The constriction resistance of an electric contact has frequently been obtained using a model of only one circular contact spot of radius a. However, cases of a single contact spot are extremely rare as the interface of the electrical contact actually consists of numerous micro-contact spots. A contact is therefore regarded as the aggregate of several micro-contact spots, which are referred to collectively as a cluster. The constriction resistance of the cluster can be calculated as the sum of the self-resistance and mutual resistance of individual micro-contact spots. In the present study, this model is expanded slightly for practical application by normalizing a previous theoretical formula. In order to obtain the constriction resistance for contacts between composite materials and mating metals, EPMA analysis is applied so as to determine real micro-contact spots. Theoretical calculations of the constriction resistance of multiple contact spots is shown to be reasonably consistent with experimental results. In addition, the contact of a composite material and a mating metal is shown to be made up of multispots. The current was recognized experimentally to flow more easily at micro-contact spots in the cluster periphery. These experimental findings coincide with simulation results obtained by theoretical calculations.

A first-order investigation of the transport and energy-loss processes in silicon dioxide is worked out in the frame of the Spherical-Harmonics solution of the Boltzmann Transport Equation. The SiO2 conduction band is treated as a single-valley spherical and parabolic band. The relevant scattering mechanisms are modeled consistently: both the polar and nonpolar electron-phonon scattering mechanisms are considered. The scattering rates for each contribution are analyzed in comparison with Monte Carlo data. A number of macroscopic transport properties of electrons in SiO2 are worked out in the steady-state regime for a homogeneous bulk structure. The investigation shows a good agreement in comparison with experiments in the low-field regime and for different temperatures.

Recent status of the polymer optical fiber (POF) for high speed data communication and telecommunication is reviewed. The GI POF was proposed for the first time 20 years ago at Keio University, and several methodologies to fabricate GI POF have been currently proposed worldwide. In this paper, we both theoretically and experimentally verify that the most transparent GI POF can be obtained by the polymer-dopant system. The relation between the refractive index profile and the dispersion characteristics of the GI POF was quantitatively clarified. The refractive index profile of the GI POF obtained by the interfacial-gel polymerization process was controlled to enable to transmit the order of gigabit per second bit rate. Furthermore, the accurate approximation of the refractive index profile and consideration of mode dependent attenuation enabled to precisely predict the dispersion characteristics of the GI POF.

Recent status of the polymer optical fiber (POF) for high speed data communication and telecommunication is reviewed. The GI POF was proposed for the first time 20 years ago at Keio University, and several methodologies to fabricate GI POF have been currently proposed worldwide. In this paper, we both theoretically and experimentally verify that the most transparent GI POF can be obtained by the polymer-dopant system. The relation between the refractive index profile and the dispersion characteristics of the GI POF was quantitatively clarified. The refractive index profile of the GI POF obtained by the interfacial-gel polymerization process was controlled to enable to transmit the order of gigabit per second bit rate. Furthermore, the accurate approximation of the refractive index profile and consideration of mode dependent attenuation enabled to precisely predict the dispersion characteristics of the GI POF.

This paper introduces a material management system for newspapers that was developed for The Yomiuri Shimbun. Material transferred to the system is stored in a material database and sent to terminals located in the related sections. The material can be processed effectively just by checking information on the terminals. Special requirements for this system will be discussed first in the paper, then problem-solving will be explored.

Pb(ZrxTi1-x)O3 (PZT) thin films were prepared on various electrodes. When Ir system materials were used as electrodes, fatigue properties of PZT thin films were improved. Moreover, in the case of the PZT thin film on an Ir/IrO2 electrode, not only fatigue but imprint properties were clearly improved. We could find these improvements were caused by good barrier effect of IrO2 from secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) analysis. By applying these Ir system electrodes, we fabricated stacked capacitors on polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) plugs. In spite of high temperature thermal processing, we found poly-Si plugs were ohmically connected with the bottom electrodes of the capacitors from hysteresis measurements and I-V characteristics, and could greatly expect them for practical use.

The metal/ferroelectric material/metal/oxide insulating material/Si substrates (MFMIS) structure was realized by using Pb(Zr0. 4Ti0. 6)O3 (PZT) thin film. PZT(330 nm thick) thin film was sandwiched between the upper electrode of Ti/Pt-Rh (about 380 nm thick and 123 microns in diameter) and the lower electrode of Pt-Rh/Ti (about 380 nm thick and 378 microns in diameter). The MFM structures mentioned above were prepared on metal oxide semiconductor (MOS structures). Pt-Rh and Ti lower electrodes were directly deposited on a poly-Si MOS electrode with sputtering, and PZT layer was prepared using the sol-gel method. In order to maximize induced charge density in the MOS gate, diameters of the upper and the lower electrodes were adjusted, and the MFM area-to-MOS area ratio was optimized. By using the area ratio of 0. 11 a memory window of 2. 4 V was obtained.

Our compact switching converter using a thin-film microtransformer mono-lithically integrated with rectifier diodes represents the first step in developing a monolithic micro-switching converter that can be integrated with semiconductor devices and magnetic components. This converter is a single-ended forward converter with resonant reset and operates successfully at 15 MHz. The maximum output power is 0.5 W.

This paper describes the use of direct wafer bonding technique to implement the novel concept of "free-material and free-orientation integration" which we propose. The technique is applied for various wafer combinations of an In-Ga-As-P material system with lattice- and orientation-mismatches. The properties of the bonded structures are studied in terms of the crystalline and electrical characterization. The high crystalline quality of the bonded structures with those mismatches is proved by transmission electron microscopy, and good electrical conduction was attained in some bonded structures of InP and GaAs. (001) InP-based 1.55-µm wavelength lasers are fabricated on (110) GaAs substrate by direct wafer bonding. The light-current characteristics of the lasers are almost identical to those of lasers fabricated on (001) InP and (001) GaAs substrates, while the turn-on voltage is a little bit higher due to the higher barrier height at the bonded interface. The practicability in those lasers are also examined. Furthermore, we show direct wafer bonding of a (001) InP-based structure and a (110) Si substrate with a GaAs buffer layer, aligning the cleavage planes of the InP and the Si. The results demonstrate the remarkable feasibility of using the direct wafer bonding technique to obtain integrated structures of material- and orientation-mismatched wafers with satisfactory quality.

The status of the plastic optical fiber (POF) for high-speed data communication is described. Very recently, the low-loss and high-bandwidth perfluorinated GI POF which has no serious absorption loss from visible to 1.3-µm wavelength was successfully prepared at Keio University. Since the core diameter (300-1000 µm) of the GI POF is much larger than that of the multimode silica fiber (62.5 µm), the serious modal noise in the conventional multimode silica fiber was virtually eliminated, resulting in stable giga bit order data transmission with inexpensive couplers and connectors.

BaSnO3 is proposed as a new insulating material with good surface coverage of the lower superconductor electrode for superconductor/insulator/superconductor (SIS) tunnel junctions made of high-Tc superconductor YBa2Cu3Ox (YBCO). This paper reports on investigation of the epitaxial nature of BaSnO3 on YBCO thin films and YBCO/BaSnO3 /YBCO trilayer formation that are grown in situ by reactive co-evaporation in oxygen radicals. Investigation was done by reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). these observations confirm that (001)-oriented YBCO and (100)-oriented BaSnO3 thin films with atomically smooth surfaces grow epitaxially on each other. In addition, cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation reveals that an approximately 4-nm-thick layer of BaSnO3 perfectly covers the lower YBCO thin film surface steps to a height of 1 to 2 unit cells of YBCO. The zero-resistance critical temperature Tc zero of both the upper and the lower YBCO thin films is higher than about 86 K.

Ferroelectic nonvolatile technology comprises the ferroelectric material technology, the process technology and the circuit technology. Bi based layered Perovskyte ferroelectric material, SrBi2Ta2O9, so called "Y 1," has superior characteristics in terms of endurance and nonvolatile properties, which is confirmed by a 256kbit ferroelectric nonvolatile memory. Critical issues regarding the ferroelectric process are reviewed. The lT/lC cell configuration which is essential for a high density memory and the reference voltage generator employed in the 256 k memory are described as is the architecture to reduce the power consumption of the memory.

ElectroStatic Discharge (ESD) testing of integrated circuits subjects circuit elements to very high currents for short periods of time. A modified Transmission Line Pulse (TLP) measurement system for characterizing transistors and other circuit elements under high currents for ESD performance prediction and understanding is presented which can both stress devices and measure leakage. For the TLP system to yield useful information test structures are needed which vary the important design parameters for the circuit elements. Guidelines for transistor test structure design for use with the system are presented and demonstrated for PMOS transistors.

The complex refractive indices n-jχ of typical magnetic fluids were evaluated for the sake of utilizing them as optical materials. Transmission and reflection spectra were measured in the wavelength range of 0.6-1.6 µm by using monochromators. Magnetic fluids were put into glass cells of 2.5-14-µm thickness for transmission measurement. Due to the absorption by magnetic fluids, the transmittance decreased notably with the increase of the sample thickness. The extinction coefficient χ was evaluated from the dependence of the transmittance on the sample thickness. χ was found to vary between 0.003 and 0.03 depending upon wavelength. The refractive index n was evaluated by fitting theoretical curves to the reflectances that were measured for various incident angles. n was found to vary between 1.6 and 1.7 depending slightly on wavelength. Since a magnetic fluid is a composite of ferrite particles and a solvent, the refractive index can be calculated by using the effective medium theory. The calculated value agreed well with the experimental value. Preliminary experiment of optical switching was also demonstrated by utilizing the mobility of a magnetic fluid.

The emphasis on nonisotropic media in the electromagnetics research community has recently brought forward a large amount of new literature on the material effects. The material phenomena affecting the electromagnetic characterization are contained in the constitutive relations between an electric and a magnetic excitation and an electric and a magnetic response. Starting from the constitutive equations, this article is an attempt to cast light on the labels, terms, notation, and classification of linear electromagnetic materials. Using dyadic analysis and physical concepts like reciprocity and magnetoelectric coupling, the different classes within bi-anisotropic media are presented in systematic form. Simple isotropic media can be characterized by two material parameters: the electric polarizability is measured by permittivity ε, and the magnetic polarizability by the permeability µ. For bi-isotropic media, there exists magnetoelectric coupling, but due to isotropy (independence of the direction of the field vectors) the two additional material parameters are scalars. The physical interpretation to these two parameters are chirality and nonreciprocity. The two subclasses of bi-isotropic materials are Pasteur and Tellegen media. If there is direction dependence in the medium, we call the material anisotropic, and a scalar quantity has to be described by a dyadic with nine components. Finally, the most general material is called bi-anisotropic, which means that in addition to a dyadic permittivity and permeability, the two magnetoelectric material parameters are dyadics. The essential feature in the classification of the present paper is the separation of all the four material parameter dyadics into symmetric and antisymmetric parts. For permittivity and permeability, the symmetric parts correspond to reciprocal media and the antisymmetric parts are nonzero for nonreciprocal media. In the cross-coupling dyadics the decomposition into symmetric and antisymmetric parts disriminates chiral media, omega media, classical magnetoelectric media, and moving media. Finally, possible alternative characterrizations of bi-anisotropic materials are discussed.

A low contact resistivity of 4.410-7 Ωcm2 for AlGaAs/GaAs HBTs was realized using Pt/Ti/Pt/Au base metal and a 81019 cm-3 highly-doped base. A high fmax of 170 GHz was achieved by reducing a base resistance. The formation of oxide-free interface between an AlGaAs graded base and Pt-based metal was demonstrated with Auger electron spectroscopy. The optimization of the growth condition conquered the rapid current-induced degradation in the highly Be-doped HBTs. An extremely wide bandwidth of 40 GHz was attained by a Darlington feeback amplifier fabricated using these high-fmax HBTs. These properties indicate that the application of AlGaAs/GaAs HBTs can be expected to extend to future ultrahigh-speed optical transmission systems.

A full confocal Gaussian beam open resonator system that determines the dielectric properties of low-loss materials in the 60-GHz band is developed. To achieve high Q values a quasi-optical coupling method is used to feed the resonator. It is connected to a computer-controlled HP 8510C vector network analyzer for automatic measurement. The frequency variation method is used and the data are processed using the open resonator scalar theory. Results from 96% and 99.5% alumina samples with thicknesses ranging from 0.38 mm to 1 mm, are presented in the V band, with loss tangent values of the order of 100 µ radians. This system should be able to measure substrates as thin as less than 0.1 mm to 0.3 mm, which are the thicknesses of substrates in practical use.

A calculation method by the improved three-fluid model is shown to describe phenomenologically temperature and frequency dependence of surface resistance Rs for high-Tc superconductors. It is verified that this model is useful to describe temperature dependence of Rs for such high-Tc superconducting films as Y-Ba-Cu-O (YBCO), Eu-Ba-Cu-O, and Tl-Ba-Ca-Cu-O films. For the frequency dependence of Rs of a YBCO bulk, furthermore, the measured results which have not depended on f2 in the frequency range 10-25 GHz, can be described successfully by this model. Finally, a figure of merit is proposed to evaluate material quality for high-Tc superconductors from the values of electron densities and momentum relaxation time determined by the present model.

This is an attempt to examine the contact resistance of a composite material which is used for sliding contacts. The composite material used here is sintered by dispersing the solid lubricant WS2 into the metallic base alloy Cu-Sn. A method based on Greenwood's formula is applied to determine how the calculated values are related to the contact resistance values obtained in our experiments. As a result, the composite material mated with the carbon specimen is found nearly to corresponds to the values of those calculated by the extended Greenwood's formula, whereas its value mated with the tungsten specimen does not. In short, it is concluded that the composite material mated with the carbon specimen consists of multispots.

In this paper, the relationship between contact materials and sticking characteristics, and stability of contact resistance to obtain excellent contacts for telecommunication relays, is studied. The contact switching current for telecommunication relay is low. Moreover, contact force and opening force in these relay are respectively several mN. Nine kinds of contact materials are selected as a experimental factor. They are Ag, Ag-Ni (Ni: 0.03 to 20%), Ag-Cu 10%, Ag-Pd 60% and Pd-Ru 10%, and are overlaid with gold except Pd-Ru 10%. In this study, contact life tests on a commercial ultra-miniature telecommunication relay by mounting above-mentioned contacts are conducted. The sticking and the contact resistance are monitored at each switching operation in the contact life test. After the life test, the contact surfaces are observed, and the depth of crater, the height of pip and projected concave area are measured, then the relationship between the sticking morphologies and the composition of each material are studied. As the result of this study, the contact sticking of telecommunication rely is assumed to be the result of mechanical locking, and the effects of the Ni content in the Ag-Ni contacts is clarified. Moreover, it is confirmed that the effects of opening force on the sticking characteristics are remarkable.