• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.347-354
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• 2009

For the reliable transmission of meaningful visual information using prosthetic electrical stimulation, it is required to develop an effective stimulation strategy for the generation of electrical pulse trains based on input visual information. The characteristics of neuronal activities of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) evoked by electrical stimulation should be understood for this purpose. In this study, for the development of an optimal stimulation strategy for visual prosthesis, we analyzed the neuronal responses of RGCs in rd1 mouse, photoreceptor-degenerated retina of animal model of retinal diseases (retinitis pigmentosa). Based on the in-vitro model of epiretinal prosthesis which consists of planar multielectrode array (MEA) and retinal patch, we recorded and analyzed multiunit RGC activities evoked by amplitude-modulated electrical pulse trains. Two modes of responses were observed. Short-latency responses occurring at 3 ms after the stimulation were estimated to be from direct stimulation of RGCs. Long-latency responses were also observed mainly at 2 - 100 ms after stimulation and showed rhythmic firing with same frequency as the oscillatory background field potential. The long-latency responses could be modulated by pulse amplitude and duration. From the results, we expect that optimal stimulation conditions such as pulse amplitude and pulse duration can be determined for the successful transmission of visual information by electrical stimulation.

• Journal of electromagnetic engineering and science
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.20-28
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• 2018

The time synchronization of each sub-unit of a pulsed generator is important to generate an output high-power radio frequency (RF) signal. To obtain the time synchronization between an input RF signal fed by an external source and an electron beam produced by an electric pulse generator, the influence of different charging voltages on a delay and a rise time of the output pulse waveform in the electric pulse generator should be carefully considered. This paper aims to study the timing characteristics of the delay and the rise time as a function of different charging voltages with a peak value of less than -35 kV in the high-voltage pulse generator, including a trigger generator (TG) and a pulse-forming line (PFL). The simulation has been carried out to estimate characteristics in the time domain, in addition to their output high-voltage amplitude. Experimental results compared with those obtained by simulation indicate that the delay of the output pulses of the TG and PFL, which are made by controlling the external triggering signal with respect to different charging voltages, is getting longer as the charging voltage is increasing, and their rise times are inversely proportional to the amplitude of the charging voltage.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.297-312
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• 2020

The KiK-net by NIED is a vertical array measurement system. In the database of KiK-net, singular pulse waves were observed in the seismic record at the borehole of TTRH02 during the mainshock (the magnitude of Japan Meteorological Agency (M_J) 7.3, M_W 6.8) and aftershock (M_j 4.2) of Tottori-ken Seibu earthquake in 2000. Singular pulse waves were also detected in the seismic records at the borehole of IWTH25 during the Iwate-Miyagi Nairiku earthquake in 2008 (M_J 7.2, M_W 6.9). These pulse waves are investigated by using the wave shape analysis methods, e.g., the non-stationary Fourier spectra and the double integrated displacement profiles. Two types of vibration modes are discriminated as the occurrence mechanism of the singular pulse waves. One corresponds to the reversal points in the displacement profile with the amplitude from 10^-4 m to 10^-1 m, which is mainly related to the fault activity and the amplification pass including the mechanical amplification (collision) of the seismograph in the casing pipe. The other is the cyclic pulse waves in the interval of reversal points, which is estimated as the backlash of the seismograph itself with the amplitude from 10^-5 m to 10^-4 m.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.53-60
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• 2001

In many applications of power electronics, high frequency resonant inverters are used, and the PAM(Pulse Amplitude Modulation), PFM(Pulse Frequency Modulation) or PWM(Pulse Width Modulation) techniques are used to control the output power of resonant inverters. And the resonant inverters have to control the output frequency for the reliable operation under the variable load conditions. In this paper, a new switching scheme is proposed as a PWM control of resonant inverters. With the proposed method, it can be obtained that optimum resonant frequency and unity output displacement factor under the variable resonant frequency adaptively. The detail algorithm or the proposed PWM switching scheme and its output characteristics are discussed. And the veridity of the proposed method is confirmed with the experimental results.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.123-129
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• 2015

A pulse is generated when the heart pumps blood into the arterial system. The heart pumps blood only when it contracts, not when it relaxes; therefore, blood enters the arterial system in a cyclical form. Artery beating is visible in some parts of the body surface, such as the radial artery of the wrist. This paper mainly uses the feature in which near-infrared spectroscopy penetrates skin to construct a non-invasive measurement system that can measure small vibration in the subcutaneous tissue of the human body, and then uses it for the pulse measurement. This measurement system uses the optical moir$\acute{e}$ principle, together with the fringe displacement made by small vibration in the subcutaneous tissue, and an image analysis program to calculate the height variation from small vibrations in the subcutaneous tissue. It completes a measurement system that records height variation with time, and that together with a fast Fourier transform (FFT) program, they can convert the pulse waveform generated by vibration (time-amplitude) to heartbeat frequency (frequency-amplitude). This is a new and non-invasive medical assistance system for measuring the pulse of the human body, with the advantages of being simple, fast, safe and objective.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.320-326
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• 2014

In this paper, the new smart dimming algorithm which is mixed with PWM and PAM control method is proposed for reducing the power consumption of LED TV Backlight. The proposed technique is using the curve characteristics of LED forward voltage and current which is proportionally changing LED forward voltage as changing LED forward current. Therefore, each PWM and PAM control method has different LED forward voltage and current in the same brightness condition. The PWM control method adjusts the brightness of LED TV Backlight by only varying the duty ratio of PWM and constantly sustaining the amplitude of LED forward current and voltage. So, the level of LED forward current and voltage in the PWM control method is relatively high and constant regardless of duty ratio of PWM. On the other hand, the PAM control method adjusts the brightness of LED TV Backlight by directly varying the level of LED forward current. So, the level of LED forward current and voltage in the PAM control method is lowered according to the brightness level. For the above-mentioned reason, the PAM control method has the advantage of reducing the total power consumption of LED TV Backlight at the brightness condition of below 100%, compared with PWM control method. By implementing this characteristic to LED driver circuit with control algorithm in MCU, the power consumption of LED TV Backlight can expect to be reduced. The effectiveness of the proposed method, new smart dimming algorithm, CPWAM(=Conditional Pulse Width Amplitude Modulation), has been verified by experimental results.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1991.11a
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• pp.427-430
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• 1991

In this study, in order to observe treeing of prebreakdown phenomena, time variation of acoustic emission properties due to initiation and propagation of tree in LDPE was investigated under AC voltage. The experimental results were as following, pulse number and average amplitude of AE were increased along with near breakdown rather than tree initiation, also, according to increasing of applied voltage, tree propagation was blunted, while pulse number and average amplitude of AE was promoted. In each applied voltage, ${\phi}-a$ distributions during propagation of tree were changed to special patterns, skewness S and kurtosis K reflected well time variation of ${\phi}-a$ distribution patterns. It is thought that initiation and propagation state of tree can be easily monitored, so long as time variation of pulse number and average amplitude of AE, skewness Sand kurtosis K of ${\phi}-a$ distribution are always monitored.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.312-316
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• 2015

Unlike conventional Eddy Current Test (ECT), Pulsed Eddy Current (PEC) uses a multiple-frequency current pulse through the excitation coil. In the present study, the detection of subsurface cracks using a specially designed probe that allows the detection of a deeper crack with a relatively small current density has been attempted using the PEC technique. The tested sample is a piece of 304 stainless steel (SS304) with a thickness of 30mm. Small electrical discharge machining (EDM) notches were put in the test sample at different depths from the surface to simulate the subsurface cracks in a pipe. The designed PEC probe consists of an excitation coil and a Hall sensor and can detect a subsurface crack as narrow and shallow as 0.2 mm wide and 2 mm deep. The maximum distance between the probe and the defect is 28 mm. The peak amplitude of the detected pulse is used to evaluate the cracks under the sample surface. In time domain analysis, the greater the crack depth the greater the peak amplitude of the detected pulse. The experimental results indicated that the proposed system has the potential to detect the subsurface cracks in stainless steel plates.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.621-626
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• 2002

The amplitude of a back-wall echo depends on the reflection coefficient of the interface between a transducer and a test material when using contact pulse-echo ultrasonic testing. A couplant is used to transmit ultrasonic energy across the interface, but has an influence on the amplitude of the pulse-echo signal. To investigate the couplant effect on pulse-echo ultrasonic testing, back-wall echoes are measured by using various couplants made of water and glycerine in a carbon and austenitic stainless steel specimens. The amplitude of the first back-wall echo and the apparent attenuation coefficient increases with the acoustic impedance of the couplant. The couplant having a higher value of the transmission coefficient is more effective for flaw detection. The reflection coefficient should be known in order to measure the attenuation coefficient of the test material.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.11-21
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• 2010

A novel ultra-wideband (UWB) transceiver structure is presented to be used in wireless body area networks (WBANs). In the proposed structure, a data channel and a control channel are combined into a single transmission signal. In the signal, a modulation method mixing pulse position modulation and pulse amplitude modulation is proposed. A mathematical framework calculating the power spectrum density of the proposed pulse-based signal evaluates its coexistence with conventional radio systems. The transceiver structure is discussed, and the receiving performance is investigated in the additive white Gaussian noise channel. It is demonstrated that the proposed scheme is easier to match to the UWB emission mask than conventional UWB systems. The proposed scheme achieves the data rate requirement of WBAN; the logical control channel achieves better receiving performance than the logical data channel, which is useful for controlling and maintaining networks. The proposed scheme is also easy to implement.