The a-Si films deposited on quartz substrates were crystallized by lateral sweep annealing in steep temperature gradient using a gas burner. Random nucleation in amorphous region was effectively suppressed in the temperature gradient, so lateral solid phase epitaxial growth from crystallites generated at the initial stage of lateral sweep annealing spread over 100 µm. Their crystallographic orientations were mostly (100).

This letter considers a subclass of t-symmetric error correcting/all unidirectional error detecting (t-SyEC/AUED) codes in which the information is represented in an m-out-of-k coded form, which thus can be regarded as virtually systematic for practical purposes. For t3, previous researchers proposed methods for constructing codes of this subclass which are either optimal or of asymptotically optimal order. This letter proposes a new method for constructing, for any values of t, m and k, codes that are either optimal or of asymptotically optimal order. The redundancy of the obtained code is of the order tlog2k bits when mt.

After the intrinsic pulsed light illumination, a transient negative photoconductivity (TRANP) was observed in silicon doped with gold. The ambient temperature dependence of the TRANP-current was measured and compared with the simulated results obtained by solving rate equations. The temperature dependence of the peak value of the TRANP-current was in agreement with the simulated result. The activation energy of gold acceptor level obtained from the time constant in the recovery process was also consistent with the simulation. It was cleared from this result that the recovery process is dominated by the electron re-emission from gold acceptor level to the conduction band. It was concluded that the occurrence of the TRANP is well explained by using our model proposed before.

In the maximum-likelihood decoding under a non-Gaussian noise, the decoding region is bounded by complex curves instead of a perpendicular bisector corresponding to the Gaussian noise. Therefore, the error rate is not evaluated by the Euclidean distance. The Bhattacharyya distance is adopted since it can evaluate the error performance for a noise with an arbitrary distribution. Upper bound formulae of a bit error rate and an event error rate are obtained based on the error-weight-profile method proposed by Zehavi and Wolf. The method is modified for a non-Gaussian channel by using the Bhattacharyya distance instead of the Euclidean distance. To determine the optimum code for an impulsive noise channel, the upper bound of the bit error rate is calculated for each code having an encoder with given shift-register lehgth. The best code is selected as that having the minimum upper bound of the bit error rate. This method needs much computation time especially for a code with a long shift-register. To lighten the computation burden, a suboptimum search is also attempted. For an impulsive noise, modeled from an observation in digital subscriber loops, an optimum or suboptimum code is searched for among codes having encoders with a shift-register of up to 4 bits. By using a code with a 4-bit encoder, a coding gain of 20 dB is obtained at the bit error rate 10-5. It is 11 dB more than that obtained by Ungerboeck's code.

Silicon nitride (SiNx) films have been deposited at lower substrate temperatures (500) by direct (without mercury-sensitization) photo-chemical vapor deposition (photo-CVD) using SiH4 and NH3 with a low-pressure mercury lamp. Films deposited at around 350 have a polymeric structure such as (Si(NH)2)n. Films deposited at 500 were close to stoichiometric Si3N4 with a slight amount of hydrogen. The refractive index and the dielectric constant of films deposited at 500 became almost equal to the values of thermally synthesized Si3N4. The resistivity was as high as 51016 Ωcm. The minimum density of interface states in Al/SiNx/Si MIS (metal-insulator-semiconductor) diodes was estimated to be 91010 cm-2eV-1 by a quasi-static capacitance-voltage measurement. For SiNx films deposited at 300, the density of interface states, which was in the order of 1011 cm-2eV-1 as deposited, decreased by a rapid thermal anneal after the deposition. For Al/SiNx/InP MIS diodes, it was 31011 cm-2eV-1 by high-frequency capacitance-voltage measurements. Direct photo-CVD for SiNx films is promising for low-temperature formation of a gate insulator.

Optical fiber cable systems are being developed in many countries for subscriber loops as the infrastructure to realize B-ISDN (Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network). The present systems are DLC (Digital Loop Carrier) systems which provide leased lines, POTS (Plain Old Telephone Services), and N-ISDN (Narrowband ISDN) services. Before FTTH (Fiber To The Home) networks can be implemented, their construction cost must be lowered to the level of the current metallic network. The FTTH network must also be easy to operate and maintain. In this paper, we describe optical fiber cables, splicing, and testing technologies used in the NTT cable networks, and introduce the technologies being developed to construct FTTH networks.

The purpose of our research is to get further improvement in the performance of order statistic filters. The basic idea found in our research is the use of a robust median estimator to obtain median differential order information which the classes of order statistic filter required in order to sort the input signal in the filter window. In order to give the motivation for using a median estimator in the classes of order statistic filters, we derive theorems characterizing the median filters and prove them theoretically using the characteristic that the order statistic filter has the performance for a monotonic signal equivalent with the FIR linear filter. As an application of median operation, we propose and investigate the Median Differential Order Statistic Filter to reduce impulsive noise as well as Gaussian noise and regard it as a subclass of the Order Statistic Filter. Moreover, we introduce the piecewise linear function in the Median Differential Order Statistic Filter to improve performance in terms of edge preservation. We call it the Piecewise Linear Median Differential Order Statistic Filter. The effectiveness of proposed filters is verified theoretically by computing the output Mean Square Error of the filters in parts of edge signals, impulsive noise, small amplitude noise and their combination. Computer simulations also show that the proposed filter can improve the performance in both noise (small-amplitude Gaussian noise and impulsive noise) reduction and edge preservation for one-dimensional signals.

Although individual segments of a natural language such as words have different importance on human interpretation of the meaning, every segment has been uniformly protected by an error-correcting code. If the importance of individual segments is defined by considering their meaning in the sentence, we can adaptively control the level of error-protection for each segment according to its importance in order to reduce errors on human interpretation of the meaning. In this paper, we propose an error-control scheme based on the varying importance of each word. We first introduce a method which determines the importance of each word and then propose an error-control scheme in which several error-correcting codes are alternately used to protect each word according to its importance. Probablity of semantic errors, that is, errors on human interpretation of the meaning, is defined and used as a criterion in mapping error-correcting codes to words possessing different importance. We theoretically formalize the problem of obtaining an optimum mapping which minimizes the probability of semantic errors under some constraint. Given a certain probability distribution of the importance of words and set of error-correcting codes, we can derive the optimum mapping. The proposed error-controlling scheme is theoretically evaluated by comparing its probability of semantic errors with that of a conventional scheme in which every word is uniformly protected by a single error-correcting code. Results show that the proposed scheme can considerably raduce the probability of semantic errors while retaining the same average transmission rate or redundancy.

In this paper, a type hybrid ARQ scheme with Adaptive Forward Error Correction (ARQ/AFEC) using BCH codes is proposed and analyzed. The basic idea in the proposed type hybrid ARQ/AFEC scheme is to increase the error-correcting capability of BCH code according to channel state using incremental redundancy. The incremental redundancy is the remainder ai(x) of an information frame f(x) of length n divided by a minimum polynomial mi(x) of α2i-1, where α is a primitive element of finite field GF(2l). Let gi(x) be the product of mj(x) (j=1, 2, , i) and let ci(x) be the remainder of f(x) divided by gi(x). The polynomial ci(x) is obtained from the remainders ai(x) and ci-1(x) since mi(x)and gi-1 (x) are relatively prime. Since f(x) + ci(x) is divided by gi(x), f(x) + ci(x) is the codeword of an i-error-correcting BCH code when n2l-1. So, the errors less than or equal to i bits in f(x) can be corrected if ci(x) has no error.

Subscriber network opticalization is the key issue for the next generation network. Fiber-optic systems have been limited to mainly big business applications, so far. Massive opticalization including home and small business customers remains the ultimate goal. Opticalization of the subscriber network needs an enormous investment and a long construction period. In order to achieve smooth evolution towards B-ISDN, the subscriber network must be effectively opticalized well in advance of full B-ISDN deployment. This paper presents the development concept of optical subscriber network. It also describes the design concept and configuration of fiber-optic subscriber systems. Deployment strategies and the developing technologies for the future subscriber network are also addressed.

It often occurs in the acoustic environment that a specific signal is contaminated by the additional noise of non-Gaussian distribution type. In order to extract exactly the various statistical information of only specific signal from the observed noisy data, a stochastic signal processing by use of digital computer is essential. In this study, a stochastic method for estimating the probability function of the specific signal embedded in the additional noise is first theoretically proposed in a suitable form for the quantized level observation. Then, the effectiveness of the proposed method is experimentally confirmed by applying it to the observed data in the acoustic environment.

A new image restoration filter based upon a physical model of an image degradation is constructed. By means of this filter, signal dependent noise and blur can be suppressed. In particular, image degradation noise can be modeled in generalized form. Noise suppression and deblurring are performed separately. This filter has additional applications when used in conjunction with the degradation model, such as real photographic images and photoelectronic images. Simulation results show that this filter gives a superior performance in restoring an image degraded by signal dependent noise and blur.

The characteristics of an optical functional integrated circuit and its applications are discussed. This circuit is based upon a Mach-Zehnder interferometer type waveguide device employing thermo-optic effect. This circuit is compact, cost-effective and practical. One proposed application is an optical loopback circuit to test both OCU loop 1 and DSU loop C. This optical loopback circuit with an attenuator and space switches is formed on a common silicon substrate, and using this circuit both loopback and line tests are independently available at the same access point. The other is an optical selector. This optical selector with WDM-MUX/DMUX and space switches is formed on a common silicon substrate, and using this selector, wavelength selection from medium density WDM (MDWDM) signal can be performed. Each MDWDM signal carries both AM and FM-FDM video signals modulated by Subcarrier Multiplexing (SCM) techniques. This selector can be wired in point-to-multipoint configurations to home video appliances.

It is well known that the multiple-valued signed-digit (SD) arithmetic circuits have the attractive features of compactness and high-speed operation. However, both of these features have yet to be utilized fully. In this paper, we consider the application of a parallel-structure-based VLSI processor. A high-performance parallel-structure-based multiple-valued VLSI processor using the radix-2 SD number system is proposed. Its compactness makes the parallelism high under chip size limitations in comparison with the ordinary binary arithmetic circuits. Moreover, the speed of the single arithmetic module is very high in the SD arithmetic circuits, so that we can take advantage of the high-speed operation in the parallel-structure-based VLSI processor chip. The multiple-valued bidirectional current-mode technology is used not only in high-speed small sized arithmetic circuits, but also in reducing the number of connections in the parallel-structure-based VLSI processor. The proposed processor is specially developed for real-time digital control, where the performance is evaluated by delay time. Performance estimation using SPICE simulators shows that the delay time of proposed processor for matrix operations such as matrix multiplication is greatly reduced in comparison with a conventional binary processor.

An algorithm is presented for selecting the k-th smallest element of a totally ordered (but not sorted) set of n elements, 1kn, in the case that a special-purpose sorter is used as a coprocessor. When the pipeline merge sorter is used as the special-purpose sorter, we analyze the comparison complexity of the algorithm for the given capacity of the sorter. The comparison complexity of the algorithm is 1.4167no(n), provided that the capacity of the sorter is 256 elements. The comparison complexity of the algorithm decreases as the capacity of the sorter increases.

Operation of a newly proposed semiconductor optical modulator based on absorption control by electron depletion around a p-n junction is demonstrated, forming preliminary structures of waveguide-type as well as panel-type (or surface-illuminated type) devices. The optical absorption is occurred at the intrinsic energy levels in the band structure not at the extended state into the band-gap. Performance of 35 dB on-off extinction ratio for 4 V variation of the applied voltage was obtained in a waveguide type device. Validity of the proposed mechanism were confirmed by getting large change of the absorption coefficient of around 5000 cm-1 over wide wavelength range of 30 nm.

This paper describes the impact of EDFAs on AM/FM FDM subcarrier multiplexing (SCM) all-fiber video distribution (AFVD) systems. As AM/FM hybrid system using EDFAs which can simultaneously distribute 11 AM-TV channels and 50 FM-TV channels is proposed and discussed. 4-stage amplifier-branch transmission experiments are introduced. The construction and performance of a newly designed 50 channel FM tuner are also presented.

A novel harmonic retrieval algorithm is proposed in this paper based on Hopfield's neural network. Frequencies can be retrieved with high accuracy and high resolution under low signal to noise ratio (SNR). Amplitudes and phases in harmonic signals can also be estimated roughly by an energy constrained linear projection approach as proposed in the algorithm. Only no less than 2q neurons are necessary in order to detect harmonic siglnals with q different frequencies, where q denotes the number of different frequencies in harmonic signals. Experimental simulations show fast convergence and stable solution in spite of low signal to noise ratio can be obtained using the proposed algorithm.

A specification formalism for business application software is presented. Our approach is to investigate specification documents which are actually used in development projects of business applications in banking, insurance, and government systems. Since the specification documents are prepared mainly for users' review for the developing software, the representation of the documents is designed to be easy to understand for users, only in business terminology without losing a certain level of formality. Also, to avoid redundancy of the specification, there are some implicit assumptions in the specification. We have analyzed some commonality of these assumptions hidden in specification documents and are trying to construct a language by formalizing the underlying system model.

This paper first discusses the software reusability-based development process in a lifecycle and reusable objects modification process called differentiation. Next, the supporting environment is described. Both the method and the environment allow developers to carry out requirement definitions, specification and implementation in a reusable way. Some quantitative evaluations are given about how productivity and quality have been improved by using this method and environment, based on a number of case studies made on development projects. Reusability has been largely improved by differential specification, and adjustment method and a direct transformation capability.