In comparison with individual testing, group testing is more efficient in reducing the number of tests and potentially leading to tremendous cost reduction. There are two key elements in a group testing technique: (i) the pooling matrix that directs samples to be pooled into groups, and (ii) the decoding algorithm that uses the group test results to reconstruct the status of each sample. In this paper, we propose a new family of pooling matrices from packing the pencil of lines (PPoL) in a finite projective plane. We compare their performance with various pooling matrices proposed in the literature, including 2Dpooling, P-BEST, and Tapestry, using the two-stage definite defectives (DD) decoding algorithm. By conducting extensive simulations for a range of prevalence rates up to 5%, our numerical results show that there is no pooling matrix with the lowest relative cost in the whole range of the prevalence rates. To optimize the performance, one should choose the right pooling matrix, depending on the prevalence rate. The family of PPoL matrices can dynamically adjust their construction parameters according to the prevalence rates and could be a better alternative than using a fixed pooling matrix.

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Motivated by the need to hide the complexity of the physical layer from performance analysis in a layer 2 protocol, a class of abstract receivers, called Poisson receivers, was recently proposed in [1] as a probabilistic framework for providing differentiated services in uplink transmissions in 5G networks. In this paper, we further propose a deterministic framework of ALOHA receivers that can be incorporated into the probabilistic framework of Poisson receivers for analyzing coded multiple access with successive interference cancellation. An ALOHA receiver is characterized by a success function of the number of packets that can be successfully received. Inspired by the theory of network calculus, we derive various algebraic properties for several operations on success functions and use them to prove various closure properties of ALOHA receivers, including (i) ALOHA receivers in tandem, (ii) cooperative ALOHA receivers, (iii) ALOHA receivers with traffic multiplexing, and (iv) ALOHA receivers with packet coding. By conducting extensive simulations, we show that our theoretical results match extremely well with the simulation results.

This paper reports a highly effective technique for rapid fabrication of microlens arrays based on an ultrasonic assisted hot embossing process. In this method, a thin stainless steel mold with micro-holes array is fabricated by a photolithography and wet etching process. Then, the thin stainless steel mold with micro-holes array is placed on top of a plastic substrate (PMMA plate) and the stack is placed in an ultrasonic vibration embossing machine. During ultrasonic assisted hot embossing operation, the surface of the stainless steel mold with micro-holes array presses against the thermoplastic PMMA substrate. Under proper ultrasonic vibration time, embossing pressure and hold time, the softened polymer will just partially fill the circular holes and due to surface tension, form a convex lens surface. After the stainless steel mold is removed, the microlens array patterns on the surface of plastic substrate can be obtained. The total cycle time is less than 10 s. Finally, geometrical and optical properties of the fabricated plastic microlens arrays were measured and proved satisfactory. This technique shows great potential for fabricating microlens array on plastic substrates with high productivity and low cost.

The group testing approach, which achieves significant cost reduction over the individual testing approach, has received a lot of interest lately for massive testing of COVID-19. Many studies simply assume samples mixed in a group are independent. However, this assumption may not be reasonable for a contagious disease like COVID-19. Specifically, people within a family tend to infect each other and thus are likely to be positively correlated. By exploiting positive correlation, we make the following two main contributions. One is to provide a rigorous proof that further cost reduction can be achieved by using the Dorfman two-stage method when samples within a group are positively correlated. The other is to propose a hierarchical agglomerative algorithm for pooled testing with a social graph, where an edge in the social graph connects frequent social contacts between two persons. Such an algorithm leads to notable cost reduction (roughly 20-35%) compared to random pooling when the Dorfman two-stage algorithm is applied.