Reliability investigation of 0.07-/spl mu/m InGaAs-InAlAs-InP HEMT MMICs with pseudomorphic In/sub 0.75/Ga/sub 0.25/As channel

The authors have investigated the reliability performance of G-band (183 GHz) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) amplifiers fabricated using 0.07-/spl mu/m T-gate InGaAs-InAlAs-InP HEMTs with pseudomorphic In/sub 0.75/Ga/sub 0.25/As channel on 3-in wafers. Life test was performed at two temperatures (T/sub 1/ = 200 /spl deg/C and T/sub 2/ = 215 /spl deg/C), and the amplifiers were stressed at V/sub ds/ of 1 V and I/sub ds/ of 250 mA/mm in a N/sub 2/ ambient. The activation energy is as high as 1.7 eV, achieving a projected median-time-to-failure (MTTF) /spl ap/ 2 /spl times/ 10/sup 6/ h at a junction temperature of 125 /spl deg/C. MTTF was determined by 2-temperature constant current stress using /spl Delta/G/sub mp/ = -20% as the failure criteria. The difference of reliability performance between 0.07-/spl mu/m InGaAs-InAlAs-InP HEMT MMICs with pseudomorphic In/sub 0.75/Ga/sub 0.25/As channel and 0.1-/spl mu/m InGaAs-InAlAs-InP HEMT MMICs with In/sub 0.6/Ga/sub 0.4/As channel is also discussed. The achieved high-reliability result demonstrates a robust 0.07-/spl mu/m pseudomorphic InGaAs-InAlAs-InP HEMT MMICs production technology for G-band applications.     

Current IMT-2000 R&D status and views in Korea

In this article Korean development of IMT-2000 is considered. It includes the second-generation digital mobile communications, R&D and standardization activities related to IMT-2000, and the authors' perspectives on IMT-2000 in Korea. In Korea, there are many activities for development of IMT-2000 radio transmission technologies, and the results of these activities will be the submission of technologies to the ITU. However, the Korean telecommunications standardization body (TTA) will make every effort to make a common global standard for IMT-2000. Therefore, the TTA will make a domestic standard for IMT-2000 after the ITU finalizes the related Recommendations. It seems to the authors that difficulties in harmonization in the TTA are very similar to difficulties in harmonization worldwide. The only way of reaching the harmonization of IMT-2000 in Korea is that the key players should have the view from the end users' seat     

ADI-FDTD Method With Fourth Order Accuracy in Time

This letter presents an unconditionally stable alternating direction implicit finite-difference time-domain (ADI-FDTD) method with fourth order accuracy in time. Analytical proof of unconditional stability and detailed analysis of numerical dispersion are presented. Compared to second order ADI-FDTD and six-steps SS-FDTD, the fourth order ADI-FDTD generally achieves lower phase velocity error for sufficiently fine mesh. Using finer mesh gridding also reduces the phase velocity error floor, which dictates the accuracy limit due to spatial discretization errors when the time step size is reduced further.     

An Optimized Content-Aware Authentication Scheme for Streaming JPEG-2000 Images Over Lossy Networks

This paper proposes an optimized content-aware authentication scheme for JPEG-2000 streams over lossy networks, where a received packet is consumed only when it is both decodable and authenticated. In a JPEG-2000 codestream, some packets are more important than others in terms of coding dependency and image quality. This naturally motivates allocating more redundant authentication information for the more important packets in order to maximize their probability of authentication and thereby minimize the distortion at the receiver. Towards this goal, with the awareness of its corresponding image content, we formulate an optimization framework to compute an authentication graph to maximize the expected media quality at the receiver, given specific authentication overhead and knowledge of network loss rate. System analysis and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme achieves our design goal in that the rate-distortion (R-D) curve of the authenticated image is very close to the R-D curve when no authentication is required     

Long-term results after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation for chronic myelogenous leukemia in chronic phase: a report from the Chronic Leukemia Working Party of the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation

The purpose of this study was to determine the long-term results of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation for chronic myeloid leukemia. A retrospective analysis was carried out of the outcome of 373 consecutive transplants performed at 38 European institutions between 1980 and 1988 and reported to the registry of the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. All transplants were carried out for first chronic phase of chronic myelogenous leukemia using unmanipulated marow cells from HLA-identical sibling donors. The probability of survival and leukemia-free survival at 8 years were 54% (95% CI: 49-59) and 47% (95% CI: 41-52) respectively. The probabilities of developing acute GVHD (II-IV) at 100 days and chronic GVHD at 4 years after transplant were 47% (95% CI: 41-53) and 52% (95% CI: 46-58) respectively. The probabilities of transplant-related mortality and leukemic relapse 8 years after BMT were 41% (95% CI: 36-48) and 19% (95% CI: 14-25), respectively. Transplant within 12 months of diagnosis was associated with reduced transplant-related mortality (34 vs 45%, P = 0.013) and resulted in improved leukemia-free survival (52 vs 44%, P = 0.03). The probability of relapse was significantly reduced in patients who developed chronic GVHD (RR = 0.33, P = 0.004). The probability of relapse occurring more than 2 years after transplant was increased more than five-fold in patients transplanted from a male donor (RR = 5.5, P = 0.006). Sixty-seven patients in hematologic remission were studied for residual disease by two-step RT/PCR for BCR-ABL mRNA and 61 (91%) tested negative. We conclude that bone marrow transplantation can induce long-term survival in approximately one-half of CML patients; the majority of survivors have no evidence of residual leukemia cells when studied by molecular techniques. The probability of late relapse is increased with use of a male donor.     

Comparison of Markov model and fault tree approach in determining initiating event frequency for systems with two train configurations

This study explores the use of Markov models in some areas of systems analysis in which time evolution of the system may be a significant factor in influencing the system reliability or availability. Comparisons are made between the Markov models and the time-averaged fault tree models for determining support system failure initiating event frequency in a nuclear power plant, for both power and shutdown conditions. Factors affecting consistency between the fault tree approach and the Markov model approach are studied for systems with common two train configurations. A correlation is developed to estimate the ratio between initiator frequencies through both approaches for a two parallel component system. Insights are developed as to when time averaged and simplified fault tree models support a good approximation to the more rigorous time-dependent Markov models.     

Rectilinear steiner tree heuristics and minimum spanning tree algorithms using geographic nearest neighbors

We study the application of the geographic nearest neighbor approach to two problems. The first problem is the construction of an approximately minimum length rectilinear Steiner tree for a set ofn points in the plane. For this problem, we introduce a variation of a subgraph of sizeO(n) used by YaO [31] for constructing minimum spanning trees. Using this subgraph, we improve the running times of the heuristics discussed by Bern [6] fromO(n ² log n) toO(n log² n). The second problem is the construction of a rectilinear minimum spanning tree for a set ofn noncrossing line segments in the plane. We present an optimalO(n logn) algorithm for this problem. The rectilinear minimum spanning tree for a set of points can thus be computed optimally without using the Voronoi diagram. This algorithm can also be extended to obtain a rectilinear minimum spanning tree for a set of nonintersecting simple polygons.The results in this paper are a part of Y. C. Yee's Ph.D. thesis done at SUNY at Albany. He was supported in part by NSF Grants IRI-8703430 and CCR-8805782. S. S. Ravi was supported in part by NSF Grants DCI-86-03318 and CCR-89-05296.     

Effects of ternary additions on the thermoelastic martensitic transformation of NiAl

Nickel-rich β-NiAl alloys, which are potential materials for high-temperature shape-memory alloys, show a thermoelastic martensitic transformation, which produces their shape memory effect. However, the transformation to Ni₅Al₃ phase during heating of NiAl martensite can interrupt the reversible martensitic transformation; consequently, the shape memory effect in NiAl martensite might not appear after heating. The phase transformation process in binary Ni-(34 to 37)Al martensite was investigated by differential thermal analysis (DTA) method, and we found that the condition of reversible martensitic transformation was not the β → Ni₅Al₃ transformation, but rather the M → Ni₅Al₃ transformation occurring at 250 °C to 300 °C. Therefore, the transformation temperature of M → Ni₅Al₃ determined the highest operating temperature for the shape memory effect. For verifying the critical temperature, the phase transformation process was investigated for eight ternary Ni-33Al-X alloys (X=Cu, Co, Fe, Mn, Cr, Ti, Si, and Nb). Only Ti, Si, and Nb additions were found to be effective in dropping the M _s temperature, and they facilitated the shape memory effect in Ni-33Al-X alloys. In particular, the addition of Si and Nb raised the transformation temperature of M → Ni₅Al₃, a potentially beneficial effect for shape memory at higher temperatures. This article is based on a presentation made in the symposium entitled “Fundamentals of Structural Intermetallics,” presented at the 2002 TMS Annual Meeting, February 21–27, 2002, in Seattle, Washington, under the auspices of the ASM and TMS Joint Committee on Mechanical Behavior of Materials.