Subnanometer Analysis and Modeling of MBE Grown InP Based MODFETs

InGaAs/InAlAs double-doped double-strained modulation-doped field-effect transistors OD-SMODFETs)1 were grown by solid source molecular beam epitaxy. The structures were characterized using high resolution x-ray diffraction, Hall effect, and cross-sectional scanning tunneling microscopy. A record two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) sheet density of 8.5 × 10¹²/cm² and 8.1 × 10¹²/cm² for 300 and 77K, respectively, was achieved. The mobility was 6500 and 12000 cm²/ Vs for 300 and 77K, respectively. To the author’s knowledge,² the previous record 2DEG result was 6.58 × 10¹²/cm². The electron mobility was limited by alloy scattering and interface roughness caused by the presence of “clustering.” Using cross-sectional scanning tunneling microscopy to verify the presence of these clusters, we have the first images of the lattice matched InAlAs (spacer)-InGaAs (quantum well) interface. These images reveal clusters that have approximate spherical or cylindrical shapes with equivalent cubic dimensions ranging from 25 to 45Å.     

Application of Reconfigurable CORDIC Architectures

Reconfiguration enables the adaption of Coordinate Rotation DIgital Computer (CORDIC) units to the specific needs of sets of applications, hence creating application specific CORDIC-style implementations. Reconfiguration can be implemented at a high level, taking the entire CORDIC unit as a basic cell (CORDIC-cells) implemented in VLSI, or at a low level such as Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). We suggest a design methodology and analyze area/time results for coarse (VLSI) and fine-grain (FPGA) reconfigurable CORDIC units. For FPGAs we implement CORDIC units in Verilog HDL and our object-oriented design environment, PAM-Blox. For CORDIC-cells, multiple reconfigurable CORDIC modules are synthesized with state-of-the-art CAD tools. At the algorithm level we present a case study combining multiple CORDICs based on a geometrical interpretation of a normalized ladder algorithm for adaptive filtering to reduce latency and area of a fully pipelined CORDIC implementation. Ultimately, the goal is to create automatic tools to map applications directly to reconfigurable high-level arithmetic units such as CORDICs.     

Integration of GPU Computing in a Software Radio Environment

This article studies the integration of Graphics Processing Units in a Software Defined Radio environment. Two main solutions are considered, based on two levels of granularity for the parallelization. First, a fine grain parallelism solution, which is an extension of the existing solutions but adapted to operations of large computational complexity, is proposed. Second, an original solution based on coarse grain approach allowing better usage of the computing resources and easier parallelism extraction is described. For both solutions, scheduling and communication design as well as implementation are given, along with integration in the environment. Both solutions have been implemented and compared on different operations types and on multi-operations sequences. It is clearly shown that using the second solution can provide performance improvement, while the first one is not adapted to SDR applications.     

A comparison framework for breathing motion estimation methods from 4-D imaging

Motion estimation is an important issue in radiation therapy of moving organs. In particular, motion estimates from 4-D imaging can be used to compute the distribution of an absorbed dose during the therapeutic irradiation. We propose a strategy and criteria incorporating spatiotemporal information to evaluate the accuracy of model-based methods capturing breathing motion from 4-D CT images. This evaluation relies on the identification and tracking of landmarks on the 4-D CT images by medical experts. Three different experts selected more than 500 landmarks within 4-D CT images of lungs for three patients. Landmark tracking was performed at four instants of the expiration phase. Two metrics are proposed to evaluate the tracking performance of motion-estimation models. The first metric cumulates over the four instants the errors on landmark location. The second metric integrates the error over a time interval according to an a priori breathing model for the landmark spatiotemporal trajectory. This latter metric better takes into account the dynamics of the motion. A second aim of this paper is to estimate the impact of considering several phases of the respiratory cycle as compared to using only the extreme phases (end-inspiration and end-expiration). The accuracy of three motion estimation models (two image registration-based methods and a biomechanical method) is compared through the proposed metrics and statistical tools. This paper points out the interest of taking into account more frames for reliably tracking the respiratory motion.     

Ochratoxin A in dried vine fruit: method development and survey

A method is described for the determination of concentrations of the mycotoxin ochratoxin A in dried vine fruits (currants, raisins and sultanas) using acidic methanolic extraction,immunoaffinity chromatography clean-up and HPLC determination. The limit of detection was estimated as 0.2mug/kg, and recoveries of 63-77% were achieved at 5mug/kg. HPLC-mass spectrometric confirmation of the identity of ochratoxin was obtained. Ochratoxin A and aflatoxins were determined in 60 samples of retail dried vine fruits purchased in the United Kingdom. Ochratoxin A was found in excess of 0.2mug/kg in 19 of 20 currant, 17 of 20 sultana and 17 of 20 raisin samples examined, an overall incidence of 88% . The maximum level found was 53.6mug/kg. No aflatoxin was found in any sample analysed, using a method with a detection limit of 0.2mug/kg for each of aflatoxin B1, B2, G1 and G2.     

Onde de frange pour une discontinuité de courbure

The fringe wave is defined, following the physical theory of diffraction, as the difference between the total field and the field radiated by the physical optics currents. This concept is generalised to the case of the discontinuity in the curvature. It is necessary, to get a finite result for normal incidence, to define the fringe wave as the difference between the total field and the field radiated by the two first terms of the current given by the Luneburg-Kline development. Explicit formulas are given, for the perfectly conducting and for the impedance boundary condition cases.     

Transborder direct-to-home satellite service

Transborder receipt of direct-to-home satellite transmissions is a timely topic which has international implications. This article addresses some of these international implications, but for the most part, it focuses on transborder receipt of satellite services in the United States and the legal ramifications thereof under American law. Some legal terms and the regulatory nature of the aforementioned satellite service will first be discussed. Then, the role of the Federal Communications Commission in terms of its rulings and authority in transborder direct-to-home satellite service will be presented. Afterwards, the policy implications of foreign direct-to-home satellite service to the United States will be examined.     

Simple FFT and DCT algorithms with reduced number of operations

A simple algorithm for the evaluation of discrete Fourier transforms (DFT) and discrete cosine transforms (DCT) is presented. This approach, based on the divide and conquer technique, achieves a substantial decrease in the number of additions when compared to currently used FFT algorithms (30% for a DFT on real data, 15% for a DFT on complex data and 25% for a DCT) and keeps the same number of multiplications as the best known FFT algorithms. The simple structure of the algorithm and the fact that it is best suited for real data (one does not have to take a transform of two real sequences simultaneously anymore) should lead to efficient implementations and to a wide range of applications.     

Terahertz Absorption of Nematic Liquid Crystals

We present the first systematic study of cyanobiphenyls (CBs) and the phenylcyclohexanes in the range between 50 cm^-1 (1.5 THz) and 500 cm^-1 (15 THz). The impact of the alkyl chain length and of variations in the core structure on the spectrum is investigated using liquid crystals from the cyanobiphenyl and phenylcyclohexane families. Our measurements are supported by calculations based on density functional theory. This enables us to shine light on the vibrational dynamics of liquid crystal molecules in the terahertz frequency range.