Engineering Commons^™

Radiation-Induced Effects In Chalcogenide-Based Memory Devices And Films, Kasandra Wolf

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Continued scaling of memory devices has produced many issues for the current foremost non-volatile memory—the flash memory—leading to the emergence of a wide variety of alternative memory solutions. Redox Conductive Bridge Memory (RCBM) is one such solution that has shown great promise in recent years. However, the performance of these devices under radiation conditions has not been explored in detail. This work investigates the effects of x-rays and electron bombardment on chalcogenide glasses and RCBM devices based on these materials.

RCBM devices are a form of Resistance Change Memory, which rely on two distinct resistive states to represent the binary …

Simulation Of A Rising Sun Magnetron Employing A Faceted Cathode With A Continuous Current Source, Sulmer Fernandez-Gutierrez, Jim Browning, Ming-Chieh Lin, David N. Smithe, Jack Watrous

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

It has been proposed that gated field emitters could be used in place of conventional thermionic cathodes to control the current injection in a magnetron, both temporally and spatially. Since gated field emitters have to be fabricated on flat surfaces, a faceted cathode would be used to implement this approach. A 2D ten cavity, rising sun magnetron has been modeled using the particle-in-cell code VORPAL. Cylindrical, five-sided, and ten-sided faceted cathodes were modeled to study the variation of magnetron operation due to the cathode shape. This work shows the results of the device performance employing three different cathode geometries with …

Noise-Enhanced Information Systems, Hao Chen, Lav R. Varshney, Pramod K. Varshney

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Noise, traditionally defined as an unwanted signal or disturbance, has been shown to play an important constructive role in many information processing systems and algorithms. This noise enhancement has been observed and employed in many physical, biological, and engineered systems. Indeed stochastic facilitation (SF) has been found critical for certain biological information functions such as detection of weak, subthreshold stimuli or suprathreshold signals through both experimental verification and analytical model simulations. In this paper, we present a systematic noise-enhanced information processing framework to analyze and optimize the performance of engineered systems. System performance is evaluated not only in terms of …

Channel, Phase Noise, And Frequency Offset In Ofdm Systems: Joint Estimation, Data Detection, And Hybrid Cramér-Rao Lower Bound, Omar Hazim Salim, Ali A. Nasir, Hani Mehrpouyan, Wei Xiang, Salman Durrani, Rodney A. Kennedy

Hani Mehrpouyan

Oscillator phase noise (PHN) and carrier frequency offset (CFO) can adversely impact the performance of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, since they can result in inter carrier interference and rotation of the signal constellation. In this paper, we propose an expectation conditional maximization (ECM) based algorithm for joint estimation of channel, PHN, and CFO in OFDM systems. We present the signal model for the estimation problem and derive the hybrid Cramér-Rao lower bound (HCRB) for the joint estimation problem. Next, we propose an iterative receiver based on an extended Kalman filter for joint data detection and PHN tracking. Numerical …

Compact Verilog-A Modeling Of Silicon Traveling-Wave Modulator For Hybrid Cmos Photonic Circuit Design, Kehan Zhu, Vishal Saxena, Wan Kuang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A compact Verilog-A model of silicon-based junction traveling-wave Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) is developed for hybrid CMOS and photonic system-level simulation in Cadence environment. Critical device functions such as the voltage dependent change of refractive index, small-signal RLGC parameters for the MZM arms are extracted from the photonic device characterization from OpSIS foundry. Thermo-optical coefficient is also considered in the model. Simulation results including electro-optic S21 is characterized for the phase modulator's bandwidth. Also, transient MZM operation with non-return to zero (NRZ) data transmission at 10 Gb/s and 20 Gb/s rates are demonstrated.

Sparsity-Based Edge Noise Removal From Bilevel Graphical Document Images, Thai V. Hoang, Elisa H. Barney Smith, Salvatore Tabbone

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper presents a new method to remove edge noise from graphical document images using geometrical regularities of the graphics contours that exist in the images. Denoising is understood as a recovery problem and is accomplished by employing a sparse representation framework in the form of a basis pursuit denoising algorithm. Directional information of the graphics contours is encoded by atoms in an overcomplete dictionary which is designed to match the input data. The optimal precision parameter used in this framework is shown to have a linear relationship with the level of the noise that exists in the image. Experimental …

Phase Control And Fast Start-Up Of A Magnetron Using Modulation Of An Addressable Faceted Cathode, J. Browning, S. Fernandez-Gutierrez, M. C. Lin, D. N. Smithe, J. Watrous

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The use of an addressable, faceted cathode has been proposed as a method of modulating current injection in a magnetron to improve performance and control phase. To implement the controllable electron emission, five-sided and ten-sided faceted planar cathodes employing gated field emitters are considered as these emitters could be fabricated on flat substrates. For demonstration, the conformal finite-difference time-domain particle-in-cell simulation, as implemented in VORPAL, has been used to model a ten-cavity, rising sun magnetron using the modulated current sources and benchmarked against a typical continuous current source. For the modulated, ten-sided faceted cathode case, the electrons are injected from …

Energy-Efficient Stdp-Based Learning Circuits With Memristor Synapses, Xinyu Wu, Vishal Saxena, Kristy A. Campbell

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

It is now accepted that the traditional von Neumann architecture, with processor and memory separation, is ill suited to process parallel data streams which a mammalian brain can efficiently handle. Moreover, researchers now envision computing architectures which enable cognitive processing of massive amounts of data by identifying spatio-temporal relationships in real-time and solving complex pattern recognition problems. Memristor cross-point arrays, integrated with standard CMOS technology, are expected to result in massively parallel and low-power Neuromorphic computing architectures. Recently, significant progress has been made in spiking neural networks (SNN) which emulate data processing in the cortical brain. These architectures comprise of …

Joint Phase Noise Estimation And Data Detection In Coded Mimo Systems, Arif O. Isikman, Hani Mehrpouyan, Ali A. Nasir, Alexander G. Amat, Rodney A. Kennedy

Hani Mehrpouyan

In this paper, the problem of joint oscillator phase noise (PHN) estimation and data detection for multi-input multi-output (MIMO) systems using bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) is analyzed. A new MIMO receiver that iterates between the estimator and the detector, based on the expectation-maximization (EM) framework, is proposed. It is shown that at high signal-to-noise ratios, a maximum a posteriori estimator (MAP) can be used to carry out the maximization step of the EM algorithm. Moreover, to reduce the computational complexity of the proposed EM algorithm, a soft decision-directed extended Kalman filter-smoother (EKFS) is applied instead of the MAP estimator to …

Nano-Ionic Redox Resistive Ram – Device Performance Enhancement Through Materials Engineering, Characterization And Electrical Testing, Muhammad Rizwan Latif

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, Redox Conductive Bridge Memory (RCBM), which falls in the Resistive Random Access Memory (RRAM) category, has gained considerable attention as one of the promising candidates for future generation non-volatile memory due to its advantages over Flash memory as it offers high density, low operating power, fast read/write operation, and compatibility with conventional CMOS process. Currently research is being conducted to improve the reliability of the RCBM devices, which are comprised of an insulating material, also known as active layer, sandwiched between two metal electrodes. The main working mechanism of these devices is based on the resistance change …

Nano-Ionic Radiation Sensor: Materials Engineering, Device Design, And Testing, Mahesh Satyanarayana Ailavajhala

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

For decades, various radiation-detecting materials have been extensively researched, to find a better material or mechanism. Recently, there has been a growing need for smaller, and more effective materials or devices that are Integrated Circuits (IC) compatible, and can perform similar functions as bulkier Geiger counters, and other measurement options, which fail the requirement for easy, cheap, and accurate radiation dose measurements. Here arises the use of thin films of chalcogenide glasses, which have unique properties of high thermal stability along with high sensitivity towards short wavelength radiation.

In this work, the effect of γ-rays, generated from a ⁶⁰Co …

On Uniformly Most Powerful Decentralized Detection, Uri Rogers

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The theory behind Uniformly Most Powerful (UMP) composite binary hypothesis testing is mature and well defined in centralized detection where all observations are directly accessible at one central node. However, within the area of decentralized detection, UMP tests have not been researched, even though tests of this nature have properties that are highly desirable. The purpose of this research is to extend the UMP concept into decentralized detection, which we define as UMP decentralized detection (UMP-DD). First, the standard parallel decentralized detection model with conditionally independent observations will be explored. This section will introduce theorems and corollaries that define when …

Simulation Of A Magnetron Using Discrete Modulated Current Sources, Sulmer A. Fernández Gutierrez

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Magnetrons are microwave oscillators and are extensively used for commercial and military applications requiring power levels from the kilowatt to the megawatt range. It has been proposed that the use of gated field emitters with a faceted cathode in place of the conventional thermionic cathode could be used to control the current injection in a magnetron, both temporally and spatially. In this research, this concept is studied using the 2-D particle trajectory simulation Lorentz2E and the 3-D particle-in-cell (PIC) code VORPAL. The magnetron studied is a ten cavity, rising sun magnetron, which can be modeled easily using a 2-D simulation. …

High-Speed Delta-Sigma Data Converters For Next-Generation Wireless Communication, Sakkarapani Balagopal

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, Continuous-time Delta-Sigma(CT-ΔΣ) analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) have been extensively investigated for their use in wireless receivers to achieve conversion bandwidths greater than 15 MHz and higher resolution of 10 to 14 bits. This dissertation investigates the current state-of-the-art high-speed single-bit and multi-bit Continuous-time Delta-Sigma modulator (CT-ΔΣM) designs and their limitations due to circuit non-idealities in achieving the performance required for next-generation wireless standards. Also, we presented complete architectural and circuit details of a high-speed single-bit and multi-bit CT-ΔΣM operating at a sampling rate of 1.25 GSps and 640 MSps respectively (the highest reported sampling rate in a 0.13 …

Seeking Cleaner Air - Accessible Air Quality Monitoring And Event Diagnosis, James Allen Hall Jr.

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Airborne particulate matter has been shown to be associated with morbidity and mortality, and can have a detrimental impact on sensitive materials and processes. Understanding the levels and movements of particulate matter in an enclosed space can lead to a reduction in the negative consequences of poor air quality. A system of environmental sensors including particulate matter, selected gases, and other atmospheric factors can be used to provide a real-time assessment of air quality. This assessment can be used to assist in the diagnosis of the source of particulate matter. This dissertation describes the creation of a framework for the …

Dynamic Rating Of Transmission Lines For Improved Wind Energy Integration In Complex Terrain, Tyler Bennett Phillips

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Transmission congestion is a growing concern that could limit integration on new renewable energy projects to the electricity grid. Because construction of new transmission lines is a long and expensive process, transmission service providers are investigating dynamic line rating (DLR) mehtods that could potentially increase capacity of existing transmission lines. DLR is a smart-grid technology that enables rating of power lines based on real-time conductor temperature that is dependent on local weather conditions. whereas conventional practice relies on a static rating, which is based on conservative local weather assumptions to limit transmission line sag.

With todays improved wind and weather …

A Reliability Prediction Method For Phase-Change Devices Using Optimized Pulse Conditions, Martin Jared Barclay

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Owing to the outstanding device characteristics of Phase-Change Random Access Memory (PCRAM) such as high scalability, high speed, good cycling endurance, and compatibility with conventional complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) processes, PCRAM has reached the point of volume production. However, due to the temperature dependent nature of the phase-change memory device material and the high electrical and thermal stresses applied during the programming operation, the standard methods of high-temperature (Temperature > 125 °C) accelerated retention testing may not be able to accurately predict bit sensing failures or determine slight pulse condition changes needed if the device were to be …

Thermo-Electric Generator Evaluation Board, Jeanette Brooks, Cody Sullivan, Adrian Rothenbuhler

College of Engineering Presentations

Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) are solid-state devices that convert temperature gradients into electrical energy. TEGs are desirable sources of energy as they require low maintenance and have high reliability with potential for use in low power and remote applications. To date, no simple and affordable, common test platform for evaluating the performance of TEGs in their associated environment exists. This project is aimed at providing such a platform to deliver performance data that is crucial in power budgeting and viability studies of TEG-powered applications. The design utilizes the common LTC3109 converter chip and an off-the-shelf micro-controller for temperature and load current …

Low-Current Sensing Circuit And Topology For Portable Gamma Radiation Sensor, M. S. Ailavajhala, M. R. Latif, M. Mitkova

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A sensing circuit is presented for a portable/handheld semiconductor based radiation sensor, which senses low current changes without the inclusion of transistor noise issues. This circuit design block was implemented using supporting circuit architectures to enable sensing between 33pA to 1nA using low voltages. Additionally, a unique circuit topology is presented by which the effect of radiation damage to the silicon substrate and any devices on the substrate is reduced.

Ion Beam Effect On Ge-Se Chalcogenide Glass Films: Non-Volatile Memory Array Formation, Structural Changes And Device Performance, M. R. Latif, T. L. Nichol, M. Mitkova, D. A. Tenne, I. Csarnovics, S. Kokenyesi, A. Csik

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this work a scheme for fabricating a conductive bridge non-volatile memory arrays, using ion bombardment through a mask, is demonstrated. Blanket films and devices have been created to study the structural changes, surface roughness and device performance. Ar⁺ ions interaction on thin films of Ge_xSe_1−x system have been studied using Raman Spectroscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDS). The performance of the memory devices has been analyzed based on the formation of vias and damage accumulation due to Ar⁺ ion interactions with Ge_xSe_1−x(x=0.25, 0.3 and 0.4) …

A Reference System For Animal Biometrics: Application To The Northern Leopard Frog, D. Petrovska-Delacrétaz, A. Edwards, J. Chiasson, G. Chollet, D. Pilliod

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reference systems and public databases are available for human biometrics, but to our knowledge nothing is available for animal biometrics. This is surprising because animals are not required to give their agreement to be in a database. This paper proposes a reference system and database for the northern leopard frog (Lithobates pipiens). Both are available for reproducible experiments. Results of both open set and closed set experiments are given.

Improving Bandwidth Efficiency In E-Band Communication Systems, Hani Mehrpouyan, M. Reza Khanzadi, Michail Matthaiou, Akbar M. Sayeed, Robert Schober, Yingbo Hua

Hani Mehrpouyan

The allocation of a large amount of bandwidth by regulating bodies in the 70/80 GHz band, that is, the E-band, has opened up new potentials and challenges for providing affordable and reliable gigabit-per-second wireless point-to-point links. This article first reviews the available bandwidth and licensing regulations in the E-band. Subsequently, different propagation models (e.g., the ITU-R and Cane models) are compared against measurement results, and it is concluded that to meet specific availability requirements, E-band wireless systems may need to be designed with larger fade margins compared to microwave systems. A similar comparison is carried out between measurements …

A 1 Gs/S, 31 Mhz Bw, 76.3 Db Dynamic Range, 34 Mw Ct-Δς Adc With 1.5 Cycle Quantizer Delay And Improved Stf, Sakkarapani Balagopal, Kehan Zhu, Vishal Saxena

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A 1 GS/s continuous-time delta-sigma modulator (CT- ΔΣM) with 31 MHz bandwidth, 76.3 dB dynamic range and 72.5 dB peak-SNDR is reported in a 0.13 μm CMOS technology. The design employs an excess loop delay (ELD) of more than one clock cycle for achieving higher sampling rate. The ELD is compensated using a fast-loop formed around the last integrator by using a sample-and-hold. Further, the effect of this ELD compensation scheme on the signal transfer function (STF) of a feedforward CT- ΔΣ architecture has been analyzed and reported. In this work, an improved STF is achieved by using a combination …

A Low-Cost Wireless Portable Particulate Matter Monitoring System, Sin Ming Loo, James A. Hall, Joshua Kiepert, Michael Pook, Nicholas Terrell

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper describes a portable sensor system design for environmental research. The designed system has been deployed in many environments and has been EMI/EMC approved for operation in commercial aircraft cabins. The sensor suite includes particulate matter, CO, CO2, temperature, humidity, pressure, light intensity, and sound sensors. Multiple sensor systems can be deployed at once to form a wireless sensor network. Each sensor node is powered either with six AA batteries or via a transformer and standard outlet. The data collected by a node can be stored locally on the device and/or sent through the integrated ZigBee mesh network to …

Timing And Carrier Synchronization With Channel Estimation In Af Two-Way Relaying Networks, Ali A. Nasir, Hani Mehrpouyan, Salman Durrani, Steven D. Bolstein, Rodney A. Kennedy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Two-way relaying networks (TWRNs) allow for more bandwidth efficient use of the available spectrum since they allow for simultaneous information exchange between two users with the assistance of an intermediate relay node. However, due to superposition of signals at the relay node, the received signal at the user terminals is affected by multiple impairments, i.e., channel gains, timing offsets, and carrier frequency offsets, that need to be jointly estimated and compensated. This paper presents the system model for amplify-and-forward (AF) TWRNs in the presence of multiple impairments and proposes least squares and differential evolution based algorithms for joint estimation …

Channel Estimation And Carrier Recovery In The Presence Of Phase Noise In Ofdm Relay Systems, Rui Wang, Hani Mehrpouyan, Meixia Tao, Yingbo Hua

Hani Mehrpouyan

In this paper, we analyze joint channel, carrier frequency offset (CFO), and phase noise estimation in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) relaying networks. To achieve this goal, a detailed transmission framework involving both training and data symbols is first presented. Next, a novel algorithm that applies the training symbols to jointly estimate the channel responses, CFO, and phase noise parameters based on the maximum a posteriori criterion is proposed. Additionally, to evaluate the performance of the proposed channel estimation and carrier recovery algorithms, we analyze the ambiguities among the estimated parameters. Based on this analysis, a new Hybrid Cramér-Rao Lower …

Enhanced List-Based Group-Wise Overloaded Receiver With Application To Satellite Reception, Zohair Abu-Shaban, Bhavani Shankar Mysore R., Hani Mehrpouyan, Björn Ottersten

Hani Mehrpouyan

The market trends towards the use of smaller dish antennas for TV satellite receivers, as well as the growing density of broadcasting satellites in orbit require the application of robust adjacent satellite interference (ASI) cancellation algorithms at the receivers. The wider beamwidth of a small size dish and the growing number of satellites in orbit impose an overloaded scenario, i.e., a scenario where the number of transmitting satellites exceeds the number of receiving antennas. For such a scenario, we present a two stage receiver to enhance signal detection from the satellite of interest, i.e., the satellite that the dish is …

Rt-Dsp Using ”See Through”, Cameron H. G. Wright, Thad B. Welch, Michael G. Morrow

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Engineering educators teaching digital signal processing (DSP) have found that using hands-on exercises for students can smooth the transition from theory to practical real-time DSP. However, before significant learning can begin using such exercises, students must build their confidence in the hardware and software platforms. When using audio signals, a “talk-through” project accomplishes this. For introducing more complicated signals such as video, the authors propose the use of a “see-through” project. This paper provides a description of a see-through project on a high-performance real-time DSP platform, discusses how such a project can lead to better follow-on learning using more advanced …

Simulation Of Electron Hop Funnels Using Version 9.2 Of Lorentz-2e, Tyler Rowe, Marcus Pearlman, Jim Browning

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Electron hop funnels have been simulated using the new version of the particle trajectory simulation software, Lorentz-2E. Simulations were conducted to determine the validity of the version 9.2 results and the consistency of the results to a previous version of the software, version 8.0. In addition, a new method of injecting a uniform current with all rays of equal charge is discussed, and the results of the method are presented. Version 9.2 of the software was successfully implemented and a new emission model tested. The transition of the software version will allow for faster simulation times of the electron hop …