可配置的媒体处理器:无线多媒体解决方案

线多媒体依赖于复杂的视频软件/服务器技术，而流视频和音频的生成又依赖复杂的处理技术。有一种产品无疑会从无线多媒体技术中得益，这就是个人数字助理(PDA)。然而，不同的PDA所采用的微处理器性能水平不同，如某些支持低帧速率的视频流和用软件处理低分辨率，而另有一些则不支持任何类型的视频流。一个能支持高质量双向视频通信的PDA的系统需要很强的系统计算能力。提高性能的方法之一是采用常见的小型接口标准，如PCMCIA卡和CF卡，最新的PDA都支持这些接口标准。高级视频和无线处理系统都可以采用PCMCIA和CF电路卡的标准进…     

Study of metal barrier deposition-induced damage to porous low-k materials

A unique test structure based on a metal-insulator-semiconductor planar capacitor (Pcap) design was used to investigate several aspects of metal barrier-induced low-k damage. A special term called Effective Damage Thickness was introduced to describe the degree of damage. Ta(N) barrier was deposited on various dielectric films with porosity up to 32%. It has been found that the Effective Damage Thickness increases as the porosity increases. The damage is influenced more by the porosity of low-k films than the film density. Furthermore, the damage was modulated by Ta(N) deposition conditions. More damage was observed when higher target and/or substrate bias power was used, suggesting that the ion energy of the barrier material plays an important role in the low-k damage mechanism. A same degree of damage was observed for Ta barrier as for Ta(N), suggesting that Ta(N) deposition-induced low-k damage was primarily caused by Ta ions not nitrogen. Impact of Ru(Ta) and Cu(Mn) self forming barrier on low-k damage was also investigated. Among all the barriers studied in this work, the Ta-based barriers caused the most damage while the Cu(Mn) self forming barrier had the least damage to the low-k. The atomic masses for Ta, Ru, and Cu are 181, 101, and 64, respectively, corresponding with the observed degree of damage in the low-k material.     

An X-ray Radiography Study of the Effect of Thermal Cycling on Damage Evolution in Large-Area Sn-3.5Ag Solder Joints

There is a need for next-generation, high-performance power electronic packages and systems utilizing wide-band-gap devices to operate at high temperatures in automotive and electricity transmission applications. Sn-3.5Ag solder is a candidate for use in such packages with potential maximum operating temperatures of about 200°C. However, there is a need to understand the thermal cycling reliability of Sn-3.5Ag solders subject to such high-temperature operating conditions. The results of a study on the damage evolution occurring in large-area Sn-3.5Ag solder joints between silicon dies and direct bonded copper substrates with Au/Ni-P metallization subject to thermal cycling between 200°C and 5°C are presented in this paper. Interface structure evolution and damage accumulation were followed using high-resolution X-ray radiography, cross-sectional optical and scanning electron microscopies, and X-ray microanalysis in these joints for up to 3000 thermal cycles. Optical and scanning electron microscopy results showed that the stresses introduced by the thermal cycling result in cracking and delamination at the copper–intermetallic compound interface. X-ray microanalysis showed that stresses due to thermal cycling resulted in physical cracking and breakdown of the Ni-P barrier layer, facilitating Cu-Sn interdiffusion. This interdiffusion resulted in the formation of Cu-Sn intermetallic compounds underneath the Ni-P layer, subsequently leading to delamination between the Ni-rich layer and Cu-Sn intermetallic compounds.     

Host Exciton Confinement for Enhanced Förster‐Transfer‐Blend Gain Media Yielding Highly Efficient Yellow‐Green Lasers

This paper reports state‐of‐the‐art fluorene‐based yellow‐green conjugated polymer blend gain media using Förster resonant‐energy‐transfer from novel blue‐emitting hosts to yield low threshold (≤7 kW cm^?2) lasers operating between 540 and 590 nm. For poly(9,9‐dioctylfluorene‐co‐benzothiadiazole) (F8BT) (15 wt%) blended with the newly synthesized 3,6‐bis(2,7‐di([1,1′‐biphenyl]‐4‐yl)‐9‐phenyl‐9H‐fluoren‐9‐yl)‐9‐octyl‐9H–carbazole (DBPhFCz) a highly desirable more than four times increase (relative to F8BT) in net optical gain to 90 cm^?1 and 34 times reduction in amplified spontaneous emission threshold to 3 µJ cm^?2 is achieved. Detailed transient absorption studies confirm effective exciton confinement with consequent diffusion‐limited polaron‐pair generation for DBPhFCz. This delays formation of host photoinduced absorption long enough to enable build‐up of the spectrally overlapped, guest optical gain, and resolves a longstanding issue for conjugated polymer photonics. The comprehensive study further establishes that limiting host conjugation length is a key factor therein, with 9,9‐dialkylfluorene trimers also suitable hosts for F8BT but not pentamers, heptamers, or polymers. It is additionally demonstrated that the host highest occupied and lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals can be tuned independently from the guest gain properties. This provides the tantalizing prospect of enhanced electron and hole injection and transport without endangering efficient optical gain; a scenario of great interest for electrically pumped amplifiers and lasers.     

Topology design and bridge-capacity assignment for interconnecting token ring LANs: A simulated annealing approach

We address the problem of determining the topology and bridge-capacity assignments for a network connecting a number of token rings via source-routing bridges. The objective is to minimize the cost of bridge installations while meeting the network users' performance requirements. The problem is modeled as a mixed 0–1 integer program. A comparison is given between two solution algorithms: a simulated annealing algorithm using the flow-deviation algorithm for each routing subproblem, and a drop algorithm using the simplex method for the same subproblems to provide benchmark solutions. In the former algorithm, the routing subproblem is formulated as a nonlinear program with penalty functions to model node and link capacity constraints, and in the latter as a multicommodity flow model with the same capacity constraints. Computational results show that the simulated-annealing/flow-deviation algorithm produced substantially better solutions than the LP-based drop algorithm.     

SIMS characterization of HgCdTe and related II-VI compounds

The production of consistent high purity materials is critical for improvement in performance and sensitivity of II-VI photovoltaic and photoconductive devices. Information regarding the energy band structure and impurity or defect levels present in the material is essential to understand and enhance the performance of current detectors along with the development of future novel devices. Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is capable of providing information of purity, junction depths, dopant distribution, and stoichiometry in the material. SIMS techniques can achieve high detection sensitivities in very small analytical volumes and for a wide range of elements (almost the entire periodic table). SIMS analysis also provides unique capabilities for localizing atomic distribution in two and three dimensions. Ion images can be obtained by registering the positions of mass selected ions formed in the sputtering process. The combination of excellent detection sensitivity, high mass resolution, depth profiling capability, and high resolution image acquisition on a wide spectrum of elements by a SIMS instrument is not matched by any other instrumentation technique.     

Enhancing Planar Inverted Perovskite Solar Cells with Innovative Dumbbell-Shaped HTMs: A Study of Hexabenzocoronene and Pyrene-BODIPY-Triarylamine Derivatives

Dumbbell-shaped systems based on PAHs-BODIPY-triarylamine hybrids TM-(01-04) are designed as novel and highly efficient hole-transporting materials for usage in planar inverted perovskite solar cells. BODIPY is employed as a bridge between the PAH units, and the effects of the conjugated π-system's covalent attachment and size are investigated. Fluorescence quenching, 3D fluorescence heat maps, and theoretical studies support energy transfer within the moieties. The systems are extremely resistant to UVC 254 nm germicidal light sources and present remarkable thermal stability at degradation temperatures exceeding 350 °C. Integrating these systems into perovskite solar cells results in outstanding power conversion efficiency (PCE), with TM-02-based devices exhibiting a PCE of 20.26%. The devices base on TM-01, TM-03, and TM-04 achieve PCE values of 16.98%, 17.58%, and 18.80%, respectively. The long-term stability of these devices is measured for 600 h, with initial efficiency retention between 94% and 86%. The TM-04-based device presents noticeable stability of 94%, better than the reference polymer PTAA with 91%. These findings highlight the exciting potential of dumbbell-shaped systems based on PAHs-BODIPY-triarylamine derivatives for next-generation photovoltaics.     

Channel and Data Estimation for Ad Hoc Networks and Cognitive Radio

Estimation of channel and data characteristics by the receiver is important in adaptive wireless transmission protocols and in cognitive radio. This paper formulates the estimation problem with the help of an illustrative example from the IEEE 802.11a OFDM standard. The problem reduces to the estimation of the common component variance and mixing probabilities in a finite Gaussian mixture, with known values for component means. Using the known component means, μ₁, ... , μ _M , a set of non-linear transformations, and of the data (mixture random variable X) are used to develop convergent and computationally efficient estimators for both the noise variance and the vector of symbol probabilities. The estimation equations can be implemented recursively or with a batch processing algorithm. Asymptotic variances of the estimates and the Cramer–Rao minimum variance bounds are derived. The estimates converge to true unknowns even when the sequences of noise and data symbols are dependent sequences. The OFDM example is simulated with parameters corresponding to the highest acceptable error rate. For a time-varying channel model chosen from the literature, it is shown that our estimator receives considerably more than adequate amount of data during an average time interval of unchanging channel characteristics. Analytical results, numerical results and related issues are discussed.     

A novel UV-mediated low-temperature sintering of TiO2 for dye-sensitized solar cells

Titania pastes were fired at 450 °C in oxygen to give white titania that was used to prepare dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC). Titania fired at lower temperature and/or under inert atmosphere have brown stripes and cells made from these stripes had no measurable efficiency. When the titania paste was screen printed and then heated and simultaneously irradiated with UV light, white stripes were obtained. Improved efficiency was noted for PV cells made from pastes heated at lower temperature under irradiation vs. cells made from low-temperature heated paste but without irradiation. UV irradiation appears to facilitate clean oxidation of residual organic materials in the titania precursor pastes. The best cells in our study made with our titania paste treated at 450 °C in oxygen had the following characteristics: efficiency=3.45%; V_oc=630 mV; J_sc=8.5 mA/cm²; and a fill factor=0.64.     

Quantitation of vitamin K in human milk

A quantitative method was developed for the assay of vitamin K in human colostrum and milk. The procedure combines preparative and analytical chromatography on silica gel in a nitrogen atmosphere followed by reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Two HPLC steps were used: gradient separation with ultraviolet (UV) detection followed by isocratic separation detected electrochemically. Due to co-migrating impurities, UV detection alone is insufficient for identification of vitamin K. Exogenous vitamin K was shown to equilibrate with endogenous vitamin K in the samples. A statistical method was incorporated to control for experimental variability. Vitamin K₁ was analyzed in 16 pooled milk samples from 7 donors and in individual samples from 15 donors at 1 month post-partrum. Vitamin K₁ was present at 2.94±1.94 and 3.15±2.87 ng/mL in pools and in individuals, respectively. Menaquinones, the bacterial form of the vitamin, were not detected. The significance of experimental variation to studies of vitamin K in individuals is discussed.