• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.145-152
• /
• 2009

Currently almost all in-service-inspection techniques, applied in domestic nuclear power plants, are partial to field inspection technique. These kinds of techniques are related to managing nuclear power plants by the operation of foreign-produced inspection devices. There have been so many needsfor development of native in-service-inspection device because there is no native diagnosis device for nuclear power plant inspection yet in Korea. In this research, we developed several core techniques to make an automated ultrasonic pipe inspection system for nuclear power plants. A high performance multi-channel ultrasonic pulser/receiver module, an A/D converter module and a digital main CPU module were developed and the performance of the developed modules was verified. The S/N ratio, noise level and signal acquisition performance of the developed modules showed proper level as we designed in the beginning.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.13-19
• /
• 2009

A 440MHz wireless and passive surface acoustic wave (SAW) based chemical sensor was developed on a $41^{\circ}YX\;LiNbO_3$ piezoelectric substrate for simultaneous measurement of $CO_2$ gas and relative humidity (RH) using a reflective delay line pattern as the sensor element. The reflective delay line is composed of an interdigital transducer (IDT) and several shorted grating reflectors. A Teflon AF 2400 and a hydrophilic $SiO_2$ layer were used as $CO_2$ and water vapor sensitive films. The coupling of mode (COM) modeling was conducted to determine optimal device parameters prior to fabrication. According to simulation results, the device was fabricated and then wirelessly measured using the network analyzer. The measured reflective coefficient $S_{11}$ in the time domain showed high signal/noise (S/N) ratio, small signal attenuation, and few spurious peaks. In the $CO_2$ and humidity testing, high sensitivity ($2^{\circ}/ppm$ for $CO_2$ detection and $7.45^{\circ}/%$RH for humidity sensing), good linearity and repeatability were observed in the $CO_2$ concentration ranges of $75{\sim}375ppm$ and humidity levels of $20{\sim}80%$RH. Temperature and humidity compensations were also investigated during the sensitivity evaluation process.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.262-269
• /
• 1997

An eddy current probe ($8{\times}1$ multiple-element, surface scan) was successfully designed and fabricated at the KEPRI using the impedance equivalent circuit theory. The probe is intended for the detection of circumferential deformations (cross-section view) of the heat exchanger tubing that can occur due to corrosion, erosion, and denting. Optimum design parameters providing the highest sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio, such as the coil dimensions, electrical characteristics, and test frequencies, were determined based on initial laboratory experiments conducted on the test specimen (SS304 tubing: OD : 9.68mm, wall-thickness : 0.47mm) containing artificial flaws (e.g., dents and corroded surface on tube OD) using the available Zetec-made probe. Using this parameters, a new probe was made and tested on an unknown specimen. The result indicated that the new probe is capable of detecting the circumferential deformation with the error of ${\pm}0.2%$ (0.022mm) of the tube O.D.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.288-296
• /
• 2008

Objectives : We investigated the association of Val108/158Met polymorphism on catechol-O-methyl transferase(COMT) gene with smooth pursuit eye movement(SPEM) abnormality in Korean schizophrenia patients. Methods : We measured SPEM in 217 Korean schizophrenia patients(male 116, female 101) and divided them into two groups, one was a good SPEM function group and the other was a poor SPEM function group. Then we analyzed Val108/158Met polymorphism on COMT gene. We compared the differences of genotype and allele distributions of the polymorphism on COMT gene between the two groups. Results : The natural logarithm value of signal/noise ratio(Ln S/N ratio) of the good SPEM function group was $4.39{\pm}0.33$(mean${\pm}$s.d.) and that of poor SPEM function group was $3.17{\pm}0.71$. There were no statistically significant differences of age and male/female ratio between the two groups. There were no significant differences of genotype or allele distributions of the Val108/158Met polymorphism on COMT gene between the two schizophrenic groups. Conclusions : The results suggest that Val108/158Met polymorphism on COMT gene is not related to SPEM function abnormality in schizophrenia.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea TC
• /
• v.43 no.3 s.345
• /
• pp.59-67
• /
• 2006

OFDM (Orthogonal frequency Division Multiplexing) systems convert serial data stream to N parallel data streams and modulate them to N orthogonal subcarriers. Thus spectrum utilization efficiency of the OFDM systems are high and high-speed data transmission is possible. However, with the OFDM systems using the same modulation method at all subcarriers, the error probability is dominated by the subcarriers which experience deep fades. Therefore, in order to enhance the performance of the system adaptive modulation is required, with which the modulation methods of the subcarriers are determined according to the estimated SNRs. The IEEE 802.11a system selects various transmission speed between 6 and 54 Mbps according to the modulation mode. There are three typical methods for SNR estimation: Direct estimation method uses the frequency domain symbols to estimate SNR directly by minimizing MSE (Mean Square Error), EVM method utilizes the distance between the demodulated constellation points and received complex values, and the method utilizing the Viterbi algorithm uses the cumulative minimum distance in decoding process to estimate the SNR indirectly. Through comparison analyses of three methods we propose a new SNR estimation method, which employs both the EVM method and the Viterbi algorithm. Finally, we perform extensive computer simulations to confirm the performance improvement of the proposed adaptive OFDM systems on the basis of IEEE 802.11a.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.100-106
• /
• 2008

The purpose of this study was to confirm the exactitude of in vitro nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy(NMRS) and to complement the defect of in vivo NMRS. It has been difficult to understand the metabolism of a cerebellum using in vivo NMRS owing to the generated inhomogeneity of magnetic fields (B0 and B1 field) by the complexity of the cerebellum structure. Thus, this study tried to more exactly analyze the metabolism of a canine cerebellum using the cell extraction and high resolution NMRS. In order to conduct the absolute metabolic quantification in a canine cerebellum, the spectrum of our phantom included in various brain metabolites (i.e., NAA, Cr, Cho, Ins, Lac, GABA, Glu, Gln, Tau and Ala) was obtained. The canine cerebellum tissue was extracted using the methanol-chloroform water extraction (M/C extraction) and one group was filtered and the other group was not under extract processing. Finally, NMRS of a phantom solution and two extract solution (90% D2O) was progressed using a 500MHz (11.4 T) NMR machine. Filtering a solution of the tissue extract increased the signal to noise ratio (SNR). The metabolic concentrations of a canine cerebellum were more close to rat’s metabolic concentration than human’s metabolic concentration. The present study demonstrates the absolute quantification technique in vitro high resolution NMRS with tissue extraction as the method to accurately measure metabolite concentration.

• Analytical Science and Technology
• /
• v.16 no.6
• /
• pp.483-487
• /
• 2003

Amitrole is well-known as a non-selective herbicide and it is able to cause contamination of driking water as well as pollution of ground water and surface water. However, it is difficult to extract from water because it has a high solubility for water whereas a low solubility for general organic solvents. This method is described for the determination of amitrole in water samples by GC/MS. After evaporation of 10 mL water sample by a vacuum evaporator, amitrole was derivatized with isobutyl chloroformate (iso-BCF) on room temperature for 15~20 min. As a result, the sensitivity for GCfMS was improved as N-isobutoxycarbonyl amitrole derivative was formed. The linearity of the calibration curve showed good as 0.997. The recoveries were obtained more than 94.9% and relative standard deviations were less than 2.8% at $1.0{\mu}g/L$, $10.0{\mu}g/L$ and $100.0{\mu}g/L$. The limit of detection showed $0.1{\mu}g/L$ with a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of 3.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.64-73
• /
• 2015

Recently, hydraulic fracturing is used in various fields and microseismic monitoring is one of the best methods for judging where hydraulic fractures exist and how they are developing. When locating microseismic events using single vertical well data, distances from the vertical array and depths from the surface are generally decided using time differences between compressional (P) wave and shear (S) wave arrivals and azimuths are calculated using P wave hodogram analysis. However, in field data, it is sometimes hard to acquire P wave data which has smaller amplitude than S wave because microseismic data often have very low signal to noise (S/N) ratio. To overcome this problem, in this study, we developed a grid search algorithm which can find event location using all combinations of arrival times recorded at receivers. In addition, we introduced and analyzed the method which calculates azimuths using S wave. The tests of synthetic data show the inversion method using all combinations of arrival times and receivers can locate events without considering the origin time even using only single phase. In addition, the method can locate events with higher accuracy and has lower sensitivity on first arrival picking errors than conventional method. The method which calculates azimuths using S wave can provide reliable results when the dip between event and receiver is relatively small. However, this method shows the limitation when dip is greater than about $20^{\circ}$ in our model test.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.148-156
• /
• 2016

Objectives According to previous studies, the cannabinoid receptor 1 (CNR1) gene could be an important candidate gene for schizophrenia. Some studies have linked the (AAT)n trinucleotide repeat polymorphism in CNR1 gene with the risk of schizophrenia. Meanwhile, smooth pursuit eye movement (SPEM) has been regarded as one of the most consistent endophenotypes of schizophrenia. In this study, we investigated the association between the (AAT)n trinucleotide repeats in CNR1 gene and SPEM abnormality in Korean patients with schizophrenia. Methods We measured SPEM function in 167 Korean patients with schizophrenia (84 male, 83 female) and they were divided according to SPEM function into two groups, good and poor SPEM function groups. We also investigated allele frequencies of (AAT)n repeat polymorphisms on CNR1 gene in each group. A logistic regression analysis was performed to find the association between SPEM abnormality and the number of (AAT)n trinucleotide repeats. Results The natural logarithm value of signal/noise ratio (Ln S/N ratio) of the good SPEM function group was $4.34{\pm}0.29$ and that of the poor SPEM function group was $3.21{\pm}0.70$. In total, 7 types of trinucleotide repeats were identified, each containing 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 repeats, respectively. In the patients with $(AAT)7$ allele, the distributions of the good and poor SPEM function groups were 18 (11.1%) and 19 (11.0%) respectively. In the patients with $(AAT)_{10}$ allele, $(AAT)_{11}$ allele, $(AAT)_{12}$ allele, $(AAT)_{13}$ allele, $(AAT)_{14}$ allele and $(AAT)_{15}$ allele, the distributions of good and poor SPEM function groups were 13 (8.0%) and 12 (7.0%), 4 (2.5%) and 6 (3.5%), 31 (19.8%) and 35 (20.3%), 51 (31.5%) and 51 (29.7%), 36 (22.2%) and 45 (26.2%), 9 (5.6%) and 4 (2.3%) respectively. As the number of (AAT) n repeat increased, there was no aggravation of abnormality of SPEM function. Conclusions There was no significant aggravation of SPEM abnormality along with the increase of number of (AAT)n trinucleotide repeats in the CNR1 gene in Korean patients with schizophrenia.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2013.08a
• /
• pp.210.2-210.2
• /
• 2013

현재 국내의 상용화된 디지털 방식 X-선 영상장치에서 간접변환방식은 대부분 CsI를 사용하고 있으며, X-선 흡수에 의해 전기적 신호를 발생시키는 직접변환방식은 Amorphous Selenium(a-Se)을 사용한다. a-Se은 진공 중에 녹는점이 낮아 증착시 substrate의 온도에 따라 민감한 변화를 보인다. 본 연구에서는 간접변환방식에 비해 높은 영상의 질을 획득할 수 있는 직접변환방식의 a-Se기반 X-선 검출기 제작 시 substrate에 인가된 온도에 따른 특성을 연구하여 최적화 된 substrate의 온도를 알고자 한다. 본 실험에서는 glass에 투명한 전극물질인 Indium Tin Oxide (ITO)가 electrode로 형성된 substrate를 사용하였으며 그 상단에 a-Se을 Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD)방식을 거쳐 X-선 검출기 샘플을 제작하였다. PVD 공정 시 네 개의 보트에 a-Se 시료를 각각 100g씩 총 400g을 넣고, $5{\times}10-5Torr$까지 진공도를 낮추었다. 보트의 온도는 $270^{\circ}C$에서 40분 $290^{\circ}C$에서 90분으로 온도를 인가하여 a-Se을 기화시켜 증착하였다. 증착 시 substrate 온도를 각각 $20^{\circ}C$, $40^{\circ}C$, $60^{\circ}C$, $70^{\circ}C$ 네 종류로 나누어 실험을 진행하였다. 끝으로 증착된 a-Se 상단에 Au를 PVD방식으로 electrode를 형성시켜 a-Se기반의 X-선 검출기 샘플 제작을 완료하였다. 제작된 a-Se기반의 X-선 검출기 샘플의 두께는 80에서 $85{\mu}m$로 온도에 따른 차이가 없었다. 이후에 전기적 특성을 평가하기위해 electrometer와 oscilloscope를 이용하여 Dark current와 Sensitivity를 측정하여 Signal to Noise Ratio(SNR)로 도출하였으며 Scanning Electron Microscope(SEM) 표면 uniformity를 관찰하였다. 또한 제작된 a-Se기반 X-선 검출기 샘플의 hole collection 성능을 확인하고자 mobility를 측정하였다. 측정결과 a-Se의 work function을 고려한 $10V/{\mu}m$기준에서 70kV, 100mA, 0.03sec의 조건의 X-선을 조사 하였을 때 Sensitivity는 세 종류의 검출기 샘플이 15nC/mR-cm2에서 18nC/mR-cm2으로 비슷한 양상을 나타내었지만, substrate온도가 $70^{\circ}C$때의 샘플은 10nC/mR-cm2이하로 저감됨을 알 수 있었다. 그리고 substrate온도 $60^{\circ}C$에서 제작된 검출기 샘플의 전기적 특성이 SNR로 환산 시, 15.812로 가장 우수한 전기적 특성을 나타내어 최적화 된 온도임을 알 수 있었다. SEM촬영 시 온도상승에 따라 표면 uniformity가 우수하였으며, Mobility lifetime에서는 $60^{\circ}C$에서 제작된 검출기 샘플이 deep trap 수치가 높아 hole이 $0.04584cm2/V{\cdot}sec$로 $0.00174cm2/V{\cdot}sec$의 electron보다 26.34배가량 빠른 것을 확인하였다. 본 연구를 통해 a-Se증착 시, substrate에 인가된 온도는 균일한 박막의 형성 및 표면구조에 영향을 미치며 온도가 증가할수록 안정적인 전기적 특성을 나타내지만 $70^{\circ}C$이상일 시, a-Se층의 결정화가 생겨 deep trap을 발생시켜 전기적 특성이 저하됨을 확인 할 수 있었다. 따라서 증착 시의 substrate의 온도 최적화는 a-Se기반 X-선 검출기의 안전성 및 성능향상을 위해 불가피한 요소가 된다고 사료된다.