Intercomparison of scanning probe microscopes

Comparison measurements on reference standards are reported in which 13 partners with different instruments took part. A set of prototype standards which had been produced and calibrated within a European project were used for the measurements. Here, results of measurements on a 240 nm step height standard and a two-dimensional lateral standard with a nominal pitch of 1 μm are reported.     

The effect of doubly tapered strut morphology on the plastic yield surface of cellular materials

Although the literature on the mechanics of cellular materials is vast, there is no theoretical model to account for the effects of axial yielding of struts aligned to the applied loading direction on the plastic yield surface under multiaxial loading conditions. An anisotropic hexagonal model having tapered strut morphology is developed to show these effects on the plastic yield surface under multiaxial tensile loading condition. This model covers several types of cellular structure such as two-dimensional (2D) hexagonal and square cellular materials, and three-dimensional (3D) hexagonal and rhombic cellular materials of rod-like columnar structure. A tetrahedral element with tapered strut morphology is also used for a foam model to illustrate these effects on the yield surface under axisymmetric loading condition. Plastic collapse due to bending moment in the inclined struts is a dominant mode. However, under multiaxial tensile loading, the collapse due to axial yielding of struts parallel to the loading direction is found to be an important mode. The shape of plastic yield surface was found to depend not only on relative density but also on the strut morphology.     

The Athy—Heckel equation applied to granular agglomerates of basic tricalcium phosphate [3Ca3PO4)2·Ca(OH)2]

It is shown that direct compression grade tricalcium phosphate yields linear Heckel plots only if the particle density used is that obtained by liquid pycnometry or mercury porosimetry. If the true density is used (i.e. that obtained by gas displacement), then linearization is not obtained in a pressure range where bonding evidently occurs. It is shown that the pore volume in the range of diameters from 0.5 to 2 μm decreases as tableting pressure increases, and that bonding is associated with the loss of pores of this size.     

Half-bridge inverter using 4H-SiC gate turn-off thyristors

This paper reports on the first demonstration of a half-bridge power inverter constructed from silicon carbide gate turn-off thyristors (GTOs) operated in the conventional GTO mode. This circuit was characterized with input bus voltages of up to 600 VDC and 2 A (peak current density of 540 A/cm²) with resistive loads using a pulse-width modulated switching frequency of 2 kHz. We discuss the implications of the thyristor's electrical characteristics and the circuit topology on the overall operation of the half-bridge circuit. This work has determined the conservative critical rate of rise value of the off-state voltage to be 200 V/μs in these devices     

The onset of vortex instability in laminar forced convection flow through a horizontal porous channel

The onset of convective instability in a fluid-saturated porous layer between the two horizontal plates heated isothermally from below has been analyzed theoretically by using propagation theory. In the analysis the thermal dispersion coefficient is assumed to be proportional to the streamwise velocity. The results show that both inertia and thermal dispersion stabilize the system.     

1-GHz-spaced 16-channel arrayed-waveguide grating for a wavelength reference standard in DWDM network systems

We fabricated a 1-GHz-spaced 16-channel arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG) by using a new AWG configuration where the path of each arrayed waveguide winds backward and forward across a 4-in diameter wafer without crossing any other waveguides. The ultra-narrow (< 1 GHz) and stable transmission bands of this AWG can be used to construct a wavelength reference standard covering the S, C, and L bands in the dense wavelength-division-multiplexing network systems whose frequency deviation is /spl plusmn/160 MHz.     

The influence of viewing distance on subjective impairment assessment

In this paper, the influence of viewing distance on subjective assessment of the impairment in video sequences is investigated. Subjective tests using the double-stimulus impairment scale variant II (DSIS II) method have been conducted at viewing distances of 5H (where H stands for the screen height) and 3H, respectively. Several statistical measures have been used to analyze the influence, including correlations and ANOVA (analysis of variance) tests. The results reveal that there is a very high correlation between the subjective scores, the variances are similar under the two viewing distances, the means of subjective data at these two viewing distances are the same, and there is no interaction between the viewing distance and the other two factors, i.e., the codec system and the source sequence. Throughout the tests, there is no evidence that a closer viewing distance such as 3H will vary the subjective test result statistically significantly.