A method to detect open node defects that cannot be detected by the conventional IDDQ test method has previously been proposed employing a sinusoidal wave superposed on the DC supply voltage. The present paper proposes a strategy to improve the detectability of the test method by means of frequency analysis of the supply current. In this strategy, defects are detected by determining whether secondary harmonics of the sinusoidal wave exist in the supply current. The effectiveness of the method is confirmed by experiments on two CMOS NAND gate packages (SSIs).

Performance analysis of ultra-fast all-optical analog-to-digital converter using optical multiple-level thresholding module based on self-frequency shift in fiber is described. In analog-to-digital conversion, the purposes of optical sampling and optical quantization are in the possibility of the speed-up of sampling and quantization processes using various ultra-fast nonlinear phenomena depending on an intensity of a light. The result of analysis indicates that the number of achievable quantized levels of the proposed approach is in the increasing tendency with an increase in the peak power of an input pulse.

In this letter,we design a special preamble composed of two OFDM training blocks with different numbers of identical parts. Based on the designed preamble, we propose a method to estimate frequency offset utilizing initial estimates from the two OFDM training symbols. By elaborately selecting the numbers of identical parts for the two training blocks, the proposed estimator provides a much larger estimate range than conventional estimators using identical parts. Computer simulations show that the proposed estimator exhibits superior estimate performance, while maintaining low computational complexity.

We introduce an adaptive subchannel, bit, and power allocation (ASBPA) algorithm to maximize the bandwidth efficiency of the mobile communication system that use orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). We propose a suboptimal rate adaptive ASBPA algorithm that guarantees fairness in resource allocation and overcomes inherent co-channel interference (CCI) in the cellular system. Furthermore, we evaluate the maximum possible bandwidth efficiency of the cellular OFDM system achieved by the ASBPA algorithm which is practical to implement. Our simulation results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the existing ones and achieves the cellular bandwidth efficiency of up to 5 b/s/Hz/cell. We also investigate some of the conditions that govern the bandwidth efficiency of the cellular OFDM system using the proposed ASBPA algorithm.

This paper proposes new resource management schemes for multiple data streams in an orthogonal frequency and space division multiplex access (OFSDMA) system using Radio-on-Fiber (RoF) ubiquitous antennas. The proposed schemes classify the services into some classes in which the number of sub-carriers is dynamically assigned according to the requested data size. The computer simulation results show that the proposed schemes improve the number of users satisfying the required bit error rate (BER) level as well as the average throughput and also show that the RoF ubiquitous antennas can improve system capacity.

This paper presents a fast transient simulation method for power distribution networks (PDNs) of the PCB/Package. Because these PDNs are modeled as large-scale linear circuits consisting of a large number of RLC elements, it takes large costs to solve by conventional circuit simulators, such as SPICE. Our simulation method is based on the leapfrog algorithm, and can solve RLC circuits of PDNs faster than SPICE. Actual PDNs have frequency-dependent dispersions such as the skin-effect of conductors and the dielectric loss. To model these dispersions, more number of RLC elements are required, and circuit structures of these dispersion models are hard to solve by using the leapfrog algorithm. This paper shows that the circuit structures of dispersion models can be converted to suitable structures for the leapfrog algorithm. Further, in order to reduce the simulation time, our proposed method exploits parallel computation techniques. Numerical results show that our proposed method using single processing element (PE) enables a speedup of 20-100 times and 10 times compared to HSPICE and INDUCTWISE with the same level of accuracy, respectively. In a large-scale example with frequency-dependent dispersions, our method achieves over 94% parallel efficiency with 5PEs.

The use of frequency-domain equalization (FDE) based on minimum mean square error (MMSE) criterion can significantly improve the downlink bit error rate (BER) performances of DS- and MC-CDMA in a frequency-selective fading channel. However, the uplink BER performance degrades due to a strong multi-user interference (MUI). In this paper, we propose frequency-interleaved spread spectrum (SS) using MMSE-FDE, in which the subcarrier components of each user's signal are interleaved onto a wider bandwidth. Then, the frequency-interleaved frequency-domain signal is transformed into a time-domain signal by the inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT). Frequency-interleaving patterns assigned to different users are orthogonal to each other. The proposed scheme can avoid the MUI completely while achieving frequency diversity gain due to MMSE-FDE. It is shown by computer simulation that the use of frequency-interleaving can significantly improve the uplink performance in a frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channel.

This paper presents an admission control technique for multi-carrier systems with an FRF(frequency reuse factor) of 1. The FRF of 1 is very attrative for more improved channel throughput but the forward link capacity is rapidly decreased at the cell boundary region due to the increase in the ICI(InterCell Interference). By measuring a region-based channel capacity and deriving a closed form of blocking probability, a QoS(Quality of Service) maintenance technique and mobility model can be acquired. In the simulation, the proposed scheme demonstrates a blocking probability reduction of up to 40% compared to the cell-based link capacity scheme.

A 10-GHz sub-harmonic Gilbert mixer is demonstrated in this paper using the 0.35 µm SiGe BiCMOS technology. The time-delay when the sub-harmonic LO (Local Oscillator) stage generates sub-harmonic LO signals is compensated by using fully symmetrical multiplier pairs. High RF-to-IF isolation and sub-harmonic LO Gilbert cell with excellent frequency response can be achieved by the elimination of the time-delay. The SiGe BiCMOS sub-harmonic micromixer exhibits 17 dB conversion gain, -74 dB 2LO-to-RF isolation, IP1 dB of -20 dBm, and IIP3 of -10 dBm. The measured double sideband noise figure is 16 dB from 100-kHz to 100-MHz because the SiGe bipolar device has very low 1/f noise corner.

We propose and demonstrate the all-optical analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) using optical delay line encoders. Experimental results show that input analog signals are successfully converted into 3-bit digital signals at a bit rate of 40 Gb/s.

We have previously developed a concatenative speech synthesizer based on the plural speech unit selection and fusion method that can synthesize stable and human-like speech. In this method, plural speech units for each speech segment are selected using a cost function and fused by averaging pitch-cycle waveforms. This method has a large computational cost, but some platforms require a speech synthesis system that can work within limited hardware resources. In this paper, we propose an offline unit fusion method that reduces the computational cost. In the proposed method, speech units are fused in advance to make a pre-fused speech unit database. At synthesis time, a speech unit for each segment is selected from the pre-fused speech unit database and the speech waveform is synthesized by applying prosodic modification and concatenation without the computationally expensive unit fusion process. We compared several algorithms for constructing the pre-fused speech unit database. From the subjective and objective evaluations, the effectiveness of the proposed method is confirmed by the results that the quality of synthetic speech of the offline unit fusion method with 100 MB database is close to that of the online unit fusion method with 93 MB JP database and is slightly lower to that of the 390 MB US database, while the computational time is reduced by 80%. We also show that the frequency-weighted VQ-based method is effective for construction of the pre-fused speech unit database.

Simultaneous all-optical frequency up/downconversion technique utilizing a single semiconductor optical amplifier Mach-Zehnder interferometer (SOA-MZI) for full-duplex WDM radio over fiber (RoF) applications is presented. Using this technique, error-free simultaneous upconversion and downconversion of RoF signals with a finite-length single mode fiber were experimentally demonstrated. The results show the potential of the proposed scheme for use in a cost-effective full-duplex WDM RoF link.

The uni-traveling-carrier photodiode (UTC-PD) is an innovative PD that has a unique operation mode in which only electrons act as the active carriers, resulting in ultrafast response and high electrical output power at the same time. This paper describes the features of the UTC-PD and its excellent performance. In addition, UTC-PD-based optoelectronic devices integrated with various elements, such as passive and active devices, are presented. These devices are promising for various applications, such as millimeter- and submillimeter-wave generation up to the terahertz range and ultrafast optical signal processing at data rates of up to 320 Gbit/s.

Distortion analysis of nonlinear circuits is very important for designing analog integrated circuits and communication systems. In this letter, we propose an efficient frequency-domain approach for calculating frequency response curves, which is based on HB (harmonic balance) method combining with ABMs (Analog Behavior Models) of Spice. Firstly, nonlinear devices such as bipolar transistors and MOSFETs are transformed into the HB device modules executing the Fourier transformations. Using these modules, the determining equation of the HB method is formed by the equivalent sine-cosine circuit in the schematic form or net-list. It consists of the coupled resistive circuits, so that it can be efficiently solved by the DC analysis of Spice. In our algorithm, we need not to derive any troublesome circuit equations, and any kinds of the transformations.

In this letter, a combined method based on the fractional linear and the fractional bilinear time-frequency representations (TFRs) is proposed. The method combines the windowed fractional short-time Fourier transform with the fractional Wigner distribution (WD) to estimate the instantaneous frequency (IF) of signals in the appropriate fractional time-frequency domain. For a multi-component signal, the method can significantly eliminate the cross terms and improve the time-frequency resolution of the auto-terms. It is applied to the detection and parameter estimation of linear frequency modulated (LFM) signals. The computer simulations clearly demonstrate that the method is effective.

This letter describes a two-band excitation model for HMM-based speech synthesis. The HMM-based speech synthesis system generates speech from the HMM training data of the spectral and excitation parameters. Synthesized speech has a typical quality of "vocoded sound" mostly because of the simple excitation model with the voiced/unvoiced selection. In this letter, two-band excitation based on the harmonic plus noise speech model is proposed for generating the mixed excitation source. With this model, we can generate the mixed excitation more accurately and reduce the memory for the trained excitation data as well.

This paper describes a method of free iris and focus image generation based on transformation integrating multiple differently focused images. First, we assume that objects are defocused by a geometrical blurring model. And we combine acquired images on certain imaging planes and spatial information of objects by using a convolution of a three-dimensional blur. Then, based on spatial frequency analysis of the blur, we design three-dimensional filters that generate free iris and focus images from the acquired images. The method enables us to generate not only an all-in-focus image corresponding to an ideal pin-hole iris but also various images, which would be acquired with virtual irises whose sizes are different from the original one. In order to generate a certain image by using multiple differently focused images, especially very many images, conventional methods usually analyze focused regions of each acquired image independently and construct a depth map. Then, based on the map, the regions are merged into a desired image with some effects. However, generally, it is so difficult to conduct such depth estimation robustly in all regions that these methods cannot prevent merged results from including visible artifacts, which decrease the quality of generated images awfully. In this paper, we propose a method of generating desired images directly and robustly from very many differently focused images without depth estimation. Simulations of image generation are performed utilizing synthetic images to study how certain parameters of the blur and the filter affect the quality of generated images. We also introduce pre-processing that corrects the size of acquired images and a simple method for estimating the parameter of the three-dimensional blur. Finally, we show experimental results of free iris and focus image generation from real images.

This paper proposes a Miller capacitor which has a wide input signal range. By discharging the charge of the capacitor connected between the input and output terminals of an amplifier before the output voltage of the amplifier exceeds its maximum range, the amplifier always operates in the active region and the Miller operation can be guaranteed. Thus a large value capacitor with a wide dynamic operation range can be realized using a small value capacitor. The Miller capacitor proposed in this paper is applied to a loop filter of phase locked loop (PLL) circuit that requires a large value capacitor to realize a low cutoff frequency. SPICE simulation of the PLL circuit using the Miller capacitor confirms the operation of the Miller capacitor and shows good performances that are similar to those obtained using a passive capacitor of a large value.

In this letter, we focus on non-pilot-symbol assisted integer frequency offset estimation for multicarrier orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. We introduce a frequency offset estimator that is based on the guard interval (GI) present in OFDM signals. We show by simulation that the frequency offset estimator can accurately estimate the frequency misalignment at the sacrifice of limited estimation range.

This paper proposes a method to determine a single frequency for interconnect RL extraction. Resistance and inductance of interconnects depend on frequency, and hence the extraction frequency strongly affects the modeling accuracy of interconnects. The proposed method determines an extraction frequency based on the transfer characteristic of interconnects. By choosing the frequency where the transfer characteristic becomes maximum, the extracted RL values achieve the accurate modeling of the waveform. Experimental results show that the proposed method provides accurate transition waveforms over various interconnect topologies.