Electrical and Computer Engineering Commons^™

A K-Delta-1-Sigma Modulator For Wideband Analog To Digital Conversion, Vishal Saxena, Kaijun Li, Geng Zheng, R. Jacob Baker

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

As CMOS technology shrinks, the transistor speed K-quantizing paths and can achieve significantly higher conversion bandwidths when compared to the traditional deltasigma ADCs. The 8-path KD1S modulator achieves an SNR of 58 dB (or 9.4-bits resolution) when clocked at 100 MHz for a conversion bandwidth of 6.25 MHz and an effective sampling rate equal to 800 MHz. The KD1S modulator has been fabricated in a 500 nm CMOS process and the experimental results are reported. Deficiencies in the first test chip performance are discussed along with their alleviation to achieve theoretical performance.

On-Chip Intrinsic Evolution Methodology For Sequential Logic Circuit Design, Fan Xiong, Nader Rafla

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper focuses on the application of Virtual Reconfigurable Circuit (VRC) design methodology and intrinsic evolution for the design of small sequential circuits and their implementation on a single programmable chip with an embedded hardcore processor. The evolutionary algorithm is developed in software that runs on the embedded processor. Fitness function is calculated using hardware architecture and is used to guide the evolution process. This new method is applied to the development of a 3-bit sequence detector and the evolved architecture is implemented on a Xilinx™ Virtex-II pro device. Simulations were run on the evolved architecture and on the same …

Digitally-Tunable Surface Acoustic Wave Resonator, Robert Russell Hay

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) technology has been utilized in numerous research and commercial devices since the practical implementation was enabled by the availability of suitable photolithographic techniques in the 1970s. With the traditional approach to implementing these devices the frequency response is established during manufacture. This dissertation proposes a different approach to implementing a SAW device. The SAW structure is added to the top of an integrated circuit so that the frequency response can be digitally controlled and the peak resonant frequency can be varied. The approach is based on implementing a phase-controlled interface between the SAW transducer fingers and …

Chip-Scale Nanophotonic Chemical And Biological Sensors Using Cmos Process, Lincoln Bollschweiler, Alex English, R. Jacob Baker, Wan Kuang, Zi-Chang Chang, Ming-Hsiung Shih, William Knowlton

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A monolithic integrated chip-scale surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor is demonstrated. The device consists of a pn photodiode covered with a periodic modified thin metal film whose lattice constant is on the order of the wavelength of light. The device performs real-time measurement of resonant wavelengths of enhanced optical transmission due to surface plasmon resonance, which are influenced by the presence of chemical or biological materials at the device’s surface.

Rna Search With Decision Trees And Partial Covariance Models, Jennifer A. Smith

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The use of partial covariance models to search for RNA family members in genomic sequence databases is explored. The partial models are formed from contiguous subranges of the overall RNA family multiple alignment columns. A binary decision-tree framework is presented for choosing the order to apply the partial models and the score thresholds on which to make the decisions. The decision trees are chosen to minimize computation time subject to the constraint that all of the training sequences are passed to the full covariance model for final evaluation. Computational intelligence methods are suggested to select the decision tree since the …

Style-Based Ballot Mark Recognition, Pingping Xiu, Daniel Lopresti, Henry Baird, George Nagy, Elisa Barney Smith

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The push toward voting via hand-marked paper ballots has focused attention on the limitations of current optical scan systems. Discrepancies between human and machine interpretations of ballot markings can lead to a loss of trust in the election process. In this paper, a style-based approach to ballot recognition is proposed in which marks are recognized collectively rather than in isolation. The consistency of a voter’s style is leveraged to improve the overall accuracy of the system. We compare style-based recognition to various kinds of singlet classifiers and show that it outperforms them by a substantial margin

Phase Change Memory: Array Development And Sensing Circuits Using Delta-Sigma Modulation, Mahesh Balasubramanian

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Chalcogenide based non-volatile Phase Change Memory (PCM) circuits were designed to investigate new emerging non-volatile memory technologies. An overview of the operation of chalcogenide-based resistive PCM for circuit designers is presented. MOSIS fabrication service was used along with Idaho Microfabrication Lab at Boise State University to develop PCM chips. Experimental results show successful integration of two discreet processing services for developing chalcogenide based non-volatile memory circuits. Possible multi-state capabilities were observed during the testing of single memory bits.

Four Delta Sigma Modulation (DSM) based sensing techniques for resistive memory are presented. The proposed sensing techniques have the advantage over traditional …

A Wireless Sensor Data Fusion Framework For Contaminant Detection, Joshua Kiepert, Sin Ming Loo

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In recent years, much research has been done on wireless sensor networks and sensor data fusion, however there has been limited work regarding implementation of real systems that are capable of providing a highly connected sensor network for data logging and data fusion applications. This paper describes the design and implementation of a wireless, portable, and reconfigurable sensor network framework. This sensor node design has proven to be effective for monitoring environmental conditions of aircraft cabins and is well suited to environmental monitoring and detection of contaminants in large areas when utilizing sensor data fusion features.

Dc-Ac Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel Boost Inverter With No Inductors For Electric/Hybrid Electric Vehicle Applications, Zhong Du, Burak Ozpineci, Leon M. Tolbert, John N. Chiasson

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper presents a cascaded H-bridge multilevel boost inverter for electric vehicle (EV) and hybrid EV (HEV) applications implemented without the use of inductors. Currently available power inverter systems for HEVs use a dc–dc boost converter to boost the battery voltage for a traditional three-phase inverter. The present HEV traction drive inverters have low power density, are expensive, and have low efficiency because they need a bulky inductor. A cascaded H-bridge multilevel boost inverter design for EV and HEV applications implemented without the use of inductors is proposed in this paper. Traditionally, each H-bridge needs a dc power supply. The …

The Dsp Of Money, Thad B. Welch, Cameron H. G. Wright, Michael G. Morrow

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper discusses a simple framework that can be used to connect a significant number of the tools and techniques developed in a first course in either discrete-time signals and systems or digital signal processing. While this framework is not revolutionary, it allows for the rapid placement of new material into the course’s context. Additionally, a simple model of an unstable financial system allows for a rapid introduction and overview of the course while observably increasing student interest and motivation. In these challenging economic times, it is somewhat reassuring to know that some unstable financial accounts are actually a good …

Incits W1.1 Standards For Perceptual Evaluation Of Text And Line Quality, Edul N. Dalal, Elisa H. Barney Smith, Frans Gaykema, Allan Haley, Kerry Kirk, Don Kozak, Mark Robb, Tim Qian, Ming-Kai Tse

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

INCITS W1.1 is a project chartered to develop an appearance-based image quality standard. This paper summarizes the work to date of the W1.1 Text and Line Quality ad hoc team, and describes the progress made in developing a Text Quality test pattern and an analysis procedure based on experience with previous perceptual rating experiments.

Fundamental Frequency Switching Strategies Of A Seven-Level Hybrid Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel Inverter, Zhong Du, Leon M. Tolbert, Burak Ozpineci, John N. Chiasson

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper presents a cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter that can be implemented using only a single dc power source and capacitors. Standard cascaded multilevel inverters require n dc sources for 2n + 1 levels. Without requiring transformers, the scheme proposed here allows the use of a single dc power source (e.g., a battery or a fuel cell stack) with the remaining n − 1 dc sources being capacitors, which is referred to as hybrid cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter (HCMLI) in this paper. It is shown that the inverter can simultaneously maintain the dc voltage level of the capacitors and …

An Affordable Software Defined Radio, Thad B. Welch, Travis Kent, Cameron H. G. Wright, Michael G. Morrow

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper discusses the utilization of a relatively inexpensive wideband radio receiver in combination with a digital downconverter (DDC) based data recorder to capture and record real world radio signals. The resulting in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) data files are then imported intoMATLAB for processing. This batch processing of real world radio signals allows for a tremendous amount of classroom flexibility in the discussion of software defined radio topics.

Pre-Processing Of Degraded Printed Documents By Non-Local Means And Total Variation, Laurence Likforman-Sulem, Jérôme Darbon, Elisa Barney Smith

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

We compare in this study two image restoration approaches for the pre-processing of printed documents: namely the Non-local Means filter and a total variation minimization approach. We apply these two ap- proaches to printed document sets from various periods, and we evaluate their effectiveness through character recognition performance using an open source OCR. Our results show that for each document set, one or both pre-processing methods improve character recog- nition accuracy over recognition without preprocessing. Higher accuracies are obtained with Non-local Means when characters have a low level of degradation since they can be restored by similar neighboring parts of …

Online Identification Of The Rotor Time Constant Of An Induction Machine, Ahmed Oteafy, John Chiasson, Marc Bodson

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Indirect field oriented control of an induction machine requires knowledge of the rotor time constant to estimate the rotor flux linkages. An online method is described for estimating the rotor time constant and the stator resistance both of which vary during operation of the machine due to ohmic heating. The method formulates the problem using a nonlinear least-squares criterion and is guaranteed to find the minimizing solution (parameter values) in a finite number of steps. In this work the algorithm has been implemented online in simulation with the results demonstrating its application and efficacy.

High Dynamic Performance Programmed Pwm Control Of A Multilevel Inverter With Capacitor Dc Sources, John Chiasson, Zhong Du, Burak Özpineci, Leon M. Tolbert

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A cascade multilevel inverter consisting of a standard 3-leg inverter supplied by a DC source and three full H-bridges each supplied by a capacitor is considered for use as a motor drive. The capacitor H-bridges can only supply reactive voltage to the motor while the standard three leg inverter can supply both reactive and active voltage. A switching control algorithm is presented that shows this inverter topology can be used as an AC drive achieving considerable performance advantages (e.g., higher motor speed) compared to using a standard 3-leg inverter while at the same time regulating the capacitor voltages. The converter …

Lyapunov Stability Of An Open-Loop Induction Machine, Ahmed Oteafy, John Chiasson

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The induction machine is widely utilized in the industry and exists in a plethora of applications. Although it is characterized by its inherent stability over a wide range of operating conditions, this characterization is based on steadystate arguments. This work develops a rigorous approach to the open-loop stability of the induction machine. In particular, a condition for the global asymptotic stability of the induction machine in the sense of Lyapunov is presented. These conditions are met if the machine is lightly loaded. Hence, meeting these conditions guarantees that the motor will reach (or return to) the desired equilibrium point regardless …

Mosfet Modulated Dual Conversion Gain Cmos Image Sensors, Xiangli Li

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, vision systems based on CMOS image sensors have acquired significant ground over those based on charge-coupled devices (CCD). The main advantages of CMOS image sensors are their high level of integration, random accessibility, and low-voltage, low-power operation. Previously proposed high dynamic range enhancement schemes focused mainly on extending the sensor dynamic range at the high illumination end. Sensor dynamic range extension at the low illumination end has not been addressed. Since most applications require low-noise, high-sensitivity, characteristics for imaging of the dark region as well as dynamic range expansion to the bright region, the availability of a …

Temperature (5.6-300k) Dependence Comparison Of Carrier Transport Mechanisms In Hfo2/Sio2 And Sio2 Mos Gate Stacks, Richard G. Southwick Iii, Justin Reed, Christopher Buu, Hieu Bui, Ross Butler, G. Bersuker, William B. Knowlton

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Temperature dependent measurements have been used to examine transport mechanisms and energy band structure in MOS devices. In this study, a comparison between high-k HfO₂ dielectrics and conventional SiO₂ dielectrics is made to investigate dielectric specific thermally activated mechanisms. Temperature dependent measurements on large area n/pMOSFETs composed of SiO₂ and HfO₂/SiO₂ gate dielectrics were performed from 5.6 K to 300 K. A large increase in the gate leakage current is observed at the formation of the minority carrier channel. The data indicate that gate leakage current prior to the formation of the minority channel …

A New Approach To The Design, Fabrication, And Testing Of Chalcogenide-Based Multi-State Phase-Change Nonvolatile Memory, H. K. Ande, P. Busa, M. Balasubramanian, Kristy A. Campbell, R. Jacob Baker

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A new approach to developing, fabricating, and testing chalcogenide-based multi-state phase-change nonvolatile memory (NVM) is presented. A test chip is fabricated through the MOSIS service. Then post processing, in the Boise State University lab, is performed on the chip to add the chalcogenide material that forms the NVM. Each memory bit consists of an NMOS access transistor and the chalcogenide material placed between the metal3 of the test chip, connected to the access device, and a common, to all memory bits, electrode. This paper describes the design of the memory bit and of the test structures used for reliability and …

Resource-Constrained Load Balancing Controller For A Parallel Database, John Chiasson, Z. Tang, J. D. Birdwell, C. T. Abdallah, M. Hayat

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This brief documents experimental results using a deterministic dynamic nonlinear system for load balancing, previously reported by Tang et al. in a cluster of computer nodes used for parallel computations in the presence of time delays and resource constraints. While previous publications by the authors have provided theoretical analysis of this load-balancing strategy using an idealized model, and have documented experiments using a simulated database, experimental results using a complete database for DNA profiles are documented here. Evaluation of the proposed load-balancing strategy using an actual database was critical because of several characteristics of the database that cannot be accurately …

Heterogeneity Of Molecular Structure Of Ag Photo-Diffused Ge30Se70 Thin Films, Mingji Jin, Punit Boolchand, Maria Mitkova

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Silver photodiffusion in thin Ge₃₀Se₇₀ films is investigated in order to understand the structure forming in the Ge-Se host after introduction of Ag in it. Optical micrographs point towards formation of homogeneous films after deposition of the Ge-Se material on glass substrate. This structure changes and occurrence of heterogeneous regions is imaged after Ag is introduced into the Ge-Se host. Raman spectroscopy provides data about the development of the structural organization in the host in depth. It confirms that while the initial non-doped films are organized in a structure corresponding to the bulk material with analogous composition, …

Reduced Switching-Frequency Active Harmonic Elimination For Multilevel Converters, John Chiasson, Zhong Du, Leon M. Tolbert, Burak Ozpineci

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper presents a reduced switching-frequency active-harmonic-elimination method (RAHEM) to eliminate any number of specific order harmonics of multilevel converters. First, resultant theory is applied to transcendental equations to eliminate low-order harmonics and to determine switching angles for a fundamental frequency-switching scheme. Next, based on the number of harmonics to be eliminated, Newton climbing method is applied to transcendental equations to eliminate high-order harmonics and to determine switching angles for the fundamental frequency-switching scheme. Third, the magnitudes and phases of the residual lower order harmonics are computed, generated, and subtracted from the original voltage waveform to eliminate these low-order harmonics. …

Low-Voltage Cmos Temperature Sensor Design Using Schottky Diode-Based References, Curtis Cahoon, R. Jacob Baker

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper presents the design of a fully differential sigma-delta temperature sensor using Schottky diode-based current references as a replacement for the traditional PN junction diode-based current references. This sensor was designed using the AMI 0.5um process through the MOSIS fabrication organization[l], and the chip performance will be evaluated and compared to the simulated results. The use of the Schottky diode and differential current sensing in the sigma-delta-type sensor allows for lower voltage operation and better noise performance.

Asymptotic Analysis Of Large Cooperative Relay Networks Using Random Matrix Theory, Husheng Li, Zhu Han, H. Poor

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Cooperative transmission is an emerging communication technology that takes advantage of the broadcast nature of wireless channels. In cooperative transmission, the use of relays can create a virtual antenna array so that multiple-input/multiple-output (MIMO) techniques can be employed. Most existing work in this area has focused on the situation in which there are a small number of sources and relays and a destination. In this paper, cooperative relay networks with large numbers of nodes are analyzed, and in particular the asymptotic performance improvement of cooperative transmission over direction transmission and relay transmission is analyzed using random matrix theory. The key …

Integrating Through-Wafer Interconnects With Active Devices And Circuits, Jim Jozwiak, Richard G. Southwick Iii, Vaughn N. Johnson, William B. Knowlton, Amy J. Moll

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Through wafer interconnects (TWIs) enable vertical stacking of integrated circuit chips in a single package. A complete process to fabricate TWIs has been developed and demonstrated using blank test wafers. The next step in integrating this technology into 3D microelectronic packaging is the demonstration of TWIs on wafers with preexisting microcircuitry. The circuitry must be electrically accessible from the backside of the wafer utilizing the TWIs; the electrical performance of the circuitry must be unchanged as a result of the TWI processing; and the processing must be as cost effective as possible. With these three goals in mind, several options …

Hardware/Software Codesign In A Compact Ion Mobility Spectrometer Sensor Systemfor Subsurface Contaminant Detection, Sin Ming Loo, Jonathan P. Cole, Molly M. Gribb

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A field-programmable-gate-array-(FPGA-) based data acquisition and control system was designed in a hardware/software codesign environment using an embedded Xilinx Microblaze soft-core processor for use with a subsurface ion mobility spectrometer (IMS) system, designed for detection of gaseous volatile organic compounds (VOCs). An FPGA is used to accelerate the digital signal processing algorithms and provide accurate timing and control. An embedded soft-core processor is used to ease development by implementing nontime critical portions of the design in software. The design was successfully implemented using a low-cost, off-the-shelf Xilinx Spartan-III FPGA and supporting digital and analog electronics.

Correlating Degradation Models And Image Quality Metrics, Darrin K. Reed, Elisa H. Barney Smith

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

OCR often performs poorly on degraded documents. One approach to improving performance is to determine a good filter to improve the appearance of the document image before sending it to the OCR engine. Quality metrics have been measured in document images to determine what type of filtering would most likely improve the OCR response for that document image. In this paper those same quality metrics are measured for several word images degraded by known parameters in a document degradation model. The correlation between the degradation model parameters and the quality metrics is measured. High correlations do appear in many places …

Improved Covariance Model Parameter Estimation Using Rna Thermodynamic Properties, Jennifer A. Smith, Kay C. Wiese

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Covariance models are a powerful description of non-coding RNA (ncRNA) families that can be used to search nucleotide databases for new members of these ncRNA families. Currently, estimation of the parameters of a covariance model (state transition and emission scores) is based only on the observed frequencies of mutations, insertions, and deletions in known ncRNA sequences. For families with very few known members, this can result in rather uninformative models where the consensus sequence has a good score and most deviations from consensus have a fairly uniform poor score. It is proposed here to combine the traditional observed-frequency information with …

Human Image Preference And Document Degradation Models, Chris Hale, Elisa H. Barney Smith

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Because most degraded documents are created by people, the preferences individuals have in relation to degraded documents are quite important. Their preferences may determine whether or not the documents they created are appropriate for machines. The goal of this study was to find relationships between preference and several parameters of a scanner degradation model. It was found that the difference in binarization threshold and the difference in edge displacement caused by the degradation both had strong linear relationships to preference. The width of the point spread function did not show such a relationship. These relationships were counterintuitive because degraded characters …