An Efficient Sensing Localization Algorithm for Free-Form Surface Digitization
Yunbao Huang and Xiaoping Qian
We present a divide-and-conquer method that efficiently finds a near-optimal distribution of sensing locations for free-form surface digitization. We formulate a next-best-point problem and transform the uncertainty of a B-spline surface into a higher-dimensional B-spline surface. This technique all ... [J. Comput. Inf. Sci. Eng. 8, 021008 (2008)] published Fri May 16, 2008.
Shearographic phase retrieval using one single specklegram: a clustering approach
Yuan H. Huang, Siu P. Ng, Long Liu, Yun S. Chen, and Michael Y. Y. Hung
In the field of optical measurement, phase always represents the physical quantity to be measured. Thus, phase retrieval from a fringe pattern is a key step for quantitative measurement and evaluation. Much research work has been conducted to develop phase evaluation methods such as fringe tracking ... [Opt. Eng. 47, 054301 (2008)] published Fri May 16, 2008.
Nanoscale thickness double-gated field effect silicon sensors for sensitive pH detection in fluid
Oguz H. Elibol, Bobby Reddy, Jr., and Rashid Bashir
In this work, we report on the optimization of a double-gate silicon-on-insulator field effect device operation to maximize pH sensitivity. The operating point can be fine tuned by independently biasing the fluid and the back gate of the device. Choosing the bias points such that device is nearly de ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 193904 (2008)] published Thu May 15, 2008.
Experimental evidence of an incomplete thermalization of the energy in an x-ray microcalorimeter with a Ta/Au absorber
E. Perinati, M. Barbera, S. Varisco, E. Silver, J. Beeman et al.
We have conducted an experimental test at our XACT facility using an x-ray microcalorimeter with Ta/Au absorber and neutron transmutation doped germanium thermal sensor. The test was aimed at measuring the percentage of energy effectively thermalized after absorption of x-ray photons in superconduct ... [Rev. Sci. Instrum. 79, 053905 (2008)] published Thu May 15, 2008.
Measurement and noise performance of nano-superconducting-quantum-interference devices fabricated by focused ion beam
L. Hao, J. C. Macfarlane, J. C. Gallop, D. Cox, J. Beyer et al.
Science and industry demand ever more sensitive measurements on ever smaller systems, as exemplified by spintronics, nanoelectromechanical system, and spin-based quantum information processing, where single electronic spin detection poses a grand challenge. Superconducting quantum interference devic ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 192507 (2008)] published Wed May 14, 2008.
Comparative study of global invariant descriptors for object recognition
Anant Choksuriwong, Bruno Emile, Helene Laurent, and Christophe Rosenberger
Although many object invariant descriptors have been proposed in the literature, putting them into practice to obtain a robust recognition system that is able to face several perturbations is still a studied problem. After presenting the most commonly used global invariant descriptors, a comparative ... [J. Electron. Imaging 17, 023015 (2008)] published Wed May 14, 2008.
Consensus-based framework for illuminant chromaticity estimation
Simone Bianco, Francesca Gasparini, and Raimondo Schettini
Several algorithms were proposed in the literature to recover the illuminant chromaticity of the original scene. These algorithms work well only when prior assumptions are satisfied, and the best and the worst algorithms may be different for different scenes. We investigate the idea of not relying o ... [J. Electron. Imaging 17, 023013 (2008)] published Wed May 14, 2008.
Inductively coupled probe for the measurement of partial discharges
Guillermo Robles, Juan Manuel Martinez, Monica Rojas, and Javier Sanz
Partial discharges are a transient phenomena whose measurement is remarkably important for electrical equipment diagnosis and maintenance. These discharges appear in the measurement circuit as very narrow current pulses of some nanoseconds. Therefore, discharge pulse detection is a particularly diff ... [Rev. Sci. Instrum. 79, 055104 (2008)] published Wed May 14, 2008.
Wedged multilayer Laue lens
Ray Conley, Chian Liu, Jun Qian, Cameron M. Kewish, Albert T. Macrander et al.
A multilayer Laue lens (MLL) is an x-ray focusing optic fabricated from a multilayer structure consisting of thousands of layers of two different materials produced by thin-film deposition. The sequence of layer thicknesses is controlled to satisfy the Fresnel zone plate law and the multilayer is se ... [Rev. Sci. Instrum. 79, 053104 (2008)] published Wed May 14, 2008.
Kinematic Analysis and Optimization of a Novel Robot for Surgical Tool Manipulation
Xiaoli Zhang and Carl A. Nelson
The size and limited dexterity of current surgical robotic systems are factors that limit their usefulness. To improve the level of assimilation of surgical robots in minimally invasive surgery (MIS), a compact, lightweight surgical robotic positioning mechanism with four degrees of freedom (DOFs) ( ... [J. Med. Devices 2, 021003 (2008)] published Wed May 14, 2008.
Stability Analysis of an Inflatable Vacuum Chamber
Sean A. Barton
A lightweight inflatable tensioned-membrane-structure vacuum container is proposed and its stability is analyzed. The proposed structure consists of a pressurized lobed cylindrical wall surrounding a central evacuated space. Stability is analyzed by discretizing the system and diagonalizing the seco ... [J. Appl. Mech. 75, 041010 (2008)] published Wed May 14, 2008.
A completely self-contained cryogen-free dilution refrigerator, the TritonDR[sup TM]
V. A. Mikheev, P. G. Noonan, A. J. Adams, R. W. Bateman, and T. J. Foster
Oxford Instruments have developed a new dilution refrigerator for ultralow temperatures down to below 35 mK. The TritonDR system is a continuous cryogenic cycle dilution refrigerator. The refrigerator is driven by a closed cycle cryocooler and hence requires no liquid cryogens. The system has a ded ... [Low Temp. Phys. 34, 404 (2008)] published Wed May 14, 2008.
Microring resonators fabricated by electron beam bleaching of chromophore doped polymers
Haishan Sun, Antao Chen, Benjamin C. Olbricht, Joshua A. Davies, Philip A. Sullivan et al.
Decomposition of chromophore molecules under direct electron beam irradiation reduces the refractive index of chromophore containing polymers. The induced refractive index contrast between the exposed and unexposed regions is high enough for waveguide bends of small radius and thus microring resonat ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 193305 (2008)] published Tue May 13, 2008.
Microring resonators fabricated by electron beam bleaching of chromophore doped polymers
Haishan Sun, Antao Chen, Benjamin C. Olbricht, Joshua A. Davies, Philip A. Sullivan et al.
Decomposition of chromophore molecules under direct electron beam irradiation reduces the refractive index of chromophore containing polymers. The induced refractive index contrast between the exposed and unexposed regions is high enough for waveguide bends of small radius and thus microring resonat ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 193305 (2008)] published Tue May 13, 2008.
Exposure and development of thick polydimethylglutarimide films for MEMS applications using 254-nm irradiation
Ian G. Foulds, Robert W. Johnstone, See-Ho Tsang, Manu Pallapa, and Ash M. Parameswaran
Polydimethylglutarimide (PMGI)-based resists are finding increasing use in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) as both sacrificial and structural materials. PMGI-based resists are commercially available and were originally designed for use in bilayer lift-off applications. Literature on deep-UV ex ... [J. Micro/Nanolith. MEMS MOEMS 7, 023003 (2008)] published Tue May 13, 2008.
Brightness enhancement method for a high-intensity positron beam produced by an electron accelerator
Nagayasu Oshima, Ryoichi Suzuki, Toshiyuki Ohdaira, Atsushi Kinomura, Takamitsu Narumi et al.
A method for enhancing the brightness of an intense slow positron beam produced by an electron linear accelerator (LINAC) in order to obtain an intense positron microbeam was developed. The developed brightness enhancement system is simple and consists only of a few beam optics and a transmission re ... [J. Appl. Phys. 103, 094916 (2008)] published Mon May 12, 2008.
Setup for in situ deep level transient spectroscopy of semiconductors during swift heavy ion irradiation
Sandeep Kumar, Sugam Kumar, Y. S. Katharria, C. P. Safvan, and D. Kanjilal
A computerized system for in situ deep level characterization during irradiation in semiconductors has been set up and tested in the beam line for materials science studies of the 15 MV Pelletron accelerator at the Inter-University Accelerator Centre, New Delhi. This is a new facility for in situ i ... [Rev. Sci. Instrum. 79, 056103 (2008)] published Mon May 12, 2008.
Invited Article: Design techniques and noise properties of ultrastable cryogenically cooled sapphire-dielectric resonator oscillators
C. R. Locke, E. N. Ivanov, J. G. Hartnett, P. L. Stanwix, and M. E. Tobar
We review the techniques used in the design and construction of cryogenic sapphire oscillators at the University of Western Australia over the 18 year history of the project. We describe the project from its beginnings when sapphire oscillators were first developed as low-noise transducers for grav ... [Rev. Sci. Instrum. 79, 051301 (2008)] published Mon May 12, 2008.
Non-uniform surface sampling techniques for three-dimensional object inspection
Chihhsiong S. Shih, Lester A. Gerhardt, William Cheng-Chung Chu, Chuhsing Lin, Chih-Hung Chang et al.
While the uniform sampling method is quite popular for pointwise measurement of manufactured parts, we present three novel sampling strategies that emphasize 3D non-uniform inspection capability. They are direct and indirect adaptive sampling and local adjustment sampling. The adaptive sampling stra ... [Opt. Eng. 47, 053606 (2008)] published Mon May 12, 2008.
Design, fabrication, and test of soft x-ray sinusoidal transmission grating
Min Zhao, XiaoLi Zhu, Baoqin Chen, ChangQing Xie, Min Liu et al.
We present a novel diffractive optical element, the quantum dot array diffraction grating (QDADG), used in soft x-ray spectroscopy. Because of its sinusoidal transmission it effectively suppress higher order diffractions, which can improve the precision and SNR of soft x-ray spectroscopy in laser pl ... [Opt. Eng. 47, 058001 (2008)] published Mon May 12, 2008.
Recall or precision-oriented strategies for binary classification of skin pixels
Francesca Gasparini, Silvia Corchs, and Raimondo Schettini
Skin detection is a preliminary step in many applications. We analyze some of the most frequently cited binary skin classifiers based on explicit color cluster definition and present possible strategies to improve their performance. In particular, we demonstrate how this can be accomplished by using ... [J. Electron. Imaging 17, 023017 (2008)] published Mon May 12, 2008.
Robust Piecewise-Linear State Observers for Flexible Link Mechanisms
Roberto Caracciolo, Dario Richiedei, and Alberto Trevisani
This paper tackles the problem of designing state observers for flexible link mechanisms: An investigation is made on the possibility of employing observers making use of suitable piecewise-linear truncated dynamics models. A general and novel approach is proposed, which provides an objective way of ... [J. Dyn. Sys., Meas., Control 130, 031011 (2008)] published Mon May 12, 2008.
Transformer Eddy Current Dampers for the Vibration Control
Andrea Tonoli, Nicola Amati, and Mario Silvagni
Eddy current dampers are promising for the passive and semiactive vibration control of mechanical structures. Among them, the motional types are based on Lorentz forces between a moving conductor and a stationary magnetic field. On the contrary, transformer ones exploit electromagnetic forces varyin ... [J. Dyn. Sys., Meas., Control 130, 031010 (2008)] published Mon May 12, 2008.
Exploitation of Multi-beam Directional Antennas for a Wireless TDMA/FDD MAC
Sedat Atmaca, Celal Ceken, and Ismail Erturk
The effects of the multi-beam directional antennas on the performance of a new wireless TDMA/FDD MAC system are presented. Directional antennas intrinsically enable development of the SDMA systems and allow transmitting and receiving signals simultaneously at the same time slot. Employing a dynamic ... [AIP Conf. Proc. 1007, 95 (2008)] published Mon May 12, 2008.
Intelligent E-Learning Systems: Automatic Construction of Ontologies
Jesus del Peso and Fernando de Arriaga
During the last years a new generation of Intelligent E-Learning Systems (ILS) has emerged with enhanced functionality due, mainly, to influences from Distributed Artificial Intelligence, to the use of cognitive modelling, to the extensive use of the Internet, and to new educational ideas such as th ... [AIP Conf. Proc. 1007, 211 (2008)] published Mon May 12, 2008.
Traffic Adaptive Energy Efficient and Low Latency Medium Access Control for Wireless Sensor Networks
Rajesh Yadav, Shirshu Varma, and N. Malaviya
Medium access control for wireless sensor networks has been a very active research area in the recent years. The traditional wireless medium access control protocol such as IEEE 802.11 is not suitable for the sensor network application because these are battery powered. The recharging of these senso ... [AIP Conf. Proc. 1007, 107 (2008)] published Mon May 12, 2008.
Electrical detection of the mechanical resonances in AlN-actuated microbridges for mass sensing applications
S. Gonzalez-Castilla, J. Olivares, M. Clement, E. Iborra, J. Sangrador et al.
We report the fabrication and frequency characterization of mechanical resonators piezoelectrically actuated with aluminum nitride films. The resonators consist of a freestanding unimorph structure made up of a metal/AlN/metal piezoelectric stack and a SiN supporting layer. We show that the electric ... [Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 183506 (2008)] published Fri May 9, 2008.
A broadband Fourier transform microwave spectrometer based on chirped pulse excitation
Gordon G. Brown, Brian C. Dian, Kevin O. Douglass, Scott M. Geyer, Steven T. Shipman et al.
Designs for a broadband chirped pulse Fourier transform microwave (CP-FTMW) spectrometer are presented. The spectrometer is capable of measuring the 718 GHz region of a rotational spectrum in a single data acquisition. One design uses a 4.2 Gsamples/s arbitrary waveform generator (AWG) to produce ... [Rev. Sci. Instrum. 79, 053103 (2008)] published Fri May 9, 2008.
Sub-10ps Monolithic and Low-power Photodetector Readout. (arXiv:0805.2225v1 [physics.ins-det])
ePrint arXiv http://arXiv.org/
BiPo prototype for SuperNEMO radiopurity measurements. (arXiv:0805.2271v1 [physics.ins-det])
ePrint arXiv http://arXiv.org/