This book contains the selected papers of the Sixth International Workshop on Medical and Service Robots (MESROB 2018), held in Cassino, Italy, in 2018. The main topics of the workshop include: design of medical devices, kinematics and dynamics for medical robotics, exoskeletons and prostheses, anthropomorphic hands , therapeutic robots and rehabilitation, cognitive robots, humanoid and service robots, assistive robots and elderly assistance, surgical robots, human-robot interfaces, haptic devices, and medical treatments.

A Flash memory is a Non Volatile Memory (NVM) whose "unit cells" are fabricated in CMOS technology and programmed and erased electrically. In 1971, Frohman-Bentchkowsky developed a folating polysilicon gate tran sistor [1, 2], in which hot electrons were injected in the floating gate and removed by either Ultra-Violet (UV) internal photoemission or by Fowler Nordheim tunneling. This is the "unit cell" of EPROM (Electrically Pro grammable Read Only Memory), which, consisting of a single transistor, can be very densely integrated. EPROM memories are electrically programmed and erased by UV exposure for 20-30 mins. In the late 1970s, there have been many efforts to develop an electrically erasable EPROM, which resulted in EEPROMs (Electrically Erasable Programmable ROMs). EEPROMs use hot electron tunneling for program and Fowler-Nordheim tunneling for erase. The EEPROM cell consists of two transistors and a tunnel oxide, thus it is two or three times the size of an EPROM. Successively, the combination of hot carrier programming and tunnel erase was rediscovered to achieve a single transistor EEPROM, called Flash EEPROM. The first cell based on this concept has been presented in 1979 [3]; the first commercial product, a 256K memory chip, has been presented by Toshiba in 1984 [4]. The market did not take off until this technology was proven to be reliable and manufacturable [5].

The Metal-Oxide Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MOSFET) is a key component in modern microelectronics. During the last decade, device physicists, researchers and engineers have been continuously faced with new elements making the task of MOSFET characterization increasingly crucial, as well as more difficult. The progressive miniaturization of devices has caused several phenomena to emerge and modify the performance of scaled-down MOSFETs. Localized degradation induced by hot carrier injection and Random Telegraph Signal (RTS) noise generated by individual traps are examples. It was thus unavoidable to develop new models and new characterization methods, or at least adapt the existing ones to cope with the special nature of these new phenomena. Characterization Methods for Submicron MOSFETs deals with techniques which show high potential for characterization of submicron devices. Throughout the book the focus is on the adaptation of such methods to resolve measurement problems relevant to VLSI devices and new materials, especially Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI). Characterization Methods for Submicron MOSFETs was written to provide help to device engineers and researchers to enable them to cope with the challenges they face. Without adequate device characterization, new physical phenomena and new types of defects or damage may not be well identified or dealt with, leading to an undoubted obstruction of the device development cycle. Audience: Researchers and graduate students familiar with MOS device physics, working in the field of device characterization and modeling. Also intended for industrial engineers working in device development, seeking to enlarge their understanding ofmeasurement methods. The book additionally addresses device-based characterization for material and process engineers and for circuit designers. A valuable reference that may be used as a text for advanced courses on the subject.

This thesis deals with strongly luminescent lanthanide complexes having novel coordination structures. Luminescent lanthanide complexes are promising candidates as active materials for EL devices, lasers, and bio-sensing applications. The organic ligands in lanthanide complexes control geometrical and vibrational frequency structures that are closely related to the luminescent properties. In most of the previous work, however, lanthanide complexes have high-vibrational frequency C-H units close to the metal center for radiationless transition. In this thesis, the luminescent properties of lanthanide complexes with low-vibrational frequency C-F and P=O units are elucidated in terms of geometrical, vibrational, and chemical structures. The author also describes lanthanide coordination polymers with both high thermal stability (decomposition point > 300 DegreesC) and strong-luminescent properties (emission quantum yield > 80%). The author believes that novel studies on the characteristic structures and photophysical properties of lanthanide complexes may open up a frontier field in photophysical, coordination and material chemistry.

Power amplifiers and their performance lie at the heart of audio engineering and provide some challenging problems for the engineer. Ben Duncan's experience, as an audio consultant, analog electronics designer and author, give him an unique insight into this difficult but rewarding field.

Linking analog electronics, acoustics, heat and music technology; high-end hi-fi and professional PA and recording studio use; theory, modelling and real-world practice; design and repair; the old and the new, the mainstream and the specialised, this comprehensive guide to power amps is a core reference for anyone in the industry, and any interested onlookers.
Ben Duncan is well known to many users of audio power amplifiers around the world, both professional and domestic, through his articles, reviews and research papers on music technology in the UK and US press, and through his part in creating several notable professional power amplifiers. Since 1977, he has been involved in the design of over 70 innovative, high-end audio products used by recording and broadcast studios, on stages, in clubs and by the most critical domestic listeners - as well as creating bespoke equipment for top musicians. Born in London, he has travelled widely but has lived mainly in Lincolnshire, home of his family for over 150 years. He is twice co-author of the book Rock Hardware in which he has chronicled the history of rock'n'roll PA.
Reprinted with corrections September 1997

Comprehensive and colourful real-life guide
Based on wide experience of audio and music technology
Well-known and prolific author in the hi-fi and pro-audio press

This book systematically discusses the modeling and application of transfer manipulation for flexible electronics packaging, presenting multiple processes according to the geometric sizes of the chips and devices as well as the detailed modeling and computation steps for each process. It also illustrates the experimental design of the equipment to help readers easily learn how to use it. This book is a valuable resource for scholars and graduate students in the research field of microelectronics.

The book describes the fundamentals, latest developments and use of key experimental techniques for semiconductor research. It explains the application potential of various analytical methods and discusses the opportunities to apply particular analytical techniques to study novel semiconductor compounds, such as dilute nitride alloys. The emphasis is on the technique rather than on the particular system studied.

This book deals with basic aspects of polymer electronics and optoelectronics. There is an enormous world-wide effort both in basic scientific research as well as in industrial development in the area of organic electronics. It is becoming increasingly clear that, if devices based on organic materials are ever going to have a significant relevance beyond being a cheap replacement for inorganic semiconductors, there will be a need to understand interface formation, film growth and functionality. A control of these aspects will allow the realisation of totally new device concepts exploiting the enormous flexibility inherent in organic chemistry. In this book we focus on oligomeric/molecular films as we believe that the control of molecular structures and interfaces provides highly defined systems which allow, on the one hand the study of the basic physics and on the other hand to find the important parameters necessary to improve organic devices.

This volume describes the increasing role of "in situ" optical diagnostics in thin film processing for applications ranging from fundamental science studies to process development to control during manufacturing. The key advantage of optical diagnostics in these applications is that they are usually noninvasive and nonintrusive. Optical probes of the surface, film, wafer, and gas above the wafer are described for many processes, including plasma etching, MBE, MOCVD, and rapid thermal processing. For each optical technique, the underlying principles are presented, modes of experimental implementation are described, and applications of the diagnostic in thin film processing are analyzed, with examples drawn from microelectronics and optoelectronics. Special attention is paid to real-time probing of the surface, to the noninvasive measurement of temperature, and to the use of optical probes for process control.
Optical Diagnostics for Thin Film Processing is unique. No other volume explores the real-time application of optical techniques in all modes of thin film processing. The text can be used by students and those new to the topic as an introduction and review of the subject. It also serves as a comprehensive resource for engineers, technicians, researchers, and scientists already working in the field.
Key Features
* The only volume that comprehensively explores "in situ," real-time, optical probes for all types of thin film processing
* Useful as an introduction to the subject or as a resource handbook
* Covers a wide range of thin film processes including plasma etching, MBE, MOCVD, and rapid thermal processing
* Examples emphasize applications in microelectronics and optoelectronics
* Introductory chapter serves as a guide to all optical diagnostics and their applications
* Each chapter presents the underlying principles, experimental implementation, and applications for a specific optical diagnostic

219 8. 2 Sensors 221 8. 3 Physical Sensors 222 8. 3. 1 Electrical Sensing Means 223 8. 3. 2 Magnetic Field Methods 231 8. 3. 3 Optical Methods 232 8. 4 Chemical Sensors 241 8. 4. 1 Electrical Gas and Chemical Sensors 243 8. 4. 2 Guided-Optics Intrinsic Chemical Sensors 246 8. 4. 3 Extrinsic Chemical Sensors 250 8. 4. 4 Polymer Waveguide Chemical Sensors 251 8. 4. 5 Surface Plasmon Chemical Sensors 252 8. 4. 6 Indicator-Mediated Extrinsic Sensing 253 8. 4. 7 Optical Biosensors 256 8. 4. 8 Ultrasonic Gas and Chemical Sensors 257 8. 4. 9 Intelligent Sensors 258 8. 5 Connections/Links and Wiring 258 8. 5. 1 Optical Links 260 8. 5. 2 Requirement on the Processing Unit/Intelligence 262 8. 6 Actuators 263 8. 7 Signal Processing/Computing 264 8. 7. 1 Implicit Computation 266 8. 7. 2 Explicit Computation 267 8. 8 References 274 Subject Index 279 Micro-Actuators (Electrical, Magnetic, Thermal, Optical, Mechanical, and Chemical) It has become quite apparent that sensors and actuators are the main bottleneck of the modem information processing and control systems. Microprocessors and computers used to be the main limiting element in most information processing systems. But thanks to the enonnous progress in the microelectronics industry, most information analysis tasks can be processed in real time. The data has to be acquired by the processor in some form and processed and used to produce some useful function in the real world.

The discovery by J. G. Bednorz and K. A. Mtllier in 1986 that the superconducting state can exist in oxides at temperatures above 30 K stimulated research in the field of superconductivity and opened up a new field of research. Within a few years a large number of cuprate superconductors with transition temperatures well above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen have been found. The possibility of using liquid nitrogen as coolant re-stimulated interest in power applications of supercon ductivity. In this book an overview of the known high-Te superconductors and their physical properties is presented. Aspects related to conductor fabrication and high-current applications are emphasised. The material should be suitable for use in graduate level courses on superconductivity. Researchers in the field may profit from the large number of tables and references describing its status at the end of 1997. An introduction to high-To superconductivity must be based on the fundamental physical principles of normal-state electrical conductivity and the well-known characteristics of conventional superconductors. In Chapter 2 this background is provided. Crystal structures, anisotropic properties and general trends of the critical temperatures of the cuprate superconductors are described in Chapters 3 and 4. The processing of superconductor powders addressed in Chapter 5 affects considerably the current-carrying capacity of high-T. wires. In Chapter 6 several fabrication techniques for superconducting wires are described. In addition, the factors limiting the transport critical currents ofhigh-Te wires are discussed."

The book provides a collection of selected papers presented to the third International Conference on Photonics, Optics and Laser Technology PHOTOPTICS 2015, covering the three main conference scientific areas of "Optics", "Photonics" and "Lasers". The selected papers, in two classes full and short, result from a double blind review carried out by the conference program committee members which are highly qualified experts in conference topic areas.

It is expected that the use of soft computing will increase greatly in industrial applications, because the conceptual structure of hard computing is much too precise in relation to the great imprecision of the world around us. This book aims at attracting researchers and engineers both in the fields of industrial electronics (IE) and computational intelligence (CI). By approaching the different viewpoints of IE and CI people, it is hoped to provide practicing engineers with new solutions to the demanding real-world problems. The applications are divided into two categories, Electric Power Applications and Emerging Applications.

This book illustrates original pathways to manipulate light at the nanoscale by means of surface electromagnetic waves (here, Bloch surface waves, BSWs) on planar dielectric multilayers, also known as one-dimensional photonic crystals. This approach is particularly valuable as it represents an effective alternative to the widely exploited surface plasmon paradigm. After a brief overview on the fundamentals of BSWs, several significant applications of BSW-sustaining structures are described. Particular consideration is given to the propagation, guiding, and diffraction of BSW-coupled radiation. Further, the interaction of organic emitters with BSWs on planar and corrugated multilayers is investigated, including fluorescence beaming in free space. To provide greater insight into sensing applications, an illustrative example of fluorescent microarray-based detection is presented. The book is intended for scientists and researchers working on photon management opportunities in fields such as biosensing, optical circuitry, and lighting.

Defects in semiconductors have been studied for many years, in many cases with a view toward controlling their behaviour through various forms of "defect engineering." For example, in the bulk, charging significantly affects the total concentration of defects that are available to mediate phenomena such as solid-state diffusion. Surface defects play an important role in mediating surface mass transport during high temperature processing steps such as epitaxial film deposition, diffusional smoothing in reflow, and nanostructure formation in memory device fabrication. "Charged Defects in Semiconductors" details the current state of knowledge regarding the properties of the ionized defects that can affect the behaviour of advanced transistors, photo-active devices, catalysts, and sensors. Features: group IV, III-V, and oxide semiconductors; intrinsic and extrinsic defects; and, point defects, as well as defect pairs, complexes and clusters.

This book deals with the Effective Electron Mass (EEM) in low dimensional semiconductors. The materials considered are quantum confined non-linear optical, III-V, II-VI, GaP, Ge, PtSb2, zero-gap, stressed, Bismuth, carbon nanotubes, GaSb, IV-VI, Te, II-V, Bi2Te3, Sb, III-V, II-VI, IV-VI semiconductors and quantized III-V, II-VI, IV-VI and HgTe/CdTe superlattices with graded interfaces and effective mass superlattices. The presence of intense electric field and the light waves change the band structure of optoelectronic semiconductors in fundamental ways, which have also been incorporated in the study of the EEM in quantized structures of optoelectronic compounds that control the studies of the quantum effect devices under strong fields. The importance of measurement of band gap in optoelectronic materials under strong electric field and external photo excitation has also been discussed in this context. The influence of crossed electric and quantizing magnetic fields on the EEM and the EEM in heavily doped semiconductors and their nanostructures is discussed. This book contains 200 open research problems which form the integral part of the text and are useful for both Ph. D aspirants and researchers in the fields of solid-state sciences, materials science, nanoscience and technology and allied fields in addition to the graduate courses in modern semiconductor nanostructures. The book is written for post graduate students, researchers and engineers, professionals in the fields of solid state sciences, materials science, nanoscience and technology, nanostructured materials and condensed matter physics.

The 2008 Spring Meeting of the Arbeitskreis Festkorperphysik was held in Berlin, Germany, between February 24 and February 29, 2008 in conjunction with the 72nd Annual Meeting of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. The 2008 meeting was the largest physics meeting in Europe and among the largest physics meetings in the world in 2008."

Epitaxial growth lies at the heart of a wide range of industrial and technological applications. Recent breakthroughs, experimental and theoretical, allow actual atom-by-atom manipulation and an understanding of such processes, opening up a totally new area of unprecedented nanostructuring.

The contributions to Atomistic Aspects of Epitaxial Growth are divided into five main sections, taking the reader from the atomistic details of surface diffusion to the macroscopic description of epitaxial systems. many of the papers contain substantial background material on theoretical and experimental methods, making the book suitable for both graduate students as a supplementary text in a course on epitaxial phenomena, and for professionals in the field.

Device and Circuit Cryogenic Operation for Low Temperature Electronics is a first in reviewing the performance and physical mechanisms of advanced devices and circuits at cryogenic temperatures that can be used for many applications. The first two chapters cover bulk silicon and SOI MOSFETs. The electronic transport in the inversion layer, the influence of impurity freeze-out, the special electrical properties of SOI structures, the device reliability and the interest of a low temperature operation for the ultimate integration of silicon down to nanometer dimensions are described. The next two chapters deal with Silicon-Germanium and III-V Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors, as well as III-V High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMT). The basic physics of the SiGe HBT and its unique cryogenic capabilities, the optimization of such bipolar devices, and the performance of SiGe HBT BiCMOS technology at liquid nitrogen temperature are examined. The physical effects in III-V semiconductors at low temperature, the HEMT and HBT static, high frequency and noise properties, and the comparison of various cooled III-V devices are also addressed. The next chapter treats quantum effect devices made of silicon materials. The major quantum effects at low temperature, quantum wires, quantum dots as well as single electron devices and applications are investigated. The last chapter overviews the performances of cryogenic circuits and their applications. The low temperature properties and performance of inverters, multipliers, adders, operational amplifiers, memories, microprocessors, imaging devices, circuits and systems, sensors and read-out circuits are analyzed. Device and Circuit Cryogenic Operation for Low Temperature Electronics is useful for researchers, engineers, Ph.D. and M.S. students working in the field of advanced electron devices and circuits, new semiconductor materials, and low temperature electronics and physics.

In this book new experimental investigations of properties of Josephson junctions and systems are explored with the help of recent developments in superconductivity. The theory of the Josephson effect is presented taking into account the influence of multiband and anisotropy effects in new superconducting compounds. Anharmonicity effects in current-phase relation on Josephson junctions dynamics are discussed. Recent studies in analogue and digital superconductivity electronics are presented. Topics of special interest include resistive single flux quantum logic in digital electronics. Application of Josephson junctions in quantum computing as superconducting quantum bits are analyzed. Particular attention is given to understanding chaotic behaviour of Josephson junctions and systems. The book is written for graduate students and researchers in the field of applied superconductivity.

This book presents selected peer-reviewed contributions from the 2019 International Conference on "Physics and Mechanics of New Materials and Their Applications", PHENMA 2019 (Hanoi, Vietnam, 7-10 November, 2019), divided into four scientific themes: processing techniques, physics, mechanics, and applications of advanced materials. The book describes a broad spectrum of promising nanostructures, crystals, materials and composites with special properties. It presents nanotechnology approaches, modern environmentally friendly techniques and physical-chemical and mechanical studies of the structural-sensitive and physical-mechanical properties of materials. The obtained results are based on new achievements in material sciences and computational approaches, methods and algorithms (in particular, finite-element and finite-difference modeling) applied to the solution of different technological, mechanical and physical problems. The obtained results have a significant interest for theory, modeling and test of advanced materials. Other results are devoted to promising devices demonstrating high accuracy, longevity and new opportunities to work effectively under critical temperatures and high pressures, in aggressive media, etc. These devices demonstrate improved comparative characteristics, caused by developed materials and composites, allowing investigation of physio-mechanical processes and phenomena based on scientific and technological progress.

A review of the electrical properties, performance and physical mechanisms of the main silicon-on-insulator (SOI) materials and devices. Particular attention is paid to the reliability of SOI structures operating in harsh conditions. The first part of the book deals with material technology and describes the SIMOX and ELTRAN technologies, the smart-cut technique, SiCOI structures and MBE growth. The second part covers reliability of devices operating under extreme conditions, with an examination of low and high temperature operation of deep submicron MOSFETs and novel SOI technologies and circuits, SOI in harsh environments and the properties of the buried oxide. The third part deals with the characterization of advanced SOI materials and devices, covering laser-recrystallized SOI layers, ultrashort SOI MOSFETs and nanostructures, gated diodes and SOI devices produced by a variety of techniques. The last part reviews future prospects for SOI structures, analyzing wafer bonding techniques, applications of oxidized porous silicon, semi-insulating silicon materials, self-organization of silicon dots and wires on SOI and some new physical phenomena.

This thesis presents an experimental study of ordering phenomena in rare-earth nickelate-based heterostructures by means of inelastic Raman light scattering and elastic resonant x-ray scattering (RXS). Further, it demonstrates that the amplitude ratio of magnetic moments at neighboring nickel sites can be accurately determined by RXS in combination with a correlated double cluster model, and controlled experimentally through structural pinning of the oxygen positions in the crystal lattice. The two key outcomes of the thesis are: (a) demonstrating full control over the charge/bond and spin order parameters in specifically designed praseodymium nickelate heterostructures and observation of a novel spin density wave phase in absence of the charge/bond order parameter, which confirms theoretical predictions of a spin density wave phase driven by spatial confinement of the conduction electrons; and (b) assessing the thickness-induced crossover between collinear and non-collinear spin structures in neodymium nickelate slabs, which is correctly predicted by drawing on density functional theory.

Thanks to the advance of semiconductor and communication technology, the wireless communication market has been booming in the last two decades. It evolved from simple pagers to emerging third-generation (3G) cellular phones. In the meanwhile, broadband communication market has also gained a rapid growth. As the market always demands hi- performance and low-cost products, circuit designers are seeking hi- integration communication devices in cheap CMOS technology. The phase-locked loop frequency synthesizer is a critical component in communication devices. It works as a local oscillator for frequency translation and channel selection in wireless transceivers and broadband cable tuners. It also plays an important role as the clock synthesizer for data converters in the analog-and-digital signal interface. This book covers the design and analysis of PLL synthesizers. It includes both fundamentals and a review of the state-of-the-art techniques. The transient analysis of the third-order charge-pump PLL reveals its locking behavior accurately. The behavioral-level simulation of PLL further clarifies its stability limit. Design examples are given to clearly illustrate the design procedure of PLL synthesizers. A complete derivation of reference spurs in the charge-pump PLL is also presented in this book. The in-depth investigation of the digital CA modulator for fractional-N synthesizers provides insightful design guidelines for this important block.

Ambient intelligence is the vision of a technology that will become invisibly embedded in our natural surroundings, present whenever we need it, enabled by simple and effortless interactions, attuned to all our senses, adaptive to users and context-sensitive, and autonomous. High-quality information access and personalized content must be available to everybody, anywhere, and at any time. This book addresses ambient intelligence used to support human contacts and accompany an individual's path through the complicated modern world. From the technical standpoint, distributed electronic intelligence is addressed as hardware vanishing into the background. Devices used for ambient intelligence are small, low-power, low weight, and (very importantly) low-cost; they collaborate or interact with each other; and they are redundant and error-tolerant. This means that the failure of one device will not cause failure of the whole system. Since wired connections often do not exist, radio methods will play an important role for data transfer. This book addresses various aspects of ambient intelligence, from applications that are imminent since they use essentially existing technologies, to ambitious ideas whose realization is still far away, due to major unsolved technical challenges.