Gain-coupled distributed feedback semiconductor lasers with anabsorptive conduction-type inverted grating

A gain-coupled (GC) distributed feedback (DFB) semiconductor laser with an absorptive conduction-type-inverted grating is proposed. Devices based on GaAlAs/GaAs materials are fabricated using two-step OMVPE. By inverting the conduction type of the absorptive region, threshold current is lowered by 10 mA, which is to compensate for the threshold increase due to extra absorption. In addition, nonlinear output property associated with the saturable nature of the absorption is eliminated. An ultralow chirping capability under gain switching high speed modulation and the narrow linewidth nature of this laser are experimentally studied     

Cell signaling and CDDP resistance

During myocardial ischemia, the extracellular potassium concentration increases in a triphasic pattern, an initial early increase, a constant phase, and a late increasing phase. The aim of this study was to determine whether diltiazem inhibits the late increasing phase by maintaining glycolytic adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthesis in ischemic myocardium. The extracellular potassium concentration and pH were measured simultaneously with ion-sensitive electrodes during 30 min of global ischemia in isolated guinea-pig hearts. In the control hearts, the late increasing phase occurred 13 min after the onset of ischemia when the change in extracellular pH had reached a plateau. There was a sharp increase in the myocardial lactate level in the control hearts, which was maintained for approximately 8 min after the onset of ischemia. Iodoacetate (1 mM) led to a ATP depletion and rapid accumulation in extracellular potassium shortly after the onset of ischemia without a decrease in extracellular pH. The preischemic treatment with diltiazem (3 microM) reduced cardiac function both before ischemia and during the early period of ischemia. Diltiazem almost completely abolished the late increasing phase with a continuous decrease in extracellular pH throughout the ischemic period. The myocardial lactate level in the diltiazem-treated group increased sharply between 2 and 15 min after the onset of ischemia. The myocardial ATP level was preserved throughout the ischemic period. This study shows that diltiazem inhibits the late increasing phase in extracellular potassium by maintaining glycolytic ATP synthesis during ischemia.     

Assessment of left ventricular function by pressure-volume loop in VSD and TOF before and after operation]

This study estimates the perioperative left ventricular function of VSD and TOF by using Pressure-Volume (PV) loop. The most characteristic hemodynamic change of VSD is a decreased volume load. Although ejection fraction significantly decreased after the operation, this change did not mean a deteriorated left ventricular contractility. Emax, which is an index of left ventricular contractility on PV loop, improved and pressure-volume area (PVA) which is correlated with 02 consumption of left ventricule was reduced. Mechanical efficiency of left ventricular energetic state did not significantly change. Left ventricular volume and ejection fraction in TOF slightly increased after the operation. Increased ejection fraction reflected a compensation to volume overload after surgery. Emax slightly decreased and PVA increased. Meanwhile mechanical efficiency increased after the operation indicating well preserved ventricular contractility. In particular, the shape of PV loop of both VSD and TOF eventually became usual square after operation due to recover of the isovolumic contraction and relaxation phase. These characteristics had better to be concerned for improvement of surgical techniques as in conotruncal repair, particularly in TOF in the setting of better quality of life with low atrial pressure.     

Optimization of grating duty factor in gain-coupled DFB lasers withabsorptive grating-analysis and fabrication

Grating duty factor strongly affects the performance of gain-coupled (GC) distributed feedback (DFB) laser diodes with an absorptive grating. Through numerical analysis the authors have found an optimum value in the duty factor for their low threshold operation. The minimum threshold gain achievable at this optimum duty factor is found to be almost independent of the order of the grating. According to this prediction, the authors have fabricated GaAlAs/GaAs GC DFB lasers with a third-order absorptive grating where the grating duty factor has been made close to the theoretical optimum value. In 200-μm-long devices with both facets as-cleaved, low CW threshold current of 25 mA, external efficiency of 0.5 mW/mA, and SMSR as high as 45 dB have been obtained, which is qualitatively consistent with the analysis. High yield of single mode oscillation seems to be the result of the gain coupling     

SAW velocity measurement of crystals and thin films by the phasevelocity scanning of interference fringes

We present principle and application of a novel noncontact velocity measurement of surface acoustic waves (SAW) on crystals and thin films using laser interference fringes scanned at the phase velocity of SAW. The scanning interference fringes (SIF) are produced by intersecting two laser beams with a frequency difference. The SAW velocity within the laser beam spot is measured as the ratio of observed SAW frequency and predetermined wave number of the SIF. The frequency measurement can be quite precise because of a large number of generated SAW carriers and amplitude enhancement effect. The SAW velocity measurement is free from the water loading effect accompanying the leaky SAW measurements. This principle was successfully applied to evaluate Si ₃N₄ and SiO₂ films deposited on Si (001) surface     

A cell transistor scalable DRAM array architecture

Presents a new DRAM array architecture for scaled DRAMs. This scheme suppresses the stress bias for memory cell transistors and enables memory cell transistor scaling. In this scheme, the data "1" and data "0" are written to the memory cell in different timing. First, for all selected cells, data "1" is written by boosting wordline (WL) voltage. Second, after pulling down WL voltage to a lowered value, data "0" is written only for data "0" cells. This scheme reduces stress bias for the cell transistor to half of that of the conventional operation. The time loss for data "1" write is eliminated by parallel processing of data "1" write and sense amplifier activation. This scheme realizes fast cycle time of 50 ns. By adopting the proposed scheme, the gate-oxide thickness of the cell transistor is reduced from 5.5 to 3 nm, and the memory cell size is reduced to 87% in 0.13-μm DRAM generation. Moreover, the application of the oxide-stress relaxation technique to all row-path circuits as well as the proposed scheme enables high-performance DRAM with only a thin gate-oxide transistor     

Low-profile helical array antenna fed from a radial waveguide

A low-profile array antenna composed of two-turn 4° pitch angle helices is designed for a frequency band of 11.7 GHz to 12.0 GHz. The feed wire of each helix is inserted into a radial waveguide through a small hole and excited by a traveling wave flowing in the transverse electromagnetic mode between the two parallel plates of the waveguide. The measured aperture efficiency shows a maximum value of 77% for a beam radiated in the normal direction and 69% for a 30° beam tilt     

A high-speed 16-kb GaAs SRAM of less than 5 ns using triple-levelmetal interconnection

The authors have realized 16-kb SRAMs with maximum address access time of less than 5 ns and typical power dissipation of less than 2 W at temperatures ranging from 25°C to 100°C. For the RAMs, they have developed a triple-level Au-based interconnection technology that reduces the wiring length and chip size of the SRAM so as to achieve high speed and high yield. Consequently, the wiring length and chip size are reduced to 69% and 58%, respectively, of those obtained by in previous work. The authors experimentally compared the delay time incurred by double-level interconnection and that by triple-level interconnection. This ratio is found to agree well with the simulated one by a model with distributed RC delay. After successfully suppressing Au hillock generation by lowering the process temperature, yield per wafer of 10% is obtained     

Effect of plasma surface modification on electrical conduction in polyethylene

High-density polyethylene films 50 μm thick were exposed to the downstream plasma flow of RF glow discharges in argon, hydrogen, or oxygen. It was found that many transvinylene and unreacted radicals remain after the argon or hydrogen plasma treatment, and that carbonyl groups are formed in the oxygen plasma treatment. The conduction current was smaller in the hydrogen-plasma treated samples and the samples exposed to oxygen or ozone after hydrogen-plasma treatment than in the untreated samples. Thermal pulse current measurements indicate that the treated surface layer traps electrons or holes and reduces the field strength at the electrode surface, thus suppressing further injection of electrons or holes.     

Realization of all-optical flip-flop using directionally coupled bistable laser diode

A novel all-optical flip-flop device has been realized using a directionally-coupled bistable laser diode (DC-BLD). We have fabricated the DC-BLD by a conventional fabrication technique of LDs. To separate the adjacent electrodes of the directional coupler, an oblique electron-beam evaporation technique was developed. By this self-align process, the two adjacent waveguides of the directional coupler were electrically isolated without employing any additional lithography step. Using the fabricated DC-BLD, all-optical flip-flop has been demonstrated due to the nonlinear effects of the saturable absorber and the directional coupler. The flip-flop operation has been achieved with sufficiently small input optical power level around 0 dBm.