The Effects of Scaling and Bias Configuration on Operating-Voltage Constraints in SiGe HBTs for Mixed-Signal Circuits

This paper presents a comprehensive picture of operating-voltage constraints in SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors, addressing breakdown-related issues as they relate to technology generation, bias configuration, and operating-current density. New definitions for breakdown voltage, adopted from standard measurements, are presented. Practical design implications and physical origins of breakdown are explored using calibrated 2-D simulations and quasi-3-D compact models. Device-level analysis of ac instabilities and power performance, which is relevant to mixed-signal circuit design, is presented, and implications of the relaxed voltage constraints for common-base operation are explored.     

GaAs/AlGaAs grating surface-emitting diode lasers on Si substrates

A monolithic grating surface-emitting, GaAs/AlGaAs, separate-confinement-heterostructure, single-quantum-well diode laser has been fabricated on a Si substrate using a single-step metalorganic chemical vapour deposition process. An output power of 30 mW has been obtained under pulsed operation with a peak emission wavelength of 885 nm.<>     

Machine learning in control of functional electrical stimulationsystems for locomotion

Two machine learning techniques were evaluated for automatic design of a rule-based control of functional electrical stimulation (FES) for locomotion of spinal cord injured humans. The task was to learn the invariant characteristics of the relationship between sensory information and the FES-control signal by using off-line supervised training. Sensory signals were recorded using pressure sensors installed in the insoles of a subject's shoes and goniometers attached across the joints of the affected leg. The FES-control consisted of pulses corresponding to time intervals when the subject pressed on the manual push-button to deliver the stimulation during FES-assisted ambulation. The machine learning techniques used were the adaptive logic network (ALN) and the inductive learning algorithm (IL). Results to date suggest that, given the same training data, the IL learned faster than the ALN while both performed the test rapidly. The generalization was estimated by measuring the test errors and it was better with an ALN, especially if past points were used to reflect the time dimension. Both techniques were able to predict future stimulation events. An advantage of the ALN over the IL was that ALN's can be retrained with new data without losing previously collected knowledge. The advantages of the IL over the ALN were that the IL produces small, explicit, comprehensible trees and that the relative importance of each sensory contribution can be quantified     

Lattice gas generalization of the hard hexagon model. II. The local densities as elliptic functions

In a previous paper we considered an extension of the hard hexagon model to a solvable two-dimensional lattice gas with at most two particles per pair of adjacent sites. Here we use various mathematical identities (in particular Gordon's generalization of the Rogers-Ramanujan relations) to express the local densities in terms of elliptic functions. The critical behavior is then readily obtained.Supported in part by the National Science Foundation Grant MCS 8201733.     

The isolation and structure determination of cryptomisrine,a novel indolo[3,2-b]quinoline dimeric alkaloid from cryptolepis sanguinolenta

The isolation and structure determination of cryptomisrine, a novel indolo[3,2-b]quinoline dimeric alkaloid obtained from extracts of the roots of the Ghanaian medicinal plant Cryptolepis sanguinolenta is reported. The structure determination was made via a consideration of the spectral data, including uv, ir, nmr, and mass spectra. In particular, one-dimensional proton/carbon nmr, one-dimensional nOe difference nmr, and a series of homonuclear (COSY) and inverse-detected heteronuclear two-dimensional (HMQC, HMBC) experiments were utilized, as well as high resolution FABMS. Cryptomisrine is most unusual in that its two monomeric parts apparently exist in such a C₂ symmetric environment that only one set of proton and carbon nmr resonances are observed. Cryptomisrine is the first example of a dimeric indolo-[3,2-b]quinoline alkaloid to have been isolated from nature.     

A combined theoretical and experimental study of the reaction products of laser-ablated thorium atoms with CO: first identification of the CThO, CThO(-), OthCCO, OTh(eta(3)-CCO), and Th(CO)(n) (n = 1-6) molecules

Laser-ablated thorium atoms have been reacted with CO molecules during condensation in excess neon. Absorptions at 617.7 and 812.2 cm(-1) are assigned to Th-C and Th-O stretching vibrations of the CThO molecule. Absorptions at 2048.6, 1353.6, and 822.5 cm(-1) are assigned to the OThCCO molecule, which is formed by CO addition to CThO and photochemical rearrangement of Th(CO)(2). The OThCCO molecule undergoes further photoinduced rearrangement to OTh(eta(3)-CCO), which is characterized by C-C, C-O, and Th-O stretching vibrations at 1810.8, 1139.2, and 831.6 cm(-1). The Th(CO)(n) (n = 1-6) complexes are formed on deposition or on annealing. Evidence is also presented for the CThO(-) and Th(CO)(2)(-) anions, which are formed by electron capture of neutral molecules. Relativistic density functional theory (DFT) calculations of the geometry structures, vibrational frequencies, and infrared intensities strongly support the experimental assignments. It is found that CThO is an unprecedented actinide-containing carbene molecule with a triplet ground state and an unusual bent structure ( angleCThO = 109 degrees ). The OThCCO molecule has a bent structure while its rearranged product OTh(eta(3)-CCO) is found to have a unique exocyclic structure with side-bonded CCO group. We also find that both Th(CO)(2) and Th(CO)(2)(-) are, surprisingly, highly bent, with the angleC-Th-C bond angle being close to 50 degrees; the unusual geometries are the result of extremely strong Th-to-CO back-bonding, which causes significant three-centered bonding among the Th atom and the two C atoms.