The effects of impact ionization on the operation of neighboringdevices and circuits

This paper examines the detrimental effects of excess majority carriers and photons induced by impact ionization on the operation of neighboring pn junctions, bipolar transistors, MOS transistors, and circuits. The experimental results show that in addition to an increase in the substrate surface potential due to the excess majority carriers, photons can lower the barrier of a pn junction and, as a consequence, shift the Gummel plot of an npn bipolar transistor. As for the neighboring circuits, an example in which the speed of an NMOS ring oscillator is retarded by impact ionization in a neighboring NMOS transistor is presented     

Effect of the polymer matrices on the dielectric behavior of a percolative high-k polymer composite for embedded capacitor applications

High dielectric constant (high-k) polymer composites are of great interest for embedded capacitor applications. Previously, we demonstrated that epoxy—aluminum composites are promising for embedded capacitor applications, because they have a high dielectric constant and a low dielectric loss due to the core—shell structure of the self-passivated aluminum particles. In this work, to further understand the dielectric behavior of aluminum composites, lower-loss polymers such as silicone, polyimide, polynorbornene, and benzocyclobutene were explored as matrices for the aluminum composites. It is found that the polymer matrices can significantly change the dielectric properties of the aluminum composites. A polymer matrix with a lower dielectric constant generally results in a lower dielectric constant of its aluminum composites. In this regard, polymer—aluminum composites have a similar dielectric characteristic as polymer—ceramic composites. Thermomechanical properties of aluminum composites were characterized by a thermomechanical analyzer.     

Fuzzy rule interpolation for multidimensional input spaces in determining d50c of hydrocyclones

Fuzzy rule-based systems have been very popular in many engineering applications. In mineral engineering, fuzzy rules are normally constructed using some fuzzy rule extraction techniques to establish the determination model in predicting the d50c of hydrocyclones. However, when generating fuzzy rules from the available information, it may result in a sparse fuzzy rule base. The use of more than one input variable is also common in hydrocyclone data analysis. This paper examines the application of fuzzy interpolation to resolve the problems using sparse fuzzy rule bases, and to perform analysis of fuzzy interpolation in multidimensional input spaces.     

The emulsifying properties of a polysaccharide isolated from the fruit of Cordia abyssinica

Polysaccharide was isolated from Cordia abyssinica and its effect, at differing concentrations, on its emulsifying ability was determined. Emulsions of vegetable oil containing up to 1% of the polysaccharide in phosphate pH 7.4 buffer, were prepared by using a hand piston homogenizer. Emulsification was assessed by diluting samples of the emulsions in sodium dodecyl sulphate and measuring absorbance at 500 nm. Addition of increasing concentrations of the polysaccharide up to 1% enhanced emulsification and emulsion stability. Above 1% concentration the polysaccharide solutions were too viscous for making emulsions conveniently. At a constant concentration of the polysaccharide, addition of up to a 1% concentration of salt enhanced emulsion formation. Further addition of salt above 1% resulted in no further changes in emulsifying ability, but the stability of the emulsions formed decreased on increasing the concentration of salt above 1%. The effect of pH on emulsifying ability was investigated by preparing emulsions using buffers of different pH, from pH 3 to pH 13. The polysaccharide had poor emulsifying ability below pH 7. Emulsifying ability increased with pH between pH 7 and 11. At pH above 11 there was a decrease in emulsifying ability.     

The Gender Congruency Effect and the Selection of Freestanding and Bound Morphemes: Evidence From Croatian.

The authors report 3 picture-word interference experiments in which they explore some properties of the agreement process in speech production. In Experiment 1, Croatian speakers were asked to produce utterances in which the noun's gender value had an impact on the selection of gender-marked freestanding morphemes (pronouns) while ignoring the presentation of same- or different-gender distractor words. In Experiments 2 and 3, Croatian speakers were asked to name the same pictures using noun phrases in which the noun's gender value surfaced as an inflectional suffix. Different-gender distractors interfered more than same-gender distractors (the gender congruency effect) in Experiment 1, but not in Experiments 2 and 3. These contrasting results show that the cause of the gender congruency effect is not at the level where lexical-grammatical information is selected but at the level of selection of freestanding morphemes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Harold H. Kelley (1921-2003).

This obituary reports the death of Harold Harding Kelley, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at University of California (1921-2003). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Laboratory simulated slipstream testing of novel sulfur removal processes for gasification application

The Wabash River Integrated Methanol and Power Production from Clean Coal Technologies (IMPPCCT) project is investigating an Early Entrance Coproduction Plant (EECP) concept to evaluate integrated electrical power generation and methanol production from coal and other carbonaceous feedstocks. Research, development and testing (RD&T) that is currently being conducted under the project is evaluating cost effective process systems for removing contaminants, particularly sulfur species, from the generated gas which contains mainly synthesis gas (syngas), CO₂ and steam at concentrations acceptable for the methanol synthesis catalyst. The RD&T includes laboratory testing followed by bench-scale and field testing at the SG Solutions Gasification Plant located in West Terre Haute, Indiana. Actual synthesis gas produced by the plant was utilized at system pressure and temperature for bench-scale field testing.     

Quadtree based colour quantisation image compression

A new colour quantisation and quadtree based image compression scheme is proposed. The features of the new scheme are that colour palette ordering and requantisation of the decoded image for palette-based monitor displays are not required. Thus, fast decoding and displaying can be achieved     

Interaction of soliton with sinusoidal wave packet

The interaction of a soliton of the Nonlinear Schrodinger Equation (NSE) with a weak sinusoidal wave packet is treated analytically. The second-order soliton solution containing the original soliton and a perturbing soliton is expanded to first order in the amplitude of the perturbating soliton. From this expansion, one obtains the associate function of Gordon (1992) and a continuous change of position and phase of the perturbed soliton. One finds that the soliton experiences a second-order change of velocity under the influence of the perturbation. This result is then used to derive the displacement due to a wave packet of general shape, which is also confirmed by computer simulation