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We present an ultra-high frequency radio frequency identification based wireless communication set-up for paper-based point-of-care diagnostic applications, based on a sensing radio frequency identification chip. Paper provides a low-cost, disposable platform for ease of fluidic handling without bulky instrumentation, and is thus ideally suited for point-ofcare applications; however, result communication – a crucial aspect for healthcare to be implemented effectively – is still lacking. Printing of radio frequency identification antennas and electronic circuitry for sensing on paper are presented, with read out of the results using a radio frequency identification reader illustrated, demonstrating the feasibility of developing integrated, all-printed solutions for point-of-care diagnosis in resource-limited settings.

Research on affordable point-of-care health diagnostics is rapidly advancing1. Colorimetric biosensor applications are typically qualitative, but recently the focus has been shifted to quantitative measurements2,3. Although numerous qualitative point-of-care (POC) health diagnostic devices are available, the challenge exists of developing a quantitative colorimetric array reader system that complies with the ASSURED (Affordable, Sensitive, Specific, User-friendly, Rapid and Robust, Equipment-free, Deliverable to end-users) principles of the World Health Organization4. This paper presents a battery powered 8-bit tonal resolution colorimetric sensor circuit for paper microfluidic assays using low cost photo-detection circuitry and a low-power LED light source. A colorimetric 3×3-pixel array reader was developed for rural environments where resources and personnel are limited. The device sports an ultralow-power E-ink paper display. The colorimetric device includes integrated GPS functionality and EEPROM memory to log measurements with geo-tags for possible analysis of regional trends. The device competes with colour intensity measurement techniques using smartphone cameras, but proves to be a cheaper solution, compensating for the typical performance variations between cameras of different brands of smartphones. Inexpensive methods for quantifying bacterial assays have been shown using desktop scanners, which are not portable, and cameras, which suffer severely from changes in ambient light in different environments. Promising colorimetric detection results have been demonstrated using devices such as video cameras5, digital colour analysers6, flatbed scanners7 or custom portable readers8. The major drawback of most of these methods is the need for specialized instrumentation and for image analysis on a computer.

A fiber optic Bragg grating (FBG) sensor and interrogation scheme has been designed to capture the momentary peak pressure forces in the nip of two adjacent paper machine rolls. The spatial distribution of these nip forces along circumference and length of the roll, for production speeds of up to 2000 m/min are investigated. Additionally, this FBG sensor system measures the temperature distribution in the roll cover. FBG sensor embedding has been optimized for the implementation of pressure force measurements in various roll cover materials. High strength draw tower grating (DTG) sensor arrays were used for the embedding process combined with spectrometric interrogation and autonomous power supply technologies. This results in an extremely robust fiber optic sensor system for operation at rotation speeds of 700 rpm, equivalent to centrifugal accelerations of 300 G. These measurements enable immediate quality control during various stages of the high-speed paper production process. © (2012) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Roughness of a paper surface is particularly important in paper and board destined to be printed. Surfaces are often coated and the amount of coating and method of application used depends on the roughness of the base paper. We present a method of measure of the roughness of the paper based in the analysis of speckle pattern on the surface. Images are captured by means of a simple configuration using a laser and a camera CCD. Then, we apply digital image processing using the co-occurrence matrix, so this method can be considered as a non-contact surface profiling method, that can be used online.

Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) contributes to safe and effective pharmacotherapy in clinical fields. A simple, rapid, low-cost, and minimally-invasive drug measurement method attracts much interest for point-of-care TDM. Tear fluids can be collected minimally-invasively compared to blood sampling and there is a correlation between a drug concentration in tears and that in bloods. Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) with paper-based substrate is useful for point-of-care TDM owing to inexpensiveness and high-sensitivity. Paper is also a safe tear collection tool. Then we are studying on a paper-based SERS of tear specimen for point-of-care TDM. In this paper, to improve sensitivity in measuring drug concentration in tear fluids, we fabricated a SERS substrate by coating gold nano-rods on a paper substrate and evaluated whether the fabricated substrate can enhance Raman scattering. Sodium phenobarbital (PB), an anti-convulsant agent, was used as a target. In experiment, the fabricated substrate indicated the lower detection limit of PB in a solution than a plain paper substrate. This result showed the potential of the paper based SERS substrate to measure drug concentration in tears simply and inexpensively.

For the last eight years, the solar industry has experienced annual growth of over 40%. Concerns over the rising costs of conventional energy, as well as its environmentally damaging effects, have been driving this vigorous investment in solar energy. Now, with grid parity almost upon us, the solar industry is reassessing what it will look like as a commoditized, mainstream power source. Do the best opportunities for solar lie with a centralized or decentralized model of production? What are the most bankable PV technologies? How can costs be cut and efficiencies improved to take things to the next level and make that last push to reach grid parity? In this paper, we will examine Solaria's LCPV technology and approach to the future of solar power.

In present work the capabilities of an optical coherence tomography (OCT) setup to visualize paper structure are analyzed by means of Monte Carlo-simulation of the OCT images. The OCT setup at 910 nm was considered. Efficiency of several different optical clearing agents (OCA) for increasing the quality of the obtained images was studied. A multilayer non-planar edged paper model was developed for the characterization of a paper sample and simple recovery of its parameters. The effect of the setup parameters on the obtained OCT-images was studied. It was shown by comparison with the experimental data that the developed model provides satisfactory resemblance of simulated and experimental images of papers sample structure.

The proliferation of digital information is leading to a wide range of applications which make it desirable to display data easily in many locations, all changeable and updateable. The difficulty in achieving such ubiquitous displays is the cost of signage, the cost of installation, and the software and systems to control the information being sent to each of these signs. In this paper we will talk about a networked system of such signs which are made from gyricon electronic paper. Gyricon electronic paper is a reflective, bistable display which can be made in large web sheets at a reasonable price. Since it does not require a backlight nor does it require power to refresh the display image, such technology is ideal for making signs which can be run on batteries with extremely long battery life, often not needing replacement for years. The display also has a very broad illumination scattering profile which makes it readily viewable from any angle. The basic operating mechanism of the display, its manufacturing technique, and achieved performance will be described, along with the description of a networked solution using many such signs controlled with system software to identify speakers and meetings in conference rooms, hospitality suites, or classrooms in universities. Systems will also be shown which are adapted to retail pricing signage and others which can be used for large format outdoor billboards.

The refractive index of paper was determined by measuring the propagation delay of photons in optically cleared paper boards. The determination was based on the assumption that photon propagation delay achieves minimum value as the paper is optimally cleared. The measured paper sheets was made from elemental chlorine-free market pulp, i.e. fully bleached, unbeaten, softwood kraft pulp. Nine different clearing agents with a refraction index between 1.329 and 1.741 were eLuperimented with. According to the streakmem measurements, the refractive index of the test paper was 1.557.

Technological development is seen as one of the fundamental forces in shaping the modern economies. The effects and the role of technological development are also central questions in many issues of environmental protection. This paper presents the results of a life cycle assessment study of the Finnish pulp an paper industry. Three comparative scenarios are drawn. Two scenarios describe the technological levels and production volumes of 1993 and 1997. A comparison scenario with the production volumes of 1997 and the technological level of 1997 describes the effects avoided by improvements. The results demonstrate that technological development has had considerable effects on the material flows of the industry within a relatively short period of time. Changes in most material flows result from various improvements. The environmental performance of the industry has been improved by both changes in operative practices as well as capital investments. The study fails to describe some aspects of realized developments and thus indicates that factors connected to technological change are highly problematic for LCA modelling.© (2001) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

This study involves measurements of pulp consistency in cuvette and by an online apparatus, by innovatively scattering photoacoustic (SPA) method. The theoretical aspects were described at first. Then, a few kinds of wood fiber suspensions with consistencies from 0.5% to 5% were studied in cuvette. After that, a pilot of online apparatus was built to measure suspensions with fiber consistency lower than 1% and filler content up to 3%. The results showed that although there were many fiber flocks in cuvette which strongly affected the measurement accuracy of samples consistencies, the apparatus can sense fiber types with different optical and acoustic properties. The measurement accuracy can be greatly improved in the online style apparatus, by pumping suspension fluids in a circulating system to improve the suspension homogeneity. The results demonstrated that wood fibers cause larger attenuation of acoustic waves but fillers do not. On the other hand, fillers cause stronger scattering of incident light. Therefore, our SPA apparatus has a potential ability to simultaneously determine fiber and filler fractions in pulp suspensions with consistency up to 5%.

There are several important standard laboratory experiments for determining the quality of produced paper in the paper making industry. To know the quality is essential since it defines the use of paper for various purposes. Moreover, customers are expecting a certain degree of quality. Many of paper printability tests are based on off-line visual inspection. Currently these tests are done by printing test marks on a piece of paper and then observing the quality by a human evaluator. In this report visual inspection on paper by machine vision is discussed from a point of off-line industrial measurements. The work focuses on the following paper printability problems: missing dots (Heliotest), print dot density, unevenness of printing image, surface strength (IGT), ink setting, linting, fiber counting, and digital printing. Compared to visual inspection by human evaluation, automated machine vision systems could offer several useful advantages: less deviations in measurements, better measurement accuracy, new printability parameters, shorter measurement times, less manpower to monotonic measurements, many quality parameters by one system, and automatic data transfer to mill level information systems. Current results with paper and board samples indicate that human evaluators could be replaced. However, further research is needed since the printability problems vary mill by mill, there is a large number of various paper and board samples, and the relationships between off-line and on-line measurements must be considered.

Due to the increased used paper collection rates in Western Europe, more recycled fibre will be used in the manufacture of paper. This will affect both the environmental and economic performance of the pulp and paper industry. The potential for the increase of the collection rate varies significantly in different countries in western Europe. In some countries the collection rate is already close to 70% (Austria, Germany) and in others it is around 45% (Italy, United Kingdom). With the increased demand for recycled fibre also the collection will increase. When the collection of waste paper is increased something has to be done with the collected paper. Different utilisation modes results in different emission profiles. They also have different economic consequences. In this article the environmental and economic impacts of an increased paper collection rate are studied with three alternative scenarios. These scenarios are drawn using a dynamic material flow modelling such as Joined Time Projection (JTP). The results show, that a clear trade off between harmful environmental impacts and economic benefits exists.

This technical paper describes the requirements to effectively use thermal imaging as a means of monitoring rotating machine components in a paper machine. The present efforts are focused mainly on monitoring polymer-covered rolls in paper machine calenders, but the studies will be expanded in the future to monitoring the temperature profiles of paper machine press fabrics and press belts in shoe presses. The main challenges in these areas are the high speeds of the target surfaces, obtaining adequate temperature difference resolution at relatively low surface temperatures and challenging environmental conditions. Adaptive triggering is discussed as a synchronization method for obtaining an adequate number of images from the target. Also some image processing techniques, test results and required qualities of infrared camera technology are presented.

In the production of pigment-coated paper or paperboard, the method and rate of drying of the coating will significantly influence the print quality of the finished product. Improper drying during initial st sages can cause binder migration that leads to its non-uniform concentration on the surface of the coating. Such effect causes print mottle, and is a primary reason for poor print quality. The location at which binder immobilization has occurred is called the Gel Point. An on-line fiber optic sensor system has been applied to continuously monitor the location of the Gel Point. Each sensor consists of a light source, an optical fiber for delivering the radiation, two optical fibers for diffuse and specular radiation monitoring and two detectors. The ratio R between diffuse and specular signals indicates coating conditions. A system description and experimental results are presented. The Gel Point measurement system has show that is provides a sensitive measurement of the gel point location, as it is affected by machine speed, coat weight, incoming substrate moisture levels and drying energy and can predict print mottle. This provides the paper maker with a completely independent method for monitoring the coating drying process.

In this work, two optical systems previously designed and implemented by our research team, were used to enable the surface and bulk inspection of the ink-paper interaction by image analysis. Basically, the first system works by ejecting micro-liter ink drops onto the papers surface while monitoring the event under three different views over time. The second system is used for sectioning the paper samples through their thickness and to simultaneously acquire images of the ink penetration of each section cut. In the performed experiments, three black inks of different brands and a common copy paper were chosen, used, and tested with the two developed optical systems. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses were carried out at the surface level and in the bulk of the paper. In terms of conclusions, it was shown that the three tested ink-paper combinations revealed very distinct characteristics.

Lateral flow tests (LFTs) are well-suited for rapid point-of-care testing in low resource settings. The wicking action of the paper strip moves the sample and reagents through the device without a need for pumps, but LFTs are typically limited to tests that can be carried out in a single fluidic step. The materials from LFTs can be reconfigured to create paper networks that automatically carry out multi-step fluidic operations, while retaining the same easy-to-use format as a conventional LFT. Here, we describe basic principles of wicking and system-level behavior of paper networks by analogy to electrical circuits. We describe key design principles for a previously-developed 2D paper network (2DPN) and introduce an alternative linear paper network (Pseudo-1DPN) that takes advantage of system-level behavior to perform clean sequential fluid delivery while reducing device running time.

Ink jet printability is rapidly becoming a requirement for all multipurpose office papers. These papers must have an optimized balance of properties so they can perform equally well under various printing methods such as xerography, ink jet, and thermal imaging. The office paper of today truly must be a multipurpose copy paper capable of providing good toner adhesion as well as controlled absorption of aqueous ink jet solutions. The demand for ink jet paper is increasing rapidly. The global market for cut-size ink jet papers will expand to nearly 1.4 million tons by the year 2000. By that time the global market for all cut-size multipurpose plain printing papers will grow to nearly twenty million tons. The ink jet printing process places a large volume of aqueous ink on the surface of a substrate. The manner in which the substrate handles that volume of ink determines in large part the quality of the print. Multipurpose office papers are composed chiefly of cellulose fibers, inorganic fillers, and chemical additives. All of these components affect the quality of the sheet as an ink jet substrate. The particle morphology, surface area, and surface treatment of PCC fillers affect the ink jet printability of multipurpose office papers. This paper focuses on results from pilot paper machine and commercial trials performed in an effort to turn 'plain' office papers into high quality multipurpose papers capable of meeting or exceeding ink jet print quality specifications.© (1997) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

From the chemical point of view paper coatings are mainly polymer dispersions. Polymer dispersions are constituted in multitude fields, for example as dispersion coatings or adhesives. As far as no additional treatment is done, polymer materials as well as polymer agents contain non polymer, volatile organic components that may arise from: (1) incomplete polymerization of the applied monomers, (2) primary materials containing non polymerizable components, (3) undesirable side reactions during the synthesis. Requirements for the removal of volatile substances from polymer dispersion are given by several reasons: (1) low molecular substances deteriorate the product characteristics (viscosity, thermal stability and others), (2) in order to comply with legislative standards, volatile organic compounds have to be removed from dispersions, especially when applied to large surfaces (e.g. in surface refining in paper and leather industries as well as on coating). The removal of volatile organic compounds (deodorization) can be realized in continuous or discontinuous processes. In contrast to highly developed process technology, the process itself is not well understood, especially mass transport phenomena between the gas phase and the aqueous polymer dispersion are insufficiently and controversially discussed in the literature. Two processes, their advantages and disadvantages and the description by mathematical- mechanistic models are presented in this paper.

A methodology has been developed to digitize images from photographic color paper (reflection prints) and store the spectral information as a function of the three dye density basis functions inherent to the paper film type. The result is a highly accurate digitization of the spectral information at each spatial pixel that can be digitally stored with very little additional storage space over conventional RGB-type methodologies.© (1996) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

IR monitoring is a basic tool for quality control and predictive maintenance in the paper industry. There are also other possible interests, e.g. measurements of temperature profiles of high speed production lines. The first possibility to use IR for the above mentioned use appears to be applications of glass heat treatment in on line production. At this time there is a lot of interest to be able to measure temperature profiles from a fast moving surface (e.g. in paper machines) with velocities like 10 - 20 m/s. Normal low speed line scanners typically give scanning speed of 50 Hz which in this case means 20 m/s/50 Hz equals 40 cm resolution. The obtained resolution is not normally high enough. To have more accurate vision from the studied surface IR camera line scanning was proposed to be a solution with line scanning frequencies of 8000 Hz which would provide resolution of 20 m/s/8000 Hz equals 0.25 cm between surface points. It is a well-known fact that all undesired frequencies in paper transfer systems disturb the uniform paper drying process which in some cases is the basic reason for low quality coating or even broken paper line. The possibility to detect these drying problems with IR frequency analysis will give a new way to control the paper drying process. With IR analysis it is possible to get information about temperature distributions along the paper track. Using a well established frequency analysis as a tool, the error estimations are obtained. In most cases an open-roll image from paper track is very desirable because there are no existing wide area measurement systems for this purpose. The careful analysis of this new method is given in the manuscript.© (1996) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

The expression 'Plain' paper was coined in the early days of electrophotography to distinguish the capabilities of the new dry toner based photocopying process which did not require a sensitized or special coated paper to produce an image. Currently 'Plain' paper is considered in the electronic printing industry, to be any uncoated paper, usually of the type used in office photocopying applications. It is assumed that all 'Plain' papers are identical or at least equivalent in their properties such that all papers will give equivalent print quality performance. Due to the wide availability and low price of 'Plain' papers, it is also considered desirable by vendors of electronic marking processes, that their technology be capable of producing good image quality on 'Plain' paper. The chemical and physical differences which can occur among 'Plain' papers are discussed with respect to the specific image quality and engine reliability requirements of the major nonimpact electronic marking technologies, including electrophotography and laser printing, electrographic and ionographic processes, thermal transfer and ink jet. Paper properties of interest include, smoothness, surface energy, electrical resistivity, porosity and aqueous and nonaqueous liquid adsorption. Color printing has added additional requirements to paper quality, if good image quality is to be achieved and maintained. Given the apparently conflicting requirements for some of the electronic marking technologies, it will be a challenge to define a single grade of paper which will produce optimum print quality for all electronic printing processes.© (1995) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

In order to maintain the normal running of economy in China, anti-counterfeiting detection of paper currency has been an important technology in the coinage company and the bank, but the detection using spectrum for Chinese paper currency anti-counterfeiting has not been applied in China. A real-time detection method, with broad spectrum including ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths, is proposed in this paper, which achieves the purpose of anti-counterfeiting by using anti-fake properties of paper currency's coating surface, through different lights stimulation the full spectrum light irradiation on currency surface, with its reflection spectrum detected by spectrometer. The proposed method has such advantages as high technology, high detection precision and easy to identify, and has been applied to a practical system, which satisfies the real-time requirement.

Strong demand exists for a non-contacting paper caliper measurement which can be used as an input to a paper thickness control system. Caliper sensors requiring sheet contact suffer from errors related to dirt or coating build up and from high maintenance costs related to wear. These sensors can also damage the product by picking holes and marking sheets. Details of an on-line measurement device which employs two opposed laser displacement sensors and an inductive displacement sensor are presented. The sheet is held perpendicularly to the sensors with a Coanda air clamp. Dust and temperature control features which enable the sensor to operate reliably in an industrial environment are discussed. Results of production trials of this sensor are presented. Sub-micron profile agreement to lab and contacting caliper measurements has been demonstrated on light sheets. Results are presented of measurements on a wide range of paper grades from coated and uncoated light sheets to coated board.

Online measurement of paper thickness profile is essential in paper production. For decades paper thickness has been measured online with sensors that are contacting the web on both sides. In 2005 a new optical online paper thickness gauge was introduced which only contacts the web on the other side. The sensor is based on a laser triangulation sensor and a magnetic sensor, and it determines the paper thickness from the difference of the two measurements. For calibration of the two sensors, a robust concept has been developed which utilizes the measured object and takes place in the measuring environment so that the calibration is automatically adjusted to the current measuring circumstances. More importantly, with the presented method the non-linearity of the laser sensor is cancelled enabling the measurement of the thickness profile shape with an accuracy much better than that of the laser sensor. Profile accuracy of 0.5 μm (2σ) has become normal while the measuring range is often several hundreds of microns and the measuring distance to the paper web 1.0-1.5 mm with a laser sensor having linearity of ±2 μm.

Cellulose is a beneficial material that has low cost, light weight, high compatibility, and biodegradability. Recently electro-active paper (EAPap) composed with cellulose was discovered as a smart material for application to variety industrial fields such as smart wall-paper, actuator, and magic carpet. It also exhibited actuator property through ion migration and piezoelectric effect. Since cellulose acetate (CA) film has optically transparent property, we focused on optical field application, such as electronic paper, prismsheet, and polarized film. Since CA can be easily dissolved in variety of organic solvent, various weight % (from 1 to 25 wt. %) of CA solution in acetone was prepared. Polydimethylsilane (PDMS) master pattern was fabricated on the silicone wafer. CA solution was poured to the master mold and dried using spin-coating or tape casting method. Various shape and height patterns, such as circle, honeycomb, and rectangular patterns were fabricated using 12 wt. % CA solution. The resulting pattern showed uniform size in the large area without defect. These patterns can be utilized as a substrate and cell pattern for the electronic paper. To investigate saponification (SA) effect to convert CA to regenerated cellulose, CA film was immersed into the sodium methoxide solution in methanol for various times. The fabricated CA films were stretched and immersed into the sodium methoxide solution in methanol to desubstitute the acetate group. These regenerated cellulose films have larger mechanical strength than CA films. Although the UV-visible transmittance was decreased as increasing SA time, the transmittance of the further SA process and stretched film backed up near untreated CA film. Although the crosssectional image of the saponified and unstretched CA film did not have specific directional structure, the cross-sectional FESEM image of the saponified and stretched CA film had one directional fiber structure. The fiber was aligned to the stretched direction. Most of the compositions were one directional ordered nanofibers having diameter of approximately 30nm.

In this paper, the possibility of EAPap as a piezoelectric sensor was investigated by the vibration control of the cantilevered beam. The EAPap sample was attached at the root of the cantilevered beam and used as a vibration sensor. The piezoceramic patch was also attached at the root of the beam and played as an actuator. The voltage output of EAPap showed same trend of that measured by the piezoceramic patch. The frequency bandwidth and quality factor of EAPap were similar to those of piezoceramic patch, which results EAPap has similar sensing capability of piezoceramic patch. To find the application of EAPap sensor, beam vibration control was performed. EAPap sensor output was considered as a position error of the cantilevered beam system and a simple PID controller was designed to suppress the vibration of the beam. The EAPap sensor output provided clear time response of the beam. The controlled system showed good vibration control performance of the beam. The results provided that EAPap has great potential as a piezoelectric vibration sensor.

Electro-Active Paper(EAPap) actuator materials based on cellulose has been discovered as a smart material that has merits in terms of low voltage operation, lightweight, dryness, low power consumption, bio-degradability, abundance and low price. Since EAPap material requires low power consumption, a remotely driven actuator has been proposed by using microwave power transmission. This concept is attractive for many biomimetic systems such as crawling micro-insect robots, flying objects like dragon fly, and smart wall papers. However, the actuation performance of EAPap is sensitive to humidity. Thus, in this paper, a new EAPap that is less sensitive to humidity is studied. The fabrication of EAPap is explained and the actuations are shown with actuating voltage, frequency, humidity level and time. The fabrication process includes dissolving cellulose fibers, eliminating solvent and Li ions with DI (deionized) water and IPA (Isopropyl alcohol) mixture, washing with water, drying and gold coating. Morphology of the fabricated EAPap is analyzed by taking scanning electron microscope images and X-ray diffractogram. The actuator performance is tested in terms of bending displacement with frequency and humidity level.

This study is focused on laser structuring processes for producing secure tactile features on paper-based security documents. The feasibility of using the developed technique allows users and/or machines to discriminate among genuine and counterfeited security documents and/or facilitate the tactile detection by visually impaired people.

High-resolving full-field OCT method is considered that provides increased resolution and interferometric data acquisition speed due to high optical magnification and electronic lateral scan provided by video camera. OCT data processing algorithm based on signal squaring with subsequent low-pass filtering is considered. Experimental results obtained when evaluating samples of paper material are presented and discussed.

This paper reviews state of the art mask modeling for optical lithography. Rigorous electromagnetic field (EMF) simulation of light diffraction from optical masks is compared to the traditional assumption of an infinitely thin mask, the so called Kirchhoff approach. Rigorous EMF simulation will be employed to analyze mask polarization phenomena which become important in the ultrahigh NA regime. Several important lithographic phenomena, which can be explained only with rigorous EMF simulation, are discussed. This includes the printability of small assist features, intensity imbalancing for alternating PSM, and process window deformations. The paper concludes with a discussion on material issues and algorithmic extensions which will be necessary for an accurate modeling of future mask technology.

A non-contacting online caliper measurement has been papermakers' dream for over two decades. Currently, paper thickness is measured using buttons contacting the paper web on both sides. In such a configuration, paper thickness is assumed to be the distance between the contacting surfaces and determined by a magnetic measurement principle. However, this arrangement of contacting measurement has several disadvantages including sheet marking, hole creation, dirt build-up on the contacting buttons, wearing of the contacting surfaces, and even sheet breaks. Moreover, the current trends in paper manufacturing, especially the increasing use of recycled raw materials are necessitating the development of a more reliable thickness measurement solution that is not affected by dirt and other material on paper or board sheet surfaces. So far, a non-destructive, on-line thickness measurement has not been successfully applied in paper production environment. Recently, Metso Automation has successfully piloted in several mills a caliper sensor that does not contact the sheet on both sides and is able to measure paper thickness with sub-micron accuracy. The new sensor is based on single sided laser triangulation. This paper presents the measurement set-up and discusses the challenges encountered. Measurement results obtained in mill trials with various paper grades are reviewed and compared to those made simultaneously with contacting, on-line sensors and off-line laboratory results of the same sheet. Factors affecting the measurement with conventional and optical thickness sensors are also discussed.

Chemical and biochemical sensing is under the extensive research all over the world and many chemical and biochemical sensors are finding increasing number of applications in industry, environmental monitoring, medicine, biomedicine and chemical analysis. This is evidenced by each-year-growing number of international scientific conferences, in which advances in the field of the sensors are reported. One of the main reason why only a few sensors reach the international market, notwithstanding the high number of laboratory prototype described in many peer reviewed papers, lies in the fact that a biochemical sensor is a highly interdisciplinary "object" the realization of which requires the team work of scientists coming from different areas such as chemistry, physics, optoelectronics, engineering, biochemistry, and medicine. And this peculiarity is not easily found in the research teams. In the present paper, the fundamental bases of chemical and biochemical optical sensing are summarised and the new trends are described.

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has embarked on a variety of research programs that embrace the insertion of new electro-optical and infrared technology as well as advanced operational concepts to significantly improve capabilities for the detection and discrimination of difficult targets. The AFRL vision employs a distributed, layered sensor system combining passive and active sensors to rapidly detect battlefield threats and support high confidence identification to take immediate action. This paper will provide an overview of this layered sensing vision as well as describe the technology development directions that AFRL is pursuing in support of this advanced concept. The paper will specifically focus on relevant passive infrared technology areas such as spatial, spectral, polarimetric, and temporal sensing (separate and combined). It will also discuss how this technology is envisioned to be applied to the range of operational platforms, from standoff surveillance from large aircraft to close-in sensing from small unmanned aerial vehicles.

In this paper, the performances and limitations related to the high frequency noise properties of SOI MOSFET Technology are investigated. The study is conducted through powerful analytical noise parameters calculation, experimental data, and physical based drift-diffusion noise modeling. In addition to the noise generated by the inner part of the active device, the influence of access resistances, overlap/fringing capacitances, tunneling gate current are discussed qualitatively and quantitatively. The paper ends up with a critical discussion related to the "New Era SOI Technology" to come and its influence on the noise performance.

Conventional thermal paper utilizes an electron-donating colorless dye and an electron- accepting developer which react to give a colored image. To improve the image stability, various methods have been proposed. However, there has been no study on the prediction of the image stability. We found that under a defined condition of the thermal acceleration test, the Arrhenius Plot of the fading gives a straight line, and the predicted value gives good coincidence with the value obtained by actual aging. This report presents the outline of the method for prediction and the coincidence of the result of the test method with that obtained by actual aging.© (1992) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

The coating color for the direct thermal paper basically consists of the leuco dye, the cobr developer and the sensitizer. Blacking dyes to be used for thermal papers call for other practicable properties than the tone, such as storage stability, thermal sensitivity and white background. Since no universally accepted theory in choosing proper developer and sensitizer is available, however, selection will have to be conducted on the designer's experience. Such practical considerations as the stability of the recorded image and matching with the particular machine to be used for are important beside the chemical considerations.

In this paper, the problem of combined vision/force servo control for robot manipulator is addressed. Three different robot vision control strategies: position-based, image-based, and hybrid control are combined with an impedance-based force controller and a comparison of these three combined vision/force control methods is investigated for the first time, in the context of generic robot kinematic-based sensory-task-space control structure. Furthermore, the issue of contact surface parameters estimation is also investigated. Simulation results have demonstrated that all the above vision/force control strategies are comparable in terms of both the dynamic response and accuracy of positioning and force control.

The ongoing Chinese ever-ambitious project of Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) has brought about a tremendous challenge for the control engineers. To the bottom line the giant 4-meter class ground telescope is a comprehensive optomechatronic platform to achieve high performance and functionality, such as its capability of observing 4000 stars simultaneously, which will set a world record in contemporary ground survey telescopes. This paper outlines the R&D stages of the control system for the project along with its integrated strategy of optomechatronic components in general and network control framework in particular. The approach is to make a careful investigation with respect to the time crucialness for execution of different tasks so as to utilize different networks. However, the overall network framework is based on a distributed platform, hierarchical structure and open architecture to boost the flexibility. Vigorous study has been invested and a number of cutting edge techniques have been applied to meet the tough network control requirements, such as real-time database, powerful interfaces, sophisticated controllers, remote control, etc.

Today's design-manufacturing interface lacks essential mechanisms to link disparate disciplines and tool sets. In this paper, we describe three specific mechanisms for improving OPC quality via interactions within the design-to-manufacturing flow. Our studies of these improvements have yielded promising results.

Semiconductor devices are making important role in our life. Many semiconductor chips will be used to every thing, and we will receive the various services anywhere anytime through a digital network. There are so many applications using semiconductor products that support such a ubiquitous era, and it is expected that mobile, automobile and PC/AV applications will have the great growth from now on. In this paper, we describe the lithography technology trend and requirements for mask technology from the view point of SOC and FLASH memory trend. From the device development trend, it is expected that FLASH memory become driving force of lithography technology. To realize hp45nm node and beyond, the installation of hyper-NA ArF-immersion tools with low-k1 technique is the key issue. With this, DFM (Design For Manufacturability) is the key technology and a continuous approach of systematic DFM technique is important in order to reduce chip cost. Also, Mask DFM is needed to realize cost-effective low-k1 process and it drives reasonable mask cost and TAT. In order to reduce mask cost in device development and small volume production, we expect greatly that maskless lithography (ML2) become a leading tool in lithography.

Polarized light imaging offers potential for characterizing superficial tissue such as the skin. Its simplicity means that if the technique can be demonstrated to provide effective results, it should find widespread use in clinical practice. This paper briefly describes the Monte Carlo simulations and the instrument developed by our group. Details are also provided of a look-up table approach to extract the optical coefficients of a layered medium.

The measurement accuracy of an interferometric optical test is generally limited by the environment. This paper discusses two single-shot interferometric techniques for reducing the sensitivity of an optical test to vibration; simultaneous phase-shifting interferometry and a special form of spatial carrier interferometry utilizing a micropolarizer phase-shifting array. In both techniques averaging can be used to reduce the effects of turbulence and the normal double frequency errors generally associated with phase-shifting interferometry.

This paper reports measurement results and some design details of railway measurement systems based on optical principles. The quality of railway lines is crucial for reliability and safety and therefore to be controlled regularly. Special measuring vehicles operate permanently on all railway lines, even during regular traffic situations. Therefore the measurement systems used to record the data have to be fast enough even at high speeds and robust enough to provide reliable data under almost any environmental conditions. The application of optical methods is advantageous concerning accuracy and speed but of course limited by external influences. We report here measures enabling even a sensitive optical measurement principle, the phase measurement technique, to be applied under these harsh environmental conditions. Exemplarily the optical and mechanical design of a clearance profile scanner is described. It is shown how to make the sensor insensitive against environmental conditions like contamination by dust or water or temperature changes. Measurement results of this scanner and of another system to measure the position of the contact wire are presented.

Missile Defense Agency/Advanced Systems, in partnership with both EUTECUS/University of Notre Dame (UND) and ITN Energy Systems/University of Central Florida (UCF) has embarked on developing a multispectral imaging IR sensor. This technology, when matured, could revolutionize IR sensor technology by reducing the need for cooling, eliminating lattice matching and avoiding epitaxial fabrication processes. This paper describes the approaches employed by both EUTECUS/UND and ITN/UCF teams to integrate nano-antenna technology with the existing cellular neural network (CNN) processor to produce multispectral IR sensors. This effort is a leap into the performance realm where biological systems operate.

The demand continues to grow for small, compact imaging sensors, which include new capabilities, such as response in multiple spectral bands, increased sensitivity, wide high dynamic range, and operating at room temperature. These goals are dependant upon novel concepts in sensor technology, especially advanced electronic processing integrated with the sensor. On-focal plane processing is especially important to realize the full potential of the sensor. Since the area available for focal plane processing is extremely limited, a new paradigm in sensor electronic read-out technology is necessary to bridge the gap between multi-functional, high performance detector arrays and the off-focal plane processing. The Vertically Integrated Sensor Array (VISA) Program addresses this need through development of pixel-to-pixel interconnected silicon processors at the detector, thus expanding the area available for signal and image processing. The VISA Program addresses not only the array interconnection technology, but also investigates circuit development adapted to this new three-dimensional focal plane architecture. This paper reviews progress in the first phase of the program and outlines direction for demonstrations of vertically integrated sensor arrays.

Current military operational effectiveness can degrade rapidly with increasing communications stresses such as heavy throughput and QoS demands from disadvantaged users exposed to severe channel impairments and communications threats. This paper proposes a distributed and agile radio resource management (RRM) system to maintain mission effectiveness even under significant communications stress. Agile RRM includes a well-coordinated cross-layer design with the introduction of new OSI layer features and interactions as well as methods to incorporate communications constraints and requirements in systems controlling mission planning and execution.

The Air Force Research Laboratory leads the discovery, development, and integration of affordable war fighting technologies for our air and space forces. In particular, the Information Directorate’s mission is to advance and apply Information Systems Science and Technology to provide Information Dominance. This paper discusses why the Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate is concerned with researching prospective computing architectures for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance applications. Projects addressing quantum information science and quantum computing will be discussed, highlighting where these technologies offer potential disruptive technology solutions for the Air Force.

In this paper we present a Coherent Optical Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (COMIMO) communication system and its ability to exploit the inherent information capacity of Multi-Mode Fiber (MMF). COMIMO technique is a promising approach to unlock the information capacity of MMF as it ensures the necessary diversity for practically any fiber length. When exceeding the bandwidth-length product of the link, MIMO adaptive equalization can be used to mitigate inter-symbol interference (ISI). Furthermore, COMIMO link provides additional security in the physical layer that complements encryption.

Functional requirements for modern narrow-band and wide-band wireless and lightwave communication systems place stringent demands on speed and noise behavior of circuits and devices used to design them. MOS technology in the nanometer regime continues to be the low-cost high-performance workhorse driving innovations for these applications. In this paper, we trace the developments in the modeling of noise in MOS transistors as the device channel lengths shrink by a factor or a thousand from tens of micrometers to tens of nanometers. The impact of scaling on classical noise mechanisms is explained. Also, generation of new noise sources as a result of scaling are also described. This leads to a better physical understanding of the noise behavior of these devices. Methods of eliminating some of these noise sources by suitable choice of materials and modifications in device structure are explained. Application of this understanding to the practical design and layout of low-noise high-performance circuits is illustrated. As a result, the noise performance of MOS devices has improved by almost an order of magnitude making them an ideal choice for low-noise communication electronics design. Research continues as the channel lengths shrink further.