Photomultiplication-Type Organic Photodetectors with High EQE-Bandwidth Product by Introducing a Perovskite Quantum Dot Interlayer

A photomultiplication (PM)-type organic photodetector (OPD) that exploits the ionic motion in CsPbI₃ perovskite quantum dots (QDs) is demonstrated. The device uses a QD monolayer as a PM-inducing interlayer and a donor–acceptor bulk heterojunction (BHJ) layer as a photoactive layer. When the device is illuminated, negative ions in the CsPbI₃ QD migrate and accumulate near the interface between the QDs and the electrode; these processes induce hole injection from the electrode and yield the PM phenomenon with an external quantum efficiency (EQE) >2000% at a 3 V applied bias. It is confirmed that the ionic motion of the CsPbI₃ QDs can induce a shift in the work function of the QD/electrode interface and that the dynamics of ionic motion determines the response speed of the device. The PM OPD showed a large EQE-bandwidth product >10⁶ Hz with a −3 dB frequency of 125 kHz at 3 V, which is one of the highest response speeds reported for a PM OPD. The PM-inducing strategy that exploits ionic motion of the interlayer is a potential approach to achieving high-efficiency PM OPDs.     

Silver Nanoflower Decorated Graphene Oxide Sponges for Highly Sensitive Variable Stiffness Stress Sensors

Soft conductive materials should enable large deformation while keeping high electrical conductivity and elasticity. The graphene oxide (GO)‐based sponge is a potential candidate to endow large deformation. However, it typically exhibits low conductivity and elasticity. Here, the highly conductive and elastic sponge composed of GO, flower‐shaped silver nanoparticles (AgNFs), and polyimide (GO‐AgNF‐PI sponge) are demonstrated. The average pore size and porosity are 114 µm and 94.7%, respectively. Ag NFs have thin petals (8–20 nm) protruding out of the surface of a spherical bud (300–350 nm) significantly enhancing the specific surface area (2.83 m² g^?1). The electrical conductivity (0.306 S m^?1 at 0% strain) of the GO‐AgNF‐PI sponge is increased by more than an order of magnitude with the addition of Ag NFs. A nearly perfect elasticity is obtained over a wide compressive strain range (0–90%). The strain‐dependent, nonlinear variation of Young's modulus of the sponge provides a unique opportunity as a variable stiffness stress sensor that operates over a wide stress range (0–10 kPa) with a high maximum sensitivity (0.572 kPa^?1). It allows grasping of a soft rose and a hard bottle, with the minimal object deformation, when attached on the finger of a robot gripper.     

Two-stage subspace identification for softsensor design and disturbance estimation

Softsensors or virtual sensors are key technologies in industry because important variables such as product quality are not always measured on-line. In the present work, two-stage subspace identification (SSID) is proposed to develop highly accurate softsensors that can take into account the influence of unmeasured disturbances on estimated key variables explicitly. The proposed two-stage SSID method can estimate unmeasured disturbances without the assumptions that the conventional Kalman filtering technique must make. Therefore, it can outperform the Kalman filtering technique when innovations are not Gaussian white noises or the characteristics of disturbances do not stay constant with time. The superiority of the proposed method over the conventional methods is demonstrated through numerical examples and application to an industrial ethylene fractionator.     

Classification of geographical origin of kimchi by volatile compounds analysis using an electronic nose

Food Science and Biotechnology - Food authenticity is one of the largest concerns in recent days. As kimchi has been a global food, its production origin has been important issue, particularly due...     

Determination of twisting angle of electrospun nanofiber bundle for continuous electrospinning system

Electrospinning continuously produced twisted nanofibers with a convergence coil and a rotating ring collector. The positively charged nozzle was used in the electrospinning process to deposit electrospun fibers of polyacrylonitrile onto a rotating ring collector. By withdrawing the electrospun fibers from the rotating ring collector, it was possible to spin the electrospun fibers yarn. In this study, theoretical approaches and numerical simulations were used to determine the twisting angle of the yarn. Using the equations developed in this study, we performed numerical simulations and compared the experimental results with the numerical simulation results. Mechanical properties of the fiber bundle were analyzed for twisting angle. It was confirmed the relationship among the winding drum, the ring collector, and flux of the fibers mass per time during electrospinning in the developed system. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017 , 134, 45528.     

Influence of electrolyte and anodic potentials on morphology of titania nanotubes

The effects of electrolyte and applied potentials on TiO₂ nanotube morphologies were investigated. The specific surface area of the TiO₂ nanotubes was measured to be 57 m²/g for titania nanotubes formed in HF, and 147 m²/g formed in organic electrolyte, respectively. The results of adsorption-desorption isotherms agree with the morphology of TiO₂ nanotubes. The length and average diameter of nanotubes were influenced by electrolyte and anodic potentials. The multilayered TiO₂ nanotube arrays can be fabricated by changing the electrolyte composition during anodization.     

Single-Chip Eye Tracker Using Smart CMOS Image Sensor Pixels

The eye tracker is a system that detects the point where the user gazes on. The conventional eye tracker using a Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) camera needs many peripherals and software computation causing high cost, computation time and power consumption. This paper proposes a single-chip eye tracker using smart CMOS Image Sensor (CIS) pixels. The proposed eye tracker does not require additional peripherals and operates at higher speed than the conventional approach. The prototype chip was designed and fabricated for a 32 × 32 smart CIS pixels array with a 0.35-μ m CMOS process. The test results show ± 1 pixel error at the rate of 125 frame-per-second. The power consumption is 260 mW with 3.3 V supply voltage and the silicon area is 3.8 mm²     

Analytical design of PID controller cascaded with a lead-lag filter for time-delay processes

An analytical method for the design of a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller cascaded with a second-order lead-lag filter is proposed for various types of time-delay process. The proposed design method is based on the IMC-PID method to obtain a desired, closed-loop response. The process dead time is approximated by using the appropriate Pade expansion to convert the ideal feedback controller to the proposed PID·filter structure with little loss of accuracy. The resulting PID·filter controller efficiently compensates for the dominant process poles and zeros and significantly improves the closed-loop performance. The simulation results demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed PID·filter controller over the conventional PID controllers. A guideline for the closed-loop time constant, λ, is also suggested for the FOPDT and SOPDT models.     

New dummy design and stiffener on warpage reduction in Ball Grid Array Printed Circuit Board

Printed Circuit Board (PCB) warpage increases as thickness decreases and ultimately is attributed to CTE mismatch and thickness geometry of the components. Recently, a thin Ball Grid Array (BGA) PCB has been developed due to the advantages like high electrical translation speed with low signal noise. Large warpage severely limited by BGA PCB performance leads to reliability issues modes such as crack and delamination between interconnection components. This is why a dummy design on a BGA PCB and metal stiffener on a Flip Chip (FC) BGA PCB warpage are analyzed experimentally.At the first step, new dummy design in BGA PCB (BoC type) is proposed to reduce warpage. The new dummy design is shaped as a bar. Results of the statistical experimental analysis show PCB warpage using the new dummy design is significantly reduced compared to the use of a PCB with a conventional dummy design. Furthermore, the new dummy design decreases PCB warpage by about 67%. These results signify that the stiffness of the BoC PCB is improved by the new dummy design because the bar-shaped Cu pattern in the dummy acts as a rigid bar stiffener.At the second step, metal stiffener effect is studied to reduce coreless FCBGA PCB warpage. Coreless FCBGA PCB, coreless FCBGA package, and specimens with non-symmetric structure are considered to determine metal stiffener effect on warpage. The experimental results show that metal stiffener has high stiffness, and it seems very effective on reducing average and standard deviation of coreless PCB warpage.     

Kinematic Soil-Structure Interaction from Strong Motion Recordings

Earthquake strong motion recordings from 29 sites with instrumented structures and free-field accelerographs are used to evaluate variations between foundation-level and free-field ground motions. The focus of the paper is on buildings with surface and shallowly embedded foundations. The foundation/free-field ground motion variations are quantified in terms of frequency-dependent transmissibility function amplitude ∣H∣. Procedures are developed to fit to ∣H∣ analytical models for base slab averaging for the assumed conditions of a rigid base slab and a vertically propagating, incoherent incident wave field characterized by ground motion incoherence parameter κ. The limiting assumptions of the model are not strictly satisfied for actual structures, and the results of the identification are apparent κ values (denoted κa) that reflect not only incoherence effects, but also possible foundation flexibility and wave inclination effects. Nonetheless, a good correlation is found between κa values and soil shear wave velocity for sites with stiff foundation systems. Based on these results, recommendations are made for modifying free-field ground motions to estimate base slab motions for use in response analyses of buildings.