A Method for the Deposition of Transparent Conducting Thin-Films of Tin Oxide

A modified method has been developed for the deposition of transparent semiconducting thin films of tin oxide, involving the chemical vapour phase oxidation of tin iodide. These films show sheet resistances greater than 100 Ω/□ and an average optical transmission in the visible range exceeding 80%. The method avoids uncontrolled contamination, resulting in better reproducibility of the films. The films showed direct and indirect transitions and the possibility of an indirect forbidden transition. X-ray diffraction studies reveal that the films are polycrystalline. The low mobility values of the films have been attributed to the grain boundary scattering effect.

Software simulation of the EEG

The literature contains many examples of digital procedures for the analytical treatment of electroencephalograms, but there is as yet no standard by which those techniques may be judged or compared. This paper proposes one method of generating an EEG, based on a computer program for Zetterberg's simulation. It is assumed that the statistical properties of an EEG may be represented by stationary processes having rational transfer functions and achieved by a system of software fillers and random number generators.The model represents neither the neurological mechanism response for generating the EEG, nor any particular type of EEG record; transient phenomena such as spikes, sharp waves and alpha bursts also are excluded. The basis of the program is a valid ‘partial’ statistical description of the EEG; that description is then used to produce a digital representation of a signal which if plotted sequentially, might or might not by chance resemble an EEG, that is unimportant. What is important is that the statistical properties of the series remain those of a real EEG; it is in this sense that the output is a simulation of the EEG. There is considerable flexibility in the form of the output, i.e. its alpha, beta and delta content, which may be selected by the user, the same selected parameters always producing the same statistical output. The filtered outputs from the random number sequences may be scaled to provide realistic power distributions in the accepted EEG frequency bands and then summed to create a digital output signal, the ‘stationary EEG’. It is suggested that the simulator might act as a test input to digital analytical techniques for the EEG, a simulator which would enable at least a substantial part of those techniques to be compared and assessed in an objective manner. The equations necessary to implement the model are given. The program has been run on a DEC1090 computer but is suitable for any microcomputer having more than 32 kBytes of memory; the execution time required to generate a 25 s simulated EEG is in the region of 15 s.

A comparative study of side-band Fresnel holograms recorded with self-imaging and general objects

This paper deals with new results obtained in regard to the reconstruction properties of side-band Fresnel holograms (SBFH) of self-imaging type objects (for example, gratings) as compared with those of general objects. The major finding is that a distribution I2, which appears on the real-image plane along with the conventional real-image I1, remains a 2Z distribution (where 2Z is the axial distance between the object and its self-imaging plane) under a variety of situations, while its nature and focusing properties differ from one situation to another. It is demonstrated that the two distributions I1 and I2 can be used in the development of a novel technique for image subtraction.

Periodic Rayleigh waves of finite amplitude on an isotropic solid

Existence of a periodic progressive wave solution to the nonlinear boundary value problem for Rayleigh surface waves of finite amplitude is demonstrated using an extension of the method of strained coordinates. The solution, obtained as a second-order perturbation of the linearized monochromatic Rayleigh wave solution, contains harmonics of all orders of the fundamental frequency. It is shown that the higher harmonic content of the wave increases with amplitude, but the slope of the waveform remains finite so long as the amplitude is less than a critical value.

Fast matrix transposition computer implementation

Eklundh's (1972) algorithm to transpose a large matrix stored on an external device such as a disc has been programmed and tested. A simple description of computer implementation is given in this note.

A pattern adaptive thinning algorithm

A simple sequential thinning algorithm for peeling off pixels along contours is described. An adaptive algorithm obtained by incorporating shape adaptivity into this sequential process is also given. The distortions in the skeleton at the right-angle and acute-angle corners are minimized in the adaptive algorithm. The asymmetry of the skeleton, which is a characteristic of sequential algorithm, and is due to the presence of T-corners in some of the even-thickness pattern is eliminated. The performance (in terms of time requirements and shape preservation) is compared with that of a modern thinning algorithm.

Reduced complexity two stage vector quantization

We address the issue of complexity for vector quantization (VQ) of wide-band speech LSF (line spectrum frequency) parameters. The recently proposed switched split VQ (SSVQ) method provides better rate-distortion (R/D) performance than the traditional split VQ (SVQ) method, even at the requirement of lower computational complexity. but at the expense of much higher memory. We develop the two stage SVQ (TsSVQ) method, by which we gain both the memory and computational advantages and still retain good R/D performance. The proposed TsSVQ method uses a full dimensional quantizer in its first stage for exploiting all the higher dimensional coding advantages and then, uses an SVQ method for quantizing the residual vector in the second stage so as to reduce the complexity. We also develop a transform domain residual coding method in this two stage architecture such that it further reduces the computational complexity. To design an effective residual codebook in the second stage, variance normalization of Voronoi regions is carried out which leads to the design of two new methods, referred to as normalized two stage SVQ (NTsSVQ) and normalized two stage transform domain SVQ (NTsTrSVQ). These two new methods have complimentary strengths and hence, they are combined in a switched VQ mode which leads to the further improvement in R/D performance, but retaining the low complexity requirement. We evaluate the performances of new methods for wide-band speech LSF parameter quantization and show their advantages over established SVQ and SSVQ methods.

Quaternary adder, subtractor and multiplier using quaternary multiplexer

Multiplexers, as in the case of binary, are very useful building blocks in the development of quaternary systems. The use of quaternary multiplexer (QMUX) in the implementation of quaternary adder, subtractor and multiplier is described in this paper. Quaternary coded decimal (QCD) adder/subtractor and quaternary excess-3 adder/subtractor realization using QMUX are also proposed

Analysis of avalanche breakdown in bipolar transistors based on majority carrier transportation

This paper describes a new analysis of the avalanche breakdown phenomenon in bipolar transistors for different bias conditions of the emitter-base junction. This analysis revolves around the transportation and storage of majority carriers in the base region. Using this analysis one can compute all the voltage-current characteristics of a transistor under avalanche breakdown.

Non-stationary signal analysis by least mean fourth (LMF) adaptive algorithm

A modified least mean fourth (LMF) adaptive algorithm applicable to non-stationary signals is presented. The performance of the proposed algorithm is studied by simulation for non-stationarities in bandwidth, centre frequency and gain of a stochastic signal. These non-stationarities are in the form of linear, sinusoidal and jump variations of the parameters. The proposed LMF adaptation is found to have better parameter tracking capability than the LMS adaptation for the same speed of convergence.

Formation of Standing Waves on Lecher Wires

With a short review of the work on the Lecher wire method of wavelength measurement, this paper describes in detail the wave form of current distribution along wires under a variety of terminal conditions of length and impedances.

Design of a TDD Multisector TDM MAC for the WiFiRe Proposal for Rural Broadband Access

The WiFiRe (WiFi Rural Extension) proposal for rural broadband access is being developed under the aegis of CEWIT. The system leverages the widely available, and highly cost-reduced, WiFi chipsets. However, only the physical layer from these chipsets is retained. A single base station carries several WiFi transceivers, each serving one sector of the cell, and all operating on the same WiFi channel in a time division duplex (TDD) manner. We replace the contention based WiFi MAC with a single-channel TDD multisector TDM MAC similar to the WiMax MAC. In this paper we discuss in detail the issues in designing such a MAC for the purpose of carrying packet voice telephony and for Internet access. The problem of determining the optimal spatial reuse is formulated and the optimal spatial reuse and the corresponding cell size is derived. Then the voice and data scheduler is designed. It is shown how throughput fairness can be implemented in the data scheduler. A capacity assessment of the system is also provided.

Low PAPR Square STBCs from Complex Partial-Orthogonal Designs (CPODs)

Space-time codes from complex orthogonal designs (CODs) with no zero entries offer low Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAPR) and avoid the problem of switching off antennas. But square CODs for 2(a) antennas with a + 1. complex variables, with no zero entries were discovered only for a <= 3 and if a + 1 = 2(k), for k >= 4. In this paper, a method of obtaining no zero entry (NZE) square designs, called Complex Partial-Orthogonal Designs (CPODs), for 2(a+1) antennas whenever a certain type of NZE code exists for 2(a) antennas is presented. Then, starting from a so constructed NZE CPOD for n = 2(a+1) antennas, a construction procedure is given to obtain NZE CPODs for 2n antennas, successively. Compared to the CODs, CPODs have slightly more ML decoding complexity for rectangular QAM constellations and the same ML decoding complexity for other complex constellations. Using the recently constructed NZE CODs for 8 antennas our method leads to NZE CPODs for 16 antennas. The class of CPODs do not offer full-diversity for all complex constellations. For the NZE CPODs presented in the paper, conditions on the signal sets which will guarantee full-diversity are identified. Simulation results show that bit error performance of our codes is same as that of the CODs under average power constraint and superior to CODs under peak power constraint.

Single-Symbol ML Decodable Distributed STBCs for Partially-Coherent Cooperative Networks

A relay network with N relays and a single source-destination pair is called a partially-coherent relay channel (PCRC) if the destination has perfect channel state information (CSI) of all the channels and the relays have only the phase information of the source-to-relay channels. In this paper, first, a new set of necessary and sufficient conditions for a space-time block code (STBC) to be single-symbol decodable (SSD) for colocated multiple antenna communication is obtained. Then, this is extended to a set of necessary and sufficient conditions for a distributed STBC (DSTBC) to be SSD for. a PCRC. Using this, several SSD DSTBCs for PCRC are identified. It is proved that even if a SSD STBC for a co-located MIMO channel does not satisfy the additional conditions for the code to be SSD for a PCRC, single-symbol decoding of it in a PCRC gives full-diversity and only coding gain is lost. It is shown that when a DSTBC is SSD for a PCRC, then arbitrary coordinate interleaving of the in-phase and quadrature-phase components of the variables does not disturb its SSD property for PCRC. Finally, it is shown that the possibility of channel phase compensation operation at the relay nodes using partial CSI at the relays increases the possible rate of SSD DSTBCs from (2)/(N) when the relays do not have CSI to(1)/(2), which is independent of N.

Within-Die Gate Delay Variability Measurement Using Reconfigurable Ring Oscillator

We report the design and characterization of a circuit technique to measure the on-chip delay of an individual logic gate (both inverting and noninverting) in its unmodified form. The test circuit comprises of digitally reconfigurable ring oscillator (RO). The gate under test is embedded in each stage of the ring oscillator. A system of linear equations is then formed with different configuration settings of the RO, relating the individual gate delay to the measured period of the RO, whose solution gives the delay of the individual gates. Experimental results from a test chip in 65-nm process node show the feasibility of measuring the delay of an individual inverter to within 1 ps accuracy. Delay measurements of different nominally identicall inverters in close physical proximity show variations of up to 28% indicating the large impact of local variations. As a demonstration of this technique, we have studied delay variation with poly-pitch, length of diffusion (LOD) and different orientations of layout in silicon. The proposed technique is quite suitable for early process characterization, monitoring mature process in manufacturing and correlating model-to-hardware.