High-performance and low-cost sensors are critical devices for high-throughput analyses of bio-samples in medical diagnoses and life sciences. In this paper, we demonstrate photonic crystal nanolaser sensor, which detects the adsorption of biomolecules from the lasing wavelength shift. It is a promising device, which balances a high sensitivity, high resolution, small size, easy integration, simple setup and low cost. In particular with a nanoslot structure, it achieves a super-sensitivity in protein sensing whose detection limit is three orders of magnitude lower than that of standard surface-plasmon-resonance sensors. Our investigations indicate that the nanoslot acts as a protein condenser powered by the optical gradient force, which arises from the strong localization of laser mode in the nanoslot.

A novel type of optically clocked all-optical flip-flop based on a coupled-mode distributed Bragg reflector laser diode is proposed. The device operates as a bistable laser, where the two lasing modes at different wavelength are switched all-optically by injecting a clock pulse together with a set/reset signal. We employ an analytical model based on the two-mode coupled rate equations to verify the basic operation of the device numerically. Optically clocked flip-flop operation is obtained with a set/reset power of 0.60 mW and clock power of 1.8 mW. The device features simple structure, small footprint, and synchronized all-optical flip-flop operation, which should be attractive in the future digital photonic integrated circuits.

We demonstrate phase demodulation of 10-Gbps DPSK signals using a silicon micro-ring resonator with a radius of 10 µm and with various coupling gaps for light of ∼1550 nm in wavelength. Influence of the Q factors and transmissions of the resonators on the response speed and power balance of the two output ports is discussed. Furthermore, temperature sensitivity on resonance peak was measured and we discuss its effect on practical demodulation application.

Since most of energy consumed by the telecommunication infrastructure is due to the Base Transceiver Station (BTS), switching off BTSs when traffic load is low has been recognized as an effective way of saving energy. In this letter, an energy saving scheme is proposed to minimize the number of active BTSs based on the space-time structure of traffic loads as determined by principal component analysis. Compared to existing methods, our approach models traffic loads more accurately, and has a much smaller input size. As it is implemented in an off-line manner, our scheme also avoids excessive communications and computing overheads. Simulation results show that the proposed method has a comparable performance in energy savings.

Efficient silicon-based light sources are expected to be key devices for applications such as optical interconnection. Huge number of researches has been conducted for realizing silicon-based light sources. Most of them utilized silicon-related materials such as silicon nanostructures or germanium, not crystalline silicon, which has been considered as a poor light emitter because of its indirect electronic bandgap. Light emission properties of materials can be tailored not only by modifying the material properties directly, but also by controlling the electromagnetic environment surrounding the material. Photonic nanostructures are a powerful tool for creating the engineered environment. In this paper, we briefly review the mechanisms for improving the light emission properties of materials by photonic nanostructures and present our recent experimental results showing the enhancement of light emission from silicon by introducing photonic crystal structures.

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) produced by large-scale integration (LSI) on Si platforms have been intensively researched. Since thermal diffusion from the LSI logic layer is a serious obstacle to realizing a Si-based optical integrated circuit, we have proposed and realized athermal wavelength filters using Si slot waveguides embedded with benzocyclobutene (BCB). First, the athermal conditions were theoretically investigated by controlling the waveguide and gap width of the slot waveguides. In order to introduce the calculated waveguide structures to wavelength filters, the propagation losses and bending losses of the Si slot waveguides were evaluated. The propagation losses were measured to be 5.6 and 5.3 dB/cm for slot waveguide widths of 500 and 700 nm, respectively. Finally, athermal wavelength filters, a ring resonator, and a Mach-Zhender interferometer (MZI) with a slot waveguide width of 700 nm were designed and fabricated. Further, a temperature coefficient of -0.9 pm/K for the operating wavelength was achieved with the athermal MZI.

This paper considers the discrete model of the cart-pendulum system modeled by discrete mechanics, which is known as a good discretizing method for mechanical systems and has not been really applied to control theory. We first sum up basic concepts on discrete mechanics and discuss the explicitness of the linear approximation of the discrete Euler-Lagrange Equations. Next, the discrete cart-pendulum system is derived and analyzed from the viewpoint of solvability of implicit nonlinear control systems. We then show a control algorithm to stabilize the discrete cart-pendulum based on the discrete-time optimal regulator theory. Finally, some simulations are shown to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

This paper presents an area-effective bandwidth enhancement technique using interwoven inductors. Inductive peaking is a common practice for bandwidth enhancement, however the area overhead of inductors is a serious issue. We implement six or four inductors into an interwoven inductor. Furthermore parasitics of the inductors can be reduced. The proposed inductor is applied to a laser-diode driver in a 0.18 µm CMOS. Compared to conventional shunt-peaking, the proposed circuit achieves 1.6 times faster operation and 60% reduction in power consumption under the condition for the same amount of data transmission and the LD driving current. The interwoven inductor can reduce the circuit area by 26%. Parasitic capacitance in interwoven inductor is discussed. Simulation results reveal that line-to-line capacitance is a significant factor on bandwidth degradation.

In this paper, we consider a stabilization problem for the cart-pendulum system based on discrete mechanics, which is known as a good discretizing method for mechanical systems and has not been really applied to control theory. First, the continuous and discrete cart-pendulum systems are explained. We next propose a transformation method that converts a discrete-time input derived from the discrete-time optimal regulator theory into a continuous-time zero-order hold input, and carry out some simulations on stabilization of the cart-pendulum system by the transformation method. Then, we apply not only our proposed method but also existing methods to an experimental laboratory of the cart-pendulum system and perform some experiments in order to verify the availability of the proposed method.

We have developed two modulator driver ICs that are based on the functional distributed circuit (FDC) topology for over 40-Gb/s optical transmission systems using InP HBT technology. The FDC topology enables both a wide bandwidth amplifier and high-speed digital functions. The none-return-to-zero (NRZ) driver IC, which is integrated with a D-type flip-flop, exhibits 2.6-Vp-p (differential output: 5.2 Vp-p) output-voltage swings with a high signal quality at 43 and 50 Gb/s. The return-to-zero (RZ) driver IC, which is integrated with a NRZ to RZ converter, produces 2.4-Vp-p (differential output: 4.8 Vp-p) output-voltage swings and excellent eye openings at 43 and 50 Gb/s. Furthermore, we conducted electro-optical modulation experiments using the developed modulator driver ICs and a dual drive LiNbO3 Mach-Zehnder modulator. We were able to obtain NRZ and RZ clear optical eye openings with low jitters and sufficient extinction ratios of more than 12 dB, at 43 and 50 Gb/s. These results indicate that the FDC has the potential to achieve a large output voltage and create high-speed functional ICs for over-40-Gb/s transmission systems.

In this paper, a sepic-type single-stage electronic ballast (STSSEB) is proposed, which is derived from the combination of a sepic converter and a half-bridge inverter. The ballast can not only step down input voltage directly but achieve high power factor, reduce voltage stress, improve efficiency and lower cost. Since component stress is reduced significantly, the presented ballast can be applied to high voltage mains. Derivation of the STSSEB is first presented. Then, analysis, design and practical consideration for the STSSEB are discussed. A 347 Vac 60 W prototype has been simulated and implemented. Simulations and experimental results have verified the feasibility of the proposed STSSEB.

This paper presents a low distortion 3rd-order continuous-time delta-sigma modulator for a worldwide digital TV-receiver whose peak SNDR is 69.8 dB and SNR is 70.2 dB under 1 V power supply. To enhance SNDR performance, the mechanisms to occur harmonic distortions at feedback current-steering DAC and flash ADC have been analyzed. A low power tuning system using RC-relaxation oscillator has been developed in order to achieve high yield against PVT variations. A 3rd-order modulator with modified single opamp resonator contributes to cost reduction by realizing a very compact circuit. Reduction schemes of the distortions enabled the modulator to achieve FOM of 0.18 pJ/conv-step.

A new frequency estimator for a single real-valued sinusoid signal in white noise is proposed. The new estimator uses the Pisarenko Harmonic Decomposer (PHD) estimator to get a coarse frequency estimate and then makes use of multiple correlation lags to obtain an adjustment term. For the limited-length single sinusoid, its correlation has the same frequency as itself but with a non-zero phase. We propose to use Taylor series to expand the correlation at the PHD coarse estimated frequency with amplitude and phase of the correlation into consideration. Simulation results show that this new method improves the estimation performance of the PHD estimator. Moreover, when compared with other existing estimator, the mean square frequency error of the proposed method is closer to the Cramer-Rao Lower Bound (CRLB) for certain SNR range.

Many researchers have recently studied various applications such as Inter-Vehicle Communications (IVC) and Road-to-Vehicle Communications (RVC) for Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). RVC is a key technology that can connect vehicles with the internet through Road Side Units (RSUs). Relative positions between vehicles vary within short periods of time. Neighboring vehicles and barriers cause shadowing that blocks communication for extended periods of time between RSUs and vehicles. We propose a fast scheme of Mobile IPv6 handover using dual-band communications in RVC. This scheme uses ISM and UHF dual bands. It switches to the UHF band during handover or in the shadowing period. We demonstrate that the proposed scheme can establish continuous communications through computer simulations.

In this paper, we propose efficient sequential AES CCM architecture for the IEEE 802.16e. In the proposed architecture, only one AES encryption core is used and the operation of the CTR and the CBC-MAC is processed concurrently within one round. With this design approach, we can design sequential AES CCM architecture having 570 Mbps@102.4 MHz throughput and 1,397 slices at a Spartan3 3s5000 device.

We propose a novel channel model of satellite-to-ground optical transmission to achieve a global-scale high-capacity communication network. In addition, we compose an effective channel coding scheme based on low-density generator matrix (LDGM) code suitable for that channel. Because the first successful optical satellite communication demonstrations are quite recent, no practical channel model has been introduced. We analyze the results of optical transmission experiments between ground station and the Optical Inter-orbit Communications Engineering Test Satellite (OICETS) performed by NICT and JAXA in 2008 and propose a new Markov-based practical channel model. Furthermore, using this model we design an effective long erasure code (LEC) based on LDGM to achieve high-quality wireless optical transmissions.

Recently, Kang et al. discussed some security flaws of Wu et al.'s and Wei et al.'s authentication schemes that guarantee user anonymity in wireless communications and showed how to overcome the problems regarding anonymity and the forged login messages. However, we will show that Kang et al.'s improved scheme still did not provide user anonymity as they claimed.

ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) wireless communications system has been developing based on the leading edge ICT (Information Communication Technologies) in Japan. The comfort driving systems for example VICS (Vehicular Information Communication system), ETC (Electronic Toll Collection), Telematics has already become popular and the safety driving support systems, such as ASV (Advanced Safety Vehicle) and SMARTWAY have been scheduled for introduction in the near future. However, there are many residual issues in the comfort driving system because of the existence of the traffic jam and the interest of the economical cars in the world. Moreover, the acceleration of the development of the Smart Grid and EV (Electric Vehicle) would affect the future development of the ITS wireless communications system. In this paper, it is clarified that the future development should be advanced considering the one of the basic business rule of 'market-in and product-out'.

An electronic ticket is a contract, in digital format, between the user and the service provider, and reduces both economic costs and time in many services such as air travel industries or public transport. However, the security of the electronic ticket has to be strongly guaranteed, as well as the privacy of their users. We present an electronic ticketing system that considers these security requirements and includes the exculpability as a security requirement for these systems, i.e. users and the service provider can not falsely accuse each other of misbehavior. The system ensures that either both parties receive their desired data from other or neither does (fair exchange). Another interesting property is reusability. Thanks to reusability the tickets can be used a predefined number of times with the same security as single tickets. Furthermore, this scheme takes special care of the computational requirements on the users side by using light-weight cryptography. We show that the scheme is usable in practice by means of its implementation using mobile phones with Near Field Communication (NFC) capabilities.

The miniaturization of electronic devices is leading to the creation of body-centric wireless communications, in which wireless devices are attached to human body. However, the human body environment is often uninviting for wireless signals owing to the mutual influence between the human body and wireless devices' antennas, namely wearable antennas. Therefore, wearable antennas need to be carefully designed. In this paper, a small wearable antenna with folded ground at 2.4 GHz is proposed. The folded ground has two effects: one is to improve efficiency and the other is to enhance bandwidth. When the antenna is very close to human body, it has an efficiency of 50.7% and a wide operation bandwidth of 130 MHz.