Nitride-Based ultraviolet metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors with a low-temperature GaN layer

The GaN metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors with a low-temperature (LT)-GaN layer have been demonstrated. It was found that we could achieve a two orders of magnitude smaller, photodetector-dark current by introducing a LT-GaN layer, which could be attributed to the larger Schottky-barrier height between the Ni/Au metal contact and the LT-GaN layer. It was also found that photodetectors with the LT-GaN layer could provide a larger photocurrent to dark-current contrast ratio and a larger UV-to-visible rejection ratio. The maximum responsivity was found to be 3.3 A/W and 0.13 A/W when the photodetector with a LT-GaN layer was biased at 5 V and 1 V, respectively.     

Numerical prediction of the effect of catalyst layer Nafion loading on the performance of PEM fuel cells

Numerical simulations are performed to investigate the effect on PEM fuel cell performance of Nafion loading in the catalyst layer. The investigation also considers variations of geometric parameters. A model that accounts for the volume fractions of Nafion, the solid catalyst particles, and the void space inside the catalyst layers is incorporated into a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics code, capable of resolving three-dimensional mass, momentum, and species transport phenomena as well as the electron- and proton-transfer processes in a PEMFC. Numerical results are first compared with experiments, showing close agreement between predictions and measurements. A parametric study on the effects of Nafion loading and geometric parameters variation is carried out to evaluate the performance of PEMFC for various parameter combinations.     

Algorithms of halftoning color images with edge enhancement

Printers usually generate a limited number of colors and lack the ability of producing continuous-tone color images. Traditional error-diffusion algorithms are used to solve this problem. Compared with other approaches, the approaches of using error-diffusion in general can generate halftoned images of better quality. However, smeared edges and textures may occur in these halftoned images. To produce halftoned images of higher quality, these artifacts due to unstable images, dot-overlap, and error-diffusion must be eliminated or reduced. In this paper, we show that unstable images can be eliminated or reduced through using a proper color difference formula to select the reproduction colors even vector error-diffusion is performed in the RGB domain. We also present a method of using different filters to halftone different components of a color. This approach may have clearer and sharper edges for halftoned color images. Unexpected colors may be generated due to dot-overlap in the printing process. We have presented a method to eliminate this color distortion in the process of error-diffusion. Halftoning a color image by our proposed error-diffusion algorithm with edge enhancement has the following characteristics: the unstable images do not exist; the color-error caused by dot-overlap is corrected; and the smeared edges are sharpened.     

Enhanced reliability for low-temperature gate dielectric of MOS devices by N2O or NO plasma nitridation

Silicon MOS capacitors fabricated solely by low-temperature processes (under 600 °C) are treated with nitridation using N₂O or NO plasma. Their properties are investigated at room temperature under high-field stress. It is found that both kinds of plasmas are effective in improving the gate-oxide hardness against stress-induced damage, which is characterized by a smaller shift in flatband voltage and smaller increase in interface states after the stress. Moreover, NO-nitrided device shows better performance than N₂O-nitrided one. These results show that plasma nitridation has positive effects on the reliability of low-temperature-fabricated devices, which play an important role in flat-panel display systems on glass.     

Effects of underfill materials on the reliability of low-K flip-chip packaging

The reliability of low-K flip-chip packaging has become a critical issue owing to the low strength and poor adhesion qualities of the low-K dielectric material when compared with that of SiO₂ or fluorinated silicate glass (FSG). The underfill must protect the solder bumps and the low-K chip from cracking and delamination. However, the material properties of underfill are contrary to those required for preventing solder bumps and low-K chip from cracking and delamination. This study describes the systematic methodologies for how to specify the adequate underfill materials for low-K flip-chip packaging. The structure of the test vehicle is seven copper layers with a low-K dielectric constant value of 2.7-2.9, produced by the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. Initially, the adhesion and the flow test of the underfill were evaluated, and then the low-K chip and the bumps stress were determined using the finite element method. The preliminary screened underfill candidates were acquired by means of the underfill adhesion and flow test, and balancing the low-K chip and the bumps stress simulation results. Next, the low-K chips were assembled with these preliminary screened underfills. All the flip-chip packaging specimens underwent the reliability test in order to evaluate the material properties of the underfill affecting the flip-chip packaging stress. In addition, the failed samples are subjected to failure analysis to verify the failure mechanism. The results of this study indicate that, of the underfill materials investigated, those with a glass transition temperature (T_g) and a Young’s modulus of approximately 70–80 °C and 8–10 GPa, respectively, are optimum for low-K flip-chip packaging with eutectic solder bumps.     

Pseudocapacitance properties of AC/LiNi1/3Co1/3Mn1/3O2 asymmetric supercapacitor in aqueous electrolyte

NH₂NH₂·H₂O which was used as controlling agent was applied to prepare the precursor Ni_1/3Co_1/3Mn_1/3(OH)₂ in the hydroxide co-precipitation method. The precursor was used to synthesize LiNi_1/3Co_1/3Mn_1/3O₂. The samples were characterized by XRD, XPS and SEM. It has been found that sintered sample at 800 °C for 16 h is considered as the optimal synthetic condition. The LiNi_1/3Co_1/3Mn_1/3O₂ was used as positive electrode and the activated carbon as negative electrode of the asymmetric supercapacitor. The electrochemical capacitance performance was tested by cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and galvanostatic charge/discharge. The results indicate that species of aqueous electrolyte, current density, scan rate and potential limit, etc. have influence on the capacitance property of AC/LiNi_1/3Co_1/3Mn_1/3O₂ supercapacitor. The initial discharge specific capacitance of 298 F g^?1 was obtained in 1 mol L^?1 Li₂SO₄ solution within potential range 0–1.4 V at the current density of 100 mA g^?1 and was cut down less than 0.058 F g^?1 per cycling period in 1000 cycles. The asymmetric supercapacitor exhibited a good cycling performance.     

High-temperature Raman study in CVD diamond

Measurements of the Raman spectra in chemical vapour deposition (CVD) diamond films at temperatures up to 1200 K are presented. Specifically, the evolution of Raman line position, line width, and intensity were monitored as a function of heating time. The red shifting and the line width broadening of CVD diamond's Raman line with temperature are very similar to that of natural diamond's. However, the detailed temperature dependence of Raman line width depends on the orientation of the CVD diamond crystal and the ambient gas used during thermal treatment. Since the CVD diamond usually exhibited a broader Raman spectra than natural diamond, the evolution of the line width upon heating is thus expected to depend on the origins and the annealing effects of the residual stress. For (111) CVD diamond subjected to annealing in air at 973 K, the line width decreased by more than one wavenumber while the line intensity increased by more than an order of magnitude before it decreased subsequently. In contrast, there is hardly any observable changes of the line width for (100) CVD diamond heated in air at 1173 K. Measurements conducted in He versus in air suggested that the reduction of the non-diamond carbon phase (therefore, the reduction of stress) is likely due to oxidation, which occurs more readily in (111) than in (100).     

Low-power compact 2×2 thermooptic silica-on-silicon waveguideswitch with fast response

5-mm-long and 50-μm-wide thermooptic waveguide 2×2 Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) switches with multimode interference (MMI) couplers have been realized in silica-on-silicon. The use of diffused square waveguides with a separating trench results in low heating power of 110 mW for π phase shift and short rise and fall times of 150 and 180 μs, respectively     

井下工具零件应力分析及其软件设计

针对井下工具零件结构复杂、形状怪异，且多为非标准件和非通用件，利用现行手册和常规分析方法难以进行应力分析的情况，依照这类工具零件的力学特征将其分为七大类进行应力分析，并编制了应力分析软件。在编制软件过程中，恰当地选择了软硬件环境和菜单技术，合理地设计了总体框图和分割了屏幕，使得软件具有友好的用户界面。     

A fast Gibbs sampler for synthesizing constrained fractals

It is well known that the spatial frequency spectrum of membrane and thin plate splines exhibit self-affine characteristics and, hence, behave as fractals. This behavior was exploited in generating the constrained fractal surfaces, which were generated by using a Gibbs sampler algorithm in the work of Szeliski and Terzopoulos (1989). The algorithm involves locally perturbing a constrained spline surface with white noise until the spline surface reaches an equilibrium state. We introduce a fast generalized Gibbs sampler that combines two novel techniques, namely, a preconditioning technique in a wavelet basis for constraining the splines and a perturbation scheme in which, unlike the traditional Gibbs sampler, all sites (surface nodes) that do not share a common neighbor are updated simultaneously. In addition, we demonstrate the capability to generate arbitrary order fractal surfaces without resorting to blending techniques. Using this fast Gibbs sampler algorithm, we demonstrate the synthesis of realistic terrain models from sparse elevation data