Connectivity and performance tradeoffs in the cascade correlationlearning architecture

The cascade correlation is a very flexible, efficient and fast algorithm for supervised learning. It incrementally builds the network by adding hidden units one at a time, until the desired input/output mapping is achieved. It connects all the previously installed units to the new unit being added. Consequently, each new unit in effect adds a new layer and the fan-in of the hidden and output units keeps on increasing as more units get added. The resulting structure could be hard to implement in VLSI, because the connections are irregular and the fan-in is unbounded. Moreover, the depth or the propagation delay through the resulting network is directly proportional to the number of units and can be excessive. We have modified the algorithm to generate networks with restricted fan-in and small depth (propagation delay) by controlling the connectivity. Our results reveal that there is a tradeoff between connectivity and other performance attributes like depth, total number of independent parameters, and learning time.     

Modeling of laser cladding with powder injection

Laser cladding is one of the material additive manufacturing processes used to produce a metallurgically bonded deposition layer. To obtain a high-quality resulting part, a deep understanding of the underlying mechanisms is required. In this article, a mathematical model is developed to simulate the coaxial laser-cladding process with powder injection, which includes laser- substrate, laser-powder, and powder-substrate interactions. The model considers most of the associated phenomena, such as melting, solidification, evaporation, evolution of the free surface, and powder injection. The fluid flow in the melt pool, which is mainly driven by Marangoni shear stress as well as particle impinging, together with the energy balances at the liquid-vapor and the solid-liquid interfaces, are investigated. Powder heating and laser power attenuation due to the powder cloud are incorporated into the model in the calculation of the temperature distribution. The influences of the powder injection on the melt pool shape, penetration, and flow pattern are predicted through the comparison for the cases with powder injection and without powder injection. Dynamic behavior of the melt pool and the formation of the clad are simulated. The effects of the process parameters on the melt pool dimension and peak temperature are further investigated based on the validated model.     

Synthesis of submicron size silver powder for passive components application

Submicron silver powder was prepared from AgNO₃ by a chemical reduction method in the presence of a mixture of caprylic acid and triethanolamine as a surfactant. Hydrazine hydrate (N₂H₄·H₂O) is preferred as a reducing agent. A spherical silver powder with an average particle size of about 150 nm was achieved. Effort was also made to correlate the crystal structure and microstructure evolution of the prepared powders with the resultant thick film characteristics.     

Censored Sampling in Curtailed Sampling Plans by Attributes

In this paper we have considered four different ways of reporting the results of sampling inspection associated with the curtailed sampling plans of [2]. These cases take into consideration that some information of the inspection results is suppressed and hence these cases turn to be particular cases of censored sampling. Maximum likelihood estimate of the fraction defective and its asymptotic variance are obtained and comparison is made between the cases considered here and cases in [2].     

Investigations on thiourea content in ternary Sn–Ag–Cu bath using electrochemical studies

We have developed a methane sulfonic acid (MSA) based ternary electrolytic bath for co-deposition of the eutectic Sn–Ag–Cu films. The bath contains thiourea (TU), which functioned as an effective chelating agent in controlling the bath stability as well as the elemental and microstructural properties of the deposited film. A study of the bath behaviour at TU concentrations in the range 0.06–0.2 M is undertaken with the help of elemental and microstructure analysis, cyclic voltammetry (CV) and impedance analysis. The deposited films have close to eutectic composition with slightly higher Cu content for all the TU concentrations. On the other hand, the microstructure is found to be increasingly refined with increasing TU content. The CV and impedance analysis confirm chelation of Ag and Cu with TU and absence of such chelation with Sn ions. It also indicates close deposition potentials for each metal ion. Impedance analysis specifically reveals presence of an adsorbed insulating film on cathode surface, contributed by MSA or water. It also reveals competitive deposition between the insulating film and metal ions.     

Statistical downscaling of rainfall data using sparse variable selection methods

In many statistical downscaling methods, atmospheric variables are chosen by using a combination of expert knowledge with empirical measures such as correlations and partial correlations. In this short communication, we describe the use of a fast, sparse variable selection method, known as RaVE, for selecting atmospheric predictors, and illustrate its use on rainfall occurrence at stations in South Australia. We show that RaVE generates parsimonious models that are both sensible and interpretable, and whose results compare favourably to those obtained by a non-homogeneous hidden Markov model (Hughes et al., 1999).     

Sensor-based modeling of slurry chemistry effects on the material removal rate (MRR) in copper-CMP process

Material removal rate (MRR) and surface quality in copper-chemical mechanical planarization (Cu-CMP) process are highly sensitive to slurry chemistry parameters, namely, pH, and concentrations of complexing, corrosion inhibiting, and oxidizing agents. Capturing the effects of these slurry parameters on MRR and surface quality in real time through the use of sensor signals is key to ensuring an efficient Cu-CMP process. In this paper, vibration sensor signals collected from the Cu-CMP experiments are used to capture the variations in various slurry parameters as well as their influence on the MRR. Two sensors, namely, a wired accelerometer (Kistler Model 8728A500, sampling at 5 kHz) and a single channel wireless accelerometer (Tmote Sky sensor node, sampling at 500 Hz) are mounted at two distinct locations on a LapMaster-12 bench-top polishing machine. Various statistical features related to time and frequency domain characteristics of the sensor signals are extracted. It was found that principal component regression models relating these features to MRR are significantly more accurate than the conventional statistical regression models that use process parameters (slurry chemistry settings) only to estimate MRR.     

Dispersion characteristics of optically excited coplanarstriplines: comprehensive full-wave analysis

A comprehensive full-wave formulation to evaluate the dispersion and losses for coplanar striplines on substrates of finite and infinite thicknesses is presented. The loss mechanisms incorporated in the analysis are substrate losses and dielectric material losses. The method of N.K. Das and D.M. Pozar (1987) is generalized to include a complex propagation vector and can be used over a wide frequency range. A large range of line dimensions can also be handled, limits being set by the accuracy of the moment method. Metal losses can also be incorporated into this analysis by applying the appropriate boundary conditions for lossy metal. Analytically, the excitation of substrate modes is shown to correspond to the occurrence of the poles of the Green's function in the reaction integrals. Results of the full-wave analysis are in good agreement with those obtained by established theory     

Synthesis and compressive behavior of Cr2GeC up to 48 GPa

M_n+1AX_n compounds have gathered huge momentum because of its exciting properties. In this paper we report the synthesis of ternary layered ceramic Cr₂GeC, a 211 M_n+1AX_n compound by hot-pressing. Scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction have been employed to characterize the new synthesized phase. High-pressure compressibility of Cr₂GeC were measured using diamond anvil cell and synchrotron radiation at room temperature up to 48 GPa. No phase transformation was observed in the experimental pressure range. The bulk modulus of Cr₂GeC calculated using the Birch–Murnaghan equation of state is 169 ± 3 GPa, with K′ = 3.05 ± 0.15.