An Analog Front‐End Circuit for ISO/IEC 14443‐Compatible RFID Interrogators

An analog front‐end circuit for ISO/IEC 14443‐compatible radio frequency identification (RFID) interrogators was designed and fabricated by using a 0.25 µm double‐poly CMOS process. The fabricated chip was operated using a 3.3 Volt single‐voltage supply. The results of this work could be provided as reusable IPs in the form of hard or firm IPs for designing single‐chip ISO/IEC 14443‐compatible RFID interrogators.     

Enhancement of the photoelectric performance of dye-sensitized solar cells by using a CaCO3-coated TiO2 nanoparticle film as an electrode

Core-shell-type nanoparticles with TiO₂ cores and CaCO₃ shells were applied as the electrode of dye-sensitized solar cells. The performance of the cell was significantly improved (as high as 26.7%) compared to the case when un-coated TiO₂ particle film was used as electrode. The improved energy conversion efficiency has been ascribed to (i) enhanced dye adsorption due to the high isoelectric point of the overlayer, and (ii) the prevention of the back electron transfer by the insulating nature of the overlayer.     

Routing Protocol for Heterogeneous Hierarchical Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks

Recently, wireless multimedia sensor networks (WMSNs) have emerged as one of the most important technologies, driven by the development of powerful multimedia device such as CMOS. WMSNs require several factors such as resource constraints, specific QoS, high bandwidth and so on. In this paper, we propose a hierarchical heterogeneous network model based routing protocol for WMSNs. In our proposal, proposed network model is classified into monitoring class, delivery class and aggregation class. Also we define two kinds of the routing path in order to ensure bandwidth and QoS. In simulation results, we illustrate the performance of our proposal.     

Extended Pilot‐Based Coding for Lossless Bit Rate Reduction of MPEG Surround

Pilot‐based coding (PBC), which is used for lossless bit rate reduction of audio coding, has been recently proposed for MPEG Surround. We propose extended PBC for further lossless bit rate reduction of MPEG Surround. Extended PBC selects the number of pilots depending on the parameter band number and the type of spatial parameter. It then encodes the pilots and the relevant difference data. Experiments show that extended PBC is more effective than the original PBC, especially for high bit rate modes, with a negligible complexity increase on the decoder side.     

Statistical Models for Hot Electron Degradation in Nano-Scaled MOSFET Devices

In a MOS structure, the generation of hot carrier interface states is a critical feature of the item's reliability. On the nano-scale, there are problems with degradation in transconductance, shift in threshold voltage, and decrease in drain current capability. Quantum mechanics has been used to relate this decrease to degradation, and device failure. Although the lifetime, and degradation of a device are typically used to characterize its reliability, in this paper we model the distribution of hot-electron activation energies, which has appeal because it exhibits a two-point discrete mixture of logistic distributions. The logistic mixture presents computational problems that are addressed in simulation.     

Hierarchically Assembled Mesenchymal Stem Cell Spheroids Using Biomimicking Nanofilaments and Microstructured Scaffolds for Vascularized Adipose Tissue Engineering

Composite multicellular spheroids composed of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and synthetic biodegradable nanofilaments are fabricated. Extracellular‐matrix‐mimicking nanofilaments, prepared from transverse fragmentation of semicrystalline poly(L ‐lactic acid) nanofibers and subsequent surface modification with cell adhesive peptides, are used to form composite multicellular spheroids with MSCs by cellular self‐assembly. The size of the composite spheroids could be readily controlled with the integrated amount of the nanofilaments. The composite spheroids show enhanced adipogenic potential compared to homotypic spheroids. The resultant spheroids are used as building blocks for 3D biohybrid construction with the assistance of a microstructured scaffold fabricated by a direct polymer melt deposition process. An angiogenic growth factor, basic fibroblast growth factor, is also locally delivered in a sustained fashion from the heparinized scaffold surface for facile neovascularization of adipogenic tissue. The produced multiscaled and multifunctional hybrid MSC construct enable the successful formation of vascularized adipose tissue in vivo.     

Shorted Microstrip Patch Antenna Using Inductively Coupled Feed for UHF RFID Tag

A very small patch‐type RFID tag antenna (UHF band) using ceramic material mountable on metallic surfaces is presented. The size of the proposed tag is 25 mm×25 mm×3 mm. The impedance of the antenna can be easily matched to the tag chip impedance by adjusting the size of the shorting plate of the patch and the size of the feeding loop. The measured maximum reading distance of the tag at 910 MHz was 5 m when it was mounted on a 400 mm × 400 mm metallic surface. The proposed design is verified by simulation and measurements which show good agreement.     

A Fully Integrated Thin‐Film Inductor and Its Application to a DC‐DC Converter

This paper presents a simple process to integrate thin‐film inductors with a bottom NiFe magnetic core. NiFe thin films with a thickness of 2 to 3 μm were deposited by sputtering. A polyimide buffer layer and shadow mask were used to relax the stress of the NiFe films. The fabricated double spiral thin‐film inductor showed an inductance of 0.49 μH and a Q factor of 4.8 at 8 MHz. The DC‐DC converter with the monolithically integrated thin‐film inductor showed comparable performances to those with sandwiched magnetic layers. We simplified the integration process by eliminating the planarization process for the top magnetic core. The efficiency of the DC‐DC converter with the monolithic thin‐film inductor was 72% when the input voltage and output voltage were 3.5 V and 6 V, respectively, at an operating frequency of 8 MHz.     

All‐Carbon Nanotube‐Based Flexible Field‐Emission Devices: From Cathode to Anode

The fabrication of a flexible field‐emission device (FED) using single‐walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) network films as the conducting electrodes (anode and cathode) and thin multi‐walled CNT/TEOS hybrid films as the emitters is reported. P‐type doping with gold ions and passivation with tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) made the SWNT network film highly conductive and environmentally stable, and hence a good alternative to conventional indium tin oxide electrodes. CNT/TEOS hybrid emitters showed high current density, low turn‐on field, and long‐term emission stability, compared with CNT emitters; these characteristics can be attributed to the TEOS sol, acting both as a protective layer surrounding the nanotube tip, and as an adhesive layer enhancing the nanotube adhesion to the substrate. All‐CNT‐based flexible FEDs fabricated by this approach showed high flexibility in field emission characteristics and extremely bright electron emission patterns.