On the resolution and image intensity of the field-ion microscope

High resolution and image intensity of field ion microscope at low temperature

Solar cell shingle

A solar cell shingle was made of an array of solar cells on a lower portion of a substantially rectangular shingle substrate made of fiberglass cloth or the like. The solar cells may be encapsulated in flourinated ethylene propylene or some other weatherproof translucent or transparent encapsulant to form a combined electrical module and a roof shingle. The interconnected solar cells were connected to connectors at the edge of the substrate through a connection to a common electrical bus or busses. An overlap area was arranged to receive the overlap of a cooperating similar shingle so that the cell portion of the cooperating shingle may overlie the overlap area of the roof shingle. Accordingly, the same shingle serves the double function of an ordinary roof shingle which may be applied in the usual way and an array of cooperating solar cells from which electrical energy may be collected

Solar power roof shingle

Silicon solar cell module provides both all-weather protection and electrical power. Module consists of array of circular silicon solar cells bonded to fiberglass substrate roof shingle with fluorinated ethylene propylene encapsulant

Exact analytical evaluation of second-order PMD impact on the outage probability for a compensated system

An exact analytical method for evaluating the outage probability due to second-order polarization mode dispersion in a system with first-order compensation is presented. In an uncompensated system the outage is mainly due to the mean differential group delay, whereas higher order effects have low impact. It is shown that in a compensated system all orders contribute to the outage probability, whereas accounting for exact second-order only gives a slight overestimate. Approximate second-order models leaving residual higher order effects may lead to very different outage probabilities

Maximum likelihood sequence detection with closed-form metrics in OOK optical systems impaired by GVD and PMD

This paper thoroughly investigates the maximum-likelihood sequence detection (MLSD) receiver for the optical ON-OFF keying (OOK) channel in the presence of both polarization mode dispersion and group velocity dispersion (GVD). A reliable method is provided for computing the relevant performance for any possible value of the system parameters, with no constraint on the sampling rate. With one sample per bit time, a practically exact expression of the statistics of the received samples is found, and therefore the performance of a synchronous MLSD receiver is evaluated and compared with that of other electronic techniques such as combined feedforward and decision-feedback equalizers (FFE and DFE). It is also shown that the ultimate performance of electronic processing can be obtained by sampling the received signal at twice the bit rate. An approximate accurate closed-form expression of the receiver metrics is also identified, allowing for the implementation of a practically optimal MLSD receiver

On the cause of the flat-spot phenomenon observed in silicon solar cells at low temperatures and low intensities

A model is presented that explains the "flat-spot" (FS) power loss phenomenon observed in silicon solar cells operating deep space (low temperature, low intensity) conditions. Evidence is presented suggesting that the effect is due to localized metallurgical interactions between the silicon substrate and the contact metallization. These reactions are shown to result in localized regions in which the PN junction is destroyed and replaced with a metal-semiconductor-like interface. The effects of thermal treatment, crystallographic orientation, junction depth, and metallurization are presented along with a method of preventing the effect through the suppression of vacancy formation at the free surface of the contact metallization. Preliminary data indicating the effectiveness of a TiN diffusion barrier in preventing the effect are also given

Channel estimation algorithms for MLSD in optical communication systems

Maximum likelihood sequence detection represents the most efficient technique in the electrical domain to combat fiber impairments such as polarization-mode dispersion and group-velocity dispersion. In order to successfully apply this technique, it is mandatory to estimate some key channel parameters needed by the Viterbi processor.We propose a simple and effective solution based on the least-mean-square algorithm to perform such an estimation

Robust multilevel coherent optical systems with linear processing at the receiver

This paper investigates optical coherent systems based on polarization multiplexing and high-order modulations such as phase-shift keying (PSK) signals and quadrature amplitude modulations (QAM). It is shown that a simple linear receiver processing is sufficient to perfectly demultiplex the two transmitted streams and to perfectly compensate for group velocity dispersion (GVD) and polarization mode dispersion (PMD). In addition, in the presence of a strong phase noise of the lasers at the transmitter and receiver, a symbol-by-symbol detector with decision feedback is able to considerably improve the receiver robustness with a limited complexity increase. We will also discuss the channel estimation and the receiver adaptivity to time-varying channel conditions as well as the problem of the frequency acquisition and tracking. Finally, a new two-dimensional (polarization/time) differential encoding rule is proposed to overcome a polarization-ambiguity problem. In the numerical results, the receiver performance will be assessed versus the receiver complexity

Numerical Simulation of Compressible Vortical Flows Using a Conservative Unstructured-Grid Adaptive Scheme

A two-dimensional numerical scheme for the compressible Euler equations is presented and applied here to the simulation of exemplary compressible vortical flows. The proposed approach allows to perform computations on unstructured moving grids with adaptation, which is required to capture complex features of the flow-field. Grid adaptation is driven by suitable error indicators based on the Mach number and by element-quality constraints as well. At the new time level, the computational grid is obtained by a suitable combination of grid smoothing, edge-swapping, grid refinement and de-refinement. The grid modifications-including topology modification due to edge-swapping or the insertion/deletion of a new grid node-are interpreted at the flow solver level as continuous (in time) deformations of suitably-defined node-centered finite volumes. The solution over the new grid is obtained without explicitly resorting to interpolation techniques, since the definition of suitable interface velocities allows one to determine the new solution by simple integration of the Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian formulation of the flow equations. Numerical simulations of the steady oblique-shock problem, of the steady transonic flow and of the start-up unsteady flow around the NACA 0012 airfoil are presented to assess the scheme capabilities to describe these flows accurately

Ginecopsiquiatría: su inserción docente-asistencial en Ginecología

Las etapas de la vida de la mujer transcurren incesantemente por modificaciones hormonales que, desde lo fisiológico a lo patológico, llegan a impactar en la salud integral de la misma Con frecuencia creciente se advierten situaciones con repercusión sobre la salud mental y expresiones clínicas ginecológicas que se correlacionan y necesita la intervención de distintas especialidades para su interpretación y abordaje terapéutico. Es precisamente la Ginecopsiquiatría la disciplina que advierte lo mencionado y que motiva su inserción en los programas educativos y asistenciales para establecer criterios y pautas de atención de los desórdenes no sólo psicosomáticos sino en toda la esfera de atención de la salud integral de la mujer.Facultad de Ciencias Médica