Effects of Aliphatic Alcohols on Formation of Cyclodextrin from Soluble Starch by Bacillus macerans Cyclodextrin Glucanotransferase

Effects of aliphatic alcohols such as ethanol, n-butanol and n-decanol on the formation of cyclodextrin (CD) from soluble starch by Bacillus macerans cyclodextrin glucanotransferase (CGTase) were experimentally studied at 50°C and pH 6.0. The addition of such aliphatic alcohols caused an increase in α-CD yield, which extent was remarkable in n-butanol. From the incubation of α-CD with CGTase, such an increase was found to be due to a restriction on further transglycosylation of α-CD into β-CD by CGTase imposed by the aliphatic alcohols.     

Bi2SiO5 Doping Concentration Effects on the Electrical Properties of SrBi2Ta2O9 Films

In this paper, we investigated the microstructure and electrical properties of Bi₂SiO₅ (BSO) doped SrBi₂Ta₂O₉ (SBT) films deposited by chemical solution deposition. X-ray diffraction observation indicated that the crystalline structures of all the BSO-doped SBT films are nearly the same as those of a pure SBT film. Through BSO doping, the 2Pr and 2Ec values of SBT films were changed from 15.3 μC/cm² and 138 kV/cm of pure SBT to 1.45 μC/cm² and 74 kV/cm of 10 wt.% BSO-doped SBT. The dielectric constant at 1 MHz for SBT varied from 199 of pure SBT to 96 of 10 wt.% BSO-doped SBT. The doped SBT films exhibited higher leakage current than that of non-doped SBT films. Nevertheless, all the doped SBT films still had small dielectric loss and low leakage current. Our present work will provide useful insights into the BSO doping effects to the SBT films, and it will be helpful for the material design in the future nonvolatile ferroelectric memories.     

Vibration fatigue reliability of BGA-IC package with Pb-free solder and Pb–Sn solder

In this paper, a new method is proposed for evaluating the high-cycle fatigue strength of BGA (Ball Grid Array) packages with Pb-free solder and Pb–Sn solder due to vibration. An attached weight induced mixed mode stress in the solder ball of a package was used. To consider the effect of the mixed mode stress that occurred in a solder ball and the frequency to fatigue strength of the solder ball, a test was carried out with the three kinds of weights (σ_n/τ_n = 4, 5, and 6) at various frequencies (10–27 Hz). To clarify the effect of frequency, a nonlinear analysis with a viscoplastic model was carried out within the range of 0.001–3450 Hz. From the continuous observation of the cross-section of the package and finite element method (FEM) analysis results, it was revealed that the maximum principal stress is the driving force to package failure. Although an intermetallic compound in both packages and a Pb-rich region in a Pb–Sn solder based package were confirmed by EDX microprobe analysis, they do not contribute to the initiation of a crack in a solder ball. The fatigue strength of the Pb-free solder and Pb solder was evaluated on the basis of the maximum principal stress calculated by FEM and the experimental results.     

WDM upgrading of an installed submarine optical amplifier system

This paper describes the WDM upgrading of a submarine optical amplifier system installed for single-channel transmission in commercial use. The key technologies used include 10-Gb/s high-speed forward error correction, preemphasis to overcome the optical passband-width constraint, optimized signal pulse format that leads to partial return-to-zero (PRZ) signaling, and dispersion compensation to suppress the degradation caused by fiber nonlinearity and dispersion. It also reports field experimental results on upgraded system performance. The results confirm that simply upgrading the terminal equipment allows the transmission capacity of a submersed line consisting of submarine repeaters and cables to be flexibly increased from 10 Gb/s to 40 Gb/s per fiber pair     

High Power,Frequency Tunable,Submillimeter Wave ESR Device Using a Gyrotron as a Radiation Source

ESR device using a submillimeter wave gyrotron as a radiation source and a pulse magnet for high field up to 30 T has been constructed. Our gyrotrons (Gyrotron FU series) were developed as millimeter and submillimeter wave radiation sources and have attractive advantages for ESR spectroscopy, for example, high power and frequency tunability over broad range. The ESR device has been successfully applied to three cases of ESR measurements. In the first case, the temperature dependence of ESR was measured for a typical antiferromagnetic material MnO at the frequency of 301 GHz. In the second case, the dependence of the fine structure constant of the ruby on the magnetic field intensity was measured in the millimeter to submillimeter wave region. In these two cases, the gyrotron was operated by complete cw mode. In the final case, a pulse technique was applied to the ESR, the gyrotron was operated in pulse mode and the pulsed magnetic field was generated in the synchronized phase with the gyrotron operation.     

Design of Fully Balanced Analog Systems Based on Ordinary and/or Modified Single-Ended Opamps

The system architectures, which allow a high performance fully balanced (FB) system based on ordinary/modified single-ended opamps to be implemented, are investigated and the basic and general requirements are formulated. Two new methods of an FB analog system design, which contribute towards achieving both a high performance IC system implementation and a great reduction of the design time are presented. It is shown that a single-ended system based on any type of opamp (rail-to-rail, constant g _m , etc.), realized in any technology (CMOS, bipolar, BiCMOS, GaAs), can be easily and effectively converted to its FB counterpart in a very practical way. Using the proposed rules, any FB system implementation with opamps (data converter, modulator, filter, etc.) requires only a single-ended system version design and the drawbacks related to a conventional FB system design are avoided. The principles of the design are pointed out and they are verified by experimental results.     

Photoinduced Magnetization with a High Curie Temperature and a Large Coercive Field in a Co‐W Bimetallic Assembly

The crystal structure, magnetic properties, and temperature‐ and photoinduced phase transition of [{Co^II(4‐methylpyridine)(pyrimidine)}₂{Co^II(H₂O)₂}{W^V(CN)₈}₂]·4H₂O are described. In this compound, a temperature‐induced phase transition from the Co^II (S = 3/2)‐NC‐W^V(S = 1/2) [high‐temperature (HT)] phase to the Co^III(S = 0)‐NC‐W^IV(S = 0) [low temperature (LT)] phase is observed due to a charge‐transfer‐induced spin transition. When the LT phase is irradiated with 785 nm light, ferromagnetism with a high Curie temperature (T_C) of 48 K and a gigantic magnetic coercive field (H_c) of 27 000 Oe are observed. These T_C and H_c values are the highest in photoinduced magnetization systems. The LT phase is optically converted to the photoinduced phase, which has a similar valence state as the HT phase due to the optically induced charge‐transfer‐induced spin transition.     

Crystallographic Properties of Ge/Si Heterojunctions Fabricated by Wet Wafer Bonding

Ge/Si heterojunctions formed by wet wafer bonding were observed using transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy. For the samples annealed at 880°C, there was a transition layer at the heterointerface with modified regions in the Si and Ge extending 20 nm to 30 nm from the interface. In these modified regions, crystal defects were observed, and a large amount of Ge was detected on the Si side of the junction. For the samples annealed at 250°C or 350°C, the transition layers had an amorphous-like structure with a thickness of about 10 nm. No modified layer or enlargement of lattice spacing was observed.     

Building maps of local apparent conductivity of the epicardium with a 2-D electrophysiological model of the heart

In this paper, we address the problem of estimating the parameters of an electrophysiological model of the heart from a set of electrical recordings. The chosen model is the reaction-diffusion model on the transmembrane potential proposed by Aliev and Panfilov. For this model of the transmembrane, we estimate a local apparent two-dimensional conductivity from a measured depolarization time distribution. First, we perform an initial adjustment including the choice of initial conditions and of a set of global parameters. We then propose a local estimation by minimizing the quadratic error between the depolarization time computed by the model and the measures. As a first step we address the problem on the epicardial surface in the case of an isotropic version of the Aliev and Panfilov model. The minimization is performed using Brent method without computing the derivative of the error. The feasibility of the approach is demonstrated on synthetic electrophysiological measurements. A proof of concept is obtained on real electrophysiological measures of normal and infarcted canine hearts.     

Uncooled 25 Gbit/s direct modulation of semi-insulating buried-heterostructure 1.3 μm AlGaInAs quantum-well DFB lasers

Uncooled 25 Gbit/s direct modulation of 1.3 mum DFB lasers is demonstrated. The 150 mum-long semi-insulating buried-heterostructure AIGalnAs quantum-well DFB lasers show clear eye-openings with dynamic extinction ratio of 5 dB up to 70degC. 13 km singlemode-fibre transmission experiments using the devices show low power penalty within 1.3 dB between 25 and 70degC. These characteristics are the first achievement by 1.3 mum directly modulated lasers.