Mobility degradation effects in CMOS differential pair transconductors

The influence of the mobility reduction factor on the dominant third-harmonic distortion and effective transconductance in CMOS differential pair transconductors is examined. Analytical expressions are developed which are suitable for hand calculation and generate realistic estimates for distortion and transconductance. The results produced have been tested against SPICE simulations over a wide range of parameter values and show excellent agreement. The analysis highlights the importance of mobility degradation and reveals that the linearity of the source-coupled differential pair is actually improved as the mobility reduction factor increases. This surprising finding suggests that where 0.15, for example, acceptably low distortion levels (<60 dB for V _i =1 V _pp ) should be achievable with the basic long-tailed pair and that complex linearization schemes may be unnecessary.This work is supported by a grant of the Science and Engineering Research Council.     

Time-dependent optical spectroscopy and imaging for biomedicalapplications

The application of optical spectroscopy and imaging in living tissue is complicated by multiple scattering of light. In spectroscopy, this scattering causes uncertainty in the pathlength traveled by photons in the tissue, while images suffer reduced resolution and contrast. Picosecond light sources and fast detectors have made it possible to address these problems by direct measurement of the photon time-of-flight. Diffusion models of light propagation can be used to relate the measured distribution of photon transit times to the scattering and absorption coefficients of the tissue. The advantages of absolute absorption measurement are demonstrated for two problems: determination of hemoglobin oxygenation in tissue and in vivo measurement of the uptake of an exogenous chromosphere such as photosensitizer. Optical imaging may also be improved by the elimination of multiply scattered photons or by selective detection of photons arriving from a given region of the tissue. The potential advantages of these techniques are discussed and illustrated with experimental data     

Time delay estimation using the cross bispectrum

The cross bispectrum phase can be effectively used to estimate the time required for a nonGaussian signal to propagate between a pair of spatially separated sensors in the presence of highly correlated Gaussian noise. The authors present a consistent estimator of the phase of the cross bispectrum, derive the exact distribution of the phase of a complex Gaussian sample bispectrum, and show that in most cases the exact distribution can be approximated by a Gaussian distribution. Using this Gaussian approximation, the authors derive the variance of the time delay estimate computed from the sample cross bispectrum of a signal in additive correlated noise. These results allow the performance of time delay estimators based on the cross bispectrum phase to be quantified as a function of the sample size, the skewness of the signal, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and the noise correlation     

Fibre-optic based confocal scanning microscopy with semiconductor laser excitation and detection

A compact novel form of confocal scanning microscope using a semiconductor laser is described. Confocal operation is ensured by the use of a single mode optical fibre for both launching the light into the microscope and collecting the signal from the object. The collected light is allowed to reenter the laser and the image is detected as a modulation on the signal from the laser power monitor diode.<>     

Impact of growth rate on the quality of ZNS-MQW InGaAsP/InP laser structures grown by LP-MOVPE

We investigated the influence of the growth rate on the quality of zero-net-strained InGaAsP/InGaAsP/InP multiquantum well structures for 1.55 μm emission grown by low pressure metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. The samples consisted of fixed compressive strained wells (ɛ=+1%) and tensile strained barriers (ɛ=−0.5%) grown with different quaternary bandgap wavelengths (λ_B=1.1–1.4 μm). Using higher growth rates, we obtained for the first time high quality zero net strained multi quantum well structures, regardless having constant group V composition in the well and barriers. The samples were analyzed by x-ray diffraction, photoluminescence and atomic force microscopy techniques. The amplitude of surface modulation roughness along [011] direction decreased from 20 nm to 0.53 nm with increasing growth rate and/or quaternary compositions grown outside the miscibility gap. A new deep PL broad emission band strongly correlated with the onset of wavy layer growth is also reported. Broad area and ridge waveguide lasers with 10 wells exhibited low losses (34 cm⁻¹) and low threshold current densities at infinite cavity length (1020 A·cm⁻² and 1190 A·cm⁻², respectively).     

Manufacturing ultra fine line PBGA substrates in a PWB factory

The industry trends for PBGA substrates are smaller and smaller features to support more input/output (I/O) in less space. Packaging technologies such as fine pitch wire bonding and flip chip attach are driving the circuit features to tighter dimensions, both narrower lines and smaller spaces. Many PWB factories are now producing laminate substrates and have exercised more stringent process controls to build finer circuit patterns. Even with the improved process controls, however, the conventional PWB processes and materials cannot achieve the 1 mil lines and 1 mil spaces that are required. Changes in processing and or materials and design are required to make the jump from 3 mil circuit features which are characteristic of leading edge PWB technology to the 1 mil circuit features needed for the newer laminate substrates. Because of our experience with ceramic substrates and the availability of a manufacturing facility that is capable of circuitizing truly fine features, we decided to launch a development effort to define how to build ultra fine line PBGA substrates. In this paper we describe the changes in tooling and in processes that were necessary to move between a conventional PWB facility, which is designed to process 20 in×24 in panels, and a ceramic substrate factory, which is designed to process 3 in×5 in cards. We will also describe the processing changes that need to be implemented to circuitize fine line features in foil copper, typical of the PWB facility, rather than thin, sputtered copper which was used in the ceramic substrate factory. In addition we will offer bond and assembly results and reliability stressing results that demonstrate that the PBGA substrates that we built in this hybrid factory are both functional and reliable     

Texture characterization of Cu interconnects with different Ta-based sidewall diffusion barriers

X-ray diffraction is used to assess the texture of narrow lines and study the impact of different sidewall diffusion barrier materials. All the Ta-based barriers developed a strong 〈1 1 1〉 texture in the scaled geometry, with little effect from sidewall growth. Comparisons were made with blanket wafers, demonstrating the pined grain structure in the narrow lines and contrasting change in texture due to re-crystallization in the unconstrained film. Furthermore, patterned lines showed significant anti-symmetric plane distribution influenced by high strains and twinning along the lines.     

Performance Evaluation of a Novel Converged Architecture for Digital-Video Transmission Over Optical Wireless Channels

A robust channel coding architecture for multigigabit-per-second digital-video transmission over the optical wireless channel is introduced and evaluated. The proposed scheme combines low-density parity-check coding with channel interleaving to improve the transmission over turbulent temporally correlated optical wireless channels while satisfying real-time video delay constraints. Frame error rates of the presented code design are evaluated via simulation for intensity-modulation/direct-detection optical wireless links in both lognormal- and Rayleigh-fading channels. Results indicate that the performance of the proposed system is effective across a large range of atmospheric turbulence strengths and achieves significant temporal diversity in moderately long (10 ms) temporal correlation times while satisfying a 0.3-s real-time delay constraint. Moreover, the proposed design is shown to outperform the Reed-Solomon codes prevalent in the legacy fiber and wireless digital-television distribution systems.     

Magnetic properties of Co- and Mn-implanted BaTiO3, SrTiO3 and KTaO3

Implantation of Co or Mn into single-crystal BaTiO₃(K), SrTiO₃ or KTaO₃(Ca), followed by annealing at 700 °C, produced ferromagnetic behavior over a broad range of transition metal concentrations. For BaTiO₃, both Co and Mn implantation produced magnetic ordering temperatures near 300 K with coercivities 70 Oe. The M–T plots showed either a near-linear decrease of magnetization with increasing temperature for Co and a non-Brillouin shaped curve for Mn. No secondary phases were detected by high-resolution X-ray diffraction. The same basic trends were observed for both SrTiO₃ and KTaO₃, with the exception that at high Mn concentrations (5 at.%) the SrTiO₃ was no longer ferromagnetic. Our results are consistent with recent reports of room temperature ferromagnetism in other perovskite systems (e.g. LaBaMnO₃) and theoretical predictions for transition metal doping of BaTiO₃ [Nakayama et al., Jap. J. Appl. Phys. 40 (2001) L1355].     

Electrical polarization control of vertical-cavity surface-emittinglasers using polarized feedback and a liquid crystal

We report electrical control of the polarization state of a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL), The VCSEL is subject to strong external optical feedback (up to 6% of emission), with polarization controlled by a liquid-crystal (LC) element, It is found that the contrast ratio of the complete system can be enhanced compared to the contrast ratio of the LC element alone