Vertical Phase Separation in Small Molecule:Polymer Blend Organic Thin Film Transistors Can Be Dynamically Controlled

Blending of small‐molecule organic semiconductors (OSCs) with amorphous polymers is known to yield high performance organic thin film transistors (OTFTs). Vertical stratification of the OSC and polymer binder into well‐defined layers is crucial in such systems and their vertical order determines whether the coating is compatible with a top and/or a bottom gate OTFT configuration. Here, we investigate the formation of blends prepared via spin‐coating in conditions which yield bilayer and trilayer stratifications. We use a combination of in situ experimental and computational tools to study the competing effects of formulation thermodynamics and process kinetics in mediating the final vertical stratification. It is shown that trilayer stratification (OSC/polymer/OSC) is the thermodynamically favored configuration and that formation of the buried OSC layer can be kinetically inhibited in certain conditions of spin‐coating, resulting in a bilayer stack instead. The analysis reveals here that preferential loss of the OSC, combined with early aggregation of the polymer phase due to rapid drying, inhibit the formation of the buried OSC layer. The fluid dynamics and drying kinetics are then moderated during spin‐coating to promote trilayer stratification with a high quality buried OSC layer which yields unusually high mobility >2 cm² V^?1 s^?1 in the bottom‐gate top‐contact configuration.     

Quantum Transport Simulation of Experimentally Fabricated Nano-FinFET

We have utilized the contact-block-reduction (CBR) method, which we extended to allow a charge self-consistent scheme, to simulate experimentally fabricated 10-nm-FinFET device. The self-consistent CBR simulator has been modified to simulate devices with channels along arbitrary crystallographic orientation. A series of fully quantum-mechanical transport simulations has been performed. First, the fin extension length and doping profile have been calibrated to match the experimental data. The process control window for the threshold voltage as a function of fin extension has been extracted for the considered device. Then, a set of transfer characteristics and gate leakage currents have been calculated for different drain voltages. The simulation results have been found to be in good agreement with the experimental data in the subthreshold regime. The device turn-off and turn-on behavior has been examined for different fin widths: 12 (experimental), 10, 8, and 6 nm. Finally, the subthreshold slope degradation at high temperatures has been studied     

Analysis of the decoupled uplink downlink technique for varying path loss exponent in multi-tier HetNet

In this paper, the impact of varying path loss exponent (PLE) on user association probability, decoupled uplink coverage probability as well as decoupled uplink average spectral efficiency in downlink uplink decoupled (DUDe) multi-tier heterogeneous networks, is investigated. We investigate the effect of the difference in path loss exponents in both macro and small cell environments over uplink network performance. It is assumed that the mobile user connected to the macro base station experience different path loss exponent as compared to when connected to small base station. It is observed that the difference of path loss exponents in both cases has significant effect on the user association probability, decoupled uplink coverage probability as well as decoupled uplink average spectral efficiency. Moreover, in order to further support key findings and make sound comparison between coupled and DUDe performance in varying PLE environment, generalized analytical expressions for coupled association probabilities, along with coupled uplink coverage probability and coupled uplink average spectral efficiency have been derived. The analytical results evaluated in this paper are compared with the computer simulation and found in good agreement. Our analysis shows that decoupling technique performs suboptimal for cases where the environments around macro and small base stations are different with respect to each other. The work explained in this paper highlights the limitation of applying DUDe technique in realistic conditions where the PLEs of cellular tiers are not exactly equal to one another.

     

Performance Analysis of a New MAC Protocol for Wireless Cognitive Radio Networks

Wireless Personal Communications - In this study, network performance analysis of a newly proposed cognitive radio wireless network (CRWN) medium access control (MAC) protocol is investigated in...     

Fast motion estimation for surveillance video compression

In this article, novel approaches to perform efficient motion estimation specific to surveillance video compression are proposed. These includes (i) selective (ii) tracker-based and (iii) multi-frame-based motion estimation. In selective approach, motion vector search is performed for only those frames that contain some motion activity. In another approach, contrary to performing motion estimation on the encoder side, motion vectors are calculated using information of a surveillance video tracker. This approach is quicker but for some scenarios it degrades the visual perception of the video compared with selective approach. In an effort to speed up multi-frame motion estimation, we propose a fast multiple reference frames-based motion estimation technique for surveillance videos. Experimental evaluation shows that significant reduction in computational complexity can be achieved by applying the proposed strategies.     

Distributed Online Algorithms for the Agent Migration Problem in WSNs

The mobile agent paradigm has been adopted by several systems in the area of wireless sensor networks as it enables a flexible distribution and placement of application components on nodes, at runtime. Most agent placement and migration algorithms proposed in the literature, assume that the communication rates between agents remain stable for a sufficiently long time to amortize the migration costs. Then, the problem is that frequent changes in the application-level communication may lead to several non-beneficial agent migrations, which may actually increase the total network cost, instead of decreasing it. To tackle this problem, we propose two distributed algorithms that take migration decisions in an online fashion, trying to deal with fluctuations in agent communication. The first algorithm is more of theoretical value, as it assumes infinite storage to keep information about the message exchange history of agents, while the second algorithm is a refined version that works with finite storage and limited information. We describe these algorithms in detail, and provide proofs for their competitive ratio vs. an optimal oracle. In addition, we evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithms for different parameter settings through a series of simulated experiments, also comparing their results with those achieved by an optimal static placement that is computed with full (a posteriori) knowledge of the execution scenarios. Our theoretical and experimental results are a strong indication for the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.     

Direction of arrival estimation using adaptive directional time-frequency distributions

Time-frequency distributions (TFDs) allow direction of arrival (DOA) estimation algorithms to be used in scenarios when the total number of sources are more than the number of sensors. The performance of such time–frequency (t–f) based DOA estimation algorithms depends on the resolution of the underlying TFD as a higher resolution TFD leads to better separation of sources in the t–f domain. This paper presents a novel DOA estimation algorithm that uses the adaptive directional t–f distribution (ADTFD) for the analysis of close signal components. The ADTFD optimizes the direction of kernel at each point in the t–f domain to obtain a clear t–f representation, which is then exploited for DOA estimation. Moreover, the proposed methodology can also be applied for DOA estimation of sparse signals. Experimental results indicate that the proposed DOA algorithm based on the ADTFD outperforms other fixed and adaptive kernel based DOA algorithms.     

Radio Resource Allocation in Multi-User Cooperative Relaying Networks with Resource Block Pairing and Fairness Constraints

In this paper we address the problem of radio resource allocation in cooperative relaying networks. We focus on the resource block and power allocations for the downlink of OFDM-based relaying multi-user network. The resource allocation is investigated for both amplify and forward and decode and forward protocols under the constraints of power, resource block pairing and data rate fairness. To reduce complexity, the optimization problem is solved in two steps. In the first step, resource block pairing and allocation are conducted jointly with equal transmission power for both the base station and the relay. In the second step, transmission power is further optimized to maximize the system throughput. Our analysis is focused on the total achievable system throughput and the achievable individual throughput for each user.     

Giant traps on the surface of hydride vapor phase epitaxy-grown free-standing GaN

Extended defects on the top surface of a 250-μm-thick free-standing GaN sample, grown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE), were studied by deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) and scanning surface potential microscopy (SSPM). For comparison, similar studies were carried out on as-grown HVPE-GaN samples. In addition to the commonly observed traps in as-grown HVPE-GaN, the DLTS measurements on free-standing GaN reveal a very high concentration of deep traps (∼1.0 eV) within about 300 nm of the surface. These traps show nonexponential capture kinetics, reminiscent of those associated with large defects, that can accumulate multiple charges. The SSPM measurements clearly reveal the presence of charged microcracks on the top surface of the sample. It appears that the “giant traps” may be associated with these microcracks, but we cannot rule out the involvement of other extended defects associated with the near-surface damage caused by the polishing/etching procedure.     

Enhancing the Selectivity and Transparency of the Electron Contact in Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells by Phosphorus Catalytic Doping

An intrinsic hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H(i)) film and a doped silicon film are usually combined in the heterojunction contacts of silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells. In this work, a post-doping process called catalytic doping (Cat-doping) on a-Si:H(i) is performed on the electron selective side of SHJ solar cells, which enables a device architecture that eliminates the additional deposition of the doped silicon layer. Thus, a single phosphorus Cat-doping layer combines the functions of two other layers by enabling excellent interface passivation and high carrier selectivity. The overall thinner layer on the window side results in higher spectral response at short wavelengths, leading to an improved short-circuit current density of 40.31 mA cm⁻² and an efficiency of 23.65% (certified). The cell efficiency is currently limited by sputter damage from the subsequent transparent conductive oxide fabrication and low carrier activation in the a-Si:H(i) with Cat-doping. Numerical device simulations show that the a-Si:H(i) with Cat-doping can provide sufficient field effect passivation even at lower active carrier concentrations compared to the as-deposited doped layer, due to the lower defect density.