Monolithically integrated SQW laser and HBT laser driver viaselective OMVPE regrowth

An AlGaAs/GaAs nan heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) laser driver circuit and a pseudomorphic InGaAs/GaAs/AlGaAs graded index single-quantum-well (SQW) laser have been laterally integrated to maintain surface planarity using selective organometallic vapor-phase epitaxy (OMVPE) regrowth of the HBT. The self-aligned HBTs exhibit a DC current gain of 30 and an f_t (f_max ) of 45(60) GHz. The 980-nm lasers exhibit room-temperature threshold current densities as low as 420(320) A/cm² for CW (pulsed) operation. The cavities are 40(7) μm×500 μm and have less than 1(2) Ω of series resistance. SPICE simulations of the integrated driver indicate that operating speeds of over 10 Gb/s are possible     

Modular implementation of efficient self-checking checkers for the Berger code

A technique for designing efficient checkers for conventional Berger code is proposed in this paper. The check bits are derived by partitioning the information bits into two blocks, and then using an addition array to sum the number of 1's in each block. The check bit generator circuit uses a specially designed 4-input 1's counter. Two other types of 1's counters having 2 and 3 inputs are also used to realize checkers for variable length information bits. Several variations of 2-bit adder circuits are used to add the number of 1's. The check bit generator circuit uses gates with fan-in of less than or equal to 4 to simplify implementation in CMOS. The technique achieves significant improvement in gate count as well as speed over existing approaches.     

An expert system that performs a satellite stationkeeping maneuver

The development and capabilities of a prototype expert system that provides real-time spacecraft system analysis and command generation are described. At present, ESSOC (Expert System for Satellite Orbit Control) is capable of performing the stationkeeping maneuver for a geostationary satellite. ESSOC guides the operator through the stationkeeping operation by recommending appropriate commands that reflect both the changing spacecraft condition and previous procedural action. Information regarding satellite status is stored in a knowledge base internal to the expert system. This knowledge base is continuously updated with processed spacecraft telemetry. Information on the procedural structure is encoded in production rules. The independence of the procedural rules from each other, and from the knowledge base, makes the system easy to maintain and expand. Particular attention is directed to distinctive features of the ESSOC system and its development, namely, the structured methods of knowledge acquisition, and the design and performance-enhancing techniques that enable ESSOC to operate in a real-time environment.     

A vertically integrated GaAs bipolar dynamic RAM cell with storagetimes of 4.5 h at room temperature

The storage times of FET-accessed GaAs dynamic RAM cells are limited to less than 1 min at room temperature by gate leakage in the access transistor. These transistor leakage mechanisms have been eliminated by designing a vertically integrated DRAM cell in which an n-p-n bipolar access transistor is merged with a p-n-p storage capacitor. Storage times of 4.5 h are obtained at room temperature, a 1000-fold increase over the best FET-accessed cells     

On the Hertzian fatigue cone crack propagation in ceramics

The Hertzian cone crack initiation and propagation in ceramics under cyclic fatigue loading with a spherical indenter is studied. Unlike the so-called quasi-static Hertzian cone crack, the fatigue Hertzian cone crack propagation eliminates the dynamic effect on unstable crack propagation. As such, the crack is found to propagate following the path of pure mode I type. We use an elasticity approach, a finite element analysis, and an empirical analysis to investigate the Hertzian cone crack in three stages: crack initiation, crack propagation, and crack kinking. The mechanism of the multiple concentric cone cracks is also explained. The purpose is to understand and predict the behavior of the formation of the Hertzian fatigue cone crack using available modeling tools.Zheng Chen is currently with Space Power Institute, Auburn University.     

An automated film reader for DNA sequencing based on homomorphicdeconvolution

An automated reader for electrophoresis based DNA sequencing methods is described that provides fast and accurate sequence determination. Digitized sequencing lanes are processed with homomorphic blind deconvolution in preparation for peak detection, interlane alignment, peak refinement and base calling. Initial reads from direct blot sequencing films have error rates of about 1% at the rate of 5 nucleotides/s. Typical read lengths are 500-600 nucleotides. The described reader is a significant improvement over existing readers and could be an essential component in the sequencing efforts of the Human Genome Project     

Use of the nuclear microprobe at the University of Arizona for the study of heavy metal deposition in rabbit renal tissue

Industrial wastes consigned to disposal sites frequently contain substantial amounts of heavy metals. We have successfully applied proton induced X-ray emission analysis (PIXE) in the conduct of heavy metal (Hg, Cd, Cr, As) toxicity studies using precision cut rabbit renal cortical slices. The large beam diameter (4000 μm) of the proton macroprobe at The University of Arizona Ion Beam Analysis facility allowed an overall concentration of the metal(s) of interest in the samples to be determined, but lacked the ability to resolve point concentrations in the tissue. The ability to locate these areas has now been made available to us with the addition of a rastering microprobe (μ-PIXE) to the facility. Studies now being conducted in our laboratory using this micro-technique include analysis of renal tissue taken from rabbits injected intraperitoneally with HgCl₂, K₂Cr₂O₇, and NaAsO₂. The small beam size (3 μm) and the ability to raster this beam over areas of up to 125 μm × 125 μm has allowed regional mapping of endogenous and non-endogenous metal concentrations and revealed trends in heavy metal deposition in in vivo treated renal tissue, significantly increasing the amount of information obtained from these animal studies using PIXE alone. The combination of small beam size, high resolution, and multi-element detection makes μ-PIXE a powerful tool for investigating the impact of non-endogenous metals on the kidney.     

Experimental determination of electron and hole mobilities in MOSaccumulation layers

This letter presents for the first time, the experimentally determined majority carrier mobilities in the accumulation layer of a MOSFET for both p-type and n-type channel doping for a wide range of doping concentrations. The measured carrier mobility is observed to follow a universal behavior at high transverse fields, similar to that observed for minority carriers in MOS inversion layers. At the higher doping levels, the effective mobility for majority carriers at low to moderate transverse fields is found to be very close to the bulk mobility. This is believed to be due to carrier screening of the ionized impurity scattering which dominates at the higher doping concentrations     

Analysis and measurement of mode polarizers in square waveguide

A general analysis approach for strip metallization structures enclosed in rectangular or square waveguide is presented. The technique involves the novel application of a commercially available 2.5-dimensional (2.5-D) method-of-moments-based (MoM) electromagnetic (EM) analysis tool to a three-dimensional (3-D) waveguide problem. Very good agreement is demonstrated between computed and measured results for several printed strip linear polarizers embedded within a square waveguide environment. This paper, to the authors' knowledge, represents the first such comparison of phase and magnitude between computed and measured data for strip grid polarizers in a waveguide environment. The developed approach involves construction of a theoretical waveguide “test fixture” and an associated theoretical de-embedding procedure. Computational advantages are expected over the alternative approach of using a finite-element-based fully 3-D analysis approach. The polarizer results have potential application to shielded versions of quasi-optic array components that have been demonstrated in open geometries, as well as to multimode antenna feeds, waveguide filters, and matching networks     

A time-frequency analysis method for radar scattering

A time-frequency analysis method to study electromagnetic scattering is presented and demonstrated using canonical objects. The time-frequency analysis method utilizes the Bargmann transform to formulate the signal representation in phase space. The use of the Bargmann transform leads to an attractive parametric signal representation in terms of complex polynomials, and elliptical filters can be constructed to crop or extract selected areas of the phase plane. The signal representation and filtering operations are demonstrated using scattering responses from spheres and thin wires, and the prominent scattering features are identified and extracted