Abstract: Time-Mode Signal Processing (TMSP) offers a means for offsetting some of the challenges for analog circuit designs when exploiting CMOS circuit processes designed for digital applications. It would therefore be beneficial to provide a digital method for the storage, addition and subtraction of Time-Mode variables as these offer significant benefit to providing TMSP techniques and expanding their exploitation within devices, systems, and applications. Whilst driven by CMOS process challenges the TM circuits outlined may exploit essentially any digital circuit technology since they are based upon delay. The inventors present an approach to TM variables wherein a switched delay unit is exploited and adopted such that the instantaneous phase difference between two rising signal edges can be latched and used to perform various arithmetic operations. Beneficially, the technique allows analog sampled-data signal processing to be implemented within digital circuitry.

Abstract: Broadband access networks are driving the upgrade of DWDM networks from 10 Gb/s per channel to more spectrally-efficient 40 Gb/s or 100 Gb/s. Signal quality degradation due to linear and non-linear impairments are significant and error control coding and signal processing solutions play increasingly key roles in meeting increasing demand, providing improved quality of service, and reduced cost. It would be beneficial to reduce the power consumption of optical receivers for optical links exploiting for example LPDC encoding. Accordingly, the inventors have established a low complexity soft-decision front-end compatible with deployable LDPC codes in next-generation optical transmission systems. Beneficially the optical receiver design can be retro-fitted into deployed hard-decision based optical systems and replaces the 3-to-2 encoder of the prior art in the electrical portion of the receiver with a single gate design. Further, the design may act as a 2-bit Flash ADC in multimode fiber based optical receivers.

Abstract: In most cancers, a significant factor in a poor outcome for the individual cancer victim is metastatic disease, i.e., dissemination of tumour cells to other parts of the human body via the circulation, such as distant organs, and their subsequent proliferation therein to form multiple other cancer tumours. The presence of circulating tumour cells, or CTCs, represents a vital intermediate step in this process and variations of a few CTCs within blood samples containing tens of billions of cells may denote the outcome for a patient or impact the cancer treatment regimen. At present no low cost field deployable technique for filtering CTCs exists. According to embodiments of the invention micro-machined filters with high aspect ratio, with and without, functionalization are employed to perform multi-parameter filtering for CTCs based upon compatibility with low cost semiconductor processes within multiple materials including silicon, polymers and silicon carbide.

Abstract: Amongst the candidates for very high efficiency electronics, solid state light sources, photovoltaics, and photoelectrochemical devices, and photobiological devices are those based upon metal-nitride nanowires. Enhanced nanowire performance typically require heterostructures, quantum dots, etc which requirement that these structures are grown with relatively few defects and in a controllable reproducible manner. Additionally flexibility according to the device design requires that the nanowire at the substrate may be either InN or GaN. Methods of growing relatively defect free nanowires and associated structures for group IIIA-nitrides are presented without the requirement for foreign metal catalysts, overcoming the non-uniform growth of prior art techniques and allowing self-organizing quantum dot, quantum well and quantum dot-in-a-dot structures to be formed.

Abstract: It would be beneficial to integrate MEMS devices with silicon CMOS electronics, package them in controlled environments, e.g. vacuum for MEMS resonators, and provide industry standard electrical interconnections such as solder bumps. However, to do so requires through-wafer via-based electrical interconnections. However, the fragile nature of the MEMS devices, the requirement for vacuum, hermetic sealing, and the stresses placed on metallization membranes are not present in conventional CMOS packaging. Accordingly there is provided a means of reinforcing through-wafer vias for integrated MEMS-CMOS circuits by in-filling the through-wafer electrical vias with low temperature deposited ceramic materials deposited with processes compatible with post-processing of CMOS electronics. Beneficially ceramics such as silicon carbide provide enhanced mechanical strength, enhanced expansion matching, and increased thermal conductivity in comparison to silicon and solder materials.

Abstract: Polymers and copolymers containing 1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2(3H)-one units have been synthesized under conditions generally used for the synthesis of poly(aryl ether)s. 1H- benzo[d]imidazol-2(3H)-one behaves like a biphenol in the polymerization reaction. The soluble homopolymer has a very high glass transition temperature (348° C.), good thermal stability, and forms flexible transparent films. Because of the low molecular weight (134.14) of the benzoimidazolone monomer in the copolymer formed with 4,4?-biphenol that contains 30 mole % of the benzimidazolone unit, only 8.9 weight % is required to raise the Tg of the poly(arlyl ether)sulfone from 220° C. to 269° C.