Maria C. R. Medeiros

Gate-bias stress in amorphous oxide semiconductors thin-film transistors

A quantitative study of the dynamics of threshold-voltage shifts with time in gallium-indium zinc oxide amorphous thin-film transistors is presented using standard analysis based on the stretched exponential relaxation. For devices using thermal silicon oxide as gate dielectric, the relaxation time is 3×105 s at room temperature with activation energy of 0.68 eV. These transistors approach the stability of the amorphous silicon transistors. The threshold voltage shift is faster after water vapor exposure suggesting that the origin of this instability is charge trapping at residual-water-related trap sites.

Dynamic range of optical links employing optical single side-band modulation

The dynamic range of optical single side-band modulated systems is analyzed for both small-signal and large-signal regimes. Under small-signal conditions the achievable link bandwidth is mainly limited by the combined effect of fiber nonlinearities and fiber dispersion. Whereas, under large-signal regime, the sidebands of the optical field at harmonics of the modulation frequency become significant, and the link bandwidth is limited by the interaction between the different optical field harmonics affected by different phase changes due to the fiber dispersion.

Impact of the Combined Effect of RIN and Intermodulation Distortion on OSSB/SCM Systems

This paper investigates both theoretically and numerically the performance limitations due to the combined effect of relative intensity noise (RIN) and intermodulation distortion of broadband optical single sideband/subcarrier multiplexing (OSSB/SCM) systems. The analysis includes intermodulation distortion combined with RIN introduced by the laser source and by optical preamplification. System performance is evaluated in terms of bit error rate for SCM systems using optically preamplified receivers, and a comparison is made between different modulation schemes applied to the individual channels. The authors demonstrate that depending on optical carrier suppression factor, modulation index, modulation format, fiber length, channel spacing, optical input power, and carrier frequency, the system performance may be predominantly affect by the RIN or by the intermodulation distortion

All-inkjet printed organic transistors: Dielectric surface passivation techniques for improved operational stability and lifetime

Abstract We report about the use of a printed pentafluorothiophenol layer on top of the dielectric surface as a passivation coating to improve the operational stability of all-ink-jet printed transistors. Transistors with bottom-gate structure were fabricated using cross-linked poly-4-vinylphenol (c-PVP) as dielectric layer and an ink formulation of an amorphous triarylamine polymer as semiconductor. The resulting TFTs had low turn-on voltage (Vth

Pre-planned optical burst switched routing strategies considering the streamline effect

Optical burst switching is a promising paradigm for the next IP over optical network backbones. However, due to its bufferless nature, it can be highly affected by burst contention. Several methods have been proposed to address this problem, most of them without considering a phenomenon unique to optical burst switched networks called streamline effect. Most of the reported studies also assume the existence of total wavelength conversion capacity on all nodes, presently a very expensive and somewhat unrealistic configuration, and additionally, the contention resolution schemes adopted increase in the complexity of the core nodes, hampering scalability. In this study, we present a traffic engineering approach for path selection with the objective of minimizing the contention considering the streamline effect and using only topological information. The main idea is to balance the traffic across the network in order to prevent congestion while keeping simple the architecture of the core nodes and without incurring into link state dissemination penalties. We propose and evaluate the path selection strategies in both networks with full wavelength conversion capability and networks with imposed wavelength continuity constraint. Results show that our strategies can outperform the traditionally used shortest path routing.

Radio over fiber access network architecture employing reflective semiconductor optical amplifiers

This paper introduces the RoFnet-Reconfigurable Radio over Fiber network, which is a project supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology. This project proposes an innovative radio over fiber optical access network architecture, which combines a low cost Base Station (BS) design, incorporating reflective semiconductor optical amplifiers, with fiber dispersion mitigation provided by optical single sideband modulation techniques. Optical wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) techniques are used to simplify the access network architecture allowing for different Base Stations to be fed by a common fiber. Different wavelength channels can be allocated to different BSs depending on user requirements. Additionally, in order to improve radio coverage within a cell, it is considered a sectorized antenna interface. The combination of subcarrier multiplexing (SCM) with WDM, further simplifies the network architecture, by using a specific wavelength channel to feed an individual BS and different subcarriers to drive the individual antenna sectors within the BS.

Extracellular electrical recording of pH-triggered bursts in C6 glioma cell populations

Extracellular electrode recording demonstrates acid-triggered electrical activity in glioma cell populations. Glioma patients often suffer from epileptic seizures because of the tumor’s impact on the brain physiology. Using the rat glioma cell line C6 as a model system, we performed long-term live recordings of the electrical activity of glioma populations in an ultrasensitive detection method. The transducer exploits large-area electrodes that maximize double-layer capacitance, thus increasing the sensitivity. This strategy allowed us to record glioma electrical activity. We show that although glioma cells are nonelectrogenic, they display a remarkable electrical burst activity in time. The low-frequency current noise after cell adhesion is dominated by the flow of Na+ ions through voltage-gated ion channels. However, after an incubation period of many hours, the current noise markedly increased. This electric bursting phenomenon was not associated with apoptosis because the cells were viable and proliferative during the period of increased electric activity. We detected a rapid cell culture medium acidification accompanying this event. By using specific inhibitors, we showed that the electrical bursting activity was prompted by extracellular pH changes, which enhanced Na+ ion flux through the psalmotoxin 1–sensitive acid-sensing ion channels. Our model of pH-triggered bursting was unambiguously supported by deliberate, external acidification of the cell culture medium. This unexpected, acidosis-driven electrical activity is likely to directly perturb, in vivo, the functionality of the healthy neuronal network in the vicinity of the tumor bulk and may contribute to seizures in glioma patients.

Protection Schemes for IP-over-WDM Networks: Throughput and Recovery Time Comparison

This article presents a novel protection approach using Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS). This strategy provides protection at the Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) layer, meaning that all Internet Protocol Label-Switched Path (IP LSPs) nested inside a lightpath are protected in an aggregated way. It uses resources efficiently since spare capacity of working primary lightpaths can be used for backup purposes whenever necessary. The IP and WDM layers are treated together as a single integrated network from a control plane point of view, so that network state information from both layers can be used. Besides discussing the strategy proposed and the key features of GMPLS that will allow its implementation, we mathematically formulate the maximum throughput problem. Thereafter, we propose and compare heuristic algorithms for IP-over-WDM networks using three protection approaches: WDM lightpath protection, IP LSP protection, and the proposed protection scheme. Their throughputs and recovery times are analyzed and compared. Our results show that, for a representative mesh network, the proposed aggregated protection scheme presents better protection efficiency and good scalability properties when compared with the other two schemes.

Optical frequency tripling with improved suppression and sideband selection

A novel, optical dispersion tolerant millimetre-wave radio-over-fibre system using optical frequency tripling technique with enhanced and selectable sideband suppression is demonstrated. 3 dB RCE penalties for multichannel WiMax transport was recorded after 40 km of fibre.

Cost-efficient DWDM-PON/Mm-Wave wireless integration using coherent radio-over-fiber (CRoF)

This work aims to investigate the performance of millimetre wave (mm-wave) broadband wireless access for seamless integration with the (ultra-dense) WDM infrastructure. By using two uncorrelated lasers at the coherent receiver, a simple implementation is obtained, which can additionally be improved, if thermally uncooled lasers are used. Although such asynchronous receiver design is mildly affected by laser phase noise, it suffers from the wavelength drift that occurs between the uncooled laser sources. Also, there are performance penalties due to high laser line-width when complex modulation formats are used for transmission. In this work, we analyze the performance of heterodyne based optical receivers, using OOK and multilevel modulation formats.