Field-Effect Transistors Made by Functionalized Pentacene with Logic Gate Applications

Funtionalized pentacene, 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)pentacene (TIPS-pentacene), field-effect transistors (FET) were made by thermal evaporation or solution deposition methods and the temperature dependent mobility was measured. The field-effect mobility (μ_FET) activation energy is gate voltage dependent. At low gate voltage, activated conduction is dominant with Ea ~ 0.27 eV, slightly smaller than the bulk value, and the activation energy decreases with increasing gate voltage. This is ascribed to traps in the film. A non-monotonic temperature dependence is observed at high gate voltage (V_G < −30 V) with Ea ~ 60 - 170 meV at lower temperatures below the mobility maximum. Realization of simple logic gate circuits such as NOT (inverter), NOR, and NAND is demonstrated.     

Cascaded holographic polymer reflection grating filters for optical-code-division multiple-access applications

We evaluate the use of edge-illuminated holographic Bragg filters formed in phenanthrenequinone-doped poly(methyl methacrylate) for optical-code-division multiple-access (OCDMA) coding and decoding applications. Experimental cascaded Bragg filters are formed to select two different wavelengths with a fixed distance between the gratings and are directly coupled to a fiber-measurement system. The configuration and tolerances of the cascaded gratings are shown to be practical for time-wavelength OCDMA applications.     

Intraparticle reduction of arsenite (As(III)) by nanoscale zerovalent iron (nZVI) investigated with In Situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy

While a high efficiency of contaminant removal by nanoscale zerovalent iron (nZVI) has often been reported for several contaminants of great concern, including aqueous arsenic species, the transformations and translocation of contaminants at and within the nanoparticles are not clearly understood. By analysis using in situ time-dependent X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) of the arsenic core level for nZVI in anoxic As(III) solutions, we have observed that As(III) species underwent two stages of transformation upon adsorption at the nZVI surface. The first stage corresponds to breaking of As-O bonds at the particle surface, and the second stage involves further reduction and diffusion of arsenic across the thin oxide layer enclosing the nanoparticles, which results in arsenic forming an intermetallic phase with the Fe(0) core. Extended X-ray absorption fine-structure (EXAFS) data from experiments conducted at different iron/arsenic ratios indicate that the reduced arsenic species tend to be enriched at the surface of the Fe(0) core region and had limited mobility into the interior of the metal core within the experimental time frame (up to 22 h). Therefore, there was an accumulation of partially reduced arsenic at the Fe(0)/oxide interface when a relatively large arsenic content was present in the solid phase. These results illuminate the role of intraparticle diffusion and reduction in affecting the chemical state and spatial distribution of arsenic in nZVI materials.     

A stator resistance estimation scheme for speed sensorless rotor flux oriented induction motor drives

Accurate knowledge of stator resistance is of utmost importance for correct operation of a number of speed sensorless induction motor control schemes in the low speed region. Since stator resistance inevitably varies with operating conditions, stable and accurate operation at near-zero speed requires an appropriate online identification algorithm for the stator resistance. The paper proposes such an identification algorithm, which is developed for the rotor flux-based model reference adaptive system (MRAS) type of the speed estimator in conjunction with a rotor flux oriented control scheme. In this speed estimation method, only one degree of freedom (out of the two available) is utilized for speed estimation. It is proposed to utilize the second available degree of freedom as a means for adapting the stator resistance online. The parallel stator resistance and rotor speed identification algorithm is developed in a systematic manner, using Popov's hyperstability theory. It increases the complexity of the overall control system insignificantly and enables correct speed estimation and stable drive operation at near-zero speeds. The proposed speed estimator with parallel stator resistance identification is at first verified by simulation. Extensive experimentation is conducted next at low speeds of rotation and successful stator resistance identification is achieved down to 0.5-Hz frequency of rotation.     

Self-powered piezoelectric energy harvester for bicycle

Various electronic accessories, such as on-board computers, communication devices, and wireless sensor nodes, have been installed on bicycles for several years. A powering scheme from ambient energy could avoid the use of batteries and improve the availability of these devices even when the bicycle is unused for a long time. This paper reports on vibration resources detected in a bicycle as a potential energy source for supplying these on-board devices. Measurements showed that the bandwidth of energy vibration is reduced with speed and that the vibrations at any location in the bicycle are nevertheless sufficient for useful vibration harvesting. For this application, a piezoelectric vibration harvester was designed and equipped with a voltage switching interface circuit. Sufficient energy is harvested during the field test.     

Semi-passive piezoelectric structural damping based on a pulse-width modulation switching circuit

Studies in the past focused on the implementation of semi-passive damping techniques that could significantly reduce structural vibration. Recently, the performances of these damping techniques have been enhanced by artificially increasing the voltage amplitude delivered by the piezoelectric patches with an external voltage source. To maintain the stability of this damping method, an adaptive voltage source must be used. To satisfy this requirement, this study proposes an enhanced semi-passive damping technique based on pulse-width modulation. The proposed method allows the waveform of the piezoelectric voltage to adapt to the vibration velocity. Thus, this method can maintain its stability with a constant voltage source and simultaneously exhibit superior performance. This study consists of a theoretical part and an experimental proof-of-concept demonstration of the proposed damping technique.     

High-rate girth-eight low-density parity-check codes on rectangular integer lattices

This letter introduces a combinatorial construction of girth-eight high-rate low-density parity-check codes based on integer lattices. The parity-check matrix of a code is defined as a point-line incidence matrix of a 1-configuration based on a rectangular integer lattice, and the girth-eight property is achieved by a judicious selection of sets of parallel lines included in a configuration. A class of codes with a wide range of lengths and column weights is obtained. The resulting matrix of parity checks is an array of circulant matrices.     

Design of multiweight unipolar codes for multimedia optical CDMA applications based on pairwise balanced designs

A novel class of constant-length variable-weight optical orthogonal codes is proposed that can support multimedia services with different data rates and quality-of-service requirements. The construction is based on the pairwise balanced designs, or more specifically, on an incidence structure defined on an integer lattice. Proposed codes are suitable for spectral-amplitude coding, fast-frequency hopping, and time-spreading encoding in multimedia environment. A novel dual-balanced decoder is proposed capable of canceling multiuser interference in multimedia applications for spectral-amplitude-coding schemes employing the unipolar codes having nonfixed in-phase cross correlation.     

Noise-predictive BCJR equalization for suppression of intrachannel nonlinearities

An iterative equalization scheme for suppressing intrachannel nonlinearities in high-speed optical transmission systems operating at 40 Gb/s is presented. The proposed method employs a noise-predictive filter to mitigate the colored noise due to amplified spontaneous emission noise and optical filtering. The maximum a posteriori probability symbol detection implemented as the Bahl-Cocke-Jelinek-Raviv (BCJR) algorithm is employed to suppress the intrachannel nonlinear effects. Soft decision outputs provided by the noise-predictive BCJR equalizer are processed by an iterative low-density parity-check decoder.