We propose a shot reduction technique of character projection (CP) Electron Beam Direct Writing (EBDW) using combined cell stencil (CCS) or the advanced process technology. CP EBDW is expected both to reduce mask costs and to realize quick turn around time. One of major issue of the conventional CP EBDW, however, is a throughput of lithography. The throughput is determined by numbers of shots, which are proportional to numbers of cell instances in LSIs. The conventional shot reduction techniques focus on optimization of cell stencil extraction, without any modifications on designed LSI mask patterns. The proposed technique employs the proposed combined cell stencil, with proposed modified design flow, for further shot reduction. We demonstrate 22.4% shot reduction within 4.3% area increase for a microprocessor and 28.6% shot reduction for IWLS benchmarks compared with the conventional technique.

This paper presents a scheme for accurately detecting the number of incident waves arriving at array antennas. The array antenna and MIMO techniques are developing as 4th generation mobile communication systems and wireless LAN technologies, and the accurate estimation of the propagation environment is becoming more important. This paper emphasizes the accurate detection of the number of incident waves; one of the important characteristics in multidirectional communication. There are some recent papers on accurate detection but they have problems of estimation accuracy or computational cost in severe environment like low SNR, small number of snapshots or waves with close angles. Hence, AIC and MDL methods based on statistics and information theory are still often used. In this paper, we propose an accurate estimation method of the number of arrival signals using the orthogonality of subspaces derived from preliminary estimation of signal subspace. The proposed method accurately estimates the number of signals also in severe environments where AIC and MDL methods can hardly estimate. We evaluate the performance of these methods through some computer simulation and experiments in anechoic chamber.

The purpose of this study is to maintain efficient backup routes for reconstructing overlay trees quickly. In most conventional methods, after a node leaves the trees, its child nodes start searching for the new parents. In this reactive approach, it takes a lot of time to find a new parent. In this paper, we propose a proactive approach to finding a next parent as the backup route node over the overlay tree before the current parent leaves. A proactive approach allows a node to find its new parent node immediately and switch to the backup route node smoothly. In our proposal, the structure of the overlay tree using a redundant degree can decide a backup route node without so much overhead. Simulations demonstrate our proactive approach can recover from node departures 2 times faster than reactive approaches, and can construct overlay trees with lower overheads than another proactive method. Additionally we carried out experiments over actual networks and their results support the effectiveness of our approach. We confirmed that our proposal achieved better streaming quality than conventional approaches.

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems using eigenbeam space division multiplexing (E-SDM) perform well and have increased capacities compared with those using conventional space division multiplexing (SDM). However, channel state information (CSI) is required at a transmitter, and the performance of E-SDM systems depends much on the accuracy of the CSI at a transmitter and a receiver. In time-varying fading environments, the channel change between the transmit weight determination time and the actual data transmission time causes the system performance to degrade. To compensate for the channel error, a linear extrapolation method has been proposed for a time division duplexing system. Unfortunately, the system performance still deteriorates as the maximum Doppler frequency increases. Here, two new techniques of channel extrapolation are proposed. One is second order extrapolation, and the other is exponential extrapolation. Also, we propose maximum Doppler frequency estimation methods for exponential extrapolation. Simulation results for 4tx 4rx MIMO systems showed that using the proposed techniques, E-SDM system performs better in a higher Doppler frequency region.

This paper describes a new low-power write driver circuit for mobile hard disk drive preamplifiers. To achieve low power consumption, we developed a write driver circuit with a single-stage MOS transistor as the current driver, which both switches and controls the write current. We also developed a reflection cancellation method to suppress the distortion of the write current waveform during write transition. Fabricated using 0.35-µm SOI-BiCMOS technology, this write driver circuit consumes low power, 380 mW (at 100 MHz).

We describe a new characteristic of soft handoff, call failure when a mobile moves from the handoff region to the normal region, and introduce the metric of region-transition failure probability to more accurately assess the performance of CDMA systems that support real-time video streaming services. This characteristic has not been considered in previous research. Simulations show that this failure must be considered since it significantly degrades system performance.

Video transcoding technique is an efficient mechanism to deliver visual contents to a variety of users who have different network conditions or terminal devices with different display capabilities. In this paper, we propose two types of transcoding methods for adapting the bitrate of streaming video to the bandwidth of the transmission channel; spatial resolution reduction (SRR) transcoding and temporal resolution reduction (TRR) transcoding. The two transcoding methods are alternatively operated according to the requirements of users. Experimental results show that the proposed transcoding methods can preserve image quality while transcoding to the low bitrate.

In this paper, a multistage parallel interference canceller (MPIC) with multiple-beam reception for a DS-CDMA system is proposed to suppress multiple access interference (MAI) effectively. Its aim is to reduce the computational complexity of the conventional MPIC cascaded with an adaptive array antenna. It employs multiple fixed beams based on phased array and selects suitable beams to demodulate the transmitted signal of each user. Then it suppresses residual interference signals by the MPIC cascaded with multiple-beam receiver. Its bit error rate (BER) performance is evaluated by computer simulations assuming an uplink single-chip-rate multiple-spreading-factor DS-CDMA system over both exponentially decaying 5-path and equal average power 2-path Rayleigh distributed channels. When there are 16 users in an 120-sectored single cell, the proposed receiver with 6-element array antenna and 2-stage MPIC shows better or comparable BER performance compared with that of the conventional receiver. Moreover, the proposed receiver with 8 beams can reduce the number of complex multiplications to about 40% of that of the complexity-reduced conventional receiver over 5-path channels.

In this letter, we propose an efficient user selection algorithm aiming to select users with less spatially correlation and meet the user number limit of zero-forcing beamforming in downlink multiuser MIMO systems. This algorithm yields a considerable complexity reduction with only a small loss in performance and it only needs partial users' CSI feedback. Coupled with the algorithm, a null space updating method in O(K2) time and a modified proportional fair scheduling algorithm are also proposed.

In this paper we study relationships between the linear complexities of a sequence when treated as a sequence over two distinct fields. We obtain bounds for one linear complexity in the form of a constant multiple of the other, where the constant depends only on the fields, not on the particular sequence.

A novel structure for a frequency-independent steerable composite right/left-handed (CRLH) leaky wave (LW) antenna in the millimeter-wave band is proposed. This has the advantages of wide beam scanning and low profile, and is a suitable structure for mass-production. The proposed antenna has features wherein a movable dielectric slab is placed above the CRLH LW antenna, and the radiation angle can be steered by changing the distance between the slab and the antenna using compact actuators. Moreover, slots are added to the antenna to control the aperture amplitude distribution of the array antenna in order to enhance aperture efficiency. A prototype CRLH LW antenna has been fabricated with these slots, and backward-to-forward beam scanning characteristics at 76 GHz have been demonstrated successfully by measurement. A wide scanning angle from 73 to 114 deg. has been achieved experimentally. The aperture efficiency is 25.3%.

A novel approach of robust adaptive beamforming (RABF) is presented in this paper, aiming at robustness against both finite-sample effects and steering vector mismatches. It belongs to the class of diagonal loading approaches with the loading level determined based on worst-case performance optimization. The proposed approach, however, is distinguished by two points. (1) It takes finite-sample effects into account and applies worst-case performance optimization to not only the constraints, but also the objective of the constrained quadratic equation, for which it is referred to as joint worst-case RABF (JW-RABF). (2) It suggests a simple closed-form solution to the optimal loading after some approximations, revealing how different factors affect the loading. Compared with many existing methods in this field, the proposed one achieves better robustness in the case of small sample data size as well as steering vector mismatches. Moreover, it is less computationally demanding for presenting a simple closed-form solution to the optimal loading. Numerical examples confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

The audio delay is becoming an important factor in audio streaming over short-range wireless network. In this study, we propose an efficient two-level delay control method, called frame sequence adaptation and audio sampling frequency compensation, for achieving stable audio delay with a small variation. To prove the effectiveness of our scheme, we implemented and evaluated the scheme on a Bluetooth network. Experimental results show that our scheme can control audio delay robustly and remove phase shift problem in multi-channel stereophonic audio broadcasting as well.

An H.264-based selective FGS coding scheme is proposed. It selectively uses the interframe-prediction data inside the enhancement-layer only when those data can significantly reduce the temporal-redundancies. Since this minimizes the drift effects, the overall coding efficiency is improved. Simulations show that average PSNR of the proposed scheme is higher by 1-3 dB and 3-5 dB than those of the H.264-based FGS and the MPEG-4 video FGS profile, respectively.

To achieve a very high data rate within a limited frequency band in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, multi-input multi-output (MIMO) techniques are very promising. Moreover, if a transmitter has the channel state information (CSI), the achievable spectrum efficiency can be maximized using the eigenbeam-space division multiplexing (E-SDM). However, this scheme demands accurate channel estimation. Therefore, in a closed-loop transmission scheme, an increase in the amount of feedback is absolutely necessary for the E-SDM. This paper describes a downlink beamforming method that significantly reduces the amount of feedback needed by using the common transmission weight vectors in all sub-carriers, compared to the amount required for E-SDM. The proposed method also applies transmission diversity to compensate for the quality. The effectiveness of the proposed method was confirmed using computer simulations in both Ricean and Rayleigh fading environments.

We propose an adaptive beamforming scheme for the combination of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and adaptive antenna array. The combinational scheme is characterized by the sample matrix inverse (SMI) algorithm, frequency-to-time pilot transform and pre-FFT combination. For every OFDM block containing both data and pilot symbols, we transform the frequency-domain pilot symbols to the corresponding time-domain components. One of the obvious advantages of this transform is that the time interval of the antenna weight vector update can be reduced to only one OFDM sample interval, from one OFDM block interval of the conventional beamforming scheme in which the transform is not applied. This feature can greatly accelerate the convergence of SMI beamforming. The simulation results verify that the proposed beamforming scheme is capable of improving the convergence behavior significantly.

Switching characteristics such as wavelength dependency and phase dependency are investigated for our proposed switch which consists of waveguide-type Raman amplifiers and 3-dB couplers. As a result, the available range of wavelength and phase shift due to nonlinear effect are estimated about 20 nm around 1.55 µm and about 10 degrees, respectively.

The feasibility of a new transistor structure was demonstrated through an experimental observation of current gain and voltage gain. The proposed transistor structure is a hot electron transistor without a base layer to minimize scattering. Electron emission from the emitter is controlled using positively biased Schottky gate electrodes located on both sides of the emitter mesa. Monte Carlo simulation shows an estimated delay time of 0.17 ps and low gate leakage current with open-circuit voltage gain over unity. To confirm the basic operation, the device with a 25 nm wide emitter was fabricated. To obtain saturated current-voltage characteristics, the emitter was surrounded by gates and parasitic regions were eliminated by electron beam lithography. The observed open-circuit voltage gain was 25. To obtain a low leakage current, an electron energy smaller than the Γ-L separation was necessary to maintain the ballistic nature of the electron. When the gate-emitter voltage was 0.8 V, the gate leakage current was only 4% of the collector current. Thus voltage amplication and current amplification were confirmed simultaneously.

To obtain large capacity, high quality mobile satellite communication systems in the future, we must use a multi-beam that can cope with extremely high levels of frequency reuse. This paper describes a novel resource allocation algorithm for multi-beam satellite communication systems that can dynamically adapt to maximum communication capacity without compromising quality. The algorithm combines two resource allocation schemes that enable it to contend with the ever-changing user distribution and inter-beam interference conditions. The first scheme optimizes the resources amongst beams. To minimize interference, the optimal constraint conditions are clarified when all clusters share and occupy the same bandwidth completely. These constraints are used in the optimization algorithm. The second scheme manages the various required resources and adapts them to the beam gain and interference levels at various user locations within a single beam. We propose a fixed power adaptive modulation scheme to obtain stable communications. This two-layered scheme can satisfactorily allocate multi-beam satellite resources to contend with the increasing communication capacity and still improve the quality.

Expressions are presented for the probability of target detection and the measurement accuracy of the detection, taking into account the effects of antenna beam-pointing error. Evaluation of these expressions requires numerical integration, which is computationally expensive. Approximate but analytic and efficient expressions are also presented. Numerical examples are given to present the relative accuracy of our analytic approximations.