Offset frequency stabilization of RF excited waveguide CO2 laser arrays

A close-packed array of waveguide lasers provides an offset frequency which is inherently more stable than that from independent devices, and permits difference frequency tuning based on the tilting of a common resonator mirror. Examples are given for two- and three-channel arrays. Passive stability of the beat frequencies between channels generated by this tuning method is shown to be good, and for two channel arrays was further enhanced by using an electronic stabilization loop. A simple model of the control loop is formulated to express the relationship between the loop parameters and resultant improvement in frequency stability. The model parameters are compared to experimental results through Allan variance measurements. An Allan variance minimum of 20 Hz has been achieved for the two-channel system and areas for further improvements are considered     

Scaling the Si MOSFET: from bulk to SOI to bulk

Scaling the Si MOSFET is reconsidered. Requirements on subthreshold leakage control force conventional scaling to use high doping as the device dimension penetrates into the deep-submicrometer regime, leading to an undesirably large junction capacitance and degraded mobility. By studying the scaling of fully depleted SOI devices, the important concept of controlling horizontal leakage through vertical structures is highlighted. Several structural variations of conventional SOI structures are discussed in terms of a natural length scale to guide the design. The concept of vertical doping engineering can also be realized in bulk Si to obtain good subthreshold characteristics without large junction capacitance or heavy channel doping     

Photogeneration of High Pretilt Angles of Nematic Liquid Crystals by Non‐Polarized Light Irradiation of Azobenzene‐Containing Polymer Films

A vertical‐alignment (VA) cell of nematic liquid crystals (LCs) was prepared using photoirradiated thin films of a poly(methacrylate) with mesogenic moieties of 4‐trifluoromethoxyazobenzene as the side chains. Optical anisotropy was generated by oblique irradiation of the azobenzene‐containing polymer films with non‐polarized UV light, followed by annealing treatment to enhance the photodichroism, which displayed thermal stability. The combination of oblique exposure to non‐polarized UV light and subsequent annealing treatment brought about high pretilt angles of nematic LCs so that a photoaligned VA LC cell was fabricated. The photopatterned LC cell exhibited electro‐optical properties with excellent optical quality when a voltage was applied even after heating at 100 °C for several hours.     

Optical properties of undoped n-AlGaN/GaN superlattices as affected by built-in and external-electric field and by ar-implantation-induced partial disordering

High-resolution x-ray diffraction patterns and 90 K microcathodoluminescence (MCL) spectra were taken for undoped, symmetric AlGaN/GaN superlattices (SLs) with GaN quantum-well (QW) widths of 35 Å and 80 Å. The short-period SL spectra were blue shifted by about 60 meV compared to the GaN substrate, and the magnitude of the blue shift was increased by about 20 meV by application of a reverse bias of ?3 V (electric field of about 4 · 10⁵ V/cm) to a Schottky diode prepared on this SL. A small red shift of about 40 meV compared to GaN was observed for the long-period SL. The two latter observations were interpreted as manifestations of the presence of a strong built-in piezoelectric field, giving rise to the quantum-confined Stark effect (QCSE). Partial disordering of the short-period SL was observed after Ar ion implantation (energy 150 keV, dose 8·10¹³ cm^?2 and 80 keV, 2·10¹³ cm^?2) and subsequent annealing at 1000°C for 3 h under the protective layer of Si₃N₄. However, it was observed that this partial disordering was accompanied by strain relaxation via formation of misfit dislocations or cracks.     

Metal sulfides and elemental sulfur –catalysts for conversion of hydrocarbon systems

Certain functional characteristics of sulfide catalysts in the hydrotreating process are used to obtain ecologically clean fuels, and the hydrogenation reaction, which is an inseparable part of this process, as well as the dehydrocondensation and sulfuring action of elemental sulfur on hydrocarbons are examined.     

Noise analysis of injection-locked semiconductor injection lasers

The noise of injection-locked semiconductor lasers is analyzed by rate equations including the spontaneous emission noise. The side mode suppression and the relative intensity noise (RIN) of the locked laser (slave laser) are given for different wavelengths detuning between the master and slave laser and for different linewidth enhancement factors α. For large α, locking is difficult to achieve, whereas extremely low noise may be obtained for injection-locked lasers with a low linewidth enhancement factor.     

Interactive digital filtering of gated cardiac studies during cine display

The use of a novel class of image processing hardware, the image computer, is illustrated by application to gated cardiac studies. Digital filtering of a nine-view study consisting of 144 frames, each 64x64 pixels in size, is performed using the Wiener filter. During image display the operator can change the filter parameters. Refiltering is then performed essentially instantaneously, permitting truly interactive filter selection. Comparable digital filtering using a fast conventional computer and display hardware is shown to be too slow to permit interactive filter modification. Image computers incorporate very large image memories with very tightly coupled, fast arithmetic processors and video display devices and allow very computation-intensive calculations to be performed interactively.     

PLL-based BiCMOS on-chip clock generator for very high-speedmicroprocessor

Described is a phase-locked loop (PLL)-based BiCMOS on-chip clock generator (PCG), which is used to generate an internal clock synchronized to a reference clock from outside the chip. In order to obtain a very wide operation bandwidth, it is proposed that the PCG include a compensation circuit for voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) operation. The compensation circuit varies the oscillation bandwidth of the VCO according to the reference clock frequency, preventing the expected oscillation frequency from being outside the oscillation bandwidth. The PCG is designed and fabricated with 1.0 μm BiCMOS technology, and it achieves an operation bandwidth of 3 to 90 MHz     

Improvement of delay spread immunity by using symbol timing synchronisation based on maximum likelihood estimation for 16 QAM/TDMA diversity receivers

Symbol timing synchronisation (STSYNC) based on maximum likelihood estimation and a receiver configuration in which each branch independently estimates optimum STSYNC timing are proposed to improve delay spread immunity for I6 QAM/TDMA diversity receivers. Computer simulation confirms that the proposed STSYNC and receiver configuration can improve delay spread immunity by approximately 30%.<>     

Spatial and frequency averaging techniques for a polarimetricscatterometer system

Radar scattering signals from distributed targets exhibit fading due to interference associated with coherent scattering from individual scatterers within the resolution volume. Uncertainty in radar measurements which arises as a result of fading is reduced by averaging independent samples. Independent samples are obtained by collecting the radar returns from nonoverlapping footprints (spatial averaging) and/or nonoverlapping frequencies (frequency agility techniques). An improved formulation of fading characteristics for the spatial averaging and frequency agility technique is derived by taking into account the rough surface scattering process. Kirchhoff's approximation is used to describe rough surface scattering. Expressions for fading decorrelation distance and decorrelation bandwidth are derived. Rough surface scattering measurements are performed between L and S bands. Measured frequency and spatial correlation coefficients show good agreement with theoretical results