In this paper, a quite general systematic procedure is presented for defining incremental field contributions, that may provide effective tools for describing a wide class of scattering and diffraction phenomena at any aspect, whthin a unitary, self-consistent framework. This is based on a generalization of the localization process for cylindrical canonical problems with elementary source illumination and arbitrary observation aspects. In particular, it is shown that the spectral integral formulation of the exact solution may also be represented as a spatial integral convolution along the axis of the cylinder. Its integrand is then directly used to define the relevant incremental field contribution. This procedure, that will be referred to as a ITD (Incremental Theory of Diffraction) Fourier transform convolution localization process, is explicitly applied to both wedge and circular cylinder canonical configurations, to define incremental diffiraction and scattering contributions, respectively. These formulations are asymptotically approximated to find closed form high-frequency expression for the incremental field contributions. This generalization of the ITD lacalization process may provide a quite general, systematic procedure to find incremental field contributions that explicitly satisfy reciprocity and naturally lead to the UTD ray field representation, when it is applicable.

In this paper, we examine a new initial symbol acquisition method for M-ary spread-spectrum (M-ary/SS) signals that are affected by large carrier frequency offset. By the effect of the carrier frequency offset, preamble signal energy is dispersed to the undersired outputs. The proposed method is based on the collection of such dispersed signal energies by using reference patterns. The reference patterns are constructed by using the characteristic of Hadamard code sequences. The effectiveness of the proposed method is evaluated in terms of mean acquisition time.

A novel neural network architecture for image texture classification is introduced. The proposed model (Kernel Modifying Neural Network: KM Net) which incorporates the convolution filter kernel and the classifier in one, enables an automated texture feature extraction in multichannel texture classification through the modification of the kernel and the connection weights by the backpropagation-based training rule. The first layer units working as the convolution kernels are constrained to be an array of Gabor filters, which achieves a most efficient texture feature localization. The following layers work as a classifier of the extracted texture feature vectors. The capability of the KM Net and its training rule is verified using a basic problem on a synthetic texture image. In addition, the possibilities of applying the KM Net to natural texture classification and biological tissue classification using an ultrasonic echo image have been tried.

A modified frequency domain method for analyzing nonlinear waveform distortion in a magnetic recording process is presented. The measurement technique combines a 5th harmonic measurement technique, which uses a specific 30-bit pattern including dibits, and a precompensation technique for the dibits. The 5th harmonic voltage ratio given by the former technique includes the amount of NLTS (Nonlinear transition shift) and PE (Partial erasure) in dibits. The latter precompensation technique is employed to evaluate the PE as the minimum in the 5th harmonic voltage ratio. The true NLTS can be estimated from the amount of distortion and the evaluated PE. The high accuracy of the technique was confirmed by an examination using a pulse pattern generator with varied phase and amplitude. Finally, the effects of medium properties such as coercivity and squareness on the nonlinear distortions have been investigated by applying the technique to particulate flexible media. The NLTS increased with squareness from 3.5% to 7% while PE was less than 6% for any squareness at a recording density of 76 kFRPI. When coercivity became large, NLTS and PE decreased. The direction of NLTS for Ba-ferrite media agreed with that for a perpendicular Co-Cr thin-film medium.

A new method is proposed for estimating a single complex sinusoid and its parameters (frequency and amplitude) from measurements corrupted by white noise. This method is called the ECKF-SVD method, which is derived by applying an extended complex Kalman filter (ECKF) to a nonlinear stochastic system whose state variables consist of the AR coefficient (a function of frequency) and a sample of the original signal. Proof of the stability is given in the case of a single sinusoid. Simulations demonstrate that the proposed ECKF-SVD method is effective for estimating a single complex sinusoid and its frequency under a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In addition, the amplitude estimation by means of the ECKF-SVD method is also discussed.

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.

Macro/microcellular systems have recently been proposed to accommodate both fast and slow moving users. If macrocells and microcells reuse the same frequency band in a macro/microcellular system, the interference between both types of cells can become a critical problem and degrade system capacity, particularly in CDMA systems. In this paper, Frequency Division CDMA (FD-CDMA) is applied to CDMA macro/spot-microcellular systems and uplink capacity is evaluated. The CDMA frequency band is divided into several subbands and both macrocells and microcells reuse the same subbands simultaneously. Interference signals from both types of cells are dispersed by dividing the frequency band, and performance degradation resulting from interference is reduced at both the macrocell and microcell. By reusing the same frequency band for macrocells and microcells, the system capacities become more flexible and can be changed according to variations in traffic. This paper describes the detail of the FD-CDMA system. Uplink capacities are calculated for some cell conditions such as microcell size or location through simulation evaluations. A comparison with a non-reuse subband system as well as results of adaptive control of subbands are described.

A modified fully-digital code tracking loop is proposed in this paper for direct-sequence spread-spectrum signaling on a frequency-selective fading channel. A data-modulated channel estimator is used to cope with the time-varying Rayleigh fading effect and the data modulation effect, and extract the desired error signal from each path independently in the multipath environments. By taking advantage of the inherent diversity with the maximal ratio combining (MRC) or a proposed Even/odd maximal ratio combining (EMRC) technique, this modified code tracking loop can avoid the problem due to the drift or flutter effects of the error characteristics, and provide better performance on frequency selective fading channels. Extensive computer simulation has verified the analysis and indicated very attractive behavior of the proposed digital tracking loop.

A small-sized three-stage GaAs power module has been developed for portable digital radios using M-16QAM modulation. This module has exhibited typical P1dB of 10 W with PAE of 48% and a power gain of 35 dB at a low supply voltage of 6.5 V in 1.453-1.477 GHz band. The volume of the module is only 1.5 cc, which is one of the smallest value in 10 W class modules ever reported. In order to realize the reduced size and the high power performances simultaneously, the module has employed new power divider/combiner circuits with significant features of the reduced occupation area, the improved isolation properties and the function of second-harmonic control.

In this paper, we present a new state space-based approach for the two-dimensional (2-D) frequency estimation problem which occurs in various areas of signal processing and communication problems. The proposed method begins with the construction of a state space model associated with the noiseless data which contains a summation of 2-D harmonics. Two auxiliary Hankel-block-Hankel-like matrices are then introduced and from which the two frequency components can be derived via matrix factorizations along with frequency shifting properties. Although the algorithm can render high resolution frequency estimates, it also calls for lots of computations. To alleviate the high computational overhead required, a highly parallelizable implementation of it via the principle subband component (PSC) of some appropriately chosen transforms have been addressed as well. Such a PSC-based transform domain implementation not only reduces the size of data needed to be processed, but it also suppresses the contaminated noise outside the subband of interest. To reduce the computational complexity induced in the transformation process, we also suggest that either the transform of the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) or the Haar wavelet transform (HWT) be employed. As a consequence, such an approach of implementation can achieve substantial computational savings; meanwhile, as demonstrated by the provided simulation results, it still retains roughly the same performance as that of the original algorithm.

In audio-frequency magnetotelluric surveys, electromagnetic radiation from worldwide thunderstorm activity is used as an energy source for geophysical exploration. Owing to its origin, such a signal is inherently transient and short lived. Therefore, special care should be taken in the detection and processing of this transient signal because the interval of time between two successive transient events contains almost no information as far as the audio frequency magnetotellurist is concerned. In this paper, a wavelet transform detection, processing and analysis technique is developed. A complex-compactly-supported wavelet, known as the Morlet wavelet, is selected as the mother wavelet. With the Morlet wavelet, lightning transients can be easily identified in the noisy recordings and the magnetotelluric impedance tensor can be computed directly in the wavelet transform domain. This scheme has been tested on real data collected in the archipelago of Svalbard, Norway as well as on five sets of synthetic data contaminated with various kinds of noise. The results show the superior performance of the wavelet transform transient detection and analysis technique.

An algorithm for extracting fundamental frequencies from duet sounds is proposed. The algorithm is based on an acoustical feature that the temporal fluctuation patterns in frequency an power are similar for harmonic components composing a sound for a single musical note played on a single instrument with a single active vibrating source. The algorithm is applied to the sounds of 153 combinations of pair-notes played by a flute duet and a violin duet. Experimental results show that the zone-wize correct identification rate by pitch name are 98% for the flute duet and 95% for the violin duet in the best cases.

This paper compares signal classification performance of multilayer neural networks (MLNNs) and linear filters (LFs). The MLNNs are useful for arbitrary waveform signal classification. On the other hand, LFS are useful for the signals, which are specified with frequency components. In this paper, both methods are compared based on frequency selective performance. The signals to be classified contain several frequency components. Furthermore, effects of the number of the signal samples are investigated. In this case, the frequency information may be lost to some extent. This makes the classification problems difficult. From practical viewpoint, computational complexity is also limited to the same level in both methods.IIR and FIR filters are compared. FIR filters with a direct form can save computations, which is independent of the filter order. IIR filters, on the other hand, cannot provide good signal classification deu to their phase distortion, and require a large amount of computations due to their recursive structure. When the number of the input samples is strictly limited, the signal vectors are widely distributed in the multi-dimensional signal space. In this case, signal classification by the LF method cannot provide a good performance. Because, they are designed to extract the frequency components. On the other hand, the MLNN method can form class regions in the signal vector space with high degree of freedom.

We propose an improved orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal detector which uses the minimum mean-square error (MMSE) noise feedback equalization (NFE). The input bit stream is trellis-coded to form OFDM signal blocks and the maximal ratio combining (MRC) is adopted at the receiver in order to improve the performance of the detector. As a result, we obtain significantly improved detection performance compared with the conventional OFDM receivers as follows. Using the proposed MMSE-NFE in the receiver, we can obtain the performance gain of about 1.5 dB to 2 dB in symbol energy to noise power spectral density (Es/No) for Doppler frequencies of fd=20 and 100 Hz, respectively, over the receiver with the MMSE linear equalization (LE) alone at symbol error rate (SER) of about 10-3. With MRC and trellis coding, the performance gain of about 11 dB in Es/No for fd=20 and 100 Hz at SER of about 10-3 is obtained.

RF integration, until recently the integration of active devices in conventional architectures suitable for discrete-component circuits, is now turning into full-integration based on new architectures developed specifically for an LSI technology. This paper reviews some of the key existing and emerging circuit techniques and discusses the serious problem of crosstalk. In order to develop miniature and low power RF transceivers, direct-conversion and monolithic VCO's will be further studied. Silicon bipolar technology will still be playing major role beyond the year 2,000, and CMOS will also be used in certain applications.

A wireless tag system has been designed and developed for maintaining and managing outdoor communication facilities. This system employs an infrared (IR) beam and an electromagnetic wave with a radio frequency (RF), and is constructed using IR-RF tags, an IR commander, and an RF receiver. The IR command radiation with strong directivity enables a maintenance operator to recognize a target facility, and the RF response without directivity enables a management system to obtain data from within a large circular area. Solar and secondary batteries are also adopted as the power module in the tag to allow easy maintenance at long intervals. IR signal communication is possible up to a distance of 9 m, and RF signal communication is possible within a circle with a radius of 9 m.

In this paper, in order to achieve the low power consumption of programmable divider in a PLL frequency synthesizer, we propose a new prescaler method for low power consumption. A fixed prescaler is inserted in front of the (N +1/2) programmable divider which is designed based on the new principle. The divider ratio in the loop does not vary at all even if such a prescaler is utilized. Then the permissible delay periods of a programmable divider can be extended to two times as long as the conventional method, and the low power consumption and low cost in a PLL frequency synthesizer have been achieved.

A low power dual modulus prescaler for frequency synthesizers has been designed in a standard 1.2 µm digital CMOS process using enhancement source coupled logic (ESCL). Being a differential low amplitude current mode logic, ESCL has two interesting characteristics for this design besides low power consumption: the low noise performance, that allows this circuit to be on the same chip with sensitive analog circuitry, and the ability to run with a 200 mV sinusoidal signal as generated from an LC oscillator without the need of a clock amplifier. At 195 MHz and 3 V supply, the current consumption of the prescaler is as low as 289 µA, while maximum operating frequencies of 910 MHz at 5 V and 650 MHz at 3 V are achieved.

We have designed a new current-mode low-voltage, low-power, high-frequency CMOS VCO circuit. The main purpose of this new circuit is to obtain operational capabilities with more than 1 GHz oscillation frequency from one battery cell. The current-mode approach was adopted throughout the circuit design to achieve this. New differential-type delay cells in the current-mode operation enable extremely low supply voltage operation and superior linearity between the oscillation frequency and control voltage of a ring oscillator. A design which combines the transitions of each delay cell output enables the VCO's high-frequency operation. To obtain a sufficient current level at output, a current amplifier with a small amount of positive feedback is used. The unnecessary generation of spectral components caused by mismatched time delay of delay cells in a ring-oscillator, which is an inherent problem of the VCO in a ring-oscillator form, is 0also analyzed. The characteristics of the designed VCO were examined by the SPICE circuit simulation using standard CMOS 0.6µm devices. Operation with a 1 V power supply, 1 GHz oscillation frequency, and 5.7 mW power dissipation was verified.

This paper proposes a new AFC (automatic frequency control) circuit employing a double-product type frequency discriminator to enable fast acquisition in very-low CNR (carrier to noise power ratio) environments. The frequency step responses of the proposed AFC circuit are theoretically analyzed. In addition this paper evaluates the performance of the proposed AFC circuit by computer simulation in very-low CNR environments. The simulation results confirm that click noise at the frequency discriminator causes large frequency tracking error and that this error can be improved by increasing the delay time of the double-product type frequency discriminator. The frequency error can be also reduced by introducing the proposed frequency discriminator to modify the frequency error detection performance. The acquisition time of the proposed AFC circuit can be reduced by about 100 symbols compared to the conventional cross-product type AFC circuit.