Uncooled DBR laser directly Modulated at 3.125 gb/s as athermal transmitter for low-cost WDM systems

An uncooled three-section tunable distributed Bragg reflector laser is demonstrated as an athermal transmitter for low-cost uncooled wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) systems with tight channel spacing. A /spl plusmn/0.02-nm thermal wavelength drift is achieved under continuous-wave operation up to 70/spl deg/C. Dynamic sidemode suppression ratio of greater than 35 dB is consistently obtained under 3.125-Gb/s direct modulation over a 20/spl deg/C-70/spl deg/C temperature range, with wavelength variation of as low as /spl plusmn/0.2 nm. This indicates that more than an order of magnitude reduction in coarse WDM channel spacing is possible using this source.     

Widely tunable bottom-emitting vertical-cavity SOAs

We present bottom-emitting tunable vertical-cavity semiconductor optical amplifiers (VCSOAs) with an effective wavelength tuning range of >20 nm. These devices utilize a high reflectivity micromechanically tunable Bragg mirror as the back reflector. Compared with our first generation tunable VCSOAs, the bottom-emitting devices exhibit a two-fold increase in the effective tuning range as well as a five-fold reduction in the required tuning voltage.     

Novel T-rail electrodes for substrate removed low-voltage high-speed GaAs/AlGaAs electrooptic modulators

A novel traveling-wave electrode utilizing capacitively loaded T-rail elements was developed for low-voltage high-speed substrate-removed GaAs/AlGaAs electrooptic modulators. Electrodes with varying dimensions were fabricated and characterized. Electrode phase velocity, characteristic impedance, loss coefficient, and capacitive loading were extracted from the measured s-parameters up to 40 GHz. Electrode was also simulated using a finite-element solver. The measured and calculated electrode capacitance values were found to be in excellent agreement, showing that the electrode can be precisely designed. Approaches were outlined to provide a group velocity-matched very high-speed modulator electrode suitable for a low drive-voltage substrate-removed GaAs/AlGaAs electro-optic modulator     

VLSI Implementation of Forward Error Control Technique for ATM Networks

In asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks, fixed length cells of 53 bytes are transmitted. A cell may be discarded during transmission due to buffer overflow or a detection of errors. Cell discarding seriously degrades transmission quality. The quality degradation can be reduced by employing efficient forward error control (FEC) to recover discarded cells. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of decoding equipment for FEC in ATM networks based on a single parity check (SPC) product code using very‐large‐scale integration (VLSI) technology. FEC allows the destination to reconstruct missing data cells by using redundant parity cells that the source adds to each block of data cells. The functionality of the design has been tested using the Model Sim 5.7cXE Simulation Package. The design has been implemented for a 5 ° 5 matrix of data cells in a Virtex‐E XCV 3200E FG1156 device. The simulation and synthesis results show that the decoding function can be completed in 81 clock cycles with an optimum clock of 56.8 MHz. A test bench was written to study the performance of the decoder, and the results are presented.     

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Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Viability in chemical engineering systems

Reliability (viability) in chemical engineering plant is considered. It is shown that classical reliability theory does not fully correspond to the reliability of such systems and that the viability of industrial technologies is determined also by the characteristics of the chemical and phase transformations. __________ Translated from Khimicheskoe i Neftegazovoe Mashinostroenie, No. 2, pp. 37–39, February, 2006.     

Revamping of the process condensate treatment unit. G-43-107M/1 unit at LiNOS Ltd

Increasing attention at oil refineries is being focused on solving environmental problems caused by stiffening of the requirements for emissions of harmful substances into air and water. Advanced technologies that reduce the effect of industrial enterprises on the environment to the minimum are becoming increasingly in demand. Treatment of process wastewaters to remove hydrogen sulfide and ammonia is one such problem of the modern refinery with cat crackers. __________ Translated from Khimiya i Tekhnologiya Topliv i Masel, No. 3, pp. 52–55, May–June, 2006.     

Coats for repair and restoration of stems of oil and gas pipeline valves

Several coats, such as gray cast iron, cast iron alloyed with nickel and copper, nickel-aluminum, Nichrome (nickel-chromium alloy), bronze, etc., have been investigated. Corrosion resistance of coats in a medium based on drilling mud and sodium chloride and sulfate solutions has been checked. Alloyed cast iron admixed with tin-based compounds showed the best results. __________ Translated from Khimicheskoe i Neftegazovoe Mashinostroenie, No. 3, pp. 43–44, March, 2006.     

Modeling and assimilation of root zone soil moisture using remote sensing observations in Walnut Gulch Watershed during SMEX04

Soil moisture status in the root zone is an important component of the water cycle at all spatial scales (e.g., point, field, catchment, watershed, and region). In this study, the spatio-temporal evolution of root zone soil moisture of the Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed (WGEW) in Arizona was investigated during the Soil Moisture Experiment 2004 (SMEX04). Root zone soil moisture was estimated via assimilation of aircraft-based remotely sensed surface soil moisture into a distributed Soil-Water-Atmosphere-Plant (SWAP) model. An ensemble square root filter (EnSRF) based on a Kalman filtering scheme was used for assimilating the aircraft-based soil moisture observations at a spatial resolution of 800 m × 800 m. The SWAP model inputs were derived from the SSURGO soil database, LAI (Leaf Area Index) data from SMEX04 database, and data from meteorological stations/rain gauges at the WGEW. Model predictions are presented in terms of temporal evolution of soil moisture probability density function at various depths across the WGEW. The assimilation of the remotely sensed surface soil moisture observations had limited influence on the profile soil moisture. More specifically, root zone soil moisture depended mostly on the soil type. Modeled soil moisture profile estimates were compared to field measurements made periodically during the experiment at the ground based soil moisture stations in the watershed. Comparisons showed that the ground-based soil moisture observations at various depths were within ± 1 standard deviation of the modeled profile soil moisture. Density plots of root zone soil moisture at various depths in the WGEW exhibited multi-modal variations due to the uneven distribution of precipitation and the heterogeneity of soil types and soil layers across the watershed.     

Low-Power VLSI Implementation of the Inner Receiver for OFDM-Based WLAN Systems

In this paper, we propose low-power designs for the synchronizer and channel estimator units of the Inner Receiver in wireless local area network systems. The objective of the work is the optimization, with respect to power, area, and latency, of both the signal processing algorithms themselves and their implementation. Novel circuit design strategies have been employed to realize optimal hardware and power efficient architectures for the fast Fourier transform, arc tangent computation unit, numerically controlled oscillator, and the decimation filters. The use of multiple clock domains and clock gating reduces the power consumption further. These blocks have been integrated into an experimental digital baseband processor for the IEEE 802.11a standard implemented in the 0.25mum- 5-metal layer BiCMOS technology from Institute for High Performance Microelectronics.