A 72-mW CMOS 802.11a direct conversion front-end with 3.5-dB NF and 200-kHz 1/f noise corner

A direct conversion 802.11a receiver front-end including a synthesizer with quadrature VCO has been integrated in a 0.13-/spl mu/m CMOS process. The chip has an active area of 1.8 mm/sup 2/ with the entire RF portion operated from 1.2 V and the low frequency portion operated from 2.5 V. Its key features are a current driven passive mixer with a low impedance load that achieves a low 1/f noise corner and an high I-Q accuracy quadrature VCO. Measured noise figure is 3.5 dB with an 1/f noise corner of 200 kHz, and an IIP3 of -2 dBm. The synthesizer DSB phase noise integrated over a 10 MHz band is less than -36 dBc while its I-Q phase unbalance is below 1 degree.     

Conduction band states of transition metal (TM) high-k gate dielectrics as determined from X-ray absorption spectra

This paper uses X-ray absorption spectroscopy to study the electronic structure of the high-k gate dielectrics including TM and RE oxides. The results are applicable to TM and rare earth (RE) silicate and aluminate alloys, as well as complex oxides comprised of mixed TM/TM and TM/RE oxides. These studies identify the nature of the lowest conduction band d^* states, which define the optical band gap, E_g, and the conduction band offset energy with respect to crystalline Si, E_B. E_g and E_B scale with the atomic properties of the TM and RE atoms providing important insights for identification high-k dielectrics that meet performance targets for advanced CMOS devices.     

The specification and use of geotextile fin drains

This paper describes the composition, construction and uses of the rather special range of geotextile composites which have generally become known as ‘fin drains’. It tries to provide a generic definition of the term ‘fin drain’ which encompasses all current commercial products, and foreseeable types. In particular, it excludes composites which are intended for, or which function as, either pressure-driven water transporters, or capillary driven systems. Pressure-driven drains include, in particular, those drains commonly known as ‘wicks’ which are used for the relief of excess pore pressure in soft ground construction work. Similarly, a number of geotextiles have the facility of passing water within their plane by virtue of internal capillary attraction generated at the interfaces of the composite fine fibres. Such products transmit only small volumes of water, and their intended functions and design principles are entirely different from those of ground fin drains in the sense included in this paper.     

Replication and bonding techniques for integrated microfluidic systems

From the technical and economic points of view, systems integration, and packaging represent a crucial step in the production of microsystems. Compared to purely silicon- or glass-based systems, the variety of materials and geometries available for purely polymer microfluidic systems is much larger, due to the outstanding material properties. Moreover, polymers may be shaped and joined by comparably simple methods. Examples are polymer microreplication as well as various bonding methods. With them, complete polymer microsystems can be integrated. In addition, a number of established, compatible processes are available for the integration of functional elements that may also be made of other materials.

     

Kinetic aspects of deactivation of catalysts in prolonged use

A theoretical approach to the dynamic analysis of deactivation and aging of heterogeneous catalysts is proposed — analysis of the rate derivative in a kinetic equation of a given form. Methodology was demonstrated for the simplest kinetic equations — zero-and first-order. Regardless of the form of the kinetic equation for the dynamic model of deactivation, the rate constant is a function of an independent reaction coordinate. The method can also be used for solving reactivation problems and for explaining the dynamics of cation exchange in zeolite. __________ Translated from Khimiya i Tekhnologiya Topliv i Masel, No. 1, pp. 3–34, January–February, 2006.     

A 4.5-GHz 130-nm 32-KB L0 cache with a leakage-tolerant self reverse-bias bitline scheme

This paper describes a 32-KB two-read, one-write ported L0 cache for 4.5-GHz operation in 1.2-V 130-nm dual-V/sub TH/ CMOS technology. The local bitline uses a leakage-tolerant self reverse-bias (SRB) scheme with nMOS source-follower pullup access transistors, while preserving robust full-swing operation. Gate-source underdrive of -220 mV on the bitline read-select transistors is established without external bias voltages or gate-oxide overstress. Device-level measurements in the 130-nm technology show 72/spl times/ bitline active leakage reduction, enabling low-V/sub TH/ usage, 40% bitline keeper downsizing, and 16 bitcells/bitline. 11% faster read delay and 2/spl times/ higher dc noise robustness are achieved compared with high-performance dual-V/sub TH/ bitline scheme. Sustained performance and robustness benefits of the SRB technique against conventional dynamic bitline with scaling to 100- and 70-nm technology is also presented.     

Generalized Nakagami-m phase crossing rate

This paper provides simple, exact, new closed-form expressions for the generalized phase crossing rate of Nakagami-m fading channels. Sample numerical results obtained by simulation are presented that validate the formulations developed here. A special case of this formulation is the Rayleigh case, whose result agrees with that obtained elsewhere in the literature. In passing, several new closed-form results concerning the statistics of the envelope, its in-phase and quadrature components, phase, and their time derivatives are obtained.     

Exciton-polariton transition induced by elastic exciton-exciton collisions in ultrahigh quality AIGaAs alloys

The stationary and time-resolved polariton radiation in ultrahigh quality AIGaAs layers have been studied. It has been found that elastic exciton-exciton collisions lead to the appearance of a low-energy line of polariton radiation. We show that the rate of exciton-to-polariton transitions caused by elastic exciton-exciton collisions is determined not only by the density of the excitonic gas, but also by its temperature; this is in accordance with existing theoretical predictions. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Modified modulation formats using time-varying phase functions

New modulation formats are presented that increase the transmission rate over that of conventional systems, without degrading the bit error rate (BER) and with minimal bandwidth variation. A time-varying function called an "extra phase variation function" (EPVF) is added to the discrete phase of conventional modulation formats such as M-PSK and QAM to transmit additional data bits. A receiver configuration is presented that allows the decoding of information represented by the discrete and extra phases. It is shown that in an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel, the BER performance of the bits carried by the discrete phase and the extra phase in the modified format improves over the BER of conventional modulation formats.