‐dimensional gratings, we were able to increase the forward‐directed emission by 47 % and 70 %, respectively, and the external quantum efficiency by 15 % and 25 %.     

Surface effects in nanocrystalline silicon

Exposure to ammonia (NH₃) increases the dark current (DC) in nanocrystalline silicon. Light soaking (LS) for short periods also enhances the dark current, which remains at a high value for a long time. Pumping alone is unable to restore the initial annealed state, but annealing brings it back. The final state obtained by LS and NH₃ exposure depends on the order in which they are performed. Evaporated selenium (Se) deposited on nanocrystalline silicon decreases the DC. These effects cannot be explained entirely by the presence of a-Si : H alone, in our sample. DC and photoluminescence (PL) measurements indicate the presence of two types of center in our sample, which behave differently when exposed to NH₃.     

Blind feedforward cyclostationarity-based timing estimation for linear modulations

By exploiting a general cyclostationary (CS) statistics-based framework, this letter develops a rigorous and unified asymptotic (large sample) performance analysis setup for a class of blind feedforward timing epoch estimators for linear modulations transmitted through time nonselective flat-fading channels. Within the proposed CS framework, it is shown that several estimators proposed in the literature can be asymptotically interpreted as maximum likelihood (ML) estimators applied on a (sub)set of the second- (and/or higher) order statistics of the received signal. The asymptotic variance of these ML estimators is established in closed-form expression and compared with the modified Crame/spl acute/r-Rao bound. It is shown that the timing estimator proposed by Oerder and Meyr achieves asymptotically the best performance in the class of estimators which exploit all the second-order statistics of the received signal, and its performance is insensitive to oversampling rates P as long as P/spl ges/3. Further, an asymptotically best consistent estimator, which achieves the lowest asymptotic variance among all the possible estimators that can be derived by exploiting jointly the second- and fourth-order statistics of the received signal, is also proposed.     

An introduction of the condition class space with continuous value discretization and rough set theory

The granularity of an information system has an incumbent effect on the efficacy of the analysis from many machine learning algorithms. An information system contains a universe of objects characterized and categorized by condition and decision attributes. To manage the concomitant granularity, a level of continuous value discretization (CVD) is often undertaken. In the case of the rough set theory (RST) methodology for object classification, the granularity contributes to the grouping of objects into condition classes with the same condition attribute values. This article exposits the effect of a level of CVD on the subsequent condition classes constructed, with the introduction of the condition class space—the domain within which the condition classes exist. This domain elucidates the association of the condition classes to the related decision outcomes—reflecting the inexactness incumbent when a level of CVD is undertaken. A series of measures is defined that quantify this association. Throughout this study and without loss of generality, the findings are made through the RST methodology. This further offers a novel exposition of the relationship between all the condition attributes and the RST‐related reducts (subsets of condition attributes). © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Int Syst 21: 173–191, 2006.