We have proposed and successfully demonstrated a two step method for localizing defects on an LSI chip. The first step is the same as a conventional laser-SQUID (L-SQUID) imaging where a SQUID and a laser beam are fixed during LSI chip scanning. The second step is a new L-SQUID imaging where a laser beam is stayed at the point, located in the first step results, during SQUID scanning. In the second step, a SQUID size (Aeff) and the distance between the SQUID and the LSI chip (ΔZ) are key factors limiting spatial resolution. In order to improve the spatial resolution, we have developed a micro-SQUID and the vacuum chamber housing both the micro-SQUID and the LSI chip. The Aeff of the micro-SQUID is a thousand of that of a conventional SQUID. The minimum value of ΔZ was successfully reduced to 25 µm by setting both the micro-SQUID and an LSI chip in the same vacuum chamber. The spatial resolution in the second step was shown to be 53 µm. Demonstration of actual complicated defects localization was succeeded, and this result suggests that the two step localization method is useful for LSI failure analysis.

Lower-dimensional transformations in similar sequence matching show different performance characteristics depending on the type of time-series data. In this paper we propose a hybrid approach that exploits multiple transformations at a time in a single hybrid index. This hybrid approach has advantages of exploiting the similar effect of using multiple transformations and reducing the index maintenance overhead. For this, we first propose a new notion of hybrid lower-dimensional transformation that extracts various features using different transformations. We next define the hybrid distance to compute the distance between the hybrid transformed points. We then formally prove that the hybrid approach performs similar sequence matching correctly. We also present the index building and similar sequence matching algorithms based on the hybrid transformation and distance. Experimental results show that our hybrid approach outperforms the single transformation-based approach.

In this paper, we investigate a coded solution to compensate for the nonlinear distortion of TDMA satellite waveforms. Based on a Volterra-type channel model and the turbo principle, we present a turbo-like system that includes a simple rate-1 encoder at the transmit side in addition to a conventional channel encoder; the receive side iteratively equalizes the nonlinear channel effect and decodes the received symbols. Some other design alternatives are also explored and computer simulated performance is presented. Numerical results show that significant improvement over conventional approaches can be achieved by the proposed turbo system.

In this letter, we propose a multi-cell cooperation method for broadcast packet transmission in the OFDM-based cellular system with multiple transmit antennas. In the proposed method, to transmit two streams of spatially demultiplexed or transmit diversity coded symbols, we divide a coded packet into subparts to each of which different cell group and antenna pairs are assigned. It is shown that the proposed method reduces the outage probability with only negligible increase in channel estimation.

This work presents a full-chip RLC crosstalk budgeting routing flow to generate a high-quality routing design under stringent crosstalk constraints. Based on the cost function addressing the sensitive nets in visited global cells for each net, global routing can lower routing congestion as well as coupling effect. Crosstalk-driven track routing minimizes capacitive coupling effects and decreases inductive coupling effects by avoiding placing sensitive nets on adjacent tracks. To achieve inductive crosstalk budgeting optimization, the shield insertion problem can be solved with a minimum column covering algorithm which is undertaken following track routing to process nets with an excess of inductive crosstalk. The proposed routing flow method can identify the required number of shields more accurately, and process more complex routing problems than the linear programming (LP) methods. Results of this study demonstrate that the proposed approach can effectively and quickly lower inductive crosstalk by up to one-third.

In this paper, we propose a subcarrier resource allocation algorithm for managing the video quality degradation for multiuser orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) systems. The proposed algorithm exploits the unequal importance existing in different picture types for video coding and the diversity of subcarriers for multiuser systems. A model-based performance metric is first derived considering the error concealment and error propagation properties of the H.264 video coding structure. Based on the information on video quality enhancement existing in a packet to be transmitted, we propose the distortion management algorithm for balancing the subcarriers and power usages for each user and minimizing the overall video quality degradation. In the simulation results, the proposed algorithm demonstrates a more gradual video quality degradation for different numbers of users compared with other resource allocation schemes.

Body Area Networks (BAN) can provide a wide range of applications including medical support, healthcare monitoring, and consumer electronics with increased convenience or comfort. To harmonize with the strong demands from both medical and healthcare societies, and information and communications technology (ICT) industries, IEEE 802.15.6 task group (TG6) was set up to develop an IEEE wireless standard on BAN. This paper presents a general guidance to TG6. Some pre-works to set up TG6 are reviewed. The objectives, main topics, current status are described in details.

The heterodyne laser interferometer acts as an ultra-precise measurement apparatus in semiconductor manufacture. However the periodical nonlinearity property caused from frequency cross-talk is an obstacle to improve the high measurement accuracy in nanometer scale. In order to minimize the nonlinearity error of the heterodyne interferometer, we propose a frequency cross-talk compensation algorithm using an artificial intelligence method. The feedforward neural network trained by back-propagation compensates the nonlinearity error and regulates to minimize the difference with the reference signal. With some experimental results, the improved accuracy is proved through comparison with the position value from a capacitive displacement sensor.

A number-conserving cellular automaton (NCCA) is a cellular automaton such that all states of cells are represented by integers and the total number of its configuration is conserved throughout its computing process. In constrast to normal cellular automata, there are infinitely many assignments of states for NCCAs with a constant state number. As for von Neumann neighbor(radius one) NCCAs with rotation-symmetry, a local function can be represented by summation of four binary functions. In this paper, we show that the minimum size of state set of rotation-symmetric von Neumann neighbor NCCA is 5 by using this representation.

We fabricated high-power pure blue laser diodes (LDs) by using GaN-based material for full-color laser display. The operating output power, voltage and wall-plug efficiency of the LDs at forward current of 1.0 A were 1.17 W, 4.81 V and 24.3%, respectively. The estimated lifetime of the LDs was over 30,000 hours under continuous-wave operation.

In this letter, we propose a novel singular value decomposition zero-forcing beamforming (SVD-ZFBF) relaying scheme in the multiuser downlink MIMO broadcasting channel with fixed relays. Based on the processing scheme, we apply SUS [5] to select users at the relay station (RS) and develop a joint power allocation strategy at the base station (BS) and RS. By increasing the power at RS or selecting active users to obtain more multiuser diversity, SVD-ZFBF can approach an upper bound and outperform SVD-ZFDPC [1] with much lower complexity. Moreover, we show that the noise power ratio of RS to users significantly impacts the performance.

When a store sells items to customers, the store wishes to determine the prices of the items to maximize its profit. Intuitively, if the store sells the items with low (resp. high) prices, the customers buy more (resp. less) items, which provides less profit to the store. So it would be hard for the store to decide the prices of items. Assume that the store has a set V of n items and there is a set E of m customers who wish to buy those items, and also assume that each item i ∈ V has the production cost di and each customer ej ∈ E has the valuation vj on the bundle ej ⊆ V of items. When the store sells an item i ∈ V at the price ri, the profit for the item i is pi=ri-di. The goal of the store is to decide the price of each item to maximize its total profit. We refer to this maximization problem as the item pricing problem. In most of the previous works, the item pricing problem was considered under the assumption that pi ≥ 0 for each i ∈ V, however, Balcan, et al. [In Proc. of WINE, LNCS 4858, 2007] introduced the notion of "loss-leader," and showed that the seller can get more total profit in the case that pi < 0 is allowed than in the case that pi < 0 is not allowed. In this paper, we derive approximation preserving reductions among several item pricing problems and show that all of them have algorithms with good approximation ratio.

Although each application has its own quality of service (QoS) requirements, the resource allocation for multiclass services has not been studied adequately in multiuser orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. In this paper, a total transmit power minimization problem for downlink transmission is examined while satisfying multiclass services consisting of different data rates and target bit-error rates (BER). Lagrangian relaxation is used to find an optimal subcarrier allocation criterion in the context of subcarrier time-sharing by all users. We suggest an iterative algorithm using this criterion to find the upper and lower bounds of optimal power consumption. We also propose a prioritized subcarrier allocation (PSA) algorithm that provides low computation cost and performance very close to that of the iterative algorithm. The PSA algorithm employs subcarrier selection order (SSO) in order to decide which user takes its best subcarrier first over other users. The SSO is determined by the data rates, channel gain, and target BER of each user. The proposed algorithms are simulated in various QoS parameters and the fading channel model. Furthermore, resource allocation is performed not only subcarrier by subcarrier but also frequency block by frequency block (comprises several subcarriers). These extensive simulation environments provide a more complete assessment of the proposed algorithms. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms significantly outperform existing algorithms in terms of total transmit power consumption.

We have proposed a tunable laser with silica-waveguide ring resonators. In this tunable laser, a semiconductor optical amplifier was passively aligned and mounted onto a silica-waveguide substrate. The ring resonators can be tuned by controlling their temperatures using the thermo optic heaters formed on them, and there are no mechanically moving parts. Thus, they are sufficiently stable and reliable for practical use. Our tunable laser exhibits a high fiber-output power of more than 15 dBm and a wide tunable range of 60 nm (L-band, 50 GHz spacing, 147 channels). Moreover, a tunable laser with a much wider tunable range of 96 nm using 100-GHz-FSR ring resonators is also reported.

This paper focuses on optical integration technology and its application in optical microsensors used in biomedical fields. The integration is based on the hybrid integration approach, achieving high performance, small size and weight, and lower cost. First, we describe the key technologies used in hybrid integration, namely passive alignment technology, low temperature bonding technology, and packaging technology for realizing advanced microsensors. Then, we describe an integrated laser Doppler flowmeter that can monitor blood flow in human skin.

We investigate the symbol error rate (SER) of the cooperative transmission with the decode-and-forward relay protocol under Rayleigh fading channels. The technique of orthogonal space-time block coding (OSTBC) is applied at the links source-relay, source-destination and relay-destination. A closed-form SER expression is derived. Simulation results demonstrate the theoretical solutions.

This paper presents a new scheme for Timed-Release Encryption (TRE), which is mainly designed for global use. TRE aims to control the timing of disclosing information. The major approach to TRE assumes that any participants can receive a time token broadcasted by a trusted agent, called a time server. Our scheme is based on this approach and allows participants to generate an encrypted message that can be decrypted using designated or any authenticated time servers including even those which are authenticated after encryption. In this sense, our scheme has a more flexible framework in terms of message decryption.

Automated static timing analysis methods provide a safe but usually overestimated worst-case execution time (WCET) due to infeasible execution paths. In this paper, we propose a visual language, User Constraint Language (UCL), to obtain a tight WCET estimation. UCL provides intuitive visual notations with which users can easily specify various levels of flow information to characterize valid execution paths of a program. The user constraints specified in UCL are translated into finite automata. The combined automaton, constructed by a cross-production of the automata for program and user constraints, reflects the static structure and possible dynamic behavior of the program. It contains only the execution paths satisfying user constraints. A case study using part of a software program for satellite flight demonstrates the effectiveness of UCL and our approach.

This paper addresses the problem of joint transceiver design for Tomlinson-Harashima Precoding (THP) in the multiuser multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) downlink under both perfect and imperfect channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT). For the case of perfect CSIT, we differ from the previous work by performing stream-wise (both inter-user and intra-user) interference pre-cancelation at the transmitter. A minimum total mean square error (MT-MSE) criterion is used to formulate our optimization problem. By some convex analysis of the problem, we obtain the necessary conditions for the optimal solution. An iterative algorithm is proposed to handle this problem and its convergence is proved. Then we extend our designed algorithm to the robust version by minimizing the conditional expectation of the T-MSE under imperfect CSIT. Simulation results are given to verify the efficacy of our proposed schemes and to show their superiorities over existing MMSE-based THP schemes.

In this paper, performance of a novel interference cancellation technique for the single user detection in a direct-sequence code-division multiple access (DS-CDMA) system has been investigated. This new algorithm is based on the Cycle-and-Add property of PN (Pseudorandom Noise) sequences and can be applied for both synchronous and asynchronous systems. The proposed strategy provides a simple method that can delete interference signals one by one in spite of the power levels of interferences. Therefore, it is possible to overcome the near-far problem (NFP) in a successive manner without using transmit power control (TPC) techniques. The validity of the proposed procedure is corroborated by computer simulations in additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and frequency-nonselective fading channels. Performance results indicate that the proposed receiver outperforms the conventional receiver and, in many cases, it does so with a considerable gain.