We have developed a spread-spectrum Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) for serial Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) applications. We investigated the relation between the output jitter of PLLs in serial ATA applications and ΣΔ modulators in PLLs. On the basis of this study, we developed a spread-spectrum PLL for serial ATA applications and achieved a combination of small jitter and large electromagnetic interference (EMI) peak power reduction. This was achieved using two key components: multi-bit ΣΔ-controlled PLL and voltage-controlled oscillation with cross-coupled load delay cells. Using a 0.15-µm complementary metal-oxide semiconductor process, we fabricated a complete serial ATA transceiver featuring a spread-spectrum clock generator (SSCG). We achieved a spread-spectrum PLL with 10-dB EMI reduction and 8.1 ps random jitter for use in serial ATA applications. All other measured results for SSCG performance were very good and showed that the spread-spectrum generator more than satisfies serial ATA specifications.

This paper describes optimization of H10-to- E01 mode converter by way of a right-angle E-plane junction (RAJ) between a rectangular waveguide and a circular waveguide in a waveguide rotary joint. Requirements for the optimized mode converter are formulated to provide the conjugate matching condition and analytical formulas for the rotary joint. A novel design procedure of the mode converter is proposed. An excellent performance of the mode converter fabricated for the Ka-band rotary joint is proved by computer simulation and the experimental results. The return loss and the insertion loss rotational effect are less than -25 dB and 0.02 dB in the 10% bandwidth, respectively.

This paper presents a linear constrained minimum variance multiuser detection (MUD) scheme for DS-CDMA systems, which makes full use of the available spreading sequences of the users as well as the relevant channel information of the incoming rays in the construction of the constraint matrix. To further enhance the performance, a statistical optimum filter bank in combination with the developed minimum variance MUD with the partitioned linear interference canceller (PLIC) as the underlying structure is also addressed. The determination of the filter bank coefficients, however, calls for computationally demanding nonlinear programming. To alleviate the computational overhead, an iterative procedure is also proposed, which solves the Rayleigh quotient in each iteration. Furthermore, the expressions of the output signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) are also determined to provide further insights into the proposed approach. Conducted simulations validate the new scheme.

In this paper, we propose a novel spatial filtering technique for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals called "VIrtual Subcarrier Assignment (VISA)." Here, virtual subcarrier is a subcarrier which is not used for data transmission. When a wireless terminal is equipped with multiple antennas, VISA can easily achieve a space division multiple access (SDMA) by assigning a different spectral position of virtual subcarrier to a different user. To realize VISA in an already-existing OFDM-based wireless local area network (WLAN), we discuss an antenna weight control method in the preamble of a signal burst format designed for the IEEE802.11a standard and evaluate the bit error rate (BER) performance in typical indoor wireless environments.

This paper proposes a new per-test fault diagnosis method based on the X-fault model. The X-fault model can represent all possible faulty behaviors of a physical defect or defects in a gate and/or on its fanout branches by assigning different X symbols assigned to the fanout branches. A partial symbolic fault simulation method is proposed for the X-fault model. Then, a novel technique is proposed for extracting more diagnostic information by analyzing matching details between observed and simulated responses. Furthermore, a unique method is proposed to score the results of fault diagnosis. Experimental results on benchmark circuits demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method over conventional per-test fault diagnosis based on the stuck-at fault model.

Accurate on-chip 100-ps/100-µV waveform measurements of signal transition in a large-scale digital integrated circuit clearly demonstrates the correlation of dynamic delay variation with power supply noise waveforms. In addition to the linear dependence of delay increase with the height of static IR drop, the distortion of a signal waveform during a logic transition that is induced by dynamic power supply noise causes significant delay variation. However, an analysis reveals that average modeling of dynamic power supply noise, which is often used in conventional simulation techniques, cannot match the experimentally measured values. Our proposed circuit simulation technique, which incorporates time-domain power supply noise waveform macro models along with parasitic impedance networks, reproduces the delay variation well, even with a relative timing difference among different clock domains. Such basic knowledge can be applied in precise delay calculations that consider dynamic power supply noise, a crucial factor in deep sub-100-nm LSI design.

This paper considers the universal coding problem for stationary ergodic sources with countably infinite alphabets. We propose modified versions of LZ77 and LZ78 codes for sources with countably infinite alphabets. Then, we show that for any source µ with Eµ[log X1]<∞, both codes are asymptotically optimum, i.e. the code length per input symbol approaches its entropy rate with probability one. Further, we show that we can modify LZ77 and LZ78 codes so that both are asymptotically optimal for a family of ergodic sources satisfying Kieffer's condition.

CMOS poly-Si thin-film transistors (TFTs) were fabricated through crystallization and GILD processes by a novel selected area laser assisted (SALA) system. The system enables a local area irradiation of small beams of a pulsed solid-state laser of frequency tripled Nd:YAG. The novel TFT process eliminated 3 doping mask steps of the conventional process. On-off current ratios for both types of poly-Si TFTs were improved by SALA. The field effect mobility of n- and p-channel TFTs is 84 cm2/Vs and 75 cm2/Vs, respectively.

This paper deals with a synthesis of a nonautonomous system with a stable limit cycle. We propose a synthesis method of a nonautonomous system whose transient trajectories converge to a prescribed limit cycle. We use receding horizon control to control a transient behavior of the nonautonomous system, and confirm its validity by simulation.

Consideration of manipulator dynamics and external disturbances in robot control system design can enhance the stability and performance properties of the whole system. In this paper, we present an approach to solve the control problem when the inertia parameters of robot are unknown, and at the same time robot is subjected to external force disturbances. This approach is based on simultaneous estimation of force signal and inertia parameters and utilizing them in the control law. The update laws and the control law are derived based on a single time-varying Lyapunov function, so that the global convergence of the tracking error is ensured. A theorem with a detailed proof is presented to guarantee the global uniform asymptotic stability of the whole system. Some simulations are made for a number of external forces to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

This paper studies rich superstable phenomena in a nonautonomous piecewise constant circuit including one impulsive switch. Since the vector field of circuit equation is piecewise constant, embedded return map is piecewise linear and can be described explicitly in principle. As parameters vary the map can have infinite extrema with one flat segment. Such maps can cause complicated periodic orbits that are superstable for initial state and are sensitive for parameters. Using a simple test circuit typical phenomena are verified experimentally.

We propose a novel adaptive linearization technique for a balanced-amplifier array. The technique uses the specific intermodulation distortions (IMDs) at the output ports in the array. The detected IMD power level can be used to optimize the linearizer's characteristics. Because the design does not need as many power detectors and carrier cancel loops as it does amplifiers, we were able to successfully miniaturize the array-antenna system. This paper describes the principles, verified both experimentally and mathematically for a 4-port amplifier array.

In this paper, we propose a method to estimate affine motion parameters from consecutive images with the assumption that the motion in progress can be characterized by an affine model. The motion may be caused either by a moving camera or moving object. The proposed method first extracts motion vectors from a sequence of images and then processes them by adaptive robust estimation to obtain affine parameters. Typically, a robust estimation filters out outliers (velocity vectors that do not fit into the model) by fitting velocity vectors to a predefined model. To filter out potential outliers, our adaptive robust estimation defines a flexible weight function based on a sigmoid function. During the estimation process, we tune the sigmoid function gradually to its hard-limit as the errors between the input data and the estimation model are decreased, so that we can effectively separate non-outliers from outliers with the help of the finally tuned hard-limit form of the weight function. The experimental results show that the suggested approach is very effective in estimating affine parameters.

The notion of correlation intractable function ensembles (CIFEs) was introduced in an attempt to capture the "unpredictability" property of random oracles [12]: If O is a random oracle then it is infeasible to find an input x such that the input-output pair (x,O(x)) has some desired property. In this paper, we observe relationships between zero-knowledge protocols and CIFEs. Specifically, we show that, in the non-uniform model, the existence of CIFEs implies that 3-round auxiliary-input zero-knowledge (AIZK) AM interactive proofs exist only for BPP languages. In the uniform model, we show that 3-round AIZK AM interactive proofs with perfect completeness exist only for easy-to-approximate languages. These conditional triviality results extend to constant-round AIZK AM interactive proofs assuming the existence of multi-input CIFEs, where "multi-input" means that the correlation intractability is satisfied with respect to multiple input-output pairs. Also, as a corollary, we show that any construction of uniform multi-input CIFEs from uniform one-way functions proves unconditionally that constant-round AIZK AM interactive proofs with perfect completeness only for easy-to-approximate languages.

The paper proposes a constant bit rate (CBR) control algorithm for motion JPEG2000 (MJ2). In MJ2 coding, every frame can be coded at similar target bitrate due to the accurate rate control feature. Moreover, frames of the same scene have the similar rate-distortion (RD) characters. The proposed method estimates the initial cutoff threshold of the current frame according to the previous frame's RD information. This iterative method reduces computational cost significantly. As opposed to previous algorithms, it can be used at any compression ratio. Experiments show that the performance is comparable to normal JPEG2000 coding.

Modern processors have large instruction windows to improve performance. They usually adopt register renaming, where every active instruction with a valid destination needs a physical register. As the instruction windows get larger, however, bigger physical register files are required. To solve this problem, we proposed a physical register sharing technique. It shares a physical register among multiple instructions based on a value similarity. As a result, we achieved performance improvement without increasing the size of the physical register file. In addition, the proposed technique can also be used to reduce the timing, complexity and area overhead of the physical register file.

There are several methods for mining communities on the Web using hyperlinks. One of the well-known ones is a max-flow based method proposed by Flake et al. The method adopts a page-oriented framework, that is, it uses a page on the Web as a unit of information, like other methods including HITS and trawling. Recently, Asano et al. built a site-oriented framework which uses a site as a unit of information, and they experimentally showed that trawling on the site-oriented framework often outputs significantly better communities than trawling on the page-oriented framework. However, it has not been known whether the site-oriented framework is effective in mining communities through the max-flow based method. In this paper, we first point out several problems of the max-flow based method, mainly owing to the page-oriented framework, and then propose solutions to the problems by utilizing several advantages of the site-oriented framework. Computational experiments reveal that our max-flow based method on the site-oriented framework is very effective in mining communities, related to the topics of given pages, in comparison with the original max-flow based method on the page-oriented framework.

An alternative human interface enabling the handicapped with severe motor disabilities to control an assistive system is presented. Since this interface relies on the biosignals originating from the contraction of muscles on the face during particular movements, even individuals with a paralyzed limb can use it with ease. For real-world application, a dedicated hardware module employing a general-purpose DSP was implemented and its validity tested on an electrically powered wheelchair. Furthermore, an additional attempt to reduce error rates to a minimum for stable operation was also made based on the entropy information inherent in the signals during the classification phase. In the experiments in which 11 subjects participated, it was found most of them could control the target system at their own will, and thus the proposed interface could be considered a potential alternative for the interaction of the severely handicapped with electronic systems.

In this paper, we propose a new multiuser detection scheme using Maximum Likelihood (ML) criterion and the M algorithm for Multi Carrier (MC)-Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems in the down-link channel. We first describe an implementation of ML detection separating In- and Quadrature-phase components and using well-known linear filters. In the proposed algorithm, we produce hypothesis symbol vectors in a tree structure by partly changing the sub-optimum hard decisions based on the linear filter output. At each stage, we adopt the best M likely paths with respect to the true log likelihood or distance function as survivors. We determine the symbol vector which minimizes the distance function at the final stage. Although the complexity of ML detector is exponentially increasing as a function of the number of users, the proposed scheme requires by far less complexity. We demonstrate that the proposed scheme achieves equivalent Bit Error Rate (BER) performance with lower complexity in comparison with ML detector by computer simulations. Moreover we compare the proposed detection scheme with QRD-M algorithm which is based on QR decomposition combined with M algorithm.

IEEE802.11b standard provides 1, 2, 5.5, 11 Mbps data rates. These data rates can be made possible by using different modulation techniques: DBPSK, DQPSK, CCK5.5 and CCK11 respectively. Rate adaptation is the process of dynamically selecting a proper modulation scheme depending on channel conditions in order to improve total throughput. Current rate adaptation protocols deal with unicast links rather than multicast. Measuring the received Signal Strength (RSS) of a feedback message (CTS, ACK) to estimate the receiver's link condition, can be one way to do this. A receiver may send its channel condition information to the sender allowing it to adapt its data rate for the following transmission. IEEE802.11 standard however, does not provide feedback messages for MAC layer recovery on multicast frames. This is due to collisions occurring if multicast group members simultaneously initiate a feedback message. Therefore, in order to link adapt multicast, a reliable multicast MAC protocol has to be introduced. In this paper, we propose a Rate Adaptive Multicast (RAM) protocol which provides reliability to WLANs and enhances its throughput by using Rate Adaptation. Further, we evaluate our protocol by throughput analysis and computer simulation. Simulation results suggest that our protocol performs better than related/existing protocols in both throughput as well as reliability.