•Compositional contrast of annular backscattered electron detectors is increased.•The method is based on physical properties of the backscattered electron signal.•Analytical and semi-empirical ...algorithms for realizations are provided.•The proposed method is robust with respect to artifacts.
A method for increasing compositional or material contrast of a standard semiconductor BSE detector in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) by compensation of the topographic contrast component is proposed. Compensation is based on the physical properties of backscattered electron emission and topography information of the specimen's surface.
Three analytical and semi-empirical compensation algorithms employing different physical models and approximations are implemented and compared to conventional BSE signals to show the effectivity of the proposed compensation approach.
A noncontact power feeding and data-transmission system for an underwater sensor installed at an ocean observation mooring buoy is proposed. Magnetic properties of the proposed system are evaluated ...with the use of software package ELF/MAGIC. We have experimentally confirmed that sufficient power of about 180 mW can be supplied to the sensors and bidirectional signal transmission between sensors and the water-surface located buoy can be accomplished
A design of a low-power CMOS ring oscillator for an application to a 13.56MHz clock generator in an implantable RFID tag is proposed. The circuit is based on a novel voltage inverter, which is an ...improved version of the conventional current-source loaded inverter. The proposed circuit enables low-power operation and low sensitivity of the oscillation frequency, fOSC, to decay of the power supply VDD. By employing a gm-boosting subcircuit, power dissipation is decreased to 49μW at fOSC=13.56MHz. The sensitivity of fOSC to VDD is reduced to -0.02 at fOSC=13.56MHz thanks to the use of composite high-impedance current sources.
The design of a mixed-signal CMOS low-voltage low-power circuit for a compact-size pulsed ultrasonic distance measurement system for obstacle detection is proposed. The presented mixed-signal CMOS ...circuit is completely realized with hardware components and does not employ microcontrollers. The whole circuit system works at a power supply of 0.9 V and dissipates no more than 267 muW. SPICE simulations are performed to validate the designed performances
Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography−time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC × GC−TOF-MS) was applied to the comparative metabolic fingerprinting of a wild-type versus a double mutant strain ...of Escherichia coli lacking the transhydrogenases UdhA and PntAB. Using peak lists generated with the Leco ChromaTOF software as input, we developed retention time correction and data alignment tools (INCA). The accuracy of peak alignment and detection of 1.1- to 4-fold changes in metabolite concentration was validated by a spike-in experiment with 20 standard compounds. A list of 48 significant features that differentiated the two E. coli strains was obtained with an estimated false discovery rate (FDR) of <0.05. A total of 27 metabolites, mainly from the citrate cycle, were identified. That the signal intensity of the m/z 73 trace of the trimethylsilyl (TMS) group reflected true differences in metabolite abundance was confirmed by quantification of pyruvate, fumarate, malate, succinate, α-ketoglutarate, citrate, cis-aconitate, myo-inositol, and glucose-6-phosphate using compound specific fragment ions and stable isotope labeled standards. Relative standard deviations for metabolite extraction and GC × GC−TOF-MS analysis of those analytes ranged from 13.2 to 26.3% for the universal m/z 73 trace and 7.4 to 24.5% for the analyte specific fragment ion trace.