emitter follower input buffers with resistor loads and on-chip 5 HAUENSCHILO, I., and REIN, A. M.
HILO, I., and REIN, A. M.: Demonstratlon olretimrng capa-
5OQ input terminations. The interlever circuit has a conven-
tional architecture based on differential pairs and current
Fig. 4 Multiplexer ehtp photograph
sources. An open collector output driver allows easy inter-
facing with the external environment and compatibility
between input and output signal levels. The circuit was tested
at up to 20Gbit/s output rates using an Anritsu lOGbit/s
pattern generator. Fig. 5 shows a typical 2OGbit/s measured
output signal when a lOGbit/s 1 1 0 0pattern and its com-
plement were applied at the inputs. The fast signal transitions
in Fig. 5 are an indication that additional circuit bandwidth is
available for even higher operation rates (not tested due to
unavailability of testing equipment). The power supply voltage
was 4.5 v.
1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0
1loomv
Fig. 5 Typical multiplexer output at 2OGbitls rate
Despite several processing limitations, the InP/InGaAs cir-
cuits presented here and elsewhere [6-71 show a high-speed
performance that matches and even surpasses the results
obtained by much more sophisticated and mature technol-
ogies. The inherently low bias voltage requirements of these
circuits and the possibility for major speed improvement by
better fabrication methods show excellent promise for the
InP/InGaAs technology.
28th Nowmber 1991
M. Ban& B. Jalali, D. A. Humphrey, R. K. Montgomery, R. N.Not-
tenburg, R. A. H a and M. B. Panish (AT&T Bell Laboratories,
Murray Hill, NJ 07974, USA)
Reference
1 Y A ~ U C H I Y., o., NAGATA, K., im, H., and ISHIB*SHI, T.:
, NAKNIMA,
AIGaAsIGaAs HBTs. Proc. IEEE of 1989 GaAs Symp., pp,
121-124
2 WANG, K. C., ASBECK, P. M., ClUNG, M. F., NUBLING, R. 8.. PIEWON, R.
L., SHENG, N. H., SULLIVAN, G . I., YU, I., CHEN, A., CLEMBNT, n., rsm,
T. c., BASIT, H. F., GEORGE, I. D., and YOUNG, R.: AIGaAsIGaAs
heterojunction bipolar transistors. ISSCC Dig. of Technical
Papers, February 1991,pp. 154-155
3 I A U L I , B., NOTTENBURG, R. N., BANU, M., MONTGOMERY, R. K., LEVI, A.
F. G., PANISN, M. B., and CHO, A. Y.: High speed InGaAs HBT
devios and circuits. Proc. Third Int. Conf. on InP and Related
Materials, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom, 8th-11th April 1991,
pp. 228-233
4 REIN, H. M., and HAUENSCHILD, 1.: 23Gbitis Si bipolar decision
circuit consisting of 24Gbit/s MUX and DEMUX ICs: Electron.
Lett., 1991.27, (11). pp. 974-976
ELECTRONICS LETTERS 13th February 1992 Vol. 28
bility of ulicon bipolar timedivisron multiplexer operating to
24Gbit/s,Electron. Lett., l991,27, (II), pp. 978-979
6 NOTTWBURG, R. N., BAN, M., IALALI, B., HUMPHREY, D. A., MoNTOO
MERY, R. K., HAMM, R. A., and PA, M. 8.: SV, DC-l2GHs
InPpnGaAs HBT amplifier, Electron. Lett., 1990, 26, (24), pp.
2016-2018
7 BANU, M., IALALI, B., NOIBURG, R. N., HUMPHREY, D. A., MONTOO
m u , R. K., w,R. A., and PANISH, M. 8.: 10Gbit/s bipolar laser
dnver, Electron. Lett., 1991,11, (3),pp. 278-280
13.3GHz YBCO MICROSTRIP BANDPASS
FILTER
F. Suginosita, K. Imai, N. Yazawa, K. Suzuki,
S. Fujino, T. Takenaka and K. N a k a o
Iwiexina t-: Suwconductors, Bandpass filters, Microstrip
The design and development of a 13.3GHz three-pole
Chebyshev bandpass filter using a YBa,Cu,O,., thn film
on an MgO substrate is described. An insmion loss ofO.2dB
at the centre frequency and an unloaded Q of 28M) are
obtained a1 77K. The measured characteristics are better
than other high-temperaturesuperconductor planar filters so
far reported.
Introduction; High-temperature superconductor (HTS) planar
filters have been studied at several research laboratories. One
important application is in satellite communication systems,
where reduction in size and weight is very significant.
However, a satisfactory Q value which also provides low
insertion loss and good frequency selectivity has not been
achieved.
This Letter describes the design and development of a
13.3GHz three-pole Chehyshev bandpass filter using a
YBa,Cu,O,-d (YBCO) thin film.
Filter design: We designed the filter on a 0.5 thick MgO
substrate (E, 19.13). The equiripple was 0.2dB and the ripple
bandwidth was 400MHz with 3% ratio of bandwidth to
centre frequency. Fig. 1 shows the layout of the three-pole
filter.
Film deposition and processing [l]: The HTS films used in this
work are 35WA thick YBCO films with C axis parallel to
their growth direction. The YBCO films were grown on MgO
U
U
l2mm
1555111
Fig. 1 Layout of three-pole Chebyshev bondpassfilter
No. 4 355
substrates by ArF pulsed laser deposition at 7WK and in 0,
gas at a pressure of 100mtorr. The filter was patterned by
conventional photoresist and AI ion-heam etching techniques.
A I+pm thick gold layer was then deposited on the YBCO
input and output lines of the filter using AI sputtering to
ensure good contact between the YBCO lines and K connec-
tors. A groundplane of l W A thick Cr and 3pm thick gold
were deposited on the hack of the MgO substrate, The YBCO
critical temperature 5 o f 8 6 K was unchanged after these pro-
cesses.
We also fabricated a handpass filter of 3pm thick gold with
the same configuration for comparison between transmission
responses of the YBCO filter and the gold filter.
Experimental results and discussion: Fig. 2 is a photograph of
a packaged YBCO handpass filter. The YBCO filter on the
MgO substrate was placed on a gold plated supporting plate.
These were mounted in a package and fixed with four screws
from the hack of the package. We selected this mounting
method to obtain good ground contact between the filter and
the package.
. 1
Fig. 2 Photograph of packaged YBCO three-pole Chebyshev bandpm
filter
Fig. 3 shows the temperature dependence of transmission
response. Above (-86K). the YBCO behaved like a
resistive conductor with no resonance peaks. Attenuation
decreased steeply as the temperature was reduced in the vicin-
ity of 5.We obtained an insertion loss of 0.2dB for the centre
frequency at 1 7 K and O.ldB at 17K. The gold filter had a
measured insertion loss of 2.5 dB at 77 K.
0, , 1 I I 1- -,, I I
10
m achieved an insertion loss of O.2dB at the centre frequency
h 20
0 Acknowledgments: This work was partially supported by the
e 30
0
LO
50
'2 - 13 1L
kEE frequency. GHz
Fig. 3 Transmission temperature dependence of YBCO bondpassfilter
356
Fig. 4 shows the insertion loss at 77K against the hand-
width of the HTS planar handpass filters available for use in
the X hand and the Ku hand [2-71. The filters vary in their
centre frequencies, numbers of poles and substrate materials.
Also, the Figure indicates that the insertion loss increases with
decreasing bandwidth. The solid line in Fig. 4 is the regression
line of all the filters except ours. This line indicates that the
insertion loss is about 1dB at a bandwidth of 3%. Our result,
0.2dB at 3% bandwidth, has the lowest loss of all these HTS
planar handpass filters
r n- NHKlSRL
lo-' 1bo 10'
1555u1 bondwrdth,'I.
Fig. 4 Insertion loss at 7 7 K agoinst bandwidths of ouoilable HTS
bandpassfilters
Numbers in arcles refer to numbers in References Section of this
Letter
The insertion loss of HTS planar handpass filters usually
comprises conductor loss and dielectric loss. The conductor
loss is proportional to the surface resistance of the HTS film
and ground conductor. The dielectric loss is the loss tangent
of the substrate, In microwave circuits, poor ground contact
and impedance matching may cause further insertion loss.
Hence fabrication techniques, such as the design of the
package and mounting method, are extremely important. The
excellent results achieved indicate that our fabrication tech-
niques are very effective for this type of filter.
To precisely evaluate the Q value, we designed and fahri-
cated a microstrip linear resonator using the same film deposi-
tion and processing. The unloaded Q of the YBCO linear
resonator was about 2800 at 71K [l]. Assuming an unloaded
Q of 2800, the insertion loss of the three-pole Chehyshev filter
is calculated to be 0.19dB, which shows good agreement with
the measured insertion loss of 0.2dB. An unloaded Q of 2800
is the highest value so far achieved in HTS planar handpass
filters, hut it is not sufficient to meet the requirements for low
insertion loss and good frequency selectivity for satellite appli-
cations. For example, an unloaded Q of more than 6500 is
required for I2GHz broadcasting satellites. It is therefore
desirable to further improve both the quality of HTS films
and HTS filter fabrication techniques.
Conclusion: We designed and developed a 13.3GHz three-
pole Chehyshev handpass filter using a YBCO thin film. We
and an unloaded Q of 2800 at 77 K.
New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organ-
isation under the management of the R&D of Basic Tech-
nology for Future Industries.
9th December 1991
F. Sugmosita, K. lmai and N. Yazawa (NHK Science and Technical
Reseorch Laboroton~s, 1-10-11, Kinuta, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 157,
J'lPO")
K. Suzuki, S. Fujino, T. Takenaka and K.Nakaa (SRL-ISTEC, 10-13,
Shinonome 1-chome, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135, Japon)
ELECTRONICS LETTERS 13th Februarv 1992 Vol. 28 No. 4
Reierencs
SUZUKI, K., et al.: 14GHz Y-Ba-Cu-0 microstripline resonatod.
Proc. 4th Int. Symp. on Superwnductivity,Tokyo, 1991, ADP-3
ITOZAKI, H., and HIOAW K.: YBaCuO disk resonator and
bandpass filter. MWE 91 Microwave Workshop Dig., 1991, pp.
157-1 6 I
RENSCH, 0.8.. et al.: Fabrication and characterisation of high-Tc
superconductingX-band resonators and bandpass filters, IEEE
Trans., 1991, MAG-21, (2). pp. 2553-2556
KALOKITL~, o., et d.:Performanceof a narrow band microwave
filter implemented in thin-hlm YBa,Cu,O, with ohmic wn-
tacti, Appl. Phys. Lett., 1991.58, (5). pp. 537-539
NEWMAN, H. s, et al.: Microwave devices using YBa,Cu,O,-,
films made by pulsed laser deposition, IEEE Trans., 1991,
MAG-27, (Z), pp. 2540-2543
TALISA, s. H., et 01.: Microwave superwnducting filters, IEEE
Trans., 1991, MAG-21, (2). pp. 2544-2547
TALISA, s. H., IANCCKO, M. A., TALVACCHIO, I., and MOGKOWIIZ,c.:
Present and projected performance of high-temperature superwn-
ducting filters.IEEE MTT-S Dig., 1991, pp. 1325-1328
HEXAGONAL EDGE RELAXATION
T. I. Cho a n d K. H. P a r k
Indexing terms: 1m-e processing, Signal processing
It has been found that hexagonal spatial sampling yields
smaller quantisztion errors. A new hexagonal edge relaxation
method is described. In this method, the vertex types of an
edge are simple and their classification is reasanable, there-
fore the overall enhancement of edges is more reliable than
the Prager square edge relaxation method [I].
Introduction: It has been found that hexagonal spatial sam-
pling yields smaller quantisation errors than square sampling
[2]. Horn [3] shows advantages of hexagonal grids for com-
puter vision application. The hexagonal grids allow improved
sampling and quantisation during the image formation
process, and remarkably improve the understanding of coo-
nectivity.
The conventional edge relaxation [ l ] improves the con-
fidence of detected edges using neighbouring edge information
in square grid. For each edge, its confidence level is initially
defined as its edge strength which is the difference of neigh-
bouring pixel values and adjusted dynamically as the relax-
ation proceeds.
In this Letter the edge relaxation is applied to the hexago-
nal grids rather than to the square grids. In the hexagonal
edge relaxation, the edge type can he determined unam-
biguously from the small number of pairs of vertex type
whether incremented, decremented or unchanged, and the
edge confidence level is updated, explained in the following
Section. Because of the unambiguous classification of edge
type, this new relaxation algorithm does not cause a degrada-
tion effect which usually appears in relaxation approaches.
Hexagonal edge relaxation: The hexagonal image can be
obtained by simply shifting the even or odd rows of a given
image by half a pixel to the right or left. In this hexagonal
tessellation, all six pixels touching a central cell are neigh-
hours so there is no ambiguity in determining its neighbours
as shown in Fig. l a , where pixel value is represented by
integer values. In the case of image formation, there is no
difference in resolution between a rectangular grid and hex-
agonal grid. The edge defined by the Prager method is
obtained by a fourconnectedness neighbour, hut a hexagonal
edge is acquired in a six-connectedness sense.
We now explain the hexagonal edge relaxation algorithm.
The edges are located between adjacent pixels in the hexago-
nal grid. Let f ( x , y ) and f ( x , y) be two neighbouring pixel
ELECTRONICS LETTERS 13th February 1992 Vol. 28 No. 4
values, respectively. The strength s of an edge e located
between ( x , y ) and (x, y) is denoted as [SI
$4 = If@,Y ) -f(x. Y)l (1)
An edge e exists if s(e) is greater than a given threshold. The
number of the edge direction is six. An example is given in
Fig. 1. The integer value at the centre of pixel in Fig. l a
-
denotes the grey-level value of an image and the value of the
edge in Fig. Ib is the edge strength calculated by eqn. 1. If the
()$$ -
ZQO
2 0
Fig. 1 Hexayono1 tesselllotion and edge strength
a Hexagonal tessellation
b Edge strength
threshold is 1 , the three detected edges have strength 2 or 3 as
shown in Fig. lb. Mter the edges have been detected, we use a
hexagonal relaxation algorithm for enhancement of detected
edges. For each edge, its initial confidence level is defined as
its strength of edge and normalised, denoted by &). The
confidence level is then adjusted dynamically. This algorithm
in itself is similar to the conventional edge relaxation [SI and
shown in Table I . To compute the edge confidence level at the
kth iteration of relaxation, L!(e), we proceed as follows. Each
vertex of a reference edge in the hexagonal grid as shown in
Fig. 20 has two incident edges. Therefore, if these two edges
have edge confidence levels a, 6 , respectively, the type of
vertex V is determined by the following rules:
i type 0 when a, b c threshold
type 1 when a < threshold < b o r b c threshold < a
type 2 when threshold < a, b
The vertex type i means that the vertex V in Fig. 2a has
(2)
number of i incident edges at that vertex V. For the square
grid in Fig. 2b, there are four different vertex types [ l ] .
TaMe 1 HEXAGONAL EDGE RELAXATION
ALGORITHM
(I) Determine confidence level E ( e ) for all edges e
Initially, we define I?(e) = s(e)/max $e) for all edges e
Let k = 0
(2) While there exists L!(e) which is neither 0 nor 1:
(i) ktt
(ii) Compute Z ( e ) from local information around edge e
(a) Classify the two vertices of an edge e,
based on the confidence levels of surrounding edges
(b) Classify edge e, based on its vertex types
(e) Update Lye), based on its edge classifications
(3) End
Now using this vertex type, each edge which is a link
between two vertices can also be classified into six different
pairings as in Fig. 3. For the square grid there are 10 different
pairings. The edge type is depicted by the pairing vertex type
of the vertex V and that of vertex W such as (qyw- q-).
a b b
0 b m
Fig. 2 Vertex classficntion
(I Hexagonal grid
b Square grid
357