Chiroptical‐Conjugated Polymer/Chiral Small Molecule Hybrid Thin Films for Circularly Polarized Light‐Detecting Heterojunction Devices

Herein, a simple and facile strategy is described to obtain chiroptically active semiconductor thin films by blending of poly(3‐alkylthiophene)s, which are conventional achiral polymer semiconductors, and 1,1′‐binaphthyl (BN), a versatile chiral molecule. As expected, the intermolecular interaction between the two materials is important to extend the chirality of the binaphthyl molecules to the hybrid films. The controlled phase separation and crystallization of poly[3‐(6‐carboxyhexyl)thiophene‐2,5‐diyl] (P3CT) and binaphthyl hybrid films result in unique heterojunction bilayer thin‐film structures that consisted of BN microcrystals at the top and a P3CT/BN mixed layer at the bottom. Such heterojunction bilayer films exhibit significantly amplified chiroptical response with weak broadened tails, which is due to the enhanced crystallization of the chiral BN molecules and formation of heteroaggregates in the hybrid films. Based on the characterization of crystalline structure and photoluminescence analysis, it is found that new electronic energy states are formed in the conduction band region of P3CTs in the P3CT/BN heteroaggregates, which contribute to chirality transfer from BN to the hybrid films. As a proof of concept, a photodiode capable of distinguishably sensing the left‐ and right‐handed circularly polarized light is successfully fabricated by using the hybrid films with the heterojunction bilayer structure.     

Ag/Ni Metallization Bilayer: A Functional Layer for Highly Efficient Polycrystalline SnSe Thermoelectric Modules

The structural and electrical characteristics of Ag/Ni bilayer metallization on polycrystalline thermoelectric SnSe were investigated. Two difficulties with thermoelectric SnSe metallization were identified for Ag and Ni single layers: Sn diffusion into the Ag metallization layer and unexpected cracks in the Ni metallization layer. The proposed Ag/Ni bilayer was prepared by hot-pressing, demonstrating successful metallization on the SnSe surface without interfacial cracks or elemental penetration into the metallization layer. Structural analysis revealed that the Ni layer reacts with SnSe, forming several crystalline phases during metallization that are beneficial for reducing contact resistance. Detailed investigation of the Ni/SnSe interface layer confirms columnar Ni-Sn intermetallic phases [(Ni₃Sn and Ni₃Sn₂) and Ni_5.63SnSe₂] that suppress Sn diffusion into the Ag layer. Electrical specific-contact resistivity (5.32 × 10^?4 Ω cm²) of the Ag/Ni bilayer requires further modification for development of high-efficiency polycrystalline SnSe thermoelectric modules.     

A 60-W Multicarrier WCDMA Power Amplifier Using an RF Predistorter

In this brief, we present a 60-W power amplifier that is linearized using an RF predistorter for multicarrier wideband code-division multiple-access (WCDMA) applications. The proposed RF predistorter is fully composed of RF or analog circuits, and it has a moderate memory effect compensation capability using a delayed third-order intermodulation (IM3) component path. It also includes the IM5 generation circuits and a compact IM3 generator that is capable of autocanceling for the fundamental component. The proposed RF predistorter was implemented and applied to a 60-W high-power WCDMA amplifier. For a four-carrier downlink WCDMA signal, the RF predistorter improved the adjacent channel leakage power ratio at a 5-MHz offset by 6.19 dB at an average output power of 48 dBm. The total efficiency of the system is as high as 13.6% at the same output power level. At an output power level of 60 W, the linearized power amplifier complies with the linearity specification of the WCDMA system.     

Linearity improvement of cascode low-noise amplifiers using double DS method with a tuned inductor

We propose a highly linear low-noise amplifier (LNA) using the double derivative superposition method with a tuned inductor. This topology has an auxiliary common gate stage of the cascode amplifier to cancel each third-order intermodulation distortion (IMD3) component and can provide a high third-order input intercept point (IIP3) for the 5.25 GHz frequency band. From the simulation results using the TSMC 0.18 μm RF CMOS process, the IIP3 in the proposed cascode LNAs can be improved by 9 dB, compared with the conventional derivative superposition method. The proposed LNA achieves an IIP3 of + 15 dBm with a gain of 10.5 dB, a noise figure of 2.4 dB, and a power consumption of 6 mA at 1.5 V.     

Analysis of Failure in Miniature X‐ray Tubes with Gated Carbon Nanotube Field Emitters

We correlate the failure in miniature X‐ray tubes with the field emission gate leakage current of gated carbon nanotube emitters. The miniature X‐ray tube, even with a small gate leakage current, exhibits an induced voltage on the gate electrode by the anode bias voltage, resulting in a very unstable operation and finally a failure. The induced gate voltage is apparently caused by charging at the insulating spacer of the miniature X‐ray tube through the gate leakage current of the field emission. The gate leakage current could be a criterion for the successful fabrication of miniature X‐ray tubes.     

Skin-like Omnidirectional Stretchable Platform with Negative Poisson's Ratio for Wearable Strain–Pressure Simultaneous Sensor

Conventional elastomeric polymers used as substrates for wearable platforms have large positive Poisson's ratios (≈0.5) that cause a deformation mismatch with human skin that is multidirectionally elongated under bending of joints. This causes practical problems in elastomer-based wearable devices, such as delamination and detachment, leading to poorly reliable functionality. To overcome this issue, auxetic-structured mechanical reinforcement with glass fibers is applied to the elastomeric film, resulting in a negative Poisson's ratio (NPR), which is a skin-like stretchable substrate (SLSS). Several parameters for determining the materials and geometrical dimensions of the auxetic-structured reinforcing fillers are considered to maximize the NPR. Based on numerical simulation and digital image correlation analysis, the deformation tendencies and strain distribution of the SLSS are investigated and compared with those of the pristine elastomeric substrate. Owing to the strain-localization characteristics, an independent strain-pressure sensing system is fabricated using SLSS with a Ag-based elastomeric ink and a carbon nanotube-based force-sensitive resistor. Finally, it is demonstrated that the SLSS-based sensor platform can be applied as a wearable device to monitor the physical burden on the wrist in real time.     

Analysis of Resolution and Noise Properties of Nonquadratically Regularized Image Reconstruction Methods for PET

We present accurate and efficient methods for estimating the spatial resolution and noise properties of nonquadratically regularized image reconstruction for positron emission tomography (PET). It is well known that quadratic regularization tends to over-smooth sharp edges. Many types of edge-preserving nonquadratic penalties have been proposed to overcome this problem. However, there has been little research on the quantitative analysis of nonquadratic regularization due to its nonlinearity. In contrast, quadratically regularized estimators are approximately linear and are well understood in terms of resolution and variance properties. We derive new approximate expressions for the linearized local perturbation response (LLPR) and variance using the Taylor expansion with the remainder term. Although the expressions are implicit, we can use them to accurately predict resolution and variance for nonquadratic regularization where the conventional expressions based on the first-order Taylor truncation fail. They also motivate us to extend the use of a certainty-based modified penalty to nonquadratic regularization cases in order to achieve spatially uniform perturbation responses, analogous to uniform spatial resolution in quadratic regularization. Finally, we develop computationally efficient methods for predicting resolution and variance of nonquadratically regularized reconstruction and present simulations that illustrate the validity of these methods.     

Inverse modeling and its application in the design of high electronmobility transistors

An inverse modeling technique is introduced to determine the structural and physical parameters of HEMT from the desired data for maximum transconductance. The technique is based on the availability of analytical expressions describing the electron carrier concentration, the current, the transconductance, the capacitances and the unity current gain frequency of a HEMT. Empirical formulae are obtained that relate the maximum transconductance to the doped AlGaAs thickness, spacer layer thickness, dopant density and aluminum mole fraction. The technique is applied to the design of a HEMT and shows good agreement with the experimental data     

Spatial Modulation

Spatial modulation (SM) is a recently developed transmission technique that uses multiple antennas. The basic idea is to map a block of information bits to two information carrying units: 1) a symbol that was chosen from a constellation diagram and 2) a unique transmit antenna number that was chosen from a set of transmit antennas. The use of the transmit antenna number as an information-bearing unit increases the overall spectral efficiency by the base-two logarithm of the number of transmit antennas. At the receiver, a maximum receive ratio combining algorithm is used to retrieve the transmitted block of information bits. Here, we apply SM to orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) transmission. We develop an analytical approach for symbol error ratio (SER) analysis of the SM algorithm in independent identically distributed (i.i.d.) Rayleigh channels. The analytical and simulation results closely match. The performance and the receiver complexity of the SM-OFDM technique are compared to those of the vertical Bell Labs layered space-time (V-BLAST-OFDM) and Alamouti-OFDM algorithms. V-BLAST uses minimum mean square error (MMSE) detection with ordered successive interference cancellation. The combined effect of spatial correlation, mutual antenna coupling, and Rician fading on both coded and uncoded systems are presented. It is shown that, for the same spectral efficiency, SM results in a reduction of around 90% in receiver complexity as compared to V-BLAST and nearly the same receiver complexity as Alamouti. In addition, we show that SM achieves better performance in all studied channel conditions, as compared with other techniques. It is also shown to efficiently work for any configuration of transmit and receive antennas, even for the case of fewer receive antennas than transmit antennas.     

Kirigami/Origami‐Based Soft Deployable Reflector for Optical Beam Steering

The beam steering mechanism has been a key element for various applications ranging from sensing and imaging to solar tracking systems. However, conventional beam steering systems are bulky and complex and present significant challenges for scaling up. This work introduces the use of soft deployable reflectors combining a soft deployable structure with simple kirigami/origami reflective films. This structure can be used as a macroscale beam steering mechanism that is both simple and compact. This work first develops a soft deployable structure that is easily scalable by patterning of soft linear actuators. This soft deployable structure is capable of increasing its height several folds by expanding in a continuous and controllable manner, which can be used as a frame to deform the linearly stretchable kirigami/origami structures integrated into the structure. Experiments on the reflective capability of the reflectors are conducted and show a good fit to the modeling results. The proposed principles for deployment and for beam steering can be used to realize novel active beam steering devices, highlighting the use of soft robotic principles to produce scalable morphing structures.