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This open scientific meeting is sponsored by the U.S. National Committee (USNC) of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI). The USNC-URSI is appointed by the National Research Council of The National Academies and represents U.S. radio scientists in URSI. The meeting is held in cooperation with the following IEEE organizations: Antennas and Propagation Society, Circuits and Systems Society, Communications Society, Electromagnetic Compatibility Society, Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society, Information Theory Society, Instrumentation and Measurement Society, Microwave Theory and Techniques Society, and Nuclear Science Society. Papers on any topic in the interest area of a Commission are welcome. Contact the Commission Chairperson or visit the website for further information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant amount of green power is being installed at the distribution level through the installation of green power generation facilities in the U.S. and Canada. This paper discusses green-power-generating sources (of 10 MW or less), which are connected to the utility system at the distribution level, and their impact on the distribution system. This paper also discusses the impact of smart grid and whether this new technology can solve some of the issues raised in this paper. Distribution circuits are designed to supply radial loads. Therefore, the introduction of green generation could mean redistribution of fault and load currents on the feeder circuit, overvoltage, and ferroresonance, plus a possible loss of protection system coordination—all of which can result in customer outages. This paper discusses these issues which are generally not well understood by many distribution protection engineers and can adversely affect distribution system reliability. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a compact printed circuit board (PCB) monopole antenna with the size of 30 mm × 30 mm for ultra-wideband (UWB) applications. The proposed antenna is fabricated on a low-cost FR4 substrate with an asymmetric annular-ring patch fed by a 50 ohm microstrip. It has been demonstrated to provide a wide bandwidth from 2.6 GHz to 14.3 GHz, completely covering the range set by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for UWB operations (3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz) with satisfying omni-directional radiation patterns. The performance of the proposed antenna has been investigated through a large amount of simulations and measurements. Good agreement has been obtained between the simulated and experimental results and it shows that the antenna is a very good candidate for UWB operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frisch-ring CdZnTe detectors have demonstrated both good energy resolution, < 1% FWHM at 662 keV, and good efficiency in detecting gamma rays, highlighting the strong potential of CdZnTe materials for such applications. We are designing a hand-held gamma-ray spectrometer based on Frisch-ring detectors at Brookhaven National Laboratory. It employs an 8 × 8 CdZnTe detector array to achieve a high volume of 19.2 cm³, so greatly improving detection efficiency. By using the front-end application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) developed at BNL, this spectrometer has a small profile and high energy-resolution. It includes a signal processing circuit, digitization and storage circuits, a high-voltage module, and a universal serial bus (USB) interface. In this paper, we detail the system's structure and report the results of our tests with it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When Japanese competition forced the U.S. semiconductor industry into crisis during the mid-1980s, most observers predicted the demise of Silicon Valley. Yet the region's economy is once again flourishing. By building on the dense networks of social relationships which were created and then abandoned by the established semiconductor firms, a new wave of semiconductor start-ups is creating a new Silicon Valley - one which fosters reciprocal innovation among networks of specialist producers. However, the Silicon Valley economy remains vulnerable. While today's producers are better organized to respond to volatile markets and technologies than their predecessors, they have yet to recognize the social basis of their dynamism and create local institutions which allow them to respond systematically to shared challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented which discusses the role that Navajo women played in the electronic manufacturing during the 1960s and 1970s, including their employment at the electronic firm Fairchild Semiconductor's plant at the Navajo Reservation in Shiprock, New Mexico. An overview of Navajo women's manufacturing of electronic circuits is provided. The racialization of Navajo women electronics employees, including in regard to the attribution of success to their racial identity, is discussed.

The article focuses on the works of A. Richard Newton as the founder of the electronic design automation (EDA) industry in the U.S. According to the author, Newton devoted most of his career to develop the EDA industry and research program. His contribution to the EDA community is mainly in the field of computer-aided design (CAD) frameworks where he spearheaded the development of unified databases and graphical user-interfaces for the design of electronic circuits. Furthermore, he earned several awards throughout his career, including the 2003 Phil Kaufman Award and named to the Association for Computing Machinery and a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2006.

Electronic pedometers were used to quantify locomotor physical activity during an entire 9-week United States Army Basic Combat Training (BCT) cycle. Pedometers were worn on the hips of 4 trainees in each of 10 BCT companies during all BCT activities. Investigators obtained pedometer readings (steps) on a daily basis, and estimated travel distances were obtained by multiplying steps by the average individual step length. A short questionnaire was administered daily to assure trainees wore the pedometers and trained with their companies all day. Trainees performed an average±SD of 16311 ± 5826 steps/day and traveled an estimated 11.7 ±4.4 kilometers/day. The highest daily locomotor activity was during the field training exercise in which trainees took an average±SD of 22372 ± 12517 steps/day traveling an estimated 16.2 ± 9.7 kilometers/day. Differences among the 10 companies ranged from 14720±6649 steps/day to 18729 ± 6328 steps/day. This survey provided the first examination of locomotor physical activity during an entire BCT cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to a call from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for curriculum reform and elimination of legacy materials in engineering curricula, the faculty at the Colorado School of Mines, Golden, has developed and offered a combined set of course modules in fluids and circuits. These modules consist of a two-credit interdisciplinary course in fundamentals, followed by two one-credit modules focusing on applications in fluids and in circuits, respectively. The course set reduces the overall number of credits from six (three in each of the standard fluids and circuits classes) to four through the 2 + 1 + 1 format. The fundamentals course, consisting of two credits, is based on conservation and accounting principles for the concepts of mass, momentum, energy, and charge. Two applications modules, each of one credit, develop these ideas in the respective disciplines. During the study, four challenges to implementation were uncovered: faculty and administrative buy-in, textbook selection, logistics, and stakeholders' acceptance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presens abstracts of patents in integrated circuits and related fields in the U.S. Multiplexer for high speed phase detection; Bandgap voltage reference; Amplifier circuits; Charge pump; CMOS image sensor.

Provides information on the development of a different approach in teaching and development and using electronic circuit fabrication skill by the Division of Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines as part of their undergraduate electronic laboratories. Creation of a vertically integrated facility with advanced computer aided design tools and other electronic tools.

An economic framework for evaluting flexible integrated circuit manufacturing technologies is developed as an alternative to the capacity races that appear to have played a major role in the decline of the U.S. IC industry. Economic advantages of flexible IC manufacturing technologies (such as cluster tools and multiprocessors) may include reductions in units costs at low output volumes, inexpensive increases in the diversity of IC products manufactured, and acceleration of the speed of new product introduction. The consequences of these developments for semiconductor equipment producers, IC manufacturers, and electronic system producers are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]