Signaling and Control Procedures Using Generalized MPLS Protocol for IP over an Optical Network

This paper reviews the existing research activities on signaling and control procedures for IP over optical networks. We focus on the IP‐centric signaling and control architecture based on the generalized multi‐protocol label switching (GMPLS) protocol and analyze various scenarios and technical issues for deploying the IP over an optical network. We analyze the signaling and operations and administration and maintenance requirements for integrating an IP network and an optical network in order to cope with the high bandwidth and poor resource granularity of the optical network, including the optical cross‐connect system. On the basis of network architecture and a reference configuration model, we investigate the GMPLS‐based control architecture and interconnection model appropriate for controlling IP bandwidth and optical lambda resources. The signaling and control procedure based on GMPLS on optical user‐network interface and network‐network interface are comparatively investigated to provide the optical lightpath. We also study protection and restoration procedures to protect link failure when it applies to GMPLS signaling.     

Inverted Staggered Poly-Si Thin-Film Transistor With Planarized SOG Gate Insulator

In this letter, we have studied the inverted staggered thin-film transistor (TFT) using a spin-on-glass (SOG) gate insulator and a low-temperature polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) by Ni-mediated crystallization of amorphous silicon. The p-channel poly-Si TFT exhibited a field-effect mobility of 48.2 cm²/V ldr s, a threshold voltage of -4.2 V, a gate-voltage swing of 1.2 V/dec, and a minimum off-current of < 4 times 10^-13A/ mum at V_ds = -0.1 V. Therefore, the gate planarization technology by SOG can be applicable to low-cost large-area poly-Si active-matrix displays.     

A Liquid Metal Based Multimodal Sensor and Haptic Feedback Device for Thermal and Tactile Sensation Generation in Virtual Reality

Virtual reality (VR) has been widely used for training, gaming, and entertainment, and the value of VR is continually increasing as a contact-free technology. For an immersive VR experience, measuring finger movements and providing appropriate feedback to the hand are as important as visual information, given the necessity of the hands for activities in daily life. Thus, a hand-worn VR device with motion sensors and haptic feedback is desirable. In this paper, a multimodal sensing and feedback glove is developed with soft, stretchable, lightweight, and compact sensor and heater sheets manufactured by direct ink writing (DIW) of liquid metal, eutectic gallium-indium (eGaIn). In the sensor sheet, ten sensors and three vibrators are embedded to measure finger movements and provide vibro-haptic feedback. The other heater sheet provides thermo-haptic sensation in accurate and rapid manner via model-based feedback control even under stretched conditions. The multimodal sensing and feedback glove allows users to feel the contact status and discriminate materials with different temperature. Performance of the proposed multimodal glove is verified under VR environments including touching and pushing two blocks of different materials and grabbing a heated metal ball submerged in hot water.     

Electrically Addressable Hybrid Architectures of Zinc Oxide Nanowires Grown on Aligned Carbon Nanotubes

The fabrication and characterization of hybrid architectures of ZnO nanowires (ZNWs) grown on organized carbon nanotubes (CNTs), by a two‐step chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process involving CNT growth from a hydrocarbon source followed by ZNW growth using a Zn metal source, is reported. The ZNWs grow uniformly and radially from individual CNTs and CNT bundles, and the aligned morphology of the CNTs is not disturbed by the ZNW growth process. The nucleation and growth of ZnO crystals on CNTs are analyzed in relation to the classical vapor–solid mechanism. Importantly, the CNTs make uniform and distributed electrical contact to the ZNWs, with up to a 1000‐fold yield advantage over conventional ZNW growth on a flat substrate. Hybrid ZNW/CNT sheets are fabricated by scalable CVD, rolling, and printing methods; and their electrical properties, which are governed by transport through the anisotropic CNT network, are characterized. Functional interaction between the ZNWs and CNTs is demonstrated by photoconductive behavior and photocurrent generation of the hybrid material under UV illumination. There is significant future opportunity to extend these processing methods to fabricate other functional oxides on CNTs, and to build devices that harness the attractive properties of ZNWs and CNTs with high volumetric efficiency over large areas.     

Improvement of the field emission characteristics of an oxidized porous polysilicon using annealed Pt/Ti surface emitter electrode

The field emission characteristics of an oxidized porous polysilicon were investigated with different annealing temperatures. Pt/Ti, Ir, and Au/NiCr were used as surface emitter electrodes, and Pt/Ti emitter showed highly efficient and stable electron emission characteristic compared with the conventional Au/NiCr electrode. Thin Ti layer played an important role in promotion of adhesion of Pt to SiO₂ surface and uniform distribution of electric field on the OPPS surface. Additionally, the Ti layer efficiently blocked the diffusion of emitter metal, which resulted in more reliable emission characteristics. Pt/Ti emitter annealed at 350 °C/1 h showed the highest efficiency of 3.36% at V_ps=16 V, which resulted from the improvement of interfacial contact characteristics of thin emitter metal to an oxidized porous polysilicon. Annealing above 400 °C showed that Pt/Ti and Ir emitter electrode were thermally more stable than Au/NiCr emitter.     

A Fast Intra Skip Detection Algorithm for H.264/AVC Video Encoding

A fast intra skip detection algorithm based on the rate‐distortion (RD) cost for an inter frame (P‐slices) is proposed for H.264/AVC video encoding. In the H.264/AVC coding standard, a robust rate‐distortion optimization technique is used to select the best coding mode and reference frame for each macroblock (MB). There are three types of intra predictions according to profiles. These are 16×16 and 4×4 intra predictions for luminance and an 8×8 intra prediction for chroma. For the high profile, an 8×8 intra prediction has been added for luminance. The 4×4 prediction mode has 9 prediction directions with 4 directions for 16×16 and 8×8 luma, and 8×8 chrominance. In addition to the inter mode search procedure, an intra mode search causes a significant increase in the complexity and computational load for an inter frame. To reduce the computational load of the intra mode search at the inter frame, the RD costs of the neighborhood MBs for the current MB are used and we propose an adaptive thresholding scheme for the intra skip extraction. We verified the performance of the proposed scheme through comparative analysis of experimental results using joint model reference software. The overall encoding time was reduced up to 32% for the IPPP sequence type and 35% for the IBBPBBP sequence type.     

Modeling and Simulation of New Encoding Schemes for High‐Speed UHF RFID Communication

In this paper, we present novel high‐speed transmission schemes for high‐speed ultra‐high frequency (UHF) radio‐frequency identification communication. For high‐speed communication, tags communicate with a reader using a high‐speed Miller (HS‐Miller) encoding and multiple antennas, and a reader communicates with tags using extended pulse‐interval encoding (E‐PIE). E‐PIE can provide up to a two‐fold faster data rate than conventional pulse‐interval encoding. Using HS‐Miller encoding and orthogonal multiplexing techniques, tags can achieve a two‐ to three‐fold faster data rate than Miller encoding without degrading the demodulation performance at a reader. To verify the proposed transmission scheme, the MATLAB/Simulink model for high‐speed backscatter based on an HS‐Miller modulated subcarrier has been designed and simulated. The simulation results show that the proposed transmission scheme can achieve more than a 3 dB higher BER performance in comparison to a Miller modulated subcarrier.     

Enhanced Performance of I2‐Free Solid‐State Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells with Conductive Polymer up to 6.8%

An iodine‐free solid‐state dye‐sensitized solar cell (ssDSSC) is reported here, with 6.8% energy conversion efficiency—one of the highest yet reported for N719 dye—as a result of enhanced light harvesting from the increased transmittance of an organized mesoporous TiO₂ interfacial layer and the good hole conductivity of the solid‐state‐polymerized material. The organized mesoporous TiO₂ (OM‐TiO₂) interfacial layer is prepared on large‐area substrates by a sol‐gel process, and is confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and grazing incidence small‐angle X‐ray scattering (GISAXS). A 550‐nm‐thick OM‐TiO₂ film coated on fluorine‐doped tin oxide (FTO) glass is highly transparent, resulting in transmittance increases of 8 and 4% compared to those of the bare FTO and conventional compact TiO₂ film on FTO, respectively. The high cell performance is achieved through careful control of the electrode/hole transport material (HTM) and nanocrystalline TiO₂/conductive glass interfaces, which affect the interfacial resistance of the cell. Furthermore, the transparent OM‐TiO₂ film, with its high porosity and good connectivity, exhibits improved cell performance due to increased transmittance in the visible light region, decreased interfacial resistance ( Ω ), and enhanced electron lifetime ( τ ). The cell performance also depends on the conductivity of HTMs, which indicates that both highly conductive HTM and the transparent OM‐TiO₂ film interface are crucial for obtaining high‐energy conversion efficiencies in I₂‐free ssDSSCs.     

A 9‐Bit 80‐MS/s CMOS Pipelined Folding A/D Converter with an Offset Canceling Technique

A 9‐bit 80‐MS/s CMOS pipelined folding analog‐to‐digital converter employing offset‐canceled preamplifiers and a subranging scheme is proposed to extend the resolution of a folding architecture. A fully differential dc‐decoupled structure achieves high linearity in circuit design. The measured differential nonlinearity and integral nonlinearity of the prototype are ×0.6 LSB and ×1.6 LSB, respectively.