Bias and temperature dependence of homogeneous hot-electroninjection from silicon into silicon dioxide at low voltages

In this paper, new homogeneous hot-electron injection data at 300 K and 77 K is provided covering applied voltages from well below to well above the Si-SiO₂ barrier height, and a wide range of oxide fields. We found that, in contrast to the MOSFET case, homogeneous injection shows two different regimes for accelerating voltages below and above the barrier height. A simple interpretation of the data is proposed, and supported by Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of the injection experiment. Essentially, the two regimes are the signature of a marked transition between an electron population mostly heated by the electric field, and a tail population created by additional but less efficient energy gain mechanisms, leading to a sharp transition in the carrier distribution function. The details of the bias and temperature dependence of injection are then interpreted as the combined effect of tunneling and carrier distribution. Furthermore, possible implications on MOSFET gate currents are briefly discussed     

Kraftwerkseigenschaften von Windenergieanlagen hinsichtlich Kurzschlussverhalten, Engpass- und Blindleistungsmanagement sowie Spannungsregelung

The increasing number of wind turbines will lead to new demands for transmission and distribution system control in the years to come. In order to ensure a smooth integration of wind energy into an electrical energy system structure, wind farms will have to possess power plant properties and be able to provide ancillary services. The ENERCON concept offers solutions not only for critical situations, such as short-circuits and bottlenecks in the grid, but also for normal operation, such as reactive power management or voltage control. Wind farms will essentially function in a manner similar to conventional power plants and moreover offer additional advantages in the distribution grid.     

An entropy-coded lattice vector quantizer for transform and subbandimage coding

A lattice-based vector quantizer (VQ) and noiseless code are proposed for transform and subband image coding. The quantization is simple to implement, and no vector codebooks need to be stored. The noiseless code enumerates lattice codevectors based on their (weighted) l(1) norm. A software implementation is able to handle lattice codebooks of size 2(256). The image coding performance is shown to be comparable or superior to the best encoding methods reported in the literature.     

Dynamics of power MOSFET switching under unclamped inductiveloading conditions

The parasitic bipolar transistor inherent in a vertical power DMOSFET structure can have a significant impact on its reliability. Unclamped Inductive Switching (UIS) tests were used to examine the reliability of DMOSFET's in extremely harsh switching conditions. The reliability of a power DMOSFET under UIS conditions is directly related to the amount of avalanche energy the device can survive. A number of DMOSFET structures were critically examined under UIS conditions to determine the impact of bipolar transistor parameters on device reliability. The UIS dynamics were studied based on the results obtained from an advanced mixed device and circuit simulator in which the internal carrier dynamics were evaluated under boundary conditions imposed by the circuit operation. It is shown that premature open base bipolar transistor breakdown can occur when the p-base sheet resistance is high. A device structure with a shallow self-aligned p⁺ region is shown to prevent the parasitic bipolar turn-on and avoid premature UIS breakdown without compromising the power-switching efficiency. The simulation results are shown to be in excellent agreement with the measured data under a wide range of inductive loading conditions     

Colloid attachment by ILGAR-layers: Creating fluorescing layers to increase quantum efficiency of solar cells

A method for the fixation of colloids by an ion-layer-gas-reaction-“ILGAR”-oxide layer is presented. The embedding of CdS nano-particles in an ILGAR-ZnO/Zn(OH)₂-matrix is confirmed by transmission electron micrographs (TEM); the composition of the layer surface is analyzed by X-ray photoelectron microscopy (XPS). When these particles are fixed by an ILGAR-oxide layer on top of a solar cell the observed absorption and fluorescing properties of CdS nano-particles offer the possibility to reduce the absorption loss in the window layer. This is shown for a Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)₂-“CIGSSe”-based solar cell with an additional top CdS_particle/ILGAR-ZrO₂-layer as a first example. The improvement of the device performance is proven by J(V)-characteristics and the external quantum efficiency.     

Interface engineering in chalcopyrite thin film solar devices

Successful interface engineering requires compositional and electronic material characterization as a prerequisite for understanding and intentionally generating interfaces in photovoltaic devices. The paper gives an overview with several examples, all referring to Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)₂ (“CIGSSe”)-based solar cells, with an emphasis on characterization using highly specialized methods, such as elastic recoil detection analysis, X-ray emission spectroscopy and photoelectron spectroscopy using synchrotron and ultraviolet light for excitation, inverse photoemission spectroscopy and Kelvin probe force microscopy. First, the determination of the depth profile of the band gap energy E_g in the absorber layer is demonstrated. The modification of E_g towards both interfaces is discussed in terms of beneficial electronic effects. Next, the interface between absorber and buffer layers with alternative and promising non-toxic materials is considered. Between CIGSSe and a ZnSe buffer deposited by the metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) method a buried ZnS interface was found. For a Zn(O,OH) buffer processed with an ion layer gas reaction (ILGAR) the correlation of surface composition, valence band maximum and efficiency of the resulting solar cell is shown. In addition, another approach is considered where a ZnMgO window layer is sputtered directly on the absorber omitting any buffer layer. The determination of the potential distribution at the ZnMgO/CIGSSe interface supports the understanding of this new and simpler way to get good cell performances even without any buffer. Finally, monolithically integrated solar modules without encapsulation were investigated before and after accelerated aging tests and changes at the interconnects were identified.     

Performance Analysis of CSRZ-OOK With Pairwise or Pulse-to-Pulse Alternate Polarization

The performance of 40-Gb/s carrier-suppressed return-to-zero on-off keying (CSRZ-OOK) combined with either a pairwise or a pulse-to-pulse alternate polarization (APol) is investigated numerically. It is shown that these modulation formats offer a superior suppression of intrachannel four-wave mixing compared to conventional APol-formats. They are also tolerant to narrowband optical filtering and thus suitable for ultradense wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) systems with a spectral efficiency of 0.8 bit/s/Hz.     

Cold tests and modeling of low-Q quasi-optical resonators

Measurements are reported on low-Q open resonators at 85 GHz with a large centered coupling hole in each mirror. This is the first study of open resonators with large diffraction losses and efficient input coupling at millimeter wavelengths. The input resonator for a quasi-optical gyroklystron is described with quality factor Q=2000 and 13% round-trip losses where approximately 65% of the incident power in the waveguide is coupled to the fundamental TEM₀₀ mode. Two models have been developed to calculate the coupling from the rectangular waveguide through a circular aperture into the open resonator. Both models properly account for the increased diffraction loss of the resonator when coupling apertures are present. Measured results are in reasonably good agreement with values calculated using both scalar diffraction theory and an equivalent-circuit model     

OFDM with reduced peak-to-average power ratio by multiple signal representation

In this paper two highly effective, flexible and distortionless peak power reduction schemes for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (ofdm) with low amount of additional complexity and almost vanishing redundancy are presented. The schemes work with arbitrary numbers of subcarriers and signal sets. The first approach generates a set of several alternative multicarrier signals and selects that transmit signal with the lowest peak power value. The second method optimally combines partial transmit sequences to minimize the peak-to-average power ratio (PAR-coefficient). The schemes are analyzed theoretically and their performance is covered by simulations.     

10 Gbit/s transmission over 50 km nonzero dispersion-shifted fibreusing 1.3 μm directly modulated uncooled transmitters

A 1.3 μm uncooled transmitter with wide-open eye diagrams at laser temperatures of 20, 50, and 85°C is presented. Using this transmitter, it is demonstrated that 10 Gbit/s transmission is possible over a 50 km nonzero dispersion-shifted Lucent TrueWave-RS fibre. This result is compared with transmission over a 55 km standard singlemode fibre