The act of finding or constructing a model for a portion of a given polynomial or Bezier parametric surface from the whole original one is an encountered problem in surface modeling. A new method is described for constructing polynomial or Bezier piecewise model from an original one. It is based on the "Parametric Piecewise Model," abbreviated to PPM, of curve representation. The PPM representation is given by explicit expressions in terms of only control points or polynomial coefficients. The generated piecewise model behaves completely as a normal, polynomial or Bezier model in the same way as the original one for the piece of region considered. Also it has all characteristics, i. e, order and number of control points as the original one, and satisfies at the boundaries all order continuities. The PPM representation permits normalization, piecewise modeling, PPM reduction and systematic processes.

The present paper gives a new formulation for rough surface scattering in terms of a stochastic integral equation which can be dealt with by means of stochastic functional approach. The random surface is assumed to be infinite and a homogeneous Gaussian random process. The random wave field is represented in the stochastic Floquet form due to the homogeneity of the surface, and in the non-Rayleigh form consisting of both upward and downward going scattered waves, as well as in the extended Voronovich form based on the consideration of the level-shift invariance. The stochastic integral equations of the first and the second kind are derived for the unknown surface source function which is a functional of the derivative or the increment of the surface profile function. It is also shown that the inhomogeneous term of the stochastic integral equation of the second kind automatically gives the solution of the Kirchhoff approximation for infinite surface.

This paper deals with a probabilistic formulation of the diffraction and scattering of a plane wave from a periodic surface randomly deformed by a binary sequence. The scattered wave is shown to have a stochastic Floquet's form, that is a product of a periodic stationary random function and an exponential phase factor. Such a periodic stationary random function is then represented in terms of a harmonic series representation similar to Fourier series, where `Fourier coefficients' are mutually correlated stationary processes rather than constants. The mutually correlated stationary processes are written by binary orthogonal functionals with unknown binary kernels. When the surface deformations are small compared with wavelength, an approximate solution is obtained for low-order binary kernels, from which the scattering cross section, coherently diffracted power and the optical theorem are numerically calculated and are illustrated in figures.

Equivalence of physical optics (PO) and aperture field integration method (AFIM) in the full 360 observation angle is discussed for polyhedron approximate reflectors; the necessary conditions of integration surface in AFIM for the equivalence to PO are presented. In addition to the condition that complete equivalent currents consisting of both geometrical optics (GO) reflected fields from the reflector and direct incident fields from the feed source are used, the integration surface should cap the reflector perfectly and should be in the illuminated region of the GO reflected field. Validity of the conditions is numerically confirmed for a two-dimensional (2-D) strip reflector, 3-D corner reflectors and a 2-D polyhedron approximate reflector.

It is shown that a three-fluid model, which was successfully introduced to explain microwave characteristics of high-Tc superconductors phenomenologically, is suit also to explain those of low-Tc superconductors. In this model, the two contributions of a residual normal electron, in addition to a super and a normal electron in the two-fluid model, and of the temperature (T) dependence of momentum relaxation time τ for the two normal electrons are taken into account. Measured results of the T dependence of surface resistance Rs for a Nb film with critical temperature Tc9.2K agree very well with an Rs curve calculated using the present model, where a residual surface resistance at T0K, Rso, and the T dependence of τ were determined using the surface reactance at 0K Xso37.6mΩ calculated using the BCS theory to fit a calculated Rs curve with the measured values as a function of T. Furthermore, microwave characteristics predicted from the BCS theory cannot be explained phenomenologically using the conventional two-fluid model. This difficulty can be solved by using an improved two-fluid model, called the two-fluid (τ) model, where the T dependence of τ is taken into account. Finally the frequency dependence of Rs calculated for the Nb film is f1.9 for the BCS theory and f2.0 for the three-fluid (τ) model on the assumption of the frequency independence of τ.

The key concept of Physical Optics (PO), originally developed for a perfectly electric conductor (PEC), consists in that the high frequency fields on the scatterer surface are approximated by those which would exist on the infinite flat surface tangent to the scatterer. The scattered fields at arbitrary observation points are then calculated by integrating these fields on the scatterer. This general concept can be extended to arbitrary impedance surfaces. The asymptotic evaluation of this surface integration in terms of diffraction coefficients gives us the fields in analytical forms. In this paper, uniform PO diffraction coefficients for the impedance surfaces are presented and their high accuracy is verified numerically. These coefficients are providing us with the tool for the mechanism extraction of various high frequency methods such as aperture field integration method and Kirchhoff's method.

The defects in the cold rolled strips have textural characteristics, which are nonuniform due to its irregularities and deformities in geometrical appearance. In order to handle the textural characteristics of images with defects, this paper proposes a surface inspection method based on textural feature extraction using the wavelet transform. The wavelet transform is employed to extract local features from textural images with defects both in the frequency and in the spatial domain. To extract features effectively, an adaptive wavelet packet scheme is developed, in which the optimum number of features are produced automatically through subband coding gain. The energies for all subbands of the optimal quadtree of the adaptive wavelet packet algorithm and four entropy features in the level one LL subband, which correspond to the local features in the spatial domain, are extracted. A neural network is used to classify the defects of these features. Experiments with real image data show good training and generalization performances of the proposed method.

For bonded SOI wafers with active silicon layers thinner than 1 µm, controlling thickness uniformity of active layers has been developed recently. A Plasma Assisted Chemical Etching (PACE) technology is one of methods to realize 0.1 µm bonded SOI. When this technology was proposed for the first time, it was believed that 0.1 µm thick bonded SOI wafers were easily produced independent of initial SOI layer thickness prior to the PACE process. It was true to create 0.1 µm SOI thickness in average. However, the uniformity appeared to be dependent on initial SOI material as well as the PACE machine capability itself. The SOI thickness uniformity pattern after PACE looked like surface morphology of polished silicon wafers. After the experiment to apply various polishing methods to each polishing process in the bonded SOI process, it was verified that the final SOI thickness uniformity after the PACE process was dependent on the waviness of wafer surfaces created in polishing.

A new finishing method using an advanced ECM assisted by fine abrasive grains was developed, in order to smooth and finish surfaces of 3-dimensional micro components used in micromachines. With the method, a fine surface of selected micro-area, which is not obtained by micro-EDM nor conventional ECM, was obtained in a few minutes. We also developed an advanced machine which has a performance of making 3-D complicated micro structures with fine surfaces by the combination of micro-EDM and the developed finishing method. The performance is achieved by a sequential process from the micro-EDM to the finishing without handling workpiece. Using the new machine, we obtained a high precision shaft with a mirror-like surface. The result is satisfactory to apply the method to making a cylindrical substrate for a rotor of a micro wobble motor. The machining process combined the micro-EDM and the new finishing will be applied to producing micro components such as mechanical parts, mirrors and molding dies.

The present paper describes a novel approach to interconnecting and assembling components of MEMS at room temperature. The main drawback of the conventional bonding methods is their rather high process temperatures. The new method, which is referred as the surface activated bonding (SAB), utilizes the phenomena of the adhesion between two atomically clean solid surfaces to enable the bonding at lower temperature or even at room temperature. In the bonding procedure, the surfaces to be bonded are merely brought into contact after sputter-cleaning by Ar fast atom in ultrahigh vacuum conditions. TEM observations of the bonded interfaces show that a direct bonding in atomic scale is achieved in the interface between the micro-components. Based on the concept of this new bonding technology, a micro-assembly system was developed. The micro-assembly system is operated by means of a virtual manipulation system in which 3D model of the micro-components are manipulated virtually in a computer graphics constructed in the world wide web (WWW) scheme. The micro-assembly system will provide a new design tool of three dimensional MEMS by combining the possibility of the flexible assembly and the intuitive operations.

A low dark current CCD linear image sensor with pixels consisting of a photodiode and a storage area has been developed. In order to suppress the dark current, the wafer process has been improved. An impurity profile of a photodiode was modified to minimize depletion width, which was monitored by the photodiode potential. Surface states under the storage gate were decreased by hydrogen annealing with plasma-deposited silicon nitride as an inter metal dielectric film. As the isolation dose decreased, the dark current both in the photodiode and in the storage region were effectively suppressed. Finally, low dark currents of 5 pA/cm2 at photodiode and 120 pA/cm2 at storage area were obtained.

The direct measurement of sidewall roughness on a ridge-type GaAs waveguide was performed using an atomic force microscope (AFM) combined with a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The ridge sidewall of a GaAs waveguide formed by wet-etching and the ridge sidewall formed after regrowth of a 2.45-µm GaAs/AlGaAs epitaxial layer on the same waveguide were observed using introducing the technique for sample slanting. The observed power spectral density was used to determine the scattering loss caused by the sidewall roughness. It was found that the ridge-type GaAs waveguide for light wave transmission had a scattering loss of 0.029 dB/cm in the as-etched ridge state and a scattering loss of 0.17 dB/cm after regrowing the cover GaAs/AlGaAs epitaxial layer. A leaky GaAs/AlGaAs waveguide for polariton-quantum-wave trans-mission had a scattering loss of 1.3l0-5 dB/cm, which means that the scattering loss is negligible. Furthermore, it was found that a periodical surface fluctuation (spatial frequency 2.2 µm-1) along the waveguide appeared after the regrowth of the epitaxial layer. Thus, this method is useful for direct observation of sidewall roughness and can be used to quantitatively determine the sidewall scattering loss.

3D model-based coding methods that need 3D reconstruction techniques are proposed for next-generation image coding methods. A method is presented that reconstructs 3D shapes of dynamic objects from image sequences captured using two cameras, thus avoiding the stereo correspondence problem. A coaxial camera system consisting of one moving and one static camera was developed. The optical axes of both cameras are precisely adjusted and have the same orientation using an optical system with true and half mirrors. The moving camera is moved along a straight horizontal line. This method can reconstruct 3D shapes of static objects as well as dynamic objects using motion vectors calculated from the moving camera images and revised using the static camera image. The method was tested successfully on real images by reconstructing a moving human shape.

A high-frequency approximate method for calculating the diffraction by a smooth convex surface is presented. The advantage of this method is the validity of it in the caustic region of the creeping rays where the Geometrical Theory of Diffraction (GTD) becomes invalid. The concept used in this method is based on the Method of Equivalent Edge Currents (EEC), and the equivalent line currents for creeping rays which are derived from the diffraction coefficients of the GTD are used. By evaluating the radiation integral of these equivalent line currents, the creeping ray contribution which is valid within the caustic region is obtained. In order to check the accuracy and the validity of the method, the diffraction problem by a perfectly conducting sphere of radius a is solved by applying the method, and the obtained results are compared with the exact and the GTD solutions. It is confirmed from the comparison that the failure of the GTD near the caustic is removed in this method and accurate solution is obtained in this area for high-frequency (ka8). Furthermore, it is also found that this method is valid in the backward region (0θ90, θ is an observation angle mesuered from an incident direction), whereas not in the forward region (90θ180).

This paper verifies the accuracy of PO as applied to the scattering of dipole waves by a finite size reflector which is composed of strips on a grounded dielectric slab. By using the closed form expressions of reflected waves from the surface, PO calculation can be conducted straightforwardly. The calculated results are compared with the experimental ones for vertical and horizontal dipoles over a circular reflector.

A method is presented for reconstructing the surface profile of a two dimensional rough surface boundary from the scattered far field data. The proposed inversion algorithm is based on the Kirchhoff approximation and in order to determine the surface profile, the numerical results illustrating the method are presented.

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.

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.

Physical optics(PO) and the aperture field integration method (AFIM) give accurate and similar field patterns near the first few sidelobes of reflector antennas. It is widely accepted that the use of AFIM is restricted to norrower angles than PO. In this paper, uniform equivalent edge currents of PO and AFIM are compared analytically and their equivalence in high frequency in discussed. It is asymptotically verified that the patterns by AFIM are almost identical to PO fields in the full 360angular region, provided that AFIM uses the equivalent surface currents consisting of two components, that is, the geometrical optics(GO) reflected fields from the reflector and the incident fields from the feed source, the latter of which are often neglected. Slightly weaker equivalence is predicted for cross polarization patterns. Numerical comparison of PO and AFIM confirms all these results, the equivalence holds not only for large but also for a very small refiector of the order of one wavelength diameter.

We present a volume rendering algorithm which renders images at approximately two to seven times the speed of a conventional ray caster with almost no visible loss of image quality. This algorithm traverses the volume data in object order and renders the image by performing ray casting for the pixels within the footprint of the voxel (i.e., rectangular prism) being processed. The proposed algorithm supports the rendering of both single and multiple isosurfaces with arbitrary opacity values. While the projection approach to volume rendering is not new, we present an algorithm specifically designed for the perspective projection, evaluate its rendering speed for both single and multiple isosurfaces with arbitrary opacity values, and examine how efficiently it uses cache memory.