HfOxNy thin films formed by the electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) Ar/N2 plasma nitridation of HfO2 films were investigated for high-k gate insulator applications. HfOxNy thin films formed by the ECR Ar/N2 plasma nitridation (60 s) of 1.5-nm-thick HfO2 films, which were deposited on chemically oxidized Si(100) substrates, were found to be effective for suppressing interfacial layer growth or crystallization during postdeposition annealing (PDA) in N2 ambient. After 900 PDA of for 5 min in N2 ambient, it was found that HfSiON film with a relatively high dielectric constant was formed on the HfOxNy/Si interface by Si diffusion. An equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) of 2.0 nm and a leakage current density of 1.010-3 A/cm2 (at VFB-1 V) were obtained. The effective mobility of the fabricated p-channel metal-insulator-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MISFET) with the HfOxNy gate insulator was 50 cm2/Vs, and the gate leakage current of the MISFET with the HfOxNy gate insulator was found to be well suppressed compared with the MISFET with the HfO2 gate insulator after 900 PDA because of the nitridation of HfO2.

The present letter deals with the blind equalization problem of a single-input single-output infinite impulse response (SISO-IIR) channel with additive Gaussian noise. To solve the problem, we propose a new criterion for maximizing constrainedly a fourth-order cumulant. The algorithms derived from the criterion have such a novel property that even if Gaussian noise is added to the output of the channel, an effective zero-forcing (ZF) equalizer can be obtained with as little influence of Gaussian noise as possible. To show the validity of the proposed criterion, some simulation results are presented.

For the measurement of the 3D surface of micro-solderballs in IC (Integrated Circuit) manufacturing inspection, a binary grating project lenses of high MTF (Modulation Transfer Function) with tilted project plane is designed in this paper. Using a combination of lenses and a tilted optical layout both on object and image plane, the wave-front aberrations are reduced and the nonlinear image distortion is corrected with nonlinearity compensation, This optical lens allows us to project the structured light pattern to the inspected objects efficiently for clear deformed coded imaging, it could be used to online measure 3D shape of micro-solderballs with high precision and accuracy.

Koblitz curves belong to a special class of binary curves on which the scalar multiplication can be computed very efficiently. For this reason, they are suitable candidates for implementations on low-end processors. However, such devices are often vulnerable to side channel attacks. In this paper, we propose a new countermeasure against side channel attacks on Koblitz curves, which utilizes a fixed-pattern recoding to defeat simple power analysis. We show that in practical cases, the recoding can be performed from left to right, and can be easily stored or even randomly generated.

In this paper, we show the generalized method of the time-domain circuit simulation based on LIM. Our method is applicable to any structure of circuits by combination with the SPICE-like method. In order to show the validity and efficiency of our method, an example circuit is simulated and the proposed method is compared with the conventional ones.

We propose transformation of a parity-check matrix of any low-density parity-check code. A code with transformed parity-check matrix is an equivalent of a code with the original parity-check matrix. For the binary erasure channel, performance of a message-passing algorithm with a transformed parity-check matrix is better than that with the original matrix.

This paper analyzes automation surprises in human-machine systems with time information. Automation surprises are phenomena such that the underlying machine's behavior diverges from user's intention and may lead to critical situations. Thus, designing human-machine systems without automation surprises is one of fundamental issues to achieve reliable user interaction with the machines. In this paper, we focus on timed human-machine interaction and address their formal aspects. The presented framework is essentially an extension of untimed human-machine interaction and will cover the previously proposed methodologies. We employ timed automata as a model of human-machine systems with time information. Modeling the human-machine systems as timed automata enables one to deal with not only discrete behavior but also time constraints. Then, by introducing the concept of timed simulation of the machine model and the user model, conditions which guarantee the nonexistence of automation surprises are derived. Finally, we construct a composite model in which a machine model and a user model evolve concurrently and show that automation surprises can be detected by solving a reachability problem in the composite model.

The modeling of gate delays has always been one of the most difficult and market-sensitive works. In submicron designs, the second-order effects such as the input-to-output coupling capacitance have a significant influence on gate delay as shown in this paper. However, the accurate analysis of the input-to-output coupling capacitance effect has not been presented in previous research. In this paper, an analytical model for the influence of the input-to-output coupling capacitance on CMOS inverter delay is proposed, in which a novel algorithm for computing overshooting time is given. Experimental results show good agreement with Spice simulations.

The Reliability-Based Hybrid ARQ (RB-HARQ) scheme, which can be used with error correcting codes using soft-input soft-output (SISO) decoders such as convolutional codes and turbo codes has been proposed. In the RB-HARQ scheme, the error rate performance is improved by selecting the retransmission bits based on Log Likelihood Ratio (LLR) of each bit in the receiver. However, the receiver has to send the bit positions of retransmission bits to the transmitter. Therefore, the RB-HARQ scheme requires a great number of feedback bits. On the other hand, Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes are attracting a lot of interest, recently. Because LDPC codes can achieve near Shannon limit performance and be decoded easily compared to turbo code. In this paper, we evaluate the RB-HARQ scheme using LDPC code. Moreover, we propose a RB-HARQ scheme that requires a fewer feedback bits by utilizing a code structure of LDPC code. We refer to the scheme as the RB-HARQ (row base) scheme. We show that the RB-HARQ and RB-HARQ (row base) schemes using LDPC code have better error rate performance than the scheme without ARQ. We also show that the RB-HARQ (row base) scheme has a good trade-off between error rate performance and the number of feedback bits compared to the RB-HARQ scheme.

Temperature-tracking is becoming of paramount importance in modern electronic design automation tools. In this paper, we present a deterministic thermal placement algorithm for standard cell based layout which can lead to a smooth temperature distribution over the die. It is mainly based on Fiduccia-Mattheyses partition scheme and a former substrate thermal model that can convert the known temperature constraints into the corresponding power distribution constraints. Moreover, a kind of force-directed heuristic based on cells' power consumption is introduced in the above process. Experimental results demonstrate a comparatively uniform temperature distribution and show a reduction of the maximal temperature on the die.

We consider a watermark application to assist in the integrity maintenance and verification of the associated images. There is a great benefit in using WM in the context of authentication since it does not require any additional storage space for supplementary metadata, in contrast with cryptographic signatures, for instance. However there is a fundamental problem in the case of exact authentication: How to embed a signature into a cover message in such a way that it would be possible to restore the watermarked cover image into its original state without any error? There are different approaches to solve this problem. We use the watermarking method consisting of modulo addition of a mark and investigate it in detail. Our contribution lies in investigating different modified techniques of both watermark embedding and detection in order to provide the best reliability of watermark authentication. The simulation results for different types of embedders and detectors in combination with the pictures of watermarked images are given.

Fingerprints are useful for biometric purposes because of their well known properties of distinctiveness and persistence over time. However, owing to skin conditions or incorrect finger pressure, original fingerprint images always contain noise. Especially, some of them contain useless components, which are often mistaken for the terminations that are an essential minutia of a fingerprint. Mathematical Morphology (MM) is a powerful tool in image processing. In this paper, we propose a linear time algorithm to eliminate impulsive noise and useless components, which employs generalized and ordinary morphological operators based on Euclidean distance transform. There are two contributions. The first is the simple and efficient MM method to eliminate impulsive noise, which can be restricted to a minimum number of pixels. We know the performance of MM is heavily dependent on structuring elements (SEs), but finding an optimal SE is a difficult and nontrivial task. So the second contribution is providing an automatic approach without any experiential parameter for choosing appropriate SEs to eliminate useless components. We have developed a novel algorithm for the binarization of fingerprint images [1]. The information of distance transform values can be obtained directly from the binarization phase. The results show that using this method on fingerprint images with impulsive noise and useless components is faster than existing denoising methods and achieves better quality than earlier methods.

Two compact and low loss dual-mode filters are proposed by using degenerate modes of slotted triangular microstrip patch resonators. The geometrical size and radiation loss of the triangular patch are reduced simultaneously by loading both horizontal and vertical slots. The resonant frequencies of two degenerate modes can be easily controlled by varying the dimensions and positions of the slots. A two-pole dual-mode filter operating at 3.94 GHz with a fractional bandwidth of 4.3% is designed, fabricated, and measured. The measured results verify well the theoretical predictions.

This paper proposes a continuous-time bandpass ΔΣAD modulator architecture which performs high-accuracy AD conversion of high frequency analog signals and can be used for next-generation radio systems. We use an RF DAC inside the modulator to enable subsampling and also to make the SNDR of the continuous-time modulator insensitive to DAC sampling clock jitter. We have confirmed that this is the case by MATLAB simulation. We have also extended our modulator to multi-bit structures and show that this alleviates excess loop delay problems.

An automatic and efficient algorithm for removal of intensity flicker is proposed. The novel repair process is founded on the block-based estimation and restoration algorithm with regard to luminance variation. It is easily realized and controlled to remove most intensity flicker and preserve the wanted effects, like fade in and fade out.

In this paper, we propose high performance IPv6-IPv4 translator, which translates all packets between IPv6 networks and IPv4 networks at high speed. In our previous work, we analyzed the performance factors of the existing S/W IPv6-IPv4 translators and proposed the improvement methods of each factor. To realize these methods, we also design and implement the IPv6-IPv4 translator with hardware core for the high-speed translation. To verify functionality of our translator core, the hardware emulation using prototyping as well as simulation is performed. Moreover, we show that our translator core can support high-performance translation.

In this paper a newly designed internally-coupled asymmetric stepped-impedance resonator (SIR) bandpass filter (BPF) is proposed. The asymmetric SIR structure not only can effectively reduce the circuit size but also can provide two flexibly tunable transmission zeros near the lower and upper passband edges. The first transmission zero is due to the series resonance of the quarter-wavelength open stepped-impedance stub, and the second one is produced by anti-parallel coupling between adjacent SIRs. The proposed BPF was fabricated and simulated using the commercial software HFSS, and agreement between the measured and simulated results was observed. A 0.9-dB insertion loss and a shape factor of 3.6 were achieved in the passband, thus indicating that the proposed filter structure is of practical value.

A design of non-orthogonal 33 space-time block code (STBC) is proposed. The proposed design achieves full rate, full level diversity, and maximum coding gain by symbol rotation (SR) method. In addition, the proposed scheme has lower encoding complexity than the unitary constellation-rotation (CR) STBC, while two methods exhibit the same bit error rate (BER) performance in Rayleigh fading channel.

The effect of the power/ground plane on the through-hole signal via is analyzed in a viewpoint of a band-stop filter. When the through-hole signal via passes through the power/ground plane, the return current path discontinuity of the through-hole signal via occurs due to the high impedance of the power/ground plane. Since the high impedance is produced by the power/ground plane resonance, it acts as a band-stop filter, which is connected to the signal trace in series. Therefore, the power/ground plane filters off its resonance frequency component by absorbing and reflecting from the signal on the through-hole signal via, and consequently the signal distortion, the power/ground plane noise voltage, and the consequent radiated emission occur. With S-parameter and TDR-TDT measurements, the band-stop effect of the power/ground plane on the through-hole signal via is confirmed. And then, this analysis is applied to the clock transmission through the through-hole signal via to obtain the clearer confirmation. The measurements of the distorted clock waveforms, the induced power/ground plane noise voltages, and the radiated emissions depending on the power/ground plane impedance around the through-hole signal via are shown.

Scenarios that describe concrete situations of software operation play an important role in software development, especially in requirements engineering. Since scenarios are informal, the correctness of scenarios is hard to be verified. The authors have developed a language for describing scenarios in which simple action traces are embellished. The purposes are to include typed frames based on a simple case grammar of actions and to describe the sequence among events. Based on this scenario language, this paper describes both (1) a correctness-checking method using rules to detect errors (lack of events, extra events, and wrong sequence among events) in a scenario and (2) a retrieval method of rules from rule DB that applicable to scenarios using pre and post- conditions.