Low-power high-slew-rate CMOS buffer amplifier for flat panel display drivers

A new high-slew-rate CMOS buffer amplifier consuming a very small quiescent current is proposed. This buffer amplifier recursively copies the output driving current and increases the tail current of the input differential pair during slewing. Since the proposed buffer has a possible slew rate higher than 10 V//spl mu/s for a load capacitance of 1 nF almost independently of static currents as low as 1 /spl mu/A, this buffer amplifier is promising for column driver ICs of flat panel displays that require low static power consumption, high current driving capabilities, and small silicon areas.     

The law of mixtures applied to the plastic deformation of two- phase alloys of coarse microstructures

The theory of the mechanical law of mixtures is reviewed and applied to the partition of stress and of strain in two-phase alloys. It is shown that the modified law of mixtures, based on averagein situ stress and strain, is valid for small deformations and is compatible with strengthening theories based on continuum and dislocation mechanics. The plastic deformation behavior of two representative two-phase alloys,i.e., a spheroidized high carbon steel and a duplex stainless steel, was studied by taking into account the mutual interactions between phases. The law of mixtures and dispersion strengthening theory were used to evaluate the strength contribution of each phase.     

Computational Implementation of Asymmetric Integral Imaging by Use of Two Crossed Lenticular Sheets

We propose an asymmetric integral imaging method to adjust the resolution and depth of a three‐dimensional image. Our method is obtained by use of two lenticular sheets with different pitches fabricated under the same F/#. The asymmetric integral imaging is the generalized version of integral imaging, including both conventional integral imaging and one‐dimensional integral imaging. We present experimental results to test and verify the performance of our method computationally.     

Experimental investigation of natural convection from a horizontal ice surface melting in pure water

A study on natural convection from a horizontal ice surface melting in pure water was conducted experimentally for the ambient water temperature from 2▿C to 10°C. Natural convection flow around upward-or downward-facing horizontal ice plate was divided into three regions according to the temperature variation of ambient water. The flow patterns of three regions were no flow, two-dimensional steady laminar flow and unsteady flow. Mean Nusselt number for the upward-facing surface had its maximum value at about 3°C of ambient water temperature. However, in the case of the downward-facing surface it increased as the ambient water temperature increased.     

Feature selection techniques and comparative studies for large-scale manufacturing processes

In order to efficiently and effectively control an overall process in the process industry, a few important parameters should be identified from high-dimensional, non-linear, and correlated data. Feature selection techniques can be employed to extract a subset of process parameters relevant to product quality. The performance of these techniques depends on the precision of the prediction model formulated to quantify the relationship between the process parameters and the quality characteristics. Although the neural network-based partial least squares (NNPLS) method has been proven to be effective in prediction models for the aforementioned industrial process data, feature selection techniques appropriate for NNPLS models have yet to appear. Here, several techniques for scoring the relevance of process parameters to product quality are proposed and validated by applying three datasets. These experiments show that the proposed techniques can discriminate relevant process parameters from irrelevant ones.     

Antioxidant activity of anacardic acids

Anacardic acids, 6-pentadec(en)ylsalicylic acids isolated from the cashew Anacardium occidentale L. (Anacardiaceae) nut and apple, were found to possess preventive antioxidant activity while salicylic acid did not show this activity. These anacardic acids prevent generation of superoxide radicals by inhibiting xanthine oxidase (EC 1.1.3.22, Grade IV) without radical-scavenging activity. Notably, the inhibition kinetics of anacardic acids do not follow hyperbolic dependence of enzyme inhibition on inhibitor contents (Michaelis–Menten equation) but follow the Hill equation instead. Anacardic acid (C_15:1) inhibited the soybean lipoxygenase-1 (EC 1.13.11.12, Type 1) catalyzed oxidation of linoleic acid with an IC₅₀ of 6.8 μM. The inhibition is a slow and reversible reaction without residual enzyme activity. The inhibition kinetics indicate that anacardic acid (C_15:1) is a competitive inhibitor and the inhibition constant, K_I, was 2.8 μM. Anacardic acids act as antioxidants in a variety ways, including inhibition of various prooxidant enzymes involved in the production of the reactive oxygen species and chelate divalent metal ions such as Fe²⁺ or Cu²⁺, but do not quench reactive oxygen species. The C₁₅-alkenyl side chain is largely associated with the activity.     

Aluminum deoxidation equilibrium in liquid Ni-Fe alloys equilibrated with CaO-Al2O3 slags

The deoxidation equilibrium for Al in Ni-Fe alloys was studied in the equilibrium experiments between CaO-Al₂O₃ slags and Fe-30, 50 and 70 % Ni alloys at 1873 K. By using the values for the first and second order interaction parameters between oxygen and nickel in liquid iron and those between oxygen and iron in liquid nickel, the effect of Ni on the activity coefficient of Al in liquid iron and that of Fe on the activity coefficient of Al in liquid nickel were determined in the whole composition range of Ni-Fe alloys. The oxygen contents in Ni-Fe alloys calculated by the iterative method based on pure iron were in good agreement with those based on pure nickel in the range of [% Al] < 0.03. From this fact, it was found that the Wagner's approximation relating to the multi-component solution was applicable to the deoxidation equilibrium in the whole composition range of Ni-Fe alloys in the restricted concentration of a deoxidizer.     

Numerical analysis of the warpage problem in TSOP

The reliability and the solderability of thin small outline package (TSOP) are significantly affected by the warpage that is generated after epoxy molding compound (EMC) molding process. This warpage problem mainly results from the mismatch of material properties such as Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio and coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and the geometric structure of each component for TSOP. The optimization of both material properties and geometric structures using the numerical analysis is necessary to reduce the warpage of TSOP. However, there are still some limitations for the numerical analysis to obtain proper results consistent with the practical warpage values. In this paper, the numerical analysis is performed under the assumption of elastic behavior for EMC. Furthermore, to solve the limitations, the material properties at the molding temperature and the degree of reaction rate at the end of the molding process of EMC are considered together for the analysis. This numerical analysis gives the higher warpage values than the measured ones, and is applicable to the practical design of the reliable electronic package.