An efficient algorithm is proposed for finding all solutions of piecewise-linear resistive circuits The algorithm is based on the idea of "contraction" of the solution domain using a sign test. The proposed algorithm is efficient because many large super-regions containing no solution are eliminated in early steps.

The author once defined the Ω-matrix and showed that it played an important role for estimating the number of solutions of a resistive circuit containing active elements such as CCCS's. The Ω-matlix is a generalization of the wellknown P-matrix. This paper gives the necessary and sufficient conditions for the Ω-matrix.

In this study, we investigate two oscillators which have the same natural frequency, mutually coupled by N-type piecewise-linear negative resistor. In this system, according to the negative range of the coupling negative resistor, the various inter-esting synchronization phenomena which are in-phase, opposite phase and doublemode-like oscillations are observed. Especially, we show doublemode-like oscillations that are not observed until now in mutually coupled van der Pol oscillators with the smooth cubic characteristics, although the ones with same natural frequencies are coupled. And we show the differences of the phenomena between two oscillators coupled by the smooth cubic negative resistor and the ones coupled by the piecewise-linear negative resistor.

In the weakly coupled grain model which has been proposed to explain the residual surface resistance in high-Tc superconducting polycrystalline thin films, the superconducting polycrystalline thin films is described as a network of superconducting grains coupled via Josephson junctions. In order to evaluate this model we have fabricated the coplanar waveguide resonator using c-axis oriented YBa2Cu3Ox Thin Films and measured the residual surface resistance. The experimental results are in good agreement with theoretical prediction.

It is well recognized that the electromagnetic interference due to indirect electrostatic discharge (ESD) is not always proportional to the ESD voltage and also that the lower voltage ESD sometimes causes the more serious failure to high-tech information equipment. In order to theoretically examine the peculiar phenomenon, we propose an analytical approach to model the indirect ESD effect. A source ESD model is given here using the spark resistance presented by Rompe and Weizel. Transient electromagnetic fields due to the ESD event are analyzed, which are compared with the experimental data carefully given by Wilson and Ma. A model experiment for indirect ESD is also conducted to confirm the validity of the ESD model presented here.

We have developed a complete chromium oxide (Cr2O3) passivated gas tubing system by introducing ferritic stainless steel instead of conventional austenitic stainless steel (SUS316L). 100% Cr2O3 passivation film can be formed on electropolished ferritic stainless steel surface because the diffusion coefficient of Cr in ferritic stainless steel is 104 times larger than in austenitic stainless steel. In ferritic stainless steel, moreover, welded bead surface is covered by 100% Cr2O3 pas-sivated film by an introduction of advanced welding technology.

A novel method has been developed to improve the dry etching selectivity of aluminum alloy with respect to photoresist by implanting ions into the patterned photoresist. The selectivity becomes 7.5, which is 5 times higher than that of the unimplanted case. Accordingly, this technology is very promising for fabricating multi-level interconnections in sub-half micron LSIs.

A simplified distribution base resistance model (SDM) is proposed to identify each component of the base resistance and determine the dominant. This model divides the parasitic base resistance into one straight path and two surrounding paths. It is clarified that the link base resistance is dominant in a short emitter and the surrounding polysilicon base electrode resistance is dominant in a long emitter. In the SDM, the distance of the link base is reduced to half; with metal silicide as the extrinsic base electrode, the base resistance will be reduced to 75%.

This paper presents a 15-GHz MMIC direct optical injection-locked oscillator (MMIC OILO) with very-wide locking range that uses photosensitive HBTs. The MMIC OILO consists of an HBT and a positive feedback circuit including a Q-damping variable resistor. By utilizing the high-fT/fmax photosensitive HBT, we realize both high-frequency oscillation of 15 GHz and increased equivalent electrical injection power. In addition to increasing the RF injection power, the Q-damping variable resistor effectively reduces the quality-factor of the oscillator, thus realizing the very wide locking range (f) of 567 MHz (f/fosc3.8%). The locking bandwidth of 3.8% is over 10 times wider than that of any yet reported microwave direct OILO. Furthermore, it is shown that the MMIC OILO can also work as a high-gain Q-variable filter photoreceiver by increasing a Q-damping variable resistance over the self-oscillation suppression range.

A three-dimensional micromagnetic simulation using the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation was performed for thin-film magnetic recording media and magnetoresistive (MR) heads with soft adjacent layers (SAL). For recording media the simulation results for magnetization curves and media noise were compared with the results of experiments. Although the media model needs to be improved, the qualitative agreement between simulation results and experimental results shows that this micromagnetic simulation can be a useful tool for analyzing and predicting magnetic properties and recording characteristics. This work also showed that media noise is influenced by magnetostatic interaction, and that the decrease of the magnetostatic interaction is favorable for obtaining a high signal-to-noise ratio. For an MR head the output obtained with a nonuniform sense current distribution is similar to the output obtained with uniform sense current distribution for both low and high anisotropy fields (Hk=2 Oe and 10 Oe) SAL. With the low Hk SAL, however, the asymmetry of the output obtained for nonuniform sense current differs from the asymmetry obtained for uniform sense current; the difference is due to a magnetization vortex in a biased state in the SAL. With the high Hk SAL, the difference between the asymmetry obtained for nonuniform sense current and the one obtained for uniform sense current is not large; no vortices are found in the SAL at the biased state.

I have examined factors for implementing a high-speed, low-power-consumption thermal head. In conventional thermal heads, a heat insulation layer is provided between the heating resistor and the radiator. I found it desirable to implement fast operation and low power consumption to lower the thermal conductivity of the heat insulation layer and to thin the heat insulation layer. I also found there is an optimum heat characteristic to the thickness of one heat insulation layer. I assumed polyimide as a material for the heat insulation layer which could materialize the hypothesis, and studied necessary items based on the thermal calculation. I manufactured a trial thermal head on the basis of this result and confirmed that our assumptions were correct. In addition, to confirm that the assumption is also ultimately correct, I fabricated a trial thermal head only consisting of a heating resistor and without a protective coat and a heat insulation layer. I confirmed that the structure with only the heating resistor exhibited excellent heat response and consumed less power necessary for heating.

In this paper, we discuss computational methods for obtaining the bifurcation points and the branch directions at branching points of solution curves for the nonlinear resistive circuits. There are many kinds of the bifurcation points such as limit point, branch point and isolated point. At these points, the Jacobian matrix of circuit equation becomes singular so that we cannot directly apply the usual numerical techniques such as Newton-Raphson method. Therefore, we propose a simple modification technique such that the Newton-Raphson method can be also applied to the modified equations. On the other hand, a curve tracing algorithm can continuously trace the solution curves having the limit points and/or branching points. In this case, we can see whether the curve has passed through a bifurcation point or not by checking the sign of determinant of the Jacobian matrix. We also propose two different methods for calculating the directions of branches at branching point. Combining these algorithms, complicated solution curves will be easily traced by the curve tracing method. We show the example of a Hopfield network in Sect.5.

The dielectric resonator technique is commonly used for microwave surface resistance measurements of High Temperature superconducting (HTS) films. Thickness of super-conductors and its impact on measurement results has not been taken into consideration so far. A theoretical mode-matched solution analysis of a TE011 10 GHz sapphire resonator was performed. The results of this analysis demonstrate that the thickness of the films under test can significantly affect the resonant frequencies (fres) and quality factor Q of the resonant system, particularly when the thickness is less than three times the penetration depth (λ) of the films at the operating temperature. In such cases the microwave properties of the substrate affect fres and Q. For HTS films' thickness relatively small as compared to λ, measured quality factors and resonant frequency may also be affected by substrate thickness and the conductivity of the backing plates of the system. The presence of air gaps between the sapphire and the HTS films does not significantly influence surface resistance measurements. However they can markedly affect the surface reactance from which the penetration depth is calculated.

The subject is the horizontal coil's temperature rise in DY for high frequency by being unavoidable for the tendency of more information on display monitor equipments. Writers made the temperature-balance model from a point of view that this temperature rise is coming from the heat rise and the conductivity, and we expressed the temperature rise of DY by using amount of the heat rise and conductivity characteristics of each element. Also, we indicated the method to decide about the selection of the wire size of coils, the section area and deflection sensitivity, with regard to reducing the temperature rise. We confirmed the effect of the temperature rise reduction by about 9 on products, under the condition of 64 kHz horizontal frequency.

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.

A 10-kW (53V/200A), forced-air-cooled DC-DC converter has been developed for fuel cell systems. This converter uses new high-voltage bipolar-mode static induction transistors (BSIT), a new driving method, a zero-voltage-switched pulse-width-modulation technique, and a new litz wire with low AC resistance. It weighs only 16.5kg, has a volume of 26,000cm3, operates at 40kHz, and has a power conversion efficiency of about 95%. The power loss of this converter is 20% less than that of conventional natural-air-cooled DC-DC converters, and the power density is 3 times as high.

We report the first monolithic integration of InGaAs/InAlAs resonant tunneling diode (RTD) and high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) epitaxially grown on an InP substrate. The transconductance for a 1-µm gate HEMT was 430 mS/mm and the peak-to-valley current ratio of the RTD was 5.1. Using the integrated structure, we demonstrate basic digital circuits to show low power characteristics of an RTD-load inverter and a static RAM cell circuit, consisting of a single transistor with two RTDs on the transistor. The memory cell circuit exhibits bistability, based on the RTD's negative differential resistance (NDR), at supply voltages from 0.6 to 1.1 V. The static power consumption was 7.3 µW/gate for the inverter and 3.0 µW for memory cell.

This paper describes the fabrication of 0.1 µm gate length CMOS devices and analysis of delay time by circuit simulation. In order to reduce the gate resistance, TiN capped cobalt salicide technology is applied to the fabrication of 0.1 µm CMOS devices. Gate sheet resistance with a 0.1 µm gate is as low as 5 Ω/sq. Propagation delay times of 0.1 µm and 0.15 µm CMOS inverter are 21 ps and 36 ps. Simulated propagation delay time agreed fairly well with experimental results. For gate length over 0.15 µm, intrinsic delay in CMOS devices is the main dalay factor. This suggests that increasing current drivability is the most efficient way to improve propagation delay time. At 0.1 µm, each parasitic component and intrinsic delay have similar contributions on device speed due to the short channel effect. To improve delay time, we used rapid thermal annealing or a high dose LDD structure. With this structure, drain current increases by more than 1.3 times and simulation predicted a delay time of 28 ps is possible with 0.15 µm CMOS inverters.

There have been many investigations of mutual synchronization of oscillators. In this article, N oscillators with the same natural frequencies mutually coupled by one resistor are analyzed. In this system, various synchronization phenomena can be observed because the system tends to minimize the current through the coupling resistor. When the nonlinear characteristics are third-power, we can observe N-phase oscillation, and this system can take (N 1)! phase states. When the nonlinear characteristics are fifth-power, we can observe (N 1),(N 2)3 and 2-phase oscillations as well as N-phase oscillations and we can get much more phase states from this system than that of the system with third-power nonlinear characteristics. Because of their coupling structure and huge number of steady states of the system, our system would be a structural element of cellular neural networks. In this study, it is confirmed that our systems can stably take huge number of phase states by theoretical analysis, computer calculations and circuit experiments.

We developed piezoresistors with an intrinsic compensation of the offset temperature characteristics. High energy ion implantation was applied to fabricate this type of piezoresistor. The dopant profile of the buried piezoresistor resembles to that of the junction gate field effect transistor (JFET). The buried layer corresponds to a channel of JFET, and the substrate bias corresponds to the gate voltage. Owing to the independent temperature varying parameters, i.e., width of the depletion layer and carrier mobility in the channel, the drain current of the JFET has a temperature independent point at an appropriate gate source voltage. The effect was used in the new type of buried piezoresistor which has a driving point of zero temperature coefficient of resistance at an appropriate gate source voltage.