Resistance Analysis of Spherical Metal Thin Films Combining Van Der Pauw and Electromechanical Nanoindentation Methods

Although micron-sized metal-coated polymer particles are an important conductive filler material in anisotropic conductive adhesives, the resistance of the particles in an adhesive is not well understood. In this study, a van der Pauw method for spherical thin films is developed and applied to determine the resistivity of 30 μm silver-coated poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) particles. The resistivity is used to interpret resistance contributions in single particle electromechanical nanoindentation measurements, which simulate the compression particles undergo in application. The resistivity was found to be coating thickness dependent for thin films in the range 60–270 nm. Estimation of the resistance of the metal shell using the measured resistivity did not account for the total resistance measured in electromechanical nanoindentation. We therefore deduce a significant contribution of contact resistance at the interfaces of the particle. The contact resistance is both coating thickness and particle deformation dependent.     

Effects of Multiple Stacking Faults on the Electronic and Optical Properties of Armchair MoS$$_{}$$ Nanoribbons: First-Principles Calculations

The electronic and optical properties of armchair MoS\(_{2}\) nanoribbons with multiple stacking faults are investigated using first-principles calculations. It’s interesting that the band gaps approach zero for armchair MoS\(_{2}\) nanoribbons with two and four stacking faults. The gaps of armchair MoS\(_{2}\) nanoribbons with one stacking fault and three stacking faults are converged to 0.46 eV and 0.36 eV, respectively, which is smaller than perfect MoS\(_{2}\) nanoribbons. The partial charge density of armchair MoS\(_{2}\) nanoribbons with two stacking faults shows that the defect levels are originated from stacking faults. The frequency-dependent optical response (dielectric function, absorption, reflectance and electron energy loss spectra) is also presented. The optical results of monolayer MoS\(_{2}\) are in agreement with previous study. The peaks in the imaginary part of perfect armchair MoS\(_{2}\) nanoribbons are about 2.8 eV, 4.0 eV and 5.4 eV and the peaks of the imaginary part of armchair MoS\(_{2}\) nanoribbons with stacking faults are mainly 2.8 eV and 5.4 eV. They are independent of ribbon width. The peaks in electron energy loss spectra move toward larger wavelengths (redshift) due to the introduction of stacking faults.     

Cross-Interaction Between Au/Sn and Cu/Sn Interfacial Reactions

The cross-interaction between Sn/Cu and Sn/Au interfacial reactions in an Au/Sn/Cu sandwich structure was studied. Field-emission electron probe microanalysis (FE-EPMA) revealed that the Cu content in the three Au-Sn phases (AuSn, AuSn₂, and AuSn₄) was very low, less than 1 at.%. This means␣that Cu from the opposite Cu foil did not participate in the interfacial reaction at the Sn/Au interface. On the opposite Sn/Cu side, Au-substituted (Cu,Au)₆Sn₅ formed within the initial 1 min of reflow. With prolonged reflow, the Au content in the Au-substituted (Cu,Au)₆Sn₅ increased and it transformed into a Cu-substituted (Au,Cu)Sn phase with 25 at.% Cu after 1 min of reflow at 250°C. The x-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern confirmed the phase transformation of Au-substituted (Cu,Au)₆Sn₅ to Cu-substituted (Au,Cu)Sn phase. In addition, there was greater Au consumption in the Au/Sn/Cu sandwich joint structure than in the single Au/Sn reaction case, due to some of the Au participating in the opposite Sn/Cu interfacial reaction.     

Geometrical Characteristics and Surface Polarity of Inclined Crystallographic Planes of the Wurtzite and Zincblende Structures

Inclined crystallographic planes of the wurtzite structure were investigated in comparison with the zincblende structure in terms of surface geometry characteristics. The ball–stick model indicates that the semipolar surface possesses a surface polarity resembling the anion polarity, which agrees with the common experimental observations of epitaxial growth preference for the cation-polarity surface over the surface. The wurtzite surface was found to share geometrical similarities with the zincblende {100} surface uniquely among the possible semipolar planes. This finding encourages epitaxial growth on the plane of wurtzite semiconductors, e.g., GaN, with the potential of avoiding atomic step formations typically associated with off-axis crystallographic planes.     

Euclidean Geometry LDPC-VBLAST System Design and Performance Evaluation

Among popular multi-transmit and multi-receive antennas techniques, the VBLAST (Vertical Bell Laboratories Layered Space-Time) architecture has been shown to be a good solution for wireless communications applications that require the transmission of data at high rates. Recently, the application of efficient error correction coding schemes such as low density parity-check (LDPC) codes to systems with multi-transmit and multi-receive antennas has shown to significantly improve bit error rate performance. Although irregular LDPC codes with non-structure are quite popular due to the ease of constructing the parity check matrices and their very good error rate performance, the complexity of the encoder is high. Simple implementation of both encoder and decoder can be an asset in wireless communications applications. In this paper, we study the application of Euclidean geometry LDPC codes to the VBLAST system. We assess system performance using different code parameters and different numbers of antennas via Monte-Carlo simulation and show that the combination of Euclidean geometry LDPC codes and VBLAST can significantly improve bit error rate performance. We also show that interleaving data is necessary to improve performance of LDPC codes when a higher number of antennas is, used in order to mitigate the effect of error propagation. The simplicity of the implementation of both encoder and decoder makes Euclidean geometry LDPC codes with VBLAST system attractive and suitable for practical applications.     

Scattering of Electromagnetic Waves by a Coated Nihility Cylinder

An analytical solution for the scattering of electromagnetic plane waves from an infinitely long nihility cylinder, coated with a double positive (DPS), double negative (DNG), epsilon negative (ENG), or mu negative (MNG) layer of uniform thickness is presented. The solution is determined by solving the scalar wave equation in the cylindrical coordinates, for different regions and applying the appropriate boundary conditions at the interfaces. Both TM and TE polarizations as incident plane have been considered in the analysis. Comparison of behaviors of a coated nihility cylinder with a coated PEC cylinder has been made. It is noted that two situations are more closer for DNG coating as compared to DPS coating.     

A pilot-assisted non-Cyclic Prefixed MIMO-SCFDE system

A non-Cyclic Prefixed Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Single-Carrier Frequency-Domain Equalization (non-CP MIMO-SCFDE) system based on a recursive algorithm of Joint Channel Es- timation and Data Detection (recursive-JCEDD) is proposed in this paper. Unlike the traditional CP MIMO-SCFDE system, the transmitted block of the proposed system is designed in the way that block-type pilot sequences and Single-Carrier (SC) information sequences have been arranged alter- nately without any cyclic prefix before each ...     

Theoretical Study of Millimeter Wave Harmonic Oscillator Stabilized with a Transmission Cavity

An equivalent circuit model of millimeter wave second harmonic oscillator stabilized with a transmission cavity has been proposed for constructing analytical formulations between performance parameters of the oscillator and parameters of the circuit. The model consists of an equivalent circuit of fundamental wave and that of second harmonic wave. Each of the circuits comprises circuit models of main cavity, transmission waveguide, and transmission cavity. Absorbing material placed between the transmission waveguide and the transmission cavity can suppress additional resonances originated from transmission cavity. The behavior of the second harmonic oscillator can be effectively described by the circuit model. Furthermore, based on this model, mechanical tuning characteristics have been studied at first, and then analytical formulas for quality factor and efficiency depending on circuit parameters have been derived. The circuit parameters can be conveniently extracted by electromagnetic field simulation. Hence the formulas exhibit both compact form and enough accuracy. Thereafter, general rules of performance parameters varying with circuit parameters have been deduced for the harmonic oscillators. Then some design considerations have been derived according to the corresponding analysis. The equivalent circuit model is useful for designing and adjusting millimeter wave second harmonic stabilizing oscillator with a transmission cavity.     

Design and Simulation of a Wide-Beam High-Power Parabolic Antenna with Dual-Source

For resolving the essential problem that the beam is too narrow in the application of the high-power UWB (Ultra-Wideband) antenna with single-source, a novel wide-beam high-power parabolic antenna with dual-source has been designed, and the edge of the paraboloid was cut in order to reduce the size of the antenna. Radiation properties of this proposed antenna are studied with finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) numerical method. The radiation properties of the proposed antenna can be improved by changing the structure of the parabolic antenna and adjusting the angle between the source and the axis of the antenna. The result shows that the beam-width has been improved significantly under the precondition of maintaining the peak power, and also the size of the antenna was minished by cutting the edge of the paraboloid.     

Thermoelectric Effect Spectroscopy and Photoluminescence of High-Resistivity CdTe:In

Thermoelectric effect spectroscopy and photoluminescence techniques were used to study the defect levels in samples from three crystals of CdTe:In grown by the vertical gradient freeze method. The main goal of the investigation was to study defects, which strongly trap charge carriers or act as recombination centers in order to eliminate them from the technological process. The main difference among detecting and non-detecting samples was the absence of electron traps with a very high capture cross-section and energy 0.6 eV to 0.7 eV, which act as lifetime killers even at low concentrations. Recently published ab initio calculations show a complex of Te antisite and Cd vacancy within this energy range.