Degradation studies of transparent conducting oxide: a substrate for microcrystalline silicon thin film solar cells

Aluminium doped ZnO films have been developed by RF-magnetron sputtering at 350 °C substrate temperature on glass substrate and commercially available SnO₂-coated glass substrate. The developed ZnO and SnO₂/ZnO films can be used as the substrates of microcrystalline silicon based solar cell. The electrical, optical properties and surface morphologies of ZnO film and SnO₂/ZnO bi-layer films have been investigated and they are compared with the commercially available SnO_2-coated glass substrate. The resistivities of ZnO and SnO₂ films are comparable (10⁻⁴ Ω-cm). Surface morphologies of different transparent conducting oxide coated substrates before and after H-plasma exposure were studied by scanning electron microscopy. The optical transmission of ZnO, SnO₂/ZnO and SnO₂ films are comparable and varies from 85 to 90% in the visible region. The optical transmission reduces drastically to less than 20% in SnO₂ films and for ZnO film it remains almost unchanged after H-plasma exposure. For SnO₂/ZnO film transmission decreases slightly but remains considerably high (80%). The performance of microcrystalline silicon solar cells fabricated on different transparent conducting oxides as substrates (ZnO/glass, SnO₂/glass and ZnO/SnO₂/glass double layer) is investigated in detail.     

Multipath routing in mobile ad hoc network with probabilistic splitting of traffic

Multipath routing is a burning issue in mobile ad hoc network due to its various advantages over single path routing. Some of these advantages are load balancing, bandwidth aggregation, and fault tolerance. Multipath routing means multiple paths exist between source and destination pair. Many works discussed in section 2 addressed queuing delays, but none of them suggested queuing delay for multiple path deliveries of data in mobile ad hoc network context. In this paper, we have designed a mathematical model to compute delay and throughput for multipath. Our model follow the network of M/M/1 queues, and we have applied Burke’s theorem to calculate the queuing delay of the packet in mobile network scenario. This model can be used to estimate delay and throughput of an individual path. Further, through the analysis the best path for data delivery out of available multiple paths as well as the multipath path can be used simultaneously for data delivery to the destination. Simulation result shows that splitted traffic multiple paths outperform splitted traffic. Therefore, our model is useful for design and analysis of ad hoc network. The simulation work has been carried out in Qualnet simulator.     

Simulation‐based performance evaluation of routing protocols for mobile ad hoc networks

In this paper we evaluate several routing protocols for mobile, wireless, ad hoc networks via packetlevel simulations. The ad hoc networks are multihop wireless networks with dynamically changing network connectivity owing to mobility. The protocol suite includes several routing protocols specifically designed for ad hoc routing, as well as more traditional protocols, such as link state and distance vector, used for dynamic networks. Performance is evaluated with respect to fraction of packets delivered, endtoend delay, and routing load for a given traffic and mobility model. Both small (30 nodes) and medium sized (60 nodes) networks are used. It is observed that the new generation of ondemand routing protocols use much lower routing load, especially with small number of peertopeer conversations. However, the traditional link state and distance vector protocols provide, in general, better packet delivery and endtoend delay performance.     

A call admission and control scheme for quality‐of‐service (QoS) provisioning in next generation wireless networks

We propose a framework for quality‐of‐service (QoS) provisioning for multimedia services in next generation wireless access networks. This framework aims at providing a differentiated treatment to multimedia traffic flows at the link layer, which can be broadly classified as real‐time (or delay‐sensitive) and non‐real‐time (or delay‐tolerant). Various novel schemes are proposed to support the differential treatment and guarantee QoS. These schemes include bandwidth compaction, channel reservation and degradation, with the help of which a call admission and control algorithm is developed. The performance of the proposed framework is captured through analytical modeling and simulation experiments. Analytically, the average carried traffic and the worst case buffer requirements for real‐time and non‐real‐time calls are estimated. Simulation results show up to 21% improvement in the admission probability of real‐time calls and up to 17% improvement in the admission probability of non‐real‐time calls, when various call control techniques like bandwidth compaction are employed. Using our channel reservation technique, we observe a 12% improvement in the call admission probability compared to another scheme proposed in the literature. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Aperture Field Estimation in E Plane and H-Plane T-Junctions Using Field Theoretic Analysis

Wireless Personal Communications - This paper presents method of moment based analysis of E Plane and H-Plane T-junctions to find the field distributions on different transverse and longitudinal...     

A model for the performance analysis and design of waveguide p-i-n photodetectors

A model to investigate the frequency response of waveguide (WG) p-i-n photodetectors (PDs) is presented. The model is based on the 2-D position-dependent distribution of carriers in the device and the results show that the contribution to the total current mainly comes from a small length of the PD measured from its input end. The effect of carrier trapping at a heterointerface has also been considered to study the frequency dependence of the photocurrent at low-bias voltages. The frequency response and bandwidth obtained from the model are in good agreement with published experimental results. A simplified and approximate relation for the fiber-to-WG coupling efficiency has also been used to calculate the overall quantum-efficiency of WGPDs. Then, the effect of WG geometry on the bandwidth-quantum efficiency product has been analyzed and some results on the optimum design of a WG p-i-n PD for maximum bandwidth-quantum efficiency product have been tabulated.     

Mobility management for VoIP service: Mobile IP vs. SIP

Wireless Internet access has gained significant attention as wireless/mobile communications and networking become widespread. The voice over IP service is likely to play a key role in the convergence of IP-based Internet and mobile cellular networks. We explore different mobility management schemes from the perspective of VoIP services, with a focus on Mobile IP and session initiation protocol. After illustrating the signaling message flows in these two protocols for diverse cases of mobility management, we propose a shadow registration concept to reduce the interdomain handoff (macro-mobility) delay in the VoIP service in mobile environments. We also analytically compute and compare the delay and disruption time for exchanging signaling messages associated with the Mobile IP and SIP-based solutions.     

High extinction, broadband polarisers using long-period fibre gratings in few-mode fibres

Long-period fibre gratings in specially designed birefringent few-mode fibres are used to demonstrate spectrally flat polarisers with bandwidths of 10 nm and polarisation extinction levels of 20 dB. This is enabled by the special dispersive properties of few-mode fibres, yielding fibre polarisers with performance approaching that of bulk-optic devices.     

A review of reliability prediction methods for electronic devices

A wide range of reliability prediction methods is available today for electronic systems. This article classifies the commonly used and referred to reliability prediction methodologies into some categories easy to understand. A set of selected methods, which are of relevance to many industries, the aerospace industry among others, are reviewed and the possibility they offer to address the stated objectives is assessed. Their respective advantages and shortcomings are the basis for the recommendation we make to use the methods in a combined fashion (simultaneously or successively) along the product development process.     

Recent Developments in Semipolar InGaN Laser Diodes

Semiconductors - Group III-nitride semiconductors (GaN, AlN, and InN) are attractive materials for a wide range of electronic and photonic applications. The most widely employed growth plane for...