The distributions of a spectral intensity of the breaking arc between silver contacts in DC 45-66 V/2.5-5.0 A circuits have been measured using a high-speed color video. As a result, a cathode brightening spot, which has a high spectral intensity, exists near the cathode surface. The cathode brightening spot expands with the increase of the contact gap, but its length expands until about 18µm. When the contact gap spreads over about 180 µm, a dark positive column appears and grows between the cathode brightening spot and the anode surface. The higher the interrupted current is, the larger the diameter of the cathode brightening spot will be. The maximum diameter of cathode brightening spot is 500 µm under these experiments.

Epsilon serializability (ESR) was proposed to relax serializability constraints by allowing transactions to execute with a limited amount of inconsistency (ε-spec). Divergence control algorithms, viewed as extensions of concurrency control algorithms, enable read-only transactions to complete if their inconsistencies do not exceed ε-spec. This paper studies the performance of two-phase locking divergence control (2PLDC) and optimistic divergence control (ODC) algorithms. We develop a central part of the ESR transaction processing system that runs with 2PLDC and ODC. We applied a comprehensive centralized database simulation model to measure the performance. Evaluations are conducted with multi-class workloads where on-line update transactions and long-duration queries progress under various ε-spec. Our results demonstrate that significant performance enhancements are achieved with a non-zero tolerable inconsistency. With sufficient ε-spec and limited system resources, both algorithms result in comparable performance. However, with low resource contention, ODC performs significantly better than 2PLDC. Furthermore, in the range of small ε-spec, the queries committed by ODC have more accurate results than those committed by 2PLDC.

Modeling error is the major concerning issue in the trajectory estimation. This paper formulates the dynamic model of a reentry vehicle in reentry phase for identification with an unmodeled acceleration input covering possible model errors. Moreover, this work presents a novel on-line estimation approach, adaptive filter, to identify the trajectory of a reentry vehicle from a single radar measured data. This proposed approach combines the extended Kalman filter and the recursive least-squares estimator of input with the hypothetical testing scheme. The recursive least-squares estimator is provided not only to extract the magnitude of the unmodeled input but to offer a testing criterion to detect the onset and presence of the input. Numerical simulation demonstrates the superior capabilities in accuracy and robustness of the proposed method. In real flight analysis, the adaptive filter also performs an excellent estimation and prediction performances. The recommended trajectory estimation method can support defense and tactical operations for anti-tactical ballistic missile warfare.

Planar lightwave circuits (PLCs) provide various important devices for optical wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) systems, subscriber networks and etc. This paper reviews the recent progress and future prospects of PLC technologies including arrayed-waveguide grating multiplexers, optical add/drop multiplexers, programmable dispersion equalizers and hybrid optoelectronics integration technologies.

The temperature dependence of central wavelength of optical filters is a serious problem for the dense WDM systems. This dependence is owing to the temperature dependence of optical path-length of the waveguide. In this study, we realized a temperature independent silica-based optical filter at 1. 55 µm wavelength using an athermal waveguide, in which optical pathlength is independent of temperature. First, we designed a silica-based athermal waveguide, and next we designed and fabricated a ring resonator using the athermal waveguide. As a result, we successfully decreased the temperature dependence of central wavelength to less than 4 10 -4 nm/K, which is 3% and 0. 3% of corresponding values of conventional silica-based and semiconductor waveguide filters, respectively.

Electron and hole transport in polymethylphenylsilane (PMPS) containing anthracene units in the polymer backbone (PMPS-AN) has been studied by time-of-flight and electrophotographic measurements. It is found that the hole transport of PMPS-AN is non-dispersive and exhibits thermally activated behavior. The anthracene incorporation to the polymer backbone of PMPS slightly decreases the hole drift mobility of PMPS-AN because of the increase in energetic disorder. In PMPS-AN, the electron transport, which has not been observed in organic polysilanes, is clearly seen. In contrast to the hole transport, the electron transport exhibits anomalous dispersion of the transit times and the electron drift mobility is independent of temperature. It is suggested that the electron transport is due to geometrical disorder of electron hopping sites (anthracene units). From the electrophotographic measurements, we discuss the applicability of PMPS-AN to photoreceptors and estimate the Schubweg of electrons in PMPS-AN.

A multimedia coding standard, MPEG4 has frozen its Committee Draft (CD) as the MPEG4 version 1 CD, last October. It defines Audio-Visual (AV) coding Algorithms and their System Multiplex/Composition formats. Founding on Object-base concept, Video part adopts Shape Coding technology in addition to conventional Texture Coding skills. Audio part consists of voice coding tools (HVXC and CELP core) and audio coding tools (HILN and MPEG2 AAC or Twin VQ). Error resilience technologies and Synthetic and Natural Hybrid Coding (SNHC) technologies are the MPEG4 specific features. System part defines flexible Multiplexing of audio-visual bitstreams and Scene Composition for user-interactive re-construction of the scenes at decoder side. The version 1 standardization will be finalized in 1998, with some possible minute changes. The expected application areas are real-time communication, mobile multimedia, internet/intranet accessing, broadcasting, storage media, surveillance, and so on.

In supervisory control, discrete event dynamic systems (DEDSs) are modeled by finite-state automata, and their behaviors described by the associated formal languages; control is exercised by a supervisor, whose control action is to enable or disable the controllable events. In this paper we present a general stability concept for DEDSs, stability in the sense of Lyapunov with resiliency, by incorporating Lyapunov stability concepts with the concept of stability in the sense of error recovery. We also provide algorithms for verifying stability and obtaining a domain of attraction. Relations between the notion of stability and the notion of fault-tolerance are addressed.

Advanced scientific and engineering problems require massively parallel computing. Critical to the designand ultimately the performanceof such computing systems is the interconnection network binding the computing elements, just as is the cardiovascular network to the human body. This paper develops a new interconnection network, "Tori connected mESHes (TESH)," consisting of k-ary n-cube connection of supernodes that comprise meshes of lower level nodes. Its key features are the following: it is hierarchical, thus allowing exploitation of computation locality as well as easy expansion (up to a million processors), and it appears to be well suited for 3-D VLSI implementation, for it requires far fewer number of vertical wires than almost all known multi-computer networks. Presented in the paper are the architecture of the new network, node addressing and message routing, 3-D VLSI/ULSI considerations, and application of the network to massively parallel computing. Specifically, we discuss the mapping on to the network of stack filtering, a hardware oriented technique for order statistic image filtering.

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.

A 7-mask self-aligned SiGe base bipolar transistor has been newly developed. This transistor offers several advancements to a super self-aligned selectively grown SiGe base (SSSB) transistor which has a selectively grown SiGe-base layer formed by a cold-wall ultra high vacuum (UHV)/CVD system. The advancements are as follows: (1) a BPSG-filled arbitrarywidth trench isolation on a SOI is formed by a high-uniformity CMP with a hydro-chuck for reducing the number of isolation fabrication steps, (2) polysilicon-plug emitter and collector electrodes are made simultaneously using an in-situ phosphorusdoped polysilicon film to decrease the distance between emitter and collector electrodes and also to reduce the fabrication steps of the elecrodes, (3) a n+-buried collector layer is made by a high-energy phosphorus ion-implantation technique to eliminate collector epitaxial growth, and (4) a germanium profile in the neutral base region is optimized to increase the fT value without increasing leakage current at the base-cellector junction. In the developed transistor, a high performance of 80-GHz fT and mask-steps reduction are simultaneously achieved.

This letter describes our DFB-LD module for use in WDM optical access networks. We realized an isolator-free DFB-LD module with a thermo-electric cooler in aim of stabilizing the emission wavelength for WDM systems. Silicon waferboard technology was employed to achieve simple assembly and small size of the module. This small size contributed to low TEC power. Our fabricated module demonstrated low-noise and stable emission wavelength characteristics under 156 Mbit/s pseudo random modulation.

We propose low Rayleigh scattering Na2O-MgO-SiO2 (NMS) glass as a candidate material for low-loss optical fibers. This glass exhibits Rayleigh scattering which is only 0.4 times that of silica glass, and a theoretical evaluation suggests that it is dominated by density fluctuation. An investigation of the optical properties of NMS glass reveals that a minimum loss of 0.06 dB/km is expected at a wavelength of 1.6 µm and that the zero-material dispersion wavelength is found in the 1.5 µm band. To establish the waveguide structure, we evaluated the feasibility of using F-doped NMS (NMS-F) glass as a cladding layer for an NMS core and found that it is suitable because it exhibits low relative scattering (e.g. 0.7) and is versatile in terms of viscosity matching. We also describe an attempt to draw optical fibers using the double crucible technique.

A light emitting diode (LED) array unit for use as a light source in isolated power transmission and a display panel was fabricated using LED chips mounted on a silicon microreflector. The reflector was formed on a (100) silicon wafer by anisotropic chemical etching. An isolated power supply consisting of an infrared LED array unit and single silicon crystal solar cells had a maximum transmission efficiency of 2.3%. The silicon microreflector absorbs the heat generated by the LED chips and improves their light directive characteristics. A small, high-resolution, full color LED display panel can also be constructed using LED array units fabricated on silicon microreflectors. The LEDs in a unit are arrayed with a matrix structure and the electric contacts between the LED chips, the reflector and the upper cover glass are formed using conducting silver resin.

Laser module fabricated with silicon platform technology is very attractive for low-cost modules. The technology enables passive optical alignment of an LD to an optical fiber. Our marker design for passive alignment allows positioning accuracy within 1 µm of LD. However, coupling efficiency is a key issue because that by conventional butt coupling scheme is low with about 10 dB coupling loss. We investigated optical coupling characteristics in various types of coupling scheme: conventional flat end fibers, cone fibers, integrated GRIN rod lenses on the platform and the coupling with new-type LDs integrated with spot size transformer. Improvement of coupling efficiency with 3 dB and 7.5 dB compared to flat-end fiber is achieved by using the cone fiber and the GRIN rod lens, respectively, although 1-dB coupling tolerances for alignment deteriorated with these schemes. We obtained high efficient coupling with 3.5 dB coupling loss and wide alignment tolerance of 2.3 µm simultaneously with a new-type LD integrated with spot size transformer owing to its expanded spot size characteristics.

Micromachined sensors and actuators applied with electrostatic fields are getting widely developed. At the same time, "electrets," which are dielectrics carrying non-equilibrium permanent space charges or polarization distribution, are in demand because they improve the transducer characteristics. In this paper, we have reported on our successful fabrication of silicon dioxide electrets with extremely superior long-term charge stability by plasma chemical vapor deposition (PCVD). We have also reported on the correlation between the deposition conditions, the long-term charge stability and thermally stimulated current (TSC). Finally, the characterization of the long-term stable electrets will be described and discussed.

We describe the design, fabrication, and characteristics of FDM/WDM coupler deposited by TEOS-O3 based APCVD method on silicon substrates. Due to drastically reduced birefringence by APCVD process, completely polarization independent narrow band (100 GHz) Mach-Zehnder type FDM coupler was obtained. We also fabricated 1.3/1.55 µm directional coupler type WDM coupler with very low insertion loss.

A generalized Reed-Muller expression (GRM) is obtained by negating some of the literals in a positive polarity Reed-Muller expression (PPRM). There are at most 2(n2)^(n-1) different GRMs for an n-variable function. A minimum GRM is one with the fewest products. This paper presents certain properties and an exact minimization algorithm for GRMs. The minimization algorithm uses binary decision diagrams. Up to five variables, all the representative functions of NP-equivalence classes were generated and minimized. Tables compare the number of products necessary to represent four-and five-variable functions for four classes of expressions: PPRMs, FPRMs, GRMs and SOPs. GRMs require, on the average, fewer products than sum-of-products expressions (SOPs), and have easily testable realizations.

We report on the formation technique and the first observation of visible light emission from silicon nanoparticles (<10nm) embedded in CaF22 Iayers grown on Si(111) substrates by using codeposition of Si and CaF2. It is shown that the size and density of silicon particles embedded in the CaF2 layer can be controlled by varying the substrate temperature and the evaporation rates of CaF2 and Si. The photoluminescence (PL) spectra of Si nanoparticles embedded in CaF2 thin films were investigated. The blue or green light emissions obtained using a He-Cd laser (λ=325nm) could be seen with the naked eye even at room temperature for the first time. It is shown that the PL intensity strongly depends on growth conditions such as the Si:CaF2 flux ratio and the growth temperature. The PL spectra were also changed by in situ annealing process. These phenomena can be explained qualitatively by the quantum size effect of Si nanoparticles embedded in CaF2 barriers.

Moving-picture transmission through narrow band and high bit error rate communication channels, such as a mobile communication channel, requires improved compression rate and enhanced error resilience. Variable-length codes are one of the essential techniques of compressing digital video information. This technique is used in various video coding schemes although a bit error in the channel impairs the synchronization of variable-length codewords, resulting in propagation of the error. With a hybrid video coding method in particular, which combines motion-compensation and transform coding, once an error is detected in the coded data, subsequent data cannot be decoded. Consequently, even an error-free portion of any data received must be discarded. To minimize the influence of an error in a channel on coded video data, this paper proposes a new video coding syntax which makes the best use of the self synchronizing characteristic of variable-length Huffman codes. Owing to the Huffman code's characteristic, the proposed coding syntax enables a decoder to decode the data portion that cannot be decoded, due to an error, by the conventional syntax without adding any redundancy. Computer simulation has verified the effectiveness of this proposed syntax in video coding with a very low bitrate and erroneous communication channel.