LED receiver impedance and its effects on LED-LED visible light communications

This paper experimentally demonstrates that the AC impedance spectrum of the LED as a photodetector heavily depends on the received optical power, which may cause the impedance mismatch between the LED and the post trans-impedance amplifier. The optical power dependent impedance of the LED is well fitted by a modified dispersive carrier transport model for inorganic semiconductors. The bandwidth of the LED-LED visible light communication link is further shown to decrease with the optical power received by the LED. This leads to a trade-off between link bandwidth and SNR, and consequently affects the choice of the proper dada modulation scheme.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Optics Expres

From Tutor-led to Student-led design education: the Global Studio

“Tutor-led” design education has been argued to be a system where lecturers are at the centre of teaching & learning activities and where educators’ tastes strongly influence students’ outcomes. Design education has also been argued not to prepare graduates for working in highly complex professional capacities synonymous with the contemporary era. We argue the role of tutors in tutor-led design education to be a factor in this. The Global Studio runs Web 2.0 enabled industry sponsored international collaborations between students. One aim is to introduce learners to “complex project situations” and consequently to prepare them for contemporary working life. It is operationally different from “tutor-led” design education as lecturers are more “distant” in teaching &learning activities and students construct conversations and outcomes primarily via interaction with peers. Feedback from home-institution students suggests many individuals struggle with making decisions without “tutor-led design education” involvement from tutors. Given the on-going change in funding provision and the continuing dissolution of “normal” structures, universities are predicted to continue to undergo extensive transformation in their remit and the way education is delivered. We ask whether tutor-led design education is maintainable and whether educators and students are prepared for the consequences of change

Inclusion of an Introduction to Infrastructure Course in a Civil and Environmental Engineering Curriculum

Civil infrastructure refers to the built environment (sometimes referred to as public works) and consists of roads, bridges, buildings, dams, levees, drinking water treatment facilities, wastewater treatment facilities, power generation and transmission facilities, communications, solid waste facilities, hazardous waste facilities, and other sectors. Although there is a need to train engineers who have a holistic view of infrastructure, there is evidence that civil and environmental engineering (CEE) programs have not fully addressed this increasingly recognized need. One effective approach to address this educational gap is to incorporate a course related to infrastructure into the curriculum for first-year or second-year civil and environmental engineering students. Therefore, this study assesses the current status of teaching such courses in the United States and identifies the incentives for, and the barriers against, incorporating an introduction to infrastructure course into schools’ current CEE curricula. Two distinct activities enabled these objectives. First, a questionnaire was distributed to CEE programs across the United States, to which 33 responses were received. The results indicated that although the majority of participants believe that offering such a course will benefit students by increasing the breadth of the curriculum and by providing a holistic view of CEE, barriers such as the maximum allowable credits for graduation, the lack of motivation within a department—either because such a course did not have a champion or because the department had no plans to revise their curriculum—and a lack of expertise among faculty members inhibited inclusion of the course in curricula. Second, three case studies demonstrating successful inclusion of an introduction to infrastructure course into the CEE curriculum were evaluated. Cases were collected from Marquette University, University of Wisconsin-Platteville, and West Point CEE programs, and it was found that the key to success in including such a course is a motivated team of faculty members who are committed to educating students about different aspects of infrastructure. The results of the study can be used as a road map to help universities successfully incorporate an introduction to infrastructure course in their CEE programs

Design of an oximeter based on LED-LED configuration and FPGA technology

sensor

Thermal profiles within the channel of planar gunn diodes using micro-particle sensors

The paper describes the use of a novel microparticle sensor (~3 μm diameter) and infra-red (IR) microscopy to measure the temperature profile within the active channel (typically 3 μm length and 120 μm width) of planar Gunn diodes. The method has enabled detailed temperature measurements showing an asymmetrical temperature profile along the active width of these devices. The asymmetrical temperature profile suggests a similar behaviour in the channel current density, which may contribute to the lower than expected RF output power

Scalability of Atomic-Thin-Body (ATB) Transistors Based on Graphene Nanoribbons

A general solution for the electrostatic potential in an atomic-thin-body (ATB) field-effect transistor geometry is presented. The effective electrostatic scaling length, {\lambda}eff, is extracted from the analytical model, which cannot be approximated by the lowest order eigenmode as traditionally done in SOI-MOSFETs. An empirical equation for the scaling length that depends on the geometry parameters is proposed. It is shown that even for a thick SiO2 back oxide {\lambda}eff can be improved efficiently by thinner top oxide thickness, and to some extent, with high-k dielectrics. The model is then applied to self-consistent simulation of graphene nanoribbon (GNR) Schottky-barrier field-effect transistors (SB-FETs) at the ballistic limit. In the case of GNR SB-FETs, for large {\lambda}eff, the scaling is limited by the conventional electrostatic short channel effects (SCEs). On the other hand, for small {\lambda}eff, the scaling is limited by direct source-to-drain tunneling. A subthreshold swing below 100mV/dec is still possible with a sub-10nm gate length in GNR SB-FETs.Comment: 4 figures, accepted by ED

A Molecular-Rotor Device for Nonvolatile High-Density Memory Applications

A novel memory device based on an electrically driven molecular rotor was fabricated and demonstrated to have bistable switching effects. The device showed an on/off ratio of approximately 10^4, a read window of about 2.5 V, and retention performance of greater than 10^4 s. The analysis of the device I–V characteristics suggests the source of the observed switching effects to be the redox-induced ligand rotation around the copper metal center, which is consistent with the observed temperature dependence of the switching behavior. This organic monolayer device holds a potential for nonvolatile high-density memory applications due to its scalability and reduced cost