Abstract: An exponential charge pump uses a number of identical or similar charging stages, each having a first and second capacitor. During a first clock phase, the first capacitor of each stage is charged by the second capacitor of the preceding stage, and, during a complementary second clock phase, the positive plate of the first capacitor of each stage is pushed to an increased voltage by the first capacitor of the preceding stage and charges the second capacitor of the next stage to the increased voltage at the same time. A similar mechanism occurs to the second capacitors in each stage, but with complementary timing. The increased voltage of the first capacitor of the last stage is pumped to an output capacitor during the second clock phase, and the increased voltage of the second capacitor of the last stage is pumped to an output capacitor during the first clock phase.

Abstract: The invention provides a method and apparatus for noise reduction of a signal, for example speech enhancement of a speech signal. The method involves a two-stage algorithm comprising performing a preprocessing first spectral subtraction to remove tonal noise and generate a tonal noise removed signal, and performing a second spectral subtraction to remove noise from the said tonal noise removed signal. In both spectral subtraction stages noise is not removed completely but only to a level below an audible threshold in order to avoid unwanted artifacts.

Abstract: Several electromagnetic scattering structures are designed to improve antenna radiation patterns. The electromagnetic scattering structure has a conductive layer with certain patterns, and is applied on the radome of the base-station sector antenna. The electromagnetic waves radiating from the antenna therein induce scattering effects, which, together with the electromagnetic diffractions from the rear metal panel of the antenna, can substantially reduce the back lobe and the fields in regions not covered by the antenna. Thus, the antenna radiation patterns are improved so that a lower possibility of co-channel interferences between adjacent base stations can be achieved and therefore better efficiency of the base-station coverage also can be obtained.

Abstract: A method is described for treating fabrics, yarns and individual fibers to improve the mechanical properties thereof, for example their wrinkle-resistance, by treating the fabric, yarn, and fibers in a solution containing nanoparticles. The nanoparticles include two sizes of particles and b appropriate selection of the nanoparticles the degree and mode of cross-linking in the fabric can be controlled with corresponding control of the mechanical properties.

Abstract: There are disclosed three fast rate control methods that can efficiently reduce or remove the computation and memory usage redundancy over conventional PCRD methods. The first method, called successive bit-plane rate allocation (SBRA), assigns the maximum allowable bit-rate for each bit-plane of each code-block by using the currently available rate-distortion information only. The second method is called priority scanning rate allocation (PSRA). This first predicts the order of magnitude of each truncation point's rate-distortion slope and then encodes the truncation points based on the order (priority) information. The third method uses PSRA to obtain a significantly smaller amount of data than PCRD for optimal truncation and is called priority scanning with optimal truncation (PSOT). SBRA provides the highest computational complexity and memory usage reduction, and the lowest coding/transmission delay. The computational complexity reduction can be up to about 90% of the entropy coding process.

Abstract: An a-C:H ISFET device and manufacturing method thereof. The present invention prepares a-C:H as the detection membrane of an ISFET by plasma enhanced low pressure chemical vapor deposition (PE-LPCVD) to obtain an a-C:H ISFET. The present invention also measures the current-voltage curve for different pH and temperatures by a current measuring system. The temperature parameter of the a-C:H ISFET is calculated according to the relationship between the current-voltage curve and temperature. In addition, the drift rates of the a-C:H ISFET for different pH and hysteresis width of the a-C:H ISFET for different pH loops are calculated by a constant voltage/current circuit and a voltage-time recorder to measure the gate voltage of the a-C:H ISFET.

Abstract: The present invention provides an integrated electronic microphone formed as part of a semiconductor device, and a manufacturing method therefor. The microphone is formed with a sensing electrode as part of a sensing membrane, and the sensing electrode is connected to the gate of a sensing transistor to provide an output. The microphone may be operated in constant bias or constant charge mode.

Abstract: A photo-alignment layer having excellent long-term stability to light and heat is manufactured by coating a material for the photo-alignment layer, which contains a dichroic dye having two or more polymerizable groups per molecule, on a substrate, and exposing the coating layer to polarized light, thereby imparting a photo-alignment function, and polymerizing the polymerizable groups by heating or light exposure.