We have optimized and evaluated organic thin-film solar cell devices with a structure of graded junction. The graded junction consisting of donor and accepter materials was fabricated by varying the deposition rates of both materials with a continuous grading, using two evaporation sources of cupper phthalocyanine and fullerene as p- and n-type materials, respectively. By evaluating device characteristics, optimized device structure ITO/CuPc (10 nm)/graded layer (35 nm)/C60 (15 nm)/BCP (10 nm)/Ag (100 nm) with an efficiency of 1.36% was obtained. In the structure, short-circuit current density was the largest and existence of larger voltage dependence in current density was observed. In addition, we have measured temperature dependences of current density versus voltage characteristics in the graded organic solar cell under illumination. The carrier extraction was enhanced by changing voltage possibly due to the internal electric field of the graded junction.

Due to the increased power density and lower thermal conductivity, 3D ICs are faced with heat dissipation and temperature problem seriously. TSV (Through-Silicon-Via) has been shown as an effective way to help heat removal, but they introduce several issues related with cost and reliability as well. Previous researches of TSV planning didn't pay much attention to the impact of leakage power, which will bring in error on estimation of temperature, TSV number and also critical path delay. The leakage-temperature-delay dependence can potentially negate the performance improvement of 3D designs. In this paper, we analyze the impact of leakage power on TSV planning and integrate leakage-temperature-delay dependence into thermal via planning of 3D ICs. A weighted via insertion approach, considering the influence on both module delay and wire delay, is proposed to achieve the best balance among temperature, via number and performance. Experiment results show that, with leakage power and resource constraint considered, temperature and the required via number can be quite different, and the weighted TSV insertion approach with iterative process can obtain the trade-off between different factors including thermal, power consumption, via number and performance.

The author developed a GaAs wideband IQ modulator IC, which is utilized in RF signal source instruments with direct-conversion architecture. The layout is fully symmetric to obtain a temperature-stable operation. However, the actual temperature drift of EVM (Error Vector Magnitude) is greater in some frequency and temperature ranges than the first generation IC of the same architecture. For applications requiring the precision of electric instrumentation, temperature drift is highly critical. This paper clarifies that linear phase error is the dominant factor causing the temperature drift. It also identifies that such temperature drift of linear phase error is due to equivalent series impedance, especially parasitic capacitance of the phase shifter. This effect is verified by comparing the SSB measurements to a mathematical simulation using an empirical temperature-dependent small-signal FET model.

We measured the complex permittivities of whole blood and blood plasma in quasi millimeter and millimeter wave bands using a coaxial probe method. The validity of these measurements was confirmed by comparing with those of a different measurement method, i.e., a dielectric tube method. It is shown that the complex permittivities of the blood samples are similar to those of water in quasi millimeter and millimeter wave bands. Furthermore, the temperature dependences of the complex permittivities of the samples were measured.

The changes in fiber strain and fiber loss with temperature are quantitatively evaluated for 0.5 mm UV-coated fiber and three kind of fiber-optic access cables, for dropping and indoor wiring, employing 0.5 mm UV-coated fiber. Measurements of the fiber strain and loss increase are conducted using a quasi-heterodyne interferometer method and a photon-counting optical-time-domain-reflectmeter, respectively, at 1.3 and 1.55 µ m. From the strain characteristics, the following observations are made: (a) In the temperature range from -40 to 20 the fiber strain followed the cable strain quite closely, thus maintaining a tight cable structure and (b) from 20 to 80, the fiber exhibited a lower strain than the cable strain. Furthermore, no loss increase due to temperature change was observed for the 0.5-mm diameter coated fiber and the three type of optical cables.

An ultralow power constant reference current circuit with low temperature dependence for micropower electronic applications is proposed in this paper. This circuit consists of a constant-current subcircuit and a bias-voltage subcircuits, and it compensates for the temperature characteristics of mobility µ, thermal voltage VT, and threshold voltage VTH in such a way that the reference current has small temperature dependence. A SPICE simulation demonstrated that reference current and total power dissipation is 97.7 nA, 1.1 µW, respectively, and the variation in the reference current can be kept very small within 4% in a temperature range from -20 to 100.

We propose an ultra low power watch-dog circuit with the use of MOSFETs operation under subthreshold characteristics. The circuit monitors the amount of the product degradation because the subthreshold current of MOSFET emulates the rate of the general chemical reaction. Its operation was verified with both SPICE simulation and the measurement of the prototype chip. The new circuit embedded in a tag attached to any product could dynamically monitor the degradation regardless of storage conditions.

A 1.55-µm hybrid integrated wavelength-converter module was fabricated using a two-channel spot-size converter integrated semiconductor optical amplifier (SS-SOA) on a planar-lightwave-circuit (PLC) platform. Clear eye opening and penalty-free wavelength conversion were obtained at 2.5-Gb/s modulation with a wide wavelength difference of 46 nm. The module showed good characteristics including low insertion loss (0.1 dB), and high conversion efficiency (-0.2 dB). It also showed stable wavelength conversion for as wide as a 13 temperature range.

A 1.55-µm hybrid integrated wavelength-converter module was fabricated using a two-channel spot-size converter integrated semiconductor optical amplifier (SS-SOA) on a planar-lightwave-circuit (PLC) platform. Clear eye opening and penalty-free wavelength conversion were obtained at 2.5-Gb/s modulation with a wide wavelength difference of 46 nm. The module showed good characteristics including low insertion loss (0.1 dB), and high conversion efficiency (-0.2 dB). It also showed stable wavelength conversion for as wide as a 13 temperature range.

We describe several properties of very thin stacks of 10 to 20 intrinsic Josephson junctions fabricated on the surface of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ single crystals. We show that the Joule heating is significantly reduced in these stacks and that the gap structure is clearly observable in the quasiparticle current-voltage (I-V) characteristics. The I-V curves are characterized by a large subgap conductance and a significant gap suppression due to the injection of quasiparticle current. It is found that the IcRn product of these intrinsic Josephson junction stacks is significantly small compared with that expected from the BCS theory. It is also found that there is a tendency that IcRn decreases with increasing c-axis resistivity. Both Ic and the gap voltage exhibit unsaturated temperature dependence at low temperatures. The behavior presents a sharp contrast to that of Josephson junctions made of conventional superconductors. The characteristics are discussed in relation to the d-wave symmetry of the order parameter.

The temperature dependence of central wavelength of optical filters is a serious problem for the dense WDM systems. This dependence is owing to the temperature dependence of optical path-length of the waveguide. In this study, we realized a temperature independent silica-based optical filter at 1. 55 µm wavelength using an athermal waveguide, in which optical pathlength is independent of temperature. First, we designed a silica-based athermal waveguide, and next we designed and fabricated a ring resonator using the athermal waveguide. As a result, we successfully decreased the temperature dependence of central wavelength to less than 4 10 -4 nm/K, which is 3% and 0. 3% of corresponding values of conventional silica-based and semiconductor waveguide filters, respectively.

The temperature dependence of the central wavelength of narrow-band filters is a serious problem for the dense WDM systems. In this study, we realized a temperature independent narrow-band filter at 1.3 µm wavelength. First, we designed an athermal waveguide in which optical path length is independent of temperature by using a finite element method. Using this athermal waveguide, we designed and fabricated a ring resonator. As a result, we successfully decreased the temperature coefficient of central wavelength to 710-4 nm/K, which is 7% of conventional SiO2 waveguide filters and 0.7% of conventional semiconductor waveguide filters.

Heavy-ion-induced soft errors (single event upset) in submicron silicon-on-insulator (SOI) MOSFETs under space environmental conditions are studied over the temperature range of 100-400 K using three-dimensional device simulator with full-temperature models. The temperature dependence of the drain collected charge is examined in detail when a heavy-ion strikes the gate center perpendicularly. At very low temperatures, SOI MOSFETs have very high immunity to the heavy-ion-induced soft errors. In particular, alpha-particle-induced soft errors hardly occur at temperatures below 200 K. As the temperature increases, the collected charge shows a marked rate of increase. The problem of single event upset in SOI MOSFETs becomes more serious with increasing working temperature. This is because the induced bipolar mechanism is a main factor to cause charge collection in SOI MOSFETs and the bipolar current increases exponentially with increasing temperature. At room and high temperatures, the drain collected charge is strongly dependent on channel length and SOI film thickness.

Precise measurements of temperature dependence of the Andreev reflection current for the N–I–S junctions were carried out. Au and Pb were used as N (normal metal) and S (superconducting material), respectively. The experimental results agreed with the analyses based on the Arnold theory.

An image type resonator method is proposed as a method to evaluate precisely the temperature dependence of dielectric material. At first, the temperature coefficients of the resonant frequencies, TCf are measured separately using the shielded dielectric resonators of three types; that is a parallel plate type, and an image type, and a MIC type resonator. Secondly, an intrinsic temperature coefficient of the resonant frequency TCf0, which is defined as the temperature coefficient of a resonant frequency when all the stored energy is confined inside a dielectric, is estimated from these measured TCf. Actually, the TCf0 values of a sapphire and (ZrSn) TiO4 rod are estimated from the TCf values measured for the resonators of three types. As a result, for the parallel plate type, the precision of TCf0 is about 0.1 ppm/. For the image and MIC types, the errors of about 0.5 ppm/ in the TCf0 values arise from the errors in the linear expansion coefficients of the resonators, rather than from the experimental errors in TCf. Then, another image type resonator is designed to estimate TCf0 within error of 0.1 ppm/. In this design, dimensions of the shielding cavity is determined to reduce the influence of the errors in the linear expansion coefficients on precision of the TCf0 estimation. Finally, for a (ZrSn) TiO4 ceramic rod, a TCf0 value estimated from TCf measured for the image type resonator is obtained with accuracy of about0.1 ppm/.