Design and performance analysis of MAC schemes for Wireless Sensor Networks Powered by Ambient Energy Harvesting

Energy consumption is a perennial issue in the design of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) which typically rely on portable sources like batteries for power. Recent advances in ambient energy harvesting technology have made it a potential and promising alternative source of energy for powering WSNs. By using energy harvesters with supercapacitors, WSNs are able to operate perpetually until hardware failure and in places where batteries are hard or impossible to replace. In this paper, we study the performance of different medium access control (MAC) schemes based on CSMA and polling techniques for WSNs which are solely powered by ambient energy harvesting using energy harvesters. We base the study on (i) network throughput (S), which is the rate of sensor data received by the sink, (ii) fairness index (F), which determines whether the bandwidth is allocated to each sensor node equally and (iii) inter-arrival time (γ) which measures the average time difference between two packets from a source node. For CSMA, we compare both the slotted and unslotted variants. For polling, we first consider identity polling. Then we design a probabilistic polling protocol that takes into account the unpredictability of the energy harvesting process to achieve good performance. Finally, we present an optimal polling MAC protocol to determine the theoretical maximum performance. We validate the analytical models using extensive simulations incorporating experimental results from the characterization of different types of energy harvesters. The performance results show that probabilistic polling achieves high throughput and fairness as well as low inter-arrival times.     

大孔TiO_2-ZnO复合纳米材料的制备及其性能

采用溶胶-凝胶法和胶态晶体模板法,制备了大孔TiO2-ZnO复合纳米材料。其晶相结构和形貌特征采用X射线粉末衍射(XRD)、透视电子显微镜(TEM)进行了表征,并以甲基橙为降解对象,对其光催化活性进行了研究。结果表明,采用无皂乳液聚合法得到的聚苯乙烯(PS)微球粒径均匀,为900nm。以紧密堆积的PS胶态晶体为模板,制得的TiO2-ZnO复合纳米材料的大孔孔径约为900nm,孔壁厚度约为20nm。XRD结果显示,材料中的TiO2为锐钛矿型。光催化降解结果表明,大孔TiO2-ZnO复合纳米材料对甲基橙降解1.5h后降解率可达91.3%,与普通的TiO2-ZnO纳米粉体材料相比提高了11.2%.     

认知无线电中基于加权硬判决的协作频谱感知算法

Weighted one bit hard combination for cooperative spectrum sensing is proposed in this paper. Two thresholds are adopted to divide the possible energy value into three weighted regions.If the energy value falls into the corresponding region, it will be judged as “1”, no information or “0”. When the probability of false alarm is constrained to be constant, the objective is to maximize the probability of detection. The optimization problem is simplified by separating the weight of the middle region into several intervals. Simulation results show that the sensing performance of the proposed scheme is much better than that of the traditional one bit hard combination scheme and almost the same as that of the equal gain combination (EGC) scheme. Moreover, compared with the traditional one bit hard combination, fewer average sensing bits are required to transmit to the data fusion center with the proposed method.     

国际知名高校如何培养科学传播素质

《中国科协科普人才发展规划纲要（2010—2020年）》提出,到2020年,要培养和造就一支规模适度、结构优化、素质优良的科普人才队伍,科普人才总量至少比2010年翻一番。科普人才的培养,需要在高等教育环节加强科学传播素质教育。在这方面,以美国麻省理工学院和哥伦比亚大学等为代表的国际知名高校已经开展了多年工作。本文重点介绍了美国麻省理工学院开展科学传播素质教育的情况,并在此基础上,结合中国高等教育的现状,分析了我国在高校中开展科学传播素质教育可从中汲取的经验。     

大型科普活动前期宣传效果评估的探讨——以2010 年全国科普日北京主场活动宣传为例

大型科普活动已经成为提高全民科学素质的一个重要渠道,以2010年全国科普日北京主场活动的宣传评估工作作为案例,探讨了前期宣传效果评估对于大型科普活动绩效改进及可持续性运作的指导意义。     

建设全媒体科普视窗创新科普手段

全媒体、3G网络、LED显示屏等新技术的兴起给科学技术传播工作带来了全新的机遇和挑战。本文以新型科普设施"全媒体科普视窗"的研发、应用和推广为主线,探讨了新形势下依靠科技手段创新科普传播方式的意义与途径,并阐述了以全媒体科普视窗为基础的科普服务体系的建设,以及需要注意的问题和相应的解决方法。     

应用于软件无线电的四阶可重构模拟基带滤波器

本文提出了一个应用于软件无线电的四阶可重构模拟基带滤波器。该滤波器采用有数字辅助的有源RC低通结构,可以灵活地改变滤波器的特性,比如截止频率,选择性,类型,噪声,增益和功耗。为了同时达到优化噪声和调节功耗的目的,这里采用了一种新的可配置运放结构。该芯片采用SMIC 0.13μm CMOS工艺制作。主体滤波器和频率校准电路的面积分别为1.8 × 0.8 mm2和0.48 × 0.25 mm2。测试结果表明,该滤波器可以提供巴特沃斯和切比雪夫两种响应,而且截止频率可以覆盖从280kHz 到15MHz的宽带范围,同时可调增益范围为0dB到18dB。在1.2V的电源电压下获得29dBm的IIP3。根据给定的协议,输入参考噪声密度在41 nV/Hz½ 到133 nV/Hz½之间变化,低频带和高频带模式分别消耗了5.46mW和8.74mW的功耗。     

A wideband CMOS VGLNA based on single-to-differential stage and resistive attenuator for TV tuners

A wideband CMOS variable gain low noise amplifier(VGLNA) based on a single-to-differential(S2D) stage and resistive attenuator is presented for TV tuner applications.Detailed analysis of input matching,noise figure(NF) and linearity for S2D is given.A highly linear passive resistive attenuator is proposed to provide 6 dB attenuation and input matching for each gain stage.The chip was fabricated by a 0.18μm 1P6M CMOS process, and the measurements show that the VGLNA covers a gain range over 36.4 dB and achieves a maximum gain of 21.3 dB,a minimum NF of 3.0 dB,an IIP3 of 0.9 dBm and an IIP2 of 26.3 dBm at high gain mode with a power consumption less than 10 mA from a 1.8 V supply.     

Understanding the failure mechanisms of microwave bipolar transistors caused by electrostatic discharge

Electrostatic discharge(ESD) phenomena involve both electrical and thermal effects,and a direct electrostatic discharge to an electronic device is one of the most severe threats to component reliability.Therefore, the electrical and thermal stability of multifinger microwave bipolar transistors(BJTs) under ESD conditions has been investigated theoretically and experimentally.100 samples have been tested for multiple pulses until a failure occurred.Meanwhile,the distributions of electric field,current density and lattice temperature have also been analyzed by use of the two-dimensional device simulation tool Medici.There is a good agreement between the simulated results and failure analysis.In the case of a thermal couple,the avalanche current distribution in the fingers is in general spatially unstable and results in the formation of current crowding effects and crystal defects.The experimental results indicate that a collector-base junction is more sensitive to ESD than an emitter-base junction based on the special device structure.When the ESD level increased to 1.3 kV,the collector-base junction has been burnt out first.The analysis has also demonstrated that ESD failures occur generally by upsetting the breakdown voltage of the dielectric or overheating of the aluminum-silicon eutectic.In addition,fatigue phenomena are observed during ESD testing,with devices that still function after repeated low-intensity ESDs but whose performances have been severely degraded.     

Experimental optimization of an erbium-doped super-fluorescent fiber source for fiber optic gyroscopes

Double-pass forward and double-pass backward erbium-doped super-fluorescent fiber sources(EDSFSs) were combined in one configuration.A 980 nm laser diode pumped the same erbium-doped fiber from both directions using a coupler as a power splitter.The double-pass configuration was achieved by coating the fiber end face.Firstly,an optimal fiber length was found to obtain a high stability of output light wavelength with pump power, and then 1530/1550 nm wavelength division multiplexing was used for spectrum planarization,which expanded the bandwidth to more than 22 nm.The final step was a test of temperature stability.The results show that the rate of the central wavelength change kept to below 3.5 ppm/℃in the range of -40 to 60℃and 1-2 ppm/℃in the range of 20-30℃.Considering all the three factors of the fiber optic gyro applications,we selected 80 mA as the pump current,in which case the central wavelength temperature instability was calculated as 2.70 ppm/℃, 3 dB bandwidth 22.85 nm,spectral flatness 0.2 dB,output power 5.17 mW and power efficiency up to 9.92%.This experimental result has a significant reference value to the selection of devices and proper design of ED-SFSs for the application of high-precision fiber optic gyroscopes.