Efficient Content-Based Image Retrieval Methods Using Color and Texture

In this paper, we propose efficient content-based image retrieval methods using the automatic extraction of the low-level visual features as image content. Two new feature extraction methods are presented. The first one is an advanced color feature extraction derived from the modification of Stricker's method. The second one is a texture feature extraction using some DCT coefficients which represent some dominant directions and gray level variations of the image. In the experiment with an image database of 200 natural images, the proposed methods show higher performance than other methods. They can be combined into an efficient hierarchical retrieval method.     

Gate oxide reliabilities in MOS (metal-oxide-semiconductor) structures with Ti-polycide gates

We have investigated the thermal degradation of gate oxide in metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) structures with Ti-polycide gates. We found that the Ti-diffusion into the underlying polysilicon and consequently to the gate oxide occurs upon thermal cycling processes, which results in the dielectric breakdown of the gate oxide. We also found that the Ti-diffusion is suppressed by the employment of the thin (about 5 nm) titanium nitride (TiN) diffusion barrier layer, which consequently improved the reliability characterisitics of gate oxide significantly.     

Surface leakage current analysis of ion implanted ZnS-passivated n-on-p HgCdTe diodes in weak inversion

Effects of fixed charge on R₀A value of ZnS-passivated x=0.3 HgCdTe n-on-p diode are explained as a shunt resistance that affects current-voltage (I-V) and dynamic resistance-voltage (Rd-V) characteristics. The fixed charge of 1×10¹¹/cm² to 2 × 10¹¹/cm² which is usually obtained with ZnS passivation makes the surface weakly inverted and reduces HgCdTe diode R₀A value owing to the short generation lifetime of HgCdTe substrate. The gate-controlled diode and specially fabricated diode are used to explain the surface leakage current in the weak inversion and charge sheet model is used to explain the characteristics. It is found that the surface leakage current by the inverted channel in the weak inversion can reduce R₀A more than other currents such as the generation current and tunneling current which are usually used to explain the surface leakage current of HgCdTe diode.     

Monolithic SiGe Up‐/Down‐Conversion Mixers with Active Baluns

The purpose of this paper is to describe the implementation of monolithically matching circuits, interface circuits, and RF core circuits to the same substrate. We designed and fabricated on‐chip 1 to 6 GHz up‐conversion and 1 to 8 GHz down‐conversion mixers using a 0.8 µm SiGe hetero‐junction bipolar transistor (HBT) process technology. To fabricate a SiGe HBT, we used a reduced pressure chemical vapor deposition (RPCVD) system to grow a base epitaxial layer, and we adopted local oxidation of silicon (LOCOS) isolation to separate the device terminals. An up‐conversion mixer was implemented on‐chip using an intermediate frequency (IF) matching circuit, local oscillator (LO)/radio frequency (RF) wideband matching circuits, LO/IF input balun circuits, and an RF output balun circuit. The measured results of the fabricated up‐conversion mixer show a positive power conversion gain from 1 to 6 GHz and a bandwidth of about 4.5 GHz. Also, the down‐conversion mixer was implemented on‐chip using LO/RF wideband matching circuits, LO/RF input balun circuits, and an IF output balun circuit. The measured results of the fabricated down‐conversion mixer show a positive power conversion gain from 1 to 8 GHz and a bandwidth of about 4.5 GHz.     

Wavelength and repetition rate tunable optical pulse source using a chirped fiber Bragg grating and a nonlinear optical loop mirror

We experimentally demonstrate a simple and novel scheme for tunable real-repetition-rate multiplication, based on the combined use of fractional Talbot effect in a linearly tunable chirped fiber Bragg grating (FBG) and cross-phase modulation (XPM) effect in a nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM). By tuning the group-velocity dispersion of the chirped FBG fabricated with the S-bending method using a uniform FBG, we obtain high quality pulses at pseudorepetition rates of 20/spl sim/50 GHz from an original 8.5-ps 10-GHz soliton pulse train. We subsequently convert this pseudorate multiplication into a real-rate multiplication using XPM effect in an NOLM. A wavelength tuning is also achieved over a /spl sim/15-nm range.     

New Syndrome Check Error Estimation and Its Concatenated Coding

A low-complexity and high performance SCEE (Syndrome Check Error Estimation) decoding method for convolutional codes and its concatenated SCEE/RS (Reed–Solomon) coding scheme are proposed. First, we describe the operation of the decoding steps in the proposed algorithm. Then deterministic values on the decoding operation are derived when some combination of predecoder-reencoder is used. Computer simulation results show that the computational complexity of the proposed SCEE decoder is significantly reduced compared to that of conventional Viterbi decoder without degradation of the P_e performance. Also, simulation results of BER performance of the concatenated SCEE/Hard Decision Viterbi (HD-Viterbi) and SCEE/RS (Reed–Solomon) codes are presented.     

Interconnection Technology Based on InSn Solder for Flexible Display Applications

A novel interconnection technology based on a 52InSn solder was developed for flexible display applications. The display industry is currently trying to develop a flexible display, and one of the crucial technologies for the implementation of a flexible display is to reduce the bonding process temperature to less than 150°C. InSn solder interconnection technology is proposed herein to reduce the electrical contact resistance and concurrently achieve a process temperature of less than 150°C. A solder bump maker (SBM) and fluxing underfill were developed for these purposes. SBM is a novel bumping material, and it is a mixture of a resin system and InSn solder powder. A maskless screen printing process was also developed using an SBM to reduce the cost of the bumping process. Fluxing underfill plays the role of a flux and an underfill concurrently to simplify the bonding process compared to a conventional flip‐chip bonding using a capillary underfill material. Using an SBM and fluxing underfill, a 20 μm pitch InSn solder SoP array on a glass substrate was successfully formed using a maskless screen printing process, and two glass substrates were bonded at 130°C.     

Survey of traffic control schemes and protocols in ATM networks

The authors survey a number of important research topics in ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) networks. The topics covered include mathematical modeling of various types of traffic sources, congestion-control and error-control schemes for ATM networks, and priority schemes to support multiple classes of traffic. Standard activity for ATM networks and future research problems in ATM are also presented. It is shown that the cell-arrival process for data sources can be modeled by a simple Poisson process. However, voice sources or video sources require more complex processes because of the correlation among cell arrivals. Due to the effects of high-speed channels, preventive control is more effective in ATM networks than reactive control. Due to the use of optical fibers in ATM networks, the channel error rate is very small. The effects of propagation delay and processing time become significant in such high-speed networks. These fundamental changes trigger the necessity to reexamine the error-control schemes used in existing networks. Due to the diversity of service and performance requirements, the notion of multiple traffic classes is required, and separate control mechanisms should be used according to the traffic classes. The priority scheme is shown to be an effective method to support multiple classes of traffic     

Millimeter and submillimeter wave quasi-optical oscillator withGunn diodes

The grooved-mirror-type Fabry-Perot (GFP) oscillator was used for coherent power-combining of multiple elements in the millimeter- and submillimeter-wave region. The admittance of the Gunn diode in oscillation was measured experimentally in the millimeter-wave region to design the GFP oscillator. The gain characteristics of the diode were found at the frequencies from 42 to 48 GHz from the measured results. With this Gunn diode in the GFP resonator, oscillation was observed. The experimental results indicated that for impedance matching between the diode and the resonant cavity, the groove height must be adjusted     

Wavelength‐Dependent Photosensitivity in a Germanium‐Doped Sol–Gel Hybrid Material for Direct Photopatterning

Photosensitivity, as evident in permanent changes in refractive index and volume upon light exposure, is observed in a germanium‐doped methacrylate hybrid material (hybrimer) and found to depend on the wavelength of the UV light. Exposure to short‐wavelength UV illumination (220–260 nm) results in very high photosensitivity with changes in refractive index (Δn ≈ 0.0164) and film thickness (Δt ≈ –40 %) that are mainly a result of photopolymerization and Ge‐related densification. In contrast, the hybrimer is hardly photosensitive to light in the long UV‐wavelength range (350–390 nm). Direct photopatterning of a single circle on the hybrimer film creates a concave lens‐like topography upon illumination with UV light of short wavelength and a convex lens‐like one upon illumination with UV light of long wavelength.