Functionally Antagonistic Hybrid Electrode with Hollow Tubular Graphene Mesh and Nitrogen‐Doped Crumpled Graphene for High‐Performance Ionic Soft Actuators

Ionic soft actuators, which exhibit large mechanical deformations under low electrical stimuli, are attracting attention in recent years with the advent of soft and wearable electronics. However, a key challenge for making high‐performance ionic soft actuators with large bending deformation and fast actuation speed is to develop a stretchable and flexible electrode having high electrical conductivity and electrochemical capacitance. Here, a functionally antagonistic hybrid electrode with hollow tubular graphene meshes and nitrogen‐doped crumpled graphene is newly reported for superior ionic soft actuators. Three‐dimensional network of hollow tubular graphene mesh provides high electrical conductivity and mechanically resilient functionality on whole electrode domain. On the contrary, nitrogen‐doped wrinkled graphene supplies ultrahigh capacitance and stretchability, which are indispensably required for improving electrochemical activity in ionic soft actuators. Present results show that the functionally antagonistic hybrid electrode greatly enhances the actuation performances of ionic soft actuators, resulting in much larger bending deformation up to 620%, ten times faster rise time and much lower phase delay in a broad range of input frequencies. This outstanding enhancement mostly attributes to exceptional properties and synergistic effects between hollow tubular graphene mesh and nitrogen‐doped crumpled graphene, which have functionally antagonistic roles in charge transfer and charge injection, respectively.     

Amplifying Nanoparticle Targeting Performance to Tumor via Diels–Alder Cycloaddition

Traditional targeting approach utilizing biological ligands has to face the problems of limited receptors and tumor heterogeneity. Herein, a two‐step tumor‐targeting and therapy strategy based on inverse electron‐demand [4+2] Diels–Alder cycloaddition (iEDDA) is described. Owing to the unique acidic tumor microenvironment, an intravenous injection of tetrazine modified pH (low) insertion peptide could efficiently target and incorporate onto various cell surfaces in tumor tissue, such as cancer cells, vascular endothelial cells, and tumor‐associated fibroblasts. The “receptor‐like” tetrazine groups with a large amount and homogeneous intratumoral distribution could then serve as the baits to greatly amplify the tumor‐targeting ability of indocyanine green (ICG)‐loaded and trans‐cyclooctene (TCO)‐conjugated human serum albumin (HSA) nanoparticles (TCO‐HSA‐ICG NPs) via iEDDA after the second intravenous injection. Compared with the passive enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect and traditional active targeting approaches, the targeting performance and photothermal therapeutic effect based on the two‐step strategy are significantly enhanced, while no notable toxicity is observed. As acidity is a characteristic of solid tumor, the two‐step strategy can serve as a universal and promising modality for safe and high‐performance nanoparticle‐based antitumor therapy.     

Breaking the Limits of Ionic Liquid‐Based Supercapacitors: Mesoporous Carbon Electrodes Functionalized with Manganese Oxide Nanosplotches for Dense,Stable, and Wide‐Temperature Energy Storage

Manganese oxide (MnO₂) nanosplotches (NSs) are deposited on N‐ and S‐doped ordered mesoporous carbon (N,S‐CMK‐3) essentially blocking microporosity. The obtained N,S‐CMK‐3/MnO₂ composite materials are assembled into ionic liquid (IL)‐based symmetric supercapacitors, which exhibit a high specific capacitance of 200 F g^?1 (0–3.5 V) at a scan rate of 2 mV s^?1, and good rate stability with 55.5% capacitance retention at a scan rate of 100 mV s^?1. The device can operate in a wide temperature range (?20 to 60 °C), and high cycling stability of N,S‐CMK‐3/MnO₂ composite electrode is demonstrated. Lower energy of ?3.56 eV can be achieved for the adsorption of 1‐ethyl‐3‐methylimidazolium⁺ (EMIM⁺) cation on the edge between MnO₂ NSs and N,S‐CMK‐3 than on the plane of MnO₂ NS (?3.04 eV), both being more preferred than the surface of pristine N,S‐CMK‐3 (?1.52 eV). This strengthening of the ion adsorption at the three‐phase boundary between N,S‐CMK‐3, MnO₂, and IL leads to enhancement of the specific capacity as compared to nondoped or MnO₂‐free reference materials. Supercapacitors based on such composite electrodes show significantly enhanced areal capacity pointing to energy storage in the mesopores rather than in the electrochemical surface layer, demonstrating a new energy storage mechanism in ILs.     

Nth order current mode universal filter using MOCCCIIs

This article presents a new current mode single-input-multiple-output nth order universal filter. The proposed circuit employs (n + 1) number multiple output second generation current conveyors and n number grounded capacitors only. Presented circuits can realize current mode low pass, high pass, band pass, notch and all pass responses simultaneously at different high output impedance terminals. The current mode filter circuit provides low input impedance by selecting the proper value of bias current and also has high output impedance, which is suitable for cascading. The circuit offers some important features such as resistor less realization, no passive component matching constraints, low sensitivity, electronic tunability and active-C realization. The functionality of the proposed filter circuit is tested with the PSPICE simulation, which is found to agree well with the proposed theory.     

Solid-state intermetallic compound layer growth between copper and 95.5Sn-3.9Ag-0.6Cu solder

Long-term, solid-state intermetallic compound (IMC) layer growth was examined in 95.5Sn-3.9Ag-0.6Cu (wt.%)/copper (Cu) couples. Aging temperatures and times ranged from 70°C to 205°C and from 1 day to 400 days, respectively. The IMC layer thicknesses and compositions were compared to those investigated in 96.5Sn-3.5Ag/Cu, 95.5Sn-0.5Ag-4.0Cu/Cu, and 100Sn/Cu couples. The nominal Cu₃Sn and Cu₆Sn₅ stoichiometries were observed. The Cu₃Sn layer accounted for 0.4–0.6 of the total IMC layer thickness. The 95.5Sn-3.9Ag-0.6Cu/Cu couples exhibited porosity development at the Cu₃Sn/Cu interface and in the Cu₃Sn layer as well as localized “plumes” of accelerated Cu₃Sn growth into the Cu substrate when aged at 205°C and t>150 days. An excess of 3–5at.%Cu in the near-interface solder field likely contributed to IMC layer growth. The growth kinetics of the IMC layer in 95.5Sn-3.9Ag-0.6Cu/Cu couples were described by the equation x=x_o+Atⁿexp [−ΔH/RT]. The time exponents, n, were 0.56±0.06, 0.54±0.07, and 0.58±0.07 for the Cu₃Sn layer, the Cu₆Sn₅, and the total layer, respectively, indicating a diffusion-based mechanism. The apparent-activation energies (ΔH) were Cu₃Sn layer: 50±6 kJ/mol; Cu₆Sn₅ layer: 44±4 kJ/mol; and total layer: 50±4 kJ/mol, which suggested a fast-diffusion path along grain boundaries. The kinetics of Cu₃Sn growth were sensitive to the Pb-free solder composition while those of Cu₆Sn₅ layer growth were not so.     

Adaptive joint beamforming and B‐MMSE detection for CDMA signal reception under multipath interference

The combination of antenna array beamforming with multiuser detection can effectively improve the detection efficiency of a wireless system under multipath interference, especially in a fast‐fading channel. This paper studies the performance of an adaptive beamformer incorporated with a block‐wise minimum mean square error(B‐MMSE) detector, which works on a unique signal frame characterized by training sequence preamble and data blocks segmented by zero‐bits. Both beam‐former weights updating and B‐MMSE detection are carried out by either least mean square (LMS) or recursive least square (RLS) algorithm. The comparison of the two adaptive algorithms applied to both beamformer and B‐MMSE detector will be made in terms of convergence behaviour and estimation mean square error. Various multipath patterns are considered to test the receiver's responding rapidity to changing multipath interference. The performance of the adaptive B‐MMSE detector is also compared with that of non‐adaptive version (i.e. through direct matrix inversion). The final performance in error probability simulation reveals that the RLS/B‐MMSE scheme outperforms non‐adaptive B‐MMSE by 1–5 dB, depending on the multipath channel delay profiles of concern. The obtained results also suggest that adaptive beamformer should use RLS algorithm for its fast and robust convergence property; while the B‐MMSE filter can choose either LMS or RLS algorithm depending on antenna array size, multipath severity and implementation complexity. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Area Optimization Method for Digital Filter Design

In this paper, we propose an efficient design method for area optimization in a digital filter. The conventional methods to reduce the number of adders in a filter have the problem of a long critical path delay caused by the deep logic depth of the filter due to adder sharing. Furthermore, there is such a disadvantage that they use the transposed direct form (TDF) filter which needs more registers than those of the direct form (DF) filter. In this paper, we present a hybrid structure of a TDF and DF based on the flattened coefficients method so that it can reduce the number of flip‐flops and full‐adders without additional critical path delay. We also propose a resource sharing method and sharing‐pattern searching algorithm to reduce the number of adders without deepening the logic depth. Simulation results show that the proposed structure can save the number of adders and registers by 22 and 26%, respectively, compared to the best one used in the past.     

Quantitative luminescence mapping of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 thin‐film solar cells

We investigate photoluminescence and electroluminescence (PL and EL) emission images from Cu(In,Ga)Se₂‐based solar cells by means of a Hyperspectral Imager. Using the generalized Planck's law, maps of the effective quasi‐Fermi level splitting Δμ_eff in absolute values are obtained. A good agreement is found between the spatially averaged splitting in PL and the global open‐circuit voltage. However, from a local carrier transport discussion, we conclude that the equality does not hold locally. The spatial variations are rather attributed to local depth variations of the quasi‐Fermi level splitting due to material properties spatial fluctuations. By comparing PL and EL emissions, we discuss qualitatively the local effective lifetimes and collection efficiencies. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Design and realization of transparent solar modules based on luminescent solar concentrators integrating nanostructured photonic crystals

Herein, we present a prototype of a photovoltaic module that combines a luminescent solar concentrator integrating one‐dimensional photonic crystals and in‐plane CuInGaSe₂ (CIGS) solar cells. Highly uniform and wide‐area nanostructured multilayers with photonic crystal properties were deposited by a cost‐efficient and scalable liquid processing amenable to large‐scale fabrication. Their role is to both maximize light absorption in the targeted spectral range, determined by the fluorophore employed, and minimize losses caused by emission at angles within the escape cone of the planar concentrator. From a structural perspective, the porous nature of the layers facilitates the integration with the thermoplastic polymers typically used to encapsulate and seal these modules. Judicious design of the module geometry, as well as of the optical properties of the dielectric mirrors employed, allows optimizing light guiding and hence photovoltaic performance while preserving a great deal of transparency. Optimized in‐plane designs like the one herein proposed are of relevance for building integrated photovoltaics, as ease of fabrication, long‐term stability and improved performance are simultaneously achieved. © 2015 The Authors. Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Adaptive blind receivers for MC‐CDMA communication systems

In this paper, we propose three adaptive blind algorithms for multiuser multicarrier code division multiple‐access systems in multipath fading channels. The proposed adaptive blind receivers are based on the property of the discreteness of the input data symbol and are updated in every symbol interval. We also use the concept that the variance of the output signal approaches to the variance of the desired signal to get the cost function. The three proposed receiver structures are the traditional finite impulse response (FIR) structure, the despreading (DES) filter structure and the generalized sidelobe canceller (GSC) structure. The advantage of the FIR filter is that the length of the filter weights does not have to be the same length as the spreading code. For the DES filter, the combination of the adaptive weight and the despreading code has the simplest structure than the other two proposed receiver structures. The constrained GSC filter is superior to the other two proposed receiver structures in the environments dominated by multiple‐access interference. By this constraint, the blind GSC filter can guarantee to converge to the desired solution. Simulation results are given to show the effectiveness and comparison of the proposed adaptive blind receivers. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.