Low RF noise and power loss for ion-implanted Si having an improved implantation process

Very-low-transmission line noise of <0.25 dB at 18 GHz and low power loss /spl les/0.6 dB at 110 GHz have been measured on transmission lines fabricated on proton-implanted Si. In contrast, a standard Si substrate gave much higher noise of 2.5 dB and worse power loss of 5 dB. The good RF integrity of proton-implanted Si results from the high isolation impedance to ground, as analyzed by an equivalent circuit model. The proton implantation is also done after forming the transmission lines at a reduced implantation energy of /spl sim/4 MeV. This enables easier process integration into current VLSI technology.     

Microhardness and corrosion behavior in CrN/electroless Ni/mild steel complex coating

The electroless nickel–phosphorous (Ni–P) coating was chosen as an interlayer to improve the properties of the CrN/mild steel (MS) composite. A hypophosphite-reduced acid solution was used to first deposit electroless Ni–P onto MS substrates, and then the CrN overlayer was deposited by reactive r.f. magnetron sputtering onto the electroless Ni–P modified substrate. The electroless Ni–P layer crystallizes with the precipitation of a Ni₃P phase during r.f. sputtering, and thus a coating–substrate composite of CrN/Ni–Ni₃P/MS is formed. The electroless Ni–P coating increases the surface hardness of the steel substrate to more than three times. The surface hardness of the CrN coating modified by an electroless Ni–P interlayer exhibits a hardness higher than 2000 HK_0.015. The usual substrate effect on the microhardness of the coatings is nearly eliminated with the complex coating feature, and a significant enhancement of surface hardness in the coating assembly is achieved. The corrosion tests indicate that the Ni–Ni₃P/MS configuration exhibits a more positive E_corr value (i.e. less electronegative) than CrN/MS and the corresponding potential curve is shifted toward the low-current side, indicating a better anti-corrosion performance. Through comparison of the E_corr values and the polarization curves, it is demonstrated that the CrN/Ni–Ni₃P/MS composite exhibits significantly higher corrosion resistance than the Ni–Ni₃P/MS and CrN/MS coating configurations.     

Logo detection with extendibility and discrimination

Logos are specially designed marks that identify goods, services, and organizations using distinguished characters, graphs, signals, and colors. Identifying logos can facilitate scene understanding, intelligent navigation, and object recognition. Although numerous logo recognition methods have been proposed for printed logos, a few methods have been specifically designed for logos in photos. Furthermore, most recognition methods use codebook-based approaches for the logos in photos. A codebook-based method is concerned with the generation of visual words for all the logo models. When new logos are added, the codebook reconstruction is required if effectiveness is a crucial factor. Moreover, logo detection in natural scenes is difficult because of perspective tilt and non-rigid deformation. Therefore, this study develops an extendable, but discriminating, model-based logo detection method. The proposed logo detection method is based on a support vector machine (SVM) using edge-based histograms of oriented gradient (HOGE) as features through multi-scale sliding window scanning. Thereafter, anti-distortion affine scale invariant feature transform (ASIFT) is used for logo verification with constraints on the ASIFT matching pairs and neighbors. The experimental results using the public Flickr-Logo database confirm that the proposed method has a higher retrieval and precision accuracy compared to existing model-based methods.

     

The evaluation of hot-working characteristics of cobalt-based implant alloys

The hot-working characteristics of wrought Co-Ni-Cr-Mo implant alloy during ingot-to-billet conversion were evaluated using a Gleeble-2000A simulator. The hot tensile test at 700–1 320 °C was used to determine the optimum hot-working parameters at a strain rate equivalent to that of conventional press forging to ensure acceptable hot workability. Hot ductility and deformation resistance as a function of temperature can be clearly established. The fracture surfaces of the tensile specimens were examined to correlate them with the hot tensile ductility values at various temperatures. The poor ductility at temperatures above 1300 °C was attributed to the incipient melting of grain boundaries. The effect of temperature and strain rate on the flow-stress behaviour and microstructures were investigated by uniaxial compression testing in the temperature range 900–1200 °C and strain rate, , range of 0.01–10s^–1. The strain-hardening and steady-state behaviour were described from the measured true stress-true strain curves.     

Corrosion of aluminium nitride substrates in acid,alkaline solutions and water

Aluminium nitride substrates were immersed in acid, basic solutions and deionized water for 1–120 h at room temperature. The corrosion rates are higher in basic solutions (NaOH and KOH) than those in acid solutions (CH₃COOH, HCOOH, HNO₃, HCl and H₂SO₄) and deionized water. The weight loss of AIN corroded in alkali aqueous reaches 70% and results in an increase in surface roughness ranging from 10 nm to 7 m after 3 days corrosion. However, the weight loss in acid solution is only 1/700 of the alkali case. Violent chemical reactions between AIN and basic solutions were observed. Na₂O, or Na₂Al₂O₄·6H₂O, is the intermediate product, and NaOH is a catalytic agent of the reaction. The surface morphology of the AIN etched by alkaline solutions is coral-like in microscopic view and appears like hills. In contrast, only several atomic layers of AIN surface are etched off in acid solutions and in deionized water. The lightly etched surface is mirror-like and flat, and the shapes of the grains are visible under the microscope, as the corrosion rate of each AIN grain varies with different crystal orientations. Consequently, after etching in acid solutions, the resulting microscopic surface morphology looks like a map of a jigsaw puzzle.     

The phase transformations and cycling performance of copper-tin alloy anode materials synthesized by sputtering

A sputtering technique was adopted to synthesize Sn-Cu thin film electrodes. Island Sn particles were obtained on the copper foil. Cu₆Sn₅ was spontaneously generated at the interface between Sn and Cu foil. To further improve the cycling stability, Cu source was introduced to increase the formation of Cu₆Sn₅ and to serve as a buffer during cycling. Moreover, the phase and elemental ratio of Sn and Cu varied in the synthesized electrode by alternately adjusting sputtering time for Sn and Cu. The cell synthesized by sputtering Sn for 5 min and Cu for 9 s alternately exhibited the best cycling stability. The 1st charge capacity of cell was 635 mA hg⁻¹, and the 1st efficiency was even higher than 97%. The capacity remained higher than 500 mA hg⁻¹ after 15 cycles. The phase transformation of cell was investigated through voltage profile, CV curve and in situ XRD analysis. The in situ XRD analysis confirmed that Cu₆Sn₅ could react with lithium directly without the presence of Li₂CuSn during cycling. The reaction mechanism of Cu₆Sn₅ with lithium during cycling was demonstrated to be an alloying process, and the structure of Cu₆Sn₅ was thus a low-temperature monoclinic phase.     

Dynamic real‐time monitoring of chloroform in an indoor swimming pool air using open‐path Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

This study used open‐path Fourier transform infrared (OP‐FTIR) spectroscopy to continuously assess the variation in chloroform concentrations in the air of an indoor swimming pool. Variables affecting the concentrations of chloroform in air were also monitored. The results showed that chloroform concentrations in air varied significantly during the time of operation of the swimming pool and that there were two peaks in chloroform concentration during the time of operation of the pool. The highest concentration was at 17:30, which is coincident with the time with the highest number of swimmers in the pool in a day. The swimmer load was one of the most important factors influencing the chloroform concentration in the air. When the number of swimmers surpassed 40, the concentrations of chloroform were on average 4.4 times higher than the concentration measured without swimmers in the pool. According to the results of this study, we suggest that those who swim regularly should avoid times with highest number of swimmers, in order to decrease the risk of exposure to high concentrations of chloroform. It is also recommended that an automatic mechanical ventilation system is installed to increase the ventilation rate during times of high swimmer load.     

Effects of characteristics of image quality in an immersive environment

Image quality issues such as field of view (FOV) and resolution are important for evaluating "presence" and simulator sickness (SS) in virtual environments (VEs). This research examined effects on postural stability of varying FOV, image resolution, and scene content in an immersive visual display. Two different scenes (a photograph of a fountain and a simple radial pattern) at two different resolutions were tested using six FOVs (30, 60, 90, 120, 150, and 180 deg.). Both postural stability, recorded by force plates, and subjective difficulty ratings varied as a function of FOV, scene content, and image resolution. Subjects exhibited more balance disturbance and reported more difficulty in maintaining posture in the wide-FOV, high-resolution, and natural scene conditions.