This paper analyzes pulse characteristics of actively mode-locked fiber lasers by including the group-velocity dispersion and the Kerr nonlinearity of the fiber, both of which have not been taken into account in the conventional theory of mode locking. We show that chirped sech pulses are generated from nonlinear and dispersive fiber lasers. By considering the stability of the laser, we also derive design rules for the generation of ultra-short pulses.

In this paper we review the stretched-pulse principle and discuss its inherent advantages for ultrashort pulse generation and transmission. An analytic theory of the stretched-pulse fiber laser is presented and shown to be in good agreement with experimental results. An extension of the stretched-pulse theory is applied to both fiber lasers and dispersion-allocated soliton transmission and then compared to numerical results. We also discuss the design and operation of an environmentally stable stretched-pulse fiber laser.

A switched-capacitor Wien bridge oscillator and its automatic gain controller are discussed for low-frequency generation. The dc voltage Vs related to the amplitude of oscillation is obtained from the voltage differences in the frequency-determining arm. Theoretical analysis of the ripples in Vs is reported.

The dipole-dipole interaction among excitons is shown to give rise to an intrinsic nonlinearity, which yields a localized mode in a forbidden band, providing a coherent state for quantum computation. Employing this mode, a quantum XOR (exclusive OR) gate is proposed. A block structure of quantum dot arrays is also proposed, to implement quantum circuits comprising the quantum XOR gates for computation.

In the field of speech recognition, many researchers have proposed speech recognition methods using auditory information like acoustic signal or visual information like shape and motion of lips. Auditory information has valid features for speech recognition, but it is difficult to accomplish speech recognition in noisy environment. On the other side, visual information has advantage to accomplish speech recognition in noisy environment, but it is difficult to extract effective features for speech recognition. Thus, in case of using either auditory information or visual information, it is difficult to accomplish speech recognition perfectly. In this paper, we propose a method to fuse auditory information and visual information in order to realize more accurate speech recognition. The proposed method consists of two processes: (1) two probabilities for auditory information and visual information are calculated by HMM, (2) these probabilities are fused by using linear combination. We have performed speech recognition experiments of isolated words, whose auditory information (22.05kHz sampling, 8-bit quantization) and visual information (30-frame/s sampling, 24-bit quantization) are captured with multi-media personal computer, and have confirmed the validity of the proposed method.

This work presents a further development of the approach to modelling thermal (i.e. carrier-velocity-fluctuation) noise in semiconductor devices proposed in papers by the present authors. The basic idea of the approach is to apply classical theory of Ito's stochastic differential equations (SDEs) and stochastic diffusion processes to describe noise in devices and circuits. This innovative combination enables to form consistent mathematical basis of the noise research and involve a great variety of results and methods of the well-known mathematical theory in device/circuit design. The above combination also makes our approach completely different, on the one hand, from standard engineering formulae which are not associated with any consistent mathematical modelling and, on the other hand, from the treatments in theoretical physics which are not aimed at device/circuit models and design. (Both these directions are discussed in more detail in Sect. 1). The present work considers the bipolar transistor compact model derived in Ref. [2] according to theory of Ito's SDEs and stochastic diffusion processes (including celebrated Kolmogorov's equations). It is shown that the compact model is transformed into the Ito SDE system. An iterative method to determine noisy currents as entries of the stationary stochastic process corresponding to the above Ito system is proposed.

This paper describes influence of the relaxation current in BaxSr(1-x)TiO3 (BST) thin films on dynamic random access memory (DRAM) operation. The relaxation current is a transient content of dielectric leakage currents. In BST thin films (expected to be a cell capacitor dielectric in 256 Mb DRAM and beyond), the relaxation current often displays the power law behavior I(t)t-1. This leads to the singularity near the time zero. When one attempts to evaluate precisely the influence of this leakage on DRAM operation, the behavior should be estimated on a time-dependent bias. However, such a singular behavior makes analysis based on a linear response difficult. In this analysis, we start by assuming that the behavior of the relaxation current can be modeled as a linear equivalent circuit. We also assume that the relaxation current follows the power law, I(t)t-1 for 1 ns

A switched-capacitor phase-shifter oscillator of low distortion is discussed. The dc voltage related to the amplitude of oscillation was made for an automatic gain controller. The distortion factor was less than 0.5% in the frequency range from 100 µHz to 1 Hz.

A 3-dimensional beam propagation method is described for the analysis of nonlinear optical fibers, where the finite element and finite difference methods are, respectively, utilized for discretizing the fiber cross section and the propagation direction. For efficient evaluation of wide-angle beam propagation, Pade approximation is applied to the differential operator along the propagation direction. In order to improve accuracy of solutions, isoparametric elements and numerical integration formulae derived by Hammer et al. are introduced. The propagation characteristics of nonlinear optical fibers with linear core and nonlinear cladding are analyzed, and unique features of nonlinear guided-wave propagation, such as spatial soliton emission, are investigated.

We present a general framework with which we can evaluate the flexibility and efficiency of various replay systems for parallel programs. In our approach, program monitoring is modeled by making a virtual dataflow program graph, referred to as a VDG, that includes all the instructions executed by the program. The behavior of the program replay is modeled on the parallel interpretation of a VDG based on two basic parallel execution models for dataflow program graphs: a data-driven model and a demand-driven model. Previous attempts to replay parallel programs, known as Instant Replay and P-Sequence, are also modeled as variations of the data-driven replay, i.e. the datadriven interpretation of a VDG. We show that the demand-driven replay, i.e. the demand-driven interpretation of a VDG, is more flexible in program replay than the data-driven replay since it allows better control of parallelism and a more selective replay. We also show that we can implement a demand-driven replay that requires almost the same amount of data to be saved during program monitoring as does the data-driven replay, and which eliminates any centralized bottleneck during program monitoring by optimizing the demand propagation and using an effective data structure.

A brief overview is done to the development of the fiber-optic technology. These recent topics, not the commonly established techniques, are described connecting with the developments of the basic concepts and the expected applications. Some of these newly introduced ideas will become the seeds for the future development of the fiber-optic technology. These seeds include the very deep understanding of the fiber material, new concepts for the fiber characteristics, the brandnew fiber-optic devices and the fiber-optic systems and the applications.

This paper presents an analog 2-dimensional discrete cosine transform (2-D DCT) processor for focal-plane image compression. The on-chip analog 2-D DCT processor can process directly the analog signal of the CMOS image sensor. The analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) is preformed after the 2-D DCT, and this leads to efficient AD conversion of video signals. Most of the 2-D DCT coefficients can be digitized by a relatively low-resolution ADC or a zero detector. The quantization process after the 2-D DCT can be realized by the ADC at the same time. The 88-point analog 2-D DCT processor is designed by switched-capacitor (SC) coefficient multipliers and an SC analog memory based on 0.35µm CMOS technology. The 2-D DCT processor has sufficient precision, high processing speed, low power dissipation, and small silicon area. The resulting smart image sensor chips with data compression and digital transmission functions are useful for the high-speed image acquisition devices and portable digital video camera systems.

A sequence of nonnegative integers s=(S1, s2, , sn) is a score sequence of an r-tournament if, for some positive integer r, ther is a directed graph with vertices v1, v2, , vn such that deg+(vj)=sj and deg-(vj)=r(n-1) -sj for each j=1, 2, , n. The score sequence problem of an r-tournament is: Given some positive integer r and a sequence of nonnegative integers, determine whether it is a score sequence of an r-tournament or not. In this paper, we consider several variations of the score sequence problem of an r-tournament, and give efficient algorithms.

This paper describes the design and performance of optical components for in-service fiber testing and monitoring in optical subscriber loops. As the number of test fibers increases, compact and cost-effective components are becoming more important. To meet this need, we have developed a highly-dense hybrid structure for optical couplers and filters, which both play key roles in testing systems. It was realized by utilizing a polyimide-base thin film filter and a waveguide-type wavelength insensitive coupler. This component operates by combining a signal and a test light with a ratio of 80/20% and isolating the test light with a value of 50 dB. The experimental samples were successfully fabricated with an excess loss of 1 dB, a return loss of 40 dB, a plolarization dependent loss (PDL) of 0.3 dB, and good environmental and mechanical stability. We successfully applied the samples to an optical branch module (OBM), and achieved a component density twice that of a conventional module. The optical characteristics of the OBM met our target values. The results we obtained for termination cords incorporating the polyimide-base filter were also satisfactory.

This paper describes a novel quasi-transmission-line variable-reactance circuit that extends the variable-phase range of phase shifters. It consists of a transmission line and two shunt varactors. By appropriately choosing the characteristic impedance and electrical length of the transmission line, the variable-phase range can be significantly increased. Since the proposed circuit can be fabricated by the conventional MESFET process, a phase shifter can be integrated with other functional circuits. This enables fully monolithic integration of RF circuits as a one-chip multi-functional MMIC in radio communication systems. The variable-phase range of the prototype X-band monolithic phase shifter is 208 degrees, which is approximately four times as large as that of conventional one.

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is considered to bo the key technology for realizing B-ISDN. This paper discusses current research on ATM switching nodes for high-speed communication networks. Although some ATM switching nodes have been deployed, much work continues for resolving problems as regards operations and maintainability, such as ATM layer performance evaluation including layered management scheme upon detection of line failure, function test methods regarding channel connectivity for multicasting, and real-time ATM traffic-monitoring mechanism with QoS control. To achieve sufficient ATM node maintainability, the ATM cell transfer quality on the VP and VC levels should be ensured both within the ATM nodes and between adjacent ATM nodes. Since ATM switching nods handle many kinds of virtual paths and virtual channels, each channel's connectivity must be confirmed. This paper proposes ATM layer performance evaluation concept, layered management scheme upon detection of line failure, function test methods for a multicast switch using test cells that periodically pass through pre-determined switching path routes. It also proposes the concept of test cell generation for simulating multiplexed ATM test cells taking ATM truffic characteristics into account. Furthermore, this paper describes a fault diagnosis scheme using test cells that can continually observe the entire ATM connection length in the system. A real-time traffic monitoring hardware configuration and an interface with software control are also discussed and it is clarified that the required functions can be realized by using commercially available DSPs.

We propose a method to fuse auditory information and visual information for accurate speech recognition. This method fuses two kinds of information by using Iinear combination after calculating two kinds of probabilities by HMM for each word. In addition, we use full-frame color image as visual information in order to improve the accuracy of the proposed speech recognition system. We have performed experiments comparing the proposed method with the method using either auditory information or visual information, and confirmed the validity of the proposed method.

In this paper, we report the simulation studies on MSW solitons based on numerical solution of nonlinear schrodinger equation by Split Step Fourier Transform method. We have studied both magnetostatic forward volume and surface modes that satisfy opposite nonlinear conditions. The parameters used for the simulation are obtained from experiments on nonlinear characteristics of both the modes. Important soliton properties such as nonlinear power dependence, pulse shaping, formation of multisolitons are studied and compared qualitatively with the experiments.

We propose a speech recognition method using fusion of auditory and visual information for accurate speech recognition. Since we use both auditory information and visual information, we can perform speech recognition more accurately in comparison with the case of either auditory information or visual information. After processing each information by HMM, they are fused by linear combination with weight coefficient. We performed experiments and confirmed the validity of the proposed method.

A 0.96µm2 NAND-structured stacked capacitor cell has been achieved using conventional i-line photolithography and a 0.4µm design rule. Memory cell patterns for critical levels have been designed with a simple lineand-space configuration and a completely repeated hole arrangement for large lithography process margin. The word-line pitch and bit-line pitch are 0.9µm and0.95µm, respectively. In order to obtain sufficient storage capacitance and large alignment margin, a self-aligned cylindrical stacked capacitor and bit line plug fabrication process has been developed. These new technologies have enabled storage capacitance of 15 fF/cell with a 0.5µm capacitor height and a 5 nm equivalent SiO2 film thickness for nitride-top oxide(NO) film in the bit-line over capacitor(BOC) structure. Due to its lithography-oriented cell design and self-aligned process procedure, the present cell is a promising candidate for 256 Mb DRAM and beyond.