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In this study, the plasma oxidation effect in tin-oxide (SnOx) thin film was investigated. And on this basis, we fabricated n-type thin-film transistors (TFTs) using the SnOx thin film with the plasma oxidation by experiments. By adjusting the processing time of the oxygen plasma treatment (OPT), the optimized SnOx TFT device exhibited an extremely high field-effect mobility of 87.6 cm2 V−1 s−1, a desirable on-to-off current ratio of 1.9 × 104 and a threshold voltage of − 0.9 V. Furthermore, we investigated the origin of the performance enhancements in the n-type SnOx TFTs with the optimized OPT by introducing the density of states (DOS) modeling in TCAD simulation. The numerical simulation indicated that the attributes of donor-like Gaussian defect states (oxygen vacancies) were modified in overall DOS due to the plasma oxidation effect. These present results show that the SnOx TFT treated by oxygen plasma has great promise in the future high-performance flat panel display industries.

With the simulation calibration for negative capacitor considering Landau model and multi-domain (MD) effect, MD MFIS negative capacitance field-effect transistor (NCFET) was thoroughly established for performing the simultaneous analysis of multi-variables (ferroelectric layer thickness ( ${T} _{\mathrm{ FE}}$ ), oxide layer thickness ( ${T} _{\mathrm{ OX}}$ ) and gate length ( ${L} _{\mathrm{ g}}$ )) effect on the device performance. In this study, subthreshold swing (SS) and hysteresis properties of MD-MFIS-NCFET were demonstrated by employing TCAD simulation tool. Compared with the previous reported study on single variable effect based on single-domain (SD) NCFET, the simultaneous analysis of multi-variables effect on MD-NCFET enabled to obtain better device performance and generate more comprehensive results. Convincing models were established based on the experimental data by calibration. Demonstration on the basic simulated results including the lowering SS mechanism and the multi-variables effect on MD-NCFET performance was completely presented based on the capacitance matching theory and short channel effect. With the optimal ${T} _{\mathrm{ FE}}$ and ${T} _{\mathrm{ OX}}$ , a trade-off mechanism between the SS and ${L} _{\mathrm{ g}}$ was shown with the consideration of ${L} _{\mathrm{ g}}$ scaling. Noticeable in-depth study in association with the simultaneous analysis of the multi-variables effect was carried out, indicating that the hysteresis-free SS obtained by simultaneous analysis of multi-variables was lower than that obtained by single-variable analysis. Final validation results demonstrate that the optimization proposed in this work by considering the multi-variable effect shows high compatibility with other NCFET devices, providing an instructive strategy for the high-performance NCFET optimization.

We report experimental determination of compressibility and thermoelasticity for CrN based on in situ high pressure/high temperature synchrotron x-ray diffraction measurements. The pressure-induced...

In this work, we demonstrated a HfO2-based ferroelectric field-effect transistor (FeFET) in series with a HfAlO ferroelectric capacitor for memory application and further investigated the impact of the ferroelectric capacitor with different thicknesses and areas. It was revealed that the memory window of the FeFET has a significant correlation with the ferroelectric capacitor from the transfer curves of the transistor after the series connection. By decreasing the thickness and area of the ferroelectric capacitor, the memory window of the FeFET was improved, which could be verified through the TCAD simulation tool and capacitance matching model. With the series-connected ferroelectric capacitor, in addition to optimizing the characteristics of ferroelectric memory, we can effectively avoid the interface-caused undesirable effects in conventional ferroelectric memory during film stacking. These results provide a solution for future low-power embedded memory application.

The viscoplasticity and compressive strength of cement with high erosion performance were studied. The influences of curing temperature and content of ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) on these performances of the medium heat cement (including high iron and low calcium phase) were also investigated. The results indicate that the medium heat cement with high iron phase can maintain better fluidity and low temperature sensitivity than that of ordinary Portland cement at high temperature. GGBFS can play an important role in improving the fluidity and stability of the slurry, and avoid the cement setting and hardening prematurely at high temperatures. The microstructure analysis shows that a large amount of CH with layer shape appear in the slurry. The amount of this gel layer in the slurry increased as the curing temperature elevated. The layer can make the cement stone structure more denser, so that the compressive strength of samples are enhanced in the later stage. When the medium heat cement contains 40% GGBFS, the system has the best flow performance and stability under high temperature environment, and can be applied to mass concrete with excessive internal temperature.

A miniaturized Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna (AVA) with flat gain is proposed in this paper for UWB applications. This antenna is implemented by loading a pair of open stubs, comb-shaped slot array, and semi-elliptical patches on a traditional AVA. The miniaturization property is obtained as a result of the introduction of comb-shaped slits which increases the surface current path. The function of the pair of open stubs is to improve the gain in the lower frequency band, while the effect of the pair of semi-elliptical patches is to maintain the gain in the higher frequency band. In order to verify this design concept, a prototype of the proposed AVA is fabricated and measured. The measured results show that VSWR < 2 in the frequency band of 3 – 11GHz and the average gain in is 8.9 dBi in the end-fire direction. Besides the gain fluctuation is ± 1.1dB within this impedance bandwidth, achieving a relatively flat gain.

In this paper, the effect of channel annealing and oxygen flow rate in P-type tin-monoxide (SnO) thin film transistor (TFT) was investigated to reach the process compatibility with n-type oxide-based TFT. The optimized P-type SnO TFT with a small threshold voltage of -0.1 V, a high field-effect mobility of 4 cm² V-1 s-1 and an on/off current ratio of >10² was proposed. From the experimental results, the 150 °C channel annealing revealed a metallic behavior but a semiconductor-like property at a higher 200 °C that was favorable for transistor rectification. Besides, the higher oxygen flow rate was also helpful for improving device mobility and driving current, but shows a slight increase in off-state leakage, which is unavoidable due to the increase of grain in SnO channel.

In this paper, we reported a ferroelectric HfAlO x negative capacitor transistor with gate-stress (GS) engineering. Compared to control device, the HfAlO x transistor with GS engineering percentage of $\text{I}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$ enhancement and 27% $\text{V}_{T}$ reduction under the assistance of the negative capacitance (NC) effect. The orthorhombic phase transition played a crucial role in realizing the NC effect. From the results of the material analysis, the theoretical Landau simulation and electrical measurement, we demonstrated that the GS is favorable for inducing orthorhombic phase crystallization of HfAlOx and stabilizing the NC effect, which shows the potential for the application of advanced technology node.

For the first time, we successfully demonstrated the dopant-free HfO2 negative capacitance (NC) transistor featuring a low gate-overdrive voltage and a nearly hysteresis-free sub-40 mV/dec swing. These excellent performances can be ascribed to the reduction of the monoclinic phase suppressed with the thickness scaling and gate stress engineering favorably rearranging oxygen vacancies to boost orthorhombic phase transition. The highly scalable and dopant-free NC transistor shows the potential for the application of advanced CMOS technology.

Objective This study aimed to assess and compare the clinical efficacy and safety of acupuncture and related therapies (ARTs) add-on to conventional treatment (CT) for heart failure (HF) through pairwise and network meta-analyses. Methods Six electronic databases, including PubMed, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), EMBASE, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Wanfang Database were searched from inceptions to December 2017. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) regarding ARTs combining with CT for HF were eligible. The primary outcomes were changes in heart function classification (HFC) according to New York Heart Association class and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). Risk of bias assessment was conducted by two independent authors. Pairwise and network meta-analyses were performed using STATA 13.0 and WinBUGS 1.4.3 software. Results A total of 26 RCTs were enrolled for analyses, with 5 kinds of ARTs and 2116 patients in all. Pairwise meta-analyses showed that acupoint application (OR: 3.28, 95%CI[2.26, 4.76]), acupuncture (OR: 2.78, 95%CI[1.21, 6.41]), acupoint injection (OR: 3.33, 95%CI[1.85, 6.00]) and moxibustion (OR: 2.51, 95%CI[1.02, 6.21]) could significantly improve HFC when they were used as add-on to CT. Acupoint application (MD: 3.57, 95%CI[1.45, 5.70]), acupuncture (MD: 7.75, 95%CI[2.33, 13.17]), acupoint injection (MD: 4.81, 95%CI[2.99, 6.63]) and moxibustion (MD: 6.99, 95%CI[3.62, 10.36]) were significantly beneficial in improving LVEF. Network meta-analyses showed that acupoint injection (SUCRA = 70.0%) and acupuncture (SUCRA = 90.4%) respectively had the greatest probability in improving HFC and LVEF. Conclusion Most of the included ARTs add-on to CT was effective in improving HFC and LVEF. Acupoint injection and acupuncture may respectively have better effect than others for HFC and LVEF. However, due to the small sample size and poor quality of the included studies, hence well-designed RCTs are needed to confirm our findings. This study was registered in PROSPERO, CRD42018087700.

As a phase-change material (PCM), rhombohedral GeTe (space group R3m) was believed to transform to the cubic rock-salt phase (B1) at 3–4 GPa, associated with the disappearance of a Peierls distortion. However, using a combination of synchrotron X-ray diffraction and theoretical calculations, we found that the R3m phase persists from ambient pressure up to pressures of about 15.8 GPa, in contrast to previous reports. Neither was the B1 phase observed in a heating X-ray powder diffraction experiment. The spurious transformation from R3m to B1 is caused by changes to the compression ratio of lattice parameters in the R3m phase under high pressure/temperature. These findings provide insight into transitions of PCMs, relevant to other materials undergoing displacive transitions under high pressure/temperature.

In this paper, we reported ap-channel tin-oxide (SnO) thin-film transistor (TFT) by introducing aluminum (AI) dopant in the SnO channel layer. An extremely high field-effect mobility $(\mu_{\text{FE}}$ ) of 8 cm2/V·s and an on-to-off current ratio $(I_{\text{on}}/I_{\text{off}})$ of ~103 were obtained in this p-channel Al-doped SnO (A1:SnO) TFT. Furthermore, the device performances of the Al:SnO TFT including the $I_{\text{on}}/I_{\text{off}}$ and subthreshold swing (SS) were greatly improved by fluorine plasma treatment (FPT) on the Al:SnO channel layer. In addition, in order to study the channel plasma effect on the device performances, TCAD simulation was carried out based on the p-channel Al:SnO TFT by introducing the density of state (DOS) model. The simulation results indicated that the device performance enhancements were further achieved because the attributes of acceptor-like Gaussian defect states and donor-like band-tail state were modified during the FPT.

Pressure calibration for most diamond-anvil cell (DAC) experiments is mainly based on the ruby scale, which is key to implementing this powerful tool for high-pressure study. However, the ruby scale can often hardly be used for programmably controlled DAC devices, especially the piezoelectric-driving cells, where a continuous pressure calibration is required. In this work, we present an effective pressure gauge for DACs made of Manganin metal based on the four-probe resistivity measurements. Pressure dependence of its resistivity is well established and shows excellent linear relations in the 0-30 GPa pressure range with a slope of 23.4 (9) GPa for the first-cycle compression, in contrast to that of multiple-cycle compression and decompression having a nearly identical slope of 33.7 (4) GPa likely due to the strain effect. In addition, the such-established Manganin scale can be used for continuously monitoring the cell pressure of piezoelectric-driving DACs, and the reliability of this method is also verified by the fixed-point method with a Bi pressure standard. Realization of continuous pressure calibration for programmably controlled DACs would offer many opportunities for the study of dynamics, kinetics, and critical behaviors of pressure-induced phase transitions.

In this study, the preparation and magnetic properties of Ca–Sr M-type (Ca1-x-yLaxSryFe10.9CozO19) ferrire magnets were investigated. A M-type singlephase calcined powder was synthesized with a composition of x ​= ​0.45, y ​= ​0.18 and z ​= ​0. And a very high magnetic properties of Br ​= ​5425Gauss and iHc ​= ​4602Oe were obtained by the thermal annealing and secondary fine-milling method in the sintered magnets. The magnetic properties greats exceeds that of traditional Sr–La–Co M-type ferrite, which has been the highest grade M-type hard ferrite. By use of the innovative post-processing method, the improvement could be attributed to about 4% and 0.8% increase in motor torque and motor efficiency in comparison to that of conventional process, which will eventually be used in high-efficiency motors.

In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm that estimates the pose of the robot end effector using depth vision. The input to our system is the segmented robot hand point cloud from a depth sensor. Then a neural network takes a point cloud as input and outputs the position and orientation of the robot end effector in the camera frame. The estimated pose can serve as the input of the controller of the robot to reach a specific pose in the camera frame. The training process of the neural network takes the simulated rendered point cloud generated from different poses of the robot hand mesh. At test time, one estimation of a single robot hand pose is reduced to 10ms on gpu and 14ms on cpu, which makes it suitable for close loop robot control system that requires to estimate hand pose in an online fashion. We design a robot hand pose estimation experiment to validate the effectiveness of our algorithm working in the real situation. The platform we used includes a Kinova Jaco 2 robot arm and a Kinect v2 depth sensor. We describe all the processes that use vision to improve the accuracy of pose estimation of the robot end-effector. We demonstrate the possibility of using point cloud to directly estimate the robot’s end-effector pose and incorporate the estimated pose into the controller design of the robot arm.

Continental coverage and year-round operation of the weather radar networks provide an unprecedented opportunity for studying large-scale airborne migration. The broad and local-scale airborne information collected by these infrastructures can answer many ecological questions. However, extracting and interpreting the biological information from such massive weather radar data remains an intractable problem. Recently, many big-data problems have been solved using the deep learning technology. In this study, the biological information in the weather radar data is identified using the advanced deep learning method. The proposed method consists of two main parts, i.e., a rendering and casting procedure and an image segmentation procedure based on a convolutional neural network. The biological data are automatically extracted by rendering and mapping, image segmentation, and result masking. By analyzing the typical radar data from single and multiple stations, we partly reveal the intensity and speed of the migration pattern. We present the first feasibility study of the extraction of local and large-scale biological phenomena from the Chinese weather radar network data.

In this work, we investigated the negative capacitance (NC) effect of ferroelectric HfAlO on the poly-silicon thin film transistor devices using high-$\kappa$ HfO 2 gate insulator by simulation. Excellent performances were achieved, including a high on-state drive current, a high I on /I off of $\gt10^{7}$ and a low subthreshold swing of 58 mV/dec. These enhanced performances were related to the strong ferroelectric polarization inducing NC effect to obtain excellent gate controllability.

The effect of specific surface area (SSA) of Fe 2 O 3 was investigated while evaluating the raw material of Y 3 Fe 5 O 12 (yttrium iron garnet (YIG)) preparation. For YIG ferrite, the specific surface area of Fe 2 O 3 , rather than average particle size ( D 50 ), was found to markedly affect the mixing homogeneity of powders in the mixing procedure and the magnetic properties. Increasing the specific surface area of Fe 2 O 3 resulted in the increase of the remanence ( B r ) and squareness ratio ( SQR ); meanwhile, it also caused an obvious reduction in coercivity ( H C ) for the sintered specimens. An upgrade in the specific surface area of raw material Fe 2 O 3 could further resulted in a decrease in slurry viscosity in the mixing procedure, which promotes slurry mixing homogeneity and further promotes reactivity in the calcination and sintering processes. Consequently, a larger B r and SQR and a smaller H C were obtained. In addition, good ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) line width (i.e., Δ H ) properties were also realized as 36.7 Oe at 3.2 GHz using the selected Fe 2 O 3 . As found in this study, the strict control of raw material Fe 2 O 3 is critical in tailoring suitable B r and H C for the YIG ferrite manufacturing process.

Diamond anvil cell techniques are now well established as a powerful and wide useful method to measure the properties of materials in the very high pressure experiment. However, the measurement of material resistance at the high pressure in the experiment is a big challenge because the electrodes are difficult to be made on the diamond anvil with small top area of the 0.3 mm diameter and have good contact with the sample under the extreme high pressure conditions. In this paper, a new method is used to fabricate the microelectrodes on the diamond anvil surface for the high pressure experiment. Firstly, a special Nickel shadow mask with the electrode patterns, which is made by micro-fabrication technology, is installed and fixed onto the diamond anvil surface with the glue by aligning the electrodes of the shadow mask with the center of the diamond anvil under the microscope. Then, the metal film is deposited onto the anvil with nickel shadow mask by magnetron sputtering. Finally, the microelectrodes having the same patterns with the hollowed structures of the shadow mask can be made with the sputtering material to adhere on the diamond anvil surface after the removal of the shadow mask off the anvil. This new method is simpler, easier to be operated, and less pollution produced to the diamond anvil cell than the traditional method.

(100-x)(Ge23Se67Sb10)-xI (x = 0, 3, 5, 7, 10 wt%) chalcohalide glasses were prepared by the traditional melt-quenched method. The structure and physical properties were analyzed by using XRD, TMA, FTIR and Vickers hardness tester. It was found that the glass structure trends to crystallization with increase of iodine content. The values of infrared transmittance decrease from 62% to 35% in the range of 2.5–16 μm with increasing iodine content. The density decreases from 4.62 ± 0.3 g cm−3 to 4.31 ± 0.3 g cm−3, the hardness decreases from 164.9 ± 0.5 kg mm−2 to 154.6 ± 0.5 kg mm−2. The glass transition point Tg decreases from 267 °C to 205 °C, while the thermal expansion coefficient increases with iodine content.

Recovery of useful chemicals or materials from wastewater and waste is promising green engineering for reducing pollution and generating new functional materials. In this paper, zinc oxide (ZnO) was used as a photo-catalyst to recover light-reduction soluble-graphene-oxide (LRSGO) from soluble-graphene-oxide (SGO)-containing wastewater. The 72.65% of SGO particles in wastewater were reduced to LRSGO materials, which could be applied in optical devices. Organic pollutants and 27.35% of SGO particles in wastewater were simultaneously degraded to give CO2 and H2O in the photo-catalysis procedure. Therefore, wastewater containing SGO particles and organic pollutants was treated to give clear water and optical materials. FT-IR and XPS spectra show that LRSGO contains only one kind of functional groups –OH on its surface. Optical experiments suggest that LRSGO is good optical materials for fabricating pulse laser devices. Compared with graphene, signal intensity of the solid laser fabricated by LRSGO would be strong, moreover, pulse duration (3.5 ns) of the solid laser fabricated by LRSGO would be narrow compared with GO. This paper suggests an environment-friendly method of recovery of LRSGO from wastewater to acquire optical materials for solid laser devices.

In this study, an inkjet-printed dielectric film that used a polymer-based SU-8 ink was fabricated for use in a metal–insulator–metal (MIM) capacitor. Thermal treatment of the inkjet-printed SU-8 polymer film affected its surface morphology, chemical structure, and surface wettability. A 20-min soft-bake at 60°C was applied to eliminate inkjet-printed bubbles and ripples. The ultraviolet-exposed SU-8 polymer film was crosslinked at temperatures between 120°C and 220°C and became disordered at 270°C, demonstrated using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. A maximum SU-8 polymer film hard-bake temperature of 120°C was identified, and a printing process was subsequently employed because the appropriate water contact angle of the printed film was 79°. Under the appropriate inkjet printing conditions, the two-transmission-line method was used to extract the dielectric and electrical properties of the SU-8 polymer film, and the electrical behavior of the fabricated MIM capacitor was also characterized.

An experiment was performed to investigate whether CaCO 3 and SiO 2 addition enhances the magnetic properties of cobalt-free M-type Sr ferrites, in which experimental parameters such as additive composition and the CaCO 3 /SiO 2 ratio were changed. The specimens were prepared using conventional ceramic techniques. CaCO 3 addition promoted densification and uniform grain growth, resulting in high remanence; however, with the simultaneous addition of CaCO 3 and SiO 2 , coercivity decreased to 3046 Oe in Sr ferrite hard magnets without Co 3 O 4 . SiO 2 addition suppressed grain growth. The addition of appropriate concentrations of CaCO 3 and SiO 2 as additives after calcination was shown to be very beneficial for tailoring a dense microstructure with relatively small grains. A CaCO 3 /SiO 2 ratio of approximately 1.8 was found to be optimum, and the magnetic properties of B r = 4.3 kG, i H c = 3.7 kOe, and ( BH ) max = 4.5 MGOe were obtained for Sr ferrite hard magnets without Co 3 O 4 , which are acceptable for motor applications under output power

Achieving high latch-up immunity is critical for power-rail electrostatic discharge (ESD) clamp circuits in high-voltage (HV) integrated circuit products. To investigate how shunt resistance affects the transmission line pulsing current–voltage characteristics of resistance-triggered stacked silicon controlled rectifiers (SCRs), a lateral SCR (LSCR) and a modified LSCR were combined in several SCR stacked structures with various shunt resistances. Compared with in tradition stacked ESD cells, the snapback margin of the SCRs does not expand and can even be reduced. A high holding voltage of 33.4 V is achieved using the resistance-triggered stacked SCR technique in a $0.11~\mu \text{m}$ 32-V HV process. A trigger voltage of approximately 51 V and a failure current of 3.3 A is achieved in this experiment. According to theorem analysis based on a voltage decoupling equation, the minimum trigger voltage can probably be further reduced to 46 V by using the resistance-triggered stacked SCR technique. This paper can offer a simple guideline for designing ESD protection circuit using the resistor-triggered SCRs stacking structure.

This study integrates “TMAH wet etching” “photo-assisted electrochemical etching’, “PtRu binary metal chemical plating”, and “methanol modification” techniques to develop a micro direct methanol fuel cell. The battery electrode plate is made into microchannel + porous silicon (PS) and microchannel + through-silicon via (TSV) plate electrodes using a silicon wafer as the substrate. When the anode and cathode use a PS electrode and TSV electrode, respectively, the maximum open-circuit voltage is 0.4 V, which is 1.5 times the cell using the PS electrode and 6.7 times the cell using the TSV electrode. The PtRu binary metal is uniformly coated on the surface of a graphene and carbon nanotube to form a compound catalyst layer (PtRu/G-CNT), where the Pt and Ru contents are 34.1 wt% and 2.6 wt%, respectively. In the half-cell test, the oxidation current peak of PtRu/G-CNT is 5 mA/cm 2, which is 2.02 times and 2.4 times that of Pt/G-CNT and PtRu/G, respectively. When the fuel is mixed with 0.1% surfactant of sodium dihexyl sulfosuccinate, the maximum power density is 0.336 MW/cm2, and the maximum open-circuit voltage is 0.48 V, which are 1.4 times and 1.2 times the case without a surfactant, respectively.

Background Microwave processing techniques have been extensively used in the food industry due to its significant reduction in cooking time and energy consumption. Microwave processing technologies such as microwave drying, heating and sterilizing play a significant role in food quality and safety control. However, few reviews have been published in recent years summarizing the latest developments in the application of microwave technology in the food industry. Scope and approach This review focuses on recent applications of microwave processing technologies including microwave drying, heating, and sterilizing in fruit (banana, apple, olive, sour cherries, pomegranate arils, blueberries, kiwifruit, aronia, strawberry, and grape tomato), vegetables (potato, bamboo shoot, purslane leaves, onion, green bean, pumpkin, eggplant, edamame, sea tangle, garlic, kale, red cabbage, tomato, cassava, lentils, chickpea, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, jalapeno peppers, and coriander foliage), and meat products (sardine fish, restructured silver carp slices, sea cucumber, beef semitendinosus muscle, bovine supraspinatus muscle, camel longissimus dorsi muscle, foal meat, bovine gluteus medium muscle, chicken steak, mature cows semimembranosus and semitendinosus muscles, kavurma (a ready-to-eat meat product), salmon, cod, drumettes, and beef slices), changes in product quality as affected with microwave processing are discussed in details, and future directions of research are presented. Key findings and conclusions Microwave drying has the advantages of low energy consumption and high efficiency as compared to conventional drying, while producing more porous structure of foods. Microwave drying usually combines with other conventional drying to enhance the quality of a food product. Compared with the traditional method, microwave heating or cooking can generally retain higher levels of bioactive components, antioxidant activity and attractive color of vegetables, while microwave cooking with water can cause a serious drop in nutrients due to leaching and thermal liability. Microwave sterilization has the capacity to completely inactivate microorganisms and effectively destroy enzyme activity, and less effect on antioxidant activity, texture and color of food products compared with conventional pasteurization.

Background Advanced food processing technologies such as microwave heating have experienced increased popularity, as alternatives to conventional processing methods for diverse applications in the food industry. A new dimension, is the concept of microwave-assisted food processing techniques, which utilize the advantages of microwave energy to overcome the shortcomings of conventional and some emerging food processing methods. Scope and approach This paper reviews some microwave-assisted (MA) food processing technologies, such as MA-ultrasonication, MA-ohmic heating, MA-electron irradiation, MA-freezing, MA-osmotic dehydration, MA-infrared heating, and microwave-vacuum processing (MA-VC). In particular, their effects in terms of enhancing product quality and process efficiency, including principles and mechanisms are discussed. Promising food applications includes drying, extraction, baking, roasting, pasteurization/sterilization, tempering. Future strategies to further widen their applications are highlighted and salient drawbacks are also taken into consideration. Key findings and conclusions In general, the resultant benefits of microwave assistance to conventional or emerging food processing technologies include high thermal efficiency, shorter processing time, reduced operational cost and improved product quality. It is hoped that this paper will increase positive ratings for microwave assisted food processing technologies and promote their adoption by the food industry. However, it is important that appropriate simulation models for process optimization be developed alongside.

Although graphene oxide framework-based membranes separation represent an effective and potential process in water purification and desalination, instability and low flux of the membrane make them still challenging in industrial application. Herein, isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) was selected as cross-linking for covalent modification of graphene oxide nanosheets to design the newly graphene oxide-framework membranes (GOF) by a facile vacuum-assisted filtration method. The cross-linked GO-IPDI membrane can be used to effectively remove dyes and heavy metals via filtration. Results of filtration experiments and microstructure characterization confirmed that IPDI cross-linking GO not only enhanced structural stability but also enlarged the nano-channels among GO sheets for higher water permeability. The GO-IPDI membrane exhibited a high flux of 80–100 L m−2 h−1 bar−1 under an extremely low external pressure (1.0 bar). It exhibited a high rejection rate (above 96%) for dyes including methylene blue, methylene orange and rhodamine-B and congo red. While the retention was moderate for Pb2+, Cu2+, Cd2+, Cr3+ ranging from 40% to 70%. These results demonstrated the potential application of GO-IPDI in wastewater and provided a novelty way of design and fabrication of high water permeability and excellent separation performance of graphene-based membranes product.

In this brief, we reported a ferroelectric versatile memory with strained-gate engineering. The versatile memory with high-strain-gate showed a >40% improvement on ferroelectric hysteresis window, compared to low-strain case. The high compressive stress induced from high nitrogen-content TaN enhances monoclinic-to-orthorhombic phase transition to reach stronger ferrolectric polarization and lower depolarization field. The versatile memory featuring ferroelectric negative capacitance exhibited excellent transfer characteristics of the sub-60-mVdec subthreshold swing, ultralow off-state leakage of $\mu \text{m}$ and $> 10^{\mathsf {8}}$ on/off current ratio. Furthermore, the ferroelectric versatile memory can be switched by ±5 V under 20-ns speed for a long endurance cycling (~1012 cycles). The low-power operation can be ascribed to the amplification of the surface potential to reach the strong inversion and fast domain polarization at the correspondingly low program/erase voltages.

Hybrid encoding technique is an efficient method to expand the coding capacity in radio-frequency identification chipless tag design. In this study, a novel hybrid coding technique by combining amplitude deviation and frequency position encoding is proposed. The proposed tag is based on three circle ring resonators with loaded resistors. A transmission line model is employed to illustrate the operation principle of the impedance loading technique. A coding capacity of at least 23.7 bits is obtained within a compacted dimension of 3 cm × 3 cm. Corresponding experiments on realised prototypes are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed design.

Summary This paper presents cross-coupled voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) involving array of switchable inductors (i.e., N = 1 and N = 2 switchable inductors) and implemented using gallium-nitride high electron mobility transistors on Si substrate technology for worldwide interoperability for microwave access applications. Band selection and coarse frequency tuning were achieved using the array of switchable inductors, whereas fine tuning was controlled using varactors. Two bands were obtained using the one-stage switchable inductor VCO operating in the ranges 3.41–3.57 GHz and 3.85–3.94 GHz. The VCO output power (Pout) was 21.8 dBm at 3.57 GHz from a 10-V power supply. Four continuous bands were obtained using the two-stage switchable inductors VCO operating in the range of 3.16–3.4, 3.25–3.64, 3.48–3.71 and 3.64–3.9 GHz, respectively. An additional band was generated by fine-tuning the inductance through mutual coupling between the transmission line and one of the inductors. The proposed two-stage switchable inductors VCO provided a 21% tuning range at frequencies ranging with a control voltage ranging from 12 to 20 V, a low phase noise of −123 dBc/Hz at a 1-MHz offset from a 3.3-GHz carrier and a Pout of 21 dBm at 3.5 GHz from a 10-V power supply. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) were largely sprayed on the floodplain soils before the project of Returning Farmland to Lake in China, which caused contamination of sediment in Dong-ting Lake with dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) and posed threats to human health and other organisms. In this study, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) at different concentrations of 0.058, 0.145 and 0.29 wt% were used to manage residual DDTs and HCHs in Dong-ting Lake sediment. The efficacy was assessed by DDTs and HCHs deriving from the aqueous equilibrium experiment and uptake in semipermeable membrane devices (SPMDs). Desorption experiment and the quiescent flux experiment were conducted as well. The results showed that DDTs and HCHs were released from sediment. The p , p′ -DDT was desorbed less readily than its metabolites and similarly α -HCH was desorbed less easily than other HCH isomers from sediment. Carbon nanotubes had great effects on treating DDTs and HCHs. The effectiveness of carbon nanotube amendment was dependent on type, dose and sediment-sorbent contact time In addition, carbon nanotubes being sprinkled on the surface of sediment as a cap and being injected into sediment as a mixture were considered as two effective ways to prevent DDTs and HCHs being released from sediment. Carbon nanotubes can be potentially useful as sorbents in in-situ remediation.

The amorphous alloys, Fe80Si20, Fe78Si9B13, and Fe4Co67Mo1.5Si16.5B11, were prepared by the spinning method in pure argon. The crystallization behaviors of the three amorphous alloys were researched by in-situ X-ray diffraction (XRD), and the crystallization activation energy was calculated, based on the results of differential scanning calorimetry. The crystallization mechanism of the Fe- and Co-based alloys was analyzed, based on the experimental data. The transformation kinetics was described in terms of Johnson–Mehl–Avrami kinetics, except that the Avrami exponent of the Fe78Si9B13 amorphous alloy annealed at 753 K (480 °C) was 4.12; the obtained values for the overall Avrami exponents of the other three amorphous alloys were below 1, as usually found for the Fe-Si amorphous alloys.

For the traditional cold and hot compress products, it is not easy to carry, the cooling and heating speed is slow and the temperature is uncontrollable. This paper proposes a safe, pollution-free, portable cold and hot therapy device. We can view and adjust temperature by using semiconductor refrigeration chip, temperature controller, wireless Bluetooth, controller, cooling fan and other modules. With this technology, cold and hot compress function can be switched easily. Putting medicine bag with traditional Chinese herb on the device is beneficial to improve blood circulation and body immunity. It can be also promote the absorption of inflammatory exudation and edema. Putting water bag on it, the metabolism of blood seepage, blood stasis and hematoma can be reduced.

In this paper, the ferroelectric polarization effect of ZrO 2 capping layer on HfO 2 MFM capacitor was investigated. Based on crystallinity analysis, the phase transformation from monoclinic to orthorhombic phase in HfO 2 film can be induced by a thin ZrO 2 capping layer. The thickness of ZrO 2 capping layer plays an important role in the ferroelectric polarization of HfO 2 MFM capacitor. Compared to mixed HfZrO film, the stacked ZrO 2 /HfO 2 film shows the advantage for suppressing the leakage issue during hightemperature ferroelectric phase transition.

The presented voltammetric mercury(II) sensor is based on the specific interaction between Hg(II) ion and thymine-thymine base pairs. Reduced graphene oxide is functionalized with gold nanorods and then loaded with thionine and streptavidin (RGO@AuNR-TH-SA). A T-rich thiolated DNA (S1) is firstly immobilized on a gold electrode. In the presence of Hg (II), the T-rich biotin-DNA (biotin-S2) binds to S1 via T-Hg(II)-T interaction. Then, the RGO@AuNR-TH-SA is linked to the gold electrode by specific binding between SA and biotin-S2. This produces an electrochemical signal (at -0.208 V vs. Ag/AgCl) of TH that depends on the concentration of Hg (II). The peak current increases linearly in the 1 to 200 nM Hg (II) concentration range, and the detection limit is 0.24 nM. The sensor is highly selective for Hg (II) over other environmentally relevant metal ions, even at concentration ratios of1000. Graphical abstract Schematic representation of a voltammetric biosensor for mercury(II) using reduced graphene oxide@gold nanorods (RGO@AuNRs) and thymine-Hg(II)-thymine interaction. It is based on the fact that RGO@AuNR can strongly adsorb thionine (TH) and streptavidin to realize the signal amplification.

In this work, we investigated ferroelectric and antiferroelectric effects in ferroelectric HfAlO capacitor with various aluminum doping concentrations. With the increase of aluminum doping concentration, the transition from ferroelectric to weak anti-ferroelectric properties can be observed by measuring polarization hysteresis and transient current response. The experimental results prove that the aluminum doping concentration of HfAlO material not only affects the ferroelectric-antiferroelectric transition, but also determine the leakage issue during domain switching.

The annealing-induced phase transformation was investigated in coarse-grained and severely deformed nanocrystalline face-centered cubic (FCC) high entropy alloys (HEA). Increasing temperature leads to phase transformations from the FCC phase to an L12 phase and finally to a B2 phase in the coarse-grained HEA. By contrast, direct transformation from the FCC phase to the B2 phase was observed in the nanocrystalline HEA at a lower temperature. Keywords: High entropy alloy, Nanocrystalline, Annealing, Phase transformation

The promising electronic and optical properties of InGaN alloy, such as high two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) electron mobility, wide tunability of photon emission energy from 0.7 to 3.4 eV, have givenrisetonumbersofapplications inthepastdecade. Theseinclude highpowerandhighelectronmobilitytransistor(HEMT),visiblelight emitting devices, tandem solar cell, and solid state lighting. 1‐7 To realize, a method that capable of growing device-quality III-V nitrides is essential. Among all growth methods, metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy (MOVPE) has proved itself to be the most reliable and major tool to produce these devices with mass-production feasibility. However, difficulties arise for this method in preparing high In content InxGa1−xN film (x > 30%) with acceptable optical and electrical properties. This stems mainly from the intrinsic properties of material itself, such as thermal instability of InN, wide miscibility gap, and large thermal- and lattice-mismatch between InGaN layer and underlying GaN base layer, and poor cracking efficiency of NH3 .T hese lead to generations of considerable amounts of nitrogen vacancies, pits, In-rich clusters and/or structure defects in the film to deteriorate its material properties. 8‐17 Inourpreviouswork,wehaveemployedaso-calledthetwo-heater MOVPE horizontal reactor, consisting of a pair of paralleled ceiling and substrate heaters, 18 to grow InGaN films. We demonstrated its ability in preparing high In-content thick InGaN films with emission wavelength extended into infrared color region, and more importantly exhibiting good optical-quality and high spectral uniformity. For in

The fracture behavior of a carbon nanotube (CNT)/alumina nanocomposite at cryogenic temperature (77 K) is reported. The hardness and fracture toughness of the composite at 77 K increase 64.8% and 22.7% , respectively, over that at 293 K. The effect of the interfacial bonding strength between CNTs and alumina grains on the fracture mode and consequently on fracture toughness at 77 K has been studied by fractographic analysis. In addition, the mechanism of fracture toughness enhancement of the nanocomposite at cryogenic temperature is theoretically analyzed.

This letter reports on a tin oxide (SnO) thin-film transistor (TFT) with p-type conduction that uses aluminum (Al) doping in the SnO active channel layer. Performance enhancements were further achieved by applying fluorine plasma treatment on the p-type Al-doped SnO channel layer. The effects of the fluorine plasma treatment were also investigated.By tuning the power of the fluorine plasma treatment on the p-type Al-doped SnO channel layer, the optimal TFT device showed a very high on/off current ratio of 2.58×10 6 and a low threshold swing of 174 mV/decade, which could be attributed to the passivation effect of the plasma fluorination on the dominant donor-like traps at the SnO/HfO 2 interface, as reflected by the suppression of the hysteresis phenomenon, the low density of interface traps, and the small subthreshold swing. The results indicate that the p-type Al-doped SnO TFT device with fluorine plasma treatment has considerable potential for application in future high-performance displays.

To understand the effect of deposition sequence of ferroelectric HfZrO, we investigated the ferroelectric polarization characteristics of a 50%-zirconium-doped HfZrO and a stacked HfZrO metal-ferroelectric-metal capacitors. Based on experimental results, we find that the leakage current can be effectively suppressed in stacked HfZrO film. The film stack structure is favorable for simultaneously stabilizing the ferroelectric polarization and minimizing the generation of interface defect traps during the post-metal annealing process with a thermal budget of 600 – 800 °C, which is favorable for complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor frond- and back-end process integration with various thermal budget requirement.

In this work, we demonstrated that the 5-nm-thick HfAlO x negative capacitance transistor (NCFET) with optimized Al doping can achieve a minimum 33 mV dec−1 subthreshold swing (SS), an ultralow I off of 7.44 fA μm−1, and a high I on /I off ratio of 1.9 × 108. The NC switching with sub-60 mV dec−1 SS can be implemented from V DS = 0.2 V to 0.8 V due to an ultralow off-state leakage current. The experimental results reveal that well-controlled Al doping in HfAlO x not only reduces off-state leakage of the transistor, but also improves the ferroelectric NC effect to achieve a sub-60 mV dec−1 switching under a favorably low sub-1 voltage. This scaled HfAlO x NCFET with optimized Al doping and fluorine defect passivation shows the great potential for the application of low power logic devices.

Compared to AC micro-grid, DC micro-grid has some advantages in improving power quality, decreasing energy consumption and other cost. Firstly, DC micro-grid with multi-sources and multi-loads are put forward. Secondly, its energy management and coordinated control structure are studied. Lastly, we focus on hybrid energy storage system (HESS), especially the HESS topology.

In this work, we successfully achieve a hysteresis-free negative capacitance field effect transistors (NCFETs) by exploiting a defect passivation scheme. This research work simultaneously provides a new insight into the gate-oxide stress reliability of NCFET. The fluorine-passivated HfAlOx NCFET shows the excellent transistor characteristics including a steep subthreshold swing of sub-30-mV/dec, a negligible hysteresis-free switch of ∼10mV and a large on/off current reatio (I on /I off ) of >107. Most importantly, fluorine passivation for NC HfAlOx effectively suppress the generation of shallow traps during electrical stress test. Besides, it is favorable to maintain NC operation and SILC immunity by in-situ fluorine passivation, which has been verified by transient pulse I-V measurement.