• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.8
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• pp.2646-2651
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• 2021

A rectangular-shaped PET system with an adjustable gantry (AGPET) has been developed for imaging small animals. The AGPET system employs a new depth of interaction (DOI) method using a depth dependent reflector patterns and a new digital time pickoff method based on the pulse reconstruction method. To evaluate the performance of the AGPET, timing resolution, intrinsic spatial resolution and point source images were acquired. The timing resolution and intrinsic spatial resolution were measured using two detector modules and Na-22 gamma source. The PET images were acquired in two field of view (FOV) sizes, 30 mm and 90 mm, to demonstrate the characteristic of the AGPET. As a result of in the experiment results, the timing resolution was 0.9 ns using the pulse reconstruction method based on the bi-exponential model. The intrinsic spatial resolution was an average of 1.7 mm and the spatial resolution of PET images after DOI correction was 2.08 mm and 2.25 mm at the centers of 30 mm and 90 mm FOV, respectively. The results show that the proposed AGPET system provided higher sensitivity and resolution for small animal imaging.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.2412-2420
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• 2024

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mandates safeguards to ensure non-proliferation of nuclear materials. Among inspection techniques used to detect partial defects within spent nuclear fuel (SNF), gamma emission tomography (GET) has been reported to be reliable for detection of partial defects on a pin-by-pin level. Conventional GET, however, is limited by low detection efficiency due to the high density of nuclear fuel rods and self-absorption. This paper proposes a new type of GET named Spent Fuel Internal Tomography (SFIT), which can acquire sinograms at the guide tube. The proposed device consists of the housing, shielding, C-shaped collimator, reflector, and gadolinium aluminum gallium garnet (GAGG) scintillator. For accurate attenuation correction, the source-distinguishable range of the SFIT device was determined using MC simulation to the region away from the proposed device to the second layer. For enhanced inspection accuracy, a proposed specific source-discrimination algorithm was applied. With this, the SFIT device successfully distinguished all source locations. The comparison of images of the existing and proposed inspection methods showed that the proposed method, having successfully distinguished all sources, afforded a 150 % inspection accuracy improvement.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.1908-1914
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• 2013

In this paper, we introduce a design method for a broadband planar quasi-Yagi antenna (QYA) for terrestrial digital television (DTV) reception. The coplanar strip line which feeds the driver dipole is connected to a microstrip line and is terminated by short circuit. By appending a wide strip-type rectangular director at a location close to the driver dipole, broadband impedance matching and gain enhancement in a high frequency region are obtained. The gain characteristics in a low frequency region are improved by adding a reflector formed by a truncated ground plane. To reduce the antenna size, the strip-type dipole and reflector are modified to half bow-tie (V)-shaped elements. The effects of various parameters on the antenna characteristics are examined. An antenna, as a design example for the proposed antenna, is designed for the operation in the frequency band of 470-806 MHz for terrestrial DTV. The optimized antenna is fabricated on an FR4 substrate and the experimental results show that the antenna has a good performance such as a frequency band of 450-848 MHz for a VSWR < 2, gain > 4.1 dBi, and front-to-back ratio > 10.4 dB.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.536-542
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• 2020

This paper presents a nature-inspired wideband sprout-leaf shaped antenna with end-fire radiation pattern. A sprout-leaf shape angled-radiator was designed for wide beamwidth radiation patterns for motion detection sensors. An extended and truncated ground plane was used as a reflector for end-fire radiation patterns. To feed the balanced radiator, a broadband microstrip (MS) to coplanar stripline (CPS) balun was utilized with excellent amplitude and phase balance. The proposed antenna demonstrates wide frequency bandwidth from 8.5 to 14.5 GHz with wide beamwidth and the radiation efficiency of 90%. The measured gain is from 4 to 5 dBi and front-to-back ratio was 10 to 20 dB. It has been shown that the proposed antenna can be used for imaging sensors, phased array systems, and radars that require a wide bandwidth and a directional radiation pattern.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.805-810
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• 2014

In this paper, the characteristics of a series-fed dipole pair antenna with an end-aligned strip pair director are studied. In the proposed SDP antenna, two strip dipole antennas with different lengths and a ground reflector are connected trough a coplanar stripline. The strip pair director placed above the second dipole element are two rectangular-shaped strips and is aligned at the ends of the two arms of the second dipole. The variations on the antenna performance for different lengths and widths of the director are analyzed, and optimal design parameters for the enhancement of the bandwidth are obtained. The optimized SDP antenna is fabricated on an FR4 substrate, and the experimental results show that the antenna has a frequency band of 1.65-2.95 GHz for a VSWR < 2, which shows enhanced bandwidth compared to the conventional SDP antenna.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.1518-1523
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• 2018

A method for designing a DDQYA fed by a CPW is proposed in this paper. The proposed CPW-fed DDQYA consists of two series-connected strip dipoles, a ground reflector, and a strip-pair director. Instead of the conventional microstrip feed line in which the signal line is located on the substrate opposite to the antenna, a CPW is used because CPW is located on the same side with the antenna, and so the fabrication is easy. The strip-pair director is composed of two horizontally-separated strips, and it is added above the second dipole to enhance the gain in the high frequency region. A prototype of the proposed CPW-fed DDQYA is fabricated on an FR4 substrate. The fabricated antenna has a frequency band of 1.66-3.38 GHz(68.3%) for a voltage standing wave ratio < 2, and measured gain ranges 5.0-7.3 dBi over a frequency band of 1.60-2.90 GHz.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.17 no.5 s.108
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• pp.461-475
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• 2006

In this paper, it is described about the tri-band mobile antenna system design to provide broadband multimedia and direct broadcasting services using goo-stationary Koreasat 3, simultaneously operated in Ka/K/Ku band. The radiating part of the antenna system with a fan beam characteristic in the elevation plane is composed of the quasi-offset dual shaped reflector and the tri-band feeder. The tri-band feeder is also composed of the Ka/K dual band feeder with the protruding dielectric rod, the circular polarizer, the ortho-mode transducer and the circular-polarized Ku band feed array. Especially, the Ka/K dual band circular polarizer was realized firstly using the comb-type structure. For fast satellite-tracking on the movement, the Ku band feed array has the structure of the $2{\times}2$ active phased array which can make electrical beams. And, the circular-polarized characteristic in the feed array was improved by $90^{\circ}$ rotating arrangement of four radiating elements polarized circularly by a $90^{\circ}$ hybrid coupler, respectively. Four beam forming channels to make electrical beams at Ku band are divided into the main beam channel and the tracking beam channel in the output, and noise temperature characteristics of each channel were analyzed on the basis of the contributions of internal sub_units. From the fabricated antenna system, the output power at $P_{1dBc}$ of Ka_Tx channel was measured more than 34.1 dBm and the measured noise figures of K/Ku_Rx channels were less than 2.4 dB and 1.5 dB, respectively, over the operating band. The radiation patterns with co- and cross-polarization in the tri-band were measured using a near-field measurement in the anechoic chamber. Especially, Ku radiation patterns were measured after correcting each initial phase of active channels with partial radiation patterns obtained from the independent excitation of each channel. The antenna gains measured in Ka/K/Ku band of the antenna system were more than 39.6 dBi, 37.5 dBi, 29.6 dBi, respectively. And, the antenna system showed good system performances such as Ka_Tx EIRP more than 43.7 dBW and K/Ku_Rx G/T more than 13.2 dB/K and 7.12 dB/K, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.154-155
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• 2012

The promise of nano-crystalites (nc) as a technological material, for applications including display backplane, and solar cells, may ultimately depend on tailoring their behavior through doping and crystallinity. Impurities can strongly modify electronic and optical properties of bulk and nc semiconductors. Highly doped dopant also effect structural properties (both grain size, crystal fraction) of nc-Si thin film. As discussed in several literatures, P atoms or radicals have the tendency to reside on the surface of nc. The P-radical segregation on the nano-grain surfaces that called self-purification may reduce the possibility of new nucleation because of the five-coordination of P. In addition, the P doping levels of ${\sim}2{\times}10^{21}\;at/cm^3$ is the solubility limitation of P in Si; the solubility of nc thin film should be smaller. Therefore, the non-activated P tends to segregate on the grain boundaries and the surface of nc. These mechanisms could prevent new nucleation on the existing grain surface. Therefore, most researches shown that highly doped nc-thin film by using conventional PECVD deposition system tended to have low crystallinity, where the formation energy of nucleation should be higher than the nc surface in the intrinsic materials. If the deposition technology that can make highly doped and simultaneously highly crystallized nc at low temperature, it can lead processes of next generation flexible devices. Recently, we are developing a novel CVD technology with a neutral particle beam (NPB) source, named as neutral beam assisted CVD (NBaCVD), which controls the energy of incident neutral particles in the range of 1~300eV in order to enhance the atomic activation and crystalline of thin films at low temperatures. During the formation of the nc-/pm-Si thin films by the NBaCVD with various process conditions, NPB energy directly controlled by the reflector bias and effectively increased crystal fraction (~80%) by uniformly distributed nc grains with 3~10 nm size. In the case of phosphorous doped Si thin films, the doping efficiency also increased as increasing the reflector bias (i.e. increasing NPB energy). At 330V of reflector bias, activation energy of the doped nc-Si thin film reduced as low as 0.001 eV. This means dopants are fully occupied as substitutional site, even though the Si thin film has nano-sized grain structure. And activated dopant concentration is recorded as high as up to 1020 #/$cm^3$ at very low process temperature (＜ $80^{\circ}C$) process without any post annealing. Theoretical solubility for the higher dopant concentration in Si thin film for order of 1020 #/$cm^3$ can be done only high temperature process or post annealing over $650^{\circ}C$. In general, as decreasing the grain size, the dopant binding energy increases as ratio of 1 of diameter of grain and the dopant hardly be activated. The highly doped nc-Si thin film by low-temperature NBaCVD process had smaller average grain size under 10 nm (measured by GIWAXS, GISAXS and TEM analysis), but achieved very higher activation of phosphorous dopant; NB energy sufficiently transports its energy to doping and crystallization even though without supplying additional thermal energy. TEM image shows that incubation layer does not formed between nc-Si film and SiO2 under later and highly crystallized nc-Si film is constructed with uniformly distributed nano-grains in polymorphous tissues. The nucleation should be start at the first layer on the SiO2 later, but it hardly growth to be cone-shaped micro-size grains. The nc-grain evenly embedded pm-Si thin film can be formatted by competition of the nucleation and the crystal growing, which depend on the NPB energies. In the evaluation of the light soaking degradation of photoconductivity, while conventional intrinsic and n-type doped a-Si thin films appeared typical degradation of photoconductivity, all of the nc-Si thin films processed by the NBaCVD show only a few % of degradation of it. From FTIR and RAMAN spectra, the energetic hydrogen NB atoms passivate nano-grain boundaries during the NBaCVD process because of the high diffusivity and chemical potential of hydrogen atoms.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea TC
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.32-39
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• 2009

In this paper, system optimization design technique of an impulse ground penetrating image radar (GPIR) in time domain is proposed to improve depth resolution of the system. For the purpose, time domain analysis method of key components such as impulse generator and UWB antenna is explained and by simulation, parameters of each component are determined. In particular, by standardizing the impulse signal, spectrum efficiency of a radiated impulse signal is improved and a U-shaped planar dipole antenna for a UWB antenna is developed. By equipping a parabolic metal reflector with the proposed antenna, external noise is prevented and the ability of radiating an input impulse into ground is improved. In addition, to remove ringing effect of the propose antenna which causes serious degradation of the system performance, resistors are loaded at the edge of the antenna and then Tx and Rx UWB antennas are optimized by simulation in time domain. For images of targets buried under the ground migration technique is applied and influence of tough ground surface on distortion of received impulse signals is reduced using technique of noise and signal distortion reduction in time domain and its time resolution is enhanced. To verify the design optimization procedure, a prototype of an GPIR and an artificial test field are made. Measurement results show that the resolution of the system designed is as good as that of a theoretical model.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.113-126
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• 2022

The tectonic history of the Chukchi Abyssal Plain in the Amerasia Basin, Arctic Ocean, has not been fully explored due to the harsh conditions of sea ice preventing detailed observation. Existing models of the tectonic history of the region provide contrasting interpretation of the timing of formation of the crust (Mesozoic to Cenozoic), crust type (from hyper-extended continental crust to oceanic crust), and formation process (from parallel/fan-shaped rifting to transformation faulting). To help determine the age of the oceanic crust, the geothermal gradient was measured at three stations in the south of abyssal plain at depth of 2,160-2,250 m below sea level. Heat flow measurement stations were located perpendicular to the spreading axis over a 40 km-long transect. In-situ thermal conductivity measurement, corrected by the laboratory test, gave observed marine heat flows of 55 to 61 mW/m². All measurements were taken during Arctic expeditions in 2018 (ARA09C expedition) and 2021 (ARA12C expedition) by the Korean ice-breaking research vessel (IBRV) Araon. Given the assumption of oceanic crust, the results correspond to formation in the Late Cretaceous (Mesozoic). The inferred age supports the hypothesis of formation activated by the opening of the Makarov Basin during the Late Mesozoic-Cenozoic. This would make it contemporaneous with rifting of the Chukchi Border Land immediately east of the abyssal plain. The heat flow data indicate the base of the gas hydrate stability zone is located 332-367 m below the seafloor, this will help to identify the gas hydrate-related bottom simulating reflector in the future seismic survey, as already identified on the Chukchi Plateau. Further geophysical surveys, including heat flow measurements, are required to increase our understanding of the formation process and thermal mantle structure of the abyssal plain.