1.2 nm capacitance equivalent thickness gate stacks on Si-passivated GaAs

Experiments to increase the specific capacitance of MOS capacitors consisting of HfO₂ on a passivating interfacial layer (IL) of amorphous Si (a-Si) on GaAs are described. XPS analysis of the layers and electrical measurements on the capacitors are combined to study the evolution of the gate stack during deposition and subsequent heat treatments. It is shown that oxidation of the a-Si IL is a major factor in preventing the attainment of a scaled capacitance equivalent thickness (CET). By controlling the deposition of the layers, the gate metal and the heat treatments, a highly scaled gate stack with a CET of 1.2 nm and a leakage reduction of more than 4 orders of magnitude with respect to SiO₂/Si was realized.     

ADC Non-Linearity Low-Cost Test Through a Simplified Double-Histogram Method

This paper introduces a method to reduce the requirements of the test sources for evaluating the non-linearity characteristics of Analogue-to-Digital converters. The method is based on a non-interleaved Double-Histogram test independent of the test signal waveform. It has been validated by simulation results in a 16-bit pipeline A/D converter and by an experimental example using the AD6644 commercial converter.     

Single-channel blind estimation of arterial input function and tissue impulse response in DCE-MRI

Multipass dynamic MRI and pharmacokinetic modeling are used to estimate perfusion parameters of leaky capillaries. Curve fitting and nonblind deconvolution are the established methods to derive the perfusion estimates from the observed arterial input function (AIF) and tissue tracer concentration function. These nonblind methods are sensitive to errors in the AIF, measured in some nearby artery or estimated by multichannel blind deconvolution. Here, a single-channel blind deconvolution algorithm is presented, which only uses a single tissue tracer concentration function to estimate the corresponding AIF and tissue impulse response function. That way, many errors affecting these functions are reduced. The validity of the algorithm is supported by simulations and tests on real data from mouse. The corresponding nonblind and multichannel methods are also presented.     

WCDMA Uplink Capacity of Highways Cigar-Shaped Microcells with Incorporated HSUPA Service

The multi-service (voice, data and HSUPA) uplink capacity and the interference statistics of the sectors of the cigar-shaped WCDMA microcell are studied using a model of 5 highway microcells. The two-slope propagation loss model with lognormal shadowing is used in the analysis. It is concluded that the voice and data service are significantly affected by HSUPA users and sector capacity decreases dramatically when one of these users gets connected to a given sector or to one next to it. Also it has been concluded that the capacity decrement is highly sensitive to the location of the HSUPA users. Thus, no more than one HSUPA with a process gain of 16 can be connected to a given base station. In this case, the HSUPA user should interrupt its transmission when it is near to the sector border. No more than one HSUPA user with a process gain of 8 is permitted in a given sector and the sector next to it. When the HSUPA user is at the sector border, its transmission should be disabled.     

Effects of Geometrical Discontinuities on Distributed Passive Intermodulation in Printed Lines

This paper presents the results of experimental study of passive intermodulation (PIM) generation in microstrip lines with U-shaped and meandered strips, impedance tapers, and strips with the profiled edges. It is shown that the geometrical discontinuities in printed circuits may have a noticeable impact on distributed PIM generation even when their effect is indiscernible in the linear regime measurements. A consistent interpretation of the observed phenomena has been proposed on the basis of the phase synchronism in the four-wave mixing process. The results of this study reveal new features of PIM production important for the design and characterization of low-PIM microstrip circuits.      

Study of Complete Thermoelectric Generator Behavior Including Water-to-Ambient Heat Dissipation on the Cold Side

Reduction of the thermal resistances of the heat exchangers of a thermoelectric generation (TEG) system leads to a significant increase in TEG efficiency. For the cold side of a thermoelectric module (TEM), a wide range of heat exchangers have been studied, from simple finned dissipators to more complex water (water–glycol) heat exchangers. As the Nusselt number is much higher in water heat exchangers than in conventional air finned dissipators, the convective thermal resistances are better. However, to conclude which heat exchanger leads to higher efficiencies, it is necessary to include the whole system involved in the heat dissipation, i.e., the TEM-to-water heat exchanger, the water-to-ambient heat exchanger, as well as the required pumps and fans. This paper presents a dynamic computational model able to simulate the complete behavior of a TEG, including both heat exchangers. The model uses the heat transfer and hydraulic equations to compute the TEM-to-water and water-to-ambient thermal resistances, along with the resistance of the hot-side heat exchanger at different operating conditions. Likewise, the model includes all the thermoelectric effects with temperature-dependent properties. The model calculates the net power generation for different configurations, providing a methodology to design and optimize the heat exchange in order to maximize the net power generation for a wide variety of TEGs.     

Mapping of Discrete Cosine Transforms onto Distributed Hardware Architectures

We present an algorithmically-aware, high-level partitioning methodology for discrete cosine transforms (DCT) targeted to distributed hardware architectures. The methodology relies on the exploration of alternate DCT formulations as part of the partition optimization process. To the best of our knowledge, no previously proposed DCT algorithm exists that is capable of consistently producing alternate regular formulations for an n-size DCT. Hence, a new Cooley-Tukey-like DCT factorization algorithm was developed to allow exploration of alternate formulations as part of the partitioning optimization process. The use of our factorization mechanism along with a greedy strategy to explore the space of equivalent DCT formulations yielded partitioning solutions with as much as 18% reduction in latency and 83% reduction in run-time as compared to previously proposed regular DCT formulations.

A Threshold-Free LLR-Based Scheme to Minimize the BER for Decode-and-Forward Relaying

In cooperative communications, the problem of error propagation has a detrimental effect on the diversity order of the wireless system. To mitigate such an effect, we present a relaying scheme that is based on the absolute value of the log-likelihood ratio (LLR) of the received message signals at both the relay node and the destination node. The calculated LLR values are then compared to each other and based on the result of the comparison, a decision is made on whether or not to activate the relay node. The proposed scheme does not rely on any threshold, and is thus simple in nature. A closed-form expression is derived for the bit-error-rate (BER) of the proposed scheme. The theoretical developments are validated by simulations. As a means for performance measurement, the proposed scheme is compared to its counterparts and is shown to provide a better BER performance at a much lower complexity. Furthermore, a closed-form expression of the outage probability is also derived.     

A Uniform Balancing Energy Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

In wireless sensor network, the power supply is, generally, a non-renewable battery. Consequently, energy effectiveness is a crucial factor. To maximize the battery life and therefore, the duration of network service, a robust wireless communication protocol providing a best energy efficiency is required. In this paper, we present a uniform balancing energy routing protocol. In this later the transmission path is chosen for maximizing the whole network lifetime. Every transmission round, only the nodes which have their remaining energies greater than a threshold can participate as routers for other nodes in addition to sensing the environment. This choice allows the distribution of energy load among any sensor nodes; thus extends network lifetime. The experimental results shows that the proposed protocol outperforms some protocols given in the literature.