Sputtered Zn(O,S) buffer layers for CIGS solar modules—from lab to pilot production

Sputtering of Zn(O,S) from ZnO/ZnS compound targets has been proven to be a promising buffer layer process for Cd‐free CIGS modules due to easy in‐line integration, low cost and high efficiency on lab scale. In this publication, we report on successful upscaling of the lab process to pilot production. A record aperture efficiency of 13.2% has been reached on a 50 × 120 cm² sized module. Neither a non‐doped ZnO layer nor additional annealing steps are required. Moreover, this very reproducible process yields a standard deviation comparable with that of the CdS base line. In contrast to lab experiments, strong performance gain after light soaking has been observed. The light‐soak‐induced power increase depends on the preparation of the window layer. Accelerated aging tests show high stability of module power. This is confirmed by outdoor testing for 20 months. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A survey of cross‐layer protocols for IEEE 802.11 wireless multi‐hop mesh networks

There has been an escalation in deployment and research of wireless mesh networks by both the business community and academia in the last few years. Their attractive characteristics include low deployment cost, a low‐cost option to extend network coverage and ease of maintenance due to their self‐healing properties. Multiple routes exist between the sender and receiver nodes because of the mesh layout that ensures network connectivity even when node or link failures occur. Recent advances among others include routing metrics, optimum routing, security, scheduling, cross‐layer designs and physical layer techniques. However, there are still challenges in wireless mesh networks as discussed in this paper that need to be addressed. Cross‐layer design allows information from adjacent and non‐adjacent layers to be used at a particular layer for performance improvement. This paper presents a survey of cross‐layer protocol design approaches applied to the IEEE 802.11 standards for wireless multi‐hop mesh networks that have been proposed over the last few years for improved performance. We summarize the current research efforts in cross‐layer protocol design using the IEEE 802.11 standard in identifying unsolved issues that are a promising avenue to further research. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

FaceHunter: A multi-task convolutional neural network based face detector

In this paper, we propose a new multi-task Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) based face detector, which is named FaceHunter for simplicity. The main idea is to make the face detector achieve a high detection accuracy and obtain much reliable face boxes. Reliable face boxes output will be much helpful for further face image analysis. To reach this goal, we design a deep CNN network with a multi-task loss, i.e., one is for discriminating face and non-face, and another is for face box regression. An adaptive pooling layer is added before full connection to make the network adaptive to variable candidate proposals, and the truncated SVD is applied to compress the parameters of the fully connected layers. To further speed up the detector, the convolutional feature map is directly used to generate the candidate proposals by using Region Proposal Network (RPN). The proposed FaceHunter is evaluated on the AFW dataset, FDDB dataset and Pascal Faces respectively, and extensive experiments demonstrate its powerful performance against several state-of-the-art detectors.     

对称电极组空间位阻效应交流电渗流研究

建立了一种对称电极组交流电渗流微泵结构,通过改变相邻电极间的AC信号相位,可以方便地实现对微通道流向的控制。根据双电层离子数的空间位阻效应修正,数值求解了双电层Poisson-Boltzmann方程和液体流动Navier-Stokes方程,得到了对称电极组交流电渗微泵的流动特性。分析了微泵流速与交流电压幅值、频率等参数的关系特性,并与双电层Debye-Hückel线性解进行比较。结果表明,空间位阻效应修正在低电压时与Debye-Hückel线性解一致,但是在高电压时会产生高频反向流。     

一种全封闭的对称型刚挠结合板生产工艺

以刚性板的制程工艺为基础介绍了一种全封闭式的对称型刚挠结合板的制作方法,并且对制程的几个关键环节进行充分的分析和说明,以一种能够产业化的工艺路线从设计、生产、质量控制等角度全面展示了这一工艺的实现过程。     

Superior suppression of gate current leakage in Al<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript>/Si<Subscript>3</Subscript>N<Subscript>4</Subscript> bilayer-based AlGaN/GaN insulated gate heterostructure field-effect transistors

AlGaN/GaN-based metal-insulator-semiconductor heterostructure field-effect transistors (MIS-HFETs) with Al₂O₃/Si₃N₄ bilayer as insulator have been investigated in detail, and compared with the conventional HFET and Si₃N₄-based MIS-HFET devices. Al₂O₃/Si₃N₄ bilayer-based MIS-HFETs exhibited much lower gate current leakage than conventional HFET and Si₃N₄-based MIS devices under reverse gate bias, and leakage as low as 1×10⁻¹¹ A/mm at −15 V has been achieved in Al₂O₃/Si₃N₄-based MIS devices. By using ultrathin Al₂O₃/Si₃N₄ bilayer, very high maximum transconductance of more than 180 mS/mm with ultra-low gate leakage has been obtained in the MIS-HFET device with gate length of 1.5 μm, a reduction less than 5% in maximum transconductance compared with the conventional HFET device. This value was much smaller than the more than 30% reduction in the Si₃N₄-based MIS device, due to the employment of ultra-thin bilayer with large dielectric constant and the large conduction band offset between Al₂O₃ and nitrides. This work demonstrates that Al₂O₃/Si₃N₄ bilayer insulator is a superior candidate for nitrides-based MIS-HFET devices.     

SMT制程工艺对Sn-37Pb/Cu焊接界面影响

采用扫描电镜(SEM)研究了表面贴装技术制程工艺,包括锡膏黏度、锡膏模板厚度、传送带速度、恒温区保温时间、印刷电路板烘烤处理等对Sn-37Pb/Cu焊接界面层的影响.结果显示,SMT制程工艺并不影响焊接界面金属间化合物层的组成,IMCs主要成分为Cu6Sn5相,但影响了IMCs层的形态与厚度,其中传送带速度影响了Cu6Sn5相的平均直径,而恒温区保温时间则对IMCs层的形态与厚度影响最大.     

Exploiting IP‐layer traffic prediction analytics to allocate spectrum resources using swarm intelligence

Elastic optical networks emerge as a reliable backbone platform covering the next‐generation connectivity requirements. It consists of advanced enabling components that provide the ability for extensive configuration leading to performance improvement in many areas of interest. Higher layer analytics like data from IP traffic prediction can assist in the process of allocating resources at the optical layer. This way, light connections are established more efficiently while targeting specific performance goals. For that purpose, an algorithm is designed and evaluated that exploits traffic prediction of data transfers between nodes of an optical metro or backbone network. Next, it utilizes adaptive functionality based on particle swarm optimization to find paths with available spectrum resources. These resources can facilitate more efficiently the future traffic demand, since traffic prediction data are considered when finding the related paths. The innovative resource allocation method is evaluated using small and very large real topologies. It scales (in execution time and resource usage) according to node increase, executes in feasible time frames, and reduces transponder utilization resulting to increased energy efficiency.     

Circumventing Dedicated Electrolytes in Light‐Emitting Electrochemical Cells

Light‐emitting electrochemical cells (LECs) are devices that utilize efficient ion redistribution to produce high‐efficiency electroluminescence in a simple device architecture. Prototypical polymer LECs utilize three components in the active layer: a luminescent conducting polymer, a salt, and an electrolyte. Similarly, many small‐molecule LECs also utilize an electrolyte to disperse salts. In these systems, the electrolyte is incorporated to efficiently conduct ions and to maintain phase compatibility between all components. However, certain LEC approaches and materials systems enable device operation without a dedicated electrolyte. This review describes the general methods and materials used to circumvent the use of a dedicated electrolyte in LECs. The techniques of synthetically coupling electrolytes, incorporating ionic liquids, and introducing inorganic salts are presented in view of research efforts to date. The use of these techniques in emerging classes of light‐emitting electrochemical cells is also discussed. These approaches have yielded some of the most efficient, long‐lasting, and commercially applicable LECs to date.     

光纤耦合声光调制器键合膜系设计与制备

为了实现超高速的声光调制,该文提出了一种光纤耦合声光调制器键合膜系的设计与仿真方法。利用该方法设计并制作了一款工作频率为200 MHz、10 ns光脉冲上升时间的光纤耦合声光调制器。器件采用TeO2作为声光介质,36°Y 切LiNbO3作为压电换能器晶片,衬底层采用高纯度Cr,键合层为高纯度Au,结果表明器件性能测试良好。