A long-reach coexisting PON system (1G/10G-EPON, video, and TWDM-PON) that uses the Wavelength Selective-Asymmetrical optical SPlitter (WS-ASP) without any active devices like optical amplifiers is proposed. The proposal can take into account the subscriber distribution in an access network and provide specific services in specific areas by varying the splitting ratios and the branch structure in the optical splitter. Simulations confirm the key features of WS-ASP, its novel process for deriving the splitting-ratios and greater transmission distance than possible with symmetrical splitters. Experiments on a prototype system demonstrate how wavelengths can be assigned to specific areas and optical link budget enhancement. For 1G-EPON systems, the prototype system with splitting-ratio of 60% attains the optical link budget enhancement of 4.2dB compared with conventional symmetrical optical splitters. The same prototype offers the optical link budget enhancement of 4.0dB at the bit rate of 10G-EPON systems. The values measured in the experiment agree well with the simulation results with respect to the transmission distance.

We evaluated the noise properties of a periodically poled lithium niobite phase-sensitive amplifier (PSA) using a phase-locked local oscillator as a pump generated by an optical phase-locked loop (OPLL-LO). To examine whether or not the LO pump generated by an OPLL degrades the noise figure (NF) of the PSA, we compared the noise levels of a PSA using an OPLL-LO with that of one using a master local oscillator (M-LO) that utilizes the master light itself as a pump in the electrical domain. With the OPLL, the phase-locked local light had almost the same frequency noise components as the master light. We observed almost the same output noise spectra for the OPLL-LO PSA and M-LO PSA and confirmed the absence of excess noise components in the OPLL-LO PSA in the 0.1 to 20-GHz range. The OPLL-LO PSA exhibited low-noise amplification with an average NF of 1.7-dB at a 23.2-dB gain within an input power range of -31 to -21dBm, which is a feasible input power for repeater amplifiers used in the optical signal transmission systems. We also investigated the influence of the noisy master light, which emulates the accumulation of optical noise from the amplifiers in the transmission system. The OPLL-LO PSA was highly tolerant to the optical noise because the difference in the NF was negligibly small within a master light OSNR range of 5 to 55dB. These results indicate that the OPLL-LO PSA will be useful as a low-noise repeater amplifier for the spectrally efficient large-capacity photonic networks of the future.

Recording source code changes comes to be well recognized as an effective means for understanding the evolution of existing software and making its future changes efficient. Therefore, modern integrated development environments (IDEs) tend to employ tools that record fine-grained textual changes of source code. However, there is still no satisfactory tool that accurately records textual changes. We propose ChangeMacroRecorder that automatically and silently records all textual changes of source code and in real time correlates those textual changes with actions causing them while a programmer is writing and modifying it on the Eclipse's Java editor. The improvement with respect to the accuracy of recorded textual changes enables both programmers and researchers to exactly understand how the source code was evolved. This paper presents detailed information on how ChangeMacroRecorder achieves the accurate recording of textual changes and demonstrates how accurate textual changes were recorded in our experiment consisting of nine programming tasks.

For insertion and deletion channels, there are many coding schemes based on low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, such as spatially coupled (SC) LDPC codes and concatenated codes of irregular LDPC codes and markers. However, most of the previous works have problems, such as poor finite-length performance and unrealistic settings for codeword lengths and decoding iterations. Moreover, when using markers, the decoder receives log-likelihood (LLR) messages with different statistics depending on code bit position. In this paper, we propose a novel concatenation scheme using protograph-based LDPC code and markers that offers excellent asymptotic/finite-length performance and a structure that controls the irregularity of LLR messages. We also present a density evolution analysis and a simple optimization procedure for the proposed concatenated coding scheme. For two decoding scenarios involving decoding complexity, both asymptotic decoding thresholds and finite-length performance demonstrate that the newly designed concatenated coding scheme outperforms the existing counterparts: the irregular LDPC code with markers, the SC-LDPC code, and the protograph LDPC code, which is optimized for an additive white Gaussian noise channel, with markers.

We propose a novel non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA)-based optimal multiplexing method for multiple downlink service channels to maximize the integrated system throughput. In the fifth generation (5G) mobile communication system, the support of various wireless communication services such as massive machine-type communications (mMTC), ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC), and enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) is expected. These services will serve different numbers of terminals and have different requirements regarding the spectrum efficiency and fairness among terminals. Furthermore, different operators may have different policies regarding the overall spectrum efficiency and fairness among services. Therefore, efficient radio resource allocation is essential during the multiplexing of multiple downlink service channels considering these requirements. The proposed method achieves better system performance than the conventional orthogonal multiple access (OMA)-based multiplexing method thanks to the wider transmission bandwidth per terminal and inter-terminal interference cancellation using a successive interference canceller (SIC). Computer simulation results reveal that the effectiveness of the proposed method is especially significant when the system prioritizes the fairness among terminals (including fairness among services).

In this paper, we reformulate a sensitivity analysis method for function-expansion-based topology optimization method without using gray area. In the conventional approach based on function expansion method, permittivity distribution contains gray materials, which are intermediate materials between core and cladding ones, so as to let the permittivity differentiable with respect to design variables. Since this approach using gray area dose not express material boundary exactly, it is not desirable to apply this approach to design problems of strongly guiding waveguide devices, especially for plasmonic waveguides. In this study, we present function-expansion-method-based topology optimization without gray area. In this approach, use of gray area can be avoided by replacing the area integral of the derivative of the matrix with the line integral taking into acount the rate of boundary deviation with respect to design variables. We verify the validity of our approach through applying it to design problems of a T-branching power splitter and a mode order converter.

For actual multi-channel differential signaling system, the ideal balance or symmetrical topology cannot be established, and hence, an imbalance component is excited. However a theoretical analysis method of evaluating the voltage and current distribution on the differential-paired lines, which allows to anticipate EM radiation at the design stage and to study possible means for suppressing imbalance components, has not been implemented. To provide the basic considerations for electromagnetic (EM) radiation from practical asymmetrical differential-paired lines structure with equi-length routing used in high-speed board design, this paper newly proposes an analytical method for evaluating the voltage and current at any point on differential-paired lines by expressing the differential paired-lines with an equivalent source circuit and an equivalent load circuit. The proposed method can predict S-parameters, distributions of voltage and current and EM radiation with sufficient accuracy. In addition, the proposed method provides enough flexibility for different geometric parameters and can be used to develop physical insights and design guidelines. This study has successfully established a basic method to effectively predict signal integrity and EM interference issues on a differential-paired lines.

A grating consisting of a periodic array of InSb-coated dielectric cylinders on a substrate is analyzed at THz frequencies using the frequency-dependent finite-difference time-domain method based on the trapezoidal recursive convolution technique. The transmission characteristics of an infinite periodic array are investigated not only at normal incidence but also at oblique incidence. The incident field is shown to be coupled to the substrate due to the guided-mode resonance (GMR), indicating the practical application of a grating coupler. For the sensor application, the frequency shift of the transmission dip is investigated with attention to the variation of the background refractive index. It is found that the shift of the dip involving the surface plasmon resonance is almost ten times as large as that of the dip only from the GMR. We finally analyze a finite periodic array of the cylinders. The field radiation from the array is discussed, when the field propagates through the substrate. It is shown that the radiation direction can be controlled with the frequency of the propagating field.

This paper describes the effectiveness of the geometric multi-grid method in a current density analysis using a numerical human body model. The scalar potential finite difference (SPFD) method is used as a numerical method for analyzing the current density inside a human body due to contact with charged objects in a low-frequency band, and research related to methods to solve faster large-scale simultaneous equations based on the SPFD method has been conducted. In previous research, the block incomplete Cholesky conjugate gradients (ICCG) method is proposed as an effective method to solve the simultaneous equations faster. However, even though the block ICCG method is used, many iterations are still needed. Therefore, in this study, we focus on the geometric multi-grid method as a method to solve the problem. We develop the geometric-multi-grid method and evaluate performances by comparing it with the block ICCG method in terms of computation time and the number of iterations. The results show that the number of iterations needed for the geometric multi-grid method is much less than that for the block ICCG method. In addition, the computation time is much shorter, depending on the number of threads and the number of coarse grids. Also, by using multi-color ordering, the parallel performance of the geometric multi-grid method can be greatly improved.

In this paper, we analyzed the pulse responses of dispersion medium with periodically conducting strips by using a fast inversion Laplace transform (FILT) method combined with point matching method (PMM) for both the TM and TE cases. Specifically, we investigated the influence of the width and number of the conducting strips on the pulse response and distribution of the electric field.

An active gate driver IC generates arbitrary switching waveform is proposed to reduce the switching loss, the voltage overshoot, and the electromagnetic interference (EMI) by optimizing the switching pattern. However, it is hard to find optimal switching pattern because the switching pattern has huge possible combinations. In this paper, the method to estimate the switching loss and the voltage overshoot from the switching pattern with neural network (NN) is proposed. The implemented NN model obtains reasonable learning results for data-sets.

Silicon photonics technology is a promising candidate for small form factor transceivers that can be used in data-center applications. This technology has a small footprint, a low fabrication cost, and good temperature immunity. However, its main challenge is due to the high baud rate operation for optical modulators with a low power consumption. This paper investigates an all-Silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator based on the lumped-electrode optical phase shifters. These phase shifters are driven by a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) inverter driver to achieve a low power optical transmitter. This architecture improves the power efficiency because an electrical digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and a linear driver are not required. In addition, the current only flows at the time of data transition. For this purpose, we use a PIN-diode phase shifter. These phase shifters have a large capacitance so the driving voltage can be reduced while maintaining an optical phase shift. On the other hand, this study integrates a passive resistance-capacitance (RC) equalizer with a PIN-phase shifter to expand the electro-optic (EO) bandwidth of a modulator. Therefore, the modulation efficiency and the EO bandwidth can be optimized by designing the capacitor of the RC equalizer. This paper reviews the recent progress for the high-speed operation of an all-Si PIN-RC modulator. This study introduces a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) structure for a capacitor with a passive RC equalizer to obtain a wider EO bandwidth. As a result, this investigation achieves an EO bandwidth of 35.7-37 GHz and a 70 Gbaud NRZ operation is confirmed.

We review our research progress of multi-port optical switches based on the silicon photonics platform. Up to now, the maximum port-count is 32 input ports×32 output ports, in which transmissions of all paths were demonstrated. The switch topology is path-independent insertion-loss (PILOSS) which consists of an array of 2×2 element switches and intersections. The switch presented an average fiber-to-fiber insertion loss of 10.8 dB. Moreover, -20-dB crosstalk bandwidth of 14.2 nm was achieved with output-port-exchanged element switches, and an average polarization-dependent loss (PDL) of 3.2 dB was achieved with a non-duplicated polarization-diversity structure enabled by SiN overpass waveguides. In the 8×8 switch, we demonstrated wider than 100-nm bandwidth for less than -30-dB crosstalk with double Mach-Zehnder element switches, and less than 0.5 dB PDL with polarization diversity scheme which consisted of two switch matrices and fiber-type polarization beam splitters. Based on the switch performances described above, we discuss further improvement of switching performances.

A compact silicon photonic crystal waveguide (PCW) slow-light modulator is presented. The proposed modulator is capable of achieving a 64 Gbps bit-rate in a wide operating spectrum. The slow-light enhances the modulation efficiency in proportion to its group index ng. Two types of 200-µm-long PCW modulators are presented. These are low- and high-dispersion devices, which are implemented using a complementary metal-oxide-insulator process. The lattice-shifted PCW achieved low-dispersion slow-light and exhibited ng ≈ 20 with an operating spectrum Δλ ≈ 20 nm, in which the fluctuation of the extinction ratio is ±0.5 dB. The PCW device without the lattice shift exhibited high-dispersion, for which a large or small value of ng can be set on demand by changing the wavelength. It was found that for a large ng, the frequency response was degraded due to the electro-optic phase mismatch between the RF signals and slow-light even for such small-size modulators. Meander-line electrodes, which bypass and delay the RF signals to compensate for the phase mismatch, are proposed. A high cutoff frequency of 55 GHz was theoretically predicted, whereas the experimentally measured value was 38 GHz. A high-quality open eye pattern for a drive voltage of 1 V at 32 Gbps was observed. The clear eye pattern was maintained for 50-64 Gbps, although the drive voltage increased to 3.5-5.3 V. A preliminary operation of a 2-bits pulse amplitude modulation up to 100 Gbps was also attempted.

Horizontal slot waveguides enable light to be strongly confined in thin regions. The strong confinement of light in the slot region offers the advantages of enhancing the interaction of light with matter and providing highly sensitive sensing devices. We theoretically investigated fundamental characteristics of horizontal slot waveguides using Nb2O5. The coupling coefficient between SiO2 slot and air slot waveguides was calculated. Characteristics of bending loss in slot waveguide were also analyzed. The etching conditions in reactive ion etching needed to obtain a sidewall with high verticality were studied. We propose a process for fabricating horizontal slot waveguides using Nb2O5 thin film deposition and selective etching of SiO2. Horizontal slot waveguides were fabricated that had an SiO2 slot of less than 30 nm SiO2. The propagated light passing through the slot waveguides was also obtained.

We demonstrated a compact 16×16 multicast switch (MCS) made from a silica-based planar lightwave circuit (PLC). The switch utilizes a new electrical connection method based on surface mount technology (SMT). Five electrical connectors are soldered directly to the PLC by using the standard reflow process used for electrical devices. We reduced the chip size to half of one made with conventional wire bonding technology. We obtained satisfactory solder contacts and excellent switching properties. These results indicate that the proposed method is suitable for large-scale optical switches including MCSs, variable optical attenuators, dispersion compensators, and so on.

In recent years, deep neural network (DNN) has achieved considerable results on many artificial intelligence tasks, e.g. natural language processing. However, the computation complexity of DNN is extremely high. Furthermore, the performance of traditional von Neumann computing architecture has been slowing down due to the memory wall problem. Processing in memory (PIM), which places computation within memory and reduces the data movement, breaks the memory wall. ReRAM PIM is thought to be a available architecture for DNN accelerators. In this work, a novel design of ReRAM neuromorphic system is proposed to process DNN fully in array efficiently. The binary ReRAM array is composed of 2T2R storage cells and current mirror sense amplifiers. A dummy BL reference scheme is proposed for reference voltage generation. A binary DNN (BDNN) model is then constructed and optimized on MNIST dataset. The model reaches a validation accuracy of 96.33% and is deployed to the ReRAM PIM system. Co-design model optimization method between hardware device and software algorithm is proposed with the idea of utilizing hardware variance information as uncertainness in optimization procedure. This method is analyzed to achieve feasible hardware design and generalizable model. Deployed with such co-design model, ReRAM array processes DNN with high robustness against fabrication fluctuation.

The injection locking properties of rotary dissipative solitons developed in a closed traveling-wave field-effect transistor (TWFET) are examined. A TWFET can support the waveform-invariant propagation of solitary pulses called dissipative solitons (DS) by balancing dispersion, nonlinearity, dissipation, and field-effect transistor gain. Applying sinusoidal signals to the closed TWFET assumes the injection-locked behavior of the rotary DS; the solitons' velocity is autonomously tuned to match the rotation and external frequencies. This study clarifies the qualitative properties of injection-locked DS using numerical and experimental approaches.

Data aggregation trees in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are being used for gathering data for various purposes. Especially for the trees within buildings or civil structures, the total amount of energy consumption in a tree must be reduced to save energy. Therefore, the minimum energy-cost aggregation tree (MECAT) and MECAT with relay nodes (MECAT_RN) problems are being discussed to reduce energy consumption in data aggregation trees in WSNs. This paper proposes the tree node switching algorithm (TNSA) that improves on the previous algorithms for the MECAT and MECAT_RN problems in terms of energy efficiency. TNSA repeatedly switches nodes in a tree to reduce the number of packets sent in the tree. Packets are reduced by improving the accommodation efficiency of each packet, in which multiple sensor reports are accommodated. As a result of applying TNSA to MECATs and MECAT-RNs, energy consumption can be reduced significantly with a small burden.

This paper discusses a static analysis problem, called absolute consistency problem, for relational schema mappings. A given schema mapping is said to be absolutely consistent if every source instance has a corresponding target instance. Absolute consistency is an important property because it guarantees that data exchange never fails for any source instance. Originally, for XML schema mappings, the absolute consistency problem was defined and its complexity was investigated by Amano et al. However, as far as the authors know, there are no known results for relational schema mappings. In this paper, we focus on relational schema mappings such that both the source and the target schemas have functional dependencies, under the assumption that mapping rules are defined by constant-free tuple-generating dependencies. In this setting, we show that the absolute consistency problem is in coNP. We also show that it is solvable in polynomial time if the tuple-generating dependencies are full and the size of the left-hand side of each functional dependency is bounded by some constant. Finally, we show that the absolute consistency problem is coNP-hard even if the source schema has no functional dependency and the target schema has only one; or each of the source and the target schemas has only one functional dependency such that the size of the left-hand side of the functional dependency is at most two.