A strong reference on the problem of signal and speech enhancement, describing the newest developments in this exciting field. The general emphasis is on noise reduction, because of the large number of applications that can benefit from this technology.

Photonic-based A/D conversion has received and continues to receive considerable attention as an alternative approach to providing enhanced resolution and speed in high-performance applications. Some of the potential advantages of using photonic technologies are high-speed clocking, broadband sampling, reduced mutual interference of signals, and compatibility with existing photonic-based systems. This book provides a comprehensive look at the application of photonic approaches to the problem of analog-to-digital conversion. It shows progress made, discusses present research, and gives a glimpse of potential future technologies.

This book describes the design of fully digital multistandard transmitter front-ends which can directly drive one or more switching power amplifiers, thus eliminating all other analog components. After reviewing different architectures, the authors focus on polar architectures using pulse width modulation (PWM), which are entirely based on unclocked delay lines and other continuous-time digital hardware. As a result, readers are enabled to shift accuracy concerns from the voltage domain to the time domain, to coincide with submicron CMOS technology scaling. The authors present different architectural options and compare them, based on their effect on the signal and spectrum quality. Next, a high-level theoretical analysis of two different PWM-based architectures - baseband PWM and RF PWM - is made. On the circuit level, traditional digital components and design techniques are revisited from the point of view of continuous-time digital circuits. Important design criteria are identified and different solutions are presented, along with their advantages and disadvantages. Finally, two chips designed in nanometer CMOS technologies are described, along with measurement results for validation.

Since their discovery, low dimensional materials have never stopped to intrigue scientists, whether they are physicists, chemists, or biochemists. Investigations of their nature and functions have always been and still are numerous and as soon as a solution is found for a given question, another one is raised. The coupling of nano-materials with photonics, i. e. nano-photonics, has produced a boiling pot of idea, problems, discovery and applications. This statement is abundantly illustrated in the present book. The interest in nano-optoelectronic materials and systems is very widespread, what gives a really international and multicultural flavour to nano-optoelectronic meetings. One of them was organized by our-self in May 2000 in Kiev as a NATO Advanced Research Workshop and EC-Spring School. The arrival of the new millennium provides an obvious transition point at which many aspects of nano-science and nano-engineering of nano photonic systems can be assessed with respect to the research progresses made in the pre ceding decades and to the challenges that lie ahead in the coming decades. This book was planed to mark this with the objective of presenting a collection of papers from experts, which provide broad perspectives on the state-of-the-art in the various disciplines of nano science and nano-engineering and on the directions for future research."

Over the last century, numerous optical techniques have been developed to characterize materials, giving insight into their optical, electronic, magnetic, and structural properties and elucidating such diverse phenomena as high-temperature superconductivity and protein folding. Optical Techniques for Solid-State Materials Characterization provides detailed descriptions of basic and advanced optical techniques commonly used to study materials, from the simple to the complex. The book explains how to use these techniques to acquire, analyze, and interpret data for gaining insight into material properties. With chapters written by pioneering experts in various optical techniques, the text first provides background on light-matter interactions, semiconductors, and metals before discussing linear, time-integrated optical experiments for measuring basic material properties, such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, photoluminescence, and Raman scattering. The next section begins with a description of ultrashort pulse generation and carrier dynamics in semiconductors and metals. The book then discusses time-resolved optical techniques, such as pump-probe spectroscopy, terahertz spectroscopy, and magneto-optical spectroscopy. The subsequent section describes spatially resolved optical spectroscopy, including conventional optical microscopy and micro-optical and near-field scanning techniques. The book concludes with an overview of more advanced, emerging optical techniques, such as ultrafast x-ray and electron diffraction, ultrafast photoemission spectroscopy, and time-resolved optical microscopy. As optical techniques are among the first applied when studying new systems with novel properties, the information presented in this comprehensive reference will only grow in importance. By supplying clear, detailed explanations of these techniques, the book enables researchers to readily implement them and acquire new insights into the materials they study. CRC Press Authors Speak Rohit P. Prasankumar speaks about his book. Watch the Video

SMath is a free mathematical notebook program similar to Mathcad that provides many options for studying and solving complex mathematical equations.

This volume treats new materials (nanotubes and quantum dots) and new techniques (synchrotron radiation scattering and cavity confined scattering). In the past five years, Raman and Brillouin scattering have taken a place among the most important research and characterization methods for carbon nanotubes. Among the novel techniques discussed in this volume are those employing synchrotron radiation as a light source.

In 1989 the time was hot to create a workshop series dedicated to the dicussion of the latest results in the automatic processing of fringe patterns. This idea was promoted by the insight that automatic and high precision phase measurement techniques will play a key role in all future industrial applications of optical metrology. However, such a workshop must take place in a dynamic environment. The- fore the main topics of the previous events were always adapted to the most interesting subjects of the new period. In 1993 new prin- ples of optical shape measurement, setup calibration, phase unwr- ping and nondestructive testing were the focus of discussion, while in 1997 new approaches in multi-sensor metrology, active measu- ment strategies and hybrid processing technologies played a central role. 2001, the first meeting in the 21st century, was dedicated to - tical methods for micromeasurements, hybrid measurement te- nologies and new sensor solutions for industrial inspection. The fifth workshop takes place in Stuttgart, the capital of the state of Baden- Wurttemberg and the centre of a region with a long and remarkable tradition in engineering. Thus after Berlin 1989, Bremen 1993, 1997 and 2001, Stuttgart is the third Fringe city where international - perts will meet each other to share new ideas and concepts in optical metrology. This volume contains the papers presented during FRINGE 2005."

This book gives the first unified presentation of the physics and applications of optoelectronic devices. It covers the devices whose operation relies on the properties of quantum wells and fiber optics as well as their applications for optical communications and optical signal processing. The reader will benefit from a comprehensive mathematical treatment and from a state of the art presentation of the latest results in applied optoelectronics and semiconductor physics. The two different and complementary physical theories for describing optoelectronic devices, namely the electromagnetic field theory and quantum mechanics, are treated together in a combined manner, such that links and analogies are made apparent wherever possible.

Probing matter with beams of photons, neutrons and electrons provides the main source of information about both the microscopic and macroscopic structure of materials. This is particularly true of media, such as crystals and liquid crystals, that have a periodic structure. This book discusses the interaction of waves (which may represent x-rays, gamma rays, electrons, or neutrons) with various kinds of ordered media. After two chapters dealing with exact and approximate solutions to the scattering problem in periodic media in general, the author discusses: the diffraction of Moessbauer radiation in magnetically ordered crystals; the optics of chiral liquid crystals; the radiation of fast particles in regular media (Cherenkov radiation); nonlinear optics of periodic media; neutron scattering in magnetically ordered media; polarization phenomena in x-ray optics; magnetic x-ray scattering; and Moessbauer filtration of synchrotron radiation.

Advanced Fiber Access Networks takes a holistic view of broadband access networks-from architecture to network technologies and network economies. The book reviews pain points and challenges that broadband service providers face (such as network construction, fiber cable efficiency, transmission challenges, network scalability, etc.) and how these challenges are tackled by new fiber access transmission technologies, protocols and architecture innovations. Chapters cover fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) applications as well as fiber backhauls in other access networks such as 5G wireless and hybrid-fiber-coax (HFC) networks. In addition, it covers the network economy, challenges in fiber network construction and deployment, and more. Finally, the book examines scaling issues and bottlenecks in an end-to-end broadband network, from Internet backbones to inside customer homes, something rarely covered in books.

Methods of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) are increasingly applied in engineering sciences. The book summarizes research in the field of chemical and process engineering performed at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Fundamentals of the methods are exposed for readers with an engineering background. Applications cover the fields of mechanical process engineering (filtration, solid-liquid separation, powder mixing, rheometry), chemical process engineering (trickle-bed reactor, ceramic sponges), bioprocess engineering (biofilm growth), and food process engineering (microwave heating, emulsions). Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as well as low-field NMR are covered with notes on hardware. Emphasis is placed on quantitative data analysis and image processing.

Imaging for Forensics and Security: From Theory to Practice provides a detailed analysis of new imaging and pattern recognition techniques for the understanding and deployment of biometrics and forensic techniques as practical solutions to increase security. It contains a collection of the recent advances in the technology ranging from theory, design, and implementation to performance evaluation of biometric and forensic systems. This book also contains new methods such as the multiscale approach, directional filter bank, and wavelet maxima for the development of practical solutions to biometric problems.

The book introduces a new forensic system based on shoeprint imagery with advanced techniques for use in forensics applications. It also presents the concept of protecting the originality of biometric images stored in databases against intentional and unintentional attacks and fraud detection data in order to further increase the security.

This book presents details of a text-to-speech synthesis procedure using epoch synchronous overlap add (ESOLA), and provides a solution for development of a text-to-speech system using minimum data resources compared to existing solutions. It also examines most natural speech signals including random perturbation in synthesis. The book is intended for students, researchers and industrial practitioners in the field of text-to-speech synthesis.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of the development, current state, and future prospects of wide bandgap semiconductor materials and related optoelectronics devices. With 901 references, 333 figures and 21 tables, this book will serve as a one-stop source of knowledge on wide bandgap semiconductors and related optoelectronics devices.

This book by Lev M. Blinov is ideal to guide researchers from their very first encounter with liquid crystals to the level where they can perform independent experiments on liquid crystals with a thorough understanding of their behaviour also in relation to the theoretical framework. Liquid crystals can be found everywhere around us. They are used in virtually every display device, whether it is for domestic appliances of for specialized technological instruments. Their finely tunable optical properties make them suitable also for thermo-sensing and laser technologies. There are many monographs written by prominent scholars on the subject of liquid crystals. The majority of them presents the subject in great depth, sometimes focusing on a particular research aspect, and in general they require a significant level of prior knowledge. In contrast, this books aims at an audience of advanced undergraduate and graduate students in physics, chemistry and materials science. The book consists of three parts: the first part, on structure, starts from the fundamental principles underlying the structure of liquid crystals, their rich phase behaviour and the methods used to study them; the second part, on physical properties, emphasizes the influence of anisotropy on all aspects of liquid crystals behaviour; the third, focuses on electro-optics, the most important properties from the applications standpoint. This part covers only the main effects and illustrates the underlying principles in greater detail. Professor Lev M. Blinov has had a long carrier as an experimentalist. He made major contributions in the field of ferroelectric mesophases. In 1985 he received the USSR state prize for investigations of electro-optical effects in liquid crystals for spatial light modulators. In 1999 he was awarded the Frederiks medal of the Soviet Liquid Crystal Society and in 2000 he was honoured with the G. Gray silver medal of the British Liquid Crystal Society. He has held many visiting academic positions in universities and laboratories across Europe and in Japan.

This book offers a detailed and comprehensive account of the engineering of the world's first nonimaging Fresnel lens solar concentrator. The book closes a gap in solar concentrator design, and describes nonimaging refractive optics and its numerical mathematics . The contents follow a systems approach that is absent in standard handbooks of optics or solar energy. The reader is introduced to the principles, theories, and advantages of nonimaging optics from the standpoint of concentrating sunlight (the solar concentrator idea). The book shows the reader how to find his or her own optical solution using the rules and methodologies covering the design and the assessment of the nonimaging lens. This novel solar concentrator is developed within the natural constraints presented by the sun and in relation to competitive solutions offered by other concentrators.

This book presents state-of-the-art techniques for radiation hardened high-resolution Time-to-Digital converters and low noise frequency synthesizers. Throughout the book, advanced degradation mechanisms and error sources are discussed and several ways to prevent such errors are presented. An overview of the prerequisite physics of nuclear interactions is given that has been compiled in an easy to understand chapter. The book is structured in a way that different hardening techniques and solutions are supported by theory and experimental data with their various tradeoffs. Based on leading-edge research, conducted in collaboration between KU Leuven and CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research Describes in detail advanced techniques to harden circuits against ionizing radiation Provides a practical way to learn and understand radiation effects in time-based circuits Includes an introduction to the underlying physics, circuit design, and advanced techniques accompanied with experimental data

The imaging process in stellar interferometers is explained starting from first principles on wave propagation and diffraction. Wave propagation through turbulence is described in detail using Kolmogorov statistics. The impact of turbulence on the imaging process is discussed both for single telescopes and for interferometers. Correction methods (adaptive optics and fringe tracking) are presented including wavefront sensing/fringe sensing methods and closed loop operation. Instrumental techniques like beam combination and visibility measurements (modulus and phase) as well as Nulling and heterodyne interferometry are described. The book closes with examples of observing programmes linking the theory with individual astrophysical programmes.

The Physical Electronics Department of SRI International (formerly Stanford Research Institute) has been pioneering the development of devices fabricated to submicron tolerances for well over 20 years. In 1961, a landmark paper on electron-beam lithography and its associated technologies was published by K. R. Shoulderst (then at SRI), which set the stage for our subsequent efforts in this field. He had the foresight to believe that the building of such small devices was actually within the range of human capabilities. As a result of this initial momentum, our experience in the technologies associated with microfabrication has become remarkably comprehensive, despite the relatively small size of our research activity. We have frequently been asked to deliver seminars or provide reviews on various aspects of micro fabrication. These activities made us aware of the need for a comprehensive overview of the physics of microfabrication. We hope that this book will fill that need."

Quantum Communication, Quantum Networks, and Quantum Sensing represents a self-contained introduction to quantum communication, quantum error-correction, quantum networks, and quantum sensing. It starts with basic concepts from classical detection theory, information theory, and channel coding fundamentals before continuing with basic principles of quantum mechanics including state vectors, operators, density operators, measurements, and dynamics of a quantum system. It continues with fundamental principles of quantum information processing, basic quantum gates, no-cloning and theorem on indistinguishability of arbitrary quantum states. The book then focuses on quantum information theory, quantum detection and Gaussian quantum information theories, and quantum key distribution (QKD). The book then covers quantum error correction codes (QECCs) before introducing quantum networks. The book concludes with quantum sensing and quantum radars, quantum machine learning and fault-tolerant quantum error correction concepts.

In the development of digital multimedia, the importance and impact of image processing and mathematical morphology are well documented in areas ranging from automated vision detection and inspection to object recognition, image analysis and pattern recognition. Those working in these ever-evolving fields require a solid grasp of basic fundamentals, theory, and related applications and few books can provide the unique tools for learning contained in this text.

Image Processing and Mathematical Morphology: Fundamentals and Applications is a comprehensive, wide-ranging overview of morphological mechanisms and techniques and their relation to image processing. More than merely a tutorial on vital technical information, the book places this knowledge into a theoretical framework. This helps readers analyze key principles and architectures and then use the author 's novel ideas on implementation of advanced algorithms to formulate a practical and detailed plan to develop and foster their own ideas. The book:

• Presents the history and state-of-the-art techniques related to image morphological processing, with numerous practical examples
• Gives readers a clear tutorial on complex technology and other tools that rely on their intuition for a clear understanding of the subject
• Includes an updated bibliography and useful graphs and illustrations
• Examines several new algorithms in great detail so that readers can adapt them to derive their own solution approaches

This invaluable reference helps readers assess and simplify problems and their essential requirements and complexities, giving them all the necessary data and methodology to master current theoretical developments and applications, as well as create new ones.

Reasoning for Information: Seeking and Planning Dialogues provides a logic-based reasoning component for spoken language dialogue systems. This component, called Problem Assistant is responsible for processing constraints on a possible solution obtained from various sources, namely user and the system's domain-specific information. The authors also present findings on the implementation of a dialogue management interface to the Problem Assistant. The dialogue system supports simple mixed-initiative planning interactions in the TRAINS domain, which is still a relatively complex domain involving a number of logical constraints and relations forming the basis for the collaborative problem-solving behavior that drives the dialogue.

In this book, hierarchical structures based on neural networks are investigated for automatic speech recognition. These structures are mainly evaluated within the phoneme recognition task under the Hybrid Hidden Markov Model/Artificial Neural Network (HMM/ANN) paradigm. The baseline hierarchical scheme consists of two levels each which is based on a Multilayered Perceptron (MLP). Additionally, the output of the first level is used as an input for the second level. This system can be substantially speeded up by removing the redundant information contained at the output of the first level.

This book covers essential topics in the architecture and design of Internet of Things (IoT) systems. The authors provide state-of-the-art information that enables readers to design systems that balance functionality, bandwidth, and power consumption, while providing secure and safe operation in the face of a wide range of threat and fault models. Coverage includes essential topics in system modeling, edge/cloud architectures, and security and safety, including cyberphysical systems and industrial control systems.