Design and analysis of UW-OFDM signals

Unique word-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (UW-OFDM) is a novel signaling concept where the guard interval is implemented as a deterministic sequence, the so-called unique word. The UW is generated by introducing a certain level of redundancy in the frequency domain. Different data estimation strategies and the favourable bit error ratio (BER) performance of UW-OFDM, as well as comparisons to competing concepts have already extensively been discussed in previous papers. This work focuses on the different possibilities on how to generate UW-OFDM signals. The optimality of the two-step over the direct approach in systematic UW-OFDM is proved analytically, we present a heuristic algorithm that allows a fast numerical optimization of the redundant subcarrier positions, and we show that our original intuitive approach of spreading the redundant subcarriers in systematically encoded UW-OFDM by minimizing the mean redundant energy is practically also optimum w.r.t. transceiver based cost functions. Finally, we derive closed form approximations of the statistical symbol distributions on individual subcarriers as well as the redundant energy distribution and compare them with numerically found results.     

Managing diet quality for Cheddar cheese manufacturing milk. 1. The influence of protein and energy supplements.

The effects of supplementing cows' diets with protein and energy on milk composition and the composition and yield of Cheddar cheese were investigated. This research addresses the problems of seasonal reduction in the capacity of cheese curds to expel moisture as observed in parts of south-eastern Australia. Milk was collected from cows offered a basal diet of silage and hay supplemented with different sources and levels of dietary protein and energy. The protein supplements were sunflower, canola, cottonseed meal and lupin, and the energy supplements were maize grain, oats, wheat and barely. This milk was used to manufacture Cheddar cheese on a pilot scale. Cheese moisture content was dependent on the source and level of dietary protein and energy. Milk from cows offered the lupin protein supplements and wheat energy supplements consistently produced cheese with a lower moisture content and moisture in fat-free matter. Milk from these supplemented diets had increased casein concentrations and higher proportions of alpha S2-casein than milk from the poor quality control diet. Cheese yield was directly related to the total casein concentration of milk, but was not influenced by differences in casein composition. Supplementing the cows' diets increased the inorganic P, Mg and Ca concentrations in milk. A low inorganic P concentration in milk from cows offered the control diet was caused by a low intake of dietary P. These findings showed that changes in the mineral and casein composition of milk, associated with diet, could influence the composition of Cheddar cheese.     

Targeted Delivery of Anesthetic Agents to Bone Tissues using Conductive Microneedles Enhanced Iontophoresis for Painless Dental Anesthesia

Pain management during dental procedures is a cornerstone for successful daily practice. In current practice, the traditional needle and syringe injection is used to administer local anesthesia. However, the appearance of long needles and the pain associated with it often leads to dental anxiety deterring timely interventions. Microneedles (MNs) have emerged as a minimally invasive alternative to hypodermic needles and shown to be effective in transdermal drug delivery applications. In this article, the potential use of MNs for local anesthesia delivery in dentistry is explored. The development of a novel conductive MN array that can be used in combination with iontophoresis technique to achieve drug penetration through the oral mucosa and the underlying bone tissue is presented. The conductive MN array plays a dual-role, creating micro-conduits and lowering the resistance of the oral mucosa. The reduced tissue resistance further enhances the application of a low-voltage current that is able to direct and accelerate the drug molecules to target the sensory nerves supplying teeth. The successful delivery of lidocaine using this new strategy in a clinically relevant rabbit incisor model is shown to be as effective as the current gold standard.     

Thermal Stress Assessment for Transient Liquid-Phase Bonded Si Chips in High-Power Modules Using Experimental and Numerical Methods

The potential of transient liquid-phase (TLP) bonding for chip packaging applications has been evaluated, focusing on three interlayer arrangements (Ag-Sn-Ag, Ni-Sn-Ni, and Ag-Sn-Ni). Shear tests on TLP-bonded components provided the interlayer-dependent mechanical strength as well as failure mode and position. Critical local stresses, i.e., failure criteria, within the intermetallic compound (IMC) layer were derived by replicating the shear test conditions with finite-element methods. The missing coefficient of thermal expansion for Ag₃Sn IMC was obtained by producing small IMC bulk samples and subjecting them to dilatometric measurements. The experimental results were implemented into a finite-element model of a representative power module architecture to provide first predictions on thermally induced residual stresses that could be classified into fail/safe, as successfully validated by TLP chip bonding experiments. A numerical parameter study then assessed thermal stresses, including failure prediction and design optimization for TLP-bonded Si chips, considering the influence of process temperature, service conditions, TLP interlayer system, and metallization layers within the TLP joint. The presented procedure serves as a guideline to choose an appropriate TLP interlayer system for predefined boundary conditions, or vice versa.     

Photonic Side-Channel Analysis of Arbiter PUFs

As intended by its name, physically unclonable functions (PUFs) are considered as an ultimate solution to deal with insecure storage, hardware counterfeiting, and many other security problems. However, many different successful attacks have already revealed vulnerabilities of certain digital intrinsic PUFs. This paper demonstrates that legacy arbiter PUF and its popular extended versions (i.e., feed-forward and XOR-enhanced) can be completely and linearly characterized by means of photonic emission analysis. Our experimental setup is capable of measuring every PUF internal delay with a resolution of 6 ps. Due to this resolution, we indeed require only the theoretical minimum number of linear independent equations (i.e., physical measurements) to directly solve the underlying inhomogeneous linear system. Moreover, it is not required to know the actual PUF responses for our physical delay extraction. We present our practical results for an arbiter PUF implementation on a complex programmable logic device manufactured with a 180 nm process. Finally, we give an insight into photonic emission analysis of arbiter PUF on smaller chip architectures by performing experiments on a field programmable gate array manufactured with a 60 nm process.     

Diketopyrrolopyrrole Organic Thin‐Film Transistors: Impact of Alkyl Substituents and Tolerance of Ethylhexyl Stereoisomers

Bis(thiophen‐2‐yl)‐diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) dyes bearing various alkyl substituents at the amide positions (n‐butyl, n‐pentyl, n‐hexyl, n‐heptyl, n‐octyl, 2‐ethylhexyl) and chlorine (Cl), bromine (Br), or cyano (CN) substituents at the thiophene positions have been synthesized and investigated with regard to their molecular and semiconducting properties. Intense absorption, strong fluorescence, and reversible oxidation and reduction processes are common to all of these dyes. Their characterization as organic semiconductors in vacuum‐processed thin‐film transistors reveals p‐channel operation with field‐effect mobilities ranging from 0.01 to 0.7 cm² V^?1 s^?1. The highest mobility is found for the DPP dyes bearing the 2‐ethylhexyl substituents, which is surprising, considering that as a result of the chiral substituents, this material is a mixture of (R,R), (S,S), and (R,S) stereoisomers. The high carrier mobility in the films of the DPPs bearing stereoisomerically inhomogeneous ethylhexyl groups is rationalized here by single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction (XRD) analysis in combination with XRD and atomic force microscopy studies on thin films, which reveal the presence of slightly different 2D layer arrangements for the n‐alkyl and the 2‐ethylhexyl derivatives. For the cyano‐substituted DPPs possessing the lowest LUMO levels, ambipolar transport characteristics are observed.     

Mesure du Débit d’Absorption Spécifique (das) des téléphones mobiles — contribution du projetcomobio à la normalisation internationale

Human exposure to electromagnetic fields emitted by mobile phones is characterised by the Specific Absorption Rate (sar). This value corresponds to therf power absorbed by unitary mass of the equivalent tissue. It represents the basic restriction used to define limit of human exposure torf electromagnetic fields. Academic and industrial labs have contributed through thecomobio project to define international standards for mobile phones certification.     

100%无焊接IGBT模块——专为汽车工业而设计

减少二氧化碳的排放和可持续性发展——这些是我们这个时代的流行语。为了不辜负这些今天和明天的流行语,需要先进的电控驱动技术涉足新的领域。其中一个最大且最具挑战性的领域是汽车产业.现有的功率模块无法满足该行业的严格要求,这就是为什么它们不能服务市场的原因。为了面对这项挑战,赛米控开发了SKiM（赛米控集成模块）,适用于汽车工业的IGBT模块。[编者按]     

运用数字暗场和结构重构方法测定FePt纳米粒子的正二十面体结构

小粒子结构一直是人们关注的研究热点,上世纪70年代运用暗场像技术发现了具有多重孪晶结构的正二十面体和正十面体结构.近年来,人们已经能够合成直径只有几纳米、结构复杂的纳米粒子,传统的高分辨像和衍射等方法难以获得这些纳米粒子的结构.本文以直径约6nm的FePt粒子为研究对象,通过系列欠焦像波函数重构获得了该粒子亚埃分辨率高分辨相位像,并对该相位像进行了数字暗场像分析研究,通过结构重构并结合高分辨像模拟测定该粒子具有二十面体结构,为确定具有复杂结构的纳米粒子结构提供了一种新途径.