We study the coupled spatio-temporal variations of the electron density and the electric field (electron plasma oscillations) in high-electron mobility transistors using the developed device model. The excitation of electron plasma oscillations in the terahertz range of frequencies might lead to the emission of terahertz radiation. In the framework of the model developed, we calculate the resonant plasma frequencies and find the conditions for the plasma oscillations self-excitation (plasma instability) We show that the transit-time effect in the high-electric field region near the drain edge of the channel of high-electron mobility transistors can cause the self-excitation of the plasma oscillations. It is shown that the self-excitation of plasma oscillations is possible when the ratio of the electron velocity in the high field region, ud, and the gate length, Lg, i.e., the inverse transit time are sufficiently large in comparison with the electron collision frequency in the gated channel, ν. The transit-time mechanism of plasma instability under consideration can superimpose on the Dyakonov-Shur mechanism predicted previously strongly affecting the conditions of the instability and, hence, terahertz emission. The instability mechanism under consideration might shed light on the origin of terahertz emission from high electron mobility transistors observed in recent experiments.

This paper presents a robust object tracking method under pose variation and partial occlusion. In practical environment, the appearance of objects is changed dynamically by pose variation or partial occlusion. Therefore, the robustness to them is required for practical applications. However, it is difficult to be robust to various changes by only one tracking model. Therefore, slight robustness to variations and the easiness of model update are required. For this purpose, Kernel Principal Component Analysis (KPCA) of local parts is used. KPCA of local parts is proposed originally for the purpose of pose independent object recognition. Training of this method is performed by using local parts cropped from only one or two object images. This is good property for tracking because only one target image is given in practical applications. In addition, the model (subspace) of this method can be updated easily by solving a eigen value problem. Performance of the proposed method is evaluated by using the test face sequence captured under pose, partial occlusion, scaling and illumination variations. Effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method are demonstrated by the comparison with template matching based tracker. In addition, adaptive update rule using similarity with current subspace is also proposed. Effectiveness of adaptive update rule is shown by experiment.

Active Shape Model (ASM) has been shown to be a powerful tool to aid the interpretation of images, especially in face alignment. ASM local appearance model parameter estimation is based on the assumption that residuals between model fit and data have a Gaussian distribution. Moreover, to generate an allowable face shape, ASM truncates coefficients of shape principal components into the bounds determined by eigenvalues. In this paper, an algorithm of modeling local appearances, called AdaBoosted ASM, and a shape parameter optimization method are proposed. In the algorithm of modeling the local appearances, we describe our novel modeling method by using AdaBoosted histogram classifiers, in which the assumption of the Gaussian distribution is not necessary. In the shape parameter optimization, we describe that there is an inadequacy on controlling shape parameters in ASM, and our novel method on how to solve it. Experimental results demonstrate that the AdaBoosted histogram classifiers improve robustness of landmark displacement greatly, and the shape parameter optimization solves the inadequacy problem of ASM on shape constraint effectively.

A wireless multi-hop virtual cellular network (VCN) was recently proposed to avoid the large peak transmit power, resulting from the high transmission rates expected for future mobile communication systems. In VCN, calls hop through several links to reach the central port, which is the gateway to the network. With the use of a routing algorithm based on the total uplink transmit power minimization criterion, the total transmit power of all the multi-hop links between the mobile terminal and the central port can be significantly reduced, in comparison with the present (single-hop) cellular network. In this paper, an "on-demand" channel assignment strategy, using the channel segregation dynamic channel allocation (CS-DCA) algorithm, is proposed for multi-hop DS-CDMA VCN. Computer simulation is conducted to evaluate the blocking probability performance and make a comparison between the VCN and the present cellular network.

Localization of a vehicle is a key component for driving assistance or autonomous navigation. In this work, we propose a visual positioning system (VPS) for vehicle or mobile robot navigation. Different from general landmark-based or model-based approaches, which rely on some predefined known landmarks or a priori information about the environment, no assumptions on the prior knowledge of the scene are made. A stereo-based vision system is built for both extracting feature correspondences and recovering 3-D information of the scene from image sequences. Relative positions of the camera motion are then estimated by registering the 3-D feature points from two consecutive image frames. Localization of the mobile platform is finally given by the reference to its initial position.

This paper studies bit-interleaved coded modulation with iterative decoding (BICM-ID) systems that employ multi-dimensional mappings of M-ary constellations to improve the error performance over Rayleigh fading channels. Based on the analytical evaluations of the asymptotic bit error probability (BEP), the distance criteria for the mapping designs can be obtained. A binary switching algorithm (BSA) is then applied to find the optimal mappings with respect to the asymptotic performance. Simulation and analytical results show that the use of multi-dimensional mappings of M-ary constellations can significantly improve the error performance.

In this letter we present steady-state analyses of a gradient algorithm (GA) for second-order adaptive infinite impulse response (IIR) notch filters. A method for deriving more accurate estimation mean square error (MSE) expressions than the recently proposed method is presented. The method is based on the estimation error power spectral density (PSD). Moreover, an expression for the estimation bias for the adaptive IIR notch filter with constrained poles and zeros is shown to be obtained from the estimation MSE expression. Simulations are presented to confirm the validity of the analyses.

This paper analytically studies performance improvement achieved by packet dispersion. Contrary to the previous work on packet dispersion, we consider the tail distribution of queue length and that of packet delay as performance measures, and we model a packet network as multiple parallel queues where the arrival processes from sources are not renewal but highly bursty. To appropriately evaluate the performance improvement achieved by packet dispersion, we develop approximate formulas to estimate the tail distributions. Our approximate formulas yield more accurate estimations than the standard approximate formulas. In the numerical results, we observe that packet dispersion can greatly improve the delay performance of packets. We also see that packet-level load balancing is superior to flow-level load balancing for any distribution ratio.

Experimental result and theoretical analysis are reported for bias-voltage dependence of oscillation frequency in resonant tunneling diodes (RTDs) integrated with slot antennas. Frequency change of 18 GHz is obtained experimentally for a device with the central oscillation frequency of 470 GHz. The observed frequency change is attributed to the bias-voltage dependence of the transit time of electrons across the RTD layers, which results in a voltage-dependent capacitance added to RTD. Theoretical analysis taking into account this transit time is in reasonable agreement with the observed results. Voltage-controlled RTD oscillators in the terahertz range are expected from the theoretical results. A structure suitable for large frequency change is also discussed briefly.

Kernel-based learning algorithms have been successfully applied in various problem domains, given appropriate kernel functions. In this paper, we discuss the problem of designing kernel functions for binary regression and show that using a bell-shaped cosine function as a kernel function is optimal in some sense. The rationale of this result is based on the Karhunen-Loeve expansion, i.e., the optimal approximation to a set of functions is given by the principal component of the correlation operator of the functions.

We present room temperature current voltage characteristics from SiGe interband tunneling diodes epitaxially grown on highly resistive Si(001) substrates. In this case, a maximum peak to valley current ratio (PVCR) of 5.65 was obtained. The possible integration of a SiGe tunnel diode with a strained Si transistor lead us to investigate the growth of SiGe interband tunneling diodes on Si0.7Ge0.3 virtual substrates. A careful optimization of the layer structure leads to a maximum PVCR of 1.36 at room temperature. The latter value can be further increased to 2.26 at 3.7 K. Our results demonstrate that high quality SiGe interband tunneling diodes can be realized, which is of great interest for future memory and high speed applications.

We have fabricated and investigated InGaAs Esaki tunnel diodes, grown on GaAs or InP substrates, of varied defect densities. The tunnel diodes exhibit the same I-V characteristics in spite of the variation of defect density. Under the simple thermal annealing and forward current stress tests, the change in the valley current was not observed, indicating that defects were not increased. On the other hand, the reduction in the peak current due to the carbon diffusion was observed under both tests. The diffusion was enhanced by the stress current owing to the energy dissipation associated with the nonradiative electron-hole recombination. From the reduction rates of the peak current, we obtained the thermal and current-enhanced carbon diffusion constants in InGaAs, which are independent of defect density. Although thermal diffusion of carbon in InGaAs is comparable with that in GaAs, the current-induced enhancement of diffusion in InGaAs is extremely weaker than that in GaAs. The difference between activation energy of thermal and current-enhanced diffusion is 0.8 eV, which is independent of stress current density and close to InGaAs bandgap energy. This indicates that the current-enhanced diffusion is dominated by the energy dissipation associated with nonradiative band-to-band recombination. This enhancement mechanism well explains that the current-induced enhancement is independent of defect density and extremely weak. We also have found that the current-enhanced diffusion constant is approximately proportional to the square of current density, suggesting that the recombination in the depletion layer dominates the current-enhanced diffusion.

Various mixed-signal very-high-speed integrated circuits have been developed using InP DHBTs. These circuits have been designed for fiber-optic 43 Gbit/s transmissions applications. They include: on the transmitting side, a clocked driver and an EAM driver, as well as a PSBT/DQPSK precoder; on the receiving side, a sensitive decision circuit, a limiting amplifier and an eye monitor. System experiments made possible by these circuits include a 6 Tbit/s transmission on >6000 km distance.

An atmospheric visibility measurement system capable of quantifying the most common operating range of onboard exteroceptive sensors is a key parameter in the creation of driving assistance systems. This information is then utilized to adapt sensor operations and processing or to alert the driver that the onboard assistance system is momentarily inoperative. Moreover, a system capable of either detecting the presence of fog or estimating visibility distances constitutes in itself a driving aid. In this paper, we first present a review of different optical sensors likely to measure the visibility distance. We then present our stereovision based technique to estimate what we call the "mobilized visibility distance". This is the distance to the most distant object on the road surface having a contrast above 5%. In fact, this definition is very close to the definition of the meteorological visibility distance proposed by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE). The method combines the computation of both a depth map of the vehicle environment using the "v-disparity" approach and of local contrasts above 5%. Both methods are described separately. Then, their combination is detailed. A qualitative evaluation is done using different video sequences. Finally, a static quantitative evaluation is also performed thanks to reference targets installed on a dedicated test site.

Accumulation of non-equilibrium longitudinal optical (LO) phonons (termed hot phonons) is considered as a possible cause for limitation of frequency of operation of GaN-based high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs). The experimental data on noise temperature of hot electrons at a microwave frequency as a function of supplied electric power is used to extract information on hot phonons: the hot-phonon lifetime, the equivalent hot-phonon temperature, the effective occupancy of hot-phonon states involved into electron-LO-phonon interaction. The possible ways for controlling the hot-phonon effect on electron drift velocity through variation of electron density, channel composition, and hot-phonon lifetime are discussed. The expected dependence of hot-electron drift velocity on hot-phonon lifetime is confirmed experimentally. A self-consistent explanation of different frequency behaviour of InP-based and GaN-based HEMTs is obtained from a comparative study of hot-phonon effects.

We propose a novel strategy to obtain a high spatio-temporal resolution video. To this end, we introduce a dual sensor camera that can capture two video sequences with the same field of view simultaneously. These sequences record high resolution with low frame rate and low resolution with high frame rate. This paper presents an algorithm to synthesize a high spatio-temporal resolution video from these two video sequences by using motion compensation and spectral fusion. We confirm that the proposed method improves the resolution and frame rate of the synthesized video.

A new method for automatically building statistical shape models from a set of training examples and in particular from a class of hands. In this study, we utilise a novel approach to automatically recover the shape of hand outlines from a series of 2D training images. Automated landmark extraction is accomplished through the use of the self-organising model the growing neural gas (GNG) network, which is able to learn and preserve the topological relations of a given set of input patterns without requiring a priori knowledge of the structure of the input space. The GNG is compared to other self-organising networks such as Kohonen and Neural Gas (NG) maps and results are given for the training set of hand outlines, showing that the proposed method preserves accurate models.

In this paper, we report a manufacturable InP DHBT technology, suitable for medium scale mixed-signal and monolithic microwave integrated circuits. The InGaAs/InP DHBTs were grown by MBE and fabricated using conventional process techniques. Devices with an emitter junction area of 4.8 µm2 exhibited peak cutoff frequency (fT) and maximum oscillation frequency (fMAX) values of 265 and 305 GHz, respectively, and a breakdown voltage (BVCEo) of over 5 V. Using this technology, a set of mixed-signal IC building blocks for ≥ 80 Gbit/s fibre optical links, including distributed amplifiers (DA), voltage controlled oscillators (VCO), and multiplexers (MUX), have been successfully fabricated and operated at 80 Gbit/s and beyond.

This paper deals with questions concerning the supply of building-blocks (BBs) in the initial population of real-coded genetic algorithms (rGAs). Drawing upon the methodology of existing BB supply studies for finite alphabets, facetwise models for the supply of a single schema as well as for the supply of all the schemata in a partition are proposed. A model for the initial population size necessary to ensure the presence of all the raw BBs with a given supply error has also been developed using the partition success model. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the facetwise models and the initial population sizing model. Finally, an adaptation approach is suggested for practical use of the BB supply.

The effects of rapid thermal annealing (RTA) on bias-stress-induced base leakage were investigated in InGaP/GaAs collector-up heterojunction bipolar transistors (C-up HBTs) fabricated with boron ion implantation. C-up HBTs annealed at 700 for 1 s had negligible leakage, while non-annealed C-up HBTs had leakage (with an activation energy, Ea, of 0.17 eV) that exponentially increased with bias time. Because this Ea is almost the same as that of the hole traps (0.25 eV) observed in the InGaP emitters of non-annealed C-up HBTs, we attribute the leakage to hole tunneling from bases to emitters. By reducing the initial trap density using RTA, we stabilized current gain even after 1,030 h of testing at a junction temperature of 210 and a collector current density of 40 kA/cm2.