Measurement and Calibration of A High-Sensitivity Microwave Power Sensor with An Attenuator

In this paper, measurement and calibration of a high-sensitivity microwave power sensor through an attenuator is performed using direct comparison transfer technique. To provide reliable results, a mathematical model previously derived using signal flow graphs together with non-touching loop rule analysis for the measurement estimate (i.e. calibration factor) and its uncertainty evaluation is comparatively investigated. The investigation is carried out through the analysis of physical measurement processes, and consistent mathematical model is observed. Later, an example of Type-N (up to 18 GHz) application is used to demonstrate its calibration and measurement capability

Study of mechanical response in embossing of ceramic green substrate by micro-indentation

Micro-indentation test with a micro flat-end cone indenter was employed to simulate micro embossing process and investigate the thermo-mechanical response of ceramic green substrates. The laminated low temperature co-fired ceramic green tapes were used as the testing material ; the correlations of indentation depth versus applied force and applied stress at the temperatures of 25 degrees C and 75degrees C were studied. The results showed that permanent indentation cavities could be formed at temperatures ranging from 25 degrees C to 75 degrees C, and the depth of cavities created was applied force, temperature and dwell time dependent. Creep occurred and made a larger contribution to the plastic deformation at elevated temperatures and high peak loads. There was instantaneous recovery during the unloading and retarded recovery in the first day after indentation. There was no significant pile-up due to material flow observed under compression at the temperature up to 75 degrees C. The plastic deformation was the main cause for formation of cavity on the ceramic green substrate under compression. The results can be used as a guideline for embossing ceramic green substrates.Comment: Submitted on behalf of EDA Publishing Association (http://irevues.inist.fr/handle/2042/16838

Weak coupling d-wave BCS superconductivity and unpaired electrons in overdoped La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_{4} single crystals

The low-temperature specific heat (SH) of overdoped La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_{4} single crystals (0.178=<x=<0.290) has been measured. For the superconducting samples (0.178=<x=<0.238), the derived gap values (without any adjusting parameters) approach closely onto the theoretical prediction \Delta_{0}=2.14k_{B}T_{c} for the weak-coupling d-wave BCS superconductivity. In addition, the residual term \gamma(0) of SH at H=0 increases with x dramatically when beyond x~0.22, and finally evolves into the value of a complete normal metallic state at higher doping levels, indicating growing amount of unpaired electrons. We argue that this large \gamma(0) cannot be simply attributed to the pair breaking induced by the impurity scattering, instead the phase separation is possible.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures; Contents added; Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Entanglement and quantum phase transition in alternating XY spin chain with next-nearest neighbour interactions

By using the method of density-matrix renormalization-group to solve the different spin-spin correlation functions, the nearest-neighbouring entanglement(NNE) and next-nearest-neighbouring entanglement(NNNE) of one-dimensional alternating Heisenberg XY spin chain is investigated in the presence of alternating nearest neighbour interactions of exchange couplings, external magnetic fields and next-nearest neighbouring interactions. For dimerized ferromagnetic spin chain, NNNE appears only above the critical dimerized interaction, meanwhile, the dimerized interaction effects quantum phase transition point and improves NNNE to a large value. We also study the effect of ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic next-nearest neighboring (NNN) interactions on the dynamics of NNE and NNNE. The ferromagnetic NNN interaction increases and shrinks NNE below and above critical frustrated interaction respectively, while the antiferromagnetic NNN interaction always decreases NNE. The antiferromagnetic NNN interaction results to a larger value of NNNE in comparison to the case when the NNN interaction is ferromagnetic.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures,. accepted by Chinese Physics B 2008 11 (in press

Lessons from Non-Abelian Plasma Instabilities in Two Spatial Dimensions

Plasma instabilities can play a fundamental role in quark-gluon plasma equilibration in the high energy (weak coupling) limit. Early simulations of the evolution of plasma instabilities in non-abelian gauge theory, performed in one spatial dimension, found behavior qualitatively similar to traditional QED plasmas. Later simulations of the fully three-dimensional theory found different behavior, unlike traditional QED plasmas. To shed light on the origin of this difference, we study the intermediate case of two spatial dimensions. Depending on how the "two-dimensional'' theory is formulated, we can obtain either behavior.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figure

Does Informal Finance Help Formal Finance? Evidence from Third Party Loan Guarantees in China

Building on the important study by Allen, Qian and Qian (2005) and Ayyagari, Demirgüc-Kunt and Maksimovic (2010), we examine whether third party guarantors play an effective role in assessing loan risk. Using a proprietary database of third party loan guarantees in China, we find strong evidence that guarantors and banks disagree on pricing loan risk, and that banks can better predict loan defaults than guarantors. We also find that the probability of loan default is affected by the capability of guarantor officers. Our findings question the contribution of soft information in the improvement of credit scoring and support the view that informal finance should be limited. This paper also supports the implications of studies on human capital in financial intermediation.published_or_final_versio

Network calculus for parallel processing

In this note, we present preliminary results on the use of "network calculus" for parallel processing systems, specifically MapReduce