Evaluation of the Protégé^(TM) stent in the treatment of carotid artery stenosis with adjunctive use of a filter Embolic Protection Device (PROCAR)-one-month follow-up data on 77 patients

Objective The trial was designed to evaluate the safety and performance of the ev3 Protégé TM stent in the treatment of de novo or re-stenotic common and/or internal carotid artery stenoses with adjunctive use of a CE-marked filter embolic protection device.Methods This study was a prospective multi-center, single-arm trial. Between June and October 2003, 77 patients were enrolled in 8 investigational centers throughout Europe. The primary endpoint was the incidence of Major Neurological Events (MANE) through one month. Other endpoints were the ability to properly place the stent, and primary patency and MANE after six months. Eligible for the study were patients with a de novo or restenotic target lesion located in the common and/or internal carotid artery (>70% stenosis for asymptomatic and >50% stenosis for symptomatic patients). The ev3 Spider (Embolic Protection Filter was used in 75 of 77 cases. Results In 76 out of the 77 patients (99%), the stent could be successfully implanted with a residual stenosis ≤30% as criterion. Of the 74 patients that had a carotid ultrasound at one month follow-up, none had a re-stenosis of the target lesion. There were three MANEs during or immediately after the procedure (3.9%), two were major and one was a minor stroke. There were eight severe complications (9.1%); six of these happened during or immediately after the procedure and were related to the procedure, none was related to the device. They are resolved without sequelae. No deaths have occurred.Conclusions The Protégé stent is safe and performs well in the treatment of carotid artery stenosis. The technical success rate for placement of the Protégé stent as assessed by the residual stenosis post implant was very high and all stents were successfully deployed. The incidence of MANE was comparable with that in other recent carotid stent studies and still lower than standard CEA.

Tunable optical filter using second-order micro-ring resonator

In this paper, we design and fabricate a silicon integrated optical filter consisting of two cascaded micro-ring resonators and two straight waveguides. Two micro-heaters are fabricated on the top of two micro-rings respectively, which are employed to modulate the micro-rings to perform the function of a tunable optical filter by the thermo–optic effect. The static response test indicates that the extinction ratio and 3-d B bandwidth are 29.01 d B and 0.21 nm respectively, the dynamic response test indicates that the 10%–90% rise and 90%–10% fall time of the filter are 16 μs and 12 μs, respectively,which can meet the requirements of optical communication and information processing. Finally, the power consumption of the device is also characterized, and the total power consumption is about 9.43 m W/nm, which has been improved efficiently.

Printable Optical Filters for Visible Optical Communications

The design, production and characterization of tailored printable optical filters for visible optical communications are demonstrated. As result, the average color difference between the specified and the produced filters is 32.6, quantified in terms of CIELAB coordinates.

Subwavelength grating waveguide devices in siliconon-insulators for integrated microwave photonics

We provide an overview of our recent work on developing subwavelength grating （SWG） waveguide devices as an enabling technology for integrated microwave photonics. First, we describe wavelength-selective SWG waveguide filters, including ring resonators, Bragg gratings, and contradirectional couplers. Second, we discuss the development of an index variable optical true time delay line that exploits spatial diversity in an equal-length waveguide array. These SWG waveguide components are fundamental building blocks for realizing more complex structures for advanced microwave photonic signal processing.

Light spectral filtering based on spatial adiabatic passage

We present the first experimental realization of a light spectral filter based on the spatial adiabatic passage technique.We demonstrate that a fully integrable CMOS-compatible system of three coupled identical total internal reflection silicon oxide waveguides with variable separation along their propagation direction can be used simultaneously as a low-and high-pass spectral filter within the visible range of wavelengths.Light is injected into the right waveguide,and after propagating along the system,long wavelengths are transferred into the left output,whereas short wavelengths propagate to the right and central outputs.The stopband reaches values up to 211 dB for the left output and approximately 220 dB for the right plus central outputs.The passband values are close to 0 dB for both cases.We also demonstrate that the filtering characteristics of the device can be controlled by modifying the parameter values,which define the geometry of the triple-waveguide system.However,the general filtering behavior of the system does not critically depend on technological variations.Thus,the spatial adiabatic passage filtering approach constitutes an alternative to other integrated filtering devices,such as interference or absorbance-based filters.

Adaptive suppression of passive intermodulation in digital satellite transceivers

For the performance issues of satellite transceivers suffering passive intermodulation interference,a novel and effective digital suppression algorithm is presented in this paper.In contrast to analog approaches,digital passive intermodulation（PIM） suppression approaches can be easily reconfigured and therefore are highly attractive for future satellite communication systems.A simplified model of nonlinear distortion from passive microwave devices is established in consideration of the memory effect.The multiple high-order PIM products falling into the receiving band can be described as a bilinear predictor function.A suppression algorithm based on a bilinear polynomial decorrelated adaptive filter is proposed for baseband digital signal processing.In consideration of the time-varying characteristics of passive intermodulation,this algorithm can achieve the rapidness of online interference estimation and low complexity with less consumption of resources.Numerical simulation results show that the algorithm can effectively compensate the passive intermodulation interference,and achieve a high signal-to-interference ratio gain.