Figure Of Merit Value Research Articles

Research on high-quality factor sensing characteristics of all-dielectric nanopore array metasurface based on POA-DELM

Abstract Based on the optical properties of symmetric structures independent of each other in the orthogonal direction, an all-dielectric nano-square hole array metasurface which is symmetric along the diagonal is proposed. By changing the size of square nanopores, the symmetry of the periodic unit structure is broken and the double Fano resonance can be excited. The influence of each structural parameter on the sensing performance of the metasurface is analyzed respectively. As the main structural parameters and performance index, the metasurface height and the lengths of the main and sub-diagonal square nanoholes are selected as the input parameters, and the figure of merit (FOM) value is used as the output value. Then the nonlinear mapping relationship between the input and the output is established through deep extreme learning machine (DELM). Different optimization algorithms are used to optimize the weighted FOM values globally. The four evaluation indicators including root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), and model fit (R-squared, R2) are used to assess the training effectiveness of the model. It is shown that the indexes are 0.9986, 0.9725, 3.1612 and 0.9733 respectively, and the FOM values of the dual Fano resonance after pelican optimization algorithm ( POA ) optimization are as high as 9.88 × 103 and 1.28 × 105, which demonstrate the effectiveness of POA-DELM proposed in this paper.

Ranking Magnetic Colloid Performance for Magnetic Particle Imaging and Magnetic Particle Hyperthermia

AbstractMagnetic particle imaging (MPI) is an emerging modality that can address longstanding technological challenges encountered with magnetic particle hyperthermia (MPH) cancer therapy. MPI is a tracer technology compatible with MPH for which magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) provide signal for MPI and heat for MPH. Identifying whether a specific MNP formulation is suitable for both modalities is essential for clinical implementation. Current models predict that functional requirements of each modality impose conflicting demands on nanoparticle magnetic properties. This objective here is to develop a measurement and ranking scheme based on end‐use performance to streamline evaluation of candidate MNP formulations. The measured MPI point‐spread function (PSF) and specific loss power (SLP) is combined to generate a single numerical value for comparison on a relative ranking scale, or figure of merit (FoM). 12 aqueous iron‐containing formulations are evaluated, including FDA‐approved (parenteral) iron‐containing colloids. MNPs with high (Synomag‐D70: 123.4), medium (Synomag‐D50: 63.2), and low (NanoXact: 0.147) FoM values are selected for in vivo validation of the selection scheme in subcutaneous 4T1 tumors. Results demonstrate that the proposed ranking accurately assessed the relative performance of MNPs for MPI and MPH. Data demonstrated that image quality and tumor temperature rise increased with FoM ranking, validating predictions. It isshown that the MPI signal correlated with MNP concentration in tissue. Computational heat transfer models anchored on tumor MPI data harmonized with experimental results to within an average of 2 °C when MNP content estimated from MPI data is included. Computational studies emphasized the importance of post‐injection MNP quantitation and MPI spatial resolution.

Exploration of physical aspects of Li2AgAsZ6 (Z = F, Cl, Br, I) double perovskites for energy harvesting perspectives

Using density functional theory, the current investigation investigates the physical attributes of the halide double perovskites Li2AgAsZ6 (Z = F, Cl, Br, I). The cubic layout and values of the octahedral and tolerance factors have been evaluated to confirm phase stability. The formation energy of each perovskite has been calculated to ensure thermodynamic stability. The electronic properties have been elaborated, which indicates the semiconductor behavior of Li2AgAsZ6. The calculations exhibited that the energy band gaps of Li2AgAsF6, Li2AgAsCl6, Li2AgAsBr6, and Li2AgAsI6 are 2.35 eV, 2.08 eV, 1.57 eV, and 1.05 eV, respectively. We also computed and comprehensively studied the optical characteristics of these materials in the energy range of 0–8 eV. These materials demonstrate absorption bandwidth in the visible range and are viable contenders for optoelectronic applications. To determine the transport and thermodynamic aspects, we used the BoltzTraP and Gibbs2 codes, respectively. The figures of merit values are observed as 0.79, 0.77, 0.76, and 0.71, respectively. Thermodynamic properties confirm the high-temperature stability of studied materials. Finally, these perovskites can benefit photovoltaic and thermoelectric devices, further requiring experimental validation.

Transmission enhancement mechanism of PT symmetric photonic crystal coupled with grooved sub-wavelength grating

In order to enhance the sensing characteristics of the sensor, based on the periodic sub-wavelength grating(SWG), a groove structure is introduced to make the Fano resonance waveform sharper. At the same time, based on the Parity-Time(PT) symmetry principle, by making the periodic photonic crystal meet the PT symmetry condition, the structure can absorb the energy of the emitted light on the original basis, produce the transmission enhancement effect, and make the transmission peak of the structure exceed 1. The sensing is realized by using the property that the different refractive indices of the detected medium corresponds to different transmission. When the incident light is 1550 nm, the sensitivity and FOM (Figure of Merit) value of the proposed structure reach 5.702 × 105RIU−1and 1.9 × 107 respectively, which greatly improves the performance of the sensor.

Terahertz Characteristics of Mg-Doped CuCrO2 and Its Application to 2π Phase Modulators with High Tunable Capability

We have conducted a detailed characterization of the optical properties of Mg-doped CuCrO2 (CuCrO2: Mg) in the terahertz (THz) frequency range. By utilizing CuCrO2: Mg as transparent electrodes, we have demonstrated the approach for developing high-transmittance and low-operative-voltage THz phase shifters by electrically tuning liquid crystals (LCs). Unlike traditional indium-tin-oxide thin films, we have applied 600 nm-thick CuCrO2: Mg thin films as transparent electrodes, and our results show that this material has great potential for THz photonics. Specifically, the transparent electrode with THz transmission of ∼92% reveals the feasibility of CuCrO2: Mg as a suitable material for THz photonics applications. The phase shifter scheme, which employs a ∼2.2 mm-thick cell, achieves a THz transmittance ∼70%, a phase shift of more than 2π at 1.0 THz can be achieved even for low driving voltages of 14 V(rms). By considering the figure of merit (FOM) of LCs phase modulators defined in this work, the device based on CuCrO2: Mg thin film shows an FOM value of 17.99; much higher than previously reported values. These results suggest that functional electrodes based on CuCrO2: Mg thin films are promising components of THz and 6 G devices.

Comparative Analysis of K-Means and Divisive Clustering Techniques on Balanced Mental Health Data

Effective Clustering of mental health data can provide significant insights into patterns and relationships that are critical for understanding mental health conditions. This study investigated various clustering techniques applied to balanced mental health data to avoid biases associated with an imbalanced data. Clustering of the balanced mental health data was done with respect to the area of Residence feature. Firstly, Random undersampling and SMOTE techniques were incorporated to the imbalanced data set as balancing techniques so as to improve model performance. Random Undersampling Technique turned out to be the most ideal balancing technique with its accuracy, recall, precision and F-score values as 1. After balancing the data, two clustering techniques were applied to the Random Undersampled balanced data. The two techniques were namely: K-means and Divisive techniques. In order to select which of the two clustering techniques is ideal, two test statistics namely Internal Validation and Stability Validation were applied. Results showed that K-means clustering technique indicated slightly lower Average Propotion of None-overlap, Average Distance between Means and Figure Of Merit values given as 0.12, 0.41 and 0.9972 as compared to Divisive clustering technique which were 0.14, 0.42 and 0.9999. The conclusion was that K-means clustering has a better performance. This study's findings will help guide future researchers dealing with mental health data analysis on ways to improve model performance for better and more reliable predictions.

Evaluation of the dielectric, and piezoelectric properties and optimizing the figure of merit of the 0–3 KNN-0.8ZnO/PVDF-HFP piezoelectric composite by the Taguchi method

Piezoelectric ceramic and composite materials are attractive for various applications, but they can be challenging to process. In this research, KNN-0.8ZnO with high density (ρth=95 %), favorable microstructure, and suitable dielectric and piezoelectric properties (K=875, d33=125 pC/N, tanδ=0.01) was first synthesized. Additionally, polyvinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene (PVDF-HFP) copolymer, known for its advantageous piezoelectric and mechanical properties, was selected as the polymer phase. subsequently, the KNN-0.8ZnO/xPVDF-HFP composite samples with a 0–3 connectivity pattern were made with the cold sintering method. The Taguchi design of experiment (DOE) was employed to determine the optimal condition for maximizing the figure of merit (FOM). Furthermore, an analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out to evaluate the significance of individual factors on each measured property. Phase identification was performed using X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, while the microstructure was examined using scanning electron microscopy. Among the different composite samples fabricated using the L9 orthogonal array (OA) of the Taguchi method, the KNN-0.8ZnO/20PVDF-HFP composite containing 20 wt% polymer phase, that was cold-sintered under a pressure of 400 MPa at 200 ͦC for 2 h, exhibited the highest FOM value of 1.945Pm2/N. This result aligns with the optimal conditions predeicated by the Taguchi DOE method. The compressive strength of the KNN-0.8ZnO/20PVDF-HFP composite was assessed through a compression test, yielding a value of 207 MPa, while the elastic modulus was approximately 3 GPa. The findings of this study demonstrate that the cold sintering method is an effective approach for producing dense piezoelectric composites with favorable electrical and mechanical properties, along with a high FOM for energy harvesting applications.

Investigating the optical and electrical performance of rod coated silver nanowire-based transparent conducting films

Silver nanowires (Ag NWs) are highly promising building blocks for developing transparent conducting films (TCFs) due to their high electrical conductivity and good optical transparency. The large-scale production of Ag NW-based high-quality TCFs using low-cost processing methods can replace the traditional oxide based TCFs. Therefore, developing a reliable technique for large-scale fabrication of Ag NW-based TCFs is vital. This work involves the synthesis of Ag NWs, the fabrication of large-area Ag NW-based TCFs using a simple rod coating process, its optimization, and the performance analysis of the fabricated TCFs, including their demonstration as transparent heaters. The polyol synthesis method produces Ag NWs of lengths ranging from 25-110µm and diameters from 80-180 nm. The effect of Ag NW length, the number of coating passes, and the volume of the NW dispersion used per coating pass on the electrical and optical properties of the TCFs are studied by quantifying sheet resistance(Rs)and transmittance (T) of the film. The performance of the fabricated film is evaluated by estimating the figure of merit (FoM) in both percolative and bulk regimes. The TCF made with NWs of length 25.7µm and diameter 85.1 nm had the largest value of bulk FoM (101.3), percolative FoM (43.9), and, conductivity exponent (0.6). This elucidated the superior performance of the fabricated TCFs over those fabricated by other techniques. The critical thickness of the film (tmin), at the crossover between the percolation and bulk, scales with the shortest dimension of the NW, namely its diameter. The percolative FoM showed an increase, with a decrease in both sheet resistance and diameter of the NWs, with lowern. The fabricated TCF is tested as a transparent heater and the demonstration proves that rod coated Ag NW-based TCFs can be used for transparent electrode applications.

Detection of 10 to 300 keV fast neutron using CLYC, CLLB and CLLBC scintillators

The neutron and gamma detection performance of multimode scintillators including Cs2LiYCl6:Ce (CLYC), Cs2LiLaBr6:Ce (CLLB) and Cs2LiLaBr6-,x Clx:Ce (CLLBC) were tested in this work. The energy resolution for 662 keV gamma rays was 4.19% for CLLB, which was better than that of 4.80% for CLLBC and 5.27% for CLYC. The Figure of Merit value (FOM) was used to evaluate the neutron/gamma-ray (n/γ) discrimination capability, which was 2.2 for CLYC, superior than that of 1.3 for CLLBC and 1.1 for CLLB. A method for fast neutrons detection within the energy order of 100 keV was proposed, which could be realized using the 6Li(n, α)T reaction by the fact that the peak centers are sensitive to the incident neutron energy. This was validated by test the energy spectra of CLYC using an Am-Be source with various paraffin moderator, where the peak centers of the energy spectra were found to decrease linearly with the paraffin thickness. The Monte-Carlo simulation was conducted to prove the average neutron energy decreased linearly with the paraffin thickness and the energy spectra results were consistent with the experimental results. It could be concluded that 6Li enriched CLYC (CLLB or CLLBC) could be used to detect fast neutrons in the energy range of 10–300 keV, which further expand the application range of CLYC for multimode neutron gamma detection.

Design and Application of an Onboard Particle Identification Platform Based on Convolutional Neural Networks

Space radiation particle detection plays a crucial role in scientific research and engineering practice, especially in particle species identification. Currently, commonly used in-orbit particle identification techniques include telescope methods, electrostatic analysis time of flight (ESA × TOF), time-of-flight energy (TOF × E), and pulse shape discrimination (PSD). However, these methods usually fail to utilize the full waveform information containing rich features, and their particle identification results may be affected by the random rise and fall of particle deposition and noise interference. In this study, a low-latency and lightweight onboard FPGA real-time particle identification platform based on full waveform information was developed utilizing the superior target classification, robustness, and generalization capabilities of convolutional neural networks (CNNs). The platform constructs diversified input datasets based on the physical features of waveforms and uses Optuna and Pytorch software architectures for model training. The hardware platform is responsible for the real-time inference of waveform data and the dynamic expansion of the dataset. The platform was utilized for deep learning training and the testing of the historical waveform data of neutron and gamma rays, and the inference time of a single waveform takes 4.9 microseconds, with an accuracy rate of over 97%. The classification expectation FOM (figure-of-merit) value of this CNN model is 133, which is better than the traditional pulse shape discrimination (PSD) algorithm’s FOM value of 0.8. The development of this platform not only improves the accuracy and efficiency of space particle discrimination but also provides an advanced tool for future space environment monitoring, which is of great value for engineering applications.

Wavelet-based digital pulse-shape method for discrimination between neutron and gamma-rays with organic scintillation detectors

Organic scintillator detectors are central instruments in many applications involving fast neutrons. Many organic scintillator detectors exhibit pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) properties and are widely used to discriminate between neutron events and background gamma rays. PSD methods have been traditionally implemented using analog electronic circuits; however, in recent years, digital techniques have proven to outperform analog methods in areas such as count rate capability. Many digital PSD algorithms with various levels of achievement have been proposed, and those based on the wavelet transform of digitized scintillation pulses have shown great promise for operation at high event rates, where the pulse pile-up effect limits the performance of PSD methods. However, the proposed wavelet-based PSD methods involve intricate calculations that limit their practical use. In this work, we describe a modified version of the wavelet-based PSD methods that offers significant simplification of the PSD process while still producing excellent PSD performance. The method employs the Haar wavelet transform, which is the simplest available wavelet function and is easily implemented on digital hardware, such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA). We describe the details of the method, and different aspects of its performance are experimentally demonstrated using an experimental setup comprising a NE213 liquid scintillation detector. A figure-of-merit (FOM) of 1.47 ± 0.07 is achieved with an energy threshold of 500 keVee (electron equivalent energy). An excellent FOM value (1.32) is achieved with a short pulse processing window of only 26 ns, indicating the resilience of the method against the pulse pile-up effect.

Graphene-based tunable tri-band terahertz refractive index sensor

A tunable tri-band terahertz refractive index sensor based on graphene is proposed and designed. The structure of the sensor comprises a gold (Au) substrate layer, a dielectric layer (Topas), and a graphene pattern layer. The numerical simulation results demonstrate that the sensor exhibits three narrowband absorption peaks at 1.68, 3.82, and 4.78 THz, and the corresponding absorption rate can reach 99.9%, 98.0%, and 97.9%, respectively. By adjusting the Fermi level of graphene, the resonant frequency of the sensor can be effectively tuned. Notably, due to the rotational symmetry of the structure, the sensor shows insensitivity to transverse magnetic and transverse electric polarizations of incident light. By varying the refractive index of surrounding analytes, the sensor’s sensitivity and Figure of Merit (FOM) are studied. The sensitivities of the three resonance peaks are 0.59, 1.19, and 1.38 THz/RIU, with corresponding FOM values of 2.57, 3.40, and 6.58, respectively. Furthermore, the feasibility and effectiveness of the designed sensor in practical applications are verified by testing five types of samples. These findings indicate that the proposed sensor has superior performance in sensitivity and selectivity, which makes it have a great potential for applications in the fields of material characterization, environmental monitoring, and biomedicine detection in the terahertz band.

Experimental and Numerical Investigation for Hydrothermal Performance of the Jet Impingement Microchannel Heat Sink

Abstract This study experimentally investigated the hydrothermal and overall performance of the microchannel heat sink incorporating the jet impingement technique. Later on, a numerical model is developed using the finite volume-based tool fluent of the commercial software ansys and validated with the experimental results. Improvement in the cooling performance for the fluid impinging normal to the surface is observed in comparison to the parallel flow of fluid in the microchannel. Similarly, variation in the jet impingement microchannel heat sink performance for the single-jet and multijet is also explored. Hydraulic and thermal characteristic parameters such as pressure drop, average heat transfer coefficient, maximum wall temperature, and figure of merit are evaluated for the analysis. Multijet impingement flow exhibited superior heat transfer with respect to the parallel flow and single impingement flow but offered remarkably higher pressure drop. However, the Figure of Merit value is superior for the multijet impingement flow technique with 5 number of jet nozzles. In addition, increasing as well as decreasing the number of jets from 5 jet nozzles for the same mass flowrate diminishes the overall performance of the jet impingement microchannel heat sink.

Computed tomography system performance for different iterative reconstruction algorithms

The number of the Computed Tomography (CT) examinations has increased greatly over the past decade; This has made CT doses the largest source of the individual effective dose from medical exposures worldwide. Evaluation of image quality in CT is an important issue to ensure diagnostic accuracy, while keeping the radiation dose especially to the pediatric patient as low as reasonably possible. The purpose of this study was to assess the physical and psychophysical image quality in pediatric CT for different iterative reconstruction (IR) algorithms. The image quality was measured on each CT system using pediatric QRM abdomen and thorax phantoms for clinical thorax and abdomen examination scanning parameters and using the Catphan 600 phantom for head examination scanning parameters. The performance of each CT systems was evaluated individually using conventional filtered back-projection (FBP) and IR algorithm employed in that system. Noise, contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), inverse image quality figure (IQFinv), modulation transfer function (MTF) and noise power spectrum (NPS) were assessed for FBP and wide range of iteration level of different IR algorithms. Figure of Merit (FOM) parameter was calculated to characterize the dose efficiency of each CT system. The CTDIvol values were changed from 20.6 to 45.7, 0.9 to 7.4 and 2.4–9.6 mGy for pediatric head, thorax and abdomen scanning protocols between CT systems, respectively. With increasing iteration level, image noise decreased while CNR and IQFinv increased. NPS peak was decreased with increasing iteration level for both two (2D) and three dimensional (3D) NPS and the ratio of the 3D NPS to 2D NPS varied from 4.5 to 8.3 for pediatric head, from 4.6 to 8.7 for pediatric thorax and from 4.0 to 14.0 for pediatric abdomen scanning protocols. For all IR algorithms employed with CT systems used in this study, the FOM values were increased with increasing iteration level.

Synthesis and Transport Properties of ZnSnP2-yAsy Chalcopyrite Solid Solutions.

This work focuses on the synthesis and properties of quaternary ZnSnP2-yAsy chalcopyrite solid solutions. Full miscibility of the solid solution is achieved using ball milling followed by hot press sintering. The measured electrical conductivity increases substantially with As substitution from 0.03 S cm-1 for ZnSnP2 to 10.3 S cm-1 for ZnSnAs2 at 715 K. Band gaps calculated from the activation energies show a steady decrease with increasing As concentration from 1.4 eV for ZnSnP2 to 0.7 eV for ZnSnAs2. The Seebeck coefficient decreases significantly with As substitution from nearly 1000 μV K-1 for ZnSnP2 to -100 μV K-1 for ZnSnAs2 at 650 K. Thermal conductivity is decreased for the solid solutions due to alloy phonon scattering, compared to the end members with y = 0 and y = 2, with the y = 0.5 and y = 1.0 samples exhibiting the lowest values of 1.4 W m-1 K-1 at 825 K. Figure of merit values are increased for the undoped solid solutions at lower temperatures when compared to the end members due to the decreased thermal conductivity, with the y = 0.5 sample reaching zT = 1.6 × 10-3 and y = 1 reaching 2.1 × 10-3 at 700 K. The largest values of the figure of merit zT for the undoped series was found for y = 2 with zT = 2.8 × 10-3 at 700 K due to the increasing n-type Seebeck coefficient. Boltztrap calculations reveal that p-doping could yield zT values above unity at 800 K in case of ZnSnAs2, comparable with ZnSnP2.

Pentamodes: Effect of unit cell topology on mechanical properties

Pentamodes (first conceived theoretically by Milton and Cherkaev) are a very interesting class of mechanical metamaterials that can be used as building blocks of structures withdecoupled bulk and shear moduli. The pentamodes usually are composed of double cone-shaped struts with the middle diameter being large and the end diameters being tiny (ideally approaching zero). The cubic diamond geometry was proposed by Milton and Cherkaev as a suitable geometry for the unit cell and has since been used in the majority of the works on pentamodes. In this work, we aim to evaluate the degree to which the base unit cell design contributes to high bulk to shear modulus ratio, also known as Figure Of Merit(FOM). In addition to the diamond unit cell, three other well-known unit cell types are considered, and the effect of small diameter size and the ratio of large-to-small diameter, α, on the FOM is evaluated. The results showed that regardless of the base unit cell shape, the FOM value is highly dependent on the d (the smaller diameter size of double-cone) value, while its dependence on the D (the greater diameter of double-cone) value is very weak. For d/h∝0.05 (h representing the linkage length), figures of merit in the range of 103 could be reached for all the studied topologies.

Effect of blade number on rotor efficiency and noise emission at hovering condition

The configuration of rotors significantly impacts the aerodynamic efficiency and noise emission of multicopters. To date, there are no general guidelines regarding how many blades a rotor should use for optimal aerodynamic performance and minimum noise emission. From the perspectives of aerodynamics and acoustics during the hovering condition, two key parameters, i.e., figure of merit (FM) and overall sound pressure level (OASPL), are evaluated to determine the optimal blade number (BN). The number of blades chosen in this study is BN = 2–6, which is largely observed in commercial multicopters. A genetic algorithm was developed to optimize blade design for each BN-rotor configuration. The individuals are evaluated by steady computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and acoustic analogy for optimizations, and the detailed analyses of optimal ones are further explored by unsteady CFD simulations. The planform of the baseline blade is maintained, and the radial distribution of twist angles is the parameter for optimization. While generating the same thrust, the value of FM keeps increasing as the number of blades increases from 2 to 4, after which the FM value reaches a plateau. The value of OASPL keeps decreasing as the number of blades increases. The reason for the FM and OASPL value trends vs blade number is explained with the numerical simulation results, and a general design rule is suggested at the end.

Dopant Control of Solution-Processed CuI:S for Highly Conductive p-Type Transparent Electrode.

Copper iodide (CuI) has garnered considerable attention as a promising alternative to p-type transparent conducting oxides owing to its low cation vacancy formation energy, shallow acceptor level, and readily modifiable conductivity via doping. Although sulfur (S) doping through liquid iodination has exhibited high efficacy in enhancing the conductivity with record high figure of merit (FOM) of 630 00MΩ-1, solution-processed S-doped CuI (CuI:S) for low-cost large area fabrication has yet to be explored. Here, a highly conducting CuI:S thin-film for p-type transparent conducting electrode (TCE) is reported using low temperature solution-processing with thiourea derivatives. The optimization of thiourea dopant is determined through a comprehensive acid-base study, considering the effects of steric hindrance. The modification of active groups of thioureas facilitated a varying carrier concentration range of 9×1018-2.52×1020cm-3 and conductivities of 4.4-390.7Scm-1. Consequently, N-ethylthiourea-doped CuI:S exhibited a FOM value of 7 600MΩ-1, which is the highest value among solution-processed p-type TCEs to date. Moreover, the formulation of CuI:S solution for highly conductive p-type TCEs can be extended to CuI:S inks, facilitating high-throughput solution-processes such as inkjet printing and spray coating.

Evaluation of 8-bit eDRAM by varying the aspect ratio of the in-cell transistors

Embedded dynamic random-access memories (eDRAM) are widely used in the design of embedded systems for the safeguard of information during their operation. However, since these memories are installed in the same chip as the host system, it is crucial to consider their dimensioning. For this reason, in our work, the aspect ratio width and length (W/L) of complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) transistors inside 3-transistor logic cells (3T) is diversified to evaluate the effect on electrical behavior with area optimization through the figure of merit (FoM): power consumption-delay product of 8-bit memories with an operating frequency of 8.3 MHz, varying the aspect ratio of transistors inside the cell have been obtained 8.6f as lowest and 152.3f as highest FoM values. Those storage devices have been developed on 0.00085 mm2 using a 180-nm CMOS technology.

Optimization of the "Perth CT" Protocol for Preoperative Planning and Postoperative Evaluation in Total Knee Arthroplasty.

Background and Objectives: Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) has become the treatment of choice for advanced osteoarthritis. The aim of this paper was to show the possibilities of optimizing the Perth CT protocol, which is highly effective for preoperative planning and postoperative assessment of alignment. Materials and Methods: The cross-sectional study comprised 16 patients for preoperative planning or postoperative evaluation of TKA. All patients were examined with the standard and optimized Perth CT protocol using advance techniques, including automatic exposure control (AEC), iterative image reconstruction (IR), as well as a single-energy projection-based metal artifact reduction algorithm for eliminating prosthesis artifacts. The effective radiation dose (E) was determined based on the dose report. Imaging quality is determined according to subjective and objective (values of signal to noise ratio (SdNR) and figure of merit (FOM)) criteria. Results: The effective radiation dose with the optimized protocol was significantly lower compared to the standard protocol (p < 0.001), while in patients with the knee prosthesis, E increased significantly less with the optimized protocol compared to the standard protocol. No significant difference was observed in the subjective evaluation of image quality between protocols (p > 0.05). Analyzing the objective criteria for image quality optimized protocols resulted in lower SdNR values and higher FOM values. No significant difference of image quality was determined using the SdNR and FOM as per the specified protocols and parts of extremities, and for the presence of prothesis. Conclusions: Retrospecting the ALARA ('As Low As Reasonably Achievable') principles, it is possible to optimize the Perth CT protocol by reducing the kV and mAs values and by changing the collimation and increasing the pitch factor. Advanced IR techniques were used in both protocols, and AEC was used in the optimized protocol. The effective dose of radiation can be reduced five times, and the image quality will be satisfactory.