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Objectives. To investigate the association of serum autoantibodies against M2-muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (anti-M2-R) with atrial fibrosis in long-standing persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) patients. Methods. Twenty-four long-standing persistent AF patients, scheduled to undergo hybrid ablation surgery, were enrolled in the study. Twenty-six patients with sinus rhythm, scheduled to undergo coronary artery bypass grafting surgery, were enrolled into the non-AF group. We detected serum anti-M2-R levels. Left atrial appendages were subjected to histological and molecular biological assays. Patients in the AF group received follow-up for two years. Results. The AF group showed significantly higher serum anti-M2-R levels compared to the non-AF group (496.2 ± 232.5 vs. 86.3 ± 25.7 pmol/L, p<0.001). The AF group exhibited severe fibrosis in the left atrial appendages, as indicated by increased collagen volume fraction (45.2 ± 4.7% vs. 27.6 ± 8.3%, p<0.001), and higher levels of collagen I (0.52 ± 0.04 vs. 0.24 ± 0.06, p<0.001) and collagen III (0.51 ± 0.07 vs. 0.36 ± 0.09, p<0.001). TGF-β1 and CTGF were also upregulated in the AF group. A positive correlation between serum anti-M2-R levels and fibrosis of the left atrial appendage and fibrogenic indexes was observed. Conclusions. Serum anti-M2-R levels are higher in AF patients and are associated with the severity of atrial fibrosis. In addition, serum anti-M2-R levels are positively correlated to TGF-β1 and CTGF expression in the left atrial appendage.

Herein, we propose a tunable plasmonic sensor with Fano resonators in an inverted U-shaped resonator. By manipulating the sharp asymmetric Fano resonance peaks, a high-sensitivity refractive index sensor can be realized. Using the multimode interference coupled-mode theory and the finite element method, we numerically simulate the influences of geometrical parameters on the plasmonic sensor. Optimizing the structure parameters, we can achieve a high plasmonic sensor with the maximum sensitivity for 840 nm/RIUand figure of merit for 3.9 × 105. The research results provide a reliable theoretical basis for designing high sensitivity to the next generation plasmonic nanosensor.

Surface anti-reflection (AR) with micrometer or nanometer scaled surface texture has been studied extensively and showed excellent light extraction (or harvest) performance in corresponding opto-electronic devices. In this paper, a 2-inch anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) template with nano/micro hybrid structure was obtained directly through a simple lithography-free aluminum anodization process for the first time. This new nano/micro hybrid structure combines the advantages of sub-100 nm sub-wavelength structure (SWS) and micrometer scaled surface roughening. Aluminum grains were found to rearrange the distribution of the penetrated surface current during the anodization and eventually induced the micrometer scaled fluctuation underneath. The ultra-thin AAO replication scheme was introduced to fabricate and study the spectrum (300 nm to 800 nm) dependent AR performance of the nano/micro hybrid PDMS structure, which obtained an AR enhancement fraction of more than 42% higher than that of the nano-patterned one. Thin film and GaN based light-emitting diode (LED, 450 nm) models were built and studied. Compared to the flat LED, the AR enhancement of the nano/micro structured one can reach as high as more than 3 folds. These results suggest the nano/micro hybrid structure could be a good alternative for the applications of surface AR structure.

Indium tin oxide (ITO) has been studied for applications at normal high temperatures, below 600°C, due to its excellent electrical characteristics. In an attempt to further match the needs of electronics for use in extremely harsh environments, the changes in the conductive properties of ITO films and their mechanism were investigated at special high-temperatures above 1,000°C. ITO films were prepared by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) onto lanthanum gallium silicate (LGS) substrates. Furthermore, the as-deposited samples were annealed with different temperature-time treatments, and we investigated the effects of annealing on the electrical, structure, surface morphology and chemical properties of the ITO films by X-ray diffraction analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), resistance measurements, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The experimental results showed that the decreased resistance of the ITO films was mainly attributed to the increase in the crystalline size and the increased amount of Sn4+ ions during the heating period (0–1,000°C). Generally, the ITO films showed stable electrical properties when they were heated at 1,000°C for at least 2.5 h. As expected, the ITO films that remained steady above 1,000°C have potential applications as electrodes working in special high-temperature environments.

The positive bias temperature instability (PBTI) reliability of buried InGaAs channel n-MOSFETs with an InP barrier layer and Al2O3 gate dielectric under medium field (2.7 MV/cm) and high field (5.0 MV/cm) are investigated in this paper. The Al2O3/InP interface of the insertion of an InP barrier layer has fewer interface and border traps compared to that of the Al2O3/InGaAs interface. The subthreshold slope, transconductance, and shift of Vg are studied by using the direct-current Id-Vg measurements under the PBTI stress. The experimental results show that the degradation of positive ΔVg under the medium field stress is mainly caused by the acceptor trap, while the donor trap under the high field stress become dominant in the subthreshold region, which leads to the negative shift in Vg. The generation of acceptor trap are attributed by the InP barrier layer in the buried InGaAs channel n-MOSFETs, resulting that the part of recoverable donor trap has been neutralized under the high field stress. Compared to the surface InGaAs channel n-MOSFETs under PBTI stress, the low leakage current can be achieved in the buried InGaAs channel n-MOSFETs with an InP barrier layer.

A novel SiC/Si heterojunction lateral double-diffused metal-oxidesemiconductor (LDMOS) with a reversed L-shaped field plate and a stepped oxide layer has been proposed to improve the tradeoff between the breakdown voltage (BV) and specific on-resistance (Ron,sp). The reversed L-shaped field plate is applied to modulate electric field distribution to make the breakdown occur in the low electric field area (SiC/Si interface), which increases the BV and decreases the Ron,sp of the device. Furthermore, a stepped oxide layer is used to cover the Si drift region and reshape the lateral electric field distribution by introducing a new electric field peak, which consequently enhances the BV. The simulated results have indicated that the BV of this proposed SiC/Si LDMOS increased from 226 V and 720 V to 992 V compared with the conventional Si LDMOS and SiC LDMOS, respectively, while maintaining a low Ron,sp of 27.62 mΩ·cm2.

We propose a broadband structure which integrates polarization and nanofocusing functions into a single device with 3.8×4 µm 2 footprint. The bandwidth is over 200 nm with insert loss (IL) smaller than 1.68 dB.

Spot size conversion from the Si waveguide core (400×220 nm2) to a plasmonic waveguide core (20×40 nm2) is studied with insert loss (IL) 1.29 dB and extinction ratio (ER) 29.3 dB.