News and Agenda Archive

News

EKL in the spotlight

The Delft University of Technology harbours two of the main cleanroom infrastructures of the Netherlands: The Kavli Nanolab (KNL) and The Else Kooi Laboratory (EKL). Both laboratories provide access to high-end, state-of-the-art process and inspection equipment for academic and industrial users.

The cleanroom infrastructure of the Delft University of Technology is a partner in NanoLabNL, which is the Dutch national facility for nanotechnology research. It offers the use of facilities and expertise to universities, research institutes, start-ups, and industry. The NanoLabNL facilities are an important link in the innovation process from basic idea to product. In this role NanoLabNL supports fundamental research, process and product development and small-scale production.

EKL is one of the biggest cleanrooms in The Netherlands with over 600 m2 of cleanroom class 100 (ISO 5) and 400 m2 of cleanroom class 10'000 (ISO 7). It is located in Building 36EWI Faculty, and allows full fabrication and characterisation of any active or passive nanostructure starting from a silicon wafer. The laboratory offers sub-micrometer resolution lithography, thin film deposition and etching, bulk and surface micromachining, packaging, and assembly of the final device. Moreover, polymer based, biocompatible and biodegradable devices can be fully fabricated and synthesized in EKL.

EKL is collaborating with many research groups such as BioelectronicsECTMEIPMEPVMDQuTechTerahertz Sensing. Moreover, EKL offers foundry and joint development services, allowing the collaboration with different companies in the many disparate fields. The EKL team can assist you in design and provide fabrication and characterization of your device. In Applications, you can find some of the of the devices that have been fully fabricated in the EKL and KN facilities.

 


Startup Innatera in the news

Innatera is a startup that originated in 2019 in the SPS group and has now grown to 65 employees. Recently they completed a neural network-based microcontroller, based on spiking neural networks. This enables highly power efficient processing (e.g. real-time image recognition) for Internet-of-Things applications.

The chip was demonstrated at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

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Alle-Jan van der Veen wins EURASIP Technical Achievement Award

Alle-Jan has been awarded the prestigious Technical Achievement Award of EURASIP for his “contributions to subspace-based array signal processing”.

The EURASIP Technical Achievement Award honors a person who, over a period of years, has made outstanding technical contributions to theory or practice in technical areas within the scope of the Society, as demonstrated by publications, patents, or recognized impact in this field.

EURASIP is the European Association for Signal Processing. The award will be presented at EUSIPCO'2024 in August in Lyon.

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Outstanding TU Delft score at ISSCC 2024

At this year’s International Solid-State Circuit Conference (ISSCC), the world’s top conference on IC design, the TU Delft will be contributing to a record number of papers.
In total, 13 papers will be presented in the following areas:

-       Sensors and precision analog circuits (Makinwa)

·       Ultrasound and biomedical circuits (Pertijs, Serdijn, Liu)

·       Power management (Du)

·       Cryogenic CMOS (Babaie, Sebastiano)

·       Class-D amplifiers (Fan)

·       RF amplifiers (de Vreede, Alavi)

Congratulations to all the authors and PIs for this great collective achievement.

Click here for full list of the contributed papers

 


Portrait of Medical Delta Professor Johan Frijns (appointed at EEMCS, Bioelectronics group)

Portrait of Medical Delta Professor Johan Frijns 

More than 800,000 people in the Netherlands are hard of hearing. They suffer so much from hearing loss that it limits their daily lives. Prof. Dr. ir. Johan Frijns treats people with hearing loss, conducts research on hearing implants, and gladly shares his knowledge about electrical stimulation of the nervous system. "We shouldn't want to reinvent everything in every little corner. What we learn in one place, we can also use in another."

Johan Frijns is a professor of Otology and Physics of Hearing in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at LUMC. He heads the Center for Audiology and Hearing Implants Leiden (CAHIL) and the Cochlear Implant Rehabilitation Centre Leiden (CIRCLE). He was recently appointed as a Medical Delta professor with a position at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science at TU Delft.

Read more: Portrait and video Johan Frijns: “When a deaf child suddenly hears and learns to talk, this also has a huge impact on the people around him.” | Medical Delta

 


Lunch Seminar Tom Coughlin, IEEE president

Tom Coughlin, IEEE president, will give a lunch seminar at the TU Delft.

12.30-12.45, walk in. Lecture hall D@ta, EEMCS
12.45-13.15, presentation by Ilke Ercan (EEE) and Tom Coughlin (IEEE)


Register HERE


New book with contribution of Geert Leus

Sparse Arrays for Radar, Sonar, and Communications

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Dr. Bahareh Abdi (EEE) awarded the TU Delft Open Education Stimulation Fund

Dr. Bahareh Abdi (EEE) was awarded with the TU Delft Open Education Stimulation Fund for her project “Enhancing Electrical Engineering Education: A Digital Twin and Interactive Manual Approach for Dynamic Hands-On Learning.” Dr. Abdi will receive €20k over one year period to develop interactive textbook equivalent of BSc EE lab manuals with added digital content to improve students’ learning experience.

In this project, Dr. Abdi collaborates with Dr. Seyedmahdi Izadkhast (EEE), Dr. İlke Ercan (EEE), and Prof. Dr. Ir. Alle-Jan van der Veen (SPS) from the Department of Microelectronics, and Dr. Serdar Asut from the Faculty of Architecture who has expertise on the subject. The departure point of the project is Integrated Project-3 in the BSc EE curriculum. The outcome of the project will inform the improvement of other integrated projects and lab courses. 

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Artikel AD tinnitus

Onze hersencellen werken als elektronische netwerken en daar kan ik veel mee”, aldus professor Wouter Serdijn van de Sectie Bio-elektronica van de TU Delft. Serdijn zoekt naar een oplossing voor tinnitus. © Thierry Schut

Source (paywall): https://www.ad.nl/binnenland/elektrotechnisch-ingenieur-en-neurochirurg-denken-oplossing-voor-tinnitus-gevonden-te-hebben~abb033f4/

Read the full story here: Tinnitus.

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Thomas Michalica wins Best Bioengineering MSc Graduate of 2023

Ex-ECTM Master student Thomas Michalica was awarded for Best MSc Graduate by Delft Bioengineering Institute (BEI) with a prize of 1000 EUR. Thomas' graduation project titled "Two-photon polymerization-based 3D-multi-electrode arrays for electrical monitoring of neuronal cells" was conducted under supervision of Massimo Mastrangeli (ECTM) and Angelo Accardo (3mE/PME/MNE).

Congratulations (again), Thomas!

See also: Best Bioengineering MSc Graduate of the Year: Thomas Michalica! (tudelft.nl)


Mario Coutino wins best PhD thesis award

Mario Coutino has won the IEEE Signal Processing Society Best PhD Dissertation Award. Mario received his PhD in Apr 2021 with a dissertation titled "Advances in graph signal processing: Graph filtering and network identification" (promotor: Geert Leus (SPS)).

Congratulations!

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New NWO-TTW project for Geethu and Justin (SPS)

Laser satellite communications is a promising technology to support worldwide access to telecommunications services. A major technological challenge is atmospheric turbulence impacting the propagation of the laser beams. Its effect can be mitigated by adaptive optics and geographic diversity. The DAILSCOM project aims to provide a map of the effective optical channel performance over Europe. This map is needed to design ground network technology and estimate communications service availability. Since our current understanding and ability to estimate the channel performance are limited, we will develop novel physics-informed machine learning algorithms to formulate the optical link performance map.

Project PIs are: Rudolf Saathof (AE), Justin Dauwels, Geethu Joseph, Sukanta Basu (CiTG)

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Justin Dauwels IEEE Signal Processing Magazine Area Editor

Justin Dauwels has been appointed Columns & Forums Area Editor for IEEE Signal Processing Magazine. Congratuations!

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Organ-on-chip: Creating a home for human cells outside of the body

Associate professor Massimo Mastrangeli is the embodiment of enthusiasm for scientific research. He specifically exudes passion for his own field, namely that of organs-on-chip. “What I would like people to know about this field of research? That it’s amazing!”, exclaims Massimo.

Read the full story: Organ-on-chip: Creating a home for human cells outside of the body

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GuoQi Zhang, section ECTM receives prestigious NAE fellow appointment

Four researchers (QuoQi Zhang, Arie van Deursen, Catholijn Jonker and Inald Lagendijk) from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EWI) have been named leading experts and are appointed as fellows by the Netherlands Academy of Engineering (NAE). A total of 62 fellows have been appointed, originating from the fields of technological sciences, applied research and innovation. The fellows focus on fostering an innovation climate that generates societal and economic value by providing engineering-based solutions to major societal issues while offering new business and export opportunities.

GuoQi Zhang is chair professor for the "Micro/Nanoelectronics System Integration and Reliability" at the EEMCS faculty, a member of Netherlands Academy of Engineering, and IEEE Fellow. His research interests cover multi-level heterogeneous system integration and packaging; multi-physics and multiscale modelling and optimization of micro/nanoelectronics; digital twin and designing for reliability; wide-bandgap semiconductors sensors and components; SSL technology; and their applications mainly in healthcare, energy and mobility.


Thomas Michalica wins the KWHM Young Talent graduation award for Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

Thomas Michalica, who graduated cum laude earlier this year in the Biomedical Engineering Master at TU Delft, has been selected as the winner of the the Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen (KHMW) Young Talent graduation award (€ 5000) in the field of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science for his Master thesis titled "Two-photon polymerization-based 3D-multi-electrode arrays for electrical monitoring of neuronal cells". Thomas developed his work as part of the collaboration between 3mE/PME/MNE (Dr. Accardo) and EWI/ME/ECTM groups (Dr. Mastrangeli) to develop three-dimensional scaffolds supporting arrays of microelectrodes to monitor in-vitro neuronal cell cultures.

The award and diploma will be presented during a festive ceremony in the Hodshon House, Spaarne 17, Haarlem, on November 27, 2023.

Congratulations, Thomas!


Best Paper Award at the IEEE Sensors Conference 2023 in Vienna

The MS3 group  has received the Best Paper Award at the IEEE Sensors Conference 2023 in Vienna. The paper is entitled “Radar-based Continuous Human Activity Recognition with Multi-Label Classification” and is a collaboration between our MS3 group in TU Delft and the Institute of Microwaves and Photonics of the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen-Nurnberg.

This work comes from the visit of Dr Ingrid Ullmann to the MS3 group a few months ago, where an interesting collaboration has started on the topics of radar sensing for healthcare applications and indoor monitoring. Special thanks to Ingrid for representing the team at the conference and we look forward to new outcomes from this exciting collaboration.


Andrew Webb wins Huibregtsen Award for Affordable MRI Scanners

High field MRI expert, Professor Andrew Webb of the Microelectronics department, and his Ugandan collaborator, Johnes Obungoloch, have been awarded the 2023 Huibregtsen Prize. Their notable achievement is the creation of an affordable, portable, and long-lasting MRI device tailored for brain imaging in developing nations.

Webb's team introduced a 'low-field MRI scanner' that boasts ease of transportation, maintenance, and ecological sustainability. Ever better, Webb’s new device is priced at just 1% of the typical MRI system. The brain scans generated by their MRI are instrumental in diagnosing curable diseases in underdeveloped regions, with the first model already operational in Uganda.

Highlighting its distinctive nature, the jury commended the initiative for merging top-tier technology development with suitability for developing regions. They also lauded the emphasis on knowledge dissemination and instruction.

The Huibregtsen Prize, founded in 2005 by The Evening of Science & Society Foundation board, is an annual award recognizing pioneering research projects with profound societal implications.
The accolade was handed over by the departing Minister of Education, Culture, and Science, Robbert Dijkgraaf, on 9 October at Pieterskerk, Leiden. Professor Webb was granted a €25,000 check and a bronze artwork from Wil van der Laan. Meanwhile, Obungoloch tuned into the event via a live stream from Uganda. In addition to the monetary prize and artwork, the duo also earned a workshop at the Lorentz Center in Leiden.

 


Model-Driven Decisions Lab initiated

On 28 September, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the TU Delft and the national police, to collaborate on research around safety and security, and forensic research. Part of this initiative will be a new research lab, the "Model-Driven Decisions Lab". This lab will start up with 5 PhD positions. Scientific director is Justin Dauwels (SPS).

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Open technology platforms for organ-on-chip: Moore4Medical reaches a successful conclusion

The concept of Moore4Medical's Smart Multi-Well Plate

After the successful final review in Maastricht (NL) on September 28, 2023, the 3-year KDT-JU European project Moore4Medical has reached its very successful conclusion. Under the expert leadership of Sieger Swaving, Ronald Dekker and Erik van den Zeijden (Philips), the 68 consortium partners of Moore4Medical have convincingly showed how open technology platforms can be beneficially deployed to advance multiple biomedical domains, including implantable devices, ultrasound monitoring, drug attrition, surgical devices, and not least organ-on-chip.

With the contribution of 24 European partners – including TU Delft (WP leader), Micronit, BI/OND, Besi, TNO/Holst Centre, TU Eindhoven and Philips from the Netherlands – the second work package of Moore4Medical led by Massimo Mastrangeli (ECTM) specifically developed three open technology platforms for organs-on-chip: the Smart Multi-Well Plate (SMWP), the High-Definition electro-Physiology Plate (HD e-Phys) and the Smart (multi-well plate) Lid. The platforms were developed from design and architecture through implementation, fabrication and assembly, to biological validation in relevant settings. They embody recommendations from the European organ-on-chip roadmap for ease of use, standardization and industrially-scalable manufacturing. The SMWP in particular captures the power of organ-on-chip devices under the familiar aspect of a multi-well plate (see illustration). It combines end user-defined configurability of OoC devices with fluidic autonomy afforded by onboard piezoelectric micropumps and compatibility with established laboratory workflows.

Moore4Medical has also prepared the ground for follow-up projects that can capitalize on its many achievements and insight, such as the NEXTGEN HIGH-TECH program for Biomedical technology in the Netherlands and the KDT-JU UNLOOC European project (under evaluation).

 


The 2022 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship Grant awarded to dr. Karen Dowling

Dr. Karen Dowling’s MSCA-PF was granted for her project titled “Precise X-Y-Z Readout with a micro-Magnetometer Inverted-pyramid Design (PYRAMID), ” in collaboration with Prof. dr. Kofi Mankinwa. Chip-scale magnetometers come in several flavors, the most common being silicon Hall-effect plates that integrate easily with electronics. However, these devices only detect 1D fields, are asymmetric between X-Y and Z directions, and cannot work in extreme temperatures. Karen’s goal is to leverage micromachining  to realize magnetometers with a unique "3D" microstructure that reduces the footprint and improves accuracy. This project will involve the development of the inverted pyramid device through crystallographic etching of <100> CMOS silicon to expose the <111> crystal plane at 54.7°. This enables higher angular accuracy and avoids fabrication misalignment or packaging errors. In parallel, Kofi’s group at TU Delft will develop the CMOS integrated circuit for front-end amplification and switching scheme of the sensor to detect all three components of the field from a singular device. The final year of the project will focus on combining the sensor together with the circuit in an integrated system. This enables new products for 3D navigation in autonomous microsystems such as biomedical implants, power monitoring, and nanosatellites.

 


EU project TeraGreen and targets Tbps energy-efficient wireless links for future 6G networks

Nuria Llombart Juan (TSz group) got a 4-year EU project, called ‘TeraGreen and targets Tbps energy-efficient wireless links for future 6G networks’ (5 mln. Euro in total) granted. The TUD is the administrative and scientific coordinator of the project. The other partners are Ericsson, Infineon, Chalmers, Technische Universität Dresden and Cosmote.
For this purpose, TeraGreen will develop ultra wideband and low-power consumption BiCMOS transmitters and receivers integrated with lens array architectures at 300GHz, combined with baseband algorithms suitable for energy-efficient analog-to-digital conversion.  


Clementine Boutry receives ERC starting grant

The European Research Council (ERC) has announced the ERC Starting Grants for young researchers. Five of them are scientists from TU Delft, and one of them is Clémentine Boutry from our department (ECTM group). This European grant of €1.5 million for a five-year research programme is intended to enable individual scientists to build their own teams and conduct groundbreaking research.

Nerve-Repair2.0 - Biodegradable MEMS implants for nerve repair

Biodegradable technologies offer many advantages for the development of future medical implants, particularly in applications where they are only needed temporarily. Fabricating such devices from biodegradable materials avoids the need for a second surgery to remove the implants after their period of use.

Clementine Boutry has received an ERC Starting Grant for her project Nerve-Repair2.0, in which her team will develop biodegradable MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) implants for nerve repair, a new class of microsystems made entirely of biodegradable materials, including sensors, actuators (mechanisms that cause movement), and electrical circuits.

Each year, an estimated 300,000 cases of trauma-related peripheral nerve lesions occur in Europe. These injuries result in partial or total loss of motor, sensory and autonomic functions. For large injuries, less than 25% of patients recover proper motor function and less than 3% regain sensation. Accelerating nerve regrowth is a key factor, as the disconnected part of the nerve dies quickly after the injury. Therefore, it is truly a race against time. Dr. Boutry’s research will focus on a new therapeutic approach based on her previous Marie Curie research and on recent clinical findings: the mechanical stimulation of peripheral nerves to accelerate their regrowth. The Nerve-Repair2.0 project will focus on two different medical implants: 1) a first implant providing wireless cyclic mechanical stimulation to the severed nerve, 2) a second implant with an implantable biodegradable MEMS micropump applying constant traction, with the corresponding biodegradable sensors.

There are high expectations of clinical therapies for damaged nerves. The development of new functional biodegradable materials (with tailored magnetic, electrical, mechanical, and chemical properties), and customized fabrication processes in clean rooms will enable the realization of fully biodegradable microsystems, while retaining the established advantages of MEMS (small size, high precision, fast response time, low energy consumption, reliable large-scale production). Beyond neurosciences, Nerve-Repair2.0 will pave the way for other medical applications including cardiac diseases, with the objective to address crucial societal challenges that could not be solved otherwise.


Jointly-organized conference, University Bulgaria en TU Delft

From September 13-15 2023, the XXXII International Conference on Electronics will be organised in Bulgaria, Sozopol. Prof. Gerard Meijer (TUD, EI group)) is one of the honorary co-chairs, Assoc. Prof. Stoyan Nihtianov (TUD, group) is one of the honorary co-chairs.

For more information; 
2023 XXXII International Scientific Conference "Electronics ET2023" (tu-sofia.bg)


Charlotte Frenkel (EI group) receives Veni grant

Brain-inspired smart devices that can continuously learn from their environment

While smart devices outline strong promises ranging from productivity gains in industry to smart cities and health-monitoring wearables, there is still one major hurdle hindering their successful deployment: long-term robustness. Indeed, once deployed, smart devices are currently unable to autonomously adapt to changes in their environments, new user features, and evolving task requirements. This implies either electronic waste through device replacement, or increased battery drain and maintenance cost for frequent over-the-air device updates. This project will overcome this hurdle by merging the latest neuroscience and machine-learning research in continual learning to endow smart devices with low-power long-term autonomous adaptation.

Six promising young EEMCS researchers receive Veni grant (tudelft.nl)


Second place Best Student Paper Award at IMS-2023 for Lennart de Jong

At the 2023 International Microwave Symposium (IMS), former EWI/QuTech student Lennart de Jong won second place for the Best Student Paper Award. His paper is the main result of Lennart’s MSc graduation project, which was supported in part by Intel Corporation and in part by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research under a Veni Program.

This paper describes a clock data recovery (CDR) architecture demonstrating a low recovered clock jitter and high jitter tolerance thanks to incorporating a complementary charge sampling phase detector and clock alignment loop. As the first cryo-CMOS CDR, it enables the required data communication between classical and quantum processors in future large-scale quantum computers. The other co-authors are Joachim I. Bas, Jiang Gong, Fabio Sebastiano, and Masoud Babaie. The paper can be found here.

 

About the conference:

Since 1952, the IEEE International Microwave Symposium (IMS) has been the world’s foremost conference for technologists involved in all aspects of microwave theory and practice, encompassing everything from advances in CAD, modeling, EM simulation, to systems, including the latest RFIC, MIC, MEMS, and filter technologies. The IMS includes technical and interactive sessions, exhibits, student competitions, panels, workshops, tutorials, and networking events, with more than 3000 yearly attendees.


Our Paper Awarded at the IEEE MetroAeroSpace 2023

We are proud to announce that our paper, "Experimental Evaluation of Radar Waveforms for Spectral Coexistence Using the PARSAX Radar", the result of our research collaboration with the team from the University of Naples “Federico II”, has been recognized as the most outstanding paper of the Special Session on Metrology for Radar Systems presented at IEEE MetroAeroSpace 2023 (the award has been sponsored by MDPI Remote Sensing Journal). The paper was acknowledged for its experimental demonstration of radar operability in spectrally dense environments through innovative waveform design.

The award recognition will soon be posted on the official conference website.


IEEE SPS Best Thesis Award for Geethu Joseph

Geethu Joseph received the IEEE Signal Processing Society Best PhD Thesis Award at ICASSP'23. Annually, there are 2 such awards. The 2nd award went to Elvin Isufi, former PhD student of Geert Leus. Congratulations to both!

These awards were installed 3 years ago; until now, there have been 3 recipients.

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Best ESSCIRC Paper Award for EI student

At the 2023 European Solid-State Circuits Conference (ESSCIRC), former EI student Shubham Mehrotra will receive the 2022 Best ESSCIRC Paper Award for the paper entitled “A 590 µW, 106.6 dB SNDR, 24 kHz BW Continuous-Time Zoom ADC with a Noise-Shaping 4-Bit SAR ADC”. The paper describes the design of a high-performance analog-to-digital converter for audio applications. This was the main result of his M.Sc. graduation project, which was done in collaboration with NXP Semiconductors. The other co-authors are E. Eland, S. Karmakar, A. Liu, B. Gonen, M. Bolatkale, R. van Veldhoven and K. Makinwa. The paper can be found at https://ieeexplore-ieee-org.tudelft.idm.oclc.org/document/9911295


Opening ceremony of the EmC XG Labs

Barbara McCune, wife of late Earl McCune, and Lucas van Vliet, Dean of the EEMCS Faculty, inaugurated the Earl McCune XG Labs on April 17th, 2023. Many people attended the ceremony, both from the Microelectronics department as well as external partners such as TNO, Nokia, Rohde&Schwarz, BSW...

The EmC XG Labs receives its name from Prof. Earl McCune (EmC), who enabled the neXt Generation (XG) communication and sensing efforts at TU Delft thanks to his great enthusiasm, his vast amount of knowledge and his warm personality.

The EmC XG Labs consist of a cluster of state-of-the-art microwave laboratories, covering the frequency spectrum from 30 kHz to 500 GHz, able to perform measurements on packaged, on-wafer and over-the-air devices and systems, providing an excellent frame for students, scholars and faculty members to carry out their research.


TU Delta: Millions for TU Delft-led radar project

The TU Delft-led PHARA consortium will receive millions of euros in funding from NWO. The researchers are developing a new type of radar that can observe the entire sky in a few seconds, to study how particles grow in clouds and rainfall, and to observe large movements of weather fronts. The transportable radar should contribute to climate and atmospheric research, more accurate weather forecasts, and further innovations in radar technology.

NWO is putting a total of EUR 22.7 million into seven projects in which scientists from all over the Netherlands are developing high-quality research equipment, data collection, and software. The contribution ranges from 2.3 to 4.7 million euros per project.

With the money, the research funder wants to encourage scientists to work together to keep the Netherlands‘ scientific infrastructure up to date. According to NWO president Marcel Levi, the seven awarded projects enable new research that has great added value for society. As recently as February, NWO together with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science awarded 140 million euros from the 'national roadmap’ for exceptionally large research equipment and databases. (HOP, HC)

Additional information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivVORUxABiQ

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SAFE/ProRISC conference 2023 in Delft

On 10-11 July 2023 we have the SAFE/ProRISC conference in Delft. This is an annual conference rotating around the TU's in The Netherlands.

SAFE is dedicated to devices and technology, and ProRISC to circuits and systems. You can find more information on the website:

https://www.tudelft.nl/prorisc-safe

For PhD students, this is a great opportunity to meet colleagues from the other TU's, and also have fun. We only require an abstract and poster, so there is no problem with prior publication if you want to present the work at an international conference.


CMOS Temperature Sensor highlighted in Nature Electronics

A CMOS temperature sensor developed by Nandor Toth and colleagues at the Electronic Instrumentation lab was featured as a Research Highlight in the March issue of Nature Electronics. As described in a paper published at the top-ranked International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), the sensor is based on the Continuous-Time readout of BJTs in the current domain, as well as a novel resistor-mismatch calibration scheme. As a result of these techniques, the sensor simultaneously achieves high energy-efficiency and high accuracy (less than 0.1°C error) over a wide temperature range (-55°C to 125°C). These features make it well suited for use in applications ranging from automotive to biomedical.

Nandor Toth is a PhD student at the Electronic Instrumentation Laboratory, led by Professor Kofi Makinwa. His research focuses are the high-precision readout of both BJT- and Thermal-Diffusivity based temperature sensors. The co-authors, Sining Pan, Zhong Tang, and Teruki Someya, are previous Postdocs at the same Laboratory, currently working in China and Japan.


Assistant professor Raj Rajan appointed secretary of "De Nederlandse Vereniging voor Ruimtevaart" (Netherlands Space Society)

NVR has approximately 1200 members. They include aerospace professionals, students, and people with a personal interest. As of today, the association has been around for over 70 years. Yet, it remains in touch with the newest Dutch and international developments surrounding space and astronautics. The NVR aims to be an association for all ages, and the network for anyone excited by modern aerospace and space travel.

Raj Rajan has joined the Board of NVR as Secretary, starting Feb 2023.

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Dr. Chang Gao Honored as an MIT Innovator Under 35 Europe 2023

We are delighted to share that Dr. Chang Gao, a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor at the Department of Microelectronics, has been distinguished as an MIT Innovator Under 35. This eminent acknowledgment highlights Gao's extraordinary accomplishments in creating energy-conserving artificial intelligence (AI) computation that retains accuracy. His inventive work has empowered wearable and portable devices and enduring robotic prosthesis control to offer round-the-clock monitoring for better health results and an improved patient experience.

Dr. Gao's methodology strays from conventional neural network models, which may be biologically precise but also expensive and less efficient for real-world applications. Instead, he employs neuromorphic principles, sparse neuron firing, and connectivity to reshape deep recurrent neural networks into more budget-friendly versions. His research effectively connects artificial neural networks with spiking neural networks, speeding up computation while preserving competitive accuracy for real-world tasks.

Dr. Gao's exceptional work has garnered him numerous awards, such as the Best Paper Award at the 2020 IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence Circuits and Systems, co-recipient of the 2020 Misha Mahowald Prize for Neuromorphic Engineering; the 2022 Mahowald Early Career Award for Neuromorphic Engineering; and the 2022 Marie-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship for his project on portable radar systems driven by energy-conscious AI accelerators.

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Graphene electrodes developed by ME researchers on Neurotech reports

The article "Multilayer CVD graphene electrodes using a transfer-free process for the next generation of optically transparent and MRI-compatible neural interfaces", published in Microsystems & Nanoengineering (Nature), is featured in the February 2023 issue of Neurotech Reports. 

The electrodes in the study were fabricated at the Else Kooi Lab and are the product of a longstanding collaboration between the groups of Sten Vollebregt and Vasso Giagka. The article was selected to be featured on the journal's webpage in October 2022.

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Webinar with Dr. Vasso Giagka "Translational Research for Neural Implants"

This webinar will be hosted live and available on-demand

Monday, May 8, 2023, at 17:00

Implantable neurotechnologies already treat various disorders, including epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, depression, and pain. As researchers develop new materials and technologies, the therapeutic potential of neural implants for other diseases and conditions grows. 

In this webinar brought to you by The Scientist, John Donoghue and Vasiliki (Vasso) Giagka will present their latest findings on applying clinical and technical developments to create new implantable devices for treating neurological disorders. 

Topics to be covered 

  • Successes, challenges, and opportunities for brain computer interfaces (BCIs)
    • Accomplishments in human implantable BCIs over the last decades
    • Current capabilities for movement and communication
    • Challenges for clinically useful BCIs as medical devices
  • Miniaturized and selective active neural interfaces
    • Active neural implants for bioelectronic medicine
    • Miniaturization of active neural implants
    • Multimodal neural interfaces

Register through the link

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Andrea Neto wins Best Paper Award at EuCAP 2023

Andrea Neto was awarded with the Best Electromagnetics Award at the European Conference on Antennas and Propagation 2023, with the Paper:

“A Classical Electromagnetic Model for Thermal Emission from Ohmic Materials”, Andrea Neto (Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands). 

The conference hosted 1700 attendees and included 1100 papers.


Second Sensor Interfaces Meeting (SIM) on May 8-9, 2023, at ASML

After the very successful inaugural SIM’22 we are thrilled to present to you again the opportunity to listen to and interact with top experts in the field of sensor interfaces. This time you shall have one more opportunity: to discuss the achievement of your colleagues. Next to the keynote talks, panel sessions and exhibitors, SIM’23 will host poster sessions from both academia and industry. SIM’23 is sponsored by the IEEE Sensors Council and will take place on 8 and 9 May 2023, in the same modern venue used by SIM’22, generously offered by the hi-tech company ASML in Veldhoven, the Netherlands.

Please, reserve the dates 8 and 9 May 2023 in your calendar.

Maybe you are already asking yourself why a meeting on sensors is hosted for a second time in industrial environment, by a machine builder like ASML? This is a great question, the answer of which you will find if you join us and take a closer look at one of the leading hi-tech companies in Europe and the world, and interact with your colleagues from ASML attending SIM’23.

https://2023.ieee-sim.org


Yannick Hopf receives SSCS Predoctoral Achievement Award

At the 2023 International Solid-State Circuit Conference (ISSCC), Yannick Hopf was awarded a Predoctoral Achievement Award from the IEEE Solid-State Circuit Society (SSCS). ISSCC is the leading conference for solid-state circuits and took place on 19 – 23 February. The Predoctoral Achievement Award is the highest honor the society bestows upon student members and awarded to promising graduate students based on their academic record.

In the course of his PhD, Yannick has worked on ASICs for 3D ultrasound imaging of the heart. Two prototypes have been successfully developed and evaluated for the use in intra-cardiac catheters. The work has led to innovations in several circuit blocks as well as on the system level. The final design is the first to combine high-voltage transmitters, analog front-ends, micro-beamforming, digitization, datalinks and transducers, enabling high-frame-rate 3D imaging.

Yannick works at the Smart Ultrasound group at the Electronic Instrumentation Laboratory, under supervision of Dr. Ir. Michiel Pertijs, in close collaboration with the Acoustical Wavefield Imaging group at the Faculty of Applied Sciences, and the Biomedical Engineering group at Erasmus MC. Yannick's work is part of the 3D-ICE project.

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IEEE SPS Student Scholarship Program

The IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS) awards scholarships of up to a total of US$7,000 for up to three years of consecutive support to students who have expressed interest and commitment to pursuing signal processing education and real-world career experiences.

Students and graduate students from all 10 IEEE Regions are encouraged to apply!

This is not a full scholarship but rather a supplementary fund in order to support the signal processing field.  Apply before 30 June 2023.

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Prof. Kofi Makinwa top contributor ' chip olympics', ISSCC

At the 70th anniversary of the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), often known as the “chip Olympics”, Prof. Kofi Makinwa is recognized as its top contributor. Since 2002, he has had a total of 77 papers accepted, and this year, he and his students contributed 8 papers – the best result ever for the TU Delft.

About ISCC

The International Solid-State Circuits Conference is the foremost global forum for presentation of advances in solid-state circuits and systems-on-a-chip. The Conference offers a unique opportunity for engineers working at the cutting edge of IC design and application to maintain technical currency, and to network with leading experts.


Squeaking, humming, buzzing. The discomfort of tinnitus

A few years ago, the Bioelectronics group (Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science) joined an international project on tinnitus called Tinnitus House. Delta phoned TU Delft principal investigator Professor Wouter Serdijn to hear about the progress.

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Sensors and CMOS Interface Electronics (SCIE) Course

Would you like to learn about smart sensors and interface circuits? Register for our course “Sensors and CMOS Interface Electronics”, co-organized by TU Delft and MEAD Education. See: Sensors and CMOS Interface Electronics

The course will take place online, on 8 days between March 27 and April 6, with two lectures per day timed conveniently for participation from anywhere on the globe.

Topics include smart-sensor design, calibration techniques, references, offset-cancellation, analog-to-digital conversion, instrumentation amplifiers and energy harvesting. Moreover, the course features lectures by experts in the field dedicated to smart inertial sensors, magnetic sensors, temperature sensors, image sensors, ultrasonic sensors, capacitive sensors, and implantable medical devices.


MSc Market

Dear MSc Students,

We hope that you have enjoyed your first semester in the Microelectronics Track. But time goes fast when you are having fun, and before you know it you will have to choose a thesis topic!

To help you choose, on February 13th the Electronic Instrumentation Lab will be organizing an MSc Market with pizza and drinks! Our staff will be present to discuss a number of available master thesis projects, as well as a brand new scholarship opportunity!

You will be able to meet with EI staff and discover projects that match your interests.

Our team of 10 PI’s have activities ranging from analog integrated circuits, power management, neuromorphic computing, and all the way to microfabrication of novel sensors. To give you an idea about the possibilities, an overview of Master thesis topics from the 2021-2022 academic year can be found online https://ei.et.tudelft.nl/Education/mscprojects.php

For detailed questions on your study program please contact dr. Kofi Makinwa. K.A.A.Makinwa@tudelft.nl

If you want to join the MSc Market, please send an email to Secr-ei-ewi@tudelft.nl

We are looking forward to meeting you on February 13th from 16:00-18:00 in the social room on the 15th floor.

Sincerely yours,

The Staff of Electronic Instrumentation

 


Kick-off AGRARSENSE project

A new project takes agricultural and forestry related productivity to the next level. The consortium, which includes TUDelft, will develop European state-of-the-art technologies in electronic components and systems for future needs, building European resilience in critical sectors and strongly contribute to sustainability targets and climate change mitigation.

Adequate food and its security is a global challenge, impacted by rapidly compounding effects of climate change, supply chains, human labour shortage and political and military aggression to name a few. We need transparent and improved productivity of agriculture and forestry and easy access to state-of-the-art technological innovation and automation. Also, more sustainable fertilizers and irrigation use is additionally key to saving the climate. Hence, European resilience calls for efficient technological solutions ranging from hardware to holistic data management.

Focus on food security, improved productivity of agriculture and forestry

The AGRARSENSE project, launched in January 2023, responds to these needs by developing technologies for seven different use cases that represent seven different angles on today’s European agriculture and forestry: Greenhouses, vertical farming, precision viticulture, agriculture robotics, forestry machinery and optimal soil management and fertilization as well as agriculture related water management. The electronics components and systems related technology R&D includes e.g., plant, soil, and water sensors and related integration, as well as software, connectivity, and data management solutions. Safety, security, and reliability R&D as well as autonomous movement and robotics platforms pave the way to full commercial utilization of the project outcomes.
 

AGRARSENSE brings together a total of 52 partners from 15 EU countries

Within the Dutch-led Greenhouse use case and with the other European partners, the TUDelft will focus on two technology development activities. One is the development of a 2D material-based VOC sensor that aims at sniffing out plant diseases to enable better prediction of crop health. This research, led by Sten Vollebregt, will focus both on the development of the sensor platform and the packaging of the sensor to result in a reliable demonstrator. The second activity, led by Qinwen Fan, will focus on developing power-efficient electronic drivers that will be used in, among others, greenhouse robotics.

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Chang Gao receives the Mahowald Early Career Award for Neuromorphic Engineering

The MECA jury has awarded the 2022 Mahowald Early Career Award to Chang Gao (Assistant Professor in ELCA) for the project "Accelerating Recurrent Neural Networks with Neuromorphic Principles." The project introduces efficient computing using the neuromorphic principles of spatial and temporal sparsity, leading to an energy-efficient accelerator for edge RNN computing. Gao's accomplishments have the potential to revolutionize applications in healthcare, wearables, and intelligent biomedical implants.

The Mahowald Early Career Award (MECA) recognizes an exceptionally talented student, as Misha Mahowald was. The Award is made for an innovative project that addresses a significant problem in neuromorphic engineering or related problems in neuroscience and neural computation. In their submission, candidates must make a convincing case for why their project fulfills this criterion.

Gao developed this work during his Ph.D. with the Sensors Group at the Institute of Neuroinformatics, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich. He is now a tenure-track assistant professor at TU Delft, where he has started a lab entitled "Efficient circuits & systems for Machine Intelligence" (EMI). Gao's Google scholar profile provides links to his work.

 

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CAS becomes SPS

The Circuits and Systems (CAS) group was formed over 20 years ago out of a merger of the Electronic Techiques and the Network Theory group. The resulting group had a focus on system theory and digital VLSI design, in particular design and verification tools.

Over these years, the signal processing part of the group has grown, to a point where now it is time to change our name. Starting from 1 January 2023, the group is called Signal Processing Systems (SPS). Happy New Year!

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NWO OTP Award SMARTER: Strategic Monitoring of Atmospheric Threats using Enhanced Radar

TU Delft researchers dr. Francesco Fioranelli (ME-MS3) and dr. Marc Schleiss (CITG-GRS) receive NWO OTP funding for a four year research on strategic monitoring of atmospheric threats.
Atmospheric threats such as heavy rain and hail, are responsible for millions of damages in the Netherlands every year. Weather radars are essential tools to study the atmosphere, monitor threats, and issue early warnings for high impact events. The frequency of a radar and its configuration determine what type of weather phenomena can be measured, at which resolution and accuracy. To maximize coverage while simultaneously gathering lots of details about the small-scale structure and dynamics of local rain/hail events, different types of radars can be combined into larger networks. The crucial piece that is missing is a ‘central control unit’ for coordinating the efforts of each radar in the network.

In the project SMARTER Francesco and Marc with their teams will develop a new AI-based control unit for maximizing the collaboration between individual radars in a network and improve the detection/prediction of localized, rapidly developing atmospheric threats while keeping the large-scale overview of the situation. For a first proof of concept, the focus will be on detecting heavy rain and hail in the Greater Rotterdam area, which is of major interest for the horticultural industry and the Dutch economy in general. However, the novel adaptation and decision-making tool will be sufficiently general to be transferable to other networks outside the Netherlands and other targets such as insects, birds and aircrafts.

This project is executed in collaboration with the following partners: Glastuinbouw Nederland, Achmea Agro, KNMI, SkyEcho, Leonardo, RPG and HKV.

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Nature paper for Gerard Janssen

GPS signals are not available everywhere. Especially in urban environments, the satellites may be blocked or the signals experience multipath, leading to timing errors and inaccurate positions in areas where accuracy matters most.

In the SuperGPS project of Gerard Janssen e.a., it is shown how relatively inaccurate wireless transceivers can be networked; the use of wideband signals and carrier phase recovery techniques results in a localization accuracy at decimeter-scale or better; two orders of magnitude better than GPS in certain situations. The perspective is that such transceivers can be embedded in 4G/5G mobile communication networks (the employed protocols are compatible), such that it is relatively inexpensive to roll out this solution.

In the Nov issue of Nature, the project partners describe experimental results acquired on a testbed at The Green Village at TU Delft. An associated article provides an introduction and a perspective. The topic was also covered by IEEE Spectrum.

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Best Student Paper Award at 2022 IEEE (ICECS) for Xinling Yue (EI group)

This paper "A 2-Mode Reconfigurable SSHI Rectifier with 3.2X Lower Cold-Start Requirement for Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting", by Xinling Yue and Sijun Du, proposes a 2-mode reconfigurable rectifier with low input open circuit (VOC) for piezoelectric energy harvesting. The rectifier works as a voltage multiplier in cold state, while switches to synchronous switch harvesting on inductor (SSHI) rectifier combined with a full bridge rectifier after the cold state ends, which lowers the requirement for the start-up voltage by 3.2X. This enables the energy harvester start harvesting energy at much lower excitation levels.


2022 4TU.NIRICT Community Day, November 14

Identified are 3 themes around which we would like to bring NIRICT researchers together to discuss and to explore per theme the opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration. The themes are related to the societal challenges we are currently facing and require interdisciplinary effort in order to be addressed effectively. We believe that productive discussions during the event could be instrumental in forming new research lines, but also project consortia around various national R&D investment programs addressing the knowledge and innovation agenda’s (KIAs) of the Netherlands (https://www.topsectoren.nl/missiesvoordetoekomst).


Themes of the day:
• Health and ICT People live longer, more healthcare is needed. Work pressure in healthcare is rapidly increasing. More data is collected by smart devices. How can the ICT community contribute solutions to keep our society healthy?
• Energy and ICT The current explosion of the energy prices shows that we are facing an unstable situation with respect to energy production and consumption. We produce more solar energy on one hand and consume more energy due to air conditioners and electric cars. We need smart solutions both in production and consumption. Moreover, due to its significant share in energy consumption, ICT systems from the end user devices to power-hungry data centers need to become more energy efficient.
• Agriculture and ICT We just had another summer with extreme heat waves and droughts. The climate changes we are facing have tremendous consequences for agriculture. The population is growing and the pressure on nature is increasing. What smart solutions do we see to deal with the challenges to keep our planet healthy and at the same time to keep the food production in line with the population growth?
The Community Day starts at 12:30hrs with a walk-in lunch. At 13:30hrs the official part will start with a number of short presentations, followed by several parallel sessions regarding the three themes of the day. You can indicate your preference on the registration form. Afterwards there will be a networking drink from 17:00-18:00hrs.

It would be great to welcome many of you on November 14th, because together we strengthen the ICT community of The Netherlands, so join us for the 4TU.NIRICT Community Day 2022, November 14, in Van der Valk Hotel Utrecht and register here by November 6, 2022.
Your data will only be used for registration and will be discarded within one week after the 4TU.NIRICT Community Day. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us: m.mommers@tue.nl


Sten Vollebregt wins the 2022 Micro and Nanoengineering Young Investigator Award and Lectureship

Honoring and Promoting a Young researcher active in the fields of Nanofabrication and Nanotechnology for Life Sciences, Physics, Chemistry and Environmental Sciences.

Micro and Nano Engineering (MNE) is an open access, multidisciplinary journal which crosses boundaries from nano to micro to bio, and from science to technologies. The journal focuses on micro-/nano engineering, fabrication and integration of functional nanostructures and surfaces towards intelligent nanomanufacturing; devices and bio-microsystems for medicine, life sciences, chemistry, environmental sciences, and agro-food; and devices and microsystems for physical applications. 

After detailed evaluation of the high level of achievements of all candidates, the committee decided to present the award to: Dr. Sten Vollebregt from Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

for outstanding contributions to reproducible wafer-scale microfabrication with carbon-based materials”.

The Lectureship was presented at MNE2022 Conference at the 23rd pf September 2022 in Leuven, Belgium (www.mne2022.org).

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First Prize in Young Scientists Contest at the 2022 International Radar Symposium in Gdansk, Poland

The MS3 group is glad to inform you that during the 10th MICROWAVE & RADAR WEEK in Gdansk, Poland our former MSc student Detmer Bosma won the First Prize in the Young Scientists Contest at the 2022 International Radar Symposium with the article "Polarimetric Signatures on Moving Automotive Vehicles Based on the H/A/α-Decomposition" and an excellent presentation about the main results of his MSc thesis project, which were done under the supervision of dr. O. Krasnov and prof. A. Yarovoy, and successfully defended in November 2021 !!!

Congratulations, Detmer!


Sounds good: treating depression with ultrasound

Physicians are desperate to find new and effective treatment options for chronic pain and depression. Tiago Costa is developing a novel targeted neuro-modulation treatment for depression, using focused ultrasound. His goal is to treat only brain areas that need attention, leaving other parts of the brain undisturbed.

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Vasso Giagka on the Neural Implant Podcast

Neural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions: Vasiliki Giagka on Neural Interface Packaging and why it's the most important

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Interview Jochem Baselmans

Link to the interview

Researchers have succeeded in making a far-infrared detector so sensitive that we will soon be able to look back even further than we can with current telescopes.

Jochem Baselmans, professor at TU Delft and senior researcher at SRON, explains why the interdisciplinary project took 17 years, what exactly they want to look at with the detector and why they are now waiting for a super-cold telescope.

Read more: Far infrared detector KID achieves highest possible sensitivity .

 


NL-JP Joint Seminar in Radar Sensing for Human Health Monitoring

A joint seminar is organised on September 1-2 in our faculty by researchers in the MS3 group with colleagues from the Kyoto University and Osaka University.

This joint seminar, entitled the Nederland-Japan Joint Initiative for the Innovation in Radar Sensing for Human Health Monitoring, is supported by NWO and the JSPS (Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science) under the joint Cooperation Seminars Scheme, with a grant awarded to Dr Francesco Fioranelli (TUD) and Prof Takuya Sakamoto (Kyoto University), and is also supported by the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS).

The purpose of the joint seminar is to bring together researchers from Dutch and Japanese institutions and foster cooperation around the broad topic of contactless sensing and monitoring technologies for human healthcare. Specifically, contactless sensing and monitoring technologies of our interest are based on radar systems employing radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic (EM) waves to measure physiological phenomena of interest related to human healthcare, including but not limited to patterns of activities of daily living, quality of walking gait, tremors in limbs, and vital signs such as respiration, heartbeat, blood pressure and arterial pulse.

The seminar will be held at the EWI faculty, with speakers from TU Delft (MS3 and CAS groups of our department), Kyoto and Osaka Universities, KU Leuven, as well as contributions from IMEC, Infineon and NXP Semiconductors, amongst others.

A detailed programme of the seminar can be found here: https://surfdrive.surf.nl/files/index.php/s/zPFaO4aXrq0WwT3

Anyone is welcome to attend and hybrid participation via Zoom is also possible, using the following link: https://tudelft.zoom.us/j/94885113261?pwd=VFFxRGFDak40eEdkcXR3cTloR0dBQT09

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New colleaugues

Charlotte Frenkel

Charlotte joined the Electronic Instrumentation group as an assistant professor in July.
Before that, she was a postdoctoral researcher in UZH/ETH Zürich, Switzerland, and she received her PhD from Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Belgium, in January 2020.
She merges insight from neuroscience and machine learning into neuromorphic digital integrated circuits for smart sensors and adaptive edge computing.

Room HB 15.310; c.frenkel@tudelft.nl.

Chang Gao

Dr. Chang Gao obtained his Ph.D. degree with distinction from the Institute of Neuroinformatics (INI), University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, in December 2021. His Ph.D. thesis was about designing energy-efficient accelerators of recurrent neural networks (RNNs) for real-time inference. In August 2022, he joined TU Delft as a tenure-track assistant professor in the Electronic Circuits and Architectures (ELCA) group, Department of Microelectronics. His research interest is designing energy-efficient digital AI hardware for edge computing, emphasizing ultrahigh-speed communication, video/audio processing, robotics, and biomedical applications. He is also an enthusiast of neuromorphic computing. He is spending efforts to bridge the gap between artificial neural networks (ANNs) and spiking neural networks (SNNs) by applying brain-inspired neuromorphic principles to massively accelerate the computation of state-of-the-art deep neural network (DNN) architectures while maintaining competitive accuracy on real-world tasks. In the future, these highly optimized AI algorithms and energy-efficient hardware could be implemented in miniaturized smart Internet-of-things (IoT) devices with the always-on capability to make our life more convenient.

HB 19.280, C.Gao-2@tudelft.nl 

Karen Dowling

Dr. Karen Dowling grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan and obtained her PhD in EE from Stanford University in California, USA. Her PhD focused on creating high quality magnetometers for extreme environments using Gallium Nitride, as well as some micromachining techniques in Silicon Carbide, both wide bandgap semiconductors. Before joining TU Delft, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), expanding her work to RF opto-electronic power devices known as photo-semiconductor switches. In the Department of Microelectronics at TU Delft, Dr. Dowling is excited to combine both her love of sensors for harsh environments with optically coupled conduction mechanisms to open new avenues for high performing microsensors across the spectrum from fundamental research to device development and (someday) deployment.

HB 15.290, k.m.dowling@tudelft.nl 

Nicolas Chauvaux

Nicolas joined the Department of Microelectronics in July, section Electronic Instrumentation. His work, under the supervision of Dr. Frenkel, will focus on in-memory computing (IMC) and its integration at the system level. Achieving an ultra-low-latency architecture for spiking neural network (SNN) inference will be one goal of the research.

Nicolas obtained his  M.Sc degree from Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Belgium, in 2021, during which he already worked on IMC applied to SNNs for my M.Sc thesis. He also has a strong interest in system-level performance analysis, asynchronous circuits, and integrated circuit design.

n.chauvaux@tudelft.nl room HB 15.240.


New NWO project: GRASPA

Six research projects receive funding within the Open Technology Programme (OTP) this month. The projects receive a total of about 4 million euros from NWO; organisations involved in the research projects invest a total of 1.3 million euros. Among these 6 projects is a project from prof. Geert Leus from the CAS group; Graph Signal Processing in Action (GraSPA).

Graph signal processing (GSP) is the exciting research field that extends concepts from traditional signal processing to signals living in an irregular domain that can be characterized through a graph. GSP is extremely promising for applications in transportation networks, smart grid, wireless communications, social networks, brain science and recommender systems, to name a few. This project focuses on the non-trivial extension of GSP to time-varying or dynamic networks, where either the connections or the nodes can change. We will develop innovative tools to estimate such time-varying graphs from data and devise new graph filtering schemes for denoising, interpolation, and prediction. The developed techniques will be applied to brain activity monitoring, which is crucial to understand the working of the brain, as well as recommender systems, which are omnipresent in our daily lives.

More information: Four million euro for six technological research projects | NWO

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Gravity grant awarded to research on brain interactions

The goal of this research is to develop principles, devices and methods to take these interactions into account and thus understand more about brain disorders, as well as moods, emotions and compulsions.

The research project is called 'The Dutch Brain Interfaces Initiative' and is led by researchers from Radboud University Nijmegen. TU Delft will contribute to the development of computer models, and microfabrication technology for the development and validation of closed-loop control for neural prostheses. These prostheses can give us back lost senses and control, enabling us to bypass injuries and treat an unprecedented range of brain disorders, restoring a better quality of life for deaf, blind, paralyzed and mentally ill people. 

Ultimate applications of the multi-year research include the use of Deep Brain Stimulation on patients with motor and psychiatric disorders, the development of Brain-Computer interfaces that enable communication for people who cannot speak and the deployment of visual implants for the visually impaired and blind. Frans van der Helm and Wouter Serdijn are the leaders of the Delft research project. Frans van der Helm: 'The human brain is the ultimate technical challenge for engineers. It is great to be able to use our technical background and technical capabilities to contribute to a better understanding of, and better interaction with, the human brain.'

The Dutch Brain Interfaces Initiative is the combination of a platform with computer, software and hardware elements, aimed at facilitating closed-loop manipulations in the long term, and brain monitoring in a naturalistic environment, with a neuroscience research program with 3 main objectives: to increase the understanding of the general principles of brain dynamics, to develop strategies to influence, restore or improve those dynamics and the cognitive function they support, and to understand the neural basis of behavior under naturalistic conditions.

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VENI granted for Miniature and Sustainable Internet-of-Things

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded a Veni grant worth 280,000 euros to Sijun Du, who is at the first place in ranking out of 169 pre-proposal applicants and 71 full-proposal applicants at the Applied and Engineering Sciences (AES) domain. Sijun Du is an assistant professor at the Electronic Instrumentation division, Department of Microelectronics. The grant provides him with the opportunity to further elaborate his own research idea on making future Internet-of-Things miniature and sustainable.

Project abstract

Making wireless sensor devices self-sustainable and small, with energy harvesting solutions and sub-mm dimensions, will be critical in future Internet-of-Things applications, e.g., in healthcare and smart-farming systems. However, current self-sustained devices are larger, with dimensions dominated by off-chip inductors. Removing these inductors can potentially decrease the system size by 99%, and pave the way to real-world implementations and commercialisation. This project proposes a new inductor-less architecture for energy harvesting systems. It achieves higher energy efficiency than conventional inductor-based systems, breaks the miniaturisation barrier, and enables fully silicon-integrated self-sustained wireless sensing devices for future Internet-of-Things.

Veni Talent Programme

Veni, together with Vidi and Vici, is part of the NWO Talent Programme (formerly: the Innovational Research Incentives Scheme). The Veni grant is one of the most prestigious grants for early-career researchers, and to be awarded is considered an important step in an academic career. NWO selects researchers on the basis of the quality of the researcher, the innovative character of the research, the expected scientific impact of the research proposal and possibilities for knowledge utilisation.

 


Project proposal UPSIDE, successful in the EU call EIC Pathfinder challenge

The multi-disciplinary and international consortium led by Dr. Tiago Costa, includes ME department PIs Dr. Dante Muratore and Prof. Dr. Ir. Wouter Serdijn, and partners from Belgium, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and the USA. With a total budget of 4.2 M€, the consortium will use the combined expertise in bioelectronics, brain-machine interfaces, focused ultrasound, neurobiology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry to achieve a technological breakthrough towards a personalized treatment for depression.

Project description:

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is the leading cause of disability worldwide, affecting 300 million people with a lifetime prevalence of 15%. Approximately one third of all MDD patients fail to respond to currently established treatments based on medication and psychotherapy, thus falling into the category of Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD) patients. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (tRMS), Vagus nerve stimulation, deep brain stimulation (DBS) and transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) still show poor spatial resolution (ECT, tRMS, tFUS) or low network coverage (VNS, DBS), with average remission rates in clinical trials still lower than 30 %. Apart from the existing stimulation hurdles, reliable biomarkers for depression are needed as a diagnostic tool, and, in the case of neuromodulation-based treatments, to determine the stimulation efficacy and allow for personalized treatment. The UPSIDE project aims to overcome the limitations above by developing a hybrid epidural brain interface (EBI) for high-precision ultrasound neuromodulation (eFUS) and high-fidelity neural recording (eREC) for the personalized treatment of depression.


Happy Secretaries Day!!!

Our congratulations and best wishes!


Travel awards to IEEE Radar & EURAD Conferences, for MS3 PhD's

With the end of the COVID-19 related restrictions, it has been a pleasure to travel again to attend three top scientific conferences in the area of radar, microwave, & antenna research, specifically the EUCAP 2022 (European Conference on Antennas and Propagation) in Madrid, the IEEE Radar Conference 2022 in New York City, and the EuRAD 2021 (European Radar Conference) in London.

Members of the MS3 group presented a total of 18 papers across these 3 conferences, with topics ranging from antenna design to healthcare applications of radar, from radar signal processing to innovative techniques for automotive radar. Special congratulations to PhD candidates Ronny Gündel and Sen Yuan for being awarded Student Travel Awards to attend the IEEE Radar Conference and EuRAD, respectively, and to PhD candidate Ignacio Roldan for runner-up placement in the best paper award at EuRAD (among the best 3 papers at the conference) for his work on enhancing angular resolution of automotive radar via neural networks. Onwards and upwards to the next conference!


EuCAP 2022 best paper awarded to TS & ELCA Group

At the recent European Conference on Antennas and Propagation, authors Nick van Rooijen, Maria Alonso-delPino, Marco Spirito and Nuria Llombart have received the Best Theory and Design Antenna Paper award for their work entitled; Core-Shell Leaky-Wave Lens Antenna for 150GHz Fly’s Eye Communication Systems’

Their contribution describes a scalable novel antenna architecture suitable for high frequency wireless links. This antenna has an outer ‘shell’ lens for large gain, and an inner ‘core’ lens for improved Front-End integration and increased degrees of freedom. EuCAP is Europe’s largest and most significant antennas and propagation conference, attracting more than 1400 participants from academia and industry from all over the world.


Board of Delft Space institute awarded Matus Rybak a DSI Seed Grant

Research

Observing the Universe at sub-mm wavelengths (0.1-1.0 mm) opens doors to a wide range of phenomena: from the leftover radiation from the Big Bang to distant galaxies, formation of stars and planets, to supermassive black holes. Unfortunately, spectroscopy at sub-mm wavelengths is still severely limited by narrow bandwidths of heterodyne receivers. This makes spectroscopic observations very time-consuming.

With the Delft Space Institute Seed Grant, a new ultra-wideband spectrometer DESHIMA on the ASTE telescope in the Atacama desert in Chile is installed. Developed at EEMCS, DESHIMA uses ground-breaking superconducting technology to measure the spectra between 220 and 440 GHz. Though based on the Earth, DESHIMA is a key technology demonstrator for instruments for future space missions. Matus will also set up a station to remotely control the telescope from the EEMCS and process the DESHIMA data in-house: an excellent opportunity for students from EEMCS to get involved in astrophysical observations!

Link to DESHIMA webpage: http://deshima.ewi.tudelft.nl/


2021-2022 IEEE SSCS Predoctoral Achievement Award

A small number of promising graduate students receive the IEEE SSCS Predoctoral Achievement Award each year. Masoud Pashaeifar, our 4th-year Ph.D. student, is awarded this prestigious SSCC recognition in this year's edition. At ELCA, we are delighted and proud of Masoud. We wish him the best of luck for the rest of his Ph.D. journey. 

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New project granted to the ELCA and MS3 groups

A new project sponsored by NXP and TKI entitled "Distributed High-Resolution Automotive Radar for Autonomous and Secure Mobility (DiRAc)" is granted to the ELCA and MS3 groups of our department.

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are transforming cars into securely-connected, highly-autonomous vehicles with the capability of sensing the environment, thinking, and taking adequate decisions in a huge number of traffic conditions. Enabling components of ADAS are radar transceivers permanently measuring the range, angle, and velocity of objects around the vehicle. The penetration of radars into urban scenarios requires extremely high angular resolution to separate pedestrians, bicycles, pets and even smaller targets.

Angular resolution is a challenge for single mmWave radars of limited aperture size. That is why in this new joint project with NXP Semiconductors we will therefore pursue a distributed, synchronized network of small aperture radar sensors in this research project.  It deals with high-resolution imaging of the environment using a moving platform, wideband mmWave signals, and multiple distributed MIMO radars with a small number of antennas. Solutions for four critical radar architectural and signal processing challenges will be pursued: Imaging topology, waveform and radar synchronization, 360 degrees image focusing, and bistatic signaling. Two PhD students (one at ELCA, another one at MS3) will work for this project.


NWA-ORC project "OBSeRVeD" with co-applicant Sten Vollebregt and Frans Widdershoven granted

A total of 28 consortia will work in interdisciplinary teams on research that will bring both scientific and societal breakthroughs within reach. The entire knowledge chain and societal organisations, including public as well as private parties, will work closely together in these projects. The projects have received funding in the third round of the Dutch Research Agenda programme Research along Routes by Consortia (NWA-ORC).

The ME department plays a lead role in one of the funded consortia:

OBSeRVeD - Odour Based Selective Recognition of Veterinary Diseases

Coordinator: dr. ir. C.A.J. (Cas) Damen - Saxion Hogeschool
Affiliated TU Delft researchers:  dr. ir. Sten Vollebregt (WP-lead) and prof. dr. ir. Frans Widdershoven, EEMCS faculty,  dr. Monique van der Veen – AS faculty

When chickens in a farm become infected or have parasites, specific odours are produced. A cross-disciplinary team will combine innovative sensors, affinity layers, and machine learning to develop and test an electronic nose. This sensitive system can recognize a fingerprint of Volatile Organic Compounds and thus recognise specific diseases at an early stage, when (preventive) measures are most effective. In this project, veterinary health, industry, science professionals and societal organisations will collaborate towards developing a practically applicable poultry health monitoring system to improve chicken and public health, general welfare and reduce antibiotics/chemicals use and the environmental impact of livestock farming.

Lees meer: TU Delft news

Or in English on the NWO website: NWO news

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An ERC for Akira Endo; a 3D vision on the universe’s structure

To look back in time, you need to look far, far away in the universe. Conventional techniques for this are limited: they either create a flat 2D image, or focus too much on the details. Neither paint a full picture of our universe, but that is about to change. Akira Endo has received an ERC Consolidator grant for his TIFUUN project, which will create 3D maps of vast volumes of the universe. These will cover both distant places and times – more than 10 billion years to be exact! The better imagery that Akira Endo will generate could revolutionize our insights into the history of galaxies, and the formation and evolution of the so-called ‘cosmic web’.

The universe as a forest

The universe is not the same everywhere: some places such as galaxies have a higher density of matter and energy, while other places are almost void. Akira Endo: “In a sense, you can imagine the universe as a forest. Long and intricate clusters of galaxies form the trees – galaxies themselves might be the size of leaves in this metaphor – but outside of the trunk and branches, there is nothing.” Another word for this forest is the ‘cosmic web’, a visualisation of the universe where all matter hangs together in a web. Akira said that like a forest, the cosmic web is still evolving: “We want to understand its development, by looking at how it started. I hope to uncover the history of all matter, going back to the first billion years of the universe – to help us understand the evolution of galaxies and the emergence of the cosmic large-scale structure.”

Read more: An ERC for a 3D vision on the universe’s structure

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Raj Thilak Rajan elected to the IAF-SCAN committee

Raj Thilak Rajan was elected to the Space Communications and Navigation Committee (SCAN) of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF).

The SCAN committee is responsible, within the IAF, for all aspects of satellite-based communication and navigation systems and technology. The committee will organise the SCAN symposium at each IAC and, when appropriate, will organise specialised plenary sessions and Highlight Lectures. It will provide annual inputs to the IAF report to the United Nations.

For more information: see link.

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Heart rhythm expert Natasja de Groot: ‘Every heart is different’

The electrodes in the display cabinet show the technical developments over the last 20 years. The oldest one looks like a kind of small shower head from which four cables emerge, ending in computer mouse-sized plugs. Natasja de Groot used it during her PhD research on heart rhythm disorders in Leiden. The newest electrode is a wafer-thin strip to which three metres of multilayer flat cable are attached to read out the 192 channels simultaneously. The cable was made at TU Delft in the Bioelectronics group of Prof. Wouter Serdijn (Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science).

Full article;  Heart rhythm expert Natasja de Groot: 'Every heart is different’ (tudelft.nl)


Justin Dauwels wins the Vincent Bendix Automotive Electronics Engineering Award

A paper by Justin Dauwels (from the time he was in Singapore) has won the Vincent Bendix Automotive Electronics Engineering Award.

The paper is “An Optimal Controller Synthesis for Longitudinal Control of Platoons with Communication Scenarios in Urban Environments and Highways”.

SAE is a foundation for automotive engineers, founded in 1904 by Henri Ford, and with 100,000+ members.

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Alle-Jan van der Veen appointed IEEE Signal Processing Society Vice President

Alle-Jan van der Veen has been appointed IEEE Signal Processing Society Vice President for Technical Directions, for the term 2022-2024.  In this capacity, he is member of ExCom and chairs the Technical Directions Board (comprising the 12 Technical Committees of the SP Society).

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Minister of Education "meets" Jorge

On 20 January, our new Minister of Education Robbert Dijkgraaf interviewed a few young scientists. Jorge Martinez was one of them.

On twitter: "Jonge wetenschappers inspireren mij enorm. Ik sprak ze over hun ideeën voor de toekomst van de wetenschap en hun werkdruk en de werkcultuur. Daarnaast vertelden zij over interne en externe stressfactoren en het pad dat zij voor zich zien, ook buiten de wetenschap. Wordt vervolgd!"

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ELCA @ 2021 Huawei Student Design Contest

On the 15th of December 2021, the Huawei Belgium Research Center (BERC) held its yearly Analog/RF Student design contest. In this competition, ten students from the entire Benelux presented their previously published research to an audience consisting of Huawei managers and engineers.
Our Ph.D. candidate, Mohammadreza Beikmirza, proudly represented the ELCA research group and received the first-place award of the contest. Mohammadreza Beikmirza highlighted his innovative 4-way Doherty digital-intensive transmitter. In his breakthrough RFIC chip, a 12-bit 4-way Doherty I/Q digital transmitter featuring a 50% LO signed I/Q interleaved upconverter in 40nm CMOS was presented. His chip achieves 27.5dBm RF peak power at 5.5GHz, while its drain efficiencies at peak and 10-dB back-off are 47% and 40%, respectively. Its intrinsic I/Q image and LO leakage of a 200MHz single-tone signal are better than -62 & -67dBc, respectively, over a 4.5-to-6GHz band. Using a simple DPD when applying a 320MHz 512-QAM OFDM signal, the measured ACLR & EVM are -40dBc & -32dB, respectively. 


EI @ 2021 Huawei Student Design Contest

The Electronic Instrumentation (EI) lab wins two awards at the Huawei 2021 Analog/RF IC Student Design Contest.

Last December 15th the Huawei Belgium Research Center (BERC) held its yearly Analog/RF Student design contest. In the contest, ten students from the entire Benelux presented their previously published research to an audience consisting of Huawei managers and engineers.

Our PhD candidates proudly represented the Electronic Instrumentation Lab and received two awards. Thije Rooijers highlighted his novel technique to reduce intermodulation distortion (IMD) in chopper-stabilized amplifiers which received the Silver Prize (3rd award), while Arthur C. de Oliveira showed how the MEMS Coriolis sensors can be a promising alternative to MEMS Thermal flow sensors in microfluidic applications and got the Golden Prize (2nd award).

 


Altijd geld bij de hand, met een betaalchip onder je huid

In de onstuitbare opmars van het contactloos betalen zet een Pools bedrijf de volgende stap: een betaalchip onder de huid, geen apparaat meer nodig. Wie wil dat? Brigitte heeft er al een. De technologie is echter niet wereldschokkend, zegt Wouter Serdijn, hoogleraar bio-elektronica in Delft. Artikel in de Volkskrant, d. 17 december 2021, door Enith Vlooswijk.

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Jan Angevare and Kofi Makinwa, co- recipients of the ISSCC 2021 Takuo Sugano Award for Outstanding Far-East paper

For a paper presented at the 2021 International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), the world’s top conference in chip design, members of the Electronic Instrumentation (EI) lab became co-recipients of the Takuo Sugano award for best Far-East paper. During a pre-Covid visit to the TU Delft, Ph.D. candidate Woojun Choi (Yonsei University, Korea) and his counterpart Jan Angevare (TU Delft) came up with the architecture of an integrated frequency reference with high accuracy and low energy consumption, making it well suited for battery-less IoT applications (link to the paper). The resulting chip is just one example of the long and fruitful cooperation between the groups of Youngcheol Chae (Yonsei) and Kofi Makinwa (TU Delft).


Portret series new Medical Delta professors - Wouter Serdijn

For people with heart, nerve and brain disorders, bioelectronic medicine can make a significant difference. Professor Wouter Serdijn works on these tiny devices. He is a professor at TU Delft and, thanks to Medical Delta, now at Erasmus MC as well. "Technical disciplines often use objective measures, while no two people are the same. It is therefore important to include the subjective side in the design."

In the video below, Wouter Serdijn tells about his Medical Delta professorship:

 

"I have always worked together a lot, but with my appointment in Rotterdam this has become more formalised," says Serdijn. "I now also have the 'right' to walk around there and am part of the information flow. This structure fits in well with how I am used to working. Not starting from existing pigeonholes, but working together at an umbrella level. Medical Delta is a bundle of great people, both technical, medical and clinical-academic. The engineer, medical scientist and therapist form a triangle. Together they can develop what is best for a patient."

How did your interest in the medical field emerge?

"For my graduation project, I worked on hearing aids together with a technology company. I experienced that something that met the technical specifications perfectly, could be totally unpleasant to listen to, and thus collided with the boundaries of the technical domain. Technical disciplines often assume objective measures, while no two people are the same and an individual person will be different tomorrow. It is therefore important to include the subjective side in the design.

How do you contribute to medical science with your knowledge of bioelectronics?

"I do not know exactly how the body works, but I can help measure, examine and control it. I can read and write nerve tracts. One example we are working on is helping people with paralysis regain their posture when sitting or standing and a rudimentary form of walking. This can now be done mainly with a wheelchair or other aids. But I want to know how we can re-energize their own muscles that are still intact but no longer controlled. How can we restore the connection between the brain and muscles? We are about to start clinical trials for this.

I also want to contribute to implantable technology that someone can wear invisibly as much as possible. For example, the so-called cochlear implant. This device enables a deaf person to hear and therefore to develop speech. But these implants still have an external part. You have to take it off when you go swimming or take a shower, for example, and then you don't hear anything anymore. I want to improve that. Though you can engage in conversations with this implant, you cannot listen to music. That can even be a very unpleasant experience. I think that is a shame; not being able to enjoy music is truly a loss. I want to tackle that as well."

How do you see Medical Delta in the future?

"In ten years, Medical Delta will be a scientific plateau. With connections and prestige in The Netherlands, Europe and perhaps the rest of the world. It will be the nerve centre of a lot of activities. The educational component also plays an important role, for example, with the clinical technology degree programme. Very good things and people are already coming out of this and I have high expectations of them. Because science is one part, but training new talent in the combined disciplines, that is the multiplier. Each year, we now have almost a hundred new graduates. They will soon have a greater impact than the Medical Delta professors of today. They are the future."

What is your advice for successful collaboration?

"Stay connected with where you originate from. That is where your value and your strength lies. You have to build a bridge, but stay true to what you are good at. Also, in collaboration, there must be a genuine mutual interest and you must both benefit from it. If you go up to someone and say 'I need this piece of technology from you' or 'this technology needs to go into a patient', it doesn't work. It takes time to understand what is happening on the other side and what the problems are. You also have to find a common language. With me, for example, everything is straight. The components, my diagrams. In biology, everything is curved, for example, cells, tissues and organs. You have to find a way of dealing with it. It is in the shared fascination with the problem that we find each other."

Which other researcher surprised you?

"Multiple researchers, but Chris de Zeeuw of Erasmus MC keeps surprising me. It is an important reason for choosing his department for my second appointment as a professor. He is an inspiring leader. He has great scientific knowledge and knows how to create a group and offer opportunities. He sees the importance of other disciplines for his own and was perhaps generation zero of Medical Delta."

This article is part of a series in which we highlight the nine new Medical Delta professors. Click here for the other portraits that have been published so far. Wouter Serdijn's research contributes to scientific programs, including, including Medical NeuroDelta: Ambulant Neuromonitoring for Prevention and Treatment of Brain Disease and Medical Delta Cardiac Arrhythmia Lab.

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ISOCC 2021 ISE President Best Paper Award

At this year's edition of ISOCC 2021, our former excellent bachelor and master student, Jun Feng, obtained the "2021 ISE President Best Paper Award" for his paper: "A Versatile and Efficient 01.-to-11 Gb/s CML Transmitter in 40-nm CMOS."

Ph.D. candidates Mohammadreza Beikmirza and Milad Mehrpoo contributed to Jun's outstanding work. Jun is now a Ph.D. candidate at KU-Leuven. We congratulate Jun, Mohammadreza, and Milad for this award and send our best wishes for their future research.


Best Student Paper Award at ESSCIRC for EI students

The paper “A −109.1 dB/−98 dB THD/THD+N Chopper Class-D Amplifier with >83.7 dB PSRR Over the Entire Audio Band” was selected for the Best Student Paper Award at ESSCIRC 2021 and will be awarded during the 2022 ESSCIRC-ESSDERC Conference in Milan in September 2022. The paper was co-authored by Huajun Zhang, Nuriel Rozsa, Marco Berkhout, and Qinwen Fan, and the work is done in collaboration with Goodix Technology. The paper can be found at https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9567786 


TU Delft and ITEC BV launch X.AL, the first Dutch Lab for Extreme Chip Assembly Technology

The next generation of chip assembly machines must meet the growing demand for chips in a more efficient way. Therefore, Technische Universiteit Delft and the Dutch semiconductor equipment manufacturer ITEC Nexperia have launched X.AL: the first Dutch Lab for Extreme Chip Assembly Technology, where research is conducted into the next generation of green chip assembly processes and equipment concepts.

The team of Technische Universiteit Delft researchers, led by Marcel Tichem, Peter Steeneken and Massimo Mastrangeli, provides the knowledge and expertise to develop the breakthrough technologies for these new equipment concepts.

Read the full press release here: X.AL press release

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New DAI Labs for Raj Rajan

Raj was awarded a DAI Labs, with 3ME (Manon Kok). This will fund 2 PhD positions for CAS, and generate some TU-wide publicity.

The awarded proposal is "Sensor AI" and investigates sensor networks, sensor fusion, distributed learning, sensor swarms. The 3ME part also looks at human motion estimation and including physical knowledge into learning systems.

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New Medical Delta professors

Congratulations Wouter Serdijn, Natasja de Groot and Andrew Webb on your inauguration as Medical Delta Professor

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Three Medical Delta professors in micro electronics department

On November 2, nine professors were simultaneously inaugurated as 'Medical Delta professor' at Leiden University, LUMC, TU Delft, Erasmus University and/or Erasmus MC. Among which ME professor Wouter Serdijn and part time professors Natasja Groot and Andrew Webb. With an appointment at at least two of these five academic institutions, they combine technology and healthcare in their professorship.

The nine professors have each earned their spurs in research at the intersection of health and technology. Examples include the use of new techniques to determine the cause of cardiac arrhythmia, how cartilage can be repaired using technology, and how e-health can help with rehabilitation or prevention of illness. The official inauguration follows their earlier appointment as Medical Delta professors. During the inauguration, the professors presented their research and answered questions from young researchers.

See more: https://www.medicaldelta.nl/en


Lunch lecture: Superconducting On-chip Fabry–Pérot Resonators at Sub-millimeter Wavelengths

Date: Friday November 5

Time: 12.00-13.00

Place; Faculty EEMCS, B.36, Snijderszaal

Register before November 3 via secr-ts-ewi@tudelft.nl

Abstract

Superconducting On-chip Fabry–Pérot Resonators at Sub-millimeter Wavelengths

Superconducting integrated circuits play a central role in the development of next-generation astronomical instruments at sub-millimeter wavelength.In order to reach the necessary efficiency for these instruments, a quantitative understanding of the losses within the circuit is required. Superconducting on-chip Fabry–Pérot resonators provide a sensitive and flexible way to measure transmission line losses at sub-Kelvin temperatures and sub-millimeter wavelengths.In this talk, we will discuss the development and application of on-chip Fabry–Pérot resonators for loss measurements of co-planar waveguides and microstrips at 350 GHz. We obtain very low losses for both types of transmission lines, reaching internal quality factors of close to 20,000 for a NbTiN co-planar waveguide.


RainGuRU , AI-based rainfall nowcaster

RainGuRU is an AI-based rainfall nowcaster for The Netherlands. It predict rainfall intensities up to 100 minutes ahead based on real-time radar data provided by the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI).

RainGuRU has been developed by TU Delft MSc student Eva van der Kooij for her thesis and it is an adaptation of the TrajGRU recurrent convolutional neural network.

This work was supervised by M. Schleiss and R. Taormina (CiTG faculty), and F. Fioranelli (EWI faculty), and the website https://rainguru.hkvservices.nl/ was developed by HKV with the support of the TU Delft Safety and Security Institute.


Innatera: Spiking neural network architecture

A short video about the Spiking Neural Hardware Architecture Innatera is working on. (Innatera is a startup originating in the CAS group.)

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Convergence Open Mind Grant for ME Department

Francesco Fioranelli, Assistant Professor at the MS3 group, has received an Open Mind Grant as part of the Convergence Initiative between TU Delft, Erasmus MC and Erasmus University. The co-applicants were Caitlin Ramsey, PhD candidate at Erasmus MC (and former alumna of this department), and Lytske Bakker, PhD candidate at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

The proposal is entitled “Contactless monitoring of neonates in the intensive care unit”. The objective is to explore contactless measurements based on FMCW radar for monitoring key vital signs of neonates, by investigating technical feasibility, clinical reliability and cost effectiveness of the proposed techniques. It is a nice example of “convergence”, bringing together key expertise from all applicants to perform research that would be unfeasible in isolation. The ambition of the project is to start with a small pilot showing the feasibility and potential of the idea, to then build evidence and momentum to develop a new medical device.

Additional information can be found on the Symposium webpage which showcased the other funded Open Mind projects (https://convergencealliance.nl/open-mind-symposium-2021/).


Chao Chen receives Open Mind Grant

Chao Chen presents at the Open Mind Symposium

On Friday Sept. 17, 2021, Chao Chen pitched his research proposal

ULTRAPROBE: Ultrasensitive digital probe for transcranial ultrasound imaging of the brain

during the first Open Mind Symposium. Chao is working as a postdoc in Michiel Pertijs' Ultrasound ASICs group at the Electronic Instumentation Lab.

Chao’s proposal, written together with Dr. Pieter Kruizinga of Erasmus MC, is among the 17% winning proposals of the Open Mind Call 2021, and is a nice example of convergence between Erasmus MC and TU Delft. It aims to make a breakthrough in functional ultrasound imaging of the brain, by developing novel instrumentation to deal with the attenuation and aberrations introduced by the skull.

More information can be found on the Open Mind Symposium webpage: https://convergencealliance.nl/open-mind-symposium-2021/

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Item on chip manufacturing on national television

On the 1st of September, Sten Vollebregt explained in the program NTR Atlas on national television how chips are made and why it is difficult to produce many of them on short notice to resolve the current chip shortage. The item was filmed inside the Else Kooi Laboratory.

The program can be viewed back here (in Dutch): link to NPO start.

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Online conference Neural Interfaces and Artificial Senses (NIAS)

Since 1958 when the first pacemaker was implanted in humans, bioelectronics devices have been increasingly used to interface with different types of tissue, monitor and interact with biological activity. During our continuous endeavors to better study sophisticated neuronal systems we have become more capable of diagnosing and treating various disorders. We are currently emerging in an era where bioelectronic devices are becoming smaller, less invasive and safer, which in turn is being paralleled with new therapies for a vast range of neurological and auto-immune diseases. This opens exciting possibilities for the future, from cutting-edge technology for brain-machine-interfaces with unprecedented functionality, artificial organs and augmented senses that can change the way we perceive the world, to a more human way of interactions with robots.

Topics to be covered by the conference: • Bioelectronic devices • Electroceuticals/Bioelectronic medicine • Neuronal interfaces and implantable electronics • Materials at the interface with biology • Neuronal mechanisms and clinical applications • Artificial visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory and tactile sensory systems.

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Asli Yelkenci wins CadenceLIVE Europe 2021 award

Asli Yelkenci is the winner of the CadenceLIVE Europe 2021 under the category of “Master Thesis Award for the Best Design using Cadence tools” with her master thesis done at Delft University of Technology under the supervision of Virgilio Valente, Section Bioelectronics.

Her thesis title is “A 16-Channel CMOS Reconfigurable Unit for Simultaneous In-Vitro Microelectrode Array (MEA) and Current-Clamp Measurements” which aims to gain insight into the correlation between electrical activities of a population of cells and single-cell activity. She will present her work during the online event CadenceLIVE Europe 2021 on 19th October.

You can register for the event and see the celebratory video via the link below.

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Welcome Geethu Joseph

The Department of Microelectronics and CAS are welcoming dr. Geethu Joseph, who starts in August 2021 as a new Assistant Professor. Her expertise is in signal processing for communications, in particular machine learning, compressed sensing and sparse recovery on graphs and networks, as well as dynamical systems theory.

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Three awards for the Electronic Instrumentation (EI) group at PRORISC and SAFE 2021

The Electronic Instrumentation (EI) lab receives three awards at PRORISC and SAFE 2021

Last July 8-9 PRORISC and SAFE made a successful re-start after a one-year hiatus. This time the event was held online and, as we are proud to report, PhD candidates of the Electronic Instrumentation Lab received three awards. Roger Zamparette and Thije Rooijers won Best Poster Awards in the sessions on Sensing & Low Power and ADC & Analog, respectively, while Efraim Eland won the Best Presentation Award in the ADC & Analog session.

https://prorisc-safe.nl/


Rising star: Justin Dauwels

As associate professor within the Circuits and Systems group at the faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, rising star Justin Dauwels is fascinated by how data-driven intelligent systems can tackle many of society’s problems. Neural networks and graphical models are his hammer, and he applies it to topics ranging from autonomous cars to digital health and beyond. But neuroscience has always been a main theme ever since his Erasmus exchange to the Institute of Neuroinformatics in Zürich. ‘I apply the models that I studied as an engineer to help unravel and understand human behaviour,’ he says.

Healthcare for the underprivileged

In one of his long-standing projects, he developed machine learning tools to reliably diagnose epilepsy and other related brain conditions from EEGs – recordings of electrical activity on the scalp – allowing neurologists to spend more time with their patients. He has also used audio and video recordings between psychiatrists and their patients to help diagnose various mental health indications such as depression and schizophrenia as well as the severity of a patient’s symptoms. His drive in developing these tools is to bring world-class healthcare to the underprivileged, such as at Sion’s public hospital in Mumbai which he frequently visited. ‘It serves the local community, with doctors who are severely underequipped and completely overburdened,’ he says. ‘The various intellectual properties have been licensed to a startup focused on brain health to make sure these developments reach the patients.’

We want to be able to answer what-if questions prior to the operation; if I remove some tissue here, what will that accomplish?

Planning epilepsy operations

A more recent project, and one that he will continue to pursue at TU Delft, is to establish a paradigm shift in the planning of operations for epilepsy patients for whom medication alone leads to an insufficient reduction in symptoms. ‘Currently, the decision on where to operate is primarily based on abnormalities observed on a CT-scan,’ he says. ‘We want to be able to answer what-if questions prior to the operation; if I remove some tissue here, what will that accomplish?’ Using advanced imaging, electrical measurements, and anatomical knowledge, Dauwels and collaborators buildt a very simple mathematical model of the patient’s brain. They can subsequently perform virtual resections and run the model to see if it reduces epilepsy attacks. Using only a basic model, this technique was more than 80% correct in a small cohort of patients for whom the outcome of the actually performed surgery was known. ‘We will now improve our model and analyse more patients.’

Next generation deep learning

TU Delft was already on Dauwels’ radar at the time of his master’s thesis, but he chose to first sharpen his skills in Japan, the USA and Singapore. But now, TU Delft is the perfect setting for him. Partially because it is much closer to his parents, who still live in Belgium, and especially because Medical Delta and the ongoing convergence with Erasmus University and ErasmusMC allow him to cooperate with many top-level clinicians. ‘Pretty much everyone in our group has ties with ErasmucMC, meaning there are many opportunities to apply my hammer,’ he says.

But it is not all about applications. He will also delve into the fundamentals of deep learning. ‘People start to realise that neural networks, on their own, won’t be able to address all problems. I have been working on graphical models for more than twenty years and these are a promising path towards next generation deep learning systems. It’s about building a better hammer, one that combines the fast, instinctive thinking of neural networks with the slow thinking of graphical and logical models. Just like in humans, it makes sense to verify an intuitive answer and to correct it if necessary.’

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New TTW project for Richard Hendriks and Jorge Martinez

This week Richard Hendriks received the news that his project proposal 'Personalized Auditory Scene Modification to Assist Hearing Impaired People' was granted funding from NWO TTW. Co-applicant is Jorge Martinez. The project will fund 2 PhD students. Congratulations!

Hearing impairment has become a serious problem for a large and increasing portion of the population as is shown by its prevalence: 11 % of the Dutch population suffers from severe hearing loss. These numbers show that hearing impairments form an important societal problem. It comes with many daily life problems in both private situations and working environments. Moreover, hearing-impaired people are often less confident in practical situations, need more assistance and have a worse quality of life. The underlying reasons are that hearing-impaired people suffer from a) the inability to understand speech in acoustic challenging situations, and, b) the inability to correctly localize sound sources. The goal of this project is to make the hearing impaired user fully benefit from an improved intelligibility and sound localization. To do so, we will develop an algorithm to personalize the presented auditory scene for improved speech intelligibility and sound localization for hearing impaired users.

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"Pearl" for research on the heart as a defibrillator

Researchers from LUMC and the ECTM lab of TU Delft have developed an optogenetic method for resetting a disturbed heart rhythm. On 10 June 2021 the project stood out among all the projects that ZonMw finances, and was awarded the ‘ZonMw Parel’.

The Vidi project was originally granted to dr. Daniël Pijnappels (LUMC) in 2014 by ZonMw, and the ECTM lab of TU Delft joined the collaborative research by end of 2017. A study of a new method on effectively and safely preventing and terminating human cardiac arrhythmia by gene therapy and LED illumination was jointly undertaken. Compared to traditional electroshock-based methods, this novel method is superior in overcoming severe shock pain, and therefore increases the quality-of-life of the patients.

A series of advanced LED illuminating devices for in-vivo, ex-vivo and in-vitro cardiac experiments were custom developed by researchers from TU Delft. The full-loop technical development was carried out by TU Delft researchers by tackling challenges such as multi-physics modeling, advanced electronics packaging, and smart system integration.

The joint research has not only produced high-quality scientific outcome, but also drawn general public’s attention via various successful media exposures. The "Pearl" award not only proves excellence in breakthrough scientific outcome, it also provides great encouragement for multi-disciplinary collaborations.

The TUD team includes Dr. Rene Poelma (currently at Nexperia), PhD candidate Tianyi Jin (holding the "Pearl" in the photo) and MSc student Shanliang Deng, under supervision of Prof. Kouchi Zhang.


The rising stars of the TU Delft, featuring Dante Muratore

After his PhD in what he calls “hardcore analogue microelectronics”, rising star Dante Muratore knew he wanted to continue his career working on systems that are closer to an actual application. A postdoc position at Stanford University, in which he worked on the electronics for an artificial retina to treat medical conditions leading to the loss of vision, brought him just that. Then, wanting to come back to Europe and to continue doing bioelectronics at the highest level possible, an opening at TU Delft crossed his path. ‘It was the easiest choice I ever made,’ he says.

Read more about Dante in the link below!

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Winnaar Kooy Prijs 2021: Keith Klein

Op 3 juni – de dag waarop het Kooy Symposium online plaatsvond – is de winnaar van de Kooy Prijs bekend gemaakt. De voorzitter van de afdeling Defensie en Veiligheid van het Koninklijk Instituut Van Ingenieurs (KIVI) Jan Wind, reikte samen met de voorzitter van de Kooyprijs jury Bart Koene, de prijs van 2.000 euro uit aan Ir. Keith T.J. Klein. Hij won de prijs met zijn afstudeerscriptie: ‘Estimating 3D motion from radar data: Exploiting an omnidirectional radar array for motion estimation in the context of SAR imaging on agile platform.’

Eind 2020 heeft de Kooyprijs jury een negental inzendingen – gericht defensie- en veiligheidstechnologie - ontvangen met voordrachten voor de Kooyprijs 2021. Alle inzendingen waren van uitzonderlijk goede kwaliteit. De jury heeft de verslagen met waardering gelezen, complimenteert de opstellers met de kwaliteit ervan en waardeert deze bijdragen aan de Defensie & Veiligheid onderzoeksgebieden.

Na rijp beraad is besloten om de Kooyprijs 2021 uit te reiken aan Keith Klein. Keith Klein is afgestudeerd aan de TU Delft bij de Faculteit Elektrotechniek, Wiskunde & Informatica en heeft zijn onderzoek bij TNO uitgevoerd van maart 2020 tot november 2020. Hij werd begeleid vanuit de TU-afdeling Microwave Sensing, Signals and Systems. Zijn afstudeerbegeleiders waren Dr. F. Uysal (TU Delft), Prof. dr. A. Yarovoy (TU Delft), Dr. M. Caro Cuenca (TNO), Ir. M.P.G. Otten (TNO) en Dr. ir. J.J.M. de Wit (TNO). Het verslag is met het cijfer 9.0 gehonoreerd.

Inhoud van de afstudeerscriptie

Keith heeft gewerkt aan 3D-snelheidsbepaling van onbemande vliegtuigen met behulp van radargegevens. Het verkrijgen van een nauwkeurige positiebepaling is een uitdagend probleem bij coherente radarverwerkingstechnieken zoals Synthetisch Apertuur Radar (SAR). Dit geldt des te meer voor lichte en wendbare platforms zoals multi-copters/drones. Hun moeilijk voorspelbare bewegingen moeten nauwkeurig worden bepaald tijdens het verzamelen van gegevens en worden gecompenseerd tijdens de verwerking.

Om een gefocust SAR-beeld te krijgen, moet elke pulslocatie nauwkeurig bekend zijn, opdat elke puls coherent is toe te voegen aan het beeldraster. Traditioneel wordt dit bereikt met een traagheidsnavigatiesysteem (Inertial Navigation System, INS) en GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) ontvanger. Hoewel deze combinatie redelijke prestaties kan leveren, vormen gewicht en grootte vaak een beperking voor lichte platforms, waardoor voor de INS de beschikbare mogelijkheden en de haalbare nauwkeurigheid beperkt zijn.

Toepasbaarheid van omnidirectionele radararry

Keith Klein heeft expliciet een analyse gedaan naar de toepasbaarheid van een omnidirectionele radararray voor het schatten van de beweging van een drone platform en het verbeteren van de positioneringsnauwkeurigheid. Voortbouwend op bestaande 1D-SAR-bewegingscompensatietechnieken, heeft hij nieuwe methoden ontwikkeld voor het goed benaderen van de 3D-beweging van het radarplatform door schatting van de hoogte en snelheid.

Daarnaast wordt ook een nieuwe 3D-autofocustechniek gepresenteerd die multi-beam-autofocus wordt genoemd. Deze techniek zorgt voor de correctie van 3D-trajectfouten van puls tot puls door gebruik te maken van de bundelvormende mogelijkheden van de array om meerdere gebieden scherp te stellen terwijl de afbeelding wordt gecreëerd. Door gebruik te maken van een Extended Kalman-filter (EKF) worden positieschattingen verkregen op basis van de radarsnelheidsmetingen. Dit maakt beeldvorming zonder INS mogelijk, wat relevant is in gebieden waar GNSS signalen niet/nauwelijks beschikbaar zijn.

Het fuseren van de schattingen verkregen uit deze methode met de bestaande INS-output levert ook prestatieverbetering op in termen van SAR-beeldfocus. Hierdoor wordt de oplosbaarheid en detecteerbaarheid van zwakke doelen verbeterd. De gepresenteerde resultaten creëren ook nieuwe onderzoeksmogelijkheden, niet alleen voor snelle SAR-beeldvorming, maar ook voor autonome navigatie op basis van radargegevens.

Het systeem van de drone-mounted radar --waar Keith onderzoek naar heeft gedaan—is door TNO ontwikkeld voor het Expeditionary Maneuver Warfare Department van de U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR). Het systeem is van belang voor verkenningsmissies en hiermee bij uitstek relevant voor Defensie.

Toekomst

Keith Klein was blij verrast met zijn prijs. ‘Mijn begeleiders hebben mijn verslag ingediend zonder dat ik het wist. Toen ik een telefoontje kreeg dat ik de Kooyprijs had gewonnen heb ik even gewacht om het aan mijn omgeving te vertellen tot ik zéker wist dat het geen grap was. En natuurlijk ben ik er erg blij mee! Dank aan mijn begeleiders.’

Keith Klein is na zijn afstuderen gaan werken bij TNO. ‘Ik werk hier niet verder aan mijn afstudeerproject. Dat is nu overgenomen door stagiaire en het plan is om daar later ook weer nieuwe afstudeerders op te zetten. Het betekent dat het geen rapport is dat in de spreekwoordelijke la verdwijnt. Goed om te weten dat de materie voldoende potentieel heeft om verder aan te werken.’

Jury

De jury bestond uit de heren Dr. L. Koene (Juryvoorzitter en bestuurslid KIVI DV, NLDA/FMW), Ing. L.F. Galle (Ministerie van Defensie, Directie Materieel), Prof.dr.ir. P.H.A.J.M. van Gelder (TU Delft), Prof. dr. B.R.H.M. Haverkort (Universiteit Twente), Prof. dr. ir. F.E. van Vliet (TNO, Universiteit Twente) en Prof. dr. ir. P.J. Oonincx (NLDA/FMW).


Watch the ceremony at youtube

Abstract of the thesis

Acquiring an accurate estimate of position is a challenging problem in coherent radar processing techniques such as Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). Even more so, for light and agile platforms such as multi-copters. Due to their unpredictable flight path, their motion must be accurately measured during data acquisition, and compensated for during processing. To obtain a focused SAR image, each pulse location must be accurately known to ensure that each pulse is added coherently to the imaging grid. Traditionally, this is achieved with an Inertial Navigation System (INS). While an INS can provide reasonable performance, its weight and size are often a constraint for agile platforms, limiting the available options and attainable accuracy. In this study, we perform an analysis on the applicability of an omnidirectional radar array for explicitly estimating the motion of a multi-copter platform, and improving on the positioning accuracy achieved by the on board INS. Building on existing 1D SAR motion compensation techniques, we develop new methods for estimating the 3D motion of the radar platform by estimating its height and velocity. In addition, we also present a novel 3D autofocus technique termed multi-beam autofocus. This technique allows for the correction of 3D trajectory errors from pulse to pulse by exploiting the beamforming capabilities of the array, and focusing multiple regions as the image is created. Using an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF), we obtain position estimates from the radar velocity measurements based on the last known INS position. We experimentally verify that using our velocity estimation method alone, the positioning performance is already improved compared to that of a state-of-the-art INS, allowing for INS-free imaging using arbitrary flight paths. This enables imaging in GNSS-denied environments, and has the potential to further reduce the weight of the platform. We also show that fusing the estimates obtained from our method with the existing INS output yields an additional performance increase in terms of SAR image focus, improving the resolvability and detectability of weak targets. The presented results open further avenues of research, not only in agile SAR imaging but also in autonomous GNSS-denied navigation.


Ultrasound for microimplants – enabling personalized medicine with wireless charging

Treatment of chronic autoimmune diseases is no longer limited by the expensive drugs and undesirable side effects. Neuromodulation has been shown to be effective in treating diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, chronic headaches, asthma or Parkinson's disease. To enable the technology for widespread clinical application, researchers at Fraunhofer IZM are developing a new generation of microimplants as part of the EU Moore4Medical project. These highly miniaturized devices have a special feature: the implants can be charged entirely wirelessly using ultrasound waves.

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(Em.) Professor Dr. Gerard Meijer Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion

He was knighted for 40 years of full and passionate commitment to the TU Delft, his students and research. As a loyal colleague he volunteered at the university for another 10 years. His research was of big social value and he as he was aware of the importance of the connection between science and business, he always tried to focus on strengthening this collaboration.


SSCS Webinar April 21

Register : https://ieee.webex.com/ieee/onstage/g.php?MTID=ef00b06de6cd2e96de0dd2955e047234e

Abstract

You are about to finish graduate school or perhaps a young or seasoned professional, contemplating a career transition. Which is better - a career in academia or industry? What are the pros and cons of one versus the other? How can you start exploring and build up your career accordingly? In this webinar, we will interview Dr. Linus Lu, a professor-turned-industry veteran, and Prof. Kofi Makinwa, an industry veteran-turned-professor, who will share their insights and perspectives from their personal journeys in both academia and industry careers. They will also address what triggered their transitions, how they staged their transitions, and offer their crystal ball projections on present and future career prospects in the solid-state-circuits profession.

Biography of Speakers

Shih-Lien (Linus) Lu is currently serving as the Chief Solutions Officer of PieceMakers Technology. He was a Director at TSMC Research and Development from 2016 to 2021. From 1999 to 2016, he was with Intel Corporation, Hillsboro, Oregon, where he was a research scientist, a research group manager, and later the Director of Memory Architecture Lab. He served on the faculty of the ECE Department at the Oregon State University as an Assistant Professor from 1991 to 1995 and as a tenured Associate Professor until 2001 (on leave the last two years). From 1984 to 1991, he worked on the MOSIS project at USC/ISI which provides research and education community VLSI fabrication services. His research interests include computer architecture, memory system and circuits, low power VLSI design, and hardware security. An IEEE Fellow, Shih-Lien received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley and M.S. and Ph.D. both in Computer Science and Engineering from UCLA. He and his wife raised four adult sons.

Kofi Makinwa is a Professor at Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands. From 1989 to 1999, he was a research scientist at Philips Research Laboratories in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. He holds B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees (1985, 1988) from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, Nigeria, an M.E.E. degree (1989) from the Philips International Institute, Eindhoven, The Netherlands and a Ph.D. degree (2004) from Delft University of Technology. His main research interests are the design of precision analog circuits and sensor interfaces. This has resulted in 16 books, over 250 technical papers, and over 30 patents. He is the co-recipient of 16 best paper awards, from the JSSC, ISSCC, VLSI, ESSCIRC and Transducers among others, and is an ISSCC top-10 contributor. Prof. Makinwa has been on the program committees of several IEEE conferences, and has served the Solid-State Circuits Society as a distinguished lecturer and as a member of the AdCom. He is currently the Analog Subcom chair of the ISSCC, a member of the editorial board of the Proceedings of the IEEE, and a co-organizer of the Advances in Analog Circuit Design workshop and the Sensor Interfaces Meeting. He is an IEEE Fellow and a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.


Assistant professor Tiago Lopes da Costa (Bio electronics) receives the ‘early career HFSP research grant’

Abstract

Cellular communication is mediated by voltage-gated, ligand-gated and mechanosensitive ion channels. Tools for modulating neuronal communication based on focused ultrasound (FUS) were developed to overcome fundamental limitations in optogenetics, combining non-invasive approaches and high spatial resolution without the need for genetic modification of neurons. Yet, little is known about the fundamental mechanisms of how focused ultrasound waves influence the finely tuned interplay of ion channels and lipid bilayers. How does the frequency and intensity of the ultrasound wave affects the lipid bilayer and different types of ion channels? What is the physical mechanism that governs the triggering of ion channel activity? These questions remain unanswered, with existing hypothesis limited by the spatio-temporal resolution of traditional optical, electrophysiology and ultrasound tools, which prohibit observations at the single ion channel level. To answer these questions we hypothesize that, if there would be a way to monitor effects of the FUS on the lipid bilayer and single ion channels with high temporal resolution, one should be able to monitor ultrasound-evoked oscillating current responses informing on ultrasound neuromodulation mechanisms. Hence, the aim of this proposal is to develop a concurrent experimental and computational approach, where state-of-the-art ultrasound and current read-out devices enabling high-bandwidth electrophysiology are matched with computational electrophysiology simulations. This will allow us for the first time to match the frequency of the focused ultrasound with the bandwidth of single ion channel recordings and the length of the computer-based simulations. We will focus our efforts in three aims, where Aim1 will establish the recording systems and simulations using model membranes alone and a mechanosensitive model channel. In Aim2 we will develop a recording platform integrating US-stimulation and high bandwidth recordings in complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, extending our efforts on non-mechanosensitive channels. In Aim3, we will combine the gained knowledge from Aims 1 and 2 to focus on mechanosensitive channel that are hypothesized to be involved in neuromodulation.


"Tech for Health" featuring Natasja de Groot

Please donate to our research on better understanding of cardiac arrhythmia

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Van auto tot smartphone: het chiptekort grijpt om zich heen

Chips worden gebruikt in talloze apparaten, onder meer smartphones, laptops en spelcomputers. Ook auto's hebben er honderden, zo niet duizenden aan boord. Maar nu er een groot tekort aan is, komen steeds meer bedrijven in de knel met hun productie. Wat is er precies aan de hand? Er is op dit moment een dusdanig hoge vraag naar chips dat de fabrikanten het niet kunnen bijbenen. Er is daardoor een schreeuwend tekort ontstaan. Dat heeft volgens Makinwa een aantal oorzaken. Hij wijst allereerst op het thuiswerken. Velen gaan sinds de uitbraak van de pandemie niet meer naar kantoor, waardoor meer vraag is naar apparaten om te kunnen thuiswerken, bijvoorbeeld laptops. "Ook zoeken veel mensen vanwege de lockdown naar extra vertier binnenshuis, waardoor meer spelcomputers worden verkocht. In al die producten zitten chips."

Een andere grootverbruiker van chips, namelijk de auto-industrie, zit nu ook met de handen in het haar. "In het voorjaar van 2020 moesten veel autobouwers hun fabrieken tijdelijk sluiten vanwege de corona-uitbraak", legt Makinwa uit. "Tegelijkertijd besloten ze om dan ook maar de bestellingen voor chips te annuleren. Omdat chipfabrieken een beperkte capaciteit hebben, hebben ze de vraag vanuit elektronicabedrijven, zoals smartphonemakers en de laptopbouwers, voorrang gegeven."

Toen de autofabrieken na de eerste coronagolf weer opengingen en de vraag naar auto's sneller opveerde dan gedacht, wilden de autoproducenten weer chips bestellen. Maar daar hadden de chipmakers nu minder capaciteit voor, waardoor de wachttijden flink zijn opgelopen.

Lees meer op Nu.nl, https://www.nu.nl/economie/6122699/van-auto-tot-smartphone-het-chiptekort-grijpt-om-zich-heen.html


Profcast with Prof. Wouter Serdijn

Or visit this link


Organ-on-chip project receives huge grant to make the leap from lab to fab

Scientists are pushing ahead building organ-on-chips, small chips with human cells, which are useful, for example, for studying cancerous metastases in the bloodstream or the development of scar tissue, or for testing the effect of drugs or food outside a human body. To make the step to industry, a collective of dozens of research groups, companies and knowledge institutions, brought together by the organ-on-chip consortium hDMT, are building a universal standard, supported by a NWO Perspective grant of nearly five million euros. The ultimate goal in the future: to link multiple organ chips together to simulate a whole body.

Check the official announcement (in Dutch).
Check the press release video summary at this link.

Those who think of chips only in terms of computers are nowadays deceived. An organ-on-chip usually consists of a plastic plate with integrated microchannels and chambers. Inside grow the complex tissues of human cells, in an environment that mimics the human body, but is barely visible to the naked eye.
A minute amount of liquid flows along the living cells to supply them with nutrients, and a pump delivers and removes them. Sensors in the chip measure how the cells respond and actuators make changes. For example, a different pressure, mechanical force, oxygen level or flow velocity.
By then adding a drug, food or cosmetic product to be tested, the researchers can see how the tissues react. The chip fits perfectly under a light microscope, so that the process can be followed easily and live.

Scaling up stalled by lack of universal standard

At the moment, the chips are mainly used by researchers to better understand how cells behave in their micro-environment or how diseases develop and spread through the body. In TU Delft, for example, the organ-on-chip group at the ECTM lab is working on microelectromechanical devices for brain-, heart- and gut-on-chip.
However, large-scale use by the pharma is not yet on the agenda due to the lack of a universal standard. There are many kinds of chips, each with its own design, dimensions and material. Moreover, the chips are difficult to fit into the workflow of the pharmaceutical industry and scaling up to larger numbers is very difficult. In short, they are designed for research, not for industry.
This is what the 10 research groups of 8 universities, united in the Dutch ‘organ-on-chip’ consortium hDMT, want to change, together with 21 companies, 3 knowledge institutions and 2 foundations. Led by researcher Jaap den Toonder of TU Eindhoven, they are now going to develop a standardized and modular platform for organs-on-chips, the SMART Organ-on-Chip. On March 10, they were awarded the NWO Perspective grant of 3.4 million EUR. The industrial partners are investing another 1.4 million EUR in the project.

TU Delft features among the SMART Organ-on-Chip consortium with the organ-on-chip research group led by Dr. Massimo Mastrangeli at ECTM.

Harmful drugs can be eliminated earlier

Pharmaceutical companies have a lot to gain from the standardized platform. Developing a new drug takes at least 10 years and billions of euros. This lengthy and expensive process is due to the different phases that the new drug has to go through. And 80% of promising drugs still drop out in the final phase.
Den Toonder: “If you can test the drugs directly on a realistic human organ-on-chip model, incorporating the complexity of the body right away, then you can eliminate harmful or ineffective drugs much earlier in the process, thereby saving a lot of money.”

Connecting Chips

To standardize the chips, the researchers are building a standard-sized "docking" plate that accommodates the fluid channels and electronics. Then the chips can be clicked onto it like modules.
The researchers develop tissue chips in which the cells are in the right microenvironment and technical chips with innovative fluid pumps and physical and chemical sensors. Den Toonder: "That's what makes the system so flexible; you can click the chips onto it in any combination you want, depending on the type of organ you want to examine and the question you want to answer."
The whole system is aligned with industrial workflows and biomedical R&D, for example, to work with pipetting robots and complex microscopic techniques. Moreover, it will be an accessible open technology, so that other companies can develop their own applications and add them to the existing platform.
Den Toonder: "By linking the various organ-on-chip models, we can ultimately also simulate the interactions between organs. That is really important, because organs never function in a body on their own. We hope that in time we will be able to develop, link and study chips for all the organs in the human body. Our ultimate dream is therefore a 'body-on-chip', with which you can study the effect of a new drug in all the organs, for example, so that you can simultaneously see whether the liver is not breaking down the drug, whether the intestines are not damaged, and whether heart problems develop.”

Studying scars

In the Perspective program, the researchers are focusing in particular on the development of scar tissue: fibrosis. Besides nicely healed scars, fibrosis of organs sometimes progresses into proliferating connective tissue. The area around the organ then plays a major role. It is therefore crucial to include that environment when studying this process in organ-on-chip models. It is precisely this complexity that has so far prevented a good model for studying fibrosis. The team is therefore now building tissue chips from intestines, skin and joints to study the processes at the system level.
Den Toonder: "The NWO Perspective grant gives us the opportunity to bring together the broad multidisciplinary group of scientists you need for such a development with industrial partners, from manufacturing to end users." Den Toonder is a mechanical engineer within the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems (ICMS) at TU Eindhoven.

The right drug for that one patient

In addition to the pharmaceutical industry, the emerging research field of personalized medicine can also benefit greatly from standardized organ-on-chip technology. Drugs are now developed for the average person, and only work for one in four people if you are lucky. There are even drugs on the market that only work for one in twenty people. If you can pre-screen a few potential drugs on cells from the specific patient for whom you are seeking treatment, you can administer the right drug for that specific person immediately.
The new chips are also finding industrial applications outside of pharma. For example, a skin-on-chip to test the side-effects of cosmetics or an intestine-on-chip to test allergies to a new food product. A bonus of organ-on-chip technology will be a considerable reduction in the number of animal tests.

The Dutch organ-on-chip consortium hDMT brought the following partners together for this NWO Perspective program: Amsterdam UMC/VUmc, Delft University of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology, UMC Utrecht, Leiden University, Maastricht University, Twente University, Wageningen University & Research, 300MICRONS, Applikon, BioLamina, Convergence, Demcon, dsRAT Stichting Proefdiervrij, Galapagos, Genmab, Hy2Care, IBA Lifesciences, ibidi, Life Science Methods, LipoCoat, Micronit Microtechnologies, OnePlanet Research Center/imec, Poietis, PolyVation, provio, Qurin Diagnostics, ReumaNederland, RIVM, Spektrax, TissUse, TNO, Unilever Safety & Environmental Assurance Centre, Ushio INC.


Webinar with dr. Vasso Giagka: "Lowering the Barrier for Customized Micro Systems in Medical Applications"

Webinar: "Lowering the Barrier for Customized Micro Systems in Medical Applications" Dear EUROPRACTICE member, We are delighted to invite you to a webinar organized by EUROPRACTICE together with flanders.health dedicated to lowering the barrier for customized micro systems in medical applications, which will take place online on March 24, 2021, from 14:00 to 16:00 CET. If you have been following the trends in medical innovations in recent years, you know that microelectronic solutions are revolutionizing the MedTech industry and improving the quality of delivered healthcare and thus patient life tremendously. Whether it is artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), or sensing, microelectronic systems play a key role in accelerating these trends in the medical world. For MedTech companies, it is important that microelectronic systems can be customized, but typically this comes at a high cost.

This is where EUROPRACTICE comes in. The consortium lowers the barrier for customized microsystems by providing affordable access to design tools, fabrication services, and training. If you are interested in learning more about how customized microsystems can make the difference for your medical application, then invest 2 hours of your time to learn about EUROPRACTICE and its affordable services. In this webinar, we will particularly zoom in on Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) and Photonic Integrated Circuits, and how those can be fabricated and integrated in microsystems for medical applications. The latter will be illustrated by several testimonials/case studies presented by both academia and industry.

Webinar Agenda

1. Introduction by flanders.health

2. “Overview of Micro Systems in Medical Applications and how EUROPRACTICE can lower the barrier to technology access” - Romano Hoofman (imec)

3. Case Studies

Steve Stoffels (Pulsify Medical) – “Pulsify’s ultrasound monitoring patch: future medical grade wearables enabled by custom components.”

Jan-Willem Hoste (Antelope Dx) – “Antelope Diagnostics: Bringing photonic chip technology to a consumer market”

Pieter Harpe (TU Eindhoven) – “Custom microelectronics for ambulatory pregnancy monitoring and ultrasound catheters”

Vasiliki Giagka (TU Delft) – “Microelectronic chips for bio-electronic medicine: Engineering long-lasting and spatially selective active neural implants”

Bob Puers (KU Leuven) – “Concept for a high resolution neural interface with polymer-CMOS hybrid interconnects”

4. Q&A

Register https://share.hsforms.com/1sMh30WWDQzi-2-_qMcq9OQ42q9f?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=114173729&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_J0UTBpWNtB6-mAe-UvA_dkxZRlerg6ZC5tgyAS8t3UFTXI7bZqdR5oHS-50jKN_SVQoHXjUVVGCmXsr2KSch9lKtT6g&utm_content=114173729&utm_source=hs_email


INESC MN 2021 Seminar Series - Dr. Tiago Costa, March 5, 16.00 PM

Neurological disorders are the leading cause of disability and the second leading cause of death, worldwide. Still, a paradigm exists in the available therapies: while pharmaceutical drugs are non-invasive but have poor precision and low effectiveness in the long term, therapies based on implantable electrical stimulators have high precision but are also highly invasive, which reduces patient eligibility. For the first time, a minimally invasive and precise neuromodulation modality is emerging through low intensity focused ultrasound (LIFU). However, the hand-held form-factors of existing ultrasound technology, together with its spatial resolution still being 10x lower than implantable electrodes, are hampering advances in both fundamental neuroscience research and the translation to the clinic. In this talk, I will describe my research on stand-alone ultrasonic microchips, by exploring the co-design and integration of CMOS circuits and piezoelectric materials. With massive miniaturization, focused ultrasound can be delivered through more efficient methods (wearable, injectable) while supporting higher ultrasound frequencies towards higher spatial resolution. These advances will contribute to a new generation of ultrasound technology to bring LIFU neuromodulation to the forefront of neuroscience and neurology.

To register see link below:

https://sites.google.com/site/inescmn/home/news


Geert Leus wins EURASIP Technical Achievement Award

Geert Leus will be this year's recipient of the European Association for Signal Processing (EURASIP)'s Technical Achievement Award.
The award will be presented at EUSIPCO 2021 Dublin, Ireland.

As noted in the announcement by Maria Sabrina Greco, EURASIP Director for Awards,
The Technical Achievement Award honors a person who, over a period of years, has made outstanding technical contributions to theory or practice in technical areas within the scope of the Society, as demonstrated by publications, patents, or recognized impact in this field.

This year’s recipient is Geert Leus, “For contributions to signal processing for communications and sensing".

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TU Delft scores at Olympic Games for chip designers

Kofi Makinwa, professor at TU Delft, explains it as follows: ‘The number of papers accepted prior to the conference is an important measure of the success, as is the number of guest speakers you supply as a university. The total for TU Delft in 2021 is fifteen.’ An achievement that shows that Delft holds a position in the upper echelons of the chip world.

Imaging sensors

Possibly one of the most striking contributions is from Albert Theuwissen. In his keynote speech he takes us into the future of imaging sensors. For the not-so-technical readers: almost all cameras and mobile phones contain an imaging sensor. The quality of this sensor determines the quality of your pictures and how much you can enlarge them. Albert: ‘The CMOS imaging sensors that you see in today's mobile phones are approaching perfection. But this doesn't mean that we won't be needing any more field development. On the contrary, new technologies and materials open new dimensions and new applications that will only supplement and improve the classic imaging functionality of the sensors. Ultimately this trend will transform the landscape of the imaging sensor from imaging to smart vision.’

A computer that goes faster, a phone that gets smarter and smarter – you can't think of anything or Kofi Makinwa has something to do with it. Listen via this link to the (Dutch) podcast episode recently made with him.

Precision amplifiers

This year TU Delft is also scoring highly in the field of analogue electronics. Of the twelve papers accepted on this topic, seven come from TU Delft. Makinwa: ‘When a digital electronic device needs to communicate with the real world, it always needs an analogue interface. An example of such an analogue circuit is an amplifier. An amplifier takes a small signal and converts it into something that is strong enough to power speakers, for example.’

One of the TU Delft researchers specialised in this subject is Qinwen Fan. She has spent several years studying precision amplifiers. These are amplifiers that are capable of accurately processing very small signals. During the ISSCC, Fan will explain the development of precision amplifiers in recent decades. Fan: ‘I will also look at a number of applications, such as measuring battery power or amplifying biomedical signals, for instance from the heart. Finally I will use the many Delft publications of recent years to sketch the development trends. What has happened? And what can we expect?’

Wireless

Leo de Vreede's team is working on the new generation of wireless telecommunications. One of the goals we are chasing here is to reduce energy consumption. Because the higher the frequency, data speed and coverage of a 5G network, for example, the more energy it uses. Together with Morteza Alavi – Assistant Professor of Electronic Circuits and Architectures – they are working on a revolutionary concept for a digital transmitter that will drastically reduce this energy consumption. A fine example of this is the paper by Mohammad Reza Beikmirza. In his paper, Mohammad demonstrates that this entirely new approach makes it possible to comply with the most stringent 5G requirements using a single integrated circuit, even in the case of considerably lower energy consumption. De Vreede: ‘What we are also seeing is that there is an increasing need for receivers that can flexibly receive different frequencies without being troubled by interference from all kinds of other incoming signals via the aerial.’ Masoud Babaie and Mohammad Ali have developed a tunable receiver for this, that filters all the unwanted signals itself without the need for external filters to pick up all the interference.

Qubits

And then there is the pioneering work by Fabio Sebastiano and Masoud Babaie (again). Together they are trying to figure out the best way to build and use a quantum computer – a powerful computer that processes information in a totally new way. It is expected that such a quantum computer will eventually open up the doors to all kinds of radical applications, for example being able to find out the best way to use medicines far more quickly. For a quantum computer to work well, qubits need to be cooled to cryogenic temperatures, up to four degrees above zero (Kelvin). Handy to know: quantum bits – also known as qubits – are the building blocks of a quantum computer. Their role can be compared to that of standard bits in a conventional computer. Right now the cooling of these qubits only takes place at room temperature.

According to Sebastiano and Babaie, it should be easy to close this temperature gap with just a couple of wires. This is fine for the small number of qubits now in use, but impractical for the millions of qubits needed for the future quantum computer. During the previous edition of the ISSCC, Sebastiano showed that a CMOS integrated circuit can control qubits, even at -270 degrees Celsius. ‘But,’ explains Sebastiano, ‘controlling qubits is just the beginning. Ultimately you also want to be able to read out the qubits. One of the things we will be showing during this edition of the ISSCC is that the readout circuits can also function at cryogenic temperatures.’

Doing incredibly fast calculations to develop even better new medicines. That is just one of the things that will be possible in the future thanks to a quantum computer. It’s the dream of Fabio Sebastiano. Read more about his dream here: https://www.tudelft.nl/en/stories/articles/dreaming-of-the-quantum-computer

Proud

What can TU Delft be most proud of during this edition of the ISSCC? Makinwa: ‘Of the successful combination of old guard and young talent. Albert Theuwissen, for example, has been working in this field for years, while Bishnu Patra and Bagas Prabowo are still carrying out their PhD research. There is enormous strength in this match of young and old. The entire conference this year is taking place online, from 13 to 22 February. Normally you would spend the week attending various presentations of papers, but this time you can read the papers beforehand and put your difficult questions via internet.

Contact

Dave Boomkens

Communications Officer at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science,

+31 6 40 28 75 77

d.j.boomkens@tudelft.nl


European Microwave Week 2020

Researchers from our Department, specifically from MS3, ELCA, QuTech, and THz groups, played a tremendous role both in the organisation of the event itself, originally planned to take physically place in Utrecht here in the Netherlands, and in the scientific contributions in the diverse fields of automotive technology, radar sensing, and microwave, THz, and quantum components and techniques.

Our scientific contributions included over 6 papers accepted and presented, 7 invited talks at different organised workshops and short courses, and at the Doctoral School and the Automotive Forum.

The most visible roles in the organisation of the even were the General TPC Chair, Prof Yarovoy, and the Treasurer, Dr Lager, plus the many researchers who volunteered as reviewers. Contributors to the scientific program of the conference in invited talks and workshops were also Dr Fioranelli, Dr Spirito, Dr Babaie, Dr Cavallo, Dr Sebastiano, Prof Vaucher, in addition to many PhD candidates and postdocs.

For more information on the event proceedings with papers and workshops, look at https://www.eumweek.com/docs/programme.pdf.


‘Rapid developments of LEDs offers all kinds of medical potential’

You can use ultraviolet light from LEDs to combat coronavirus. But it’s not as simple as commercial providers are presenting it right now, concludes Professor Kouchi Zhang. On the need for a sound scientific basis and the potential for LEDs in medical applications.

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Cardiac mapping of very young children reveals conduction disorders related to atrial fibrillation

Research of Medical Delta professor prof. dr. Natasja de Groot (Erasmus MC and TU Delft)

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Albert Theuwissen plenairy spreaker ISSCC 2021 (International Solid-State Circuits Conference )

http://isscc.org/

Titel

There’ s more to the picture than meets the eye, and in the future it will become only much more

Abstract

Over the past five decades, solid-state imaging has gone through a difficult “childhood”, changing technology during its “adolescence”, and finally growing up to become a mature, “adult” technology that can compete with the human visual system when it comes to image quality. State-of-the-art mobile devices enjoyed by consumers, rely on a multi-disciplinary mixture of analog electronics, digital circuits, mixed-signal design, optical know-how, device physics, semiconductor technology and algorithm development. As a result, the CMOS image sensors utilized in today’s mobile phones come close to perfection as far as imaging characteristics are concerned. However this does not mean that further developments in the field are no longer necessary. On the contrary, new technologies and new materials are opening up new dimensions and new applications which complement the classical imaging functionality of the sensors. This trend will ultimately convert the image sensor landscape from image capturing to smart vision. Consequently, the future of solid-state imaging will not revolve around the shooting of beautiful images only, as the market driver will no longer only be limited to the mobile phone market.


Delft Bioengineering Institute awards Tiago Costa and Massimo Mastrangeli with 20KEUR grants

Dr. Tiago Costa (BE) and Dr. Massimo Mastrangeli (ECTM) have been awarded grants of 20KEUR by the Delft Bioengineering Institute (BEI) to pursue their research projects on ultrasound-based regeneration of neuronal circuits and medical implants to investigate cell mechanobiology, respectively.
Their multidisciplinary project proposals, conceived to bridge expertise among different departments within TU Delft, are among the 5 selected for the grants out of the 13 total submissions received by the BEI in response to their first call for proposals.
The projects will be run respectively in collaboration with Dr. Dimphna Meijer (TNW/BN) and Dr. Mohammad J. Mirzaali (3mE/BM).
Below are short summaries of the projects.

Regenerating neuronal circuits using ultrasound

People suffering from neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Disease and Multiple Sclerosis, have impaired neuronal circuits. Generation of new neuronal circuits by using a patient’s own stem cells may prove helpful in treating the disease. One of the difficulties in inducing neurons from stem cells, is the low efficiency rate we are able to achieve so far. In this project, BEI PIs Tiago Costa of Microelectronics (EWI) and Dimphna Meijer of Bionanoscience (TNW) join forces to explore the use of ultrasound for effectively building active neuronal networks from stem cells.

Project title: SoundCircuit: Regeneration of neuronal circuits using ultrasound
BEI PIs: Tiago Costa (EWI/ME), Dimphna Meijer (TNW/BN)

Medical implants to investigate cell mechanobiology

In order to study the cell’s behavior and differentiation, we need to be able to measure the mechanical, electrical, and biochemical signals that are dynamically transmitted throughout the cells. This requires the creation of biomaterial models equipped with different sensor types. In this project, BEI PIs Mohammad J. Mirzaali of Biomechanical Engineering (3mE) and Massimo Mastrangeli of Microelectronics (EWI) will team up to design, fabricate and test the proof-of-concept for medical implants equipped with force sensors that can reach a sensitivity level of one micronewton, so the mechanobiology of cells can be effectively investigated.

Project title: Sixth Sense Biomaterials
BEI PIs: Mohammad J. Mirzaali (3mE/BM), Massimo Mastrangeli (EWI/ME)

Read the full story on the TU Delft page.

Success!


New Associate Professor: Justin Dauwels

Per 1 January 2021, Prof. Dauwels starts at CAS. His expertise is in statistical signal processing and machine learning. Welcome!

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EUSIPCO 2020 - virtual event on 18-22 January 2021

The organizing committee of EUSIPCO 2020 has decided that EUSIPCO 2020 will be a full virtual conferencedue to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic and resulting travel restrictions.

We are excited to be able to provide a virtual venue for EUSIPCO 2020 and hope you will join us and learn about the latest developments in research and technology for signal processing.

Please register today for a reduced fee of E 50, or sign up for one of the tutorials for E 25.

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Microimplants: electricity instead of pills

Interview in MEDICA Magazine with Prof. Vasiliki Giagka, Group Leader "Technologies of Bioelectronics", Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM and Assistant Professor of Bioelectronics, Delft University of Technology

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CAS startup Innatera Nanosystems raises €5 million

Innatera, started by CAS members Sumeet, Amir and Rene, is making the next step

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Professor Wouter Serdijn legt in het consumenten programma Radar het bedrog achter de Healy bloot

See the program

https://radar.avrotros.nl/uitzendingen/gemist/item/valse-medische-claims-achter-de-healy


EuMW Announces Virtual Event for EuMW 2020

In light of the global pandemic, growing numbers of cases in Europe, and related measures imposed by the respective authorities, European Microwave Week (EuMW) organizers have decided to make EuMW 2020 a virtual event this year while simultaneously planning for the next in-person event in London in October of 2021. EuMW 2020 includes the European Microwave Conference, the 15th European Microwave Integrated Circuits Conference, and the 17th European Radar Conference.

EuMW is organized by Horizon House on behalf of the European Microwave Association (EuMA), an international non-profit association with a scientific, educational and technical purpose. Earlier this year, event managers postponed the live, in-person event in Utrecht, The Netherlands to 10-15 January 2021 in the hopes that the global pandemic would have subsided by then. It has now become evident that it would be extremely difficult to safely gather attendees and exhibitors in person this year.

Event management has selected the vFairs platform to host the conference and virtual exhibit. VFairs is an immersive environment that allows users to comfortably browse content, network with exhibitors or peers, and attend live webinars with only a few clicks.

“As the next best thing to an in-person conference, we have now embraced all the good things that a virtual conference can bring. I am excited to make this happen!" said Frank van Vliet, EuMW 2020 General Chair. The EUMW 2020 virtual event will begin on 10 January 2021 and last until 15 January 2021. Attendees can access conference sessions and visit the virtual booths until 5 February. The event management team is reaching out to exhibitors and speakers now to arrange for the transition to a virtual program for EuMW 2020.

“Individuals and business worldwide are quickly adapting to the pandemic. Fortunately, the options for virtual events have improved considerably over just the last few months. End users have much more experience and comfort with virtual events than before COVID. Although nothing can replace the experience of a live conference and exhibition, we are confident that the virtual EuMW 2020 will be a great show for the microwave and RF community,” said Ivar Anderson Bazzy, President of Horizon House.

"We all want to see each other in person again, chat, talk, drink and eat together, exchange latest information but also gossips, etc. That is why we decided to keep a live event in Utrecht alive as long as possible until it really was no longer possible. The alternative, a full virtual conference and trade-show is now becoming a reality. I am sure that we can create an event with the same look and feel as the original live event, with many options for interaction and virtual meeting places while not compromising in quality. Don't miss it, it will be a unique event in the best traditions of EuMW where you can find information that you don't find anywhere else. Follow our posts on social media to stay up to date," said Frank van den Bogaart, President of EuMA.

The technical program remains robust with plans to transition all scheduled talks to the vFairs conference platform. The conference program is available here: https://www.eumweek.com/docs/programme.pdf

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Veni for Dr. Matús Rybak

His research;

Zooming in on star factories in the early Universe

Observatory Will a star feel a difference between being born in Orion today, or in a dusty “star factory” galaxy 10 billion years ago? In this project, astronomers will use a new nanotechnology-powered instrument and magnification by gravity to understand the formation of new-born stars in the early universe.


New sensor chips; low-cost, smart and efficient

In a greenhouse, cucumbers are growing beautifully. A grower is cultivating them under the most favourable conditions, closely monitoring the precise amount of water they need and whether the temperature is optimal, to ensure that the cucumbers that end up on your plate are juicy, flavoursome and green. The grower’s job is by no means carefree, however. What if the crop is blighted by some disease? One of the strategies that researchers are working on to prevent this involves an “electronic nose”. All plants, cucumbers included, emit a scent. An electronic nose can immediately detect whether something is wrong. The same technique can be applied in a chicken coop or cowshed. As soon as a disease breaks out, the electronic nose will detect it and give a warning.

For complete article;

https://www.tudelft.nl/en/stories/articles/new-sensor-chips-low-cost-smart-and-efficient/


Treating your disorder with electronic medicines

Increasing numbers of people now have a chip in their body which they can use to make payments or check in to public transport. “It sounds futuristic, but the technology is not that extraordinary”, explains Prof. Wouter Serdijn. “My dog has something similar.”

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The Matlab code has been published on the Code Ocean web-site

Jianping Wang published the Matlab codes for the article "3-D Short-Range Imaging With Irregular MIMO Arrays Using NUFFT-Based Range Migration Algorithm":


Professor Ir. Leendert (Leo) Krul passed away

Met innig medeleven hebben wij kennins genomen van het overlijden van Prof. Ir. Leendert (Leo) Krul. Met grote vakkundigheid en toewijding heeft hij een enorme bijdrage geleverd aan het vakgebied “Telecommunicatie” voor de TU Delft. Wij wensen de familie veel sterkte met dit verlies.


With heartfelt sympathy, we have taken note of the death of Prof. Ir. Leendert (Leo) Krul. With great skill and dedication, he has made an enormous contribution to the field of “Telecommunication” for TU Delft. We wish the family much strength with this loss.


Michiel Pertijs will present at ESSCIRC/ESSDERC Virtual Educationals

Michiel will contribute to the upcoming ESSCIRC/ESSDERC Virtual Educational events (see https://www.esscirc-essderc2020.org/educationals). He will give an invited talk in the Workshop on Emerging Solutions for Imaging Devices, Circuits and Systems. In his talk, Michiel will show how integrated circuits play an enabling role for the next generation of smart ultrasound devices. The ESSCIRC/ESSDERC Virtual Educational events are available online between Sept. 7 and Oct. 16, with a live sessions on Sept. 14 and 15.

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CUM LAUDE PhD Defense – Yanki Aslan

On Wednesday, August 26th, 2020 Yanki Aslan, the Ph.D. candidate in the MS3 group, successfully defended his Ph.D. work entitled “Antenna Array Synthesis and Beamforming for 5G Applications: An Interdisciplinary Approach” and graduated cum laude.

Congratulations to Yanki for this excellent result!

Now dr. Aslan will continue to work within the MS3 group as a postdoctoral researcher on a project in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA).

Abstract:

Realization of the future 5G systems requires the design of novel mm-wave base station antenna systems that are capable of generating multiple beams with low mutual interference while serving multiple users simultaneously using the same frequency band. Besides, small wavelengths and high packaging densities of front-ends lead to overheating of such systems, which prevents safe and reliable operation. Since the strict cost and energy requirements of the first phase 5G systems favor the use of low complexity beamforming architectures, computationally efficient signal processing techniques, and fully passive cooling strategies, it is a major challenge for the antenna community to design multibeam antenna topologies and front-ends with enhanced spatial multiplexing, limited inter-beam interference, acceptable implementation complexity, suitable processing burden, and natural-only/radiative cooling.Traditionally, array design has been performed based on satisfying the given criteria solely on the radiation patterns (gain, side lobe level (SLL), beamwidth etc.). However, in addition to the electromagnetic aspects, multi-beam antenna synthesis and performance evaluation in 5G systems at mm-waves must combine different disciplines, including but not limited to, signal processing, front-end circuitry design, thermal management, channel & propagation and medium access control aspects. Considering the interdisciplinary nature of the problem, the main objective of this research is to develop, evaluate and verify innovative multibeam array techniques and solutions for 5G base station antennas, not yet used nor proposed for mobile communications. The research topics include the investigation of (i) new array topologies, compatible with IC passive cooling, including sparse, space tapered arrays and optimized subarrays, meeting key requirements of 3-D multi-user coverage with frequency re-use and power-efficient side-lobe control, (ii) adaptive multiple beamforming strategies and digital signal processing algorithms, tailored to these new topologies, and (iii) lowcost/competitive and sufficiently generic implementation of the above array topologies and multi-beam generation concepts to serve multiple users with the same antenna(s) with the best spectrum and power efficiencies. This doctoral thesis consists of three parts. Part I focuses on the system-driven aspects which cover the system modeling (including the link budget and precoding), propagation in mm-wave channels, and statistical assessment of the Quality of Service (QoS). Although separate comprehensive studies exist both in the field of propagation/system modeling and antennas/beamforming, the link between the two disciplines is still weak. In this part, the aim of the study is to bridge the gap between the two domains and to identify the trade-offs between the complexity of beamforming, the QoS, and the computational cost of precoding in the 5G multi-beam base station arrays for various use cases. Based on the system model developed, a novel quantitative relation between the antenna SLLs/pattern nulls and the statistical QoS is established in a line-of-sight (LoS) dominated the mm-wave propagation scenario. Moreover, the potential of using smart (low in-sector side-lobe) array layouts (with simple beam steering) in obtaining sufficiently high and robust QoS, while achieving the optimally low processing costs is highlighted. For a possible pure non-line-of-sight (NLoS) scenario, the system advantages (in terms of the beamforming complexity and the interference level) of creating a single, directive beam towards the strongest multipath component of a user are explained via ray-tracing based propagation simulations. The insightful system observations from Part I lead to several fundamental research questions: Could we simplify the multiple beamforming architecture while keeping a satisfying QoS? Are there any efficient yet effective alternative interference suppression methods to further improve the QoS? How should we deal with the large heat generation at the base station? These questions, together with the research objectives, form the basis for the studies performed in the remaining parts. Part II of the thesis focuses on the electromagnetism-driven aspects which include innovative, low-complexity subarray based multibeam architectures and new array optimization strategies for effective SLL suppression. The currently proposed multi-beam 5G base stations in the literature for beamforming complexity reduction use either a hybrid array of phased subarrays, which limits the field-of-view significantly or employ a fully-connected analog structure, which increases the hardware requirements remarkably. Therefore, in the first half of this part, the aim is to design low-complexity hybrid (or hybrid-like) multiple beamforming topologies with a wide angular coverage. For this purpose, two new subarray based multiple beamforming concepts are proposed: (i) a hybrid array of active multiport subarrays with several digitally controlled Butler Matrix beams and (ii) an array of cosecant subarrays with a fixed cosecant shaped beam in elevation and digital beamforming in azimuth. Using the active (but not phased) multiport subarrays, the angular sector coverage is widened as compared to that of a hybrid array of phased subarrays, the system complexity is decreased as compared to that of a hybrid structure with a fully-connected analog network, and the effort in digital signal processing is reduced greatly. The cosecant subarray beamforming, on the other hand, is shown to be extremely efficient in serving multiple simultaneous co-frequency users in the case of a fairness-motivated LoS communication thanks to its low complexity and power equalization capability. Another critical issue with the currently proposed 5G antennas is the large inter-user interference caused by the high average SLL of the regular, periodic arrays. Therefore, in the second half of Part II, the aim is to develop computationally and power-efficient SLL suppression techniques that are compatible with the 5G’s multibeam nature in a wide angular sector. To achieve this, two novel techniques (based on iterative parameter perturbations) are proposed: (i) a phase-only control technique and (ii) a position-only control technique. The phase-only technique provides peak SLL minimization and simultaneous pattern nulling, which is more effective than the available phase tapering methods in the literature. The position-only technique, on the other hand, yields uniform-amplitude, (fully-aperiodic and quasi-modular) irregular planar phased arrays with simultaneous multibeam optimization. The latter technique combines interference-awareness (via multibeam SLL minimization in a predefined cell sector) and thermal-awareness (via uniform amplitudes and minimum element spacing constraint) for the first time in an efficient and easy-to-solve optimization algorithm. Part III of the thesis concentrates on the thermal-driven aspects which cover the thermal system modeling of electronics, passive cooling at the base stations, and the role of antenna researchers in array cooling. The major aim here is to form a novel connection between the antenna system design and thermal management, which is not yet widely discussed in the literature. In this part, an efficient thermal system model is developed to perform the thermal simulations. To effectively address the challenge of thermal management at the base stations, fanless CPU heatsinks are exploited for the first time for fully-passive and low-cost cooling of the active integrated antennas. To reduce the size of the heatsinks and ease the thermal problem, novel planar antenna design methodologies are also proposed. In the case of having a low thermal conductivity board, using a sparse irregular antenna array with a large inter-element spacing (such as a sunflower array) is suggested. Alternatively, for the densely packed arrays, increasing the equivalent substrate conductivity by using thick ground planes and simultaneously enlarging the substrate dimensions is proven to be useful. The performed research presents the first-ever irregular/sparse and subarray based antennas with wide scan multi-beam capability, low temperature, high-efficiency power amplifiers, and low level of side lobes. The developed antenna arrays and beam generation concepts could have also an impact over a broad range of applications where they should help overcome the capacity problem by use of multiple adaptive antennas, improve reliability and reduce interference.

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New project: PCaVision

Prostate cancer detection using ultrasound

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Best student paper award VLSI Symposium for PhD Efraïm Eland

At the 2020 VLSI Symposium, Efraïm Eland got selected for the 2020 Best Student Paper Award! He will receive the award at the 2021 VLSI Symposium in Kyoto, Japan. The award was for the design of a high dynamic range zoom ADC for audio applications with state-of-the-art energy-efficiency in audio ADCs. Shoubhik Karmakar, Burak Gönen, Robert van Veldhoven and Kofi Makinwa were co-authors, and the work was done in collaboration with NXP Semiconductors. The resulting paper can be found here.

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SSCS WYE Webinar

Webinar: To Academia, or to Industry, That is the Question. Presented by: Kofi Makinwa and Shin-Lien Lu

Abstract:

You are about to finish graduate school or perhaps a young or seasoned professional, contemplating a career transition. Which is better - a career in academia or industry? What are the pros and cons of one versus the other? How can you start exploring and build up your career accordingly? In this webinar, we will interview Dr. Linus Lu, a professor-turned-industry veteran, and Prof. Kofi Makinwa, an industry veteran-turned-professor, who will share their insights and perspectives from their personal journeys in both academia and industry careers. They will also address what triggered their transitions, how they staged their transitions, and offer their crystal ball projections on present and future career prospects in the solid-state-circuits profession.

REGISTER TODAY!

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Cum Laude PhD Defense Sven van Berkel

The research

In millimeter and submillimeter-wave radiometric imaging systems, a persistent goal is the increase in the speed of acquisition of the image while maintaining a high sensitivity. Typically, the highest sensitivity is achieved by cryogenically cooling the detectors, specifically in astronomical applications. However, for the purpose of low-cost imaging applications, it is desirable to operate at room temperature. Without cryogenically cooling, the electronic noise introduced by the detectors becomes dominant, making the detectors less sensitive. In this thesis focal plane architectures are proposed that maximizes the imaging speed of radiometers operating at room temperature without using any amplification circuitry. It is shown that in such scenario a practical image acquisition speed can still be achieved when a very broad portion of the THz-band is exploited. Ultimately, the imaging speed is maximized when the FPA is undersampled, implying a tradeoff in the size of the optics. The analysis is substantiated by a case study with recently developed wideband leaky lens antenna feeds operating from 200 to 600 GHz. THe entire front end has been developed, fabricated (CMOS Technology) and characterized, demonstrating the complete feasibility of passive imaging in the THz frequencies at neglibile costs. The implications for the automotive and security applications are dramatic, as detecting obstacles in fog, and spotting concealed weapons or bombs can now be done at negligible costs (tens of euros). That these systems will be in our future lives is now sure. When this will happen, as usual, will depend on the market request.

Future Dr. Sven van Berkel

Sven has already signed a contract at NASA, in California where he will start working as soon as the Covid lockdown stops.


Max Schöpe wins 3rd prize in student paper competition at FUSION 2020

PhD student Max Schöpe won the 3rd prize in the student paper competition at this year’s edition of the International Conference on Information Fusion (FUSION) for his paper “Multi-Task Sensor Resource Balancing Using Lagrangian Relaxation and Policy Rollout”.

For more than 20 years the FUSION conference has been recognised as a premier forum for researchers and practitioners to exchange ideas in the field of information fusion and its impacts on our society. The presented papers cover foundational, technological, and application-focused innovations in the sensor, data, information and knowledge fusion scientific domains. This year 169 papers were accepted and presented at the conference in total.


Moore4Medical kicks off

The ECSEL Joint Undertaking Moore4Medical kicked off last June, 2020 with the overarching objective to accelerate innovation in electronic medical devices. Moore4Medical is masterminded by prof. Ronald Dekker (Philips Research & ECTM) and sees important involvement and vast opportunities for TU Delft’s Microelectronics department.

The project addresses emerging medical applications and technologies that offer significant new opportunities for the Electronic Systems & Components (ECS) industry, including: bioelectronic medicines, organ-on-chip, drug adherence monitoring, smart ultrasound, radiation free interventions and continuous monitoring. The new technologies will help fighting the increasing cost of healthcare by reducing the need for hospitalisation, helping to develop personalized therapies, and realising intelligent point-of-care diagnostic tools.

Moore4Medical will bring together 66 selected companies, universities and institutes from 12 countries who will develop open technology platforms for these emerging fields to help them bridge “the Valley of Death” in shorter time and at lower cost. Open technology platforms used by multiple users for multiple applications with the prospect of medium-to-high volume markets are an attractive proposition for the European ECS industry. The combination of typical MedTech and Pharma applications with an ECS style platform approach will enhance the competitiveness for the emerging medical domains addressed in Moore4Medical. With value and IP moving from the technology level towards applications and solutions, defragmentation and open technology platforms will be key in acquiring and maintaining a premier position for Europe in the forefront of affordable healthcare.

TU Delft’s Microelectronics department leads two of the six workpackages represented in Moore4Medical: the Implanatable Devices workpackage, led by Dr. Vasiliki “Vasso” Giagka (BE & Fraunhofer IZM), and the Organ-on-Chip workpackage, led by Dr. Massimo “Max” Mastrangeli (ECTM). Both workpackages will see the interaction and contribution of many world-class industrial and academic players to develop respectively bioelectronic medicines and smart multi-well plate platforms, and will provide a rich opportunity to capitalize on and further expand the standing expertise of the BE and ECTM groups of the department.

We wish Moore4Medical success!

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Andra Velea wins Audience Award of the Young Medical Delta Thesis Awards

We are proud to announce that the MSc thesis of Andrada Velea on the development of 'Flexible Passive and Active Graphene-based Spinal Cord Implants' won the audience award of the Young Medical Delta Thesis Awards 2020 with 418 out of the 1024 votes. The research theme is a successful synergy of the expertises of the ECTM and BE sections, and was supervised by Vasiliki Giagka and Sten Vollebregt. Andrada’s work has led to 2 IEEE conference publications, among which the prestigious 33rd IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (IEEE MEMS 2020), which took place earlier this year in Vancouver. We would like to congratulate her for this great achievement.

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Medical Delta Professors appointed

Medical Delta appointed 9 new MD Professors, with joint appointments at LUMC and TU Delft, or Erasmus MC and TU Delft. Three of these are connected to the MicroElectronics Department: Wouter Serdijn, Andrew Webb, and Natasja de Groot.

Prof. Dr. Natasja de Groot (Erasmus MC, TU Delft) researches the use of sensors and catheters to more accurately diagnose and treat cardiac arrhythmias. At TU Delft, she will have an affiliation with CAS and BE.

Prof. Dr. ir. Wouter Serdijn (TU Delft, Erasmus MC) researches the use of bioelectronics in medical research. At EMC, he will have an affiliation with Neuroscience.

Prof. Dr. Andrew Webb (LUMC, TU Delft) researches how imaging can be more widely available for medical purposes. He is a professor in MRI at LUMC, and already had a part-time appointment at CAS.

The new Medical Delta professors introduce themselves and their research in a short video. This can be viewed here:

 

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Impulse health & technology research with nine new Medical Delta professors

Prof. Dr. ir. Wouter Serdijn researches the use of bioelectronics in medical research (part of Medical Delta Cardiac Arrhythmia Lab and Medical Neurodelta)

Medical Delta Cardiac Arrhythmia Lab

Cardiac arrhythmia is the cardiovascular epidemic of the 21st century. The number of patients diagnosed with cardiac arrhythmia is rapidly increasing due to ageing, obesity, diabetes and elevated blood pressure. Atrium fibrillation is the most common arrhythmia. It is a progressive disease, which means that episodes of arrhythmia progress from short-lasting episodes to episodes which are continuously present and no longer terminate spontaneously. Atrium fibrillation may cause stroke and heart failure and is even associated with death.

Treatments are often not successful, but a new patient-specific therapy can improve existing treatments. This can be achieved by measuring the degree of electropathology (‘staging the arrhythmia’). However, this is still not yet possible because there are no diagnostic tools to measure electropathology. It is therefore also not possible to recognize patients at risk of arrhythmia early. In addition, there are no therapies specifically targeting electropathology.

Treatment of Arrhythmia

Electrical signals recorded from young hearts usually have a simple morphology, as electrical waves propagate smoothly through cardiac tissue. Over the years, these electrical signals may become more complex (electropathology) due to damaged cardiac tissue. When the degree of electropathology exceeds a certain threshold, cardiac arrhythmia may occur.

Treatment of cardiac arrhythmia is still often not successful, says Natasja de Groot, professor and cardiologist-electrophysiologist at Erasmus MC. Current treatment consists of either an ‘electrical shock’ to restore the normal heart rhythm, drugs or ablative therapy (eliminating the cardiac tissue that is causing arrhythmia). Unfortunately, these therapies have side-effects and are only moderately effective.

Unravel electropathology

The aim of the Medical Delta Cardiac Arrhythmia Lab is to reduce the cardiac arrhythmia burden by unravelling arrhythmia-related electropathology and designing and testing novel bio-electrical diagnostic tools and therapies targeting electropathology. This enables staging of the cardiac arrhythmia and selection of the appropriate treatment in the individual patient, thereby improving therapy outcome.

A first step is to unravel electropathology by quantifying electrical parameters. For this purpose, a 192 electrode-array has been designed to record electrical signals directly from the surface of the heart during open heart surgery. Advance signal processing techniques are then used to comprehend electrical activation patterns during arrhythmia. Linking electrical signals with the structure of cardiac tissue is essential to unravel the mechanisms of arrhythmia. The future goal is to assess the degree of electropathology using non-invasive mapping techniques.

Arrhythmia-on-a-chip

To further unravel the mechanisms of arrhythmia, this consortium aims to design an arrhythmia-on-a-chip platform enabling the investigation of electrical conduction in relation to e.g. genetic defects.

Collaboration

This program is a collaboration betwee biologists, engineers and medical doctors from Erasmus MC, LUMC and TUDelft. They combine their unique expertise on advanced signal recording and processing techniques, cardiac mapping tools and arrhythmia related molecular mechanics.


TU Delft launches first eight TU Delft AI Labs

TU Delft is setting up eight new AI Labs to investigate how artificial intelligence (AI) can accelerate scientific progress. To this end, scientists researching AI will be working together with scientist who use AI in their research. The first of these eight interdisciplinary AI labs will be followed by another sixteen in the course of 2020 and 2021.

Rapid developments in AI, data science and digitalisation can accelerate scientific progress in all fields, ranging from medical science to infrastructural research, and across all levels, from fundamental to applied research. TU Delft is boosting collaboration between AI scientists and scientists in other domains, with the launch of a series of TU Delft AI Labs.

Within the MACHINA Lab, for example, researchers in machine learning work together with materials scientists on the analysis of existing materials and the development of new materials. Within the AidroLab, researchers in geometric deep learning are working with researchers in water management on subjects such as how to improve flood forecasting in the urban environment. Researchers in the CiTyAI-Lab will use a wide variety of data sources to map the impact of the city's 'fabric' on its inhabitants in order to improve the living environment.

Education

AI-related knowledge is indispensable for future generations of engineers and scientists. That is why the labs also aim to strengthen education in the field of AI, data sciences and digitalisation, and to create links with educational programmes in various scientific domains.

Investments

TU Delft plans to double its budget in the field of AI, data & digitalisation to 70 million euros per year. These funds will be used for the recruitment of talented researchers, the establishment of research units, the development of educational programmes on AI, data and digitalization, and on the strengthening of collaborations, partnerships and networks.

DeTAIL: Delft Tensor AI Lab

The DeTAIL research lab was proposed by Bori Hunyadi (CAS) and Kim Batselier (3mE), and studies training and innovation in tensor-based AI methods for biomedical signals.

Real-life biomedical data is often high-dimensional. Current signal processing solutions artificially segment such high-dimensional data into shorter one- or two-dimensional arrays, causing information loss by destroying correlations between these data. At the same time, advances in biomedical sensor and imaging technology – such as substantially larger recording durations of wearable sensor technology and the unprecedented increase in spatial and temporal resolution of the latest neuroimaging techniques – have led to ever increasing data sets. Tensors (multi-dimensional arrays) are the data structure of choice in artificial intelligence research to exploit the full potential of these data in a timely manner.

Within the DeTAIL Lab, we focus on both the development and application of novel low-rank tensor methods for biomedical signal processing, thereby enabling a much faster training of AI models from large datasets without any loss of accuracy.

We will exploit an as of yet unused property of real-life data; the fact that different modes of data may be correlated. Using tensor decompositions, we can find these correlations as well as compress the data, speeding up computations significantly.

Our findings will, for example, be applied to detect events, such as epileptic seizures, through the classification of multichannel time series data based on labelled training data. We also aim to reveal hidden structure, such as functional networks, in neuroimaging data. As biomedical innovation is a defining characteristic of the TU Delft, we will develop an interfaculty elective course on AI tensor methods to satisfy the expected continual increase in demand for such knowledge

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In Memoriam – Earl McCune (1956 – 2020)

In one of his last interviews, Earl told us that he was willing to fight a few persistent beliefs in the field of wireless communication. For instance, he was busy making 5G more energy efficient. A challenge in which, according to Earl, all links in the communication chain need to be overhauled. Being both a professor at TU Delft and entrepreneur in California, Earl was involved in several major projects in this field. In Silicon Valley, he followed the idea of building a single large switch in which the available power varies each time. At TU Delft he worked with various groups on a solution consisting of hundreds of smaller transistors of variable size.

The love for building things

One evening, when Earl was twelve, his father explained a few months’ worth of network theory of electrical circuits to him. From that moment on, Earl became enchanted by the subject. As a result, he worked on technology development in the field of radiofrequency and wireless design for more than 45 years, most of which he spent in industry. ‘I just love to build things,’ Earl told about that, ‘and I have seen a lot of what works, and what doesn’t work.’ Although he actually enjoyed his early retirement in California, he couldn’t do nothing. Because he still wanted to help solve society’s problems, he accepted a position as professor at TU Delft.

Warm personality

Earl will not only be remembered for his boundless enthusiasm for the improvement of systems, and the inexhaustible amount of knowledge he brought with him; more than that, Earl was a mentor, an inspirer, an adventurer and a warm personality who put a smile on many people's faces with his dry sense of Californian humour.


Opening Airport Technology Lab

The Airport Technology Lab (ATL)

This Friday, May 29 at 15:30, the opening of the Airport Technology Lab will be done by Ron Louwerse (Director of the Rotterdam The Hague Airport), Prof. dr. ir. Tim van der Hagen (President of the Board and Rector Magnificus of TU Delft) and Henk Jan Gerzee (Chief Digital Officer of the Royal Schiphol Group).

The Microwave Sensing, Signals, and Systems section (Department of Microelectronics, EEMCS faculty), chaired by Professor DSc. Alexander Yarovoy, participates in the Laboratory and is going to use their professional expertise and advanced radar facilities to develop modern remote sensing techniques to extend the sensing capability of airport radars for constant weather monitoring. This real-time monitoring with high spatial and temporal resolution is aiming to improve air traffic planning (departing/arriving on time, less fuel, less noise, less pollution, etc.) and safety.

The Airport Technology Lab (ATL) is an organization for the development, test, and demonstration of the innovative products and services for airports. The digitization of everything that happens at airports and the application of Artificial Intelligence is increasing exponentially. With all that data and the right IT platform, companies can create and test new services and products. The most successful innovations will help to provide passengers with more comfort and convenience, make the airliners maintain smoother and more efficient flights, and the handlers will optimize their processes. Ultimately, the airport also contributes (extra) to its social responsibility to reduce air pollution, CO2 emissions and noise pollution.


ECTM developing UVC LED test system to study virus disinfection

Read the interview with Tianyi Jin who, together with 3 MSc students, the group of Professor Fouchier of the Erasmus MC, and supported by the TUDelft COVID-19 fund, is developing a platform to test the disinfecting power of UVC LEDs.

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Professor Wouter Serdijn appointed as Medical Delta Professor

Since 2011 Medical Delta professorships have been established and approved by the executive board of Delft University of Technology, Erasmus University Rotterdam and Leiden University. At the moment 13 professors are active as Medical Delta professor.

A Medical Delta professorship is an honorary title for those who meet the requirements that they have double appointments at, at least, two of the three universities participating in Medical Delta and are active in research and teaching in a way that makes a Medical Delta appointment appropriate.

In the last year the board of Medical Delta together with the scientific council of the Medical Delta and governors of the academic knowledge institutes developed a process to identify the professors that fulfil these criteria. Based on this process a number of professors have been identified to be eligible for this honorary title of which professor Wouter Serdijn is one.


Kleine Stromstöße mit heilsamer Wirkung (Eng: Small surges of electricity with a healing effect)

Winzige Chips statt Medikamente – leitet die „Bioelektronik“ eine neue Ära der Medizin ein? Ein Überblick über die neuen Ansätze (Eng: Tiny chips instead of medication - does "bioelectronics" usher in a new era of medicine? An overview of the new approaches). Article by Susanne Donner with, a.o. Vasiliki Giagka in Der Tagespiegel.

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How smart sensors can prevent epilepsy

In Delft and Rotterdam, Wouter Serdijn and Christos Strydis are collaborating on a network of sensors and stimulators for the body. By picking up signals and sending the brain a rapid wake-up call, they hope to be able to predict and prevent epileptic fits. ‘If we can close the loop, we’ll have the technology ready within three years.’ Article in Nodes, with Christos Strydis and Wouter Serdijn.

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Bachelor student Dewwret Sitaldin wins first prize 3-E Royal SMIT BSc prize

Abstract

The main goal of this Electrical Engineering Bachelor project is to build a solar-power system for a quad-copter that will extend its battery life or rather its flight time. The complete system is comprised of a PV system (PV), a micro-controller (MC) and a DC/DC converter (DC) which was mounted onto the drone. On each subsystem, a separate thesis was written and this paper serves as a general yet complete overview of the design process, simulations and test results of a fully functioning solar drone with the theses attached as appendices for reference.

The original (optimistic) aim of an extension of at least 25% of the battery lifetime was set by our supervisors. For the PV part SunPower C60 IBC cells were used (no specific selection was done) together with a (borrowed) custom-built drone (not built by this team, it was borrowed from another research group) as a starting point. After analysing the limitations of the drone and the cells, multiple configurations were designed and a mathematical model that determines power usage, energy costs per solar cell and the optimum amount of cells was developed. A SEPIC converter will extract solar energy from a PV-module in order to charge the battery of the drone. The converter will be controlled by the micro-controller subgroup using MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracker) algorithm and this will be done by supplying a PWM signal to the converter.

Since the drone was not specifically designed for the project (thus not optimised when it comes to lift capacity and room for cell placement), the efficiency of the solar cells was not sufficient to extend the fight time by 25% (15.1% in summer, 5.6% in winter). Since these bottlenecks can easily be eliminated by replacing the drone and the cells, these results serve as a proof of concept and are an excellent starting point for future research


Outstanding TU Delft score at ISSCC 2020

This year's iteration of the world's top conference in IC design, the International Solid-State Circuit Conference (ISSCC 2020), saw the TU Delft represented by no less than 7 papers from the Department of Microelectronics - an outstanding achievement that does not even include 3 additional papers presented by former TU Delft alumni, currently affiliated with Bosch, ADI and SiTime.

ME's papers were in the following areas:

Precision Analog Circuits (Makinwa): An energy-efficient temperature sensor and an accurate frequency references, both with state-of-the-art (SOTA) performance;
Amplifiers (Fan, Pertijs, Makinwa): A class-D power amplifier (SOTA linearity and efficiency) and an amplifier for ultrasound systems with continuously variable gain (a first);
Circuits for Quantum computers (Sebastiano, Babaie): A multi-qubit controller (capable of handling 128 qubits, also a first) and a high-performance oscillator (also a first!), both operating at 4K;
Human computer interfaces (Pertijs): A chip-set that enables pen/finger-driven electronic white-boards with SOTA resolution and frame rate;

Some more stories made this event additionally special:

• The TU Delft was the largest European contributor to the conference;
• TU Delft's PhD student Jeroen van Dijk participated in the 1st ever ISSCC Quiz show!

Congratulations to all co-authors and PIs for this great collective achievement!

List of contributions:

Ç. Gürleyük, S. Pan and K. A.A. Makinwa,
"A 16MHz CMOS RC Frequency Reference with ±400ppm Inaccuracy from 45°C to 85°C After Digital Linear Temperature Compensation";

S. Karmakar, H. Zhang, R. Van Veldhoven, L. Breems, M. Berkhout, Q. Fan and K. A.A. Makinwa,
"A 28W, -108.9dB/-102.2dB THD/THD+N, Hybrid ΔΣ-PWM Class-D Audio Amplifier with 91% Peak Efficiency and Reduced EMI Emission";

S. Pan and Kofi A.A. Makinwa,
"A CMOS Resistor-Based Temperature Sensor with a 10fJ∙K2 Resolution FoM and 0.4°C (3σ) Inaccuracy From −55°C to 125°C after a 1-point Trim";

E. Kang, M. Tan, J.-S. An, Z.-Y. Chang, P. Vince, N. Sénégond, T. Mateo, C. Meynier and M. Pertijs,
"A 2 pA/√Hz Transimpedance Amplifier for Miniature Ultrasound Probes with 36dB Continuous Time-Gain Compensation";

J.-S. An, J.-H. Ra, E. Kang, M. A. P. Pertijs and S.-H. Han,
"A Capacitive Touch Chipset with 33.9dB Charge-Overflow Reduction Using Amplitude-Modulated Multi-Frequency Excitation and Wireless Power and Data Transfer to an Active Stylus";

B. Patra, J. P. G. van Dijk, S. Subramanian, A. Corna, X. Xue, C. Jeon, F. Sheikh, E. Juarez-Hernandez, B. Perez Esparza, H. Rampurawala, B. Carlton, N. Samkharadze, S. Ravikumar, C. Nieva, S. Kim, H.-J. Lee, A. Sammak, G. Scappucci, M. Veldhorst, L. M. K. Vandersypen, M. Babaie, F. Sebastiano, E. Charbon and S. Pellerano,
"A Scalable Cryo-CMOS 2-to-20GHz Digitally Intensive Controller for 4×32 Frequency Multiplexed Spin Qubits/Transmons in 22nm FinFET Technology for Quantum Computers";

J. Gong, Y. Chen, F. Sebastiano, E. Charbon and M. Babaie,
"A 200dB FoM 4-to-5GHz Cryogenic Oscillator with an Automatic Common-Mode Resonance Calibration for Quantum Computing Applications".


Therapies without drugs -- Tech News

Fraunhofer researchers Tim Hosman and Vasiliki Giagka are investigating the potential of microimplants to stimulate nerve cells and treat chronic conditions like asthma, diabetes, or Parkinson’s disease. Find out what makes this form of treatment so appealing and which challenges the researchers still have to master.

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Prof. Klaas Bult receives IEEE Donald O. Pederson award

The IEEE Solid-State Circuits Award was established by the Board of Directors in 1987. The award was renamed the IEEE Donald O. Pederson Award in Solid-State Circuits in 2005. Don was a co-founder of the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Council, the forerunner of today's Solid-State Circuits Society, in 1966, and he was instrumental in launching the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits that same year. Recipient selection is administered through the Technical Field Awards Council of the IEEE Awards Board. The award consists of a bronze medal, certificate, and honorarium.


Student Alberto brings wireless monitoring a step closer

In September 2017 Alberto Gancedo started his master programme Microelectronics at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS). Alberto’s ambition was bigger than obtaining his degree. His ambition was to develop a small, portable and cheap monitoring device to detect unusual brain activity in premature babies directly after birth. Thanks to donations from EEMCS alumni, Alberto could start his master’s at TU Delft and work towards this ambition. Alberto graduated in the beginning of February 2020 and proudly updates Delft University Fund and EEMCS alumni about his achievements.

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Christos Strydis winner of the Delft Health Competition

During the Future Health at TU Delft Symposium of January 23, Christos Strydis (Computer Engineering, Bioelectronics and Neuroscience) won one of the three prizes of 10,000 Euro in the Delft Health Competition.

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Aleksandar Jovic's paper highlighted as an Editor's Pick in Applied Optics

The manuscript by Dr. Aleksandar Jovic et al. entitled "A Self-Aligned Micro-Optic Integrated Photonic Platform", recently published in Applied Optics, has been highlighted as Editor's Pick for the journal.

Editor's Picks serve to highlight articles with excellent scientific quality and are representative of the work taking place in a specific field - in this case, integrated phonotics.

Congratulations, Aleksandar and co-authors!


Milica Dostanic wins Best poster award at International MicroNanoConference 2019

Milica Dostanic, PhD candidate at the Electronic Components, Technology and Materials (ECTM) group, has won the Best poster award at this year's International MicroNanoConference (iMNC, held in Utrecht, NL) for her poster titled "A miniaturized EHT platform for contractile tissue measurements".

The poster featured joint work between ECTM and Leiden University Medical Center for the development and characterisation of the smallest engineered heart tissues to date.

Congratulations, Milica and co-authors!


Two NWO-HTSM proposals from ECTM accepted

Fundamentals of Backside Metals System for 5G RF Power Modules (Prof. Zhang, Prof. Fan and Dr. Fan)
The 5G communication technology is expected to cover a wide range of applications, such as autonomous vehicles, Internet of Things (IoT), High-speed mobile network, etc. A robust and highly reliable RF power amplifier is key for the 5G system because it works in a harsh environment which involves high temperature, high humidity, high current density, and so forth. Currently, the industry is still working hard on the development of the RF power amplifier to meet the requirements of the 5G communication technology. One of the key challenges is the backside metals system (BSM). Various failure modes and mechanisms are interacting with each other under the influence of multiple loadings, such as high temperature, high humidity, as well as mechanical stresses. This proposal aims to develop fundamental physics-of-failure models, optimization method and design rule to predict and prevent the potential failures in the BSM of 5G RF power modules.

Reliability of Silicone Adhesives and Sealants in Electronic Devices (Prof. van Driel, Dr. van Zeijl, Dr. Yazdan Mehr)
This research aims at developing a fundamental understanding of failure mechanisms and reliability of silicone sealants and adhesives in electronic devices. Degradation of silicone adhesives and sealants is considered to be a major reliability risk in microelectronic components. Understanding the interrelation and attribution of different mechanical, working, and environmental stresses to the failure of silicone adhesives and sealant is a key step in developing physically-based reliability models for microelectronic devices. The multi-physical interaction between temperature, moisture, radiation and oxidation, and their influences on the structure and properties of sealants are not yet well understood. In this project dedicated experimental techniques will be combined with reliability models to understand and predict the lifetime of silicone adhesive and sealants in microelectronic devices under different working conditions.


"The Rising Stars of TU Delft" featuring Tiago da Costa

Delft Health Initiative introduces "The rising stars of the TU Delft". Here we present stories of talented researchers, assistant and associate professors in the field of healthcare. The goal is to get to know the rising stars, read about their research and ambitions, and look for collaborations. Click below for the story of rising star Tiago da Costa.

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Call for Papers: Bioelectronic medicine: engineering advances, physiological insights, and translational applications

Special issue of Bioelectronic Medicine, edited by Vasiliki Giagka, Stavros Zanos, Timir Datta-Chaudhuri, Loren Rieth, and Theodoros Zanos

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Wouter Serdijn appointed theme leader of Delft Health Initiative 2.0's NeuroTech theme

The Delft Health Initiative has laid the foundation for connected health-oriented research at TU Delft and will continue to focus expertise, develop talent and to connect researchers to national and international initiatives. Wouter Serdijn will lead this for Neurotechnology.

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Dutch-Japanese astronomical instrument measures 49 shades of far-infrared

Integrated superconducting spectrometer chip.

The Dutch-Japanese made DESHIMA instrument has passed its first practical tests when measuring the distances and ages of distant galaxies. The core of the instrument is a chip the size of two euro coins that measures 49 shades of far infrared light. The developers of the spectrometer publish the results of their first measurement campaign (first light) on Monday 5 August in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Measuring distances and ages in the universe is a problem. The brightness of a star or a galaxy says little about age. Astronomers bypass this problem by measuring the doppler effect of light from galaxies. The redder the light, the higher the speed, the farther the galaxy. Unfortunately, the redshift of many galaxies in the early universe cannot be measured with visible light, because starlight is shaded by dust clouds surrounding these galaxies. Measuring the redshift of these galaxies requires observing in far infrared.

49 channels

In October 2017, Dutch and Japanese researchers, led by Akira Endo (Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands), mounted the special chip on the Japanese ASTE telescope in North Chile. The superconducting chip is developed by Delft University of Technology and SRON, Netherlands Institute for Space Research. The chip contains one antenna, 49 filters and 49 detectors. The antenna captures radiation of various wavelengths. The filters unravel the radiation in 49 tones of infrared. The 49 detectors measure the intensity of the radiation. When a detector picks up a signal, it can be seen as a peak in a graph.

First light

The first tests with the telescope, the so-called first light, were promising. The astronomers first focused the telescope-with-chip on Mars, Saturn and a number of well-known stars and galaxies. When they saw the expected slope in the graph without significant problems, the researchers aimed the telescope at the well-known distant galaxy VV114 and saw the predicted redshift.

The researchers are now working on a chip that can cope with 300 tones of infrared instead of the current 49. This allows them to determine the distances to galaxies that have hitherto been hidden behind dust clouds. In addition, the researchers want to link multiple chips so that they can study multiple galaxies at the same time. The development must lead to a handy-sized imaging spectrometer that is easy to use on a ground based telescope and is a must for use with space telescopes.

Incidentally, the first tests on the telescope in Chile almost failed due to material problems. There was something wrong with the cooling system of the chip. The researchers had brought spare parts for the cooling system, but they had forgotten the pins to align the parts. After searching for hours in the town of San Pedro de Atacama, the researchers came to jeweler Jose Pinto. In Pinto's toolbox, they found a piece of copper wire with exactly the right diameter. With that they could make the forgotten pins. And so the instrument was rescued and the tests could start.

Publications

Grants

The DESHIMA project (http://deshima.ewi.tudelft.nl ) is made possible in part thanks to grants from NWO, JSPS and the ERC.

Contact

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Veni award for Masoud Babaie

Energiezuinige, mm-formaat radiofrequentiezendontvangers voor Internet-der-dingen toepassingen (PaTRIOT)

Miniaturization of wireless implantable medical devices to sub-mm dimensions can play a critical role in our future healthcare systems. However, the size of those devices is currently limited by off-chip crystal oscillators. This proposal introduces a new digital-intensive solution to break that barrier and enable fully integrated and implantable radios.


Integrated devices for neuronal ultrasound stimulation

Neuronal interfaces have been widely developed in last decades with the purpose of providing a path for communication with the nervous system. The most common neuronal interfaces are based on electrical recording and stimulation of neuronal activity, which typically require surgical implantation of electrodes to achieve the necessary spatial resolution. To overcome the many hurdles and risks of surgery, non-invasive techniques to interface with the nervous system are currently being developed, and one of the most promising techniques uses focused ultrasound as a neuromodulation therapeutic modality. Due to its non-invasiveness, to achieve the necessary high spatial resolution, comparable to implantable electrodes, ultrasound transducers and electronics must be integrated in the same device. Its success may lead the way to surgery-free neuro-prosthetics and electroceuticals.

Read more on Pages 29-31 of ETV's Maxwell 22.4

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Het medicijn van de toekomst slik je maar een keer en is bioelektronisch

Item op BNR Nieuwsradio van 15 juli 2019, met een bijdrage van Wouter Serdijn over het onderzoek op bioelektronische medicijnen zoals onderzocht worden aan de TU Delft

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NWA Idea Generator grant for Richard Hendriks

Restored sound localization for hearing impaired people

Dr. Ir. R.C. Hendriks

The inability of hearing impaired people to localize sound has a big impact on their well-being and self- reliance. Compared to normal-hearing people, hearing-impaired people cannot efficiently use the same localization information. In this project will be investigated whether inaudible localization information can be transformed into a different audible form.

With a sum of 50,000 euros each, NWO granted 37 out-of-the-box research ideas with the potential to make an impact in society.

The applicants receive funding from the Idea Generator programme of the Dutch National Research Agenda (NWA). A total of 1.85 million euros was available.

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Chao Chen receives Else Kooi Award

Chao received the award from Hans Naus and Eugenio Cantatore

The 2019 Else Kooi Award goes to EWI alumnus Chao Chen, for his work on chips for miniature 3-D ultrasound probes. The Else Kooi Award is a yearly prize for outstanding young researchers in the microelectronics field in The Netherlands. Chao received the award, which consists of prize of € 5.000 and a work of art, at the PRORISC Conference in Delft on July 4.

Chao’s PhD was a multi-disciplinary project on the intersection between electronics and ultrasonic imaging, aiming to realize miniature ultrasound probes for 3-D medical imaging. In particular, he worked on endoscope-based probes for real-time 3-D imaging of the human heart. Such probes are an important step forward compared to current 2-D imaging devices. They will provide improved diagnosis of cardiac conditions and guidance of minimally-invasive procedures.

To realize such probes, more than 1000 tiny elements that can send and receive ultrasound need to be integrated in a mm-sized probe tip. Chao developed custom chips that make it possible to connect all these elements using a limited number of cables to an imaging system. To locally process the echo signals, his chips employ innovative amplifiers and beamformer circuits that are substantially smaller and more power efficient than previous designs. Moreover, Chao realized the first chip capable of digitizing the echo signals in the probe, enabling better image quality with fewer cables, and making an important step towards next-generation smart ultrasound probes.

Chao’s work was carried out at Ultrasound ASICs group at the Electronic Instrumentation Laboratory, under supervision of Dr. Ir. Michiel Pertijs, in close collaboration with the Acoustical Wavefield Imaging group at the Faculty of Applied Sciences, and the Biomedical Engineering group at Erasmus MC. Chao's work was part of the MICA project. His PhD thesis can be found here. Chao now works at Butterfly Network, an American company developing hand-held ultrasound scanners.

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Nikita Petrov defended his PhD thesis. Congratulations!

Modern surveillance radars are designed to detect moving targets of interest in an adverse environment, which can encompass strong unwanted reflections from ground or sea surface, clouds, precipitation, etc. Detection of weak and small moving targets in environmental clutter remains, however, a challenging task for the existing radar systems.

One of the main directions for modern radar performance improvement is the application of wideband high-resolution waveforms, which provide detailed range information of objects at the observed scene. Together with such inherent advantages of wideband waveforms as multi-path separation, clutter reduction and improved target classification, additional benefits can be obtained by exploiting target range migration (range walk), essential for fast moving targets in the high-resolution mode.

This thesis aims at the development of novel signal processing techniques for migrating target detection in wideband radars. It involves both resolving range-velocity ambiguities and improvement in target discrimination from ground clutter by accounting for target range migration.

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European research project Power2Power for more efficient power semiconductors launches

The European cooperation project Power2Power has started. Over the coming three years, 43 partners from eight countries will research and develop innovative power semiconductors with more power density and energy efficiency. Power semiconductors are needed in all stages of energy conversion: generation, transmission, and use. More efficient semiconductors make a major contribution towards reducing carbon dioxide emissions in spite of the world's growing energy needs. Universities, research institutes, small and medium-sized companies and international corporations are involved in this cooperation. Infineon Technologies Dresden GmbH & Co. KG is coordinating this project.

The participants from The Netherlands are the Advanced Packaging Center, Alfen, Boschman, IWO Project, Jiaco Instruments and Delft University of Technology as academic partner. Within TU Delft two research groups from the Faculty of EEMCS are participating: Electronic Components, Technology and Materials (ECTM) and DC Systems, Energy Conversion & Storage (DCE&S). ECTM will investigate advanced interconnect materials for the packaging of the power semiconductors and reliability improvements by using digital twinning. DCE&S will investigate use cases of the improved power semiconductors in EV charging.

For more information visit the original press release from Infineon, and www.power2power.eu

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NWO Matchmaking event: Degradation and Reliability of Organic Materials

Together with Signify, TU Delft is organizing an NWO matchmaking event on the degradation and reliability of organic materials. Topics include:

  • Brainstorming on challenges and future developments of inorganic materials used in (opto) electronic components
  • Reliability, degradation, and lifetime assessment of inorganic materials in microelectronic devices
  • Discussing collaboration opportunities between leading industries in Europe and Dutch Universities

Date: 30th of August, 9:00-14:00
Location: HTC45, High Tech Campus, 5656 AE Eindhoven
Organizers: Prof. dr. G.Q. Zhang, Prof. dr. W.D. van Driel, Dr. M. Yazdan Mehr

Register before the 27th of August by mail to: m.yazdanmehr@tudelft.nl, for additional information check this PDF.

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Thales Naval Nederland Delft celebrates 20 years

Yesterday the MS3 group congratulated our close partner Thales Naval Nederland who celebrates 20 years of their location in Delft. It is an important milestone for Thales Nederland, as soon as the research and development are mainly done in Delft.


Symposium ' The car of the future', KU Leuven; Prof Kofi Makinwa on ' Next generation CMOS temperature sensors'

May 14, 2019

KU Leuven, Belgium, Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT)

Kasteelpark Arenberg 10, 3001 Heverlee Program:

14h00 welcome

14h15 IC design for automotive battery management systems

Pieter De Muyter - IC Sense

15h00 Current sensors for electrified automotive drive- trains

Wouter Leten- Melexis 15H45 Coffee break

16H15 Machine vision for automotive applications

Bert Moons-Synopsys

17H00 Next generation CMOS temperature sensors

Kofi Makinwa -Delft University of Technology

17h45 Reception


BI/OND wints the Philips Innovation Award

We are proud to announce that BI/OND, the ECTM spin-off that develops microfluidic Organ-on-Chips in silicon, won the Philips Innovation Award 2019.

This year more than 100 teams from all around the Netherlands participated to this event and the jury, chaired by Frans van Houten, CEO of Philips, awarded BI/OND as the best startup.

BI/OND gave an interview to rtlz.nl that can be watched here: link

As the winner of the PHIA2019, the 8th of May the BI/OND team had also the honour to open the stock Market in Amsterdam with the VP of Philips Research, Hans Hofstraat. To watch this event follow this link

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Open Course Analog Integrated Circuit Design No. 1 in Microelectronics and No. 2 in Electrical Engineering

Analog Integrated Circuit Design is an introductory course in analog circuit synthesis for microelectronic designers. Topics include: Review of analog design basics; linear and non-linear analog building blocks: harmonic oscillators, (static and dynamic) translinear circuits, wideband amplifiers, filters; physical layout for robust analog circuits; design of voltage sources ranging from simple voltage dividers to high-performance bandgaps, and current source implementations from a single resistor to high-quality references based on negative-feedback structures.

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May 17th, 09.30, EEMCS lecture hall Ampere, Micro electronics symposium: Who's talking, who's listening?

Concept program

09:35 Welcome Leo de Vreede

09:45 Bram Nauta (University of Twente)

N-path filters the enabler for software defined wireless receivers?

10:15 Peter Baltus (Technical University Eindhoven)

Unconventional Wireless Applications

10:45 break

11:15 Patrick Reynaert (University Leuven, Belgium)

Polymer Microwave Fibers: who's waiting for it?

11:45 Leo de Vreede (Technical University Delft)

Digital Transmitters for Sub-6GHz Wireless Applications

12:15 lunch (Restaurantzaal)

13:00 Yao-Hong Liu(IMEC)

Listen to your gut: swallable digital transmitter design

13:30 wrap-up Kofi Makinwa (Technical University Delft)

13:45 conclusion


Inauguration Earl Mc Cune and Cicero Vaucher, May 17th

Location: Aula

Time: 15.00

Topics:

Sustainable Wireless Systems, Prof Mc Cune

Waves for sensing and communicating: perspectives, Communicating and sensing: views on the road ahead, Prof. Vaucher


Asli Yelkenci wins BioEl 2019 best poster presentation

Asli presented her approach for co-integration of planar patch-clamps and microelectrode arrays in the same device, thus enabling for high-throughput simultaneous intra- and extra-cellular measurements of cardiac cells. Asli received a prize of 300 Euros sponsored by Panaxium.

Ref: A. Yelkenci, R. Martins da Ponte, V. Valente. Co-integration of flip-tip patch clamp and microelectrode arrays for in-vitro recording of electrical activity of cardiac cells. Presented at the 2019 Winterschool on Bioelectronics, Kirchberg, Austria, 16-23 March 2019.


First Prize of 3-E Royal SMIT BSc Competition

ELCA research group congratulates Joram van der Velden and his team, comprising Louis Marting, Jordy van der Horst, and Nandor Toth, BSc. students from TU-Delft who have won the 1st prize in the Netherlands national competition for the best BScs. graduated in 2018 in Electric Energy and Electricity supply Engineering. This bachelor project has been executed inside the ELCA research group in the spring of 2018.

The 3 E-Royal SMIT BSc prize 2018 ceremony took place on Friday 22/03/2019 in Nijmegen. More information can be found here .

This bachelor thesis was supervised by Marco Pelk, Masoud Babaie, and Morteza Alavi. The thesis is located here .


Achievement Award for prof. G.Q. Zhang at EuroSimE

Prof. G.Q. Zhang, Microelectronics Department of EWI, received the “Achievement Award” from 20th IEEE international conference on “Thermal, Mechanical and Multiphysics Simulations and Experiments in Microelectronics and Microsystems” (EuroSimE) on 26-03-2019 in Hannover, Germany.

As one of the founders, Prof. Zhang initiated this conference in 2000 in Eindhoven, to meet the increasing scientific and technology needs for multiphysics and multi-scale simulation, modelling, experiment and optimization. He served as the conference general chair for 17 years. Today, EuroSimE is a prime and very influential IEEE conference in this important academic and technologic field, with more than 10,000 annual paper download from IEEE explore system. The Award Committee chose the occasion of the 20th anniversary to recognize Prof. Zhang for his vision, strong leadership and decades’ commitment to stimulate global scientific collaboration and for his excellent scientific achievements. Prof. Zhang gave a plenary keynote talk on “EuroSimE – Mission to be accomplished”.


Micro electronics colloquium, Thursday March 28, 15.30 EEMCS Restaurantzaal

Dr. Muhammed Bolatkale Muhammed Bolatkale is Senior Principle Scientist at NXP Semiconductors and part-time Associate Professor at Delft University of Technology. He received his B.Sc. (high honors) degree from Middle East Technical University, Turkey, in 2004 and the M.Sc. (cum laude) and Ph.D. degrees from Delft University of Technology in 2007 and 2013. Since 2007, Dr. Bolatkale has worked for NXP Semiconductors, specializing in the design of wideband Delta-Sigma ADCs for wireless communications and automotive applications. Dr. Bolatkale received the ISSCC 2016 and 2011 Jan Van Vessem Award and the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits 2016 and 2011 Best Paper Award.

Abstract

High Performance Data Converters A next generation automotive radio receiver, an all-digital Class-D amplifier, and an advanced Bluetooth transceiver have one thing in common: they rely on high-performance data converter architectures to enable best in class performance. This talk will give an overview of GHz-sampling data converters, especially focusing on wideband delta-sigma and hybrid data converter architectures. We will touch upon state-of-the-art systems and circuit level designs fabricated in advance CMOS nodes.

Prof. Nan Sun Nan Sun is Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He received the B.S. from Tsinghua in 2006 and Ph.D. degree from Harvard in 2010. Dr. Sun received the NSF Career Award in 2013. He serves on the Technical Program Committee of the IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference and the IEEE Asian Solid-State Circuit Conference. He is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems – I: Regular Papers, and a Guest Editor of the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits. He also serves as IEEE Circuits-and-Systems Society Distinguished Lecturer from 2019 to 2020.

Abstract

New Ingredients in the Pot - Rethinking ADC Design I will present several unconventional data conversion architectures. First, I will talk about how we can make use of noise, which is usually deemed as an undesirable thing, to estimate the conversion residue and increase the SNR of a SAR ADC. It is an interesting example of stochastic resonance, in which the presence of noise can lead to not SNR degradation but SNR enhancement. Second, I will talk about how we can perform data conversion below the Nyquist rate by exploiting the sparsity of the input signal. I will show two example compressive sensing ADCs and how the effective ADC conversion rate can be reduced by 4 times but without losing information. Third, I will show how we can prevent the seemingly inevitable kT/C noise in a Nyquist-rate pipelined ADC by using a continuous-time SAR based 1st-stage. This can substantially reduce the requirement on the ADC input capacitance, greatly reducing the ADC driver power and reference buffer power.


Vasiliki Giagka appointed associate editor for Bioelectronic Medicine

Bioelectronic Medicine (BM) is an open access, peer reviewed and relatively young journal published by the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research (in New York, NJ, USA) on BMC’s platform (part of Springer Nature): https://bioelecmed.biomedcentral.com. The journal brings together material science, molecular medicine, bioengineering, neuroscience, computer science and other related disciplines focused on new insights into the role of the nervous system in disease and health, and the importance of discovering new molecular mechanisms and technologies to treat disease. The journal has an expanded community and multidisciplinary audience from healthcare, technology and scientific research. Specialists writing for BM come from fields such as neuroscience, biology, bioengineering, electronics, computing, data analytics, molecular medicine, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and personalized medicine and last named is extremely important in the upcoming domain of bioelectronic medicine, also known as electroceuticals, the electronic counterparts of pharmaceuticals.

At the core of electroceuticals is the electrical signal used by the nervous system to communicate information. Virtually every cell in the body is directly or indirectly controlled by these neural signals. Bioelectronic medicine technologies can record, stimulate and block neural signaling. Through its ability to manipulate neural signals it will change the way physicians treat diseases and conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, diabetes, paralysis, bleeding and even cancer.

All articles published by BM are made freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication, without subscription charges or registration barriers. This nicely aligns with Delft University of Technology’s Open Acces policy.

For the same journal, Wouter Serdijn (also Section Bioelectronics at Delft University of Technology) has agreed to be serving as contributing editor. In this role, he will advise the editors of new trends, which may soon become prevalent in the field; keep up-to-date with the journal’s publications and provide feedback to the editors; contribute topic ideas and manuscripts to thematic series that will be implemented by the journal in the future; recommend articles from the field for publication.


Wouter Serdijn nieuw lid Wetenschappelijke Raad Medical Delta

Als lid heeft Wouter Serdijn de taak om bij te dragen aan het creëren van het wetenschappelijk programma en daarmee aan de visie van Medical Delta. Hij helpt mede vorm te geven aan onderzoeksprogramma’s en zal als ambassadeur optreden. Serdijn: “Met diverse langlopende samenwerkingen met zowel het ErasmusMC en het LUMC waren EWI en mijn sectie Bioelectronics al ‘Medical Delta’ vanaf het eerste uur. Niet zo verwonderlijk, want het behouden en terugwinnen van 100% gezondheid gerelateerde kwaliteit van leven vraagt steeds vaker micro-elektronische ondersteuning. Deze ondersteuning is belangrijk, zowel voor het begrijpen van de menselijke fysiologie en het menselijk gedrag als voor het betrouwbaar stellen van een diagnose, voor het nauwkeurig en ongestoord monitoren en voor een succesvolle persoonlijke behandeling. Ik denk dat dit goed aansluit bij de missie van Medical Delta en ik draag namens EWI graag een steentje bij.”

Medical Delta is een netwerk van life sciences, gezondheids- en technologie-organisaties. Gevestigd in de Nederlandse Rijndeltaregio bundelen zij een brede kennis en ervaring en fungeren als katalysator voor innovatie en samenwerking op het gebied van gezondheid.

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First Microelectronics Synergy Grants

According to Professor Geert Leus who heads the ME Research Committee, the Synergy Grants are also intended to kick-start the research of young faculty, as it can be quite challenging for them to obtain funding at the beginning of their research careers. The grants cover half the costs of a PhD candidate, with the rest coming from existing research funding. ‘The submitted proposals were carefully evaluated by the ME Research Committee on the basis of their scientific quality, their clarity and feasibility, the synergy between the participating sections, and the relationship to the departmental themes. The ME Management Team (MT) then decided to award Synergy Grants to the top three proposals.’

Changes

The aim of the grants is to encourage newly emerging combinations of technologies and to facilitate cross-overs between them, thus strengthening and broadening the department's research portfolio. This goal fits seamlessly within the research strategy of ME, which has defined itself around the four themes of Health & Wellbeing, XG, Safety & Security and Autonomous Systems to better address societal challenges.

Winners

Last week, the winners were received by the ME MT. They received flowers from the head of the department (Kofi Makinwa) and had the opportunity to briefly present their proposals to the assembled MT. Below are short descriptions of the successful proposals.

Akira Endo & Sten Vollebregt: ‘The aim of our project TANDEM: Terahertz Astronomy with Novel DiElectric Materials is to develop advanced dielectric materials to realize superconducting microstrip lines with very low losses in the frequency ranges of 2-10 GHz and 100-1000 GHz. The PhD candidate will combine the dielectric deposition, characterization, material expertise and facilities of the ECTM group and the Else Kooi Laboratory, and the submillimetre wave device measurement capability of the THz Sensing Group and SRON. The aim is not only to realize low loss dielectrics, but also to understand the underlying physics that governs these losses. If successful, these microstrips will be immediately applied to enhance the sensitivity of the DESHIMA spectrometer on the ASTE telescope in Chile.’

Bori Hunyadi: ‘On one hand, the vast complexity of the human brain (10^11 neurons and 10^14 connections) enables us to process large amounts of information in the fraction of a second. At the same time, imperfections of the wiring in this vast network cause devastating neurological and psychiatric conditions such as epilepsy or schizophrenia. Therefore, understanding brain function is one of the greatest and most important scientific challenges of our times. Brain function manifests as various physical phenomena (electrical or e.g. metabolic) at different spatial and temporal scales. Therefore, the PhD candidate working on this grant will develop a novel multimodal and multiresolution brain imaging paradigm combining EEG and a novel imaging technique, fUS. The specific engineering challenge is to understand and describe the fUS signal characteristics, deal with the large amount of data it records using efficient computational tools; and finally, formulate the specification of a dedicated non-invasive, multimodal, wearable EEG-fUS device.’

Virgilio Valente & Massimo Mastrangeli: ‘The seed money of the Synergy Grant will partially support a joint PhD candidate to investigate the tight integration of an heart-on-chip device with dedicated electronic instrumentation in the same platform. Our aim is to bring sensing and readout electronics as close as possible to a cardiac tissue cultivated within a dedicated micro physiological device. The grant helps promoting the logical convergence between current departmental research activities at ECTM and BE and within the Netherlands Organ-on-Chip Initiative (NOCI) on the development of instrumented organ-on-chip devices.’


ME chairman congratulates Massimo Mastrangeli with obtaining University Teaching Qualification within a year

Massimo Mastrangeli completed all the modules for his Teaching Qualification within a single year and was congratulated for this achievement in person by Kofi Makinwa, the chair of the ME department.

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Health Prototype Grant for Single-Cable Ultrasound Catheter

Verya Daeichin, Douwe van Willigen, Martin Verweij, Michiel Pertijs and Nico de Jong received a Health Prototype Grant of €10K from the Delft Health Initiative for their project on a “Single-cable three-dimensional opto-acoustic imaging catheter”. The objective of the TU Delft Health Initiative is to promote research in the field of Healthcare at Delft University of Technology. Out of a total of 26 applications, 13 were granted.

Minimally-invasive interventions have revolutionized the healthcare industry, allowing outpatient clinical treatment, which is critical for healthcare in an aging population. Ultrasound imaging is one of the modalities that can fulfil all the requirements for these interventions: it is safe, cheap, real-time and can be made in small devices. Recently we have demonstrated catheter-based imaging devices and their potential, in context of the Perspectief Programme “Instruments for Minimally-Invasive Techniques (iMIT)”.

One of the main challenges in a catheter-based ultrasound imaging device is the number of cables required to connect the ultrasound elements to the imaging system (typically 64-128 cables). Therefore, it is extremely valuable to keep the number of interface connections limited to facilitate a more flexible probe shaft and to leave room for other required pieces such as a guidewire and/or an optical fiber. To address the challenge of miniaturizing 3D ultrasonic imaging devices within the stringent size constraints of a catheter, we have developed an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) of 1.5 mm by 1.5 mm which can handle a matrix of 64 ultrasonic transducers elements using only a single cable to generate a real-time 3D ultrasound images. We have realized a prototype of this device on a PCB and have shown its imaging capabilities. The research goal of this proposal is to demonstrate our unique technology in a form that is significantly closer to the final clinical application: integrated at the tip of a small cylinder and connected using a single micro-coax cable.

This project is a collaboration between the Ultrasound ASICs group of the Electronic Instrumentation Laboratory, and the Acoustic Wavefield Imaging group. It fits in the scope of our activities on devices for intra-vascular ultrasound (IVUS).


Microelectronics at work for sustainable healthcare

The Medical Delta has launched twelve research programmes that work on technological solutions for sustainable care. EEMCS is represented in three programmes; Neurodelta (Wouter Serdijn), Medical Delta Cardiac Arrhythmia Lab (Wouter Serdijn and Alle-Jan van der Veen) and Ultrafast Ultrasound for the Heart and Brain (Michiel Pertijs), all part of the Microelectronics department.

In order to give the research programmes an extra impulse, a strategically important project is financed within each research programme.

In the Medical Delta 2.0 Neurodelta program Vasiliki Giagka and Wouter Serdijn (both Section  Bioelectronics) will work on miniature implants for simultaneously measuring and influencing brain activity by means of light and ultrasound.

Read more about Vasiliki Giagka's work: https://www.tudelft.nl/ewi/actueel/nodes/stories/elektrische-implantaten/

 

Within the Medical Delta 2.0 Cardiac Arrhythmia Lab, Virgilio Valente (Section Bioelectronics) and Richard Hendriks and Borbala Hunyadi (both Section CAS) will work on new bioelectronic signal acquisition and processing techniques to identify the electropathology of cardiac dysrhythmia, such as atrial fibrillation, in an organ-on-chip set-up.

Read more about the work of Virgillio Valente: https://bme.weblog.tudelft.nl/2018/12/11/biocmos/ 

 

Within the Medical Delta 2.0 programme Ultrafast Ultrasound for the Heart and Brain, Michiel Pertijs (Section Electronic Instrumentation) will work on smart ultrasound probes that can take 3D images of the heart and brain at high speed, with the aim of enabling new and better diagnostics of cardiovascular and neurological disorders.

Read more about the work of Michiel Pertijs: https://www.tudelft.nl/ewi/actueel/nodes/stories/echos-uit-een-pleister/    

 

More information about Medical Delta: www.medicaldelta.nl/news/overzicht-programmas-medical-delta-20192023


Health Prototype Grant for Virgilio Valente

The TU Delft Health Initiative objective is to promote research in the field of healthcare at Delft University of Technology and they granted 13 out of total 26 applications. ‘Organs-on-chip (OoC) systems represent the new frontier in biomedical engineering, aiming at re-producing and mimicking key aspects of living organs on microengineered biosystems, by modeling the structural and functional complexity of organs, tissue to tissue interactions and cellular metabolism. Coupled to microfluidics and multi-parameter sensing, OoCs promise a significant revolution in the development of future targeted drugs and therapies, by providing a vital alternative to conven-tional cell cultures and animal models. By leveraging the distinctive features of modern complemen-tary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, coupled with high-density microelectrode array (MEA) systems, we can develop complex yet com-pact microelectronic biodevices capable of interact-ing with biological networks at a single-cell scale with unprecedented resolution and sensitivity. Im-pedance-based measurements (IM) have shown significant potential in monitoring cell and tissue contractions, morphology and cell-to-cell heteroge-neity. Impedance assays are currently routinely developed to assess drug toxicity in cardiac cell cul-tures. Commercial systems, including the xCELLI-gence RCTA by ACEA Biosystems, are based on the use of two electrodes for IM, which greatly limits the measurement resolution. To date, there is no com-mercial or research system capable of measuring impedance profiles from cardiac cell culture with high resolution.’

Read more about the work of Virgillio Valente: https://bme.weblog.tudelft.nl/2018/12/11/biocmos/


Image formation for future radio telescopes

Radio astronomy is an interesting application area for array signal processing. We developed a new image formation tool called PRIFIRA, inspired by Sparse Bayesian Learning. Featured in ETV Maxwell 22.1.

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Burak gets Predoctoral Achievement Award

The IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society Awards Committee has granted Burak Gönen a Predoctoral Achievement Award for 2018-19. For a small number of promising graduate students, the award provides a $1000 honorarium and reimbursement for travel expenses to ISSCC, the Society's flagship conference. Awards are made on the basis of academic record and promise, quality of publications, and a graduate study program well matched to the charter of SSCS.

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BioCMOS

The new frontier in smart and efficient diagnostics and analytics is represented by the fusion of semiconductor technologies and electrochemical sensors. BioCMOS devices, also known as Lab-on-CMOS or CMOS biosensors, consist of microelectronic interfaces with integrated high-density sensing elements. On top of these elements, biological and chemical assays can be directly performed, limiting considerably the need for additional external units. The Bioelectronics group is currently developing BioCMOS microsystems that target applications, including lab-on-chip and organ-on-chip platforms, point-of-care devices, implantable and injectable smart biosensors. By leveraging the distinctive features of modern complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, we can develop complex yet compact microelectronic bio-devices capable of interacting with biological networks at a cellular and molecular scale with unprecedented resolution and sensitivity. BioCMOS technology promises to play a key role in defining future targeted therapies and personalized medicine, cost-effective drug discovery and development, and efficient disease management strategies. Read more on Page 18-21.


Bioelectronic Medicine

Imagine a tiny device that can treat patients by injecting small electrical pulses into the neuronal tissue. These tiny microelectronic devices are the main focus of a new exciting field called Bioelectronic Medicine, with the main goal of one day replacing conventional chemical drugs. When implanted, these devices can act on the body’s nervous system to treat a wide variety of disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis, obesity, Crohn’s disease, migraine, epilepsy, etc.[1] .The technological challenges behind realizing such devices, however, are enormous and encompass almost every facet of microfabrication and bioengineering technologies. Read more on Page 6, 7 and 8.


Nikolas Gaio won a Lush Prize

The 16th of November one of our students, Nikolas Gaio, was awarded in Berlin with a Young Researcher Award in the Lush Prize 2018 for his work ‘Replacing animal tests with silicon chips’. This work was performed during his PhD project in ECTM.

Video of the presentation

The Lush Prize is the largest global awards programme to recognize and celebrate scientists and campaigners working to replace animals in drugs and cosmetics R&D. Now in its seventh year, it has provided more than £1.8 million to support animal-free testing and campaigns around the world.

If you want to find more about the Lush Prize, visit https://lushprize.org

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Perspectief Programme ULTRA-X-TREME Granted

Ultrafast Ultrasound Imaging for Extended Diagnosis and Treatment of Vascular Disease (ULTRA-X-TREME)

NWO (the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) has announced the new research programmes that will be part of its ‘Perspective for Top Sectors' funding programme. One of the programmes that will be funded is the ULTRA-X-TREME programme, in which new ultrasound techniques will be developed for improved diagnosis of dangerous vascular problems. Michiel Pertijs' Ultrasound ASICs group at the Electronic Instrumentation Laboratory will be responsible for the development of advanced integrated electronics for the high-frame-rate 3D ultrasound probes that will play a key role in this programme.

Vascular problems can be life-threatening. Cerebral infarctions (strokes) are often caused by calcification of the carotid artery and ruptures in the abdominal artery (aortic aneurysms) as a result of a weakening of the arterial wall. Currently, doctors determine the likelihood of both problems simply by measuring the diameter of these arteries. However, this has proved to have only limited predictive value, which means more people than necessary undergo life-threatening treatments and dangerous cases are overlooked.

The ULTRA-X-TREME programme will develop new, highly accurate ultrasound techniques to enable 3D imaging of the arterial walls and blood flow. New transducers, contrast media and analysis techniques will be developed in order to determine much more effectively whether treatment is necessary.

The ULTRA-X-TREME consortium brings together the best Dutch research groups in the field of ultrasound technology and the biomechanics of blood vessels with hospitals and international industry. Within this programme, Michiel Pertijs will work together with Nico de Jong and Martin Verweij (Imaging Physics, Fac. of Applied Sciences) and Hans Bosch (Erasmus MC) on the development of a unique matrix transducer with more than 20,000 elements and integrated electronics, for making 3D echo images with a high volume frame rate.

Programme leader: Prof. dr. ir. C.L. de Korte (Radboudumc and Twente University)

Participants: ANSYS, Bracco Suisse S.A., Catharina hospital, Erasmus MC, Harteraad, Mindray, Nederlandse Vereniging voor Vaatchirurgie (NVVV), Philips Electronics Nederland, Pie Medical Imaging, Radboudumc, Rijnstate hospital, TU Delft, TU Eindhoven, TOMTEC Imaging Systems, Twente University, Vermon S.A., Verasonics

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BI/OND wins Accenture Innovation Awards 2018 for Health

BI/OND's CEO Cinzia Silvestri pitching at the AIA18

TU Delft start-up BI/OND is the winner of the Accenture Innovation Awards 2018 in the Health category.

According to the Jury: "This year’s winner has proven that science can indeed make a difference. They are truly a learning organization. Yet as scientists, they risk staying unsung heroes. Winning today provides them with the opportunity to realize their full potential and develop into a business, making their dreams come true."

It has been a challenging journey for BI/OND. From the top 50 innovation nomination, to the Summer Nights where 25 companies were selected, through the Semi-Finals (top 10), and all the way up to the Finals (top 5), the winners of the Accenture Innovation Awards 2018 (AIA18) were finally announced on November 2nd.

The AIA18 Innovation Journey focused on 8 global themes, tackling both local and global issues. DeFabrique, the Innovation Summit’s scenery, was packed with more than 2,500 visitors from various industries and backgrounds with one thing in common: the desire to disrupt the current status quo. The jury spent hours deliberating who should be the next leading innovator of their theme, culminating in the announcement of the winners.


Our work on Intravascular Ultrasound featured on the cover of TUFFC

The IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control selected our paper

    J. Janjic, M. Tan, E. Noothout, C. Chen, Z. Chan, Z. Y. Chang, R. H. S. H. Beurskens, G. van Soest, A. F. W. van der Steen, M. D. Verweij, M. A. P. Pertijs, and N. de Jong, "A 2D ultrasound transducer with front-end ASIC and low cable count for 3D forward-looking intravascular imaging: Performance and characterization," IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, vol. 65, no. 10, pp. 1832-1844, Oct. 2018 (link)

to be featured on the cover of the October 2018 issue.

This paper is the result of a collaboration on intravascular ultrasound imaging between the Ultrasound ASICs group at the Electronic Instrumentation Lab, the Thoraxcenter at Erasmus MC, and the Laboratory of Acoustical Wavefield Imaging at the Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology.

Forward-looking intravascular ultrasound (FL-IVUS) holds rich potential for guidance of complex vascular interventions, such as recanalization of coronary chronic total occlusions. The realization of FL-IVUS devices is fraught with technical challenges, as a high-resolution volumetric image needs to be created from a small (< 1.5 mm) aperture with scant space for cabling and electronics. In this issue of the Transactions, we present an innovative concept for an FL-IVUS matrix array, consisting of 16 transmit (yellow) and 64 receive elements (red), addressed by only four cables. A dedicated front-end ASIC performs element addressing and received signal amplification. The realized configuration produces a narrow pulse-echo beam profile with sidelobes below −20 dB. 3-D synthetic aperture imaging (bottom) at a volume rate of 100 Hz is feasible.

Details on the ASIC, which was designed at the Electronic Instrumentation Lab by Mingliang Tan, Chao Chen, Zhao Chen and Michiel Pertijs, can be found in

    M. Tan, C. Chen, Z. Chen, J. Janjic, V. Daeichin, Z. Y. Chang, E. Noothout, G. van Soest, M. D. Verweij, N. de Jong, and M. A. P. Pertijs, "A front-end ASIC with high-voltage transmit switching and receive digitization for 3D forward-looking intravascular ultrasound imaging," IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 53, no. 8, pp. 2284-2297, Aug. 2018 (link)

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Six papers at the 2018 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium

Douwe presenting his work at IUS2018

At the 2018 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS) - the world’s premier conference on ultrasound research held in Kobe, Japan, in October - the Ultrasound ASICs group presented six papers covering various aspects of our work on integrated circuits for smart ultrasound applications.

Douwe van Willigen presented two papers at IUS. The first, entitled “ASIC design for a single-cable 64-element ultrasound probe”, was nominated for the Best Student Paper Competition (top 3.5% of the student paper submissions). In this paper, we present an ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) that interfaces 64 piezoelectric elements directly integrated on top of the ASIC to an imaging system using a single micro-coaxial cable. This innovative design allows a single-element transducer to be replaced by a transducer array, while using the same cable, making it a promising solution for 3D imaging with size-constrained probes. This work is part of our work on intra-vascular ultrasound , a collaboration with the Acoustical Wavefield Imaging Lab (Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology) and the Thoraxcenter, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam.

A second paper authored by Douwe, “Minimizing the zero-flow error in transit time ultrasonic flow meters”, presents results of our FLOW+ project, analysing the effect of driver- and readout electronics on the zero-flow error in transit-time ultrasonic flow meters.

Another paper that links to the same FLOW+ research project, entitled “Feasibility of ultrasound flow measurements via non-linear wave propagation,” was presented by Jack Massaad. This paper demonstrates the feasibility of using non-linear wave propagation to improve the precision of flow measurements using ultrasound.

Zhao Chen presented a paper entitled “A Power-Efficient Transmit Beamformer ASIC for 3-D Catheter-Based/ Endoscopic Probes”, which presents an innovative approach to reduce the power consumption of integrated high-voltage pulsers in miniature ultrasound probes.

Zhao also presented a paper entitled “A quantitative study on the impact of bit errors on image quality in ultrasound probes with in-probe digitization”, in which we investigate an import question associated with the next-generation of digital ultrasound probes: if you digitize the echo signals in the probe, what are then the bit-error requirements on the digital datalink used to send the echo signals to an imaging system? We’ve found that very high bit-error rates can be tolerated without significant impact on image quality, opening the door to the use of simple and power-efficient datalink solutions.

Finally, Mehdi Soozande presented a paper entitled “Virtually Extended Array imaging improves lateral resolution in high frame rate volumetric imaging,” in which we describe a high-frame-rate transmission scheme which outperforms alternative methods in lateral resolution, targeting catheter-based 3D imaging applications.

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Volgens de wetenschap kunnen doven straks horen en blinden zien

Er staan veel filmpjes online van emotionele mensen die, met behulp van moderne technologie, voor het eerst hun familie kunnen zien. Of van kinderen die voor het eerst de stem van hun ouders horen. Het zijn voorbeelden van de eerste stappen naar het genezen van blindheid. Prof. dr. Wouter Serdijn doet onderzoek naar het ontwikkelen van bio-elektronica met als doel het behandelen van deze menselijke kwalen. Artikel in het AD van 26 oktober 2018.

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New Assistant Professor

CAS welcomes Borbala Hunyadi, a new Assistant Professor, working on Bio Signal Processing

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Vacancy: Assistant/Associate Professor of Bioelectronics

Assistant/Associate Professor of Bioelectronics

Faculty: Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
Required Level: Completed PhD
Appointment: 32-38 hours per week
Contract duration: Tenure
Salary: 3545 - 5513 Euro per month (1 fte)

Faculty Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science


The Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) is known worldwide for its high academic quality and the social relevance of its research programmes. The faculty’s excellent facilities accentuate its international position in teaching and research. Within this interdisciplinary and international setting the faculty employs more than 1100 employees, including about 400 graduate students and about 2100 students. Together they work on a broad range of technical innovations in the fields of sustainable energy, telecommunications, microelectronics, embedded systems, computer and software engineering, interactive multimedia and applied mathematics.


The Department of Microelectronics has a strong interdisciplinary research and education programme in the areas of 1. health and well-being, 2. autonomous systems, 3. next generation wireless and sensing technology and 4. safety and security.


With 11 IEEE Fellows among the staff, an excellent microfabrication infrastructure, electrical and physical characterisation facilities, and a strong international academic and industrial network, the department provides high-level expertise in each of these areas throughout the entire system chain.


The Section Bioelectronics is a relatively new section that has been created to address coherently the challenges we face in developing bioelectronic medicine and electroceuticals. The group conducts research, education and valorisation in the fields of circuits and systems for active wearable, implantable and injectable biomedical diagnostic, monitoring and therapeutic microsystems. The group is active in the domains of biosignal acquisition, conditioning and detection, electrical stimulation, transcutaneous wireless communication and power transfer, energy harvesting, bioinspired circuits and systems, CMOS diagnostic systems, flexible implants and microsystem integration.

Job description

The Bioelectronics group is offering a tenure-track position at the Assistant or Associate Professor level in the field of biomedical circuits and systems. You will further develop existing research topics, such as mixed-mode and digital circuits and systems for active wearable and implantable medical devices and create new topics, which may include bioelectronic medicine. You will be involved in teaching at the BSc and MSc levels in the TU Delft's Electrical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering programmes and the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Technical Medicine programme. Collaborative initiatives are strongly encouraged. You are expected to write research proposals for national and international funding organisations. This is a tenure-track position for a period of five years with the possibility of a permanent faculty position at the end of the contract, subject to mutual agreement.


A Tenure Track, a process leading up to a permanent appointment with the prospect of becoming an Associate or Full Professor, offers young, talented academics a clear and attractive career path. During the Tenure Track, you will have the opportunity to develop into an internationally acknowledged and recognised academic. We offer a structured career and personal development programme designed to offer individual academics as much support as possible. For more information about the Tenure Track and the personal development programme, please visit www.tudelft.nl/tenuretrack.

Job requirements

You must have a PhD degree in the field of biomedical circuits and systems (BioCAS) and some years of experience as a post-doc or university professor. You have an excellent academic track record, reflected by peer-reviewed journal publications, conference contributions, and international research experience. An affinity for working on the interface with other disciplines (biomedical engineering, neuroscience, electrophysiology, biomedical signal processing, etc.) and with clinicians and medical researchers is preferred. You should have a demonstrated ability to initiate and direct research projects and to obtain external funding. Experience in teaching and mentoring of students is required. A teaching qualification is recommended. Demonstrated ability in written and spoken English is required.

Employment conditions

At the start of the tenure track you will be appointed as Assistant Professor for the duration of six years. Section leader, department leaders and you will agree upon expected performance and (soft) skills. You will receive formal feedback on performance and skills during annual assessment meetings and the mid-term evaluation. If the performance and skills are evaluated positively at the end of the tenure track, you will be appointed in a permanent Assistant Professor position.


TU Delft offers a customisable compensation package, a discount for health insurance and sport memberships, and a monthly work costs contribution. Flexible work schedules can be arranged. An International Children’s Centre offers childcare and an international primary school. Dual Career Services offers support to accompanying partners. Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities.


TU Delft sets specific standards for the English competency of the teaching staff. TU Delft offers training to improve English competency.


Inspiring, excellent education is our central aim. If you have less than five years of experience and do not yet have your teaching certificate, we allow you up to three years to obtain this.

Information and application

For information about this vacancy, you can contact Prof. Wouter Serdijn, email: W.A.Serdijn@tudelft.nl.


For information about the selection procedure, please contact Mrs. L.M. Ophey, HR-Advisor, email: hr-eemcs@tudelft.nl


To apply, please submit by email a detailed CV that includes a list of publications, contact information of at least three scientists whom we can contact for letters of recommendation, and a research and teaching statement along with a letter of application by November 30, 2018 to: hr-eemcs@tudelft.nl.


When applying please mention vacancy number EWI2018-28.




Prof. dr. Makinwa installed as KNAW member

On 17 September 2018 Prof. Kofi Makinwa was inaugurated as KNAW (The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) Member. KNAW Members are selected for their scientific and scholarly achievements. The 21 new Dutch KNEW Members were installed during a festive ceremony at the The Amsterdam Public Library, central branche.

Professor Kofi Makinwa builds sensors based on chip technology. One of his achievements is a wind sensor without moving parts. Sensors form the connection between the real world and computers. ‘My field involves designing smart sensors: microchips that combine sensors and signal processing,’ explains the TU Delft Professor of Microelectronics. ‘I build chips that can ‘feel’ their environment, as it were, that can process this information and subsequently transfer it to a computer, all in one. Chip technology means that we can produce them very cheaply. Tyre pressure sensors in cars are one example of such a sensor. They measure the pressure in a rotating tyre and communicate the information wirelessly to the dashboard. Or the temperature sensors that can be found everywhere nowadays: in your smartphone, your car, your household appliances. Sensors that I developed at TU Delft are now in production at companies including SiTime, AMS and NXP, and are being used in Apple’s latest gadgets, for example’. Students appreciate Makinwa's enthusiasm and involvement. Thanks to Makinwa's contacts with the industry, they can often convert their designs into real prototypes. Makinwa was previously a member of the Young Academy of the KNAW and invented a cheap weather station for developing countries.

List of new members

Photos from the ceremony


Guillermo Ortiz selected as "Best 2017/2018 Graduate of EEMCS"

Guillermo Ortiz is selected as "Best 2017/2018 Graduate of EEMCS" by the Dean, and is nominated to compete for the Best Graduate of TU Delft (election on 6 November).

Guillermo did his thesis work on the topic of Graph Signal Processing, which was graded with a 10. Part of his work is already accepted for publication in the GlobalSIP 2018 conference, and has been submitted to an IEEE journal.

Congratulations!

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Shahrzad Naghibzadeh EURASIP 3MT contest finalist

The 3MT (three minute thesis) contest is an international contest for students to explain their PhD thesis within 3 minutes. It is held across many universities and countries. In the EURASIP version, students in Signal Processing are invited to submit their 3-minute video, and the best ones are invited to present their work on stage during the EUSIPCO conference.

In 2018, Shahrzad Naghibzadeh was one of 10 selected students to present her work, in the conference auditorium. By ballot of the over 200 people in the audience, she ended up in the top-three (see picture). The final selection was done by an award committee; the #1 place went to Virginie Ollier.

Congratulations!

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The Medicine of the Future you take only once, and it is Bioelectronic

Guess what rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, blindness, deafness and paralysis have in common; they all can be successfully treated with bioelectronic medicine. In this 30 minute presentation at the Delft University Health College prof. Wouter Serdijn explains why and how. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Odj1sIVaXhs

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Geert Leus in IEEE ICASSP Top Downloads

An 2015 ICASSP paper co-authored by Geert Leus made it to the Top-20 Downloads list of ICASSP papers over 2015-2017.

The paper is "Compressed Sensing Based Multiuser Millimeter-Wave Systems: How Many Measurements Are Needed?", by Ahmed Alkhateeb, Geert Leus, and Robert Heath. Last year, the related journal paper also won a best (young author) paper award.

The overview of top-downloaded papers was published in IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, July 2018.

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Van Droom naar Daad

Interview van Studium Generale met Wouter Serdijn over de menselijke cyborg.

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Hoe verbeteren chips het menselijk lichaam?

Ruim 200 Nederlanders lopen al rond met een chip in hun lichaam, en het aantal groeit. Dat kan voor allerlei doeleinden zijn, van gemak tot verbetering van de kwaliteit van leven. Interview met Tom Oudenaarden en Wouter Serdijn op NPO Radio 1, woensdag 27 juni 2018.

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Analog Integrated Circuits No. 1 OCW course in Microelectronics, No. 2 in Electrical Engineering

And again our Open CourseWare course Analog Integrated Circuit Design (ET4252) has the most page views of 2017. 14,790 page views!

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Zhao Chen wins second prize in SSCS Benelux Chip Design Contest

For the third year, the IEEE SSCS Benelux Chapter organized a Chip Design Contest for MSc and PhD students in the Benelux. This year, the second prize was won by Zhao Chen, for his contribution “A Front-End ASIC with Integrated Subarray Beamforming ADCs for Miniature 3D Ultrasound Probes”. Zhao received the award at the 2018 SSCS Benelux Chip Design Workshop, which was held at the University of Leuven on May 22, 2018.

More details on Zhao’s award-winning work can be found in the following paper: C. Chen, Z. Chen, D. Bera, E. Noothout, Z. Y. Chang, M. Tan, H. J. Vos, J. G. Bosch, M. D. Verweij, N. de Jong, and M. A. P. Pertijs, “A 0.91mW/element pitch-matched front-end ASIC with integrated subarray beamforming ADC for miniature 3D ultrasound probes,” in Dig. Techn. Papers IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), pp. 186-188, Feb. 2018.


Objectief en gericht behandelen van patiënten met elektroceutica

Medici grijpen vaak naar farmaceutische middelen om een kwaal bij een patiënt te verhelpen. De elektronische tegenhanger werkt in sommige gevallen echter beter. Langzaam wint deze techniek terrein zoals bij behandelingen voor het syndroom van Tourette, epilepsie en oorsuizen. Elektroceutica, een medische toepassing van bio-elektronica. Klein, flexibel en intelligent. Artikel in EngineersOnline.nl, over een presentatie van prof. dr. ir. Wouter Serdijn, hoogleraar bio-elektronica aan de Technische Unversiteit Delft.

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KNAW chooses Kofi Makinwa

Prof. Dr. Kofi Makinwa, Professor Electronic Instrumentation and chair of the Micro Electronic department to the faculty of EEMCS, is selected as a new member of The Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW). Members of the KNAW, leading scientists from all disciplines, are chosen on their scientific achievements. The new academy members will be installed in September.

Professor Kofi Makinwa builds sensors based on chip technology. One of his achievements is a wind sensor without moving parts. Sensors form the connection between the real world and computers. ‘My field involves designing smart sensors: microchips that combine sensors and signal processing,’ explains the TU Delft Professor of Microelectronics. ‘I build chips that can ‘feel’ their environment, as it were, that can process this information and subsequently transfer it to a computer, all in one. Chip technology means that we can produce them very cheaply. Tyre pressure sensors in cars are one example of such a sensor. They measure the pressure in a rotating tyre and communicate the information wirelessly to the dashboard. Or the temperature sensors that can be found everywhere nowadays: in your smartphone, your car, your household appliances. Sensors that I developed at TU Delft are now in production at companies including SiTime, AMS and NXP, and are being used in Apple’s latest gadgets, for example’. Students appreciate Makinwa's enthusiasm and involvement. Thanks to Makinwa's contacts with the industry, they can often convert their designs into real prototypes. Makinwa was previously a member of the Young Academy of the KNAW and invented a cheap weather station for developing countries.

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Slimme sensor die energie uit de lucht plukt, heeft eindeloos veel toepassingsmogelijkheden

Begin oktober gingen ze in het kader van een pilot het asfalt in: slimme sensoren die de temperatuur in het wegdek meten, zodat onder andere veel gerichter en efficiënter tegen gladheid kan worden gestrooid. De innovatie werd mede mogelijk gemaakt door de sectie Bioelectronics binnen de faculteit Elektrotechniek, Wiskunde en Informatica van de TU Delft die zich volgens hoogleraar Wouter Serdijn vooral bezig houdt met…de elektronische behandeling van aandoeningen in het menselijk lichaam.

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Maakt bio-elektronica medicijnen overbodig?

Artikel van ir. Jim Heirbaut in De Ingenieur, d. 9 april 2018, over dat sommige reumapatiënten minder last van ontstekingen in hun gewrichten hebben als er onschuldige stroompulsjes worden losgelaten op de zenuwbundel in hun hals. Met daarin een bijdrage van Wouter Serdijn, hoogleraar bioelektronica aan de TU Delft.

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How Master student Alberto contributes to impact

Master student Alberto Gancedo from Spain got the opportunity, via Delft University Fund, to start his Master’s programme Microelectronics at TU Delft in September 2017. Besides studying, he is also working on his own project ‘Amplitude-integrated EEG measurement system (aEEG)’. Alberto’s goal: to develop a small, portable and cheap monitoring device to detect babies unusual brain activity directly after birth.

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NWO-High Tech Systems and Materials proposal awarded to ECTM

Sun sensors, which are used to determine the satellite orientation towards the sun, are a vital part of the satellite attitude control. Current commercial available sun sensors are too large and costly to be integrated in the small satellites, e.g., nanosats. Due to the low costs of these satellites, they enable a wide range of applications which otherwise would not be possible or cost-effective. By developing a sun sensor that is fully integrated on a single substrate, the overall size of the sensor can be significantly reduced and costly extra calibration is avoided. By using SiC as material, we secure high performance and high reliability under harsh environment. In addition, the sensor will not be sensitive to reflections of the earth, as it uses the parts of the light spectrum absorbed by the atmosphere.

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“Leopold B. Felsen Award for Excellence in Electrodynamics” for Dr. Giorgio Carluccio

Dr. Carluccio will receive the price during the EuCAP conference EuCAP (April 9th-13th), in Londen (UK)


InForMed selected as success story by the EC

The EU-and industry-funded InForMed project has developed a new platform approach to the innovation chain for next-generation medical devices, giving a boost to European manufacturers, in particular SMEs. The project has established a facility that companies can use to manufacture and test prototype micro medical devices, ensuring European leadership in this vital technology-based sector.

Full article: click


TU Delft stands strong at the 2018 “Chip Olympics”

From February 11 to 15, the 65th International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) will be held in San Francisco. ISSCC, the most prestigious and competitive scientific conference in the field of chip design and sensors, is informally known as the “Chip Olympics.” With ten papers, a forum presentation and a tutorial, TU Delft continues its significant yearly contribution to this prestigious conference.

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Slimme contactlenzen en andere medische gadgets in je lijf

Onderzoekers van de technische universiteit van Ulsan in Zuid-Korea zeggen een lens te hebben ontwikkeld die bloedsuikerwaarden uitmeet. Over deze lens en andere bio-elektronische medicijnen praten we met Wouter Serdijn. Hij is hoogleraar bio-elektronica aan de TU Delft. Item op NPO Radio 1, Nieuwsweekend, zaterdag 27 januari 2018.

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IEEE Robert Bosch MEMS Award

Lina Sarro is the 2018 recipient of the prestigious IEEE Robert Bosch Micro and Nano Electro Mechanical Systems Award. This award is to recognize and honor advances in the invention, design, and/or fabrication of micro- or nano- electromechanical systems and/or devices. The award citation reads “For pioneering contributions in novel materials, material integration and innovations in MEMS and strong commitment to education and technology transfer.” The award was presented at the IEEE MEMS 2018 Conference, on the 22nd of January 2018.

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New project: PRYSTINE

Rene van Leuken, together with his team (Sumeet Kumar, Amir Zjajo), and Said Hamdioui at CE acquired part of a new EU project "PRYSTINE". The aim is to design programmable compute hardware for automatic driving functions, across two application targets: data fusion for robust perception; and acceleration of AI frameworks for decision making. The emphasis is on low-power compute platforms.

While the overall budget of the project is 50 ME and spans over 60 partners, Delft will sign up for 1.8 ME.

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Geert Leus Editor-in-Chief of Elsevier Signal Processing

Starting 1 January 2018, Geert is the new Editor-in-Chief of Elsevier Signal Processing (IF: 3.1)

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Grant for the development of smart cathethers & implants

Ronald Dekker, Vasiliki Giagka, Paul de Wit, Wouter Serdijn and Lina Sarro received a grant concerning the development of smart catheters and implants. The project is financed by ECSEL Innovation actions, Call 2017.

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3D Ultrasound using a single transducer element

Pim van der Meulen, Geert Leus and our collaborators at Erasmus MC show how this is possible using a phase mask and compressed sensing,

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(only available in Dutch) Nederlands leger zet sterk in op de nieuwste radar technologie

De aanwezigen kregen inzicht in ontwikkelingen van nieuwe sensorsuites, onderzoeksprogramma's, drone-bestrijding en de toekomstige ontwikkelingen op radargebied. Zo gebruiken strijdende partijen gebruiken steeds vaker drones om doelen op te sporen en zelfmoordterroristen hiernaar toe te leiden, maar met de nieuwe Multi Missie Radar is dit allemaal te traceren.

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Michele D'Urbino wins the A-SSCC Student Design Contest

The Award Ceronomy at the A-SSCC conference

At the 2017 Asian Solid-State Circuits Conference (A-SSCC), Michele D'Urbino won the Student Design Contest with the paper "An Element-Matched Band-Pass Delta-Sigma ADC for Ultrasound Imaging". Michele worked in Michiel Pertijs' group at the Electronic Instrumentation Lab and obtained his MSc Degree earlier this year.

Michele developed an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) capable of digitizing the signals received by every individual element of a 2D ultrasound transducer array. This is an important step towards the realization of next-generation ultrasound probes with full in-probe digitization of the received echo signals. Michele’s ADC has an record-small element-matched size of 150 μm × 150 μm, which is realized by exploiting each piezo-electric transducer element not only as the signal source, but also as the electro-mechanical loop-filter of a continuous-time band-pass ΔΣ ADC.

A-SSCC is a major IEEE Conference on Integrated Circuit Design, and was held in Seoul on Nov. 6-8. At the conference, Michele gave a live demo of his prototype. This work is a collaboration with Oldelft Ultrasound, and was co-authored by Chao Chen, Zhao Chen, Zu-Yao Chang, Jacco Ponte, Boris Lippe and Michiel Pertijs.


4 papers accepted @ IEEE MEMS 2018!

Also this year ECTM will be present at the IEEE MEMS conference , the flagship conference in this field, and this time with 4 papers! Congratulations to Aleksandar, Juan, Nico, William and all co-authors!


Electrical Implants -- small devices with huge potential

Since the introduction of the pacemaker in 1958, much has changed in the world of electrical stimulation. Whereas the first electrical implants targeted muscles, the implants of today are flexible and focus mainly on the nerves in our body. The concept, however, remains unchanged: electrical implants give control back to the body. Vasiliki Giagka, Assistant Professor of Bioelectronics at TU Delft, talks about the past, present and future of her field of research.

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TU Delft "Female Fellowship" Tenure Track Academic Positions

All academic levels; apply before Jan 8, 2018.

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Kofi nominated for the Huibregtsenprijs 2017!

Kofi was one of 6 candidates nominated for the Huibregtsenprijs 2017! See the short film about his project at: https://www.npo3.nl/genomineerd-voor-de-huibregtsenprijs-2017-kofi-makinwa/06-10-2017/WO_NTR_11137372


Ten papers from TU Delft at the 2018 Chip Olympics

Ten papers from the TU Delft were accepted for publication at the 2018 chip Olympics - the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC)


PhD thesis Solid State Lighting Color Shift

Congratulations to Guangjun Lu for his PhD thesis defense on 26 September 2017

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PhD thesis The Lifetime Prediction of LED Drivers and Lamps

Congratulations to Bo Sun for his PhD thesis defense on 26 September 2017

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Chao Chen wins Best Student Paper Award

At the 2017 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium in Washington DC, PhD student Chao Chen has won the Best Student Paper Award. Chao works in Michiel Pertijs’ group at the Electronic Instrumentation Lab on integrated circuits for miniature ultrasound probes, in close collaboration with the Acoustical Wavefield Imaging group at TNW, and the Thoraxcenter at Erasmus MC. Chao’s paper describes a chip that makes it possible to connect 1000’s of small ultrasound transducer elements integrated at the tip of an endoscope or catheter to an imaging system. It represents an important step towards the realization of future miniature 3D ultrasound probes. The International Ultrasonics Symposium is IEEE’s main forum for researchers to present new results and learn about recent advances in medical and industrial ultrasonics.


ESSCIRC 2016 Best Paper Award

On 14th September 2017, Ph.D. student Junfeng Jiang has won the ESSCIRC 2016 Best Paper Award for his paper "A Hybrid Multi-Path CMOS Magnetic Sensor With 76 ppm/°C Sensitivity Drift". Junfeng works in Kofi Makinwa's group at the Electronic Instrumentation Lab on wide bandwidth magnetic sensors for current measurements.


Geert Leus appointed IEEE SPS Distinguished Lecturer

Geert Leus has been selected to serve as an IEEE Signal Processing Society Distinguished Lecturer for the term 1 January 2018 through 31 December 2019. This is considered a prestigious sign of recognition.

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Denk de koffiezet aan

Elon Musk droomt hardop van telepathische communicatie en van een veel grotere geheugeninhoud. Het zijn ideeën die wetenschappers en hippies in de sixties al koesterden, maar die vandaag nog gul op scepticisme stoten. Artikel van Tomas Van Dijk, in de Belgische krant De Standaard, d. 4 augustus 2017. Met bijdragen van Dirk de Ridder (University of Otago, Nieuw-Zeeland) en Wouter Serdijn (TU Delft / Bioelectronics).

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Hebben wij het eeuwige leven?

Artikel in De Telegraaf, d. 29 juli 2017, van Wouter van Bergen, over transhumanisme en de rol van technologie. Met daarin een interview met Wouter Serdijn (TU Delft/Bioelectronics).

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NWO Take-Off Grant for organ-on-a-chip development

PhD candidates Cinzia Silvestri, William Quiros Solano and Nikolas Gaio (start-up Biond ) and Ronald Dekker have successfully applied for a NWO Take-Off Grant (Phase 1) for organ-on-a-chip development.

"In vitro screening is a fundamental step during drug development. A crucial need of pharmaceutical companies is to assess drug safety at the early stage of the pipeline to identify and eliminate compounds that exhibit a potential for adverse drug reactions. However, at least 462 medicinal products were withdrawn from the market between 1953 and 2014, with consequences for patients, regulatory systems and pharma companies. Therefore, the traditional screening approach, based on in vitro static cell culture assays, is considered not predictive enough. This limitation has increased the interest in more realistic models: Organs-on-chips (OOCs). Organ-on-Chips are micro-fluidics devices designed to simulate in vivo human physiology by promoting cell and tissue growth in vitro.

BIOND developed an innovative microfluidic system for OOCs that provides a dynamic micro-environment suited to highly predictive cell culture models, that allows real-time recording of a comprehensive set of data of the cell culture with a user-friendly interface. In particular, this project will aim at improving the user interface focusing on three main aspects: Usability, Functionality and Versatility"


Winner Internet of Things Pitch: Sjoerd Bosma

On July 5th 2017 The Micro-electronics organized an Internet of Things pitch session in which staff and students could present an idea in two minutes. Eventually ten ideas were pitched followed by the yearly summer drinks.

Winner of the pitches is master student Sjoerd Bosma. With his pitch Future Intelligent & Autonomous System for Coordinated Open parking Spaces (FIASCOS) he thought of a solution to avoid endlessly driving around in circles trying to find a parking spot in the inner cities. He suggests putting free parking spots in navigation systems. Energy harvesting technologies can be used for that; little sensors that harvest their own energy from their surroundings. These sensors can be built in e.g. little speed bumps in front of each spot. In that way the sensor can know if there is a car parked in the spot and can pass on that information to the navigation system.

Sjoerd admitts that he is probably not the first persons that thinks of connecting parking spots to navigation systems. Probably people are working on simular solutions, but with expensive wiring and infrared camera's. The little energy harvesting sensors would be much cheaper and maintenance free.

It doesn't have that much to do with Sjoerds master thesis. He will graduate in the Terra Hertz Sensing group in August where he worked on antennas and optics for sub-milimeter astronomy.

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BSc Group at ELCA awarded with IEEE Best High Tech Start-up Business Plan

At the Bachelor Electrical Engineering Graduation Grand Finale held on 7 July 2017, the six-student group formed by Bilal Bouazzata, Laurens Buijs, Jun Feng, Martijn Hoogelander, Alexander Louwerse and Niels van der Kolk received the IEEE Best High Tech Start-up Business Plan award from Koen Bertels for their business plan on the topic of their graduation project at ELCA.

The group was supervised by Marco Pelk and Morteza Alavi while the project was proposed by Leo de Vreede.

During this project, the group accomplished a proof of concept for a promising "interpolating-supply" power amplifier efficiency enhancement technique, laying a foundation for future research.


Five papers Michiel Pertijs' group on IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS)

At the coming IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS), five papers will be presented that are (co)authored by the Ultrasound ASICs group of Michiel Pertijs. IUS is IEEE’s primary forum for medical and industrial ultrasound research, and will be held in Washington in September. The 5 papers describe advanced combinations of integrated circuits and ultrasound transducers to enable next-generation miniature 3D ultrasound probes, including an endoscope-based probe for echocardiography, a catheter-based probe for intra-vascular imaging, and a probe for imaging of the carotid artery. One of the papers, co-authored by Chao Chen and Zhao Chen, has been selected as a finalist for the Student Paper Competition. Moreover, Chao has been awarded a Student Travel Grant to present his work at the conference.

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Samprajani Rout's ISCAS 2017 paper among top papers of the conference

ISCAS 2017 paper No. 1849, entitled “Structured Electronic Design of High-Pass ΣΔ Converters and Their Application to Cardiac Signal Acquisition” has been selected as one of the top contributions to the conference and an extended version of the paper has been invited for the TBioCAS Special Issue on ISCAS 2017. Authors of the paper are Samprajani Rout and Wouter Serdijn (Section Bioelectronics)

Abstract of the paper:

Achieving an accurate sub-Hz high-pass (HP) cutoff frequency and simultaneously a high accuracy of the transfer function is a challenge in the implementation of analog-to-digital converters for biomedical ExG signals. A structured electronic design approach based on state-space forms is proposed to develop HP modulators targeting high accuracy of the HP cutoff frequency and good linearity. Intermediate transfer functions are mathematically evaluated to compare the proposed HP Sigma-Delta topologies with respect to dynamic range. Finally, to illustrate the design method, an orthonormal HP Sigma-Delta modulator is designed to be implemented in 0.18 um technology which achieves a linearity of 12 bits.


NWO Take-Off Grant (Phase 1) for Ide Swager and Menno Gravemaker (Momo Medical) and Wouter Serdijn (Section Bioelectronics)

Pressure ulcer wounds are a global problem in healthcare institutions, still. These wounds cause a lot of pain and discomfort for the patient, a high workload for the caregivers and cost a lot of money, in the EU alone already more than 15 billion Euros each year. TU Delft spin-off Momo Medical has developed a smart sensor bed sensor that solves this problem.

In this project, the following steps are taken to test the smart bed sensor in practice, in the Living Lab of the Reinier de Graaf Hospital. In addition, further commercial development is done by approaching more potential customers and understanding the cost structure of the product better when scaling up.

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Vasiliki Giagka elected member of the IEEE Biomedical and Life Science Circuits and SystemsTechnical Committee

At its annual meeting during the International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, Vasiliki Giagka (Section Bioelectronics) was elected member of the IEEE Biomedical and Lifescience Circuits and Systems Technical Committee.

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ABN Amro gaat betalen met je ring mogelijk maken

ABN Amro claimt de eerste bank ter wereld te zijn die het mogelijk maakt om met een ring te betalen in plaats van met een pinpas. De bank experimenteert daar momenteel mee met een selecte groep van klanten. Hoeveel mensen met de ring willen betalen, is nog maar de vraag. Volgens hoogleraar bio-elektronica Wouter Serdijn hangt dat ook af van wat de ring nog meer voor functies krijgt. Item van de NOS, ook verschenen bij Finanzen en PowNed, d. 22 juni 2017.

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NWO Demonstrator Grant awarded to Wouter Serdijn (Bioelectronics) and Cees-Jeroen Bes (in-Holland)

We recently developed a radically new technique, coined "additive companding", which solves important technological limitations of current neural recording systems. The technology has been patented, tested in the lab as proof of concept and is now ready to be developed further into a prototype. The foreseen prototype will allow for continuous and complete monitoring of neural activity, offers better performance and consumes drastically less volume (<400 µm x 400 µm x 400 µm) and energy (<<1 mW) than neural monitoring systems that currently exist or are under development. Clinically, the continuous and complete neural monitoring will offer new insights into the exact workings of nerve and brain tissue and it becomes possible to take the first step into the development of active medical implants that adjust themselves to the therapeutical needs of the patient without subjective measures. This, ultimately, enhances the health-related quality of life of patients with nerve and/or brain disorders and allows for a better treatment of a larger variety of nerve and brain disorders.


In de Zweedse trein kun je inchecken met een onderhuidse chip

Alleen uw hand even omhooghouden, waarna de treinconducteur die met zijn smartphone aanraakt en 'bliep': u bent ingecheckt. In Nederland is dit nog toekomstmuziek, maar in Zweden beleven treinreizigers momenteel de wereldwijde primeur in het openbaar vervoer: inchecken met een onder de huid aangebrachte microchip. Artikel in De Volkskrant en in De Morgen, d. 17 juni 2017, met een bijdrage van Wouter Serdijn

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Best Student Paper Award at the RIFC Symposium for Milad Mehrpoo (ELCA Group)

At the 2017 RFIC Symposium that was held on 4-6 June 2017 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, Milad Mehrpoo received the RFIC 2017 Best Student Paper Awards. The award was for the design of "A Wideband Linear Direct Digital RF Modulator Using Harmonic Rejection and I/Q Interleaving RF DACs". Mohsen Hashemi and Yiyu Shen were his co-authors while Leo de Vreede and Morteza Alavi were his advisors. This work was supported by EU Catrene project EAST and Dutch STW project SEEDCom.


This is how we will become bionic super humans

Tech companies want to fix spinal cord injuries and make enhanced super humans that communicate through telepathy, or so Prof. Wouter Serdijn heard at a meeting this spring in Washington. There are some snags though.

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Kick off meeting Integrated Cooperative Automated Vehicles (i-CAVE)

On June 6 and 7, 2017 the two days kick off meeting of the i-Cave project took place at the TU Eindhoven.

This NWO research program addresses current transportation challenges regarding throughput and safety with an integrated approach to automated and cooperative driving. In i-CAVE, a cooperative dual mode automated transport system is researched and designed, consisting of dual mode vehicles which can be driven automatically and manually to allow maximum flexibility. The program integrates technological roadmaps for automated and cooperative driving, accelerating the development of novel transportation systems addressing today's and future mobility demands.

Quick Facts of iCAVE
Number of Participating Organizations = 5

  • Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven
  • University of Twente, Enschede
  • Delft University of Technology, Delft
  • University of Amsterdam
  • Radboud University, Nijmegen
i-CAVE focuses on 7 research lines:
  1. Sensing
  2. System control integration
  3. Dynamic fleet management
  4. Communication
  5. Human factors
  6. Functional safety
  7. Living-lab evaluation
Contribution of Microwave Sensing, Signals and Systems (MS3)
Prof. DSc. Alexander Yarovoy, Dr. Faruk Uysal and PhD. candidate Nannan Chen, conduct research under the Communication research line of i-CAVE project in close collaboration with Information and Communication Theory (ICT) Lab of Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). The research of group aims to implement RADAR-based communication, allowing advanced driver assistance systems to be used as both sensors and communication devices, realizing a more robust and synergetic approach to sensing and communication for safe high-speed automated and cooperative driving. To address interaction capabilities between vehicles and environment, we focus on radar processing methods with signals that allow for communication functionality. MS3 is highly cooperating with NXP on this.

Other Participants from TU Delft:
In addition to the MS3 group in EWI, Rudy Negenborn and Gabriel Lodewijks of the department of Maritime and Transportation Technology in the faculty 3mE will be conducting extensive research into dynamic fleet management of groups of automated vehicles.


Best student paper award VLSI Symposium for PhD Bahman Yousefzadeh

At the 2017 VLSI Symposium, Bahman Yousefzadeh received the 2016 best student paper award! The award was for the design of a CMOS temperature sensor with record-breaking inaccuracy of less than +/-0.06 °C over a wide temperature range (-70 °C to 125 °C). Saleh Heidary and Kofi Makinwa were co-authors, and the work was done in collaboration with NXP Semiconductors. The resulting journal paper can be found in the here.


Best Student Presentation Award for Jamal Amini

At the 2017 Symposium on Information Theory and Signal Processing (Delft, 11-12 May), organized by the IEEE Benelux Chapter, Jamal Amini received a best student presentation award. Congratulations!

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Closure Math & Science class 2016-2016

After a thorough selection, 25 motivated high school students were selected to join the Math&Science class 2016-2017. A joint collaboration with Betasteunpunt Zuid Holland and the Technical University Delft. The Math & Science class challenges pupils to solve math problems in a non traditional way, to think out of the box. But also do the pupils get acquainted with several aspects of the scientific research that is done at the TU Delft. For example they had lectures from Dr. Arno Smets on solar energy and they visited the cleanroom at the Else Kooi lab. The last 10 weeks they designed and made a solar boot, implementing the knowledge they gathered during weeks they had their science lectures. On Friday June 2, the solar boots will be tested and the students will receive their certificate during a festive closure event at the Campus. In the water before the Industrial design fault, 5 teams will have a race with their boots., their school teacher, parents and the TUD lecturers as an audience. After the race, the pupils will present the journal they worked on, and receive their certificate.


EI Lab hosted the 2nd Chip Design Workshop

EI Lab hosted the 2nd Chip Design Workshop organized by IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society (SSCS) Benelux Chapter on 23 May 2017. The event was attended by 29 SSCS Benelux Chapter members. The purpose of the workshop was twofold: it brought together the Benelux SSCS members around their common passion for IC design, and the winners of the 2016–2017 Student Chip Design Contest were awarded their prizes. The workshop was opened by Prof. Kofi Makinwa’s welcome. Prof. Filip Tavernier of KU Leuven, representing SSCS Benelux Chapter, then gave a short presentation about the purpose of the workshop and gave the awards to the winners: Burak Gönen (TU Delft), Bert Moons (KU Leuven) and Nicholas Butse (KU Leuven). The winners then gave short talks on the topics of their works including a wide range of applications: ADCs, digital processors, and power converters. These talks were followed by two invited speakers from TU Delft. Klaas Bult’s talk “Design mistakes you’d rather not talk about” summarized the common design mistakes he faced as an expert in the industry. Prof. Fabio Sebastiano’s talk “Cryo-CMOS for Quantum Computing” was on the challenges and the IC design research for quantum computing at TU Delft. The workshop was concluded with a reception where all the attendees found a chance to meet in person.


Major grant for 'Organ-on-a-chip' research

The research project NOCI (Netherlands Organ-on-Chip Initiative) has been awarded a prestigious NWO Gravitation subsidy (Zwaartekracht premie) of 18.8 million euros. The program is led by Christine Mummery, Professor of Developmental Biology at the LUMC and UT, and involves five other renowned scientists: Michel Ferrari (neurologist, LUMC), Albert van den Berg (nanotechnologist, UT), Hans Clevers (cell biologist, Hubrecht Institute), Cisca Wijmenga (human geneticist, UMCG) and Lina Sarro (nanotechnologist, TU Delft), all linked to the organ-on-chip consortium Human Organ and Disease Model Technologies (hDMT). NOCI aims at creating a new platform, based on a combination of human stem cells and microchips, to learn more about the development of diseases and to better predict the effect of medicines, and will be a decisive step towards personalized health care.

Prof Lina Sarro: ‘The three-dimensional micro- and nano-structuring of silicon and polymers developed at TU Delft enables us to replicate organ functions precisely and reproducibly. Electrodes and sensors can be integrated in order to provide electromechanical stimulation and read out of the cells. In addition, the IC (integrated circuit)-compatible microfabrication techniques used allow large-scale production with high reproducibility, which is essential for a wide use and later commercialisation of these devices’.

For more information:
EEMCS website
hDMT website

Photograph by: Melvin Tas


BEST PAPER AWARD for DANIELE CAVALLO at EuCAP 2017

Daniele Cavallo received the "Best Paper Award in Electromagnetics and Antenna Theory" at the European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2017), held in Paris, France, on 19-24 March 2017.

The paper awarded is titled "Analysis of Artificial Dielectrics Composed of Non-Aligned Layers," and was coauthored with the master student Cantika Felita.

EuCAP is one of the major international conferences in the field of antennas and propagation, with about 1300 attendees from academia, research centers and industry and 950 papers presented.


Robots are electric animals

On Aprl 6, Chris Verhoeven, member from the Electronics Groups has been interviewed on NPO 2 in the Programme "Kennis van Nu". The theme is Robots are like animals. De Kennis van Nu op 6 april om 19.20 uur op NPO2

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Else Kooi Award Ceremony for Masoud Tohidian (Electronic Research Laboratory)

The 2017 Else Kooi Award has been given to Dr Massoud Tohidian during the Award Ceremony at ICT open in Amersfoort on March 22, 2017. The Award was given by professor Bram Nauta (University of Twente), chair of the Else Kooi Award Foundation. Dr Tohidian was granted with the award for his scientific research on high-performance super-heterodyne receivers that are implemented using a minimum of analog circuits.

Masoud Tohidian obtained his PhD in September 2015 at the Electronics Research Laboratory group of the EEMCS Faculty, Delft University of Technology.

The Else Kooi Award is an annual award for young researchers in the field of applied semiconductor research conducted in the Netherlands. The award comes with a prize of 5,000 euros.

Massoud studied high-performance super-heterodyne receivers at the system and architectural level as well as the most critical building blocks at the circuit level. As part of his project, he designed new approaches to especially the bandpass filter, realizing a performance that exceeded the state of the art by a significant margin on several key parameters. Furthermore, he integrated these filters in a flexible super-heterodyne receiver, verifying and demonstrating the performance that can be achieved through this approach.

The jury of the Else Kooi Award concludes that this work is a combination of high quality theoretical analysis, modelling, design and experimental verification at the system, architectural and circuit level, resulting in high performance filters and receivers with a high scientific impact as well as high industrial relevance.

For more information please contact Prof. Edoardo Charbon from the Else Kooi Award foundation: phone +31 (0)15 278 36 67, email: e.charbon@tudelft.nl

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Alberto Gancedo-Reguilon awarded grant from the Delft University Fund and Electrical Engineering Alumni

A year ago our faculty took part in a pilot mailing of the University Fund to acquire funding by alumni. The result was positive with a result of €5000 to fund a student project at EEMCS.

The selected project for this funding is of a Spanish Bachelor student called Alberto Gancedo, who did an internship at our Micro-Electronics department (Section Bioelectronics) and at HealthTech BV. He is working on an aEEG Measurement System. His goal is to create a portable and affordable tool to track brain development of neonatal babies. These tools are already available, in developed countries. However, these are big and expensive devices. Alberto's tool can be used in any hospital, instead of just a few, and also in developing countries because of low production costs and its small size. The prototype is ready and Alberto will return to Delft in September to start his Masters' degree and to continue with this project.

About the University Fund

The University Fund would like to give young talent the chance to shine. Therefore they hand out funding for e.g. internships abroad, study trips and participation at international conferences. Excellent achievements are rewarded too with funding and recognition.


Burak wins 1st prize in the SSCS Benelux Chapter's Student Chip Design Contest!

Burak Gonen won 1st prize in the Student Chip Design Competition organized by the Benelux Chapter of the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society (SSCS). He received the award for the design of "A Dynamic Zoom ADC with 109-dB DR for Audio Applications." The ADC, developed in collaboration with NXP, achieves state-ot-the-art performance in terms of both its area and energy efficiency.

To recognize the excellence and to promote chip design in Benelux region, the IEEE Solid State Circuits Society Benelux Chapter organized a chip design contest for students. The Award includes 750€ as well as a travel grant up to 1000€ for Advances in Analog Circuit Design Workshop (AACD) or European Solid State Circuits Conference (ESSCIRC). The awards will be given in a workshop at TU Delft in spring 2017 together with the award winners' presentations and other technical talks about chip design research in TU Delft.

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Rob Remis appointed Associate Professor

Per 1 January, Rob Remis has been promoted by the Dean to the rank of UHD (Associate Professor). Congratulations!

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A need to amplify and combine to enable 5G in higher frequencies

Our society's social and streaming behaviour speeds up the need for 5G. Marco Spirito, Daniele Cavallo, Masoud Babaie and Andrea Neto (Microelectronics) are all working on the 'key building' blocks that will enable 5G systems in the near future. Advanced 5G solutions are targeted in the WhALE project (WAtt LEvel transmitters at mm-waves), which is backed by STW. Marco: "And of course, as scientists, we are working on the more challenging building blocks. We are looking for alternative solutions, something that the industry would find extraordinary. The goal is to move to higher frequencies and to transmit, instantaneously large volumes of data. The frequency shift will result in lower available power, which we need to fix with new amplifier concepts. To achieve this there is a need to amplify and combine in this project : smart combining technologies. We are also resourceful in using new 'stuff' like 3D printing in our solutions".


Kofi Makinwa in BNR radio show about the influence of computer chips

On Wednesday January 18th Kofi Makinwa, chair of the Microelectronics Department has participated in the radio show of Business News Radio 'Ask Me Anything' presneted by Jörgen Raymann. The topic of the show is the influence on our daily lives of computer chips. Besides Professor Kofi Makinwa Professor Bram Nauta from the University of Twente participated as well. The public was given the opportunity to submit questions for the two professors. Listen to the show online Listen to the show online


Two IEEE SPS Best Paper Awards

Selected for the 2016 IEEE Signal Processing Society Best Paper Award:
Cees H. Taal, Richard C. Hendriks, Richard Heusdens, and Jesper Jensen
“An Algorithm for Intelligibility Prediction of Time–Frequency Weighted Noisy Speech”
IEEE Transactions on Audio, Speech, and Language Processing, Volume 19, No. 7, September 2011

Selected for the 2016 IEEE Signal Processing Society Young Author Best Paper Award:
Ahmed Alkhateeb, Omar El Ayach, Geert Leus and Robert W. Heath, Jr.
“Channel Estimation and Hybrid Precoding for Millimeter Wave Cellular Systems”
IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing, Volume 8, No. 5, October 2014.

The awards will be presented at the Awards Ceremony at ICASSP 2017 in New Orleans, LA


Acting on the potential of action potentials: will bioelectronic medicines be the next biologics?

Article by Emma Dorey in The Pharmaceutical Journal, 9 DEC 2016. In there, an interview with Wouter Serdijn

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Rob Remis wins STW Open Mind 2016 award

At their annual congres, STW awarded 5 grants (each 50 kE) to research teams to enable them to explore 'risky research' ideas. Martin van Gijzen, Andrew Webb and Rob Remis presented one of the winning proposals: an affordable MRI instrument based on permanent magnets (as opposed to superconducting magnets) for detecting hydrocephalus.

Short movie presenting the idea.

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Universiteit van Nederland: Hoe kun je een dove laten horen en een blinde laten zien?

Hoe kun je een dove laten horen en een blinde laten zien?

Door prof. dr. ir. Wouter Serdijn

Doven weer laten horen en blinden weer laten zien: het lijkt misschien een godswonder, maar in principe heb je genoeg aan een superslimme chip. Hoe dat precies werkt weet elektronicus Wouter Serdijn (TU Delft) als geen ander. Laat je rondleiden in een wereld die zich op de vierkante millimeter afspeelt en ervaar zelf hoe het klinkt om met een chip te horen.

prof. dr. ir. Wouter Serdijn

Je lijf aansturen met behulp van bio-elektronica, dat is de tak van sport van prof. dr. Wouter Serdijn (TU Delft). Met behulp van implanteerbare chips in je lijf kun je je brein een handje helpen om losse elektronische eindjes weer goed aan elkaar te knopen. Het gevolg? Patiënten beter laten zien, horen of minder laten trillen (bij bijvoorbeeld Parkinsonpatienten).

De Universiteit van Nederland

Uitgezonden op 14 november 2016, om 20:30 uur. De Universiteit van Nederland is te bekijken via YouTube, NU.nl, Volkskrant.nl, Ziggo TV en sinds kort aan boord van alle KLM-vliegtuigen. De stichting wordt gesteund door 13 Nederlandse universiteiten, Ziggo, Deloitte, DELA en Shell.

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3 papers accepted @ IEEE MEMS 2017

For the second year in a row, ECTM will be present at the IEEE MEMS conference , the flagship conference in this field, with 3 papers! Congratulations to Cinzia, Violeta, Aleksandar and all co-authors!

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Vacancy: Team manager for Electrical Engineering Education (EEE)

The Faculty of EEMCS is creating a special team to fully focus on teaching using our unique and innovative ‘Delft method’. This method integrates practical and theoretical electrical engineering education and trains students to be hands-on, theoretically versed electrical engineers ready for a future career in science or industry.

We are looking for a team manager specialising in Electrical Engineering Education (EEE) who will be both a group leader and a teacher in his/her capacity as the role model of EE Education.

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Vacancy: Assistant/Associate Professor of Bioelectronics

Department/faculty: Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science Level: PhD degree Working hours: 38 hours per week Contract: Tenure track with possibilities for advancement Salary: €3400 to €6299 per month gross

Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

The Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) is known worldwide for its high academic quality and the social relevance of its research programmes. The faculty's excellent facilities accentuate its international position in teaching and research. Within this interdisciplinary and international setting the faculty employs more than 1100 employees, including about 400 graduate students and about 2100 students. Together they work on a broad range of technical innovations in the fields of sustainable energy, telecommunications, microelectronics, embedded systems, computer and software engineering, interactive multimedia and applied mathematics. EEMCS: Your Connection to the Future.

The Department of Microelectronics has a strong interdisciplinary research and education programme in the areas of 1. health and well-being 2. next generation wireless and sensing technology and 3. safety and security. With 11 IEEE Fellows among the staff, an excellent microfabrication infrastructure, electrical and physical characterisation facilities, and a strong international academic and industrial network, the department provides high-level expertise in each of these areas throughout the entire system chain.

The Bioelectronics section is a relatively new section that has been created to address coherently the challenges we face in developing wearable, injectable and implantable medical devices. This group conducts research, education and valorisation in the fields of ultra low-power analog and mixed-signal circuits and systems for active wearable, implantable and injectable biomedical microsystems.

Job description

The Bioelectronics group is offering a tenure-track position at the Assistant or Associate Professor level in the field of biomedical circuits and systems. You will further develop existing research topics, such as analog and mixed-mode circuits and systems for wearable and implantable medical devices and create new topics, which may include electroceuticals. You will be involved in teaching at the BSc and MSc levels in the TU Delft's Electrical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering programmes. Collaborative initiatives are strongly encouraged. You are expected to write research proposals for national and international funding organisations. This is a tenure-track position for a period of five years with the possibility of a permanent faculty position at the end of the contract, subject to mutual agreement.

A Tenure Track, a process leading up to a permanent appointment with the prospect of becoming an Associate or Full Professor, offers young, talented academics a clear and attractive career path. During the Tenure Track, you will have the opportunity to develop into an internationally acknowledged and recognised academic. We offer a structured career and personal development programme designed to offer individual academics as much support as possible. For more information about the Tenure Track and the personal development programme, please visit www.tudelft.nl/tenuretrack.

Requirements

You must have a PhD degree in the field of biomedical circuits and systems (BioCAS) and some years of experience as a post-doc or university professor. You have an excellent academic track record, reflected by peer-reviewed journal publications, conference contributions, and international research experience. An affinity for working on the interface with other disciplines (biomedical engineering, neuroscience, electrophysiology, etc.) and with clinicians and medical researchers is preferred. You should have a demonstrated ability to initiate and direct research projects and to obtain external funding. Experience in teaching and mentoring of students is required. A teaching qualification is recommended. Demonstrated ability in written and spoken English is required.

Conditions of employment

A tenure-track position is offered for six years. Based on performance indicators agreed upon at the start of the appointment, a decision will be made by the fifth year whether to offer you a permanent faculty position. The TU Delft offers a customisable compensation package, a discount for health insurance and sport memberships, and a monthly work costs contribution. Flexible work schedules can be arranged. An International Children's Centre offers childcare and an international primary school. Dual Career Services offers support to accompanying partners. Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities. The TU Delft sets specific standards for the English competency of the teaching staff. The TU Delft offers training to improve English competency. Inspiring, excellent education is our central aim. If you have less than five years of experience and do not yet have your teaching certificate, we allow you up to three years to obtain this.

Information and application

For more information about this position, please contact Prof. Wouter Serdijn, e-mail: W.A.Serdijn@tudelft.nl. To apply, please provide a detailed CV, publication list, and a written statement on your research and teaching interests and vision along with a letter of application and the names and contact details of at least three references. Please e-mail your application by 1 December 2016 to L. M. Ophey, Hr-eemcs@tudelft.nl. When applying for this position, please refer to vacancy number EWI2016-38.

Enquiries from agencies are not appreciated.


Boek: Vonken in de meterkast (Eng: Sparks in the meter box)

De schokkende strijd tegen depressie, Parkinson en andere hersenziekten

Ons brein is een meterkast, een netwerk van kabels dat het lichaam van stroom voorziet. Soms ontstaat er kortsluiting - kabels slijten, stoppen slaan door - met hersenziekten als gevolg. Op dat moment kan elektriciteit uitkomst bieden. Depressie, Parkinson en chronische pijn; met een stroomstoot kunnen steeds meer mensen van hun klachten worden afgeholpen.

In Vonken in de meterkast laat Bart Lutters ons kennismaken met de fascinerende wereld van de neurostimulatie; van de allereerste vonk tot de nieuwste wetenschappelijke ontwikkelingen. Wie is er ooit op het idee gekomen om een patiënt onder stroom te zetten? Welke ziektes kunnen er met stroom behandeld worden? En wat doet zo'n stroomstoot eigenlijk met onze hersenen? Vonken in de meterkast gaat over elektrische vissen en op-afstand bestuurbare stieren, robotarmen en gereanimeerde ledematen, maar vooral over hoe stroom ons al duizenden jaren beter maakt.

bart_luttersBart Lutters is zijn artsenopleiding aan het afronden (Selective Utrecht Medical Master) en wordt gefascineerd door alles wat met de hersenen te maken heeft. Hij heeft diverse prijzen gewonnen voor zijn onderzoek naar epilepsie en schrijft regelmatig over de geschiedenis van de geneeskunde in onder andere Brain, het toonaangevende wetenschappelijke tijdschrift op het gebied van de neurowetenschappen.

Vonken in de meterkast is vanaf 14 oktober verkrijgbaar in de betere boekhandel, ook online te bestellen via Bol.com.

Wouter Serdijn (hoogleraar bioelektronica aan de TU Delft) heeft middels interviews aan de inhoud van dit boek bijgedragen.


Best student lecture award Eurosensors

On the closing ceremony of the XXXth Eurosensors Conference, held in Budapest, Hungary from 4 to 7 September, the Best Student Lecture Award was given to: Ronald Stoute et al. �Intravascular Ultrasound at the tip of a guidewire: Concept and first assembly steps� Congratulations to Ronald and his co-authors!


Geert Leus named 2016 EURASIP Fellow

To recognize outstanding achievements in the broad field of Signal Processing, each year the European Association for Signal Processing (EURASIP) elevates a select group of up to maximum four signal processing researchers to "EURASIP Fellow", the Association's most prestigious honor.

The EURASIP Board of Directors (BoD) has awarded prof. Geert Leus as one of the 2016 Fellows, "for contributions to signal processing for communications".

The award consists of a certificate presented during the Opening and Awards Ceremony at EUSIPCO 2016, held in Budapest (Hungary) on August 30, 2016.

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Wouter Serdijn on Dutch radio station Radio 1

In the late evening show "Met het Oog op Morgen" of August 2, Wouter Serdijn comments on the future developments of Bioelectronic Medicine

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Pelin Ayerden has won Best Student Paper Award

Pelin Ayerden (Department of Microelectronics, Electronic Instrumentation Laborabory), who recently received her PhD degree from TU Delft, has won the best student paper award at SPIE Photonics Europe 2016, Micro-Optics Conference. The conference took place from 3 to 7 April in Brussels, Belgium. In her paper "A highly miniaturized NDIR methane sensor" coauthored by G. de Graaf, P. Enoksson and R. F. Wolffenbuttel, she demonstrated the functionality of a compact gas sensor for methane detection.


7 July 2016: Opening of CryoLab for Extremely Sensitive Electronic Measurements

The CryoLab of TU Delft's Faculty of EEMCS has been opened on Thursday 7 July by the dean Rob Fastenau. TU Delft scientists from the Tera-Hertz Sensing Group, Jochem Baselmans and Akira Endo, will be leading a team of young scientists and engineers working in the lab on astronomical instrumentation. The first instrument, DESHIMA (Delft SRON High-redshift Mapper), is being developed to be operated on the ASTE telescope in the Atacama Desert in Chile. The goal of the research is to create 3D charts of so-called submillimetre galaxies that, in contrast to 2D charts, also show distance and time.

The large number of superconducting detectors, and the advanced electronics developed at SRON, allows DESHIMA to map a very large volume of space at once. While Endo leads the development of DESHIMA, Baselmans will soon install the next cryostat for testing novel THz array antennas, that will enable his upcoming instrument MOSAIC to target multiple galaxies at once. In the future, the CryoLab is envisioned to also host new coolers from QuTech. Superconducting electronics used for astronomical instrumentation and quantum electronics have much in common, because they both push the limits of what can be observed.


Rob Remis elected best teacher at EWI

By student election (1700 votes), Rob Remis was elected as best teacher for Fac. EWI in 2016. A decade ago, Rob won already once the title 'Best teacher in EE'. This has now been extended to comprise the full faculty (EE, Mathematics, Computer Science). Later this year, Rob will compete for the title of 'Best teacher of TU Delft'.

The annual election is organised by the student associations of the Faculty (ETV, Christiaan Huygens), based on voting and written motivations.


New Book: Analog IC Design Techniques for Nanopower Biomedical Signal Processing

Description:

As the requirements for low power consumption and very small physical dimensions in portable, wearable and implantable medical devices are calling for integrated circuit design techniques using MOSFETs operating in the subthreshold regime, this book first revisits some well-known circuit techniques that use CMOS devices biased in subthreshold in order to establish nanopower integrated circuit designs. Based on the these findings, this book shows the development of a class-AB current-mode sample-and-hold circuit with an order of magnitude improvement in its figure of merit compared to other state-of-the-art designs. Also, the concepts and design procedures of 1) single-branch filters 2) follower-integrator-based lowpass filters and 3) modular transconductance reduction techniques for very low frequency filters are presented. Finally, to serve the requirement of a very large signal swing in an energy-based action potential detector, a nanopower class-AB current-mode analog multiplier is designed to handle input current amplitudes of more than 10 times the bias current of the multiplier circuit. The invented filter circuits have been fabricated in a standard 0.18 µ CMOS process in order to verify our circuit concepts and design procedures. Their experimental results are reported.

 

Keywords:

Analog integrated circuit, Biomedical electronics, Bionic ear, Bio-potential, CMOS, Current-mode, Cochlear implant, ECG, Filter, Gm-C, Multiplier, Neural recording, Sample-and-hold, Signal processing, Subthreshold, Switched-current, Transconductance reduction, Transconductor, Weak inversion

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FCA & CNHi Award for Alessandro Urso

Alessandro Urso, PhD student Bioelectronics, received an award from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and CNH Industrial for his MSc thesis that has been awarded Summa Cum Laude. The award ceremony was held on the 31st of May in the headquarters of Fiat inTurin, Italy.

Alessandro, formerly MSc student of the University of Ferrara, Italy, did his MSc thesis project on the design of world's most energy efficient multi-channel neurostimulator IC and was supervised by Gianluca Setti (U. Ferrara) and Wouter Serdijn (TU Delft).

Currently, Alessandro is working towards his PhD degree in the Bioelectronics Section of TU Delft.

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OCW Course Analog Integrated Circuit Design largest number of page views in 2015

Analog Integrated Circuit Design (ET4252) is an introductory course in analog circuit synthesis for microelectronic designers.

Topics include: Review of analog design basics; linear and non-linear analog building blocks: harmonic oscillators, (static and dynamic) translinear circuits, wideband amplifiers, filters; physical layout for robust analog circuits; design of voltage sources ranging from simple voltage dividers to high-performance bandgaps, and current source implementations from a single resistor to high-quality references based on negative-feedback structures.

The course coordinator and teacher of the course is Wouter A. Serdijn.

The course can also be downloaded from iTunes University via: https://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/analog-integrated-circuit/id491267057?mt=10

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New project "tASk-cognizant sParse sensing for InfeREnce" approved

STW project by Geert Leus

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Closing Math & Science Class

Students from year 5 of pre-university education have spent 22 weeks attending maths and science lectures on the TU Delft campus. The Math & Science Class 2015-2016 has reached a festive closing on Friday 20 May with a solar-powered boat race in the pool in front of the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering. The 25 participating students, from 12 different secondary schools in the Netherlands, received their certificate from Anka Mulder.

The purpose of the Math & Science Class is to ease the transition from secondary school to university, to increase the participants' problem-solving abilities and to develop their independent research skills. It also introduces the students to the top-class research carried out at TU Delft, through lectures by leading professors such as Arno Smets, Lieven Vandersypen and Ulf Haneveld. During the last weeks of the programme the students have been working in groups to design and build a solar-powered boat.


How can you get a deaf person to hear and a blind person to see again?

Prof. Wouter Serdijn, head of the bioelectronics Department will give the lecture: 'Hoe kun je een dove weer laten horen en een blinde weer laten zien?' (How can you get a deaf person to hear and a blind person to see again?) for the Universiteit van Nederland. This lecture, lasting around 15 minutes, is part of a lecture series on the senses, in which a total of five leading scientists are taking part. The recordings will take place on Tuesday 31 May. Students and staff at TU Delft receive a 25% discount on the ticket price. The lectures will be in Dutch.

For information about tickets please visit the website from the Universiteit van Nederland


Vasso Giagka in Quadraad

This section features stories by two new members of EEMCS staff. This time they are Vasiliki Giagka and Johan Bosman.

Vasiliki GiagkaVasiliki Giagka
Is assistant professor in the Microelectronics department / Bioelectronics group.

Vasiliki Giagka (1984) was born in Athens. After studying Electronic and Computer Engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, she completed her PhD at University College London in 2014. She has been living in Rotterdam since September. It will take her a while to get used to the Netherlands, far away from her friends in London. But she is happy with her bike, which gives her the freedom to go anywhere. Vasiliki Giagka joined the Microelectronics department in September 2015 as one of the three new tenure trackers. This quarter, she is teaching the courses Bioelectricity and Biomedical Engineering. Together with Prof Wouter Serdijn and Dr Reza Lotfi, she is developing a new course on Active Implantable Biomedical Microsystems.
Her research at TU Delft is still in its early stages. She is working on a European project proposal with a large number of partners. It’s an exciting process. In London, she was part of the European ?Neuwalk? project, aimed at repairing the body’s motor functions after serious cases of paraplegia from spinal cord injury. Giagka: ?As part of ?Neuwalk?, I focused on developing low-power flexible implants to repair the motor system.? In her free time, Giagka likes practising yoga and learning new languages. Giagka: ?Language learning expands the mind. Language also reveals a lot about a country’s culture. For example, in Greece, they do not have a good word for the term ?deadline?.? In addition to Greek and English, she has also studied some German, French, Spanish and, now Dutch. Giagka: ?I am currently midway through level A2.?

V.Giagka@tudelft.nl

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Wouter Serdijn receives the 2016 IEEE Circuits and Systems Meritorious Service Award

IEEE CAS award for Wouter Serdijn

Wouter Serdijn (Section Bioelectronics) received from the IEEE Circuits and System Society (CAS) the Meritorious Service Award. This award honors the individual with exceptional long-term service and dedication to the interest of the CAS Society. Wouter Serdijn was awarded for his extraordinary leadership in improving technical quality and organization of IEEE CASS Flagship Conferences, such as the IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems and the IEEE Biomedical Circuits and Systems Conference, and Transactions, in particular the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems.

The award ceremony will be next week in Montreal during the annual ISCAS conference.


New book: Design of Efficient and Safe Neural Stimulators - A Multidisciplinary Approach

About this book:

This book discusses the design of neural stimulator systems which are used for the treatment of a wide variety of brain disorders such as Parkinson?s, depression and tinnitus. Whereas many existing books treating neural stimulation focus on one particular design aspect, such as the electrical design of the stimulator, this book uses a multidisciplinary approach: by combining the fields of neuroscience, electrophysiology and electrical engineering a thorough understanding of the complete neural stimulation chain is created (from the stimulation IC down to the neural cell). This multidisciplinary approach enables readers to gain new insights into stimulator design, while context is provided by presenting innovative design examples.

About the authors:

Marijn N. van Dongen was born in Pijnacker, The Netherlands, in 1984. He received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands, in 2010 and 2015, respectively. His research interests include the design of neural stimulator output circuits as well as the modeling of the electrophysiological and electrochemical processes during electrical stimulation. Currently he is working for NXP Semiconductors, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Dr. van Dongen served as the Financial Chair of the IEEE BioCAS2013 Conference.

Wouter A. Serdijn (M'98, SM'08, F'11) was born in Zoetermeer ('Sweet Lake City'), the Netherlands, in 1966. He received the M.Sc. (cum laude) and Ph.D. degrees from Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands, in 1989 and 1994, respectively. Currently, he is full professor of bioelectronics at Delft University of Technology, where he heads the Section Bioelectronics. His research interests include low-voltage, ultra-low-power and ultra wideband integrated circuits and systems for biosignal conditioning and detection, neuroprosthetics, transcutaneous wireless communication, power management and energy harvesting as applied in, e.g., hearing instruments, cardiac pacemakers, cochlear implants, neurostimulators, portable, wearable, implantable and injectable medical devices and electroceuticals.
He is co-editor and co-author of 9 books, 8 book chapters and more than 300 scientific publications and presentations. He teaches Circuit Theory, Analog Signal Processing, Micropower Analog IC Design and Bioelectronics. He received the Electrical Engineering Best Teacher Award in 2001, 2004 and 2015. Wouter A. Serdijn is an IEEE Fellow, an IEEE Distuingished Lecturer and a Mentor of the IEEE.

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New project "Earlier recognition of cardiovascular diseases" approved

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a progressive disease and associated with severe complications such as stroke. Early treatment of AF is of paramount importance as it inhibits disease progression from the treatable (recurrent intermittent) to the untreatable (permanent) stage of AF. However, early treatment is seriously hampered by lack of accurate diagnostic instruments to recognize patients who will develop new onset AF or progress to a severer form of the disease.

The goal of this project is to develop age and gender based, bio-electrical diagnostic tests, the invasive and non-invasive AF Fingerprint, which consists of electrical atrial signal profiles and levels of atrial specific tissue/blood biomarkers. In daily clinical practice, this novel diagnostic instrument can be used for early recognition or progression of AF by determination of stage of the electropathology. As such, AF Fingerprinting enables optimal AF treatment, thereby improving patient?s outcome.

The project is a collaboration between Erasmus University (Dept. Cardiology), VU Medical Center (Dept. Physiology), and TU Delft (Sections CAS and Bioelectronics), and will fund 4 PhD students.


2016 IEEE Biomedical Circuits and Systems Conference (BioCAS 2016), Oct. 17-19 | Shanghai, China

IEEE BioCAS is a premier international forum for researchers and engineers to present their state-of-the-art multidisciplinary research and development activities at the frontiers of medicine, life sciences, and engineering. The conference will enable members of circuits and systems communities to broaden their knowledge in emerging areas of research at the interface of the life sciences and engineering.

BioCAS 2016 comprises invited talks on cutting-edge development, insightful tutorials in engineering and medicine, demonstrations, and technical sessions. The three-day program of BioCAS 2016 is multidisciplinary in topics including but not limited to:

  • Bio-inspired and Neuromorphic Circuits and Systems
  • Bio-medical Sensors and Interfacing Circuits
  • Biomedical Imaging Technologies & Image Processing
  • Electronics for Brain Science
  • Genomics and Systems Biology
  • Implantable and Wearable Devices and Systems
  • Internet of Things (IoT) for Healthcare
  • Innovative Circuits for Medical Applications
  • Lab-on-Chip/BioMEMS/Point-of care Devices
  • Medical Information Systems and Bioinformatics
  • Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies
  • Signal Processing Systems for Bio-medical Applications
  • Therapeutic Devices and Closed-loop Systems
  • Wireless and Energy Harvesting/Scavenging Technology

Call for Papers

The complete 4-page paper (in standard IEEE double-column format), including the title, authors' names, aliations and e-mail addresses, as well as a short abstract and an optional demonstration video link (3 minutes max) are requested during submission. Papers must be submitted electronically in PDF format through http://www.biocas2016.org.

Important dates:

  • Special Session Proposal Due: June 5, 2016
  • Paper Submission Due: June 15, 2016
  • Demonstration Proposal Due: July 31, 2016
  • Author Notication Date: August 31, 2016
  • Author Registration Date: September 15, 2016
  • Conference Dates: October 17-19, 2016
  • Post Conference Workshop Dates: October 20-21, 2016

Highlights:

Selected BioCAS2016 papers will be published in the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems Special Issue.

BrainCAS, a 2-day post conference workshop, will be held in Hangzhou (a beautiful city near Shanghai) from Oct. 20-21, 2016. More details of BrainCAS will be available in BioCAS2016 website soon.


Else Kooi Award for PhD candidate Tera-Hertz Sensing Group

On March 23, 2016 the Else Kooi Award has been awarded to dr. Waqas Syed. The Award Ceremony took place on the yearly congress in Amersfoort (The Netherlands). During the ceremony Syed held a presentation "On the Control of Surface Waves in Integrated Antennas". The chair of the Else Kooi Award foundation professor dr. ing. B. Nauta presented the Award to Syed.

Dr Waqas Syed has been granted the Award for his scientific research on the analysis and design of artificial dielectric layers, and their application to advanced antenna and antenna array structures. Waqas Syed obtained his PhD in June 2015 at the Tera Hertz Sensing Group of the EEMCS Faculty, Delft University of Technology.

The Else Kooi Award is an annual award for young researchers in the field of applied semiconductor research conducted in the Netherlands. The award comes with a prize of 5,000 euros.

The judging-committee was very impressed of Syed's publication track record. They said: "The research by Dr Syed is characterized by an excellent analytical insight in the properties of electromagnetically engineered materials. These novel materials are easy to realize and they will enable the design of cost-effective planar antennas/antenna arrays for the automotive radar industry, satellite communications and high speed Terabit Communication".

Contact For more information please contact Prof. Edoardo Charbon from the Else Kooi Award foundation: phone +31 (0)15 278 36 67, email: e.charbon@tudelft.nl


Cum Laude for MS3 masterstudent Joris Derksen

A short description of his topic Radars are vital systems for the navy as they are the primary systems for the detection, tracking and sometimes classification of friendly and hostile targets. It is therefore important that navies can assess the radar?s performance under the prevailing conditions. The atmosphere can significantly alter the radar?s performance from standard. Nowadays computer models can fairly accurately predict radar performance if sufficient atmospheric input data is available. While many studies are dedicated to accurately model radar performance, little has yet been done to define how accurate and how high in resolution atmospheric data must be to suffice as input for accurate radar performance prediction. My study takes preliminary steps into finding horizontal and temporal resolution requirements for different weather conditions. The study I will present will be particular of interest to the Royal Netherlands Navy as they currently predict radar performance with a single vertical profile and thereby assume that the atmosphere is horizontally homogenous. My thesis clearly shows that using a single profile can result in erroneous radar performance predictions. In these cases 3D dimensional data is required, which, for example, numerical weather prediction models can obtain.


Prof. Sarro appointed Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy (OSI) by the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella

On March 14, the Italian ambassador, Francesco Azzarello, presented the award to Prof. Sarro at the Italian embassy in The Hague, in the presence of the Rector, Prof Karel Luyben, and the Dean of the EEMCS faculty, Prof Rob Fastenau.

�the Order of the Italian Star rewards Italian people who distinguish themselves abroad and deepen relations between Italy and other countries. Prof Sarro was elevated in recognition of her academic merits and prestigious achievements�


New book by Amir Zjajo: Brain-Machine Interface

low-power analog front-end circuits for brain signal conditioning and quantization and digital back-end circuits for signal detection

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Michel Antolovic granted PicoQuant Young Investor Award

On February 14, 2016, Michel Antolovic was granted the prestigious PicoQuant Young Investigator Award at Photonics West in San Francisco for his paper titled 'Analyzing blinking effects in super resolution localization microscopy with single-photon SPAD imagers�. The paper shows the first localization super resolution images obtained with a SPAD camera. The analysis includes specific timing properties of fluorescing molecules in vitro with unprecedented accuracy thanks to one of the world�s single-photon fastest cameras that was created in the AQUA laboratory. The timing properties are aimed to be used for optimizing fluorophore blinking or separation of fluorophores, enabling multichannel super resolved imaging.


Happy 2016!

Here are some pictures of the New Year Reception of the Microelectronics department

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Research into the Universe

'We could discover something that could change our whole view of the Universe'

Astronomer Dr Akira Endo is working on a brand-new measuring instrument that should lead to great improvements in how astronomers study the most active galaxies. This new spectrometer, named DESHIMA, could give us insights into the origins of stars and galaxies. We talked to this ambitious Japanese scientist from the Tera Hertz Sensing Research group at the faculty of EEMCS about key moments in his scientific career.

Read the whole interview with Akira Endo in the Staff Magazine 'Quadraad'of the faculty of EEMCS in December 2015.

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Waqas H. Syed wins 2016 Else Kooi Award

The 2016 Else Kooi Award has been granted to Dr W.H. Syed for his scientific research on the analysis and design of artificial dielectric layers, and their application to advanced antenna and antenna array structures. The Else Kooi Award is an annual award for young researchers in the field of applied semiconductor research conducted in the Netherlands. The award comes with a prize of 5,000 euros.

Waqas Syed obtained his PhD in June 2015 at the Delft University of Technology at the faculty of Electrical Engineering Mathematics and Computer Science. Being part of the Tera Hertz Sensing Group, his promotor was Professor A. Neto and his supervisor Dr D. Cavallo.

The research by Dr Syed is characterized by an excellent mix of analytical insight in the properties of artificial dielectric layers (ADL), synthesis of innovative antenna concepts which exploit ADLs, development of the technology needed to process these structures and accurate experimental characterization. The practical relevance of the strong suppression of surface-wave effects enabled by the use of ADLs is high, both in the field of communication and in the applications of THz radiation. His publication track record is outstanding.

Syed will receive the award during a special ceremony on Wednesday 23 March at the ICT.OPEN symposium. The exact time of the award ceremony and presentation of Waqas Syed is 11.30 � 12.30 in the SAFE and ProRISC track. For more information please contact Prof. Edoardo Charbon from the Else Kooi Award foundation: Phone +31 (0)15 278 36 67, email: e.charbon@tudelft.nl

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BE/ELCA Christmas Lunch

17 Dec 2015 The annual Christmas lunch with international dishes prepared by MSc and PhD students


Paddy French, named 2016 IEEE Fellow

Piscataway, New Jersey, USA, January 2016: Paddy French, Prof, dr. from Delft, The Netherlands has been named an IEEE Fellow. He is being recognized: for contributions to micro-electromechanical devices and systems. The IEEE Grade of Fellow is conferred by the IEEE Board of Directors upon a person with an outstanding record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest. The total number selected in any one year cannot exceed one-tenth of one- percent of the total voting membership. IEEE Fellow is the highest grade of membership and is recognized by the technical community as a prestigious honor and an important career achievement. He has been working in the field of sensors since 1982 and has had more than 500 publications in international journals and conferences. He has been active in many journals and conferences over the years. He has been a supporter of IEEE conferences as co-chair of IEEE MEMS and three times programme chair of IEEE Sensors.

Piscataway, New Jersey, USA, January 2016: Paddy French, Prof, dr. from Delft, The Netherlands has been named an IEEE Fellow. He is being recognized: for contributions to micro-electromechanical devices and systems. The IEEE Grade of Fellow is conferred by the IEEE Board of Directors upon a person with an outstanding record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest. The total number selected in any one year cannot exceed one-tenth of one- percent of the total voting membership. IEEE Fellow is the highest grade of membership and is recognized by the technical community as a prestigious honor and an important career achievement.

He has been working in the field of sensors since 1982 and has had more than 500 publications in international journals and conferences. He has been active in many journals and conferences over the years. He has been a supporter of IEEE conferences as co-chair of IEEE MEMS and three times programme chair of IEEE Sensors.


How do you become Best Lecturer of TU Delft?

On 26th November, the Best Lecturer of the year 2015 was chosen. 8 nominees, one from each faculty, competed for the prize. But how do you ?become? lecturer of the year of lecturer or your faculty? How does the lecturer of the year differentiates him or herself from the other lecturers? Is the interaction with the students different and what is the ?Golden tip??

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Andrea Neto, named 2016 IEEE Fellow

Piscataway, New Jersey, USA, December 2016: Andrea Neto, Professor, from Delft, The Netherlands has been named an IEEE Fellow. He is being recognized for contributions to dielectric lens antennas and wideband arrays.

The IEEE Grade of Fellow is conferred by the IEEE Board of Directors upon a person with an outstanding record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest. The total number selected in any one year cannot exceed one-tenth of one- percent of the total voting membership. IEEE Fellow is the highest grade of membership and is recognized by the technical community as a prestigious honor and an important career achievement.

He performed revolutionary research in the analysis and design of antennas, with emphasis on arrays, and dielectric lens antennas, largely in the field of THz front ends. Andrea Neto (M�00�SM�10) received the Laurea degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Florence, Italy, in 1994, and the Ph.D. degree in electromagnetics from the University of Siena, Italy, in 2000.

He has served as associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation and IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters. He is member of the Technical Board of the European School of Antennas. In 2011 he was awarded the European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant to perform research on Advanced Antenna Architectures for THz Sensing Systems. In February 2010 he has been appointed Full Professor of Applied Electromagnetism at the Technical University of Delft, the Netherlands. He is now part of the Microelectronics Department. He formed, and now leads the THz Sensing Group.

The IEEE is the world�s leading professional association for advancing technology for humanity. Through its 400,000 members in 160 countries, the IEEE is a leading authority on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics.

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Nikolas Gaio has won Best Student Paper Award

Nikolas Gaio, PhD of the Electronics Components, Technology Materials Group has won the Best Student Paper Award on the IEEE Sensor 2015 Conference in Busan (South Korea)1-4 November 2015

The title of his paper is: Upside-down Carbon Nanotube (CNT) Micro-electrode Array (MEA), other authors are: B. van Meer, C. Silvestri, S. Pakazad, S. Vollebregt, C.L. Mummery, R. Dekker.


PhD thesis Organic Materials Degradation in Solid State Lightning Applications

Congratulations to Maryam Yazdan Mehr for her PhD thesis defense on November 23, 2015

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TU Delft Female Fellowship Tenure Track Openings

Academic openings at all professor levels

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The direct growth of carbon nanotubes as vertical interconnects in 3D integrated circuits

An article of Ryoichi Ishihara and Sten Vollebregt from the ECTM group of the Microelectronics Department has been published in the magazine Carbon on September 30 2015. Ishihara and Vollebregt managed to integrate for the first time carbon nanotubes with transistors. They demonstrated that these processes are compatible with each other.

Project information

Read the article

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QuTech enters in collaboration with Intel

Intel and QuTech, the quantum institute of TU Delft and TNO, have finalised plans for a ten-year intensive collaboration, along with financial support for QuTech totalling approximately $50 million.

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ISCAS 2015 Keynote Presentation Ronald Dekker online

Ronald Dekker's Keynote: ?From Chips for the Living to Living Chips?

Micro-fabricated devices are finding their way to the frontend of medical equipment, where they are the interface between body, or in general living tissue, and machine. They enable better and cheaper diagnostic equipment, they add ?eyes and ears? to minimally invasive instruments such as laparoscopic instruments and catheters, they allow for un-obtrusive monitoring of body functions, they add functionality to implants, and they enable the development of better and personalized medicines. Despite their great promise it has been proven difficult to bring these devices out of the laboratory phase into production. One of the reasons is the lack of a suitable fabrication infrastructure. Much more than standard CMOS or MEMS devices, these medical devices rely on the processing of novel materials, especially polymers, in combination with advanced molding, micro-fluidics, and assembly technologies. At the same time these devices have to be fabricated under strict quality control conditions in a certified production environment.

In the recently granted ECSEL project ?InForMed? a supply chain for the pilot fabrication of these medical devices is organized, which brings together key European technology partners in an integrated infrastructure linking research to pilot and high volume production. The pilot line is hosted by Philips Innovation Services, and open to third party users.

Speaker Biography:

Ronald Dekker received his MSc in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University of Eindhoven and his PhD from the Technical University of Delft. He joined Philips Research in 1988 where he worked on the development of RF technologies for mobile communication. Since 2000 his focus shifted to the integration of complex electronic sensor functionality on the tip of the smallest minimal invasive instruments such as catheters and guide-wires. In 2007 he was appointed part time professor at the Technical University of Delft with a focus on Organ-on-Chip devices. He published in leading Journals and conferences and holds in excess of 50 patents.

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New STW project: "Good vibrations"

Today STW announced that Rob's proposal "Good Vibrations" in the Open Technology Program will receive funding. The project will utilize the power of so-called Krylov subspace reduction techniques and develop solution methodologies for wave field problems in complex media.

The project will fund 1 PhD student: Jorn Zimmerling.

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Wouter Serdijn on BNR Eye Openers

Listen here for the recording.

The broadcast has been repeated on: Friday, July 10, at 19:30 hrs, Saturday, July 11 at 9:00 and 15:30 hrs and Sunday, July 12, at 9:00 and 18:30 hrs; also via the App.

Host of Eyeopeners is Marijke Roskam.

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PhD thesis Stretchable Micro-Electrode Arrays for Electrophysiology

Congratulations to Saeed Khoshfetrat Pakazad for his PhD thesis defense on June 15, 2015

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Wouter Serdijn Teacher of the Year 2014-2015

Rationale behind his award is that Wouter Serdijn is "a good lecturer, is involved with his students and conducts important research himself".

This is actually not the first time that Wouter got elected Teacher of the Year. In 2001 and 2004 he already won the cup. This, however, is the first time that he also has been elected Teacher of the Year for the whole faculty, a new distinction that was established in 2012.

Wouter Serdijn is professor in Biomedical Circuits and Systems and heads the Bioelectronics Section at EEMCS.

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ISCAS 2015 in Lisbon a big success

Franco Maloberti, President Elect of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society mentioned as highlights of the conference:

- The excellent location and organization: "Let me congratulate the General Chairs, Technical Program Chairs and organizing staff with the perfect flow of things and outstanding service to our community";

- Good participation to sessions and good quality of papers;

- Beneficial socialization during coffee breaks and social events; and

- Very successful side events (Special events, John Choma Commemoration, PhD Gold Young Professional, Women in CAS, Conference Leadership).


Wouter Serdijn No. 12 in Vrij Nederland's Nerd 101

Wouter Serdijn (head of the Bioelectronics Section at Delft University of Technology) ended up No. 2 in the category "wearables". To him, wearables are just an intermediate station in the journey into implantables. A special kind of implantables, called "electroceuticals" will complement traditional pharmaceuticals and will help treating patients that suffer from neurological disorders better. On June 10, an item about him and his work appeared in Vrij Nederland. Together with 10 other nerds he ended no. 12 in VN's Nerd 101, the shortlist of the 101 most interesting technologists, inventors and botchers of the Netherlands.

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Leo de Vreede most entrepreneurial TU Delft scientist

During the annual YES!Delft Network Event on 18 May, the Delft Entrepreneurial Scientist Awards (DESA) were presented for researchers who encourage entrepreneurship. Dr Leo de Vreede of the Department of Microelectronics (EEMCS) was named the most entrepreneurial scientist at TU Delft.

Leo de Vreede is an associate professor at the Electronics Research Laboratory. In 2010, he founded the company Anteverta-mw. Building on the knowledge from his PhD research, the company developed a device that drastically accelerates and improves continuity testing of base stations for mobile telephony. As a result, data transfer is improved and energy consumption reduced. The TU Delft spin-off was taken over earlier this year by the American company Maury Microwave Corporation.

Jury chairman and President of the Executive Board Dirk Jan van den Berg praised De Vreede for his involvement with many spin-off companies and patent requests. The scientists received �valorisation bonuses� of �15,000 and �5,000 respectively.


Delftse promovendus ontwikkelt volgende generatie neurostimulator

Marijn van Dongen is vandaag aan de TU Delft gepromoveerd op het chipontwerp voor een neurostimulator die klein genoeg is om in de schedel aan te brengen, dicht bij de plek waar gestimuleerd moet worden. Normaal gesproken worden neurostimulatoren uitgevoerd in de vormfactor van een pacemaker; vanwege hun afmetingen worden ze in de borst ge?mplanteerd en via onderhuidse draden verbonden met de elektroden in het hersenweefsel. Deze leads zijn echter gevoelig voor slijtage.

De batterij is echter een beperkende factor bij het miniaturiseren van deze apparaten. Daarom zocht de promovendus naar alternatieve stimulatiescenario?s die minder energie gebruiken. Uit simulaties en in vitro-proeven bleek het gebruik van hoogfrequente series stroompulsjes een veelbelovende aanpak. Dit soort pulsjes kunnen op een energie-effici?nte manier worden opgewekt dankzij het principe van een geschakelde voeding; een prototype van de neurostimulator was een factor drie zuiniger dan de huidige stimulatoren. Bovendien kan de pulsgebaseerde aanpak verschillende doelen tegelijkertijd activeren en daarmee de doelmatigheid van de behandeling verhogen.

De onderzoekers denken dat kleinere stimulatoren uiteindelijk breder ingezet kunnen worden. Op het moment wordt neurostimulatie vaak nog gezien als laatste redmiddel bij chronische aandoeningen als Parkinson, depressie, pijn en tinnitus. Er is echter nog een scala aan andere mogelijke toepassingen, zoals zoals epilepsie, verslavingen, migraine en dementie.

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Congratulations to Prof. dr. Sarro with her royal honour

Professor Lina Sarro, professor of micro-electronics at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, has been made a Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion, in The Hague.

She received the award because of her original research that resulted in a large scientific body of work and because of her in-depth involvement with her many students. Her pioneering work in the 1980s in the field of infrared sensors led to international acclaim. Since 1987, she has been in charge of research into micro and nanosystems (MEMS and NEMS) at the Else Kooi Lab, which was known previously as the Dimes Institute for Microsystems and Nanoelectronics.

Professor Sarro has published more than 200 articles in scientific journals and has received awards for her work on several occasions. In 2004, she received the Eurosensors Fellow Award, in 2007 the AISEM Career Award, and in 2012 the IEEE Sensors Council Meritorious Award. She is also a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. She has been praised on account of both her scientific work and her unfailing commitment to providing teaching of a high standard.

To her students, from both inside and outside the Netherlands, she is a figurehead. This applies perhaps in particular to female students and academics. In 2005, Professor Sarro became the first female to join the TU Delft Council of Professors. She is dedicated to emphasising the role of female scientists, in the conviction that it is a waste to use only half of our scientific assets. Her outstanding scientific reputation ensures that her voice is heard in this, and in other issues.


Sundeep Chepuri wins ICASSP Best Student Paper Award

The ICASSP paper "SPARSE SENSING FOR DISTRIBUTED GAUSSIAN DETECTION" by Sundeep Chepuri and Geert Leus won the best student paper award. This is quite a prestegious achievement. Congratulations!

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PhD Student Huizhen Qian wins Best Paper Award

Miss. Huizhen Qian won the Best Paper Award (1st Place) from her paper entitled as "A 3.5-9.5 GHz Compact Digital Power Amplifier with 39.3% Peak PAE in 40nm CMOS Technology" at the International Wireless Symposium (IWS) 2015, IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-s).

The Award was presented to Huizhen and Dr. Xun Luo by IWS General-Chair Prof. Patrick Yue, Associate Provost for Knowledge Transfer, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and IWS TPC-Chair Dr. Morgan Chen from Nokia Technologies.

Congratulations!


Else Kooi Award ceremony at ICT Open

Professor Charbon, dr Daniele Raiteri and professor Nauta

The 2015 Else Kooi Award has been granted to Dr Daniele Raiteri for his scientific research on Technology-Aware Circuit Design for Smart Sensors on Plastic Foils. The Else Kooi Award is an annual award for young researchers in the field of applied semiconductor research conducted in the Netherlands. The award comes with a prize of 5,000 euros.

Raiteri has received the award during a special ceremony at the ICT.OPEN symposium on March 25th. The award was presented by the board of the Else Kooi Award foundation professor Nauta, chair of the foundation (TU Twente) and professor Edoardo Charbon. Edoardo Charbon from the microelectronics department of the EEMCS faculty holds the position of secretary of the Else Kooi Award Foundation.

Dr Raiteri?s research is focused on organic semiconductors. This emerging technology has specific features which severely complicate the design of circuits and systems, such as low transconductance, gain and speed, as well as high component variability. Dr Raiteri has devised several new solutions that have shown to be extremely robust to variability, achieving significantly better gain-bandwidth products in amplifiers and exceptional signal-to-noise ratios in voltage-controlled oscillators.

Photos by: Thijs ter Hart

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Article in Defensie magazine Materieelgezien

An article about the annual meeting of the Platform Nederland Radarland (NLRL), which was attended by the MS3 group, published in the Materieelgezien a magazine of the Dutch Ministry of Defence.

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Nuria Llombart awarded by ERC grant

The European Research Council has awarded associate professor Nuria Llombart Juan of the Tera Hertz Sensing group a prestigious starting grant (1.5 million euros) for her research proposal �Lens antenna arrays for THz coherent cameras�.

The THz region was, traditionally, limited to applications in radio astronomy and space science. In recent years, THz systems have expanded into many more areas of science, defense, security, and non-destructive industrial applications. Microwave based THz cameras have demonstrated the highest sensitivity at large distances. However, their current state of the art is comparable to the first analog photographic cameras characterized by long exposition times. Two fundamental problems have to be addressed to change this situation: technologically, there is the lack of integrated coherent arrays with high power and sensitivity; and theoretically, a field representation to characterize analytically these systems is missing.

�I propose to tackle the technological problem by exploiting the coherency between small antenna arrays coupled to actuated lenses to overcome the sensitivity problem and achieve instantaneous refocusing (i.e. zooming). The proposed antenna technology is based on a recent breakthrough that I pioneered: micro-lenses excited by leaky waves with seamless integration in silicon technology. This antenna enables the fabrication of large fly�s eye cameras in just two wafers, and promises one order of magnitude better scanning performances than previous solutions. An analytical model to investigate the electromagnetic response of coherent THz arrays is the enabling tool for optimizing the camera performances. I will develop this tool by combining advance spectral antenna techniques with coherent Fourier Optics. This model will not only be used in new beamforming techniques, but also for the characterization of future THz telecommunication links.�

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New STW project: "SuperGPS"

Gerard Janssen acquired, with his colleagues Jeroen Koelemeij (VU Amsterdam, PI) and Christian Tiberius (CiTG), a new STW project called SuperGPS.

The project addresses the problem that currently, GPS is not sufficiently accurate and reliable to enable autonomous driving. The central question is: "?How do we realize highly accurate and reliable positioning using extremely accurate time-frequency reference signals, distributed through hybrid optical-wireless networks??.

The project aims at a hybrid optical-wireless system for accurate positioning, navigation, and network synchronization, to complement or even replace satellite navigation technology. This system is accomplished through a terrestrial grid of radio antenna ?pseudolites?, synchronized with extreme accuracy through the fiber-optic telecommunications network. The key deliverable of the project is a pilot demonstration of SuperGPS technology under real-life circumstances.

The technology will be developed with support and feedback from potential users in telecommunications (Royal KPN N.V.), mobility (TNO and Volvo), and Dutch high-tech manufacturers, as well as stakeholders from the scientific and R&D community, including the Dutch metrology institute VSL, the Dutch ?keepers of atomic time? UTC, and physicists and astronomers in need of better time and frequency signals.

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Best paper award for Amir, Carlo and Rene

Amir Zjajo, Carlo Galuzzi and Rene van Leuken won the Best Paper Award for the paper "Noise Analysis of Programmable Gain Analog to Digital Converter for Integrated Neural Implant Front End" at the International Conference on Biomedical Electronics and Devices (Biodevices 2015; Rome, Italy).

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Jochem Baselmans awarded by ERC grant

The European Research Council has awarded SRON researchers Jochem Baselmans, visiting professor of the Tera Hertz Sensing group (2.4 million euros) and Peter Jonker (2 million euros) prestigious research grants for independent groundbreaking research. Jonker will chase intermediate-mass black holes to find out if they really exist. Baselmans will develop a revolutionary instrument to measure the redshift of submillimeter galaxies, distant galaxies that are responsible for the cosmic infrared background radiation.

Baselmans and Jonker have both been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant that enables top researchers to consolidate their independent research program and/or research group. With this funding instrument the ERC wants to strengthen new excellent research. Baselmans and Jonker can use this European grant to appoint new and highly promising researchers over the next five years.

Source and more information:
Sron Netherlands Institute for Space Research

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PhD thesis Liquid-Si Technology for High-Speed Circuits on Flexible Substrates

Congratulations to Jin Zhang for her PhD thesis defense on January 26, 2015

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L3SPAD honored

The STW HTSM "L3SPAD: A Single-Photon, Time-Resolved Image Sensor for Low-Light-Level Vision" program has received funding. The program is led by Edoardo Charbon.

Description

Low-light-level (LLL) image sensors have been receiving great attention because they have various applications ranging from fluorescence microscopy to automotive sensing, from safety monitoring to 3D vision for robots. Traditionally, however, LLL image sensors have been used for military purposes because of their prohibitive costs. The appearance of monolithic solid-state complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) processes for the design and fabrication of photon counting image sensors has paved the way to enable low-cost and high-performance LLL image sensors. In this project, we will realize a gated 1.3Mpixel photon-counting image sensor in a standard CMOS process. The target sensor, with high timing resolution, low noise, and high photon detection efficiency, is the perfect candidate to meet all these technical and cost specifications.?

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10 years of BioCAS, the Biomedical Circuits and Systems Symposium


Alexander Yarovoy, Named 2015 IEEE Fellow

Prof. Alexander Yarovoy, DSc., from Delft University of Technology has been named an IEEE Fellow. He is being recognized for his work on ultra-wideband imaging for ground penetrating radar and microwave scanners.

The IEEE Grade of Fellow is conferred by the IEEE Board of Directors upon a person with an outstanding record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest. The total number selected in any one year cannot exceed one-tenth of one- percent of the total voting membership. IEEE Fellow is the highest grade of membership and is recognized by the technical community as a prestigious honor and an important career achievement.


Best MSc student of TU Delft

This afternoon, Jorn Zimmerling won the competition for best MSc student of TU Delft of this year. Jorn was an MSc student of Rob Remis and Paul Urbach, and is now a PhD student with Rob at CAS.

TU Delft news article (in dutch)

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Taco Kindt, Cees-Jeroen Bes and Hossein Tajeddin win 2nd prize in Proof-It Award contest

During the Proof-It Awards session of Medical Delta at the Border Sessions, Nov. 12 in The Hague, The Netherlands, the team of FetalStar (Taco Kindt, Cees Jeroen Bes (Section Bioelectronics) and Hossein Tajeddin (HealtTech)) won the 2nd prize. Congratulations! The 2nd prize will allow them to continue working on their revolutionary fetal ECG monitoring concept and bring it closer to a prototype.


Farewell symposium Prof. dr. Kees Beenakker

On the 11th November the 'Prof. Beenakker Symposium' was held to say farewell to Kees Beenakker, which became emeritus. The speakers of the symposium consisted of guests from industry and academia: NWO, Tsinghua University, Philips Lightning, Boschman BV and TU Delft, and was attended by many guests and students.

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QuTech appointed as 'national icon'

The Ministery of Economic Affairs has named 4 innovations as 'national icon'; QuTech is one of them. "National icons are innovations which generate future welfare and help to solve mondial problems." The icons will receive a national support podium, including a minister or secretary of state as ambassador.

In the Department of Microelectronics, prof. Edoardo Charbon and dr. Ryochi Isihara are 2 of the 5 EWI faculty members directly involved in QuTech.

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MP Jan Vos visits PARSAX

On Friday 7 November, Jan Vos, MP for the PvdA, visited the TU Delft Climate Institute. The theme of the visit was climate change, TU Delft's research and the usefulness of and need for climate monitoring. The programme included a demonstration of cloud simulations in the Virtual Lab and a visit to the PARSAX radar. Thanks to the rain, it was possible to obtain good live measurements.


IEEE Sensors 2014 best paper awards

Congratulations to Cinzia and Ronald for getting the IEEE Sensors best paper awards in topic 1 and 8!


Albert Theuwissen honored with European SEMI Award 2014

Albert Theuwissen, CEO of Harvest Imaging and professor at Delft University of Technology, is the recipient of the European SEMI Award 2014. The Award, which recognizes Theuwissen�s outstanding contribution to the continuing education of engineers, was presented during the SEMICON Europa Executive Summit in Grenoble today.

Albert Theuwissen is professor at the Electronics Instrumentation Laboratory of Delft University of Technology. He is a highly regarded specialist in solid-state image sensors and digital imaging. He worked for nearly 20 years at Philips Research and then at DALSA in lead engineering and management roles. In 2001, Theuwissen became a part-time professor at Delft University of Technology. In 1995, he wrote the textbook �Solid-State Imaging with Charge-Coupled Devices� which is now a standard reference work in the field of solid-state imaging.

After �retiring� in 2007, Theuwissen founded Harvest Imaging and has played a major role in the continuing education of engineers in the field of solid-state imaging and digital cameras. He has taught and trained over 3,000 engineers at image sensor companies (such as Kodak, Sony, Samsung, Aptina, ST Microelectronics, Micron, Intel, Philips, Canon, DALSA, and Panasonic) and consumer product companies (such as Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, Motorola, Siemens, Research InMotion, Thomson, and many others). In addition, he has conducted short courses at IEEE�s IEDM, ISSCC, ICIP and SPIE�s Electronic Imaging Conference.

Solid-state image sensors such as the Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) and CMOS Image Sensor (CIS) are complex electron devices. About one billion image sensor chips are fabricated and sold each year and represent a multi-billion dollar per year IC business segment. Understanding the fabrication and device physics operation of these devices is difficult and is rarely taught in universities at either the undergraduate or graduate level.

Solid-state image sensors such as the Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) and CMOS Image Sensor (CIS) are complex electron devices. About one billion image sensor chips are fabricated and sold each year and represent a multi-billion dollar per year IC business segment. Understanding the fabrication and device physics operation of these devices is difficult and is rarely taught in universities at either the undergraduate or graduate level.

�Albert recognized the need for technical education and created a successful continuing education offering that navigates and conforms to the competitive and proprietary IP environment, benefitting thousands of electron-device engineers and also the industry,� said Heinz Kundert, president of SEMI Europe. �It is an honor to recognize Albert for his outstanding contributions to the European semiconductor and microsystems industry.�

The European SEMI Award was established more than two decades ago to recognize individuals and teams who made a significant contribution to the European semiconductor and related industries. Prior award recipients hailed from these companies: Infineon, Semilab, Deutsche Solar, STMicroelectronics, IMEC, Fraunhofer Institute, and more.


Wouter Serdijn at the Border Sessions 2014; the international technology festival

As part of the Crossing Borders Festival in The Hague, Wouter Serdijn will give a talk on the Future of Implantable Technology at the Border Sessions, Nov. 12, 13:00 hrs.

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Xun Luo's paper top downloaded in IEEE Tr. MTT

Xun Luo's paper co-authored with Dr. Sheng Sun is ranked as the no.1 most downloaded paper of IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, according to the most recent monthly usage statistics.

"Tunable Bandpass Filter With Two Adjustable Transmission Poles and Compensable Coupling", Xun Luo, Sheng Sun, Bogdan Staszewski, Sept. 2014

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Vacancy: assistant professor in bioelectronics

In the Section Bioelectronics of Delft University of Technology, there is an opening for a tenure track position in bioelectronics.

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Fast and inexpensive roll-to-roll manufacturing of silicon transistors on plastic films

The research of Dr. Ishihara on the low temperature fabrication of flexible electronics on plastics is featured in this quarter's edition of the Delft Outlook.

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Cees-Jeroen Bes and Wouter Serdijn on Dutch TV station RTL4

On Sept. 25, the RTL4 TV program "Editie NL" made a news item on chipping humans. Cees-Jeroen Bes and Wouter Serdijn offered a glimpse into the future.

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PhD thesis A Systematic Approach to Address the Reliability of Solid State Lighting Drivers

Congratulations to Sima Tarashioon for her PhD thesis defense on September 18, 2014

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PhD thesis Thermal Management of Solid State Lighting Module

Congratulations to Huaiyu Ye for his PhD thesis defense on September 10, 2014

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PhD thesis SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors with Schottky collector contacts

Congratulations to Gianpaolo Lorito for his PhD thesis defense on September 9, 2014


Board of Directors of EURASIP

On Sep 1, Alle-Jan was elected as incoming member of the Board of Directors of EURASIP, with a 4-year term starting 1 January 2015. EURASIP is the European Signal Processing association.

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An electronic eye on the children

Article in Vrij Nederland (in Dutch), d. Aug. 2, by Marjolein van Trigt about Child Tracking. In there, Wouter Serdijn explains the possibilities, impossibilities and implications of an implantable RFID child tracker. Lees meer op: http://www.vn.nl/Archief/Samenleving/Artikel-Samenleving/Een-elektronisch-oogje-op-de-kinderen.htm#

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Micromachined nanoreactors fabricated in DIMES enable the study of catalyst dynamics under industrial operating conditions

A unique collaboration between microsystems technology specialists of the ETCM group of the Microelectronics Department of TU Delft and catalyst researchers from industry (Haldor Topsoe, Albemarle Corporation) and universities (TU Delft, Leiden) has led to an innovative method to study catalyst dynamics under industrial operating conditions.

The process uses a technique called high-resolution electron microscopy to monitor atomic changes in the catalyst structure during the catalytic process. Unlike conventional electron microscopy, which has considerable pressure and temperature limitations, this new technique allows scientists to view these reactions under real-life (in-situ) conditions.

The key to the success of this new technique is the surface micromachined nanoreactor. This revolutionary device has been designed by members of the ECTM group and fabricated in DIMES. The device is a miniaturize gas reaction chamber consisting of a surface micromachined channel interfaced by gas inlets/outlets. It integrates a microheater to locally provide high temperatures, and electron transparent windows to observe the in-situ reactions between gases and catalyst nanoparticles.

More information

Nature material publication: Visualization of oscillatory behaviour of ​Pt nanoparticles catalysing ​CO oxidation

Information about the design


Stefan Wijnholds finalist for Christiaan Huygensprijs 2014

Yesterday, 25 June 2014, Stefan Wijnholds received an "honorable mention" as finalist for the Christiaan Huygensprijs 2014, rewarding the best PhD thesis work in ICT over the past 4 years. The awards were handed by the Minister of Education (dr. Jet Bussemaker).

After a tough preselection by each university, a list of 32 candidates at a national level were judged by the jury. Out of these, 4 finalists were nominated who received a certificate in a ceremony in Voorburg.

Stefan received the honor for his PhD thesis on calibration and imaging for the LOFAR radio telescope. He was a PhD student with Alle-Jan van der Veen in 2006-2010, while being employed by ASTRON in Dwingeloo.

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Wouter Serdijn representing IEEE in Brussels as a member of the IEEE ICT Working Group

Wouter Serdijn (Section Bioelectronics) has been elected and appointed by the IEEE Board of Directors to serve on the IEEE Working Group on ICT. Main objective of this working group is to increase IEEE?s presence and visibility on EU issues relating to ICT and provide the technical know-how to be integrated into EU policy. ?As IEEE is the world's largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity, operates transnationally and in a neutral fashion and has the technical competence in this domain, it is only natural that IEEE gives advice on ICT technological matters and acts as a sounding board?, Wouter says. In the IEEE Working Group on ICT, 14 members from various EU member states are active.


First prize STARS Plenary Session

Yesterday Teun de Groot, the PhD student at Microwave Sensing, Signals and Systems section, won the 1st prize for his? poster and presentation at the STARS Project's Plenary session 2014 in Enschede!

The title of his presentation was ? Mission-driven Resource Management for Reconfigurable Sensing Systems?.

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ISCAS 2014 a big success!

Wouter Serdijn (Section Bioelectronics) served as Technical Program Chair for this year's edition of ISCAS. Next year's edition will be held in Lisbon, Portugal. For this edition Wouter Serdijn will change hats and be General Chair.


New STW project for Rob Remis

Rob Remis was granted an STW project "Dielectric enhanced MRI". The main applicant of this project is Andrew Webb (Leiden Univ.), coapplicants are Rob Remis (CAS) and Bert-Jan Kooij (MS3). This will fund 2 PhD students in Delft.

The project aims to improve MRI imaging by inserting "bags" with dielectric materials between the magnets and the body. This should provide better illumination, in particular when using high-tesla fields. This has already been applied in practice but the effect is theoretically poorly understood. The project should provide the EM theory related to this case.

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Analog Integrated Circuit Design more than 10,000 page views in 2013

Open CourseWare course Analog Integrated Circuit Design (ET4252) received more than 10,000 page views in 2013 and is the No. 2 OCW course in Microelectronics

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New project: DRIFT

The future SKA radio telescope will produce large amounts of correlation data that cannot be stored and needs to be processed quasi real-time. Image formation is the main bottleneck and requires order 350 peta-flops using current algorithms. Another bottleneck is the transportation of station data (samples) to the central location where they are correlated.

The project aims to reduce the transportation bottleneck by time-domain compressive sampling techniques, allowing the recovery of full correlation data from significantly subsampled antenna signals, and to introduce advanced algebraic techniques to speed up the image formation. Ideally, we would even skip the intermediate covariance reconstruction.

The project is funded by NWO in the "Big Bang, Big Data" program and is carried out in context of the ASTRON-IBM DOME project.

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Prof. Bastiaan Kleijn in Delft for 2 months

Professor Bastiaan Kleijn is a part-time professor in the CAS group. He will be physically present in the period 1 May-1 July 2014.

His expertise is speech and audio signal processing. He will be collaborating with Richard Heusdens and Richard Hendriks.

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New project on improved hearing aids

Richard Hendriks has acquired a new STW project aimed at improving the intelligibility of speech for users of hearing aids.

With a prevalence of about 11 %, severe hearing loss has become a serious problem in our society. While the current generation of hearing aids can be of a great help in certain situations, they generally are not able to provide the hearing-aid user a natural impression of the acoustical scene. An often-reported problem for hearing impaired people is the inability to understand speech in complex acoustical environments as well as the inability to localize sound.

Due to the development of wireless technology, it is possible to equip hearing aids with more powerful noise reduction algorithms to further increase the intelligibility. However, these more powerful multichannel noise reduction algorithms sacrifice naturalness of the sound environment, also when state-of-the-art binaural noise reduction algorithms are used.

This project aims at developing signal processing algorithms to help hearing aid users in these situations, by providing them a natural impression of the acoustical scene.

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PhD thesis AlN Piezoelectric Films for Sensing and Actuation

Congratulations to Tran Trong An for his PhD thesis defense on April 16, 2014

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European Conf Antennas Propagation

TU Delft is platinum sponser and exhibitor at the EuCAP 2014 - The 8th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation, to be held at the World Forum in The Hague, The Netherlands, on 7 to 11 April 2014.

The Microelectronics (ME) department from the faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, includes research groups actively engaged on teaching and research in the field of antennas and propagation.

Located within the microelectronics department, the mission of the THz Sensing Group is to introduce breakthrough antenna technology that will revolutionize THz Sensing for Space based and Earth based applications. In the long term the research will enable multi Tera-bit wireless communications.


Alle-Jan van der Veen appointed EURASIP Fellow

The award is for contributions to array signal processing applied to communications and radio astronomy. In 2014, four researchers have been recognized as Fellow.

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PhD thesis Carbon Nanotubes as Vertical Interconnects in 3D Integrated Circuits

Congratulations to Sten Vollebregt for his PhD thesis defense on March 7, 2014

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Georg Kail new postdoc at CAS

Georg Kail is a new postdoc at CAS, working with Geert Leus on distributed localization

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Przemek Pawelczak new Assistant Professor

In July 2012, Przemek Pawelczak was awarded a VENI research grant from NWO. This grant (EUR 250k) allows the researcher to fund his own research for up to 3 years. The topic of the research is "Intelligent spectrum use in emergency networks", and it will explore statistical methods to guarantee quality of communication in Cognitive Radio Emergency Networks.

Following this, Przemek was appointed as Assistant Professor in the Embedded Software group and started in January 2013.

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PhD thesis MIP Plasma Decapsulation of Copper-wired Semiconductor Devices for Failure Analysis

Congratulations to Jiaqi Tang for his PhD thesis defense on Januari 15, 2014

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A new professor

In July 2013, Bogdan Staszewski was appointed TU Delft Antoni van Leeuwenhoek professor. These full professor positions are awarded on a personal basis and are reserved for "young", excellent researchers.

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A new professor

On 26 Sept 2012, the Board of Directors of TU Delft has decided to appoint Geert Leus as Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Professor in the CAS group. This is a `personal' full professorship aimed to promote young, excellent academics to Professor at an early age so that they can develop their academic careers to the fullest possible extent


PhD thesis IC Compatible Wafer Level Fabrication of Silicon Nanowire Field Effect Transistors for Biosensing Applications

Congratulations to Thomas Moh Shan Yau for his PhD thesis defense on December 9, 2013

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IEEE Fellow

Congratulations to Prof. Kouchi Zhang for being an IEEE Fellow


Eurosensors 2013 Fellow Award

Congratulations to Fredrik Creemer for his Eurosensors 2013 Fellow Award @Transducers 2013, Barcelona

Agenda

Microelectronics colloquium

Running large EU projects: Intelligent Reliability (iREL40)

Willem van Driel

Running large EU projects: Intelligent Reliability (iREL40)

Intelligent Reliability 4.0 (iRel40) is a 102MEuro European funded project with the ultimate goal of improving reliability of electronic components and systems by reducing failure rates along the entire value chain. The project finalized in December 2023 and achieved significant results, strengthening production along the value chain and supporting the sustainable success of investment in microelectronics in Europe through the improvements of the reliability of electronic systems. More than 100 publications based on journal and conference articles were published or are under preparation including a book on the iRel40 outcome. In this presentation, Prof van Driel will highlight the main findings of the project. Also, he will share how to set-up and run such large EU projects.

Reference: www.irel40.eu

Willem van Driel has a >30-year track record in the reliability domain. Application areas range from healthcare, gas and oil explorations, semiconductors and my current position in Signify where I am responsible for Solid State Lighting reliability. Besides that, he holds a professor position at the University of Delft, The Netherlands. His scientific interests are solid state lighting, microelectronics and microsystems technologies, virtual prototyping, virtual reliability qualification and designing for reliability of microelectronics and microsystems. He acts as the chair for the organizing committee of the IEEE conference EuroSimE and has authored and co-authored more than 350 scientific publications, including journal and conference papers, book or book chapters and invited keynote lectures. He holds 20 patents. He is a certified DFSS Black Belt.

Additional information ...


Opening Makersspace

Festive opening ceremony Johanna Manders Makersspace


On March 26th at 12:00 the Johanna Manders Makerspace will be oficially opend.. You can find further details regarding the naming of the makerspace in an article featured in TU Delta, commemorating the International Women’s Day.

The ceremony will be graced by the presence of Professor Annoesjka Cabo, the Director of Education at EEMCS, along with members of the Manders Brada Stichting executive board, J.W.R. (Jasper) Stimm and R. (Roel) Klooster. Following the opening, a workshop conducted by the vrouwencommissie FEE of ETV will take place in the makerspace. During the workshop, students will craft jewelry using electronic components, such as capacitor earrings, PCB necklaces, and more. The workshop will conclude at 14:00. You are welcome to join the festivities any time between 12:00 and 14:00.

 https://delta.tudelft.nl/article/johanna-manders

Additional information ...


Guest presentation Alejandro Linares Barranco

Spike-based Signal Processing to Develop Neuromorphic Auditory Sensors and Robotic Motor Controllers

Alejandro Linares Barranco

Spike-based Signal Processing to Develop Neuromorphic Auditory Sensors and Robotic Motor Controllers

Bio-inspired systems try to understand real biological systems. Living beings' nervous systems in general and neurons in particular, represent the natural computing that is the inspiration of neuromorphic engineers. Neuromorphic systems are thought to provide a high level of parallelism, interconnectivity, and scalability, performing complex processing in real-time, with a balanced relation between quality, speed, and resource consumption. Frequency-based neuron models can be used to develop Neuro-inspired auditory sensors or motor-neuron models. This talk is focused on presenting the basis of spike-based signal processing (SSP), and its application in two different worlds: a Neuromorphic Auditory Sensor (NAS) and Neuro-inspired motor controllers for robotics. We have developed spiking PID controllers (SPIDs), whose spikes drive final actuators, maintaining the neuro-inspiration. Furthermore, with SSP one can model a bank of band-pass frequency filters to model a cochlea. Two different datasets are available for learning-based applications for these applications: LIPSFUS, an audio-visual lips-reading dataset, and LeminscateEDScorbot, a collection of SPID activity for more than 700 lemniscate trajectories for learning applications.

Bio: Alejandro received a B.S. degree in Computer Engineering, an M.S. degree in Industrial Computer Engineering, and a Ph.D. degree in Computer Engineering on Neuromorphic Hardware Interfaces from the University of Seville, Spain, in 1998, 2002, and 2003, respectively. His research interests include VLSI digital design for FPGA, embedded systems, neuromorphic computing for sensors, robotics, and deep-learning applications. He has been an Assistant / Associate / Full professor at the University of Seville since 2003. He co-founded the spin-off COBER, which focused on biomedical robotics and neuromorphic hardware development. He has served as head of the Department of Architecture and Tech. of Computers until 2021. He has been chair of the Neuromorphic Systems group of SCORE since 2020. He has served as chair of the Neural Systems and Applications track of the CAS Society (IEEE). He has been a visiting professor at the University of Zurich / ETHZ, Bielefeld University, and Ulster University.

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PhD Thesis Defence

Integrated Technologies for Smart Catheters

Jian Li

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PhD Thesis Defence

Printed spark ablation nanoparticle films for microelectronics applications

Joost van Ginkel

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ME colloquium

Nonstandard Inverse Scattering Problems in Electrical Engineering – From Wave Speed Inversion in Transmission Lines to Electrical Properties Tomography of Tissue

Rob Remis

Nonstandard Inverse Scattering Problems in Electrical Engineering – From Wave Speed Inversion in Transmission Lines to Electrical Properties Tomography of Tissue

In this talk we discuss two nonstandard inverse scattering solution methodologies. As is well known, inverse scattering problems are nonlinear and ill-posed and are typically formulated as optimization problems in which a certain objective function is minimized. In our first solution methodology, however, we present a direct physics-based solution method for transmission line/one-dimensional profile inversion problems that is not based on objective function minimization. Specifically, our solution method reconstructs the wave speed on a finite or semi-infinite interval/transmission line, based on impedance measurements carried out at one end of the line and on a frequency interval of interest. Under certain conditions, the method is guaranteed to converge and there is no risk of getting stuck in a local minimum of an objective function and ending up with suboptimal solutions. Nonuniqueness issues in case of a semi-infinite interval are also briefly discussed.   

Our second inverse scattering problem consists of retrieving the conductivity and permittivity values of different tissue types based standard magnetic resonance data. In particular, the data consists of a circularly polarized part of the radiofrequency magnetic field (the so-called B1+ field) that has its support inside the reconstruction domain. The considered tissue parameter retrieval problem is therefore nonstandard since data in inverse scattering usually has its support outside the reconstruction domain. Having the data available, our reconstruction method attempts to retrieve the dielectric tissue parameters using domain integral equation representations for the electromagnetic field in a nonlinear conjugate-gradient updating scheme. Several examples will illustrate the performance of the method and possible extensions of the method will be discussed as well. 

 

Additional information ...


ECTM Master thesis event

ECTM Master thesis event


Dear Master students,

the ECTM section of the Microelectronics department is happy to present its research activities, collaborations with many industrial partners and available Master thesis projects to you.
In this event, you will discover our works in M/NEMS, sensors, biodevices, novel materials, power IC design, microelectronic packaging and reliability, and more from fellow students and the ECTM staff!

Come join us!
We will have food and drinks too :-)


Thinking of attending, or looking for more information?
Please register or inquire by sending us an email at secr-ectm.ewi@tudelft.nl

Additional information ...


MSc thesis defence

Organ-on-Chip platform for Vascularisation of Cortical Brain Organoids with Transient Membrane

Friso Kahler


Mastermarket

The MS3/ELCA Mastermarket

MS3/ELCA groups

Dear Students,

Get ready for a journey into the world of cutting-edge research in RF technology, radar & communication!

On February 9, we are organizing the MS3/ELCA Mastermarket. On this occasion we, the MS3 and ELCA sections, will inform you about the Master thesis opportunities in our groups, and demonstrate our research with actual measurements, presenting processed experimental results and showing the added value of this research for applications such as automotive radar, 5G/6G, health and well-being, weather and climate change. As RF systems for radars and communication are sources of huge data, we also demonstrate AI capabilities.

We're opening the doors to our measurement labs: the Earl McCune Labs (21st floor), the anechoic chamber (22nd floor), the mm-wave radar lab (22nd floor), and the surveillance radars (23rd floor and roof).

Mark your calendars for 15:30, and meet us in room HB20.150.

We start with a few short presentations followed by the tour and then we will enjoy the pizza and discuss more!

Please send an email to EWI-ME-Secr@tudelft.nl to let us know you will join (and we can make sure there is enough pizza ;-))

 We look forward meeting you!
The MS3 & ELCA sections


Tinnitus Symposium

The Sounds of Progress -- Advancing Tinnitus Science, Technology, Solutions and Relief

Dirk de Ridder, Joop van Gent, Mark Janssen, Gerard Borst, Wouter Serdijn

Tinnitus research has ignited social and clinical interest, reflecting the growing number of sufferers worldwide. The demand for innovative strategies and therapies to combat tinnitus is at an all-time high. That's why we're excited to invite you to our inaugural symposium, where we aim to bridge the gap between seasoned scientists, emerging researchers, and dedicated clinicians, all of whom are committed to exploring the latest breakthroughs, sharing ideas, and addressing the challenges in the field.

Participate in a profound learning opportunity at the inaugural tinnitus symposium. Get ready for a dynamic, interdisciplinary gathering where the exchange of knowledge will kindle fresh insights that can be immediately applied to advance both research and clinical practice.

Additional information ...


MSc SPS Thesis presentation

Towards Robust Object Detection in Unseen Catheterization Laboratories

Zipeng Wang

Deep-learning-based object detectors, while offering exceptional performance, are data-dependent and can suffer from generalization issues. In this thesis, we investigated deep neural networks for detecting people and medical instruments in the vision-based workflow analysis system inside Catheterization Laboratories (Cath Labs). The central problem explored in this thesis is the fact that the performance of the detector can degrade drastically if it is trained and tested on data from different Cath Labs. 

 

Our research aimed to investigate the underlying causes of this specific performance degradation and find solutions to mitigate this issue. We employed the YOLOv8 object detector and created datasets from clinical procedures recorded at Reinier de Graaf Hospital (RdGG) and Philips Best Campus, supplemented with publicly accessible images. An aggregated version of object detection metrics was created for multi-camera system evaluation. Through a series of experiments complemented by data visualization, we discovered that the performance degradation primarily stems from data distribution shifts in the feature space. Notably, the object detector trained on non-sensitive online images can generalize to unseen Cath Labs, outperforming the model trained on a procedure recording from a different Cath Lab. The detector trained on the online images achieved an mAP@0.5 of 0.517 on the RdGG dataset. Furthermore, by switching to the most suitable camera for each object, the multi-camera system can further improve detection performance significantly. An aggregated 1-camera mAP@0.5 of 0.679 is achieved for single-object classes on the RdGG dataset.

 


THz Symposium

Dutch Symposium on Terahertz Science and Technology - 3rd Edition


You are cordially invited to join us for the third edition of the Dutch Terahertz Symposium on January 25, 2024. It is a co-organized event between the Delft and Eindhoven University of Technology. With these series of symposiums, we aim to create an environment to exchange information and allow the Dutch Terahertz community to find collaborations and funding opportunities.

 

The 2024 Dutch Terahertz Symposium aims to bring together the Dutch research community and industry interested in the field of terahertz science and technology. There will be six featured talks from both academic and industrial institutions about the latest developments in the field. You can find the list of speakers and topics attached to this email. There will be plenty of opportunities for interaction with each other and inspired further community building.

 

Save the date to join a full day of interesting presentations, Q&As, and panel discussions!

Additional information ...


ME colloquium

The beauty of simplicity – or: “How I fell in love with a plain diode”

Matthias Eberlein
Fraunhofer

The beauty of simplicity – or: “How I fell in love with a plain diode”

Nearly all modern SoCs require accurate references, and also a smart thermal management. The critical device for those applications is usually a parasitic bipolar transistor. However, in recent FinFET technologies a specific challenge arises from the degraded current gain (beta) and associated linearity issues.
This talk presents the re-discovery of an ordinary pn-junction, together with an innovative concept called “capacitive bias”: The critical signals, which are the basis of every bandgap reference or temperature sensor, are generated precisely by switched-capacitor timings.
This contribution further intends to encourage the appreciation of elegant and small solutions – in the sense as it was stated by legendary Warren Buffet: “The schools reward difficult, complex behavior more than simple behaviour, but simple is more effective.”

BIO

Matthias Eberlein received the German Diplom in Semiconductor Electronics from TU Darmstadt in 1995. He started his career with Infineon in Munich, working on cellular IPs, and later on leading edge process nodes with Intel and Appl. Recently he left the Industry path and joint Fraunhofer Institute in Germany, but he is also associated with Johannes Kepler University in Linz/Austria, where he completed (in 2021) his PhD studies on thermal sensor topics.
 

Additional information ...


Multi-feature-based Automatic Targetless Camera-LiDAR Extrinsic Calibration

Xi Chen

In autonomous driving, environmental perception, crucial for navigation and decision-making, depends on integrating data from multiple sensors like cameras and LiDAR. Camera-LiDAR fusion combines detailed imagery with precise depth, improving environmental awareness. Effective data fusion requires accurate extrinsic calibration to align camera and LiDAR data under one coordinate system. We aim to calibrate the camera and LiDAR extrinsic automatically and without specific targets. Targetless, non-automated calibration methods are time-consuming and labor-intensive. Existing advanced methods have proven that automatic calibration methods based on edge features are effective, and most focus on the extraction and matching of single features. The proposed method matches 2D edges from LiDAR's multi-attribute density map with image-derived intensity gradient and semantic edges, facilitating 2D-2D edge registration. We innovate by incorporating semantic feature and addressing random initial setting through the PnP problem of centroid pairs, enhancing the convergence of the objective function. We introduce a weighted multi-frame averaging technique, considering frame correlation and semantic importance, for smoother calibration. Tested on the KITTI dataset, it surpasses four current methods in single-frame tests and shows more robustness in multi-frame tests than MulFEAT.

Our algorithm leverages semantic information for extrinsic calibration, striking a balance between network complexity and robustness. Future enhancements may include using machine learning to convert sparse matrices to dense formats for improved optimization efficiency.


ME colloquium

Opening the THz band for astronomy

Jochem Baselmans

Opening the THz band for astronomy

In Astronomy new discoveries have always been a direct consequence of new instrumentation, which started with the invention of the telescope by Hans Lippershey in the Netherlands in 1608. Nowadays instrumentation exists across virtually the entire EM spectrum, from radio waves to gamma rays, but one frequency band remains poorly explored: The THz range. This is due to a combination of practical and technical difficulties. First, the atmosphere of the earth is largely opaque and requires telescopes on high and remote locations or space. Second, semiconductor technology is not well suited for the THz range: Amplifiers are too slow, and CCD’s or CMOS detectors have a too large band gap. Hence TU Delft and SRON develop superconducting detector technology to open up the THz window for astronomy. Our detectors are the world’s best and therefore we are the main detector supplier for the NASA FIR probe mission proposals, with the goal of launching the successor of the James Webb Space Telescope with TUD/SRON detectors 10 years from now. In the mean time we have three instruments with our detectors operating at this moment. The most important is Deshima 2.0, using our invention of the on-chip spectrometer as key element. This instrument is fully developed by the experimental astronomy group and operated at the ASTE telescope in Chile. I will discuss our technology, why it is so relevant and what we will try to achieve within the coming years.

Additional information ...


Signal Processing Seminar

Error-correcting codes and cryptography: from theory to practice

Xinmiao Zhang
Ohio State University

Error-correcting codes (ECCs) and cryptography schemes are indispensable to the reliability and security of numerous classic and emerging systems. Advanced ECCs play essential roles in the performance of 5G/6G wireless communications, hyper-scale distributed storage, in/near-memory computing, and quantum computing. They are also key enablers of high-density next-generation memories and wafer-scale integration, which are important pillars of the CHIPS Act. With the development of new technologies, such as quantum computers and cloud computing, traditional cryptography schemes are no longer secure and/or pose privacy concerns. There are imminent needs for post-quantum cryptography and homomorphic encryption for privacy-preserving cloud computing. Protecting the circuit chips implementing advanced functions from counterfeiting is also necessary to preserve the semiconductor supremacy achieved by the CHIPS Act.

This talk presents our recent contributions on related topics. Efficient and high-speed generalized integrated interleaved ECC decoders are developed to meet the tight latency and excellent error-correcting capability requirements of next-generation hyper-speed memories. Code construction and decoder designs are jointly optimized to enable low-latency failure recovery and continued scaling of distributed storage. Our generalized logic locking includes many previous designs as special cases and achieves better resilience towards various attacks. Logic locking that can effectively protect chips implementing fault-tolerant functions, such as machine learning, are also developed by exploiting algorithmic specifics. Last by not least, high-speed and low-complexity hardware accelerators are designed for homomorphic encryption and post-quantum cryptography.

Biography

Xinmiao Zhang received her Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Minnesota. She is currently a Professor at the Ohio State University. She was a Senior Technologist at Western Digital/SanDisk 2013-2017. Prior to that, she was a Timothy E. and Allison L. Schroeder Associate Professor at Case Western Reserve University. Prof. Zhang’s research spans the areas of VLSI architecture design, digital storage and communications, cryptography, security, and signal processing.

 

Prof. Zhang is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award 2009, the College of Engineering Lumley Research Award at The Ohio State University 2022, the Best Paper Award at ACM Great Lakes Symposium on VLSI 2004, and Best Paper Award at International SanDisk Technology Conference 2016. She authored “VLSI Architectures for Modern Error-Correcting Codes” (CRC Press, 2015), and co-edited “Wireless Security and Cryptography: Specifications and Implementations” (CRC Press, 2007). Prof. Zhang was elected the Vice President-Technical Activities of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society (CASS) 2022-2023 and served on the Board of Governors of CASS 2019-2021. She was also the Chair (2021-2022) and a Vice-Chair (2017-2020) of the Data Storage Technical Committee (DSTC) of the IEEE Communications Society.  She served on the technical program and organization committees of many conferences, including ISCAS, ICC, GLOBECOM, SiPS, GlobalSIP, MWSCAS, and GLSVLSI. She has been an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems-I (TCAS-I) 2010-2019 and IEEE Open Journal of Circuits and Systems since 2019. She will be the Associate Editor-in-Chief of TCAS-I 2024-2025.


MSc SPS Thesis presentation

Sparse Millimeter Wave Channel Estimation From Partially Coherent Measurements

Weijia Yi

“This project develops a channel estimation technique for millimeter wave (mmWave) communication systems. Our method exploits the sparse structure in mmWave channels for low training overhead and accounts for the phase errors in the channel measurements due to phase noise at the oscillator. Specifically, in IEEE 802.11ad/ay-based mmWave systems, the phase errors within a beam refinement protocol packet are almost the same, while the errors across different packets are substantially different.

We show that standard compressed sensing algorithms that treat phase noise as a constant fail when channel measurements are acquired over multiple beam refinement protocol packets. Most of the methods that have addressed this problem treat phase noise as purely random, missing the inherent structure within the measurement packets. We present a novel algorithm called partially coherent matching pursuit for sparse channel estimation under practical phase noise perturbations. The proposed approach leverages this partially coherent structure in the phase errors across multiple packets. Our algorithm iteratively detects the support of sparse signal and employs alternating minimization to jointly estimate the signal and the phase errors.

We numerically show that our algorithm can reconstruct the channel accurately at a lower complexity than the benchmarks, and derive a preliminary support detection bound as a performance guarantee.”


Microelectronics Research Day 2023

Microelectronics Research Day 2023


TU Delft Microelectronics Research Day
Fully booked!
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EE-NL Day

EE-NL Day


EE-NL Day

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ME colloquium

Generative AI

Justin Dauwels

Generative AI

Generative AI refers to a category of artificial intelligence models that are designed to generate new content, such as text, images, audio, or other types of data. Probably the best known example of generative AI is ChatGPT, the fastest consumer application to hit 100 million monthly active users. Generative AI models use machine learning algorithms to learn patterns and structures from existing data and then produce new data that is similar in style or content to what they have been trained on.

In this presentation, I will talk about projects in our group on deep generative models. I will briefly present novel kinds of deep generative models that we are developing in our team. Next I will explain how we are designing such models for rainfall nowcasting, where we integrate physical laws into the deep generative models.  At last, I will talk recent AI related initiatives that my team is involved in.

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MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Enhancing Fiber Direction Estimation from Electrograms

Elena van Breukelen

For the heart to pump blood throughout the body, electrical impulses that trigger the cellular contraction must be generated and spread through the myocardial tissue. These signals propagate faster along the longitudinal cardiac fiber direction than the transverse direction, conferring the heart with anisotropic conduction properties. Therefore, the arrangement of the fibers within the tissue governs the impulse propagation. Given the variability of the fiber direction across the heart and between patients, incorporating it into electrophysiological models would enhance our understanding of the mechanisms and progression of different heart conditions, such as atrial fibrillation (AF). The study of this common cardiac arrhythmia relies on analyzing electrical recordings of the heart, known as electrograms (EGMs), which, if integrated with the patient’s fiber architecture into cardiac models, can enable effective personalized treatment. Over the years, researchers have proposed different approaches to estimate the fiber direction from EGMs. However, these methods have been evaluated in different, usually simplistic, cardiac tissue models, making their comparison, and therefore selection of the most accurate approach for clinical and research applications, challenging.

The current study aims to identify the best fiber direction estimation method under consistent and realistic conditions. To achieve this goal, synthetic EGMs and local activation time (LAT) maps were generated from 2D and 3D monodomain models that mimicked the muscle bundle, atrial bilayer, and ventricular transmural fiber rotation structures. A comparison analysis of existing fiber direction estimation methods, first as described by their authors and then standardized to have the same spatial resolution, showed the superior performance of the techniques based on fitting an ellipse to local conduction velocity or conduction slowness vectors from a whole LAT map. The estimation accuracy of these methods can be further improved by increasing the number of vectors to which the ellipse is fitted. Nonetheless, given the influence of underlying layers in the epicardial recordings, the estimation error increases in the tissue models where fibers in the epicardial and endocardial layers run perpendicularly. The effect on the estimate of such architecture, characteristic of the inferior side of the right atria and the ventricles, can be accounted for by combining epicardial electrical recordings obtained after pacing either in the endocardium or the epicardium. Although a preliminary assessment of the estimation methods was carried out with human EGMs, future studies should focus on validating the methods in a controlled experimental framework and refining them for more localized fiber direction estimation. All in all, the automation of the techniques and their integration into electrophysiological models brings us a step closer to creating valuable clinical tools for diagnosing and treating electropathologies.

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Dead time control circuit in monolithic GaN class-D audio amplifier

Jing Pan


PhD Thesis Defence

Pitch-Matched Integrated Transceiver Circuits for High-Resolution 3-D Neonatal Brain Monitoring

Peng Guo

Peng Guo will defend his PhD thesis entitled

Pitch-Matched Integrated Transceiver Circuits for High-Resolution 3-D Neonatal Brain Monitoring

on Wednesday, Sept. 27th. The layman's talk will be at 12:00, the defence starts at 12:30.

The thesis can be downloaded from the TU Delft repository. Peng's work was part of the MIFFY project.

Livestream of the defence: link

Promotors: Michiel Pertijs and Nico de Jong

Abstract: This thesis presents the design and implementation of integrated ultrasound transceivers for use in transfontanelle ultrasonography (TFUS). Two generations of ultrasound transceiver ASICs integrated with PZT transducer arrays intended for TFUS are presented. In the first generation, a novel AFE design that combines an LNA with the continuous TGC function is realized in a bid to mitigate the gain-switching and T/R switching artifacts. Besides, a new current-mode micro-beamforming design based on boxcar integration (BI) is also implemented to reduce the channel count within a compact layout. In the second generation, the AFE is derived from the first version, while the design focuses on RX backend circuitry and channel-count reduction, including a passive BI-based µBF merged with a charge-sharing SAR ADC, which digitizes the delayed-and-summed signals, and a subsequent multi-level data link, which concatenates outputs of four ADCs. In total, a 128-fold reduction in channel count is finally achieved. The techniques we developed have established the groundwork and removed the initial barriers for an electronics architecture suitable for a wearable 3D TFUS device.


MSc SPS Thesis presentation

Friction Identification on Gantry Stage

Lan Jia

In an era marked by the demand for unprecedented levels of precision in engineering applications, the profound impact of friction forces on motion control systems cannot be underestimated. This thesis extensively investigates the frictional behavior of the Proton Motion Stage, an advanced high-precision motion control system developed by Prodrive Technologies. This research conducts both experimental investigations and computational simulations, offering valuable insights into its friction behavior across diverse conditions and scenarios. 

The research begins with an analysis of existing models used to describe friction behavior in precision engineering systems. A critical evaluation of empirical models highlighting strengths and limitations is presented, and the LuGre friction model is selected for further research. Subsequently, the chosen model is used to simulate the behavior of the Proton Motion Stage. The simulation setup is described, including the incorporation of the LuGre friction model and the identification of system parameters. The accuracy of the identification is above 99%. The sensitivity analysis of the parameters is also conducted to enable a comprehensive exploration of friction dynamics. Finally, the research delves into static and dynamic parameter experiments, where cable slab forces' position-dependent impacts and velocity-friction maps that capture the intricate Stribeck effect are presented, and closed-loop and open-loop setups to dissect friction behavior during rapid motion changes are employed. Residual analysis of histogram and 90% confidence autocorrelation and cross-correlation is also presented to study the quality of identification. Overall, this thesis combines theory and practice to enhance our understanding of friction in precision engineering systems.


MSc SPS Thesis presentation

Small end-to-end OCR model

Jingwen Dun

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is a pivotal technology used to extract text information from images, finding wide-ranging applications in document digitization and medical records management. The integration of machine learning has ushered in an era of swift and precise OCR models. Broadly, OCR comprises two key components: detecting the bounding boxes around text instances and recognizing the characters within them. Presently, prevailing OCR models are primarily intricate two-stage systems necessitating real-time operation on remote servers. Nevertheless, end-to-end models exhibit superior performance from a data utilization perspective. There exist scenarios where offline models prove indispensable, such as in environments with restricted internet access or locales with stringent data privacy and security requirements.

This project delves into various end-to-end models, leveraging the PaddleOCR end-to-end model as a foundational reference to devise a compact OCR model tailored for edge devices. Through meticulous optimization of the backbone architecture and the introduction of diverse Feature Pyramid Network (FPN) structures within the stem network, we achieved a remarkable reduction in model size, down to 19MB. This represents a substantial advancement, constituting merely one-tenth of the original PaddleOCR end-to-end model's footprint.

By leveraging an extensive database and conducting a series of fine-tuning experiments specifically tailored for end-to-end OCR tasks involving curved text images, the model exhibits an impressive precision rate of 47.3% and an f-score of 45.3%. This achievement highlights the effectiveness of the customized loss function relative to the original model, despite its reduced size. Notably, this performance is comparable to certain end-to-end models with larger backbones. Furthermore, an Android demo has been carefully developed to demonstrate the model's capabilities on mobile devices, achieving an average processing time of 433 milliseconds per image.


ME colloquium

Cytomorphic approaches for health monitoring

Filipe Arroyo Cardoso

In the past decade, there has been a rising interest in wearable and implantable devices for health monitoring. The concept is that measuring different biological parameters in real time will enable the continuous monitoring of individuals' health. The success of glucose monitors (e.g., Abbott, Dexcom) for diabetic patients and heart-rate monitors (e.g., Fitbit, iWatch) for the general population demonstrate the increasing importance of wearables in chronic disease management and well-being monitoring, respectively. However, monitoring a single parameter, such as glucose or heart rate, gives limited information on the human body's functioning. This seminar will showcase Filipe's vision of enabling multiparametric continuous real-time health monitoring for early diagnosis and disease prognosis. Firstly, he will discuss the need to probe the cell's primary communication pathways, molecular communication, to assess people's health fully. Then, the cell-inspired (cytomorphic) strategies that are being developing will be shown to probe molecules. Further will be discussed the effort to improve CMOS-based implants' biocompatibility using cytomorphic approaches. Finally, the future perspectives in cytomorphic molecular sensing and cytomorphic ideas on processing a large amount of molecular data will be discussed.

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MSc SPS Thesis presentation

Efficient Content-Based Image Retrieval from Videos Using Compact Deep Learning Networks with Re-ranking

Doruk Barokas Profeta

The rise of streaming and video technologies has underscored the significance of efficient access and navigation of digital content, particularly for scholars in fields like history and art. Scholars actively seek streamlined approaches to index, retrieve, and explore digital content, with a focus on locating specific instances. The process of searching for specific instances in video search is complex that requires the analysis of video sequences and the identification of relevant video segments. Advanced techniques and algorithms are necessary to ensure effective content-based retrieval of the required information.

In response to the escalating demand for accurate and swift access to relevant visual data within the vast spectrum of video resources, our research has been dedicated to the development of novel, efficient content-based image retrieval methods tailored for videos by integrating deep learning methodologies. Our comprehensive system contains two crucial components: keyframe extraction and content-based image retrieval. Keyframe extraction involves identifying significant frames within videos, while content-based image retrieval enables the retrieval of similar frames to a query image through feature extraction and ranking.

A unique aspect of our research lies in the exploration and analysis of a diverse range of feature extraction techniques derived from compact deep learning networks. We have compared our proposed method with state-of-the-art retrieval systems, evaluating performance metrics in terms of both accuracy and speed. Our method harnesses the power of compact deep learning network features in the initial ranking stage, effectively sublisting frames, and subsequently introduces re-ranking using a larger network. This innovative approach promises to deliver the best of both worlds: exceptional efficiency without compromising retrieval accuracy.

Repository link:  http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:751092b8-1b3d-4335-98bd-cc26e69d374c

 


Signal Processing Seminar

Automotive Radar for Autonomous Driving: Signal Processing Meets Deep Learning

Sunqiao Sun
Univ. Alabama, USA

Millimeter-wave automotive radar emerges as one of key sensing modalities for autonomous driving, providing high resolution in four dimensions (4D), i.e., range, Doppler, and azimuth and elevation angles, yet remain a low cost for feasible mass production. In this talk, we will address the challenges in automotive radar for autonomous driving, examine how signal processing and deep learning can be combined to optimize the performance of automotive radar systems, and outline future research directions. Our focus will be on the generation of high-resolution radar imaging using multi-input multi-output (MIMO) radar and frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) technology. We will examine the challenges of waveform orthogonality, mutual interference, and sparse antenna array design and present our recent innovations in the field, including sparse array interpolation via forward-backward Hankel matrix completion, fast direction-of-arrival estimation via unrolling iterative adaptive approach, and adaptive beamforming via deep reinforcement learning, leading to the generation of high-resolution low-level automotive radar imaging, represented in bird's-eye view (BEV) format, providing rich shape information for object detection and recognition with deep neural networks. However, the radar BEVs are in general hardly shift-invariant over both angle and range since not every pixel is generated equally. The talk will highlight the importance of physics-aware machine learning in perception task on high-resolution radar imaging. We will show how incorporating radar domain knowledge and signal structure into deep neural network design can lead to more accurate and reliable object detection and recognition. Finally, we will discuss future research directions, including integrated sensing and communication, and collaborative radar imaging via an automotive radar network.

Bio:

Shunqiao Sun received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey under supervision of Prof. Athina Petropulu in Jan. 2016. He is currently an assistant professor at The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA. From 2016-2019, he was with the radar core team of Aptiv, Technical Center Malibu, California, where he has worked on advanced radar signal processing and machine learning algorithms for self-driving vehicles and lead the development of DOA estimation techniques for next-generation short-range radar sensor which has been used in over 120-million automotive radar units. His research interests lie at the interface of statistical and sparse signal processing with mathematical optimizations, automotive radar, MIMO radar, machine learning, and smart sensing for autonomous vehicles. Dr. Sun has been awarded 2016 IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society Robert T. Hill Best Dissertation Award for his thesis “MIMO radar with Sparse Sensing”. He authored a paper that won the Best Student Paper Award at 2020 IEEE Sensor Array and Multichannel Signal Processing Workshop (SAM). He is Vice Chair of IEEE Signal Processing Society Autonomous Systems Initiative (ASI) (2023-2024). He is an associate editor of IEEE Signal Processing Letters and IEEE Open Journal of Signal Processing. He is a Senior Member of IEEE.


MSc SPS Thesis presentation

Indoor in-network asset localization using Crownstone network

Vishakha K. Marathe

Indoor localization is the process of determining the location of an asset within an indoor environment. Crownstone, a subsidiary company of Almende, wants to fulfill specific tasks within the Crownstone network like developing indoor localization algorithms to get the room-level location of an asset for smart building, home automation and healthcare applications. Crownstones act as sensors that receive the Bluetooth messages transmitted by the asset and measure the strength of the received signal(RSSI).
There are two most widely used and researched asset localization methods, namely, model-based(MB) and data-driven(DD) methods have their drawbacks, especially because of the presence of obstacles, signal interference, reflections, noise that influence the RSSI signals and the dependency of the methods on the knowledge of sensor positions. In this thesis, a centralized multilateration(MB-C) algorithm as well as a simple averaging consensus based distributed(MB-D) algorithm is implemented. Algorithms are tested on real data collected at the Almende office(test environment) divided into a finite number of rooms.
To deal with the challenges posed by the MB algorithms like selecting a model, learning parameters and an additional step of mapping the position output to a room location, an Ensemble based centralized machine learning(DD-C) data driven algorithm is proposed that classifies the asset in one of the rooms with an accuracy of 65%. Algorithm is further improved by distributed data handling leading to a classification accuracy of 77%. To perform in-network localization, a consensus based distributed ML algorithm (DD-D) is proposed that performs local predictions within the Crownstone network using the same globally trained model giving a classification accuracy of 73%. The results show that the proposed DD algorithms perform better than the MB algorithms in terms of accuracy and are comparable in terms of prediction time. They also indicate that the proposed DD algorithms are more scalable, robust against noise but are computationally expensive.
Thesis link: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:7b0eb6bb-323f-44e8-b994-28dd8c9c9467

 


MSc SPS Thesis presentation

Direction Finding and Localization with Bluetooth 5.2

Xuchang Zhang

The potential of indoor localization using the Bluetooth Low Energy approach increases with the introduction of the Constant Tone Extension (CTE) feature in BLE 5.1. These small and energy-efficient beacons transmit signals that Bluetooth-enabled devices can detect, allowing for proximity and positioning calculations. This technology supports novel applications such as indoor wayfinding. By applying the new feature with an appropriate antenna array, it is possible to estimate both the Angle of Arrival (AoA).

Nevertheless, estimating AoA poses significant challenges, particularly in indoor scenarios. Throughout the span of this project, an in-depth analysis is being conducted on several elements, including multipath propagation and frequency offset. We first look into the I/Q data processing and then dive into the effect of frequency offset. Following that, several AoA estimation algorithms and multipath-mitigation strategies are discussed. Finally, we model the overall AOA estimation problem, followed by a positioning algorithm based on the estimated angles.

In this project, we propose an end-to-end indoor BLE positioning solution. Matlab simulation is performed to assess its performance. The simulation reveals that, with appropriate settings, the Toeplitz Reconstruction (TR) method is the best. In the setting of a 4-by-4 uniform rectangular array (URA), over 90% of the results show a position inaccuracy that is smaller than 0.14 meters.

After the simulation, we conduct a real-world experiment to assess the practicality and effectiveness of the solutions.  The TR approach demonstrates a position error of less than 0.4 m, which is lower than previous BLE positioning research.

Finally, we suggest a few future research directions. This involves optimizing parameters, considering other antenna-affecting elements, etc.

Repository link:  http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ff13dbcd-da99-4599-ad7f-f3b7282681bb


MSc SPS Thesis presentation

Using Tensor Decompositions To Obtain Biomarkers From Auditory Event-Related Potentials

Kenneth Stunnenberg

Brain disorders in children pose significant challenges to their development, impacting cognition, speech, movement, and behavior. The uncertainty surrounding prognostic information at the time of diagnosis leaves families with numerous questions about the future. The Child Brain Lab at Erasmus MC Sophia Children's Hospital conducts IQ, electroencephalogram (EEG), speech, and movement tests in playful environments, enhancing scientific research and healthcare practices for a better understanding of disease progression.

The Otolaryngology department at the Child Brain Lab focuses on auditory-related potentials (ERPs) obtained from EEG measurements to predict the future development of children with brain disorders. Analyzing ERP data from experiments like Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and Acoustic Change Complex (ACC) yields insights into developmental trajectories and connections between hearing, language, and brain development.

This thesis aims to explore alternative methodologies for extracting comprehensive information from ERPs, overcoming limitations of the commonly used peak amplitude and latency analysis. Tensor decompositions are employed to exploit structural information present in the data, using data fusion methods to combine multiple datasets for improved classification and deeper insights into group differences.

Simulations on artificial ERP data demonstrate that data fusion methods perform better on two ERP tensors compared to single tensor decomposition when group differences are shared between datasets. On a real dataset, tensor decompositions show promise for classifying subjects based on auditory event-related potentials while giving more insights into the neurological sources.

This report proposes an alternative method for analyzing ERP data, highlighting the potential of tensor decompositions and data fusion techniques. 

 

 


MSc SPS Thesis presentation

Path planning for Lunar rovers An Artificial Potential Field-based algorithm for the path planning of a walking Lunar rove

Thomas Manteaux
EPFL

Abstract: 

Abstract E↵ective path planning is a key challenge for Lunar rovers. This allows for safe autonomous navigation over complex and unknown areas. Lunar Zebro (LZ), a project of the Delft Univer[1]sity of Technology, is developing a robot to be the first European rover to walk on the Moon. This tiny rover, no bigger than an A4 sheet of paper, aims to explore a wide area to monitor solar radiations.

The thesis derives a path plannning algorithm for the local navigation of LZ. State-of-the[1]art path planning methods for terrestrial and non-terrestrial robots are studied. Metrics based on the needs of LZ are defined to compare the algorithms. Artificial Potential Field (APF)- based methods are identified as the most promising for LZ. APF methods are a category of path planning approaches in which robot motion is influenced by virtual forces generated by the destination point and obstacles. A Monte-Carlo simulation in a lunar environment is run to compare APF-based algorithms. The most relevant algorithm is picked up and improved (Bacteria-Aritificial Obstacle (B-AO) algorithm) with respect to success rate, path length and computing time. Finally it is implemented on a LZ prototype and tested in a challenging envi[1]ronment. Testing is conducted on a real lunar testbed made of sand, rocks and craters. A rock and crater abundance model is established considering rock and crater coverage of 2% and 15% respectively to represent the lunar surface as close as possible.

The B-AO algorithm shows 200% higher success rate and 50% lower computing time than the conventional APF algorithm, for only 5% longer path length than the optimal algorithm A*. It also outperforms state-of-the-art APF-based algorithms by more than 15% in reachabil[1]ity and 10% in path length for a similar or shorter planning time. Field testing results exhibit the robustness of the B-AO algorithm to real-world uncertainties in di↵erent scenarios. They also show that near-optimal paths are computed in real-time with limited available processing power. The bacterial approach of the B-AO algorithm makes it faster to execute and smaller to store than path planning algorithms used on existing or past non-terrestrial rovers.

Keywords: Path planning, Moon rover, Artificial Potential Field methods, Lunar Zebro
 


MSc SPS Thesis presentation

Coded Excitation for Doppler Ultrasound Imaging of The Brain

Lexi Zhu

Doppler ultrasound imaging of cerebral blood flow faces challenges arising from a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and a wide dynamic range. Echo signals received from blood cells are significantly weaker compared to surrounding tissues, such as the skull or brain soft tissue, resulting in inhibited visualization of small blood vessels and deep brain areas. To address this issue, this thesis explored the feasibility of employing and improving coded excitation techniques to enhance the SNR of Doppler ultrasound images. Furthermore, an optimized code for Doppler ultrasound imaging is designed, represented by a generalized encoding matrix. 

The research begins with the definition of a linear signal model that incorporates the encoding matrix. Subsequently, a trace-constraint optimization problem is formulated based on maximizing the Fisher information matrix to find the optimized encoding matrix. The feasibility and performance of the optimized encoding matrix are assessed through simulations on both small and large array settings, which operate above Nyquist sampling frequency and under Nyquist sampling frequency respectively. The imaging results indicate that the optimized code exhibits higher SNR in deep image regions compared to existing coded excitation methods like Barker code while using the same number of transmissions, bit length, and same average transmit energy, albeit with a trade-off of decreased axial resolution. Nonetheless, this resolution degradation can be mitigated through the application of the iterative imaging technique LSQR. Finally, the optimized code is tested in a clinical transducer setting, and a blood flow simulation is conducted. The outcomes showcase the capacity of the proposed optimized code to enable higher SNR in Doppler ultrasound imaging and more accurate and informative clinical assessments. 


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Characterization of solder joint degradation under board-level reliability tests for vibration and thermal cycling

Letian Zhang

Abstract:

Board-level reliability (BLR) looks at the reliability problem in the package and PCB interconnection, which is an important topic in microelectronics. The current criterion in the BLR test is to look if the connection is open, which can only detect the failure and there is no available method that can detect the degradation of the solder joints. This project mainly focuses on the degradation process of solder joints in board-level vibration tests and thermal cycle tests. Two kinds of test vehicles are adopted in this project, one is a QFN56 package equipped with a four-wire resistance measurement circuit and the other one is a piezoresistive  sensor, which can figure out the changes in stress distribution over two solder joints. Special methods and test programs are developed tailored for the two aforementioned test vehicles, and some of the test results are collected and analyzed. Assisted by the failure analysis technique, the cross-section of the solder joint can be viewed and the crack length can be measured. Findings in this study show the parameter shift during the solder joint degradation and also the mathematic model that describes the relationship between the crack length of the solder joint and resistance increment in electrical measurement. Moreover, with the statistical tools, we find the potential method that can considerably decrease the BLR test time by changing the failure criteria.

Daily advisors: Varun Thukral, Adwait Inamdar

Supervisor: prof. Willem van Driel


MSc SPS Thesis presentation

Ultrasound Imaging through Aberrating Layers using a Virtual Array

Francesca De Carlo

Ultrasound images are typically generated using the Delay-And-Sum (DAS) method, which assumes a homogeneous propagation medium. When an aberrating layer is situated between the sensor array and the imaging target, this assumption does not hold, and DAS is replaced with model-based methods. These methods are computationally expensive and require to accurately model the aberrations caused by the layer. This thesis investigates novel methods for image formation and aberration estimation. The effect of the layer is described using a set of transfer functions from the sensor array to a virtual array placed after the layer. In the first part, we assume the transfer functions are known, and we propose a new method for image formation. The transfer functions allow to map the signal from the sensor array to the virtual array, and the DAS method is used on the virtual array signal. This technique is equivalent to model-based matched filtering in terms of image quality, without requiring expensive matrix computations. In the second part, the transfer functions are unknown, and a novel technique is introduced for their estimation. Using pulse-echo data, a focus-quality metric is computed to quantify the accuracy of the transfer function estimate. The transfer functions are modeled using a dictionary and the dictionary coefficients are iteratively updated to increase the defined metric. The optimization leads to improved focus quality and sharper images. In the case the layer model requires a limited dictionary, the proposed algorithm generates an accurate estimate of the transfer functions.


MSc SPS Thesis presentation

Prediction of Post-induction Hypotension Using Machine Learning

Shuoyan Zhao

Abstract: 

Anesthesia-related hypotension is a significant concern during surgery, occurring shortly after induction and potentially leading to severe complications. Since the anesthetic drug is believed to have an important role in the occurrence of post-induction hypotension (PIH), anesthesiologists now advocate for the appropriate selection of anesthetics dosage to avoid PIH.To facilitate such decision-making, an accurate prediction of PIH associated with a certain dosage of anesthetics is necessary.

This thesis presents a high-accuracy prediction model for PIH that supports anesthesia decision-making. The model is trained on data from the VitalDB database of 320 patients undergoing general anesthesia. The target output of this classification model is the occurrence of PIH, as defined through comprehensive analysis that incorporates clinical operations. Besides demographic data and vital signs, our model incorporates the dosage of propofol administered during the induction period as an input variable, mimicking real-world anesthetic plans. By employing the model in the target control infusion system of anesthesia, the anesthetics dosage can be varied as input, providing outcome predictions as security suggestions. An ensemble algorithm is employed to balance the prediction performance and the ability to elucidate the positive relationship between propofol and PIH risk, forming an anesthetics advice model. Compared to previous PIH prediction studies, our prediction model is validated in a more reliable nested cross-validation approach and achieves a higher performance (precision of 0.83 and recall of 0.84). We believe utilizing demographic and dynamic vital signs to predict HIP can be useful in determining the appropriate anesthetic dosage plan, offering potential improvements in patient care and safety.


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Optimizing sensitivity of capacitive pressure sensors through improved intraocular pressure monitoring

Kiana Griffith

Abstract: This thesis analyzes and describes a wearable pressure sensor to detect intraocular pressure and guide clinician diagnosis of glaucoma. Although glaucoma has many symptoms and risk factors, high intraocular pressure is the most predominant. A method to continuously and accurately record intraocular pressure measurements and fluctuations in a patient could lead to a more reliable glaucoma diagnosis and a better understanding of glaucoma progression. The proposed sensor consists of an ecoflex dielectric layer, between two graphene-silver nanowire spiral antenna electrodes which also act as the membrane structure. The sensor deflection depends on the intraocular pressure fluctuations; higher pressure leads to larger deflection values, therefore, larger capacitance change. The capacitance change leads to a shift of the resonant frequency, which is simulated in this thesis. The sensor must be smaller than 11 mm2 to fit on a commercial lens. Specifically, this thesis analyzes and simulates the effects of electrode thickness and shape on the overall performance of the sensor. The optimum geometry of the capacitive sensor is analyzed to maximize sensor sensitivity and quality factor, with a correlated frequency appropriate for a wearable lens. Using Computer Simulation Technology, the optimized antenna dimensions are spiral-electrodes with a plate thickness of 350μm, and 3 spiral revolutions; leading to an increase in sensitivity of 1.4 MHz/mmHg.


MSc SPS Thesis presentation

LiDAR and Radar-Based Occupancy Grid Mapping for Autonomous Driving Exploiting Clustered Sparsity

Çağan Önen

Occupancy grid maps are fundamental to autonomous driving algorithms, offering insights into obstacle distribution and free space within an environment. These maps are used for safe navigation and decision-making in self-driving applications, forming a crucial component of the automotive perception framework. An occupancy map is a discretized representation of a chosen environment that is constructed using point cloud information obtained from sensor modalities like LiDAR and radar. In this project, we formulate the problem of estimating the occupancy grid map using sensor point cloud data as a sparse binary occupancy value reconstruction problem. We utilize the inherent sparsity of occupancy grid maps commonly encountered in automotive scenarios. Besides, the spatial dependencies between the grid cells are exploited to provide a better reconstruction of the boundaries of the objects inside the range of the map and to suppress the false alarms emerging from the reflections coming from the road. To address sparsity and spatial correlation jointly, we propose an occupancy grid estimation method that is based on pattern-coupled sparse Bayesian learning. The proposed method shows enhanced detection capabilities compared to two benchmark methods, based on qualitative and quantitative performance evaluation with scenes from the automotive datasets nuScenes and RADIal. 


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Portable microfluidic chip perfusion and heating solution for high-magnification optical microscopy

Vladimir Leshko


MSc SPS Thesis presentation

Finding Representative Sampling Subsets on Graphs: leveraging submodularity

Tianyi Li

In this work, we deal with the problem of reconstructing a complete bandlimited graph signal from partially sampled noisy measurements. For a known graph structure, some efficient centralized algorithms are proposed to partition the graph nodes into disjoint subsets such that sampling the graph signal from any subsets leads to a sufficiently accurate reconstruction on average. Furthermore, we consider the situation when the graph is massive, where processing the data centrally is no longer impractical. To overcome this issue, a distributed framework is proposed that allows us to implement centralized algorithms in a parallelized fashion. Finally, we provide numerical simulation results on synthetic and real-world data to show that our proposals outperform state-of-the-art node partitioning techniques.


MSc SPS Thesis presentation

Estimating Transmembrane Currents and Local Activation Times from Atrial Epicardial Electrograms

Teodor Licurici

Estimating the transmembrane currents travelling through the epicardium and local activation times based on atrial epicardial electrograms can greatly help in the study of cardiac arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation. This work focuses on the accurate estimation of the aforementioned signals and features. To do this, two least squares-based regression methods were used to estimate transmembrane currents from electrograms and then find their local activation times by searching for the maximum negative slope. The first least squares optimization method consists of using standard least squares, while the second consists of regularized least squares, by combining both lasso and ridge regression, to deal with signal sparsity and multicollinearity, respectively. Furthermore, to improve estimation results, multiresolution analyses based on wavelet decompositions and principal components analysis were used to filter out parasitic components that were present in the estimated transmembrane currents by separating them from the main activation complex of the decomposed signals.

Using these algorithms on simulated data, it was shown that promising results can be achieved for both transmembrane current estimations and LAT estimations. Several wavelet support sizes were tested on the simulated data to observe performance changes. These were compared to an already existing LAT estimation algorithm. The results mainly confirm the efficiency of the proposed methods on severely diseased tissue corrupted by conduction blocks and noise.


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Design and fabrication of a smart vaporizing liquid microthruster for cubesat applications

Georgios Spernovasilis


PhD Thesis Defence

Ionic electroactive polymer for organs-on-chip applications

Paul Motreuil-Ragot

Additional information ...


MSc SPS Thesis presentation

Comparative analysis of clutter filtering techniques on freehand µDoppler ultrasound imaging

Xuan Gao
Erasmus MC

Micro-Doppler (µDoppler) ultrasound imaging is a high frame rate ultrasound imaging modality that provides high spatiotemporal resolution ultrasound images of blood flow. It is sensitive to slow blood flow and particularly suitable for capturing fast-changing phenomena like rapid blood flow. Clutter filtering is an essential step in µDoppler data processing to reject tissue clutter signals and keep blood flow information as much as possible. 3D freehand µDoppler imaging is an emerging ultrasound technique that can construct full spatial vasculature images with a panoramic view that conventional 2D ultrasound is not able to provide. As freehand implies the continuous and nonuniform movement of the probe, it becomes more challenging for clutter filtering to acquire high-quality images.
This thesis explores and compares different state-of-art clutter filtering techniques on freehand in-vivo µDoppler imaging of the human brain. Specifically, Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), Robust Principle Component Analysis (Robust PCA), and Independent Component Analysis (ICA) clutter filtering techniques have been investigated. The aim is to test and compare their performance on in-vivo µDoppler ultrasound data with freehand probe movement and understand how freehand motion affects the threshold selection criteria. Besides that, a newly proposed method that combines ICA clutter filtering and clustering is included in this thesis to bring another perspective for sorting independent components corresponding to blood flow and rejecting unwanted ones consisting mostly of tissue clutter signals. 


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Self-calibrated plant counting in early crop stand scenarios using deep clustering

Jonathan Dijkstra

In recent years, the agricultural sector has seen significant techno- logical improvements under the flag of precision agriculture, assisting farmers in the manageability that coincides with large-scale farming. Moreover, precision agriculture aims to enable plant-specific farming on the macro scale that is demanded by the current global population growth. By more closely matching the individual needs of the plants, farmers are able to increase crop yield while reducing the environmen- tal footprint as well as the economic cost of farming due to savings in fertilizers and pesticides.

Visual inspection of arable land is a key factor in maintaining trace- ability of plant growth and health in precision farming. More specif- ically, plant counting, size measurement and plant localisation are of great use for farmers in yield prediction, growth tracking, and obtain- ing insight in the emergence ratio of the crop.

Most of the state-of-the-art plant counters, or object counters in gen- eral, rely on human annotations (labour intensive and error prone) as exemplars for the counting model. Self-supervised object counting, however, is a machine learning paradigm independent of human la- belled data, enabling an object counter to learn solely from raw photo- graphic data. Furthermore, the generative character of self-supervised learning models implies the potential to generalize well on unseen data to the model, such as new plant species or variations in plant size in the case of plant counting.

In this master’s thesis in cooperation with Tective Robotics, a study is performed towards the design of self-calibration based self-supervised object counting and localisation model for the scenario of early crop stand scenarios. More specifically, a novel self-calibrator has been developed to estimate the planting distance in between crops and a threshold for small object noise filtering (weeds, loose leaves ect). Im- plications of the self-calibrator are robustness to variations in plant size and allignement, accurate segmentation of occluded plant clusters and small-sized weed suppression.

Model testing on UAV orthomosaic arable land imagery collected by Tective Robotics B.V. has shown outstanding performance (R2 = 0.94) of the newly developed plant counting model, without the need of any labelled training data. The plant counter is comparable in performance to some of the commercially available plant counters. The plant counter, embedded in the entire data processing pipeline for Geotiff orthomosaics, has been made available on GitHub.


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Coherent integration for imaging and detection using active sonar

Kaan Demir

Existing sonar systems typically rely on a minimum signal strength of a single echo, which limits their performance in low signal-to-noise conditions. This thesis explores the concept of coherent integration for active sonar, with the aim of improving imaging and detection capabilities under low signal-to-noise conditions. The goal is to provide signal processing methods that achieve long-time coherent integration of the received echoes, thereby maximising the processing gain.  Additionally, this research explores waveform design by comparing the performance of pseudo-random noise with chirps.

Two applications are seen in this thesis: moving target detection, which involves static sonar sensors, and synthetic aperture imaging, where the sensors move while the imaging scene remains static. For moving target detection, a processing methods is proposed which achieves coherent integration for constant velocity targets in a computationally efficient manner, and improves the detection performance by implementing a clutter filtering stage. For the second application, a processing method for imaging from a moving sensor pair is proposed. The resulting point-spread function for a circular sensor trajectory is investigated, from which a set of design rules are established. Additionally, a least squares algorithm is applied, which shows that the resulting image can be improved in terms of resolution and sidelobe interference.

Finally, the imaging and detection methods are tested and verified using an in-air demonstrator.


Invited lecture by Prof Maria Sabrina Greco on cognitive radar

Cognitive Radar

Prof. Maria Sabrina Greco
University of Pisa

Registration and info link.

https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/353534

Abstract 

Over the past fifteen years, “cognition” has emerged as an enabling technology for incorporating learning and adaptivity on both transmit and receive to optimize or make more robust the radar performance in dynamic environments. The term ‘cognitive radar’ was coined in 2006, but the foundations of the cognitive systems date back several decades to research on knowledge-aided signal processing, and adaptive radar design. The main element of cognitive radar systems is the ‘perception-action cycle’, that is the feedback mechanism between receiver and transmitter that allows the radar system to learn information about a target and its environment and adapt its transmissions so as to optimize one or more missions, according to a desired goal. But a truly cognitive radar should not be only able to adapt on the fly its transmission waveforms and parameters based on internal fixed rules and on what learned about the environment, but it should also be able to optimize these rules learning with time from its mistakes, as some biological system does. And this is still a big challenge for radar experts.

This talk will provide an overview of the main concept, of methods for modeling cognitive processes in a radar system and of some application example. Some insights into future directions of research will be provided as concluding remarks.

Bio

Maria Sabrina Greco graduated in Electronic Engineering in 1993 and received the Ph.D. degree in Telecommunication Engineering in 1998, from University of Pisa, Italy. From December 1997 to May 1998 she joined the Georgia Tech Research Institute, Atlanta, USA as a visiting research scholar where she carried on research activity in the field of radar detection in non-Gaussian background. In 1993 she joined the Department of Information Engineering of the University of Pisa, where she is Full Professor since December 2016. She’s IEEE fellow since January 2011 and she was co-recipient of the 2001 and 2012 IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society’s Barry Carlton Award for Best Paper and recipient of the 2008 Fred Nathanson Young Engineer of the Year award for contributions to signal processing, estimation, and detection theory

She has been co-general-chair of the 2007 International Waveform Diversity and Design Conference (WDD07), Pisa, Italy, in the Technical Committee of the 2006 EURASIP Signal and Image Processing Conference (EUSIPCO), Florence, Italy, in the Technical Committee of the 2008 IEEE Radar Conference, Rome, Italy, in the Organizing Committee of CAMSAP09, Technical co-chair of CIP2010 (Elba Island, Italy), General co-Chair of CAMSAP2011 (San Juan, Puerto Rico), Publication Chair of ICASSP2014, Florence, Italy, Technical Co-Chair of the CoSeRa2015, Pisa, Italy and Special Session Chair of CAMSAP2015, Cancun, Mexico. She has been lead guest editor of the special issue on "Advanced Signal Processing for Radar Applications", on the IEEE Journal on Special Topics of Signal Processing, published in December 2015, guest co-editor of the special issue of the Journal of the IEEE Signal Processing Society on Special Topics in Signal Processing on "Adaptive Waveform Design for Agile Sensing and Communication," published in June 2007 and lead guest editor of the special issue of International Journal of Navigation and Observation on” Modelling and Processing of Radar Signals for Earth Observation published in August 2008. She’s Associate Editor of IET Proceedings – Sonar, Radar and Navigation, Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine, member of the Editorial Board of the Springer Journal of Advances in Signal Processing (JASP), Senior Editorial board member of IEEE Journal on Selected Topics of Signal Processing (J-STSP), and Senior Area Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing. She's also member of the IEEE AES and IEEE SP Board of Governors and Chair of the IEEE AESS Radar Panel. She's as well SP Distinguished Lecturer for the years 2014-2015, AESS Distinguished Lecturer for the years 2015-2017, member of the IEEE Fellow Committee and chair of the EURASIP Special Area Team on "Signal Processing for Multisensor Systems (SPMuS)". In May and June 2015 she joined the Université Paris Sud, CentraleSupélec as visiting professor.

Maria is a coauthor of the tutorials entitled “ Radar Clutter Modeling”, presented at the International Radar Conference (May 2005, Arlington, USA), “ Sea and Ground Radar Clutter Modeling” presented at 2008 IEEE Radar Conference (May 2008, Rome, Italy) and at 2012 IEEE Radar Conference (May 2012, Atlanta, USA), coauthor of the tutorial "RF and digital components for highly-integrated low-power radar" presented at the same conference, of the tutorial "Recent Advances in Adaptive Radar Detection" presented at the 2014 International Radar Conference (October 2014, Lille, France) and at 2015 IET Radar Conference (October 2015, Hangzhou, China), co-author of the tutorial "High Resolution Sea and Land Clutter Modeling and analysis", presented at the 2015 IEEE International Radar Conference (May 2015, Washington DC, USA) and of the tutorial "Bistatic active and passive radars" presented at the 2016 IEEE Radar Conference (May 2016, Philadelphia, USA).

Her general interests are in the areas of statistical signal processing, estimation and detection theory. In particular, her research interests include clutter models, spectral analysis, coherent and incoherent detection in non-Gaussian clutter, CFAR techniques, radar waveform diversity and bistatic/mustistatic active and passive radars. She co-authored many book chapters and more than 170 journal and conference papers.

 


ME colloquium

Towards fully- electric organs-on-chips

Massimo Mastrangeli

Organs-on-chip are microsystems aiming to recapitulate a relevant part of human physiology in vitro within an engineered in vivo-like microenvironment. This technology sits at the convergence of tissue engineering and microfabrication, and has the potential to advance our knowledge of human physiology and enhance along the way the current drug development process. As I will illustrate in the seminar, the specific approach we pursue at ECTM targets the design and development of innovative organs-on-chip, whose multi-material and scalable fabrication processes allows to integrate electrical sensing and actuation functionalities within the devices. By making them more compact, easier to use, and ultimately autonomous, we aim to foster a wider adoption of the organs-on-chip in research and industry, and to contribute to educate a new generation of biotechnological scientists.

Additional information ...


PhD Thesis Defence

A miniature sensorized platform for engineered heart tissue

Milica Dostanic

Additional information ...


ME colloquium

Surveillance Radar 119 years old, still alive and kicking

Hans Driessen

Surveillance Radar 119 years old, still alive and kicking

The first radar that was used in a surveillance application was patented in 1904. Since then, surveillance radar has evolved into the inevitable, mature and complex EM sensing system as it is today. In this presentation, I will first briefly illustrate some of the major developments, like digital beamforming, pulse compression and Doppler processing, that have led to these capable radar sensors. Then I will sketch some of the more recent and upcoming technological innovations, like for instance, phased array antennas with digital waveform generation. I will emphasize the role of algorithms for data processing and radar control that are necessary for turning these developments into real new surveillance radar evolutions, and highlights some examples of novel algorithmic concepts for problems that we have been investigating recently.

Additional information ...


PhD Thesis Defence

Understanding the Fundament of Virus Inactivation via Modelling

Chunjian Tan


Symposium

Heterogeneous system integration - Driving the EU Chip Act ambitions

The Netherlands have a strong national ecosystem for quantum, photohics and semiconductor technologies, well connected to international key players. This symposium aims to build on this strength by intensifying collaboration among these domains.

Heterogeneous integration plays a crucial role in enabling future quantum, photonics and semiconductor technologies by creating new functionalities and business opportunities through the integration of different chips, technologies and materials into a single system.

This symposium will discuss the importance of heterogeneous integration and its potential for creating more industry and business value. It also aims to cultivate human resources for heterogeneous integration, further strengthening the Dutch ecosystem.

Join us to explore the exciting opportunities that heterogenous system integration can offer for the Dutch ecosystem and beyond, and to be part of the conversation on driving the EU Chip Act ambitions.


ME colloquium

A Classical Electromagnetic Model for Thermal Emission from Ohmic Media

Andrea Neto

For seventy years  Rytov’s currents have been the tool to introduce Plank’s quantum hypothesis in modern radiometry. However, these currents are affected by the important unjustified assumption of being uncorrelated among each other for any distance different from zero. At a close look, the demonstrations provided by Rytov, or by Landau around the same time, are less than water proof. Here, resorting to a rigorous Electromagnetic analysis we propose an expansion for the electromagnetic fields in homogeneous media in terms of orthogonal eigen-vectors of Maxwell’s equations. The estimation of the elecromagnetic energy associated to each of the eigen modes used in the field expansion is then obtained by introducing Johnson like thermal sources. The observation of the mutual coupling between the proposed eigen-modes reveals that only a few of the modes possible should be retained as independent. This information provides the EM energy thermally generated per unit of volume. Incidentally, a high frequency cut off in thermal energy is found to be dependent from the conductivity and the related scattering time, rather than Planck’s law.

Additional information ...


ME colloquium

Extreme III-V’s and Wide bandgap Semiconductors: Hall Sensors and Photoconductive Switches

Karen Dowling

Through my research career, I have worked with various wide bandgap and III-V materials to create sensors and opto-electronic power devices. High electron mobility is desirable for high performing, high precision sensors and low on-resistance in power devices. In this talk, I will present two concepts that leverage unique device operation regimes. First, I will highlight my previous work on GaN 2DEG Hall-effect magnetometers at Stanford University. Here, the 2DEG heterostructure enables high mobility which corresponds to higher sensitivity, operation as high as 600C, and lower offset compared to state-of-the-art silicon devices. Next, I will highlight my creation of the first pulse compression photoconductive semiconductor switch (PCPS), a GaAs based opto-electronic device which leverages electric fields beyond saturation in materials that showcase negative differential mobility (NDM). This unique device operation regime is promising for high voltage, sub-ns pulse generation for RF and power device drivers. Finally, I will conclude with my new projects in the pipeline at TU Delft: GaN current sensing and single-device 3D Hall effect sensors, and my future directions into ultra-wide bandgap materials.

Additional information ...


Guest lecture Gregor Lenz (SynSense)

Training robust computer vision models for interference on neuromorphic hardware

Gregor Lenz
SynSense

Event cameras output changes in illumination asynchronously rather than frames at a certain interval. For computer vision tasks, this data can be processed efficiently using spiking neural networks, which promise very-low-power applications. To harness the potential of such models, we have to execute them on specialised neuromorphic hardware. In this talk we look into the data, training and deployment stages that are related to SynSense's Speck chip and the challenges that arise in each of those.

Online Zoom Link to webinar:

https://tudelft.zoom.us/j/95129047745?pwd=MngzWHIxUXh0Y3dyLy9kcHBuaEU4Zz09

Any questions? Please contact the organizers:

Fabrizio Ottati: fabrizio.ottati@polito.it
Charlotte Frenkel: C.Frenkel@tudelft.nl


PhD Thesis Defence

Yannick Hopf - PhD Defence

Yannick Hopf

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

 

It is my pleasure to invite you to the defense of my PhD entitled:

Integrated Circuits for 3D High-Frame-Rate Intracardiac Echocardiography Probes

 

The event will take place in the Senaatszaal/Aula on Friday, 3rd March 2023 and the schedule is as follows:

  • 09:30 – Layman’s Talk
  • 10:00 – Defense
  • 11:30 – Reception

 

A link for online participation will be shared once provided by the Graduate School.

The thesis can be accessed via:

https://doi.org/10.4233/uuid:7016e74d-c7df-42a8-8257-11326940ad7f

 

While this marks the end of my PhD project at TU Delft, I will still be around as a postdoc until mid April.

So while I would already like to thank you for all the support and good times, this is not a farewell yet and I’m looking forward to my remaining time in the team!

 

Best regards,

Yannick

Additional information ...


Signal Processing Systems Seminar

Community Detection in Multilayer Networks: Algorithms and Applications

Prof. Dr. Selin Aviyente
Dept of ECE, Michigan State University

Abstract:
Modern data analysis and processing tasks typically involve large sets of structured data, where the structure carries critical information about the nature of the data.  Typically, graphs are used as mathematical tools to describe the structure of such data. Traditional network models employ simple graphs where the nodes are connected to each other by a single, static edge.  However, in many contemporary applications, this relatively simple structure cannot capture the diverse nature of the networks, e.g., multiple types of entities and interactions between them. Multilayer networks (MLNs) allow one to represent the interactions between a pair of nodes through multiple types of links. MLNs can further be categorized based on the homegeneity of the nodes and complexity of topological structure as: i) multiplex networks where each layer has the same set of entities of the same type and inter-layer edges are not shown as they are implicit; ii) heterogenous multilayer networks where the set and types of entities may be different for each layer and the relationships of entities across layers are shown using explicit inter-layer edges. A core task in the complexity reduction of these high-dimensional networks is community detection. In this talk, a joint nonnegative matrix factorization approach is proposed to detect the community structure in both multiplex and multilayer networks. The proposed approach considers the heterogeneity of layers and formulates community detection as a regularized optimization problem. The proposed approach is evaluated for both social networks and a fully connected multi-frequency brain network model.
 

Bio:
Selin Aviyente received her B.S. degree with high honors in Electrical and Electronics engineering from Bogazici University, Istanbul. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees, both in Electrical Engineering: Systems, from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Michigan State University in 2002, where she is currently a Professor and Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies. Her research focuses on statistical and nonstationary signal processing, higher-order data representations and network science with applications to neuronal signals. She has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers. She is the recipient of a 2005 Withrow Teaching Excellence Award, a 2008 NSF CAREER Award and 2021 Withrow Excellence in Diversity Award. She is currently serving as the chair of IEEE Signal Processing Society Bioimaging and Signal Processing Technical Committee, on the Steering Committees of IEEE SPS Data Science Initiative and IEEE BRAIN. She has served as an Associate Editor and Senior Area Editor for IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, IEEE Transactions on Signal and Information Processing over Networks, IEEE Open Journal of Signal Processing and Digital Signal Processing.


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Two-photon polymerization-based 3D-multi-electrode arrays for electrical monitoring of neuronal cells

Thomas Michalica

Abstract:

3D-multi-electrode arrays (3D-MEAs) are needed to overcome the limitations of 2D-multi-electrode arrays (2D-MEAs) and enable the electrical characterisation of 3D neuronal cultures in in-vitro brain models, advancing the understanding of neurological disorders and paving the way to personalized medicine. The aim of this thesis was to overcome some of the limitations of current 3D-MEA devices and develop structures approaching the stiffness of the brain microenvironment, by using materials softer than conventional Silicon.

A polymeric 3D-MEA was designed and developed by means of an innovative combination of two-photon polymerisation (2PP), a 3D printing technology with sub-micrometer resolution, and standard wafer-level microfabrication methods from the semiconductor industry. Two novel fabrication protocols were developed, the first being a combination of 2PP with high-aspect ratio photolithography, which, though feasible, proved to require an inconveniently laborious process flow. The second fabrication process employed instead 2PP to fabricate the polymeric structures, pattern the microelectrodes, and provide electrical insulation. The 2PP-based process flow was ultimately preferred due to its potential for fabrication of structures of higher aspect ratio and geometrical  complexity for 3D-MEA, extending their measurement resolution. Furthermore, a wafer-level alignment routine was developed with an alignment repeatability of 2PP structures of ±5 µm, which enabled the multistep 2PP fabrication process. A novel maskless photolithography via 2PP process was also developed to pattern thin films over slanted surfaces, utilizing photoresist and glycerol-based immersion optics.

The resulting 3D-MEA consisted of 15 printed polymeric pyramids featuring a total of 60 gold microelectrodes. The electrical insulation of the traces was partially successful, and will require further process development. The results demonstrate the feasibility of merging, for the first time, the 2PP process with standard wafer-level microfabrication techniques, specifically for the fabrication of a 3D-MEA for in-vitro studies of iPSC neuronal cultures.

The 2PP-based solutions provided in this thesis show a promising pathway for the development of more complex and biomimetic 3D-MEAs. More generally, the developed wafer-level alignment routine and maskless photolithography via 2PP process for high-aspect ratio structures contribute to advance the field of microfabrication, and may enable the development of other types of innovative microdevices.


ME colloquium

What is cooking under the Tellegen lab?

Leon Abelmann

In nature atoms spontaneously grow into crystals, water molecules effortless assemble into snowflakes. However, when we build a car or a microprocessor, we have to put painstaking effort into getting the parts in the right places. Wouldn't it be possible just to provide the parts, and let Nature do the rest? This dream of self-assembly has been intriguing scientists for decades. 

We have been contributing to the dream with magnetically driven self-assembly. We have built a reactor in which we can study magnetically self-assembly in real time using millimetre sized magnets inside 3D-printed shells, we have shown that this system obeys basic thermodynamic laws, and we have grown the first three-dimensional crystals. The experiments are inexpensive and easy to design. Yet the data is very rich and taught us a lot on thermodynamics and self-assembly. 

https://youtu.be/xovOf65oTzE

Additional information ...


PhD Thesis Defence

Pressure-assisted Cu Sintering for SiC Die-attachment Application

Xu Liu

Additional information ...


Woman + in Engineering

Woman + in Engineering

Dr. Rard Leeuw de (ASML), Ilke Ercan, Bahareh Abdi

Dr. Rard de Leeuw (vice president ASML) will talk about the importance and impact of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at ASML and Ilke and Bahare will inform you on the progress of W+IE’s progress.

Dr. Rard de Leeuw is vice president of ASML.
lke Ercan en Bahare Abdi are the initiators of Woman + in EE


IEEE Autonomous Systems Initiative Webinar

Active inference in cognitive neuroscience

Prof. Karl Friston
University College London

In the cognitive neurosciences and machine learning, we have formal ways of understanding and characterising perception and decision-making; however, the approaches appear very different: current formulations of perceptual synthesis call on theories like predictive coding and Bayesian brain hypothesis. Conversely, formulations of decision-making and choice behaviour often appeal to reinforcement learning and the Bellman optimality principle. On the one hand, the brain seems to be in the game of optimising beliefs about how its sensations are caused; while, on the other hand, our choices and decisions appear to be governed by value functions and reward. Are these formulations irreconcilable, or is there some underlying imperative that renders perceptual inference and decision-making two sides of the same coin.

Speaker biography

Karl Friston is a theoretical neuroscientist and authority on brain imaging. He invented statistical parametric mapping (SPM), voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and dynamic causal modelling (DCM). These contributions were motivated by schizophrenia research and theoretical studies of value-learning, formulated as the dysconnection hypothesis of schizophrenia. Mathematical contributions include variational Laplacian procedures and generalized filtering for hierarchical Bayesian model inversion. Friston currently works on models of functional integration in the human brain and the principles that underlie neuronal interactions. His main contribution to theoretical neurobiology is a free-energy principle for action and perception (active inference).

Friston received the first Young Investigators Award in Human Brain Mapping (1996) and was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (1999). In 2000 he was President of the international Organization of Human Brain Mapping. In 2003 he was awarded the Minerva Golden Brain Award and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2006. In 2008 he received a Medal, College de France and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of York in 2011. He became of Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology in 2012, received the Weldon Memorial prize and Medal in 2013 for contributions to mathematical biology and was elected as a member of EMBO (excellence in the life sciences) in 2014 and the Academia Europaea in (2015). He was the 2016 recipient of the Charles Branch Award for unparalleled breakthroughs in Brain Research and the Glass Brain Award, a lifetime achievement award in the field of human brain mapping. He holds Honorary Doctorates from the University of Zurich and Radboud University.

Zoom link

Please register for the webinar, here.


PhD Thesis Defence

Integrated silicon carbide sun position sensor system-on-chip for space applications

Joost Romijn

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IEEE SPS BISP-TC Webinar

Tensor Decompositions in Functional Neuroimaging

Borbála Hunyadi

Brain data are inherently large scale, multidimensional, and noisy. Indeed, advances in imaging and sensor technology allow recordings of ever-increasing spatio-temporal resolution. Multidimensional, as time series data are recorded at multiple locations (electrodes, voxels), from multiple subjects, under various conditions. Finally, the data are noisy: the recorded observations are a mixture of ongoing brain activity, physiological, and non-physiological noise sources. Tensors (higher order arrays) are the natural representations of such multidimensional data. Tensor decompositions, in general, aim to write a large and high-order tensor in terms of the product and summation of several smaller and low-rank tensors (including vectors and matrices). A tensor decomposition with a well-chosen number of terms and ranks can approximate the original data tensor using much fewer entries; even to capture the underlying sources separately in its individual components. This talk will first give an introduction to multilinear algebra and tensor decompositions, discuss current challenges in large-scale brain data analysis, and finally highlight some successful applications of tensor decompositions in EEG and functional ultrasound (fUS) data processing.

Registration

Follow this link.

Additional information ...


IEEE SPS Autonomous Systems Initiative

Computational Self-awareness and Self-organization: A Paradigm for Building Adaptive, Resilient Computing Platforms

Dr. Nikil Dutt
University of California, Irvine

Self-awareness and self-organization have a long history in biology, psychology, medicine, engineering and (more recently) computing. In the past decade this has inspired new self-aware/self-organizing strategies for building resilient computing platforms that can adapt to the (often conflicting) challenges of resiliency, energy, heat, cost, performance, security, etc. in the face of highly dynamic operational behaviors and environmental conditions. I will begin by outlining a computational self-awareness paradigm that enables adaptivity and which supports system resilience. Computational self-awareness is achieved through introspection (i.e., modeling and observing its own internal and external behaviors) combined with both reflexive and reflective adaptations via cross-layer physical and virtual sensing and actuations applied across multiple layers of the hardware/software system stack.

 

Next I will outline strategies for combining computational self-awareness with self-organization for life-cycle management of dependable distributed computing platforms.   Our ongoing NSF/DFG Information Processing Factory (IPF) project applies principles inspired by factory management that combine self-awareness and self-organization for continuous operation and optimization of highly-integrated-but-distributed embedded computing platforms.  While each IPF computational component exhibits autonomy through self-awareness, collections of IPF entities can self-organize; the resulting emergent behavior must be controlled to ensure guaranteed service even under strict safety and availability requirements. I will outline two use cases: i) End-to-end computational pipelines for a single autonomous IPF component, and ii) Truck platooning as an exemplar for distributed-but-coupled IPF autonomous systems. The talk will conclude with the opportunities and challenges arising from adopting computational self-awareness and self-organization for making complex computational systems more resilient and self-adaptive.

Zoom link: see below.

Additional information ...


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Vacuum sealing of MEMS cavities using nanoparticle sintering

Mustafeez Bashir Shah


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

A New Logarithmic Quantization Technique and Corresponding Processing Element Design for CNN Accelerators

Longxing Jiang

Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) have become a popular solution for computer vision problems. However, due to the high data volumes and intensive computation involved in CNNs, deploying CNNs on low-power hardware systems is still challenging. The power consumption of CNNs can be prohibitive in the most common implementation platforms: CPUs and GPUs. Therefore, hardware accelerators that can exploit CNN parallelism and methods to reduce the computation burden or memory requirements are still hot research topics. Quantization is one of these methods.

One suitable quantization strategy for low-power deployments is logarithmic quantization.

Logarithmic quantization for Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN): a) fits well typical weights and activation distributions, and b) allows the replacement of the multiplication operation by a shift operation that can be implemented with fewer hardware resources. In this thesis, a new quantization method named Jumping Log Quantization (JLQ) is proposed. The key idea of JLQ is to extend the quantization range, by adding a coefficient parameter ”s” in the power of two exponents (2sx+i ).

This quantization strategy skips some values from the standard logarithmic quantization. In addition, a small hardware-friendly optimization called weight de-zeroing is proposed in this work. Zero-valued weights that cannot be performed by a single shift operation are all replaced with logarithmic weights to reduce hardware resources with little accuracy loss.

To implement the Multiply-And-Accumulate (MAC) operation (needed to compute convolutions) when the weights are JLQ-ed and dezeroed, a new Processing Element (PE) have been developed. This new PE uses a modified barrel shifter that can efficiently avoid the skipped values.

Resource utilization, area, and power consumption of the new PE standing alone and in a systolic array prototype are reported. The results show that JLQ performs better than other state-of-the-art logarithmic quantization methods when the bit width of the operands becomes very small.


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Towards a readout for capacitive displacement sensor in a an engineered heart tissue device

Filippo Pfaiffer


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Off-chip Self Timed SNN Custom Digital Interconnect System

Yichen Yang

To support the spike propagates between neurons, neuromorphic computing systems always require a high-speed communication link.

Meanwhile, spiking neural networks are event-driven so that the communication links normally exclude the clock signal and related blocks.

This thesis aims to develop a self-timed off-chip interconnect system with ring topology that supports multi-point communication in neuromorphic computing systems. This interconnect system is implemented in high-level modeling with SystemC and involves the burstmode two-wire protocol in point-to-point communication. In order to ensure the flexibility of the system, the distributed control system is involved. Further, the system can be configured with different numbers of chiplet to fulfill various spiking neural network structures.

We also explore optimization methods, which is a bi-directional ring topology achieving the growth of throughput. Based on evaluation and simulation results, the interconnect system can achieve 4.57Gbps with the specific application scenario.

Additional information ...


MSc CE Thesis Presentation

Mapping of Spiking Neural Network Architecture using VPR

Jinyun Long

As the new generation of neural networks, Spiking Neural Network architectures executes on specialized Neuromorphic devices. The mapping of Spiking Neural Network architectures affects the power consumption and performance of the system. The target platform of the thesis is a hardware platform with Neuromorphic Arrays with columns for neural signal processing.

The explorations for the mapping methods are based on VPR, an open-source academic CAD tool for FPGA architecture exploration.

The packing of VPR is used for mapping neurons to Neuromorphic Arrays. VPR includes two levels of mapping: pins and neurons.

An evaluation of the mapping methods is established. Based on the evaluation, the optimized mapping solution is generated. Modifications are made in VPR to adapt to SNN architectures. An ActivityCriticality input file is added to the VPR flow for the optimized mapping solution.

Additional information ...


ME colloquium

Piezoelectric Microsystems for a New Generation of Sensors

Tomás Manzaneque

The developments of the last decades in sensor technologies have greatly impacted our lives and promise to further revolutionize society by bringing the Internet of Things. Microsystem technologies constitute one of the main innovation drivers in sensing. In this talk, I will summarize my research efforts focused on building novel piezoelectric microsystems to tackle three aspects. The first aspect concerns studying fundamental principles of microsystems and materials, for sensing new magnitudes or achieving superior sensing performance. Second, I focus on enabling electrical readout schemes for highly sensitive microsystems, aiming for compact and inexpensive sensors. The third important aspect is that of improving the autonomy of sensors to be deployed in settings not accessible before. By tackling these three goals, I envision piezoelectric microsystems will realize compact and high-resolution mass sensors that will enable future particle sensors for air quality monitoring.

Additional information ...


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Temperature sensor based on 4H Silicon Carbide Bipolar Junction Transistor with Measurement Range up to 400 Degree Celsius

Michaël Chengshang


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Design of a membrane for a lung-on-a-chip device

Sophie den Boer


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

A Low-Noise Transimpedance Amplifier for Ultrasound Imaging with 40dB Continuous-Time Gain Compensation

Qian Wang

This work presents a low-noise amplifier (LNA) for miniature 3D ultrasound probes. Time gain compensation (TGC) is required to provide continuously variable gain and compensate for the attenuated echo signal, resulting in decreased output dynamic range (DR). As TGC is embedded in the LNA, a power-hungry LNA is no longer needed to handle the full dynamic range of attenuated echo signal. Compared to prior art where TGC is applied after the LNA, this structure reduce die area and power consumption greatly.

The LNA with built-in TGC functionality is comprised of a transimpedance amplifier (TIA) with exponentially increasing feedback resistive network. Since a transducer with a relatively high impedance is targeted, a TIA is utilized to interface with the tranducer and sense the signal current. TGC is implemented in a continuous fashion by tunable resistors so as to alleviate imaging artifacts associated with gain switching moments. The resistive feedback network is achieved by triode transistors with exponentially decreasing gate voltages. Three parallel branches of triode transistors are varied simultaneously to obtain 40dB gain range. Each branch consists of two back-to-back triodes to mitigate non-linearity related to the body effect.

The variable-gain loop amplifier employing a current-reuse topology enables constant closed-loop bandwidth in an energy-efficient way. The first stage is a fixed-gain stage with dynamic biasing to save power at the lowest gain setting. The next two stages are variable-gain stages with variable resistive loads. The load resistor is implemented in the same fashion as the TIA’s feedback resistor to achieve intrinsic gain matching. The last stage is a buffer to provide low output impedance for stability.

The LNA has been designed in 0.18 μm CMOS technology and occupies an estimated die area of 0.0339 mm2. The effective gain range is 40 dB with ±1 dB gain error. The LNA’s noise floor at the highest gain is below 1.15 pA/rt-Hz and its harmonic distortion is better than -40 dB. During 100 μs receive period, the total power consumption is 6mW from a ±0.9 V supply. The LNA featuring small area and high power efficiency is a promising circuit for miniature 3D ultrasound probes.


Microelectronics Colloquium

Advances in Low-Field MRI Hardware Design and Data Processing

Rob Remis

In this talk we discuss several recent advances in low-field Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). We focus on magnet and gradient coil design for a low-field MR scanner in which the strong background field is generated by permanent magnets (Halbach systems). These design problems are treated as inverse source problems, which are severely ill-posed in general. How to obtain approximate (regularized) solutions to these problems is discussed and the practical implementation of these solutions is addressed as well. Several processing algorithms that can handle compressed noisy MR input data are also presented and we illustrate the performance of these algorithms on simulated and measured low-field MR data.

Additional information ...


Microelectronics Colloquium

Sparsity-constrained Linear Dynamical Systems

Geethu Joseph

Abstract: At the intersection of control engineering and signal processing sits the upcoming field of sparse control and state estimation of linear dynamical systems. It deals with linear dynamical systems with control inputs having a few nonzero entries compared to their dimensions. Constraining the inputs to be sparse is often necessary to select a small subset of the available sensors or actuators at each time instant due to energy, bandwidth, or physical network constraints. Bringing together research from classical control theory and compressed sensing, the talk presents a comprehensive overview and critical insights into the conceptual foundations of sparsity-constrained systems, including the formulation, theory, and algorithms. We look at the concrete example of a budget-constrained external agent controlling the opinion of a social network.

Additional information ...


PhD Thesis Defence

Advanced Measurement Techniques and Circuits for Array-Based Transit-Time Ultrasonic Flow Meters

Douwe van Willigen

This thesis describes the design, prototyping and evaluation of matrix-based clamp-on ultrasonic flow meters. Several new measurement techniques are presented as well as an Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) designed for accurate measurement of flow velocity with matrix transducers.

The influence of circuit topologies on the zero-flow performance of ultrasonic flow meters has been analyzed and an algorithm is presented to reduce the offset. With a linear transducer array, flow measurements have been performed via two different acoustic paths, demonstrating the ability to accurately measure flow with array transducers through a stainless-steel pipe wall. In order to improve signal quality, an ASIC has been designed that is able to drive and read-out 96 piezo transducer elements. The ASIC has been characterized electrically and flow measurements have been performed in combination with the linear transducer arrays.

Several new techniques, enabled using transducer arrays, have also been explored. By tapering the amplitude of the transmit signals, spurious waves can be suppressed. An auto-calibration technique has been developed that uses additional acoustic measurements to estimate the diameter of the pipe and the speed of sound in the pipe wall and liquid. Finally, a simulation study has been performed to explore the possibility of exploiting the beam-steering capabilities of transducer arrays to measure flow velocity profiles by using measurements obtained via multiple acoustic paths.

Thesis:
https://doi.org/10.4233/uuid:e2f4b411-3d8e-4b93-b037-096009c59f61

Collegerama (live stream of the defence):
https://collegerama.tudelft.nl/mediasite/play/571eb84f3e724d47b46df7e8d0eb3a7a1d

Additional information ...


PhD Thesis Defence

Integrated Transceiver Circuits for Catheter-based Ultrasound Probes and Wearable Ultrasound Patches

Mingliang Tan

Promotors: Michiel Pertijs and Ronald Dekker

Thesis: link

Collegerama link (live stream of the defence): link

Abstract: This thesis describes the design, prototyping, and experimental evaluation of transceiver ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits) for catheter-based ultrasound probes and wearable ultrasound patches. Various circuit techniques are proposed to address requirements and implementation bottlenecks in these applications. Prototype chips are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of these techniques. To reduce the loading effect of micro-coaxial cables in an ICE probe based on capacitive micro-machined ultrasound transducers (CMUTs), an ASIC prototype including element-level high-voltage pulses and low-noise trans-impedance amplifiers has been implemented. Besides reducing the loading effect from micro-coaxial cables, ASICs play an important role in achieving cable-count reduction, which is crucial for 3-D imaging catheters, such as forward-looking IVUS probes. Circuit techniques are proposed to implement a prototype ASIC which only requires 4 cables to interface with a 2D piezoelectric transducer array. Additionally, to address the challenges in interface electronics for wearable ultrasound patches, a prototype ASIC is presented that contains 64 reconfigurable transceiver channels that can interface with different transducer elements by employing channel-parallelizing techniques.

Additional information ...


Special EI Colloquium

Piero Tortoli, Michael Kraft

Profs. Piero Tortoli and Michael Kraft

Real-time High-Frame Rate imaging: Novel Methods and Applications

Prof. Piero Tortoli
Microelectronics Systems Design Laboratory
University of Florence, Italy

Medical imaging is increasingly based on High-Frame-Rate (HFR) methods, which are in principle capable of producing one frame (or even one data volume) per transmission event. However, achieving such a goal in real-time implicitly involves the transfer and processing of huge amount of data at high rates, and this can be done only through an appropriate experimental setup.

In this talk, the main characteristics of the hardware-based open scanner ULA-OP 256 are briefly reviewed, and its recent advancements, such as the data transfer acceleration obtained through an architectural change, and the possible expansion toward the control of an unlimited number of probe elements, are reported in detail. The “virtual real-time” modality will also be described as ideal to obtain the best performance from specific HFR imaging modalities. Finally, the combination of ULA-OP 256 with properly designed sparse 2-D arrays will be shown suitable for the investigation of full volumes. The talk will be concluded with the presentation of experimental results in a few sample applications, including multi-plane imaging, HFR CFM and HFR vector Doppler.

 

Micro- and Nanosystems at ESAT, KU Leuven

Prof. Michael Kraft
ESAT, Micro- and Nano-Systems
KU Leuven, Belgium

This seminar will give an brief overview of the activities in micro- and nanosystems at the Electrical Engineering Department (ESAT) of KU Leuven. It will describe the available infrastructure and give a short overview of current research activities in the division Micro- and Nanosystems (MNS), which currently comprises 24 PhD students, 4 postdoctoral researchers and 2 technicians.

A selection of current active projects and recent highlights will be presented, including work on:

  • Coupled resonators for mass sensing applications
  • Piezoelectric ultrasound technology arrays for medical imaging and underwater communication
  • Micromachined probes for neuro recording and stimulation
  • Multi-parameter sensing chip for bioreactor condition monitoring
  • Genetic Algorithm for the design of MEMS devices (accelerometers and microgrippers)

Finally, the newly founded Leuven Institute for Micro- and Nano Integration (LIMNI) will be briefly introduced.

Note: This Colloquium precedes the PhD defence of Mingliang Tan, which will take place in the Aula on the same day at 12:00 (layman’s talk), 12:30-13:30 (defence). More information can be found here.


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

A Monolithic Photoplethysmogram (PPG) Sensor

Jixuan Mou
Silicon Integrated

A photoplethysmogram (PPG) is an important optically-obtained bio-sginal that enables convenient daily monitoring of heart rate and Oxygen saturation (SpO2). Most state-of-the-art PPG sensing systems require an off-chip photodiode, and the photodiode’s output parasitic capacitance limits the power-noise trade offs. The objective of this project is to implement a monolithic low-power PPG sensor for heart-rate detection. A novel sensing system has been developed, which has arrays of photogate imagers as front-ends and a compact successive approximation register analog-to-digital converter serving as the readout circuit. The readout power consumption is 0.64 uW at a sampling rate of 40 Hz. The minimum required LED power consumption is predicted to be 3 uW according to the post-layout simulation. The die area is 6.05 mm2 including the pads. Compared with prior art, the readout power consumption reduces by four times and the die area reduces by 3 times. The chip was submitted for fabrication in June in TSMC180nm.


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Improving the Estimation of Epicardial Activation Times Using Spatial Information

William Hunter

Atrial fibrillation is a common cardiovascular disease, affecting the regular beating of the heart through chaotic contraction of the heart's upper chambers. On its own, the condition—increasingly prevalent among the elderly—is not life threatening, but it leads to an increased risk of stroke and heart failure. As of yet, there is no consensus on the physiological mechanisms responsible for initiating and sustaining atrial fibrillation. A more detailed view of cardiac activity would improve understanding of the disease, making earlier diagnosis possible and improving options for treatment. 

The contraction of the cardiac muscles is governed by electrical signals propagating through the tissue. Cardiac activity can be monitored with a high spatial resolution by measuring the electrical potential directly on the epicardium of the heart during open-heart surgery, using an array of closely spaced electrodes. From these electrograms, estimating the time of local activation of the cardiac tissue underneath each electrode provides a quantitative way of mapping the mechanisms of atrial fibrillation. Various methods exist to estimate the activation times, but the complex signals that are typical of atrial fibrillation make it difficult to obtain accurate results. This thesis proposes combining two existing methods for estimating the local activation times. Based on a model of the electrogram as a spatial convolution of local transmembrane currents, an inverse problem is formulated and solved, resulting in a less opaque view of the cardiac activity at the electrode locations by attenuating distant disturbances and emphasizing local activity. The deconvolution output is fed to the second step, where cross-correlating certain pairs of signals gives an estimate for the mutual time delay in local activation. A graph representation of the electrode array is used to define neighbor order and decide which signal pairs are correlated. The set of pairwise time delays this produces is then converted to an estimate for the local activation times, using a least-squares estimator. 

The proposed method is evaluated using different simulated cardiac settings. In a setting with one stimulation source, earlier results of the deconvolution and cross-correlation methods are confirmed, and the proposed method is seen to produce a slightly lower mean error than reference methods. In the higher-complexity triple-source setting, the latter effect is again visible. Reinforced by the performance of the different methods in increasingly noisy settings, the main merits of the proposed method for the estimation of local activation times can be said to be found in the form of increased consistency, not significantly improving on the accuracy of existing methods.

Additional information ...


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Cooperative Localization of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles using ADS-B

Xuzhou YANG

As unmanned aerial systems (UAS) turn into a full-fledged industry, the sky will be much more crowded in the future. Large-scale UAV applications make reliable UAV navigation a pressing need. Traditionally, global navigation satellite system (GNSS) is extensively used as the primary positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) service. However, GNSS is vulnerable to intentional radio interference such as spoofing, jamming, and repeating. Hence, alternative PNT (APNT) attracted many researchers' attention. 

In this thesis, instead of GNSS signals, ADS-B signals from piloted aircraft are leveraged for UAV navigation. We propose a cooperative navigation strategy for multiple UAVs in GNSS-denied environments. It consists of: 1) a system-level, leader-follower cooperative strategy; 2) a sensor fusion algorithm for individual UAV navigation based on the extended Kalman filter. Furthermore, the effects of asynchronous clocks are studied and a joint relative positioning and synchronization algorithm is applied to tackle this problem. 

Finally, Monte Carlo experiments in a multi-UAV scene are performed to verify the proposed algorithms. The results show that the proposed algorithms achieve a performance comparable to civilian GNSS on the selected data set and under the system assumptions we made. Moreover, the proposed cooperative navigation framework only needs one ground station of limited service capacity as external aid. Compared with large-scale, specialized terrestrial APNT service networks, our proposed framework is more flexible and the system can be deployed in areas without infrastructure.

Additional information ...


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Robust Formation Control against Observation Losses

Zhonggang Li

Distributed formation control has received increasing attention in multiagent systems. Maintaining certain geometry in space is advantageous in many applications such as space interferometry and underwater sensing. At present, there is a variety of distributed solutions for agents to converge to desired formations and track a series of prescribed maneuvers. They typically rely on the relative kinematics e.g., relative positions of the neighboring agents as state observations for the local controller. In harsh working environments, the acquisition of the relative kinematics is challenged and observation losses might occur, which can be detrimental to the optimality of formation.   

In this work, observation losses in noisy environments are addressed under a distributed formation control framework. Three types of solutions are proposed to enhance the robustness which is evaluated through the improvements of tracking error, convergence speed, and smoothness of trajectories in both random and permanent loss settings. Firstly, a relative localization technique is proposed using formation itself as a spatial constraint. Secondly, a dynamic model is established for the agents entailed by a Kalman filter-based solution. Finally, a fusion of the previous two types is inspired and it exhibits superior performance than both aforementioned types individually. 

  This work not only provides means of relative localization without additional sensor data but also shares insights into coping with random or permanent graph changes for stress-based formation control systems. This could potentially lead to the exploration of formation control with subgraphs or energy-efficient sensing as future directions.

Additional information ...


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Distributed Gaussian Process for Multi-agent Systems

Peiyuan Zhai

This work is focused on environmental monitoring and learning of unknown field by Gaussian Process (GP) in Multi-agent Systems (MAS). The two main problems are how to develop fully-distributed and robust algorithm to (1). optimize GP hyperparameters, and (2). aggregate GP predictions from agents.  

The state-of-the-art distributed GP hyperparameter optimization algorithm is proximal alternated direction method of multipliers (pxADMM), which requires a center station in MAS. Based on pxADMM, two fully-distributed algorithms are proposed so that the center station is no longer needed. Asynchronous behavior is also introduced into the proposed algorithms to deal with heterogeneous processing time of agents.

  Current aggregation methods are classified based on whether datasets are independent. Under independence assumption, PoE and BCM families of methods are distributed by applying discrete time consensus filter (DTCF), which is proposed to be replaced by primal-dual method of multiplier (PDMM) for faster convergence. Without independence assumption, the Nested Pointwise Aggregation of Experts (NPAE) can be distributed by NPAE-JOR in complete graph with high flooding overhead. We propose fully-distributed CON-NPAE in connected graph to eliminate flooding overhead. 

Simulation results show that the proposed hyperparameter optimization algorithms are fully-distributed at a cost of 2 to 4.5 times more iterations compared to pxADMM. The fully-dsitributed PoE and BCM based methods are accelerated, and the fully-distributed CON-NPAE makes comparable aggregations as NPAE without flooding overhead. Future work will be focused on the theoretical convergence analysis of fully-distributed pxADMM, the effect of network structure on CON-NPAE and new type of distributed NPAE based on inducing points. 

Additional information ...


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Detect and Avoid for Autonomous Agents in Cluttered Environments

Mosab Diab

Autonomous agents are the future of many services and industries such as delivery systems, surveillance and monitoring, and search and rescue missions. An important aspect in an autonomous agent is the navigation system it uses to traverse the environment. Not much emphasis has been paid in the past on autonomous agent navigation in cluttered environments. Cluttered and unknown environments such as forests and subaquatic environments need to have autonomous navigation systems developed just for them due to their uncertain and changing nature.

  Path planning algorithms are used for the navigation of an autonomous agent in an environment. The agent needs to reach a target location while avoiding the obstacles it detects along the path. Such a system is called a Detect and Avoid (DAA) system and there are different implementations for it of which some are explored in this thesis.  

The Artificial Potential Fields method or APF for short is a method for mobile agent navigation which is based on generating an attractive force on the agent from the target and a repulsive force from the obstacles. This leads to the agent reaching the target while avoiding the obstacles along the way. The Classical APF (CAPF) method works for structured environments well but not for cluttered environments. The CAPF method can be replaced with a modified version where the agent is surrounded by a set of points (called bacteria points) around its current location and the agent moves by selecting a bacteria point as a future location. This method is named the Bacteria APF (BAPF) method. This selection happens through combinatorial optimization based on the potential value of each bacteria point.  

In this thesis, we propose two distinct contributions to the BAPF method. The first one being the use of an adaptive parameter in the repulsive cost function which is determined through a brute-force search. The second addition is a branching cost function that changes the value of the repulsive potential based on predefined perimeters around each obstacle. We show through simulations on densely and lightly cluttered environments that this Improved BAPF (IBAPF) method significantly improves the performance of the system in terms of the convergence to the target by almost 200% and reduced the time it takes to converge by around 25% as well as maintain the safety of the navigation route by keeping the average distance from obstacles around the same value.

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Invited talk

What comes after digital? The Rain roadmap for neuromorphic artificial intelligence

Gordon Hirsch Wilson, CEO, Rain co-founder of Neuromorphics

The deep learning revolution that began in 2012 was sparked by the integration of two preexisting technologies: the back propagation algorithm for training neural networks, and the GPU architecture for scaling them up to large sizes.  For a decade, the roadmap defined by these two technologies has enabled immense progress in digital artificial intelligence.  Now, the costs associated with this approach make further progress impractical.  At Rain, we have focused on developing a new learning algorithm and scaling architecture for neuromorphic hardware.  The equilibrium propagation algorithm and the sparse neural array architecture form the backbone for a new roadmap of analog artificial intelligence.  In this talk, I will discuss our mission, our past 5 years of research and development, plans for partnerships, and the path forward as we scale our organization after closing Series A funding in January 2022.

Gordon Hirsch Wilson is the CEO and co-founder of Rain Neuromorphics.  Gordon studied mathematics and statistics at the University of Florida, where he met his co-founders, CTO Jack Kendall and Chief Scientific Advisor Juan Nino.  Gordon and Jack are unique among Silicon Valley semiconductor founders, in that they do not come from a background in the industry.  Founding Rain when they were both 25 years old, they seek to bring a fresh and interdisciplinary perspective to the chip industry. Gordon lives in the Castro district of San Francisco, California.


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Image-Based Query Search Engine via Deep Learning

Yuanyuan Yao

Typically, people search images by text: users enter keywords and a search engine returns relevant results. However, this pattern has limitations. An obvious drawback is that when searching in one language, users may miss results labelled in other languages. Moreover, sometimes people know little about the object in the image and thus would not know what keywords could be used to search for more information. Driven by this use case with many applications, content-based image retrieval (CBIR) has recently been put under the spotlight, which aims to retrieve similar images in the database solely by the content of the query image without relying on textual information.

To achieve this objective, an essential part is that the search engine should be able to interpret images at a higher level instead of treating them simply as arrays of pixel values. In practice, this is done by extracting distinguishable features. Many effective algorithms have been proposed, from traditional handcrafted features to more recent deep learning methods. Good features may lead to good retrieval performance, but the problem is still not fully solved. To make the engine useful in real-world applications, retrieval efficiency is also an important factor to consider while has not received as much attention as feature extraction.

In this work, we focus on retrieval efficiency and provide a solution for real-time CBIR in million-scale databases. The feature vectors of database images are extracted and stored offline. During the online procedure, such feature vectors of query images are also extracted and then compared with database vectors, finding the nearest neighbours and returning the corresponding images as results. Since feature extraction only performs once for each query, the main limiting factor of retrieval efficiency in large-scale database is the time of finding nearest neighbours. Exact search has been shown to be far from adequate, and thus approximate nearest neighbour (ANN) search methods have been proposed, which mainly fall into two categories: compression-based and tree/graph-based. However, these two types of approaches are usually not discussed and compared together. Also, the possibility of combining them has not been fully studied. Our study (1) applies and compares methods in both categories, (2) reveals the gap betweentoy examples and real applications, and (3) explores how to get the best of both worlds. Moreover, a prototype of our image search engine with GUI is available on https://github.com/YYao-42/ImgSearch

Additional information ...


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Gaussian Process enhanced Distributed Particle filtering

Rui Tang

In many applications of multi-agent networks, the physical systems consist of massive nonlinear and non-Gaussian elements. Hence, in the first decade of this century, intensive research on distributed particle filters (DPFs) has been conducted to address the distributed estimation problems. For distributed algorithms, communication overhead is an important metric in terms of engineering feasibility. In previous work, the approach to distributed particle filtering relies on a parameterization of the posterior proba-bility or likelihood function, to reduce communication requirements. However, as more and more effective resampling algorithms are proposed, the dependence of particle filter performance on particle set size is greatly reduced, so this thesis attempts to explore the possi-bility of DPFs based on direct particle exchange. In this thesis, the Gaussian process enhanced resampling algorithm is used. Meanwhile, several metaheuristic optimization algorithms (i.e., genetic algorithm and firefly algorithm) are further adapted to seek the global optimal particle set to improve the estimation performance. Furthermore, all algorithms are simulated in target tracking scenarios and are evaluated from three aspects: time, space, and communication complexity.

Additional information ...


IEEE Sensors Young Professionals June Webinar

Energy Autonomous Environmental Sensors

Anton Köck
Material Center Leoben, Austria

You are invited to the IEEE Young Professionals Engagement Series (YES) which is organized by the IEEE Sensors Council YP Committee. It is a pleasure to announce the next speaker in this webinar series.

Speaker:  Dr. Anton Köck, Key Researcher & head of the Sensor Solution Group, Materials Center Leoben, Austria

Date: June 30, 2022

Time13:00 Central European Time

RegistrationFree, but required. Register using the Google Form link mentioned below.

Google Form Link: https://forms.gle/6eeStfXBthbKnHQC8.

You will be sent the meeting link after you register: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86889096934?pwd=a214YkVvU21wbVpwQVNwanRraFdRUT09

 

Title: Energy Autonomous Environmental Sensors

Abstract: Nowadays ~90% of time is spent indoors; thus, air quality monitoring has become of increasing importance to check for potential indoor and outdoor pollutans, which have a negative impact on our health. For providing an area wide air quality monitoring, the optimum would be an IoT capable network of energy autonomous sensor systems which harvest and store the energy for daily operation. This presentation will mostly focus on air quality sensors, the operating principle and the state-of-the-art on the market. We will show our approach in optimizing chemical sensor devices by use of nanomaterials and how we integrate several devices to multi sensor system. Finally, we will discuss the requirements and challenges for energy autonomous sensor systems.

About the Speaker: Anton Köck studied Experimental Physics at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. After a Post Doc position at the Technical University Munich, he was head of the Optoelectronics research group at the Institute for Solid State Electronics, Vienna University of Technology, where he habilitated in the field of Optoelectronics in. He was a professor for Physics and Material Science at the Wiener Neustadt University for Applied Sciences. Next, he was Deputy Head of the business unit Nano Systems, Austrian Institute of Technology, in Vienna, where he established the research on gas sensors based on nanomaterials. Since 2013 he is Key Researcher at the Materials Center Leoben  and is head of the Sensor solution group. Anton Koeck has more than 230 publications and conference contributions and has been the General Conference Chair of the EUROSENSORS 2018 conference.


Seminar on Wide-bandgap semiconductor technology and industry

This seminar will highlight the state of the art of technology and industry of wide bandgap semiconductors (WBS), which are becoming the cornerstones of future power electronics, communication (5G and beyond) and optoelectronics.

WBS have not only many grand scientific challenges, but also vital economic and societal impact for today and the future. This seminar consists of presentations by global leading experts from both academia and industry, and a panel discussion with key stakeholders from Dutch semiconductor eco-system.

Location: Lecture room Chip (Building 36)

For more information: Program flyer

Register before the 10th of June: secr-ectm-ewi@tudelft.nl

Additional information ...


PhD Thesis Defence

Light dosage optimization in antifungal blue light therapies by experiments and modeling

Tianfeng Wang

Additional information ...


PhD Thesis Defence

Quasi-vertical gallium nitride diodes for power microwave applications

Yue Sun

Additional information ...


W(omen)+I(N)Engineering end of the year event

There will be a guest speaker from Qorvo Woman in engineering and our intergrity officer will guide you in playing dilemma games on social intergrity. It will be wrapped up by drinks and food.

Where: on campus, Pulse breakout
When: Friday June 24, 16.00-18.00

Pleas register via de QR code

 


TU Delft Women+ In Engineering

End of year event

W+IE (Women+ in Engineering) invites you to this end of year meeting where we can enjoy drinks and snacks together and learn from our guest speakers from Qorvo WiT and TU Delft Integrity Office. We'll also learn more about gender issues by playing the Dilemma game.

 

Additional information ...


PhD Thesis Defence

Multiband channel estimation for precise localization in wireless networks

Tarik Kazaz

Can we reach decimeter accuracy on wireless localization?

Additional information ...


PhD Thesis Defence

Modelling and analysis of atrial epicardial electrograms

Miao Sun

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a frequently encountered cardiac arrhythmia characterized by rapid and irregular atrial activity, which increases the risk of strokes, heart failure and other heart-related complications. The mechanisms of AF are complicated. Although various mechanisms were proposed in previous research, the precise mechanisms of AF are not clear yet and the optimal therapy for AF patients are still under debated. A higher success rate of AF treatments requires a deeper understanding of the problemof AF and potentially a better screening of the patients.

In order to study AF, instead of using human body surface ECGs, we use the epicardial electrograms (EGMs) obtained directly from the epicardial sites of the human atria during open heart surgery. This data is measured using a high-resolution mapping array and exhibits irregular properties during AF. Although different studies have analyzed electrograms in time and frequency domain, there remain many open questions that require alternative and novel tools to investigate AF.

Experience in signal processing suggests that incorporating the spatial dimension into the time-frequency analysis on the multi-electrode electrograms may provide improved insights on the atrial activity. However, the electrophysiologcial models for describing spatial propagation are relatively complex and non-linear such that conventional signal processing methods are less suitable for a joint space, time, and frequency domain analysis. It is also difficult to use very detailed electrophysiologcial models to extract tissue parameters related to AF fromthe high-dimensional data.

In this dissertation, we propose a radically different approach to study and analyze the EGMs from a higher abstraction level and from different perspectives to get more understanding of the characteristics of AF. We also develop a simplified electrophysiological model that can capture the spatial structure of the data and propose an efficient method to estimate the tissue parameters, which are helpful to analyze the electropathology of the tissue, e.g., cell activation time or conductivity. 

Additional information ...


PhD Thesis Defence

Direction of Arrival estimation and Self-Calibration techniques using an array of Acoustic Vector Sensors

Krishnaprasad Nambur Ramamohan

The localization and characterization of sound have played a vital role in various ap­plications, ranging from noise control of machinery to battlefield awareness. Micro­phone arrays are commonly used to find sound sources, which implicitly inherits a se­ries of limitations. Alternatively, acoustic vector sensors (AVSs) have shown promising results in overcoming most of those limitations, specifically having a larger operation frequency while requiring a smaller number of sensor nodes. However, literature about this topic is still evolving and mainly focused on the theoretical aspects, disregarding most real-world limitations. This thesis extends the AVS arrays' theoretical framework for direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation of far-field sources while considering practical constraints. Specifically, the study considers the DOA estimation problem using AVS ar­rays in three main scenarios: spatially under-sampled configurations, the presence of calibration errors, and sensors with a reduced number of channels.

The idea of spatial sampling by AVS arrays has a different interpretation compared to the equivalent acoustic pressure sensor (APS) arrays. Notably, it is possible to carry out unambiguous DOA estimation using a spatially under-sampled AVS array, which is the main topic of interest in the first part of this work. Here we study the effects of the grating lobes or spatial aliasing on the performance of DOA estimation. We will observe that this idea can also be extended to beamforming applications.

Subsequently, in the second part of this work, we consider the DOA estimation prob­lem using AVS arrays in the presence of calibration errors. First, identifiability conditions are derived for the solution to exist. Then two main classes of self-calibration approaches are proposed. The first calibration approach is array geometry independent and is based on sparse recovery techniques that lead to a one-step solver to estimate both the source DOAs and the calibration parameters jointly. Further, the extension of the proposed self­calibration approach in the presence of wide-band sources is also presented. The sec­ond calibration approach applies only to a uniform linear array (ULA) of AVSs, where the Toeplitz block structure of its covariance matrix is exploited to estimate the calibration errors followed by the estimation of the source DOAs.

In the last part of the thesis, an alternate configuration of an AVS is considered for DOA estimation with a reduced channel count. We refer to such an AVS as a uniaxial AVS (U-AVS). The DOA estimation performance using a U-AVS array is analyzed, and specifically, the impact of the extra degree-of-freedom originating from the fact that each U-AVS in the array can have arbitrary orientation is studied comprehensively. Further­more, all the analyses and proposed algorithms in this thesis are supported by real ex­perimental results performed with AVS arrays in an anechoic chamber.

To conclude, this research on AVS arrays paves the way to achieve an increased sit­uational awareness across our society; this could be either by detecting and localizing problems or threats occurring in an urban environment or assisting soldiers on the bat­tlefield to make a timely decision to achieve peace.


Presentation Prof. E.J. Chichilnisky (Princeton-Stanford)

Toward a High-fidelity Artificial Retina

Prof. E.J. Chichilnisky

Toward a High-fidelity Artificial Retina

Electronic interfaces to the retina represent an exciting development in science, engineering, and medicine – an opportunity to exploit our knowledge of neural circuitry and function to restore or even enhance vision. However, although existing devices demonstrate proof of principle in treating blindness, they produce limited visual function. Some of the reasons for this can be understood based on the precise and specific neural circuitry that mediates visual signaling in the retina. Consideration of this circuitry suggests that future devices may need to operate at single-cell, single-spike resolution in order to subserve naturalistic visual function. I will show large-scale multi-electrode recording and stimulation data from the macaque and human retina indicating that, in some cases, such resolution is possible. I will also discuss cases in which it fails, and propose that we can improve artificial vision in such conditions by incorporating our knowledge of the visual system in bi-directional devices that adapt to the host neural circuitry. Finally, I will introduce the Stanford Artificial Retina Project, aimed at developing a retinal implant that more faithfully reproduces the neural code of the retina, and briefly discuss the implications for scientific investigation and for other neural interfaces of the future.

Bio: Prof. E.J. Chichilnisky trained in mathematics and neuroscience at Princeton and Stanford Universities, and began his independent research career at the Salk Institute. He joined the faculty at Stanford in 2013 where he is the John R. Adler Professor of Neurosurgery, and Professor of Ophthalmology. The goal of his research is to understand how the neural circuitry of the retina encodes visual information, and to use this knowledge in the development of artificial retinas for treating incurable blindness. His lab now focuses on the mission of the Artificial Retina Project.


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Wafer-scale fabrication of transfer-free graphene-based condenser microphones

Leonardo di Paola


Circuits Crossing the Border

Dr. Taekwang Jang
ETH Zurich

Circuit designers are entering an exciting era in which circuit innovations will be the key enablers of future innovation. Emerging trends such as Machine Learning, the Internet-of-Everything, Brain-Machine Interfaces, Autonomous Driving, 6G Communication and Quantum Computing will drive the design of novel circuits with drastically improved accuracy, speed, and energy efficiency.

However, achieving such improvements will not be straightforward, and will require innovation. A fruitful way of doing this is by using circuits developed for one application domain in other domains. By crossing the border, so to speak, novel circuits with significantly improved performance may be found. In this talk, I will discuss three examples of this design approach:

-  A high-power-density DC-DC converter based on class-D LC oscillators

- A noise-efficient amplifier based on a switched capacitor DC-DC converter

- A low-noise PLL with AC-coupled phase detectors from Instrumentation Amplifiers


Sensors and Interfaces Meeting (SIM)

Sensors and Interfaces Meeting (SIM) is a two-day event featuring 12 outstanding invited speakers from both academia and industry. The theme focus of the 1st day will be “Sensor interfaces for the Internet of Things,” while that of the 2nd day will be “High Performance Sensor Interfaces”. On each of the two days there will be six 40-minute talks followed by 10 minute Q&A sessions will be held.

Additional information ...


Sensors and CMOS Interface Electronics

Would you like to learn about smart sensors and interface circuits? Register for our course “Sensors and CMOS Interface Electronics”, co-organized by TU Delft and MEAD Education.

The course will take place online, on 8 days between May 9 and May 20, with two lectures per day timed conveniently for participation from anywhere on the globe.

Topics include smart-sensor design, calibration techniques, references, offset-cancellation, analog-to-digital conversion, instrumentation amplifiers and energy harvesting. Moreover, the course features lectures by experts in the field dedicated to smart inertial sensors, magnetic sensors, temperature sensors, image sensors, ultrasonic sensors, capacitive sensors, implantable medical devices and DNA microarrays.


PhD Thesis Defence

Image Reconstruction for Low-Field MRI

Merel de~Leeuw den Bouter

This thesis presents imaging algorithms for a prototype low-field MRI system, in particular regularization, handling missing data, and deep learning approaches.

Additional information ...


CAS MSc Information Market

The CAS group

If you are a first year MSc EE student (Signals & Systems, WiCos), then on Thu 24 March, come visit the CAS group at the 17th floor on the EWI tower, meet the professors, and learn about graduation topics for next year.


PhD Thesis Defence

Functional materials for silicon gas sensors

Manjunath Ramachandrappa Venkatesh

Additional information ...


Microelectronics Colloquium

An inclusive EEMCS faculty: An emphatic approach.

Jorge Martinez

Our faculty consists of a vibrant and diverse community. Diversity is a catalyst that allows us to achieve broad knowledge, and a base upon we can drive scientific innovation and improve education.

Moreover, diversity is one of the core values of TUDelft and our faculty and comes with great responsibility. Without equality and inclusion diversity becomes an empty gesture. But realising a safe, equal and inclusive environment requires the participation of everyone in our community. It starts by having a dialog, stablish communication channels at different levels, and debunking taboos with respect to the visible and invisible differences among each other and our students. An empathic approach for this process can play a key role in realising this ambition.

In this colloquium Jorge talks about his experience within EDIT: EEMCS Diversity & Inclusion Team. Join us to know more about EDIT, and for an informal discussion on the current advancements on addressing issues like harassment, discrimination, and gender (in)equality. Or if you want to know what are the channels and means within our faculty and our University to reach for advice or help in case you encounter any issues related to these important topics.

Additional information ...


PhD Thesis Defence

Technology platform for advanced neurostimulation implants: the "Chip-in-Tip" DBS probe

Marta Kluba

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ME colloquium

The early Universe in sub-mm: from blobs to high-res, from monochrome images to spectral surveys

Matus Rybak

The most dramatic chapters in the history of the Universe are the first few billion years after the Big Bang. Half of all stars formed in this epoch, mainly in gigantic, dust-enshrouded galaxies. However, these dusty giants are very challenging to observe - their copious dust renders them invisible to optical telescopes but bright in sub-mm, where spatial resolution, sensitivity, and instantaneous bandwidth remain limited.

I will showcase how rapid advances in mm-wave technology have helped dissect dusty galaxies in unprecedented detail and complexity. In half a decade, we went from studying barely resolved blobs to scales of individual gas clouds. Still, these high-resolution observations are limited to a few dozen of galaxies. The challenge for the 2020s and '30s is to push the population-scale studies by moving from monochrome surveys to ultra-wideband spectroscopy of thousands of galaxies, culminating in surveys with the planned 50-m AtLAST telescope in Chile.

Link;  Click here to join the meeting

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PhD Thesis Defence

Superconducting funnelled through-silicon vias for quantum applications

Juan Alfaro Barrantes

Additional information ...


PhD Thesis Defence

Multi-physics driven electromigration study: multi-scale modeling and experiment

Zhen Cui

Additional information ...


ME colloquium

Biodegradable technologies for medical applications

Clementine Boutry

This presentation will be dedicated to biodegradable technologies. Such devices are designed to work for a defined period of time, and then reabsorb naturally without leaving a trace. They are entirely degradable, including the electronics, and are of great interest both for medical and environmental monitoring applications.

Several projects will be described in detail, including biodegradable pressure sensor arrays for cardiovascular monitoring, stretchable strain and pressure sensors for in vivo orthopedics, biodegradable wireless artery pulse sensors for monitoring of vessel anastomosis and a bioinspired e-skin, detecting the direction of applied pressure for robotics. Future research directions will also be discussed, focusing on soft biodegradable materials with tailored electrical/magnetic properties, and their integration into organ-on-chips, sensors, antennas and soft robotics.

If you would like to join, send an email to ewi-me-secr@tudelft.nl and you will receive the TEAMS link

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MSc Biomedical Engineering Thesis Presentation

An Expanded IPFM Model for Heart Rhythm Analysis

Arthur Kordes

Atrial Fibrillation affects millions of people worldwide. It is associated with an impaired quality of life and an increased risk of stroke, cardiac failure and mortality. Treatments exist, but early detection and treatment is crucial, due to the progressive nature of the disease. Algorithms can help with early detection.

Machine learning algorithms are commonly trained to diagnose based on ECG data, but the interpretability is low. A physiological model that simulates the heart gives more insight into the situation of the patient. Current approaches, like the IPFM model, simulate only the SA node and generate RR intervals as output, while completely neglecting the interaction between the AV and SA node. By using an IPFM model and including the AV node as well, an extended and more accurate physiological model was built to more accurately detect Atrial Fibrillation. The AV node model is able to estimate PR intervals when the P waves are annotated. This result shows that the model extension is able to capture information about the signal conduction.

When the SA node model and the AV node model are cascaded and only the R peaks are considered, the classification accuracy does not improve compared to the SA node model alone. The R peaks alone do not contain sufficient information for accurate parameter estimation. The parameters governing the behavior of the AV node seem different for NSR compared to AF, but more data is needed to confirm this. The ability of the model to predict PR intervals gives hope that the inclusion of P wave data should improve the performance of the classification with the extended physiological model.


MSc Thesis Presentation

Characterization of an electroactive polymer for diaphragm micropump in organs-on-chip

Sudiksh Srivastava

Abstract

The existing drug development process is economically and scientifically challenging. It fails to efficiently emulate human physiology in-vitro with the current pre-clinical studies which includes in-vitro cell culture
models and animal testing. Organ-on-Chip (OoC) technology aims to recreate in-vivo-like micro environment to investigate drug response more effectively. There are ongoing attempts to fabricate OoC technology as a single-platform micro-device to minimize its reliance on external components.
In this perspective, the functionality and throughput of this technology can be improved. One such novel approach is addition of an ionic electroactive polymer (iEAP) actuated diaphragm micropump.

The primary aim of this thesis project was to determine the suitable dimensions of a micro cantilever iEAP, specifically Ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC) to generate appropriate flow rate for the projected diaphragm micropump. In addition to that, dynamics of the IPMC cantilever actuator
is examined in dry environment. To achieve this, the actuator tip - force, tip-displacement, and longevity tests were performed. The results at macroscopic scale were attempted to explain with molecular characteristics of the material.

As result, it was shown that IPMC cantilever actuators at small scale possess viscoelastic properties
and standard beam theory cannot be used to validate the experimental
results. Secondly, the actuation results for 0.1 and 1 Hz align with
the input driving frequency. The IPMC cantilever of length 7 mm generates
the maximum tip-force of 0.138 mN and it is suggested to be used as a
diaphragm actuator for the upcoming micropump.

NB: The public presentation can be streamed at the following address: Zoom link


ME colloquium

Microtechnologies for ultrasound neuromodulation: Gaining ground and losing size. /Towards single-cell resolution neural interfaces

Tiago Costa, Dante Muratore

Abstract Tiago da Costa 
Microtechnologies for ultrasound neuromodulation: Gaining ground and losing size.

Approximately one billion people worldwide suffer from a neurological disease. Up to 30% of patients that undergo pharmaceutical-based therapies eventually stop responding to the treatment. Alternatives to pharmaceutical medicines in the form of neuromodulation are either non-invasive but imprecise, with limited benefits to patients (transcranial magnetic and direct-current stimulation), or are effective but highly invasive (deep brain stimulation) with patient eligibility as low as 5%.
Low intensity focused ultrasound is a promising emerging neuromodulation modality to overcome the limitations mentioned above. Due to the unique combination of low-absorption in soft tissue and sub-millimeter wavelength, ultrasound waves can be focused with neuromodulatory intensity in deep nervous system regions with a high volumetric spatial resolution. However, ultrasound neuromodulation hardware is still in its infancy, often custom-built by adapting off-the-shelf transducers and electronics. These under-optimized solutions result in bulky and power inefficient stimulation technology, severely limiting the translation of ultrasound neuromodulation to clinical therapies for chronic neurological diseases.
This talk will describe my group’s research on microtechnologies for ultrasound neuromodulation. The overarching vision is to design wearable and minimally invasive ultrasound stimulation devices through power-efficient miniaturization of circuits and ultrasound transducers. In particular, I will talk about our efforts to develop two-dimensional ultrasound phased arrays for epidural brain stimulation and vagus nerve stimulation, which have the potential to directly translate into therapies for immunological diseases, epilepsy, and depression.

Abstract Dante Muratore

Towards single-cell resolution neural interfaces
Neural interfaces of the future will be used to help restore lost sensory capabilities (e.g., retina and cochlear implant), or restore lost motor capabilities of people with motor impairments (e.g., due to brainstem stroke, or spinal cord injury). They will also make it possible to augment human capabilities, including sensory acuity, control of complex devices, memory, attention and more. However, to realize this futuristic promise requires a major leap forward in how electronic devices interact with the nervous system. Current neural interfaces provide a coarse communication link that does not respect the single-cell specificity of the neural network they are targeting, indiscriminately activating or recording multiple cells at the same time. As a result, while still promising, current brain-machine interfaces provide only partial restoration of the lost ability.
In my group, we are developing a bidirectional neural interface capable of interfacing with tens of thousands of neurons at single-cell resolution for a high-resolution artificial retina. To do so, we are designing an implantable microsystem powered by a chip that can record and stimulate at single-cell resolution on >1000 thousand channels simultaneously while operating fully wirelessly (power and data). Today, I will give an overview of the project and present recent advances we made on the stimulation strategy. The artificial retina project is embedded in a consortium formed by TU Delft (electronics), Stanford University (neuroscience), and University of Washington (in-vivo electrophysiology).

Additional information ...


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Secil Sanseven


Microelectronics Colloquium

On my personal journey into artificial intelligence

Justin Dauwels

In this presentation, I will start with a brief introduction to artificial intelligence (AI). I will then elaborate on two types of AI approaches that our research team is investigating: graphical models and neural networks. Next I will summarize some of the main research results of our group. I will review some of the applications of AI that we have been working on over the years, and will present some of our future research plans. I will also say a few words about the spin-off companies that have emerged from our research group. At last, I will conclude with a few thoughts on the potential impact of AI on society and will formulate a few important open research questions in the field of AI.

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PhD Thesis Defence

Atrial Fibrillation Fingerprinting

Bahareh Abdi

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common age-related cardiac arrhythmia. AF is characterized by rapid and irregular electrical activity of the heart leading to a higher risk of stroke and heart failure. During AF, the upper chambers of the heart, called atria, experience chaotic electrical wave propagation. However, despite the various mechanisms introduced in the literature, there is still an ongoing debate on a precise and consistent mechanism underlying the initiation and perpetuation of AF. Some studies show that AF is rooted in impaired electrical conduction and structural damage of atrial tissue, known as electropathology. Atrial electrograms (EGMs) recorded directly from heart’s surface, provide an important diagnostic tool to localize and quantify the degree of electropathology in the tissue. However, the analysis of the electrograms is currently constrained by the lack of suitable methods that can reveal the hidden electrophysiological parameters of the tissue. These parameters can be used as local indication of electropathology in the tissue. We believe that understanding AF and improving AF therapy starts with developing a proper forward model that is accurate enough (from a physiological point of view) and simultaneously simple enough to allow for subsequent parameter estimation. Therefore, the main focus of this thesis is on developing a simplified forward model that can efficiently explain the observed EGM based on AF relevant tissue parameters. An initial step before performing any analysis on the data is to remove noise and artefacts. All atrial electrogram recordings suffer from strong far-field ventricular activities (VA). Therefore, as the first step, we propose a new framework for removal of VA from atrial electrograms, which is based on interpolation and subtraction followed by low-rank and sparse matrix decomposition. The proposed framework is of low complexity, does not require high resolution multi-channel recordings, or a calibration step for each individual patient. In the next step, we develop a simplified electrogram model. We represent the model in a compact matrix form and show its linear dependence on the conductivity vector, enabling the estimation of this parameter from the recorded electrograms. The results show that despite the low resolution and all simplifying assumptions, the model can efficiently estimate the conductivity map and regenerate realistic electrograms, especially during sinus rhythm. In the next contribution of this dissertation, we propose a new approach for a better estimation of local activation times for atrial mapping by reducing the spatial blurring effect that is inherent to electrogram recordings using deconvolution. Employing sparsity based regularization and first-order time derivatives in formulating the deconvolution problem, improved performance of transmembrane current estimation is obtained. In the final part, we focus on translating our findings from research to clinical application. Therefore, we studied the effect of electrode size on electrogram properties including the length of the block line observed on the resulting activation map, percentage of observed low voltage areas, percentage of electrograms with low maximum steepness, and the number of deflections in the recorded electrograms.

Additional information ...


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Organ-on-chip-integrated impedance spectroscopy for blood-brain-barrier integrity analysis

Lovro Ivancevic


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Temporal Synchronization of Sensors

Tanmay Manjunath

Advanced automotive vehicles are based on the real-time fusion of an increasing number of automotive sensors. For precise fusion of different sensors, measurements need to be synchronized both temporally and spatially. This thesis aims to design a hardware temporal synchronization block as part of the PRISTINE systolic array accelerator project for multi-sensor data fusion. In this process, we study and address several temporal sensor synchronization issues that are characteristic of the considered system as well as any other typical sensor fusion system. First and foremost, we handle the problem of estimating the actual time of sensor measurement by exploring well-known filtering techniques such as Kalman, mean and median filters. A suitable filter is selected for implementation based on the statistical characteristics of the observed sensor cycle times, the complexity of the filters and the quality of obtained estimates. Next, we address the issue of reconstructing incoming sensor data streams according to the estimated sensor measurement times while maintaining minimal latency and synchronization error by employing an adaptive stream buffering technique utilized in distributed multimedia systems. An analysis of the effects of the stream synchronization algorithm’s parameters on buffering latency and synchronization error was presented. Finally, the above synchronization solution was efficiently implemented on hardware by making certain modifications and design decisions to the algorithm. A method to evaluate the whole temporal synchronization process is proposed and the obtained results on real sensor data are presented.

https://tudelft.zoom.us/j/99844909465?pwd=OEtwbCtuS2xzdTg2Sk5lQzNOdVp2Zz09 Meeting ID: 998 4490 9465 Passcode: 375074


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Shreyas Shankar


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Adaptive Graph Partition Methods for Structured Graphs

Yanbin He

Graphs can be models for many real-world systems, where nodes indicate the entities and edges indicate the pairwise connections in between. In various cases, it is important to detect informative subsets of nodes such that the nodes within the subsets are 'closer' to each other. For example, in a cellular network, determining appropriate node subsets can reduce the operation costs. A subset is usually called a cluster. This leads to the graph clustering problem. Furthermore, plenty of systems in the real world are changing over time, and consequently, graphs as models vary with time as well. It is thus also important to update the clusters when the graph changes.

In this thesis work, we studied two problems from the cellular network background. We needed to partition graphs that have certain structures and cluster their nodes to minimize certain cost functions. In the first problem, we partitioned a bipartite graph by minimizing the so-called MinMaxCut cost function, while in the second problem, we partitioned a structured graph by minimizing the so-called Modified-MinMaxCut cost function. The structural property of the graph is incorporated in defining this new cost function. The solutions we proposed are under the framework of spectral clustering, where one relies on the eigenvectors of the graph matrices, e.g., the Laplacian matrix or the adjacency matrix, and any clustering algorithm, e.g., K-means, to partition nodes into disjoint clusters.

Furthermore, for the time-variant graph, we decomposed the problem into two steps. First, we transformed the variations in the graph topology into perturbations to the graph matrices. Then we transformed the update of the clusters into an update of the (generalized) eigenvectors of these graph matrices. We utilized matrix perturbation theory to update the generalized eigenvectors and then update the clusters. Our simulations showed that on synthetic data, the proposed method can efficiently track the eigenvectors and the clusters generated by the updated eigenvectors have almost the same cost function value as that of exact computation.

https://tudelft.zoom.us/j/95884057579?pwd=YXkzY0lCRVZuRmsvTzl3NW9xRzZ3QT09

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Board Level Vibration Testing and Qualification for Automotive Applications

Chinghsuan Chou

Revolutionary changes in automotive industry toward fully connected electrical vehicles is changing the world of Board Level Reliability (BLR) Vibration Testing. It is taking BLR Vibration tests beyond board level to board module application level. This defense will showcase development of a reliability test concept called Board Module level Vibration Testing that is required to cope with the challenging application driven requests.

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MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Targetless Camera-LiDAR Calibration for Autonomous Systems

Bichi Zhang

In recent decades, the field of autonomous driving has witnessed rapid development, benefiting from the development of artificial intelligence-related technologies such as machine learning. Autonomous perception in driving is a key challenge, in which multi-sensor fusion is a common feature. Due to the high resolution and rich information, the camera is one of the core perceptual sensor in autonomous systems. However, the camera provides no knowledge on distance (or depth), which is insufficient for the requirements of autonomous driving. On the other hand, LiDAR provides accurate distance measurements, however the information is sparse. The complementary characteristics of cameras and LiDAR have been exploited over the past decade for autonomous navigation. In order to be able to fuse the camera and LiDAR sensor system jointly, an efficient and accurate calibration process between sensors is essential. Conventional methods for calibrating the camera and LIDAR rely on deploying artificial objects, e.g., checkerboard, on the field. Given the impracticality of such solutions, targetless calibration solutions have been proposed over the past years, which require no human intervention and are readily applicable for various autonomous systems, e.g., automotive, drones, rovers, and robots.
In this thesis, we review and analyze several classic targetless calibration schemes. Based on some of their shortcomings, a new multi-feature workflow called MulFEA (Multi-Feature Edge Alignment) is proposed. MulFEA uses the cylindrical projection method to transform the 3D-2D calibration problem into a 2D-2D calibration problem and exploits a variety of LiDAR feature information to supplement the scarce LiDAR point cloud boundaries to achieve higher features similarity compared to camera images. In addition, a feature matching function with a precision factor is designed to improve the smoothness of the objective function solution space and reduce local optima. Our results are validated using the open-source KITTI dataset, and we compare our results with several existing targetless calibration methods. In many different types of roadway environments, our algorithm provides more reliable results regarding the shape of the objective function in the 6-DOF space, which is more conducive for the optimization algorithms to solve. In the end, we also analyze the shortcomings of our proposed solutions and put forward a prospect for future research in the field of joint camera-Lidar calibration algorithms.

This work is part of the EU ADACORSA project co-hosted by the TU Delft CAS group (link: https://cas.tudelft.nl/Research/project.php?id=160&pid=59)

The zoom link for the defense is https://tudelft.zoom.us/j/96202579105

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CAS MSc Thesis Presentation

Hybrid Posit and Fixed Point Hardware for Quantized DNN Inference

Zep Kleijweg

The recently introduced posit number system was designed as a replacement for IEEE 754 floating point, to alleviate some of its shortcomings. As the number distribution of posits is similar to the data distributions in deep neural networks (DNNs), posits offer a good alternative to fixed point numbers in DNNs: using posits can result in high inference accuracy while using low precision numbers. The number accuracy is most important for the first and last network layers to achieve good performance. For this reason, these are often computed using larger precision fixed point numbers compared to the hidden network layers. Instead, these can be computed using low precision posit, to reduce the memory access energy consumption and the required memory bandwidth. The hidden layer computation can still be performed using cheaper fixed point numbers.
An inference accuracy analysis is performed to quantify what the effect of this approach is on the VGG16 network for the ImageNet image classification task. Using 8 bit posit for the first and last network layer instead of 16 bit fixed point is shown to result in a top-5 accuracy degradation of only 0.24%. The hidden layers are computed using 8 bit fixed point in both cases.
The design of a parameterized systolic array accelerator performing exact accumulation is proposed that can be used in a scale-out system along with fixed point systolic array tiles. To increase hardware utilization, a hybrid posit decoder is designed to enable fixed point computation on the posit hardware. Using this hardware, the entire network can be computed using 8 bit data, instead of using 16 bits for some layers. This reduces energy consumption and the complexity of the memory hierarchy


CAS MSc Thesis Presentation

Sound Zones with a Cost Function based on Human Hearing

Niels de Koeijer

With the aid of an array of loudspeakers, sound zone algorithms seek to reproduce multiple distinct zones of audio inside an enclosure. Typical approaches determine the loudspeaker inputs by optimizing over a cost function that models the sound pressure inside the enclosure. However, recent methods propose cost functions that include a perceptual model of the human auditory system, which further models the perception of sound. This thesis investigates such an approach by proposing a framework within which sound zones are constructed through optimization over a perceptual model. The framework is used to propose two perceptual sound zone algorithms: unconstrained and constrained perceptual pressure matching. Simulations of the proposed algorithms and a reference algorithm are presented to determine the benefits of including auditory-perceptual information in sound zone algorithms. From this, it is found that the unconstrained perceptual approach outperforms the reference in terms of various perceptual measures. In addition, it is found that adding perceptual constraints to the optimization problem allows for control of sound zones which correlates well with other perceptual quality measures.


PhD Thesis Defence

In-pixel temperature sensors for dark current compensation of a CMOS image sensor

Accel Abarca Prouza

This thesis describes the integration of temperature sensors into a CMOS image sensor (CIS). The temperature sensors provide the in-situ temperature of the pixels as well as the thermal distribution of the pixel array. The temperature and the thermal distribution are intended to be used to compensate for dark current affecting the CIS. Two different types of in-pixel temperature sensors have been explored. The first type of temperature sensor is based on a substrate parasitic bipolar junction transistor (BJT). The second type of temperature sensor that has been explored is based on the nMOS source follower (SF) transistor of the same pixel. The readout system that is used for the temperature sensors and for the image pixels is based on low noise column amplifiers. Both types of in-pixel temperature sensors (IPTS) have been designed implementing different techniques to improve their accuracy. The use of the IPTSs has been proved by measuring three prototypes chips. Also, a novel technique to compensate for the dark current of a CIS by using the IPTS has been proposed.

For those who cannot attend, you can follow it by using this link:
https://collegerama.tudelft.nl/mediasite/play/84dc9775142d44db81aa38e5532c67ca1d


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

On the Integration of Acoustics and LiDAR

Ellen Riemens

Loudspeakers are placed in an environment unknown to the loudspeaker designers. The room influences the acoustic experience for the user. Having information about the room makes it possible to better reproduce the sound field as intended. Using microphone measurements, the location of acoustic reflectors can be inferred. Current state-of-the-art methods for room boundary detection focus on a two-dimensional setting. Detection of arbitrary reflectors in three dimensions increase complexity due to practical limitations, i.e. the need for a spherical array and the increase of computational complexity. The presence of horizontal reflectors cause inaccuracy for wall detection due to model mismatch. Loudspeakers may not present an omnidirectional directivity pattern, as usually assumed in the literature, thus making the detection of acoustic reflectors in some directions more challenging.

In this thesis, a LiDAR sensor is added to a smart loudspeaker to improve wall detection accuracy and robustness. This is done in two ways. First, the horizontal reflectors that are not present in the acoustic model are sought detected with the LiDAR sensor to enable elimination of their detrimental influence. Second, a method is proposed to compensate for the challenging regions for wall detection in highly directive loudspeakers, using the LiDAR sensor. Experimental results, evaluated in different simulated scenarios are shown for comparison of the proposed method and the state-of-the-art method, that exclusively uses acoustic information.

Additional information ...


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Edge State Kalman Filtering for Distributed Formation Control Systems

Martijn van der Marel

Formation control problems consider a set of mobile agents with the underlying goal of attaining and maintaining a state where the relative positions of agents are stable in accordance with the desired configuration. Navigation for formation control is typically achieved through localization in a global reference frame, e.g., via GNSS. However, when a global reference frame is not shared among agents, a relative navigation approach is required.

Distributed filtering for relative localization in formation control systems is a relatively unexplored field. The absence of absolute positioning means motivates the need for a distributed filter that operates on the edges of the sensing graph of the multi-agent system. In this thesis, a data model for relative formation control problems and two edge-based Kalman filters are proposed. The first filter is designed for an individual edge. The second is a filter designed via decoupling of the optimal global filter which allows for the joint estimation of adjacent edges. It is shown that the joint filter is optimal under the decoupling constraints.

Monte Carlo results show that when random environmental disturbances are correlated among agents, the joint filter outperforms the local edge filter in a mean square error sense.

Lastly, systems are considered where inter-agent communications are unavailable, leading to biased prediction steps of the Kalman filters. We aim to minimize this effect through the proposal of a local Wiener filter which predicts the control actions of neighboring agents.


ME colloquium

Presenation on research Wideband CMOS Transmitters

Morteza Alavi

Morteza Alavi will update you on the latest developments that are realized within his research group in the area of "Wideband CMOS Transmitters."

if you would like to join, send an email to secr-me@tudelft.nl

Additional information ...


PhD Thesis Defence

Prognostics and Health Management of safety relevant electronics for future application in autonomous driving

Alexandru Prisacaru

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PhD Thesis Defence

Design and processing of Silicon and Silicon Carbide Sensors

Brahim Mansouri

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MSc SS Thesis Presentation

SPLITTER

Stefanie Brackenhoff

A data model and algorithm for detecting spectral lines and continuum emission of highredshift galaxies using DESHIMA 2.0


ME colloquium

On the development of Submillimeter-wave Heterodyne Instruments for Space Exploration

Maria Alonso-delPino

Over the past several decades, the primary driver for the development of terahertz imaging systems has been astronomy, Earth, and planetary sciences. The main challenges these instruments face are a limited sensitivity, and a strict power, mass, and volume budget, which is even more challenging for multi-pixel and beam-steering architectures. Over the last 5 years as a researcher at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory - NASA, my focus has been the advancement of state-of-the-art instrumentation to improve and enable new capabilities for imaging systems at millimeter and submillimeter-wave bands. In this talk, I will present the current challenges that heterodyne instruments face at submillimeter wavelengths and how the combination of silicon micromachining technologies with novel antenna front-end architectures has opened the path to a new era for heterodyne instruments. Now at TUDelft, I am continuing to build this knowledge and capabilities to new emerging communication applications.

Register by sending an email to secr-me-ewi@tudelft.nl

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Improving electrical characteristics of graphene neural electrode

Merlin Palmar

Abstract

Neuroscientists use neural electrodes to explore the working mechanisms of the nervous system. Therefore, ideal electrodes should have a small size and the ability to record and stimulate at a single cell resolution with low noise. Materials used for fabrication should be flexible and stable for a long period in the biological media. However, conventional recording and stimulation techniques do not have sufficient spatiotemporal resolution for neuroscience research. Combining electrical and optical modalities into one device helps overcome the resolution limits and record more detailed information. For this application, transparent conductive materials are needed.

Graphene is a potential solution due to its advantageous combination of properties, such as high conductivity, transparency, and flexibility. However, important characteristics of recording and stimulation electrodes, such as the impedance and charge injection capacity of graphene electrodes, do not reach the levels of conventional materials. The electrical characteristics of graphene could be improved further with surface modification, chemical doping, or stacking. Each method has been shown to improve the conductivity of graphene, although some affect the transparency of the layer.

In this work, three methods were used to improve the electrical characteristics of multilayer graphene neural electrode without losing transparency or flexibility. These methods include growing a thicker layer of graphene, adding metal nanoparticles to the surface of the electrode, and nitric acid doping of graphene. For that purpose, graphene electrodes were fabricated on a silicon wafer. The electrical characteristics of these electrodes were assessed with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry and four point probe measurements. Furthermore, the optical transmittance was measured. The improvement methods were then tested on these electrodes, and the performance was evaluated.

Adding metal nanoparticles to the surface of the electrode showed the most promising results. With gold nanoparticles, the impedance at 1 kHz was lowered 82%, and charge storage capacity increased 529%. However, at the same time, 30% of the optical transmittance was lost. With lower nanoparticle density, 6% of transmittance was lost, and 7% of impedance gained. Nitric acid doping did not improve the impedance, but the charge storage capacity was increased up to 66%. Thicker layers of graphene displayed a lower sheet resistance. However, impedance or charge storage capacity were not improved.

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MSc SS Thesis Presentation

GNSS Chirp Interference Estimation and Mitigation

Daniel Kappelle

GNSS receivers can suffer severely from radio frequency interference (RFI). RFI can introduce errors in the position and time calculations or if the interference is very severe, can lead to a total loss of GNSS reception. This vulnerability of GNSS can have large implications on critical infrastructure such as power plants, telephony, aviation or search and rescue operations. RFI is a real threat to GNSS as many interfering incidents are reported every day.

A common type of RFI is chirp interference, which is a sweep over a wide range of frequencies that overlap with the frequencies used by GNSS. This is often emitted by cheap Personal Privacy Devices that can be bought online. The question in this thesis was how well such interference can be modelled and if modelling could help mitigation against it.

This thesis consists of two main parts. In the first part a novel estimator is proposed that assumes a mathematical model of a chirp and estimates its parameters from recordings of chirps. The estimator has shown to work well in simulations for chirps with an SNR of −9 dB or more. On real recordings the estimates were accurate for 66.7 % of the signals.

In the second part the estimator was used to derive a filter. The filter is based on the subtraction of a replica of the chirp interference from the received signal. It uses the proposed estimator to create the replica. In simulations, the filter is able to improve correlation strength by up to 7 dB. On real recordings the performance was worse as for only 46 % of the recordings the GNSS correlation was increased. Both the estimator and filter have many ways in which they could be improved. The estimator can be improved to allow for more complex chirps, which would in turn improve the filter. Both can also be made more computationally efficient.

Furthermore, in order to get a better understanding of Personal Privacy Devices, one such device has been tested. It was found that the signal from the device was very unstable and changed much over time, it was also highly dependent on ambient temperature. The device has also been opened up and reverse engineered to understand how it works.


KNAW-webinar

Techniek in je mobiele telefoon

Leo de Vreede

Want hoe te zorgen voor efficiënt energiegebruik terwijl we juist meer informatie willen uitwisselen? Wat zijn de consequenties van het 5G-netwerk voor de hardware? En hoe combineren we deze geavanceerde techniek met duurzaam en verantwoordelijk gebruik van materialen in de telefoon?

Registreer : https://www.lyyti.fi/reg/techniek-in-je-mobiele-telefoon

Programma

19.00 uur

Welkom en introductie door Jenny Dankelman, hoogleraar technologie voor minimaal-invasieve chirurgie en interventies, Technische Universiteit Delft en Albert van den Berg, hoogleraar sensorsystemen voor biomedische en milieutoepassingen, Universiteit Twente

19.05 uur Bram Nauta, hoogleraar Integrated Circuit Design, Universiteit Twente – Achter de schermen: chips in je smartphone

Dankzij chips kunnen we tegenwoordig heel veel elektronica in een smartphone stoppen. De rekenkracht is al veel meer dan grote supercomputers van weleer, en de data-snelheden voor draadloze communicatie gaan maar omhoog. Achter het scherm van een smartphone gaat een hele wereld schuil, waar transistoren van maar een paar nanometer groot, met vele miljarden op een chip tegelijk aan het werk zijn voor ons. In deze voordracht licht Bram Nauta een tipje van de sluier op van deze onzichtbare wereld, en licht toe hoe bijvoorbeeld een draadloze ontvanger op een chip werkt.

Bram Nauta is hoogleraar IC Design (chipontwerp) aan de Universiteit Twente. Met zijn groep doet hij onderzoek naar elektronische geïntegreerde schakelingen voor draadloze communicatie en sensor/actuator interfaces.

19.25 uur Leo de Vreede, hoogleraar elektronische schakelingen en architecturen aan de TU Delft – 5G: energieslurper of energiezuinig

De exponentiële toename van draadloos dataverkeer heeft onlangs geleid tot de introductie van het vernieuwde mobiele netwerk met 5G-technologie. 5G brengt een aantal radicale veranderingen met zich mee voor de basisstations, die de bouwstenen zijn van een draadloos netwerk. Om de beoogde datasnelheden binnen de beschikbare frequentiebanden te bereiken, maken deze basisstations gebruik van gerichte zendbundels en kleinere cel-afmetingen. Hiermee kan het energieverbruik omlaag gebracht worden. In theorie dan. Want in de praktijk zien we het energieverbruik juist toenemen – hoe kan dat? Kunnen nieuwe, baanbrekende technologieën hierin uitkomst bieden? In zijn lezing praat Leo de Vreede ons bij over de overgang van 4G naar 5G en welke uitdagingen deze met zich meebrengt.

Leo de Vreede is hoogleraar elektronische schakelingen en architecturen aan de TU Delft. De Vreede’s team doet – op dit moment – onder meer onderzoek naar energiezuinige zenders én ontvangers voor mobiele netwerken.

19.45 uur Eva Gouwens, managing director van Fairphone, Amsterdam – Het verhaal van de Nederlands telefoonmaker Fairphone: 'the only smartphone with a heart'

Je telefoon zit boordevol kostbare materialen. Toch blijven oude telefoons na gebruik massaal in lades liggen. We zijn verknocht aan onze mobiele telefoons en gebruiken ze dagelijks intensief. Maar wat weten we eigenlijk van de wereld en industrie achter deze geliefde smartphones? De keten van een smartphone zit van begin tot eind boordevol oneerlijke praktijken. Fairphone probeert deze industrie eerlijker en duurzamer te maken door te laten zien dat het anders kan met een eigen modulaire en eerlijkere smartphone. Van een verantwoorde inkoop van materialen tot de stimulering van het welzijn van arbeiders. De resultaten worden openlijk gedeeld en zorgen voor nieuwe maatstaven in de industrie.

Eind 2017 startte Eva Gouwens bij Fairphone en nam in 2018 het roer over als CEO. Ze hoopt de wereld een stukje mooier te maken door de groei van sociale ondernemingen binnen Nederland te ondersteunen en door een industrie te inspireren om op een positieve manier om te gaan met de zorg voor mens en milieu.

20.05 uur Discussie met panel en publiek onder leiding van Jenny Dankelman en Albert van den Berg

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PhD Thesis Defence

Advances in graph signal processing - Graph filtering and network identification

Mario Coutino

To the surprise of most of us, complexity in nature spawns from simplicity. No matter how simple a basic unit is, when many of them work together, the interactions among these units lead to complexity. This complexity is present in the spreading of diseases, where slightly different policies, or conditions, might lead to very different results; or in biological systems where the interactions between elements maintain the delicate balance that keep life running. Fortunately, despite their complexity, current advances in technology have allowed us to have more than just a sneak-peak at these systems. With new views on how to observe such systems and gather data, we aim to understand the complexity within.

One of these new views results from, the field of graph signal processing, providing models and tools to understand and process data coming from such complex systems. With a principled view, coming fromits signal processing background, graph signal processing establishes the basis for addressing problems involving data defined over interconnected systems by combining knowledge fromgraph and network theory with signal processing tools. In this thesis, our goal is to advance the current state-of-the-art by studying the processing of network data using graph filters, the workhorse of graph signal processing, and by proposing methods for identifying the topology (interactions) of a network fromnetworkmeasurements.

To extend the capabilities of current graph filters, the network-domain counterparts of time-domain filters, we introduce a generalization of graph filters. This new family of filters does not only provide more flexibility in terms of processing networked data distributively but also reduces the communications in typical network applications, such as distributed consensus or beamforming. Furthermore, we theoretically characterize these generalized graph filters and also propose a practical and numerically-amenable cascaded implementation.

As all methods in graph signal processing make use of the structure of the network, we require to know the topology. Therefore, identifying the network interconnections from networked data is much needed for appropriately processing this data. In this thesis, we pose the network topology identification problem through the lens of system identification and study the effect of collecting information only from part of the elements of the network. We show that by using the state-space formalism, algebraic methods can be applied to the network identification problemsuccessfully. Further, we demonstrate that for the partially-observable case, although ambiguities arise, we can still retrieve a coherent network topology leveraging state-of-the-art optimization techniques.

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Danai Galiti


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Boundary Element Method in Coil Design for Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Teun de Smalen

MRI is an non-invasive imaging technique used by many physicians to diagnose and treat diseases. The technique however is still very expensive and thus out of reach for developing countries. This has led to the goal to design a low-cost MRI system. The challenges that arise from this system make it necessary to design coils in a different way than conventional MRI.

In this work the inverse boundary element method is used to create a coil design method for an arbitrary surface. This method is described and the mathematical framework is analyzed. A regularization method for the inverse problem has been designed in the form of a regularization matrix. This regularization matrix is constructed such that it can handle arbitrary surfaces. The regularization matrix is applied using Tikhonov regularization.

To validate the design method a proof of concept radiofrequency coil for the low field MRI system at the LUMC has been realized. This coil is designed and has been used to image the human brain of an adult. The results from simulations beforehand are in agreement with the physically built coil showing that this method makes it possible to design and construct a physically feasible coil on an arbitrary surface.


Signal Processing Seminar

ONLINE TIME-VARYING TOPOLOGY IDENTIFICATION VIA PREDICTION-CORRECTION ALGORITHMS

Alberto Natali

Signal processing and machine learning algorithms for data supported over graphs, require the knowledge of the graph topology. Unless this information is given by the physics of the problem (e.g., water supply networks, power grids), the topology has to be learned from data. Topology identification is a challenging task, as the problem is often ill-posed, and becomes even harder when the graph structure is time-varying. In this paper, we address the problem of dynamic topology identification by building on recent results from time-varying optimization, devising a general-purpose online algorithm operating in non-stationary environments. Because of its iteration-constrained nature, the proposed approach exhibits an intrinsic temporal-regularization of the graph topology without explicitly enforcing it. As a case-study, we specialize our method to the Gaussian graphical model (GGM) problem and corroborate its performance.

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PhD Thesis Defence

Rate-constrained multi-microphone noise reduction for hearing aid devices

Jamal Amini

Many people around the world suffer fromhearing problems (In theNetherlands, around 11%of the population is considered hearing-impaired). To overcome their hearing problems, advanced technologies like hearing aid devices can be used. Hearing aids are meant to assist the hearing-impaired to improve the speech intelligibility and the quality of sounds that they intend to hear. Usually these include processors which are mainly designed to enhance the sound signals originating form the source of interest by reducing the environmental noise. Binaural hearing aids, on the other hand, can also help to preserve some spatial information from the acoustic scene, which can help the hearing aid user to hear the sounds from the correct locations. To construct the binaural hearing aid system, two hearing aids are needed to be placed in the left and the right ears, which can potentially communicate through a wireless link. In addition, one can think of additional assisting devices with microphones placed in the environment. One common way to reduce the noise is to use advanced binaural multi-microphone noise reduction algorithms, which aim at estimating some desired sources while reducing the power of the undesired sources. One typical method is to use spatial filtering, which aims at estimating the target signal by shaping the beam towards the location of the desired source while canceling/suppressing the other sources.

To performbinaural noise reduction, while assuming centralized processing, the signals recorded at remote microphones (for example from additional assisting devices or in the binaural hearing aid setup, the sound signals from the contralateral hearing aid) need to be transmitted to the central processor. Due to the power and bandwidth limitations, the data needs to be compressed before transmission. Therefore, the main question would be, at which rate the data should be compressed to have reasonably good noise reduction performance. This links the noise reduction problem to the data compression problem. Generally, the higher the data rate, the better the noise reduction performance. Therefore, there is a trade-off between the performance of the noise reduction algorithmand the data-rate at which the information is compressed. This problem is closely connected to the rate-distortion problem from an information-theoretic viewpoint. Studying the effect of data compression on the performance of noise reduction problems would be of great interest to reduce the power consumption of hearing assistive devices.

Oneway to incorporate data compression into the noise reduction problem is to perform quantization, which leads to a rate-constrained noise reduction problem. In the rate-constrained noise reduction, the goal is to estimate the desired sources based on the imperfect data. The observations from remote sensors are quantized and transmitted to the fusion center. The main challenge in the binaural rate-constrained noise reduction is to find the best quantization rates for the different sensors at different frequencies, given the physical constraints like bitrate and power constraints.

Another aspect of the rate-constrained noise reduction is to expand the network to receive more information on the acoustic scene using additional assistive devices. Target source estimation using information form such assistive devices (rather than only binaural hearing aids) is shown to result in better noise reduction performance. Now the question is how to allocate the bitrates to the assistive devices as well. These assistive devices can be thought of as the remote embedded microphones on the cell-phones (mobile) or wearablemicrophones placed at the users’ bodies. The binaural hearing aid system can thus be generalized to allow other assistive devices to contribute to noise reduction.

In this dissertation, we study and propose different rate-constrained multi- microphone noise reduction algorithms. We try to expand the notion of the binaural rateconstrained noise reduction to multi-microphone rate-constrained noise reduction for general wireless acoustic sensor networks (WASNs). The WASN in this case can include the binaural setup along with other assistive devices. We propose different algorithms to cover the main objectives of rate-constrained noise reduction problems. These objectives mainly include good target estimation (less environmental noise power) given the compressed data, good rate allocation strategies in WASNs, and preferably preserved spatial information of the sources in the acoustic scene to get the correct impression of the acoustic scene.

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Ph.D. Thesis Defense of Sining Pan

Resistor-based temperature sensors in CMOS technology

Sining Pan

Time: Monday, 12 April 2021, 12:00-12:15 (layman’s talk), 12:30-13:30 (defense)

Abstract: This thesis describes the principle and design of an emerging type of CMOS temperature sensors based on the temperature dependency of on-chip resistors. Compared to traditional BJT-based designs, resistor-based sensors have higher energy-efficiency, better scalability, and can operate under a wider supply range. Nine design examples are shown in this thesis to demonstrate how resistor-based sensors can be optimized for accuracy, energy-efficiency, or other application-driven specifications. Among all the records the designs achieved, the energy-efficiency improvement is the most impressive: 65× better than state-of-the-art before this research, or only 6× away from the theoretical value.

Please feel welcome to join the live stream: http://collegerama.tudelft.nl/mediasite/play/be505395bbf24debb7cf8fd61454a5261d

Thesis: https://doi.org/10.4233/uuid:28108302-2d9b-4560-a806-8ba6d381812e

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Design, Integration and Characterization of Microelectrodes for Heart-On-Chip Applications

Shriya Rangaswamy


The (parametric) Voice of Your Heart

Towards Parametric Cardiac Modelling for early recognition and Treatment of AF

Richard Hendriks

Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia, with a prevalence that continuously increased over the past decades. The risk of developing AF among people aged 40 years or older is currently about 25 %. Despite its high prevalence, the exact mechanisms underlying AF are unknown and available treatment strategies are not effective. Although AF in itself is not directly life-threatening, it can lead to many serious complications like heart failure and strokes. As the disease is progressive, early (non-invasive) detection is important.

To increase understanding on the mechanisms underlying AF and develop a better treatment strategy we have set up a collaboration between the Erasmus medical center (Unit Electrophysiology) and TUDelft, where we develop atrial parametric models that can aid in the understanding, detection and treatment of AF. In this presentation I will highlight some of the recent activities, opportunities and outcomes of this collaboration.

If you you would like to join this colloquium, send an email to secr-me-ewi@tudelft.nl and you will receive the TEAMS link.

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ME colloquium

MEMS-flavored organs-on-chip

Massimo Mastrangeli

The current drug development process selects candidate drugs for human testing through several pre-clinical stages making use of only approximate models of human physiology. Such models include static engineered cell cultures and non-human animals, and do not recapitulate the (patho)physiology of human organs or tissues well enough to always ensure reliable translation of results to humans. This makes the process increasingly expensive and time-consuming. A novel technology stemming from the convergence of tissue engineering and microfluidics may hold the key to bridge the translational gap, and even allow personalized drug testing. Such technology, able to reproduce realistic in vivo-like dynamic and stimulative microenvironments for tissues in vitro, goes under the name of "organs-on-chip".

In this talk I will introduce the biotechnological convergence at the root of organs-on-chip before outlining research tracks under development at ECTM in two main sub-topics: innovative microelectromechanical organs-on-chip able to stimulate and sense tissue activity, and their embedding within advanced platforms for pre-clinical research. I will conclude with remarks on the role of open technology platforms for the broader establishment and acceptance of organs-on-chip technology in research and drug development.

If you want to join, please send an email to: secr-me-ewi@tudelft.nl

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ME Colloquium by Karen Dowling

Offset and Noise Behavior of Microfabricated AlGaN/GaN Hall-effect Sensors

Karen Dowling
Stanford University

They are incredibly useful due to their non-perturbing nature. For example, they can be used to infer information about position, velocity, and current in power systems. In many applications, silicon Hall effect sensors are quite popular due to their low cost and ease of integration with silicon circuits. However, silicon Hall-effect plates cannot operate at extreme temperatures (< -100°C or above 300°C) due to carrier freeze out and intrinsic carrier leakage, respectively. In addition, Hall-effect plates have challenges with thermal drift, offset, and flicker noise.

In this talk, I will describe an AlGaN/GaN 2DEG Hall-effect plate with ~100 ppm/K drift, 0.5 micro-Tesla offset, and 200 Hz corner frequency. In addition, the GaN 2DEG Hall-effect plates have operated in an extended temperature range from 50 K to 600°C. These metrics beat out state-of-the-art silicon Hall-effect sensors. Through this work, I have achieved record-low offsets with GaN 2DEG Hall devices, presented a framework for studying noise in GaN Hall sensors, and initiated steps towards integration of Hall-effect devices in microsystems for low-earth orbit and current sensing in transformers. These contributions will enable a future monolithically integrated GaN platform for power electronics and extreme environments.

About the Speaker: Karen Dowling received her B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena CA in 2013 and M.S. degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University, CA in 2015. She received her Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Stanford University in 2019. In 2011, she was a Systems Engineering Intern at Crane Aerospace Electronics, Burbank CA. In 2012, she was a Research Assistant at the Wireless Integrated Microsystems center at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. In 2015, she was an intern at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington MA, and in 2018 she was an intern at Infineon Technologies in Munich, Germany. Currently, she is a postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory with a focus on opto-electronics for power and RF devices. Her research interests include the use of wideband gap materials for the development of sensors for extreme environments, in particular magnetic field sensors for power electronic systems and navigation for exploration. Dr. Dowling is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and was the student president of the NSF engineering research center for power optimization of electro-thermal systems.

TEAMS link can be reuqested by sending an email to m.j.vanderput@tudelft.nl (department secretary ME)


Medical Delta Café

Medical Delta Café 'Zorg naar huis, en dan….? Van monitoren tot behandelen'

Wouter Serdijn, Frank Willem Jansen (Medical Delta), Gisela Terwindt (LUMC), Ries Biggelaar van den (ErasmusMC)

In het online Medical Delta Café 'Zorg naar huis, en dan….? Van monitoren tot behandelen' belichten prof. dr. Gisela Terwindt (LUMC) en drs. Ries van den Biggelaar (Erasmus MC) deze kwesties, waarna deelnemers worden uitgenodigd mee te discussiëren en kennis uit te wisselen in een paneldiscussie met onder andere Medical Delta hoogleraar prof. dr. ir. Wouter Serdijn (TU Delft).

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MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Graph-aware Anomalous Network Agent Detection

Ahmet Gercekcioglu

Networks with a large number of participants and a highly dynamic data exchange are better off using a distributed networking system due to network failures in centralized networks. However, with the increase in distributed networking, security problems arise in distributed processes. Injection of malicious data, for example, must be dealt with by using the tools provided by detection theory. The detection probability pd can be taken as the performance metric that we aim to optimize. In order to achieve this, one must first define a hypothesis testing problem and derive an optimization problem for pd that is dependent on which nodes are assumed to be compromised by these malicious agents that inject data.

For the injected data, there are three different models taken into consideration for the change in values over time and nodes. For every model, we assume that the outlier data can be injected with two different attack modes. These attack modes enforce different network topology related constraints on the set of compromised nodes due to different motivations. Furthermore, additional constraints are assumed due to the limited resources of the agents.

Additionally, with the given framework, we can also derive an optimization problem that can be solved with the help of the well-known linear regression method, i.e., Lasso. The problem that arise with this method is the difficulty of implementing the network topology related constraints into this optimization problem.

In order to solve these optimization problems, several methods are combined for the relaxation and solution of the optimization problems.

From numerical evaluation, it can be observed that our empirical performance is non-negligibly lower than the theoretical performance for all three models and both attacking modes. This can be linked to the dependence of the empirical distribution to the derived subset of compromised nodes, these subsets are chosen such that the cost function is optimized. Hence, we observe that the empirical values are much higher than it is theoretically assumed, in case that the network is 'clean'.

A second factor for performance evaluation is the number of wrongly indexed nodes, it can be observed how this factor is dependent on the distribution of the energy of the outlier data over the nodes and time.

Overall, this study shows that the provided framework shows an increasing performance for an increasing outlier-to-noise energy ratio. For an energy ratio higher than 0.5, the empirical and theoretical ROC-curves are nearly perfectly saturated for all models. The number of wrongly indexed nodes for our methods is generally speaking lower compared with the Lasso-method.


PhD thesis defence

Out-of-band Interference Immunity of Negative-Feedback Amplifiers

Emil Totev

Out-of-band interference is caused by the non-linear behaviour of the components in amplifier circuits, as detailed in Chapter 1. To address that, it is necessary to develop amplifiers with a low IP2 figure, i.e., apply linearisation.

Chapter 2 gives an overview of the existing linearisation techniques and other methods to reduce the effect of non-linear behaviour. A mathematical analysis of a generic negative-feedback amplifier is conducted in Chapter 3 using the Volterra series. As this method often involves complex, cumbersome calculations, a simplified approach is introduced in Chapter 4. Using both the classical and the simplified non-linear analysis tools, a number of new design methods for out-of-band interference immunity enhancement are developed in Chapter 5. These make use of frequency-dependent local feedback, pole position manipulation and non-linear local-feedback compensation. Finally, a design example of non-linear local-feedback compensation in a negative-feedback amplifier is presented in Chapter 6.

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PhD Thesis Defence

ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS IN MRI: Analytical Methods and Applications

Patrick Fuchs

Electrical properties, the conductivity and permittivity of tissue, are quantities that describe the interaction of an object and electromagnetic fields. The properties influence electromagnetic fields and are influenced themselves by physiological phenomena such as lesions or a stroke. Therefore, they are important in identifying or diagnosing the severity of pathologies and are essential in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) safety and efficiency by determining tissue heating or sensitivity to excitation pulses and antenna designs.

In two-dimensional electromagnetic fields, which occur in specific measurement geometries, it is possible to simplify the relationship between electromagnetic fields and electrical properties, and reconstruct these properties using essentially a forward operation, foregoing a full inversion scheme. These insights also help to find, and explain, the cause of specific artefacts, such as those caused by mismatches in incident field used in the computation of the full electromagnetic fields.

The two-dimensional field assumption necessary for the simplified relationship described above is subsequently tested, and it is shown that this assumption does not hold when the object is sufficiently translation variant in the longitudinal direction. That is, even if the fields for a translation invariant object would be two-dimensional, they become three-dimensional through the interaction of the tissue parameters with the fields, which cause out of plane current and field contributions.

Another interesting application of closed form expressions between currents and fields is the target field method, which solves the inverse source problem between electric currents and static magnetic fields in a regularised manner by constraining their relationship to a cylindrical geometry. This method is adapted for transverse oriented magnetic fields to be used with Halbach type magnet arrays, and an open source tool is developed to make the method easy to apply for various design considerations. Moving away from constraints on the field or current structure, we show the intricate relationship between electrical properties and the measured signal in an MRI scanner. This is done by deriving the electro- (and magneto-) motive force for a typical MRI scenario without any assumptions on the object or electro-magnetic fields. This model can then even be used to reconstruct electrical properties from the simplest MRI signal, namely the free induced decay (FID) signal.

To round off our investigation of electrical properties we take a small detour to the magnetic tissue property, the permeability or magnetic susceptibility. For reconstructing this tissue property a dipole deconvolution is required, where the dipole convolution loses information of the original object through the zeros of the dipole kernel. A new machine learning based approach to reconstruct the lost information is investigated in the final chapter of this thesis.

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PhD Thesis Defence

Integrated Circuits for Miniature 3-D Ultrasound Probes: Solutions for the Interconnection Bottleneck

Zhao Chen

14:30-15:00 (layman’s talk), 15:00-16:00 (defence)

Please feel welcome to join the live stream

Promotors: Michiel Pertijs and Nico de Jong

Abstract: This thesis describes low-power application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designs to mitigate the constraint of cable count in miniature 3-D TEE probes. Receive cable-count reduction techniques including subarray beamforming and digital time-division multiplexing (TDM) have been explored and the effectiveness of these techniques has been demonstrated by experimental prototypes. Digital TDM is a reliable technique to reduce cable count, but it requires an in-probe datalink for high-speed data communication. A quantitative study on the impact of the datalink performance on B-mode ultrasound image quality has been introduced in this thesis for data communication in future digitized ultrasound probes. Finally, a high-voltage transmitter prototype has been presented for effective cable-count reduction in transmission while achieving good power efficiency. The application of these techniques is not limited to only the design of TEE probes and can be easily extended to the design of other miniature 3-D ultrasound probes, for instance intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) probes and IVUS probes, which are facing similar interconnect challenges with an increased number of transducer elements to enhance imaging quality.

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Cardiac mapping on ex vivo perfused porcine slaughterhouse hearts

Jorik Hans Amesz


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Polyimide encapsulation for implantable medical devices

Sevda Malek Kani

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Ultrasound Energy Transfer using Charged CMUTs

Youri Westhoek

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Towards cMUT for Neurostimulation

Eric Bert Dijkema

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ME Colloquium

Past, Present and Future of micro/nano Electronics Reliability


The scientific successes of many micro/nano-related technology developments cannot lead to business success without innovation and breakthroughs in the way that we address reliability through the whole value chain. The ultimate aim of reliability is to predict, optimize and design upfront the reliability of micro/nanoelectronics and systems, an area denoted as ‘Design for Reliability (DfR)’. While virtual schemes based on numerical simulation are widely used for functional design, they lack a systematic approach when used for reliability assessments. Besides this, lifetime predictions are still based on old standards (MIL, FIDES, Telcordia, etc.) assuming a constant failure rate behavior. Here, the so-called digital twin comes into sight, which is no more than just a mathematical model of a physical object. In this talk, I will present the history of reliability as we know it and what future directions are foreseen.

If you would like to join the colloquium, send an email to secr-me-ewi@tudelft.nl and you will receive the link.

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MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Deep Learning-Based Sound Identification

Shaoqing Chen

Environmental sound identification and recognition aim to detect sound events within an audio clip. This technology is useful in many real-world applications such as security systems, smart vehicle navigation and surveillance of noise pollution, etc. Research on this topic has received increased attention in recent years. Performance is increasing rapidly as a result of deep learning methods. In this project, our goal is to realize urban sound classification using several neural network models. We select log-Mel spectrogram as the audio representation and use two types of neural networks to perform the classification task. The first is the convolutional neural network (CNN), which is the most straightforward and widely used method for a classification problem. The second type of network is autoencoder based models. This type of model includes the variational autoencoder (VAE), beta-VAE and bounded information rate variational autoencoder (BIR-VAE). The encoders of these systems extract a low dimensionality representation. The classification is then performed on this so-called latent representation. Our experiments assess the performances of different models by evaluation metrics. The results show that CNN is the most promising classifier in our case, autoencoder-based models can successfully reconstruct the log-Mel spectrogram and the latent features learned by encoders are meaningful as classification can be achieved.


Microelectronics Colloquium

Artificial Retina: A Future Cellular-Resolution Brain-Machine Interface

Dante Muratore

A healthy retina transduces incoming visual stimuli into patterns of neural activity, which are then transmitted to the brain via the optic nerve. Degenerative diseases, like macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa, destroy the ability of the retina to transduce light, causing profound blindness. An artificial retina is a device that replaces the function of retinal circuitry lost to disease. Present-day devices can elicit visual percepts in patients, providing a proof of concept. However, the patterns of neural activity they produce are far from natural, and the visual sensations experienced by patients are coarse and of limited use to patients.

A main hurdle is that there are many types of cells in the retina. For example, some cells respond to increases of light intensity, while other cells respond to decreases of light intensity. In order to reproduce a meaningful neural code, it is crucial to respect the specificity and selectivity of these cells. Because cells of different types are intermixed in the circuitry of the retina, cell type specific activation of this kind requires that a future artificial retina be able to stimulate at single cell resolution, over a significant area in the central retina.

To achieve this goal, we are designing an epi-retinal interface that operates in two modes: calibration and runtime. During calibration, the interface learns which cells and which cell types are available for stimulation, by recording neural activity from the retina. During runtime, the interface stimulates the available cells to best approximate the desired scene. I will present a system architecture we are developing that can accomplish the overall performance goals, and the implications of this architecture for brain-machine interfaces.

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PhD Thesis Defence

ACCURATE STRUCTURAL HEALTH MONITORING IN COMPOSITES WITH FIBRE BRAGG GRATING SENSORS

Aydin Rajabzadeh

Compared to metals, composite materials offer higher stiffness, more resilience to corrosion, have lighter weights, and their mechanical properties can be tailored by their layup configuration. Despite these features, composite materials are susceptible to a diversity of damages, including matrix cracks, delamination, and fibre breakage. If these damages are not detected and mended, they can spread and result in the failure of the whole structure. In particular, when the structure is under fatigue and vibrations during flight, this process can expedite. Moreover, if such damages occur in the internal layers of the composite material, they will be difficult to detect and to characterise. There is thus a huge demand for reliable and accurate structural health monitoring methods to identify these defects. Such methods either try to monitor the structural integrity of the composite during service, or they are used for studying a desired configuration of a composite material during fatigue and tensile tests. This thesis provides structural health monitoring solutions that can potentially be used for both these categories. The structural health monitoring applications developed in this thesis range from accurate strain and displacement measurement, to detection of cracks and the identification of damages in composites.

In this thesis, fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensors were chosen for this purpose. The miniature size and small diameter of these sensors makes them an ideal candidate for embedding them between composite layers, without severely altering the mechanical properties of the host composite material. They can thus provide us with direct information about the current state of the laminated composite, potentially at any depth. This is especially useful for acquiring information about the internal layers of the composite material, as barely visible impact damages and micro-cracks often form beneath the surface of the material without being visible on its exterior.

In spite of their interesting physical characteristics, applications of FBG sensors are typically limited to point strain or temperature sensors. Further, it is often assumed that the strain field along the sensor length is uniform. For this reason, there is currently a gap in the field of structural health monitoring in retrieving meaningful information about the non-uniform strain field to which the FBG sensor is subjected in damaged structures. The focus of this thesis is on analysing the response of FBG sensors to highly non-uniform strain fields, which are a characteristic of the existence of damage in composites.

To tackle this problem, first a new model for the analysis of FBG responses to nonuniform strain fields will be presented. Using this model, two algorithms are presented to accurately estimate the average of such non-uniform axial strain fields, which conventional strain estimation algorithms fail to deliver. In fact, it is shown that the state-of-the-art strain estimation methods using FBG sensors can lead to errors of up to a few thousand microstrains, and the presented algorithms in this thesis can compensate for such errors. It was also shown that these methods are robust against spectral noise from the interrogation system, which can pave the way for more affordable FBG based strain estimation solutions.

Another contribution of this thesis is the demonstration of two new algorithms for the detection of matrix cracks, and for accurate monitoring of the delamination growth in composites, using conventional FBG sensors. These algorithms are in particular useful for studying the mechanical behaviour of laminated composites in laboratory setups. For instance, the matrix crack detection algorithm is capable of characterising internal transverse cracks along the FBG length during tensile tests. Along the same lines, the delamination growth monitoring algorithm can accurately localise the delamination crack tip along the FBG length in mode-I tensile and fatigue tests. These algorithms can perform in real-time, which makes them ideal for dynamic measurement of crack propagation under fatigue, and their spatial resolution and accuracy is superior to the other state-of-the-art damage detection techniques.

Finally, to enhance the precision of the damage detection schemes presented in this thesis, two different methods are proposed to accurately determine the active gauge length of the FBG sensor, and its position along the optical fibre. This information is generally not provided for commercial FBG sensors with such accuracy, which can adversely affect the precision of crack tip localisation algorithms. Following the algorithms provided in this thesis, the sensor position can be marked on the optical fibre with micrometer accuracy.

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PhD Thesis Defence

MEMS Solutions For More Than Illumination

Xueming Li

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PhD Thesis Defence

From Silicon Toward Silicon Carbide Smart Integrated Sensors

Luke Middelburg

Abstract
This PhD thesis focusses on the possibilities and challenges of the pathway from silicon toward silicon carbide smart integrated sensors. The research toward extended functionality of sensors in state-of-the-art silicon technology and the exploration of the application of wide-bandgap semiconductors can both be seen as realization of the More-than-Moore trend, described by diversification, the introduction of novel materials and integrated process development.
In this context, different types of sensors are developed, such a high-resolution gravimeter in silicon technology and different poly-SiC-based sensors such as a platform for an optical PM sensor and different pressure sensing structures. Additionally, a SiC CMOS chip is developed in collaboration with Fraunhofer IISB consisting of discrete electronic devices, resistive and capacitive read-out circuits and temperature sensors.

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Signal Processing Seminar

Intelligent X-ray sensing for real-time image guidance in proton therapy

Dennis Schaart
Applied Physics, TU Delft

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Design and Fabrication of Electrical Stimulation Setup for EHT platform

Androniki Diakou

The public presentation will be streamed online at this link.


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Design, fabrication and characterisation of graphene nano-ribbons for Boolean gates logic

Teodor Nikolov

The public defence will be accessible via https://tudelft.zoom.us/j/97925809896?pwd=bWtSYUM0R29kTW1JY3dqUjhkOXpGQT09


MSc TC Thesis Presentation

Radar-based vital sign detection and indoor target localization algorithm development

Lin Wan
IMEC, Eindhoven.

The work is on radar-based vital sign detection and indoor target localization.

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MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Automatic Depth Matching for Petrophysical Borehole Logs

Aitor García Manso

In the oil and gas industry a crucial step for detecting and developing natural resources is to drill wells and measure miscellaneous properties along the well depth.  One important source of this disturbances is depth misalignment and in order to compare different  measurements care must be taken to ensure that all measurements (log curves) are properly positioned in depth. This process is called depth matching. In spite of multiple attempts for automating this process it is still mostly done manually.   

Based on the Parametric Time Warping (PTW), a parameterised warping function that warps one of the curves  is assumed and its parameters are determined by solving an optimization problem maximizing the cross-correlation between the two curves. The warping function is assumed to have the parametric form of a piecewise linear function in order to accommodate the linear shifts that take place during the measurement process. This method, combined with preprocessing techniques such as an offset correction and low pass filtering, gives a robust solution and can correctly align the most commonly accruing examples. Furthermore, the methodology is extended to depth match logs with severe distortion by applying the technique in an iterative fashion. Several examples are given when developed algorithm is tested on real log data supplemented with the analysis of the computational complexity this method has and the scalability to larger data sets.


MSc TC Thesis Presentation

Computationally Efficient Conical Horn Antenna Design

Tworit Dash
ASTRON

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Design and development of integrated displacement sensors for engineered heart tissue platforms

Mahdieh Shojaei Baghini

Under the current circumstances, the public defence will be held online. You can tune in at the following link:
https://tudelft.zoom.us/j/91898588409?pwd=NmFydjVHZUxIV2lVZXBTTzZHOTFodz09
Meeting ID: 918 9858 8409 Password: 1P0dZu


PhD Thesis Defence

Antenna Array Synthesis and Beamforming for 5G Applications: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Yanki Aslan

Realization of the future 5G systems requires the design of novel mm-wave base station antenna systems that are capable of generating multiple beams with low mutual interference, while serving multiple users simultaneously using the same frequency band. Besides, small wavelengths and high packaging densities of front-ends lead to overheating of such systems, which prevents safe and reliable operation. Since the strict cost and energy requirements of the first phase 5G systems favor the use of low complexity beamforming architectures, computationally efficient signal processing techniques and fully passive cooling strategies, it is a major challenge for the antenna community to design multibeam antenna topologies and front-ends with enhanced spatial multiplexing, limited inter-beam interference, acceptable implementation complexity, suitable processing burden, and natural-only/radiative cooling.Traditionally, array design has been performed based on satisfying the given criteria solely on the radiation patterns (gain, side lobe level (SLL), beamwidth etc.). However, in addition to the electromagnetic aspects, multi-beam antenna synthesis and performance evaluation in 5G systems at mm-waves must combine different disciplines, including but not limited to, signal processing, front-end circuitry design, thermal management, channel & propagation, and medium access control aspects. Considering the interdisciplinary nature of the problem, the main objective of this research is to develop, evaluate and verify innovative multibeam array techniques and solutions for 5G base station antennas, not yet used nor proposed for mobile communications. The research topics include the investigation of (i) new array topologies, compatible with IC passive cooling, including sparse, space tapered arrays and optimized subarrays, meeting key requirements of 3-D multi-user coverage with frequency re-use and power-efficient side-lobe control, (ii) adaptive multiple beamforming strategies and digital signal processing algorithms, tailored to these new topologies, and (iii) lowcost/competitive and sufficiently generic implementation of the above array topologies and multi-beam generation concepts to serve multiple users with the same antenna(s) with the best spectrum and power efficiencies. This doctoral thesis consists of three parts. Part I focuses on the system-driven aspects which cover the system modeling (including the link budget and precoding), propagation in mm-wave channels and statistical assessment of the Quality of Service (QoS). Although separate comprehensive studies exist both in the field of propagation/system modeling and antennas/beamforming, the link between the two disciplines is still weak. In this part, the aim of the study is to bridge the gap between the two domains and to identify the trade-offs between the complexity of beamforming, the QoS, and the computational cost of precoding in the 5G multi-beam base station arrays for various use cases. Based on the system model developed, a novel quantitative relation between the antenna SLLs/pattern nulls and the statistical QoS is established in a line-of-sight (LoS) dominated mm-wave propagation scenario. Moreover, the potential of using smart (low in-sector side-lobe) array layouts (with simple beam steering) in obtaining sufficiently high and robust QoS, while achieving the optimally low processing costs is highlighted. For a possible pure non-line-of-sight (NLoS) scenario, the system advantages (in terms of the beamforming complexity and the interference level) of creating a single, directive beam towards the strongest multipath component of a user are explained via ray-tracing based propagation simulations. The insightful system observations from Part I lead to several fundamental research questions: Could we simplify the multiple beamforming architecture while keeping a satisfying QoS? Are there any efficient yet effective alternative interference suppression methods to further improve the QoS? How should we deal with the large heat generation at the base station? These questions, together with the research objectives, form the basis for the studies performed in the remaining parts. Part II of the thesis focuses on the electromagnetism-driven aspects which include innovative, low-complexity subarray based multibeam architectures and new array optimization strategies for effective SLL suppression. The currently proposed multi-beam 5G base stations in the literature for beamforming complexity reduction use either a hybrid array of phased subarrays, which limits the field-of-view significantly, or employ a fully-connected analog structure, which increases the hardware requirements remarkably. Therefore, in the first half of this part, the aim is to design low-complexity hybrid (or hybrid-like) multiple beamforming topologies with a wide angular coverage. For this purpose, two new subarray based multiple beamforming concepts are proposed: (i) a hybrid array of active multiport subarrays with several digitally controlled Butler Matrix beams and (ii) an array of cosecant subarrays with a fixed cosecant shaped beam in elevation and digital beamforming in azimuth. Using the active (but not phased) multiport subarrays, the angular sector coverage is widened as compared to that of a hybrid array of phased subarrays, the system complexity is decreased as compared to that of a hybrid structure with a fully-connected analog network, and the effort in digital signal processing is reduced greatly. The cosecant subarray beamforming, on the other hand, is shown to be extremely efficient in serving multiple simultaneous co-frequency users in the case of a fairness-motivated LoS communication thanks to its low complexity and power equalization capability. Another critical issue with the currently proposed 5G antennas is the large inter-user interference caused by the high average SLL of the regular, periodic arrays. Therefore, in the second half of Part II, the aim is to develop computationally and power-efficient SLL suppression techniques that are compatible with the 5G’s multibeam nature in a wide angular sector. To achieve this, two novel techniques (based on iterative parameter perturbations) are proposed: (i) a phase-only control technique and (ii) a position-only control technique. The phase-only technique provides peak SLL minimization and simultaneous pattern nulling, which is more effective than the available phase tapering methods in the literature. The position-only technique, on the other hand, yields uniform-amplitude, (fully-aperiodic and quasi-modular) irregular planar phased arrays with simultaneous multibeam optimization. The latter technique combines interference-awareness (via multibeam SLL minimization in a predefined cell sector) and thermal-awareness (via uniform amplitudes and minimum element spacing constraint) for the first time in an efficient and easy-to-solve optimization algorithm. Part III of the thesis concentrates on the thermal-driven aspects which cover the thermal system modeling of electronics, passive cooling at the base stations, and the role of antenna researchers in array cooling. The major aim here is to form a novel connection between the antenna system design and thermal management, which is not yet widely discussed in the literature. In this part, an efficient thermal system model is developed to perform the thermal simulations. To effectively address the challenge of thermal management at the base stations, fanless CPU heatsinks are exploited for the first time for fully-passive and low-cost cooling of the active integrated antennas. To reduce the size of the heatsinks and ease the thermal problem, novel planar antenna design methodologies are also proposed. In the case of having a low thermal conductivity board, using a sparse irregular antenna array with a large inter-element spacing (such as a sunflower array) is suggested. Alternatively, for the densely packed arrays, increasing the equivalent substrate conductivity by using thick ground planes and simultaneously enlarging the substrate dimensions is proven to be useful. The performed research presents the first-ever irregular/sparse and subarray based antennas with wide scan multi-beam capability, low temperature, high-efficiency power amplifiers, and low level of side lobes. The developed antenna arrays and beam generation concepts could have also an impact over a broad range of applications where they should help overcome the capacity problem by use of multiple adaptive antennas, improve reliability and reduce interference.

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Experimental study on electromigration by using Blech structure

Yaqian Zhang

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MSc TC Thesis Presentation

Vital Signs Monitoring Using Doppler Signal Decomposition

Yuqing Li

There is an ever-growing demand for vital signs monitoring for a variety of occasions. Non-contact vital signs monitoring can be achieved by detecting the displacement of the human chest using Doppler radar. This method is non-invasive, environment-independent, and suitable for long-term monitoring. However, the real-time detection of cardiopulmonary parameters extraction with radar needs to address the challenges of the limited time duration of the signal for the extraction of cardiopulmonary signals, accuracy of vital signs parameters estimation, and signal processing algorithm complexity. Here we show that empirical and variational signal decomposition methods can be performed to extract respiration and heartbeat signals in the radar system. Hilbert-Huang transform is applied in conjunction with the signal decomposition methods to display the time-frequency-energy distribution of decomposed signals, thus the instantaneous frequencies and amplitudes of vital signs can be obtained. Besides, online signal decomposition approaches are illustrated to achieve the dynamic estimation of vital signs from the radar data stream. The results of our experimental verification demonstrate that Online-VMD has an accuracy of 99.56% and a variance of estimated frequencies of 1.81 x 10−3 when it is applied in FMCW radar system, providing a reliable, accurate and real-time parameter estimation results in vital signs monitoring.


SSCS WYE Webinar

To Academia, or to Industry, That is the Question.

Kofi Makinwa, Shin-Lien Lu

Abstract:

You are about to finish graduate school or perhaps a young or seasoned professional, contemplating a career transition. Which is better - a career in academia or industry? What are the pros and cons of one versus the other? How can you start exploring and build up your career accordingly? In this webinar, we will interview Dr. Linus Lu, a professor-turned-industry veteran, and Prof. Kofi Makinwa, an industry veteran-turned-professor, who will share their insights and perspectives from their personal journeys in both academia and industry careers. They will also address what triggered their transitions, how they staged their transitions, and offer their crystal ball projections on present and future career prospects in the solid-state-circuits profession.

REGISTER TODAY!

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MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Multi-target Detection and Tracking with 8 GHz FMCW Radar System

Siyan Wan

Currently, most of FMCW radar systems for target detection and localization are based on the radar system with multiple receiving antennas, but little based on the SISO system. In this project, we will show a unique signal processing pipeline based on the 8 GHz SISO FMCW radar system.  An advanced algorithm of multi-target detection and tracking will be designed to monitor the range, angle, and Doppler velocity information of targets.


MSc thesis Defence

Design of a valveless organ-on-chip micropump

Suzanne Onderdelinden


PhD Thesis Defence

Design, Fabrication and Characterizations of AlGan/Gan Heterostructure Sensors

Jianwen Sun

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PhD Thesis Defence

Fan-Out SiC MOSFET Power Module in the Organic Substrate

Fengze Hou

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PhD Thesis Defence

Through Package Via. A Bottom-up Approach

Hengqian (Daniel) Yi

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PhD Thesis Defence

Metal sulfides for gas sensing applications: devices and mechanisms

Hongyu Tang

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

A 3D microelectrode array to record neural activity at different tissue depths

Tim de Rijk


PhD Thesis Defence

Low temperature sintering of Cu nanoparticle paste: Mechanism and applications

Boyao Zhang

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PhD Thesis Defence

Joint Parameters Estimation using FMCW UWB Waveform

Shengzhi Xu

As one of the main sensor in autonomous driving, radar has great advantages over other sensors, especially its capabilities during adverse weather condition and Doppler information extraction.

Performance of the radar in terms of accuracy and target resolution strongly depends on radar waveforms transmitted and signal processing algorithms applied. To achieve high range resolution, an ultra-wideband signal has to be used for sensing, which introduces difficulties to achieve high Doppler and DOA estimation simultaneously due to the range migration. To address this problem, in this thesis new signal processing algorithms are proposed, which pave the way to improved performance of the automotive radar sensor.

As the Frequency-Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar are widely used in short-range and middle-range applications due to its low-cost and simplicity, FMCW waveform is the main research subject. The FMCW signal model is derived and analysed in Chapter 2 which for the first time takes both the range migration and wideband DOA problems into account at the same time.

The point-like moving targets are considered in Chapter 3 where their Doppler velocities are within the maximum unambiguous velocity of the radar. A novel improved MUSIC algorithm with the dynamic noise-subspace method is proposed to address both the range migration and wideband DOA problems. The algorithm releases the great potentials of the conventional MUSIC algorithm in the presence of the range migration. Moreover, an efficient algorithm based-on Rayleigh-Ritz step is introduced for the proposed method resulting in a considerable reduction of computational requirements without any performance degradation. Comparison with the conventional narrow-band MUSIC, Keystone-MUSIC, inversion-MUSIC and corresponding CRB using simulations, reveals the superiority of the method proposed in terms of accuracy, resolution and efficiency.

The problems similar to those considered in Chapter 3 but in the presence of the Doppler ambiguity are considered in Chapter 4. A spectral norm-based algorithm is proposed to address the coupling terms for a single moving point-like target. The algorithm for the first time abandons the integration-based method for ambiguous velocity estimation. The spectral-norm based algorithm provides a new tool to resolve the ambiguity problem which outperforms the conventional integration-based algorithm by avoiding the off-grid problems with limited data size. Moreover, combined with the modified CLEAN techniques and Greedy algorithm, the proposed algorithm can be extended to multiple moving targets. Furthermore, the power iteration algorithm is smartly adopted for an efficient implementation of the proposed method.

After addressing the point-like targets, the moving extended targets are studied in Chapter 5 especially when multiple extended targets cannot be separated both in range and beam profile. The Doppler difference is used to recognise them and ISAR concept is adopted to split and image the targets separately. The conventional entropy minimisation approach is applied to the signal model for not only the Fourier spectrum but also the eigenspectrum as well for the first time. The Fourier spectrum has a relatively high resolution in higher-order motion (e.g. acceleration) while eigenspectrum has a better resolution in Doppler separation. The advantages of both spectra are utilised to separate multiple extended targets by a simple but powerful combination. Via numerical simulation, the applicability of the algorithm in the automotive application is demonstrated.

Last in Chapter 6, by processing the experimental data from automotive radar, we present a novel and fast imaging algorithm for slow-moving targets which provides super-resolution on DOA. The range information is processed via FFT for efficiency while the DOA is estimated by the MUSIC algorithm for super-resolution. Since the MUSIC spectrum is pseudo-spectrum and can not represent the correct dynamic range of the imaging results, a novel normalisation method is introduced to vividly indicate the energies of different targets. In comparison with conventional FFT-BF, a cleaner range-azimuth image is obtained with the proposed algorithm demonstrating higher angular resolution and without strong side-lobes.

Although the research presented in this thesis is served for automotive application, some of the algorithms and ideas can be easily generalised for a broad spectrum of diverse applications.

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PhD Thesis Defence

Reconfigurable Range-Doppler Processing and Interference Mitigation for FMCW Radars.

Sharef Neemat

Deramping Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radars with chirp-sequence waveforms are widely used in numerous applications. The research objective behind this dissertation was to develop methods and waveforms for the operational enhancement of that class of radars. This is in the sense that there was a desire to take FMCW radars beyond their existing state of the art performance limitations, and increase their resistance to interference. To achieve these objectives, the following research questions were addressed:
Is there a way to mitigate FMCW radar interferences where the developed mitigation method restores any SNR loss due to the interference and/or the mitigation technique itself? Can the method be evaluatable in performance in the range-Doppler domain (as opposed to only in a range-profile)? Is there a way to decouple the Doppler velocity ambiguity interval -- defined by the PRF -- from parameters like the maximum operational range, range resolution, all while maintaining the same transmitted chirp-rate? Would it be possible to liberate the radar from the design/operational trade-offs associated with these parameters? Particularly in the scenario in which the PRF is to be increased for the observation of fast(er) moving targets. Is there a way to overcome the existence of the transient (fly-back) region in deramping FMCW radar beat-signals? This is in the sense that its existence limits the maximum observation time in a single sweep. Would manoeuvring it then allow the coherent chaining of beat-signals -- from multiple sweeps -- in a way that could improve the {target response function width}? {Could it also improve the SNR}? And since the beginning of a sweep and the transient region are related -- and therefore the Doppler velocity ambiguity interval is related too in de facto -- could overcoming the presence of the transient region then allow for Doppler processing PRFs that are different from the transmitted PRF?

The novelty, main results and implications of the research presented are:
• A method was developed to mitigate FMCW radar interferences. The method restored any SNR loss due to the interference, and was evaluatable in performance in the range-Doppler domain (as opposed to only in a range-profile). It was {the first ever} interference mitigation method for deramping FMCW radar receivers via {model-based} beat-signals interpolation in the time-frequency domain. It allowed the introduction of an optional linear prediction interpolation coefficients reconfigurable estimation mode for CPI processing. Coefficients are estimated for the current observation scene using a known single interference-free sweep. These coefficients are then reused for the restoration of subsequent interference-contaminated sweeps in the CPI. It was also suitable for real-time implementation, with a predictable execution delay (latency), based on FT banks and fixed-length extrapolation filters, as opposed to iterative methods relying on algorithm convergence. The evaluation of the method's performance was done in the range-Doppler domain. The aim was to additionally showcase the maintenance of the radar's coherence over a CPI after interference mitigation.
• A method was developed to decouple the Doppler ambiguity interval -- defined by the PRF -- from parameters like the maximum operational range and range resolution, all while maintaining the same transmitted chirp-rate. It was the first ever processing method for the coherent integration of frequency multiplexed chirps within one sweep/PRI -- for deramping FMCW radar in the time-frequency domain. It constructed a single fast-time slow-time matrix -- with an extended Doppler ambiguity interval, while maintaining the range resolution and CPI processing gain -- in one go. It did not use iterative algorithms with unpredictable latencies, nor requires any detection or a-priori information about the observed scene, and is applicable to very-extended targets like rain/clouds.
• A method was developed to overcome the existence of the transient (fly-back) region in FMCW radar. It was the first ever method for deramping FMCW radar sweeps coherent concatenation in the time-frequency domain. It allowed for {target response function width} improvement without transmitting additional bandwidth. It offered the ability to -- in parallel -- generate different size fast-time slow-time matrices, and allowed for Doppler processing PRFs that are different from the transmitted PRF, without compromising on the total CPI processing gain. This offered the ability to observer different unambiguous Doppler velocity intervals in one CPI.

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PhD Thesis Defence

Compact Thermal Diffusivity Sensors for On-Chip Thermal Management

Ugur Sonmez

Today's systems-on-chip (SoCs) and microprocessors are complex systems that require multiple temperature sensors to monitor temperature variations across hotspots on a single silicon die. Specialized compact and accurate temperature sensors are required for such thermal management applications. This work discusses the development of a compact, digital-output temperature sensor exploiting the highly-temperature-sensitive thermal diffusivity of bulk silicon. The prototype sensors occupy only 0.00165 mm2 in a commercial 40nm standard CMOS process, and achieves 0.7C (3 sigma) inaccuracy after a room-temperature trim. Development of this sensor allows a denser thermal management system to be implemented, saving on SoC power consumption and improves reliability.

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MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Room geometry estimation from stereo recordings using neural networks

Giovanni Bologni

Acoustic room geometry estimation is often performed in ad hoc settings, i.e. using multiple microphones and sources distributed around the room, or assuming control over the excitation signals. To facilitate practical applications, we propose a fully convolutional network (FCN) that localizes reflective surfaces under milder assumptions, such as 1. a compact array of only two microphones is available, 2. emitter and receivers are not synchronized, and 3., both the excitation signals and the impulse responses of the enclosures are unknown.

Our FCN is designed to extract spectral and temporal patterns from stereo recordings, aggregate the temporal information over time-frames, and predict the likelihood of virtual sources corresponding to reflective surfaces being at specific locations.

Numerical experiments confirm that the network is able to generalize to mismatched microphone array sizes, sensor directivity patterns, or audio signal types, while highlighting front-back ambiguity as a prominent source of uncertainty.

When a single reflective surface is present, up to 80% of the sources are detected, while this figure approaches 50% in rectangular rooms.

Further tests on real-world recordings report similar accuracy as with artificially reverberated speech signals, validating the generalization capabilities of the framework.

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Microelectronics colloquium

Radar; Compressive Sensing, Information Geometry and Neural Networks in Radar /Radar – Old but gold

Radmila Pribić (Thales/TUD), Francesco Fioranelli (TUD)

Abstract Radmila Pribić

Radar; Compressive Sensing, Information Geometry and Neural Networks in Radar

Compressive Sensing (CS) is a recent paradigm in sensing (since 2006) that works with fewer data because it is optimized to information in data rather than to the sensing bandwidth only. Most promising benefits of CS in radar are fewer data, high resolution and multi-target analysis.

Information geometry (IG) is an approach to stochastic signal processing (since the eighties) whose most promising benefits have been found in using information distances for resolution bounds, parameter estimation and analysis of accuracy and detection.

Neural networks (NNs) provide mighty numerical tools for learning radar-sensing models directly from data. IG and CS work naturally with NNs in the probabilistic inferences.

The mixture of CS, IG and NNs enables an elegant and straightforward framework for optimizing the demands of data acquisition and signal processing in radar.

Abstract Francesco Fioranelli

Radar – Old but gold

On the birthday cake for Radar we put this year 116 candles – it was indeed in 1904 that German engineer Christian Hülsmeyer publicly demonstrated for the first time radar technology to detect ships even in foggy conditions from a bridge in Köln (Cologne). However, research in sensing using transmitted and received electromagnetic signals is still enjoying exciting developments, as detecting and recognising objects at large distances and in all weather conditions is still a significant need today in aviation, navigation, autonomous systems, security.

One of these recent developments is the combination of modern artificial intelligence with radar based classification, to make our radar systems more capable, intelligent, autonomous. In my talk I will present some recent results and outstanding challenges from research activities in my previous post at the University of Glasgow and those planned and started here at TU Delft. Specifically, I will discuss applications of radar imaging (micro-Doppler signatures but not only) to the domain of human activities/gait identification in the context of healthcare, and classification of small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones), relevant in security/defense context.

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Distributed Perception and Learning Between Robots and the Cloud

Prof Sachin Katti
Stanford University

Today’s robotic fleets are increasingly facing two coupled challenges. First, they are measuring growing volumes of high-bitrate video and LIDAR sensory streams, which, second, requires them to use increasingly compute-intensive models, such as deep neural networks (DNNs), for downstream perception or control. To cope with such challenges, compute and storage-limited robots, such as low-power drones, can offload data to central servers (or “the cloud”), for more accurate real-time perception as well as offline model learning. However, cloud processing of robotic sensory streams introduces acute systems bottlenecks ranging from network delay for real-time inference, to cloud storage, human annotation, and cloud-computing cost for offline model learning.

In this talk, I will present learning-based approaches for robots to improve model performance with cloud offloading, but with minimal systems cost. For real-time inference, I will present a deep reinforcement learning based offloader that decides when a robot should exploit low latency, on-board computation, or, when highly uncertain, query a more accurate cloud model. Then, for continual learning, I will present an intelligent, on-robot sampler that mines real-time sensory streams for valuable training examples to send to the cloud for model re-training. Using insights from months of field data and experiments on state-of-the-art embedded deep learning hardware, I will show how simple learning algorithms allow robots to significantly transcend their on-board sensing and control performance, but with limited communication cost.

Please confirm your presence by sending an email to Ms. Marsha Ginsberg (M.Ginsberg@tudelft.nl).

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Microelectronics / Medical-NeuroDelta Colloquium

Bioelectronics Medicine

Vasiliki Giagka (TU Delft/Fraunhofer IZM), Daniel Schobben (Founder, Chief Operating Officer, Salvia Bioelectronics)

Abstract Vasiliki Giagka

If the Medicine of the future is Bioelectronic, how does the pill of the future look like? – and what does it take to make it?

In a world where medicine is becoming more personalised the promise of Bioelectronic Medicine is that tiny implants will deliver energy in the form of electrical impulses, replacing pharmaceuticals, their conventional chemical counterparts. But how can we develop such tiny smart and autonomous implants that (need to) seamlessly interact with the tissue and live in the body for decades? How can we protect all the components in such an implant while still maintaining the small form factor and essential flexibility? How can we design electronics such that they remain better protected in such a harsh environment? How can we ensure autonomy under the above restrictions? Eventually, how can we make our medicine more precise, i.e. increase the specificity at which we interact with the tissue? And if we achieve all these, how will the pill of the future look like?

Abstract Daniel Schrobben

Salvia Bioelectronics, working on a novel interface and neurostimulation concept for chronic migraine treatment.

Since several years deep trench isolation (DTI) is used as a Chronic migraine – i.e. 15+ headache-days each month –affects 1.4% of the population, mostly 25-50 y/o women. Pharmacological treatments are available, but these have limited effectiveness and are associated with severe side effects (o.a. dizziness, nausea, weight gain). Many people are refractory to medication; they do not respond or cannot tolerate them.

Salvia develops a unique bioelectronic foil that is placed seamlessly below the skin to stimulate proven neural targets for the treatment of chronic headache. This patent-pending neurostimulation concept is designed for optimal safety and effectiveness and opens the market for this already-validated and long-awaited headache treatment.

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MSc TC Thesis Presentation

Conformal Phased Array for DISTURB

Wietse Bouwmeester

Mankind becomes ever more reliant on wireless technology like mobile communications, navigation and radar. This development has resulted in more sensitive receivers, but this increased sensitivity also has increased the susceptibility of these receivers to interference from external sources. One of these sources that is known to disrupt terrestrial communications is the Sun.

The DISTURB project aims to provide the means to observe and study interference phenomena generated by the Sun between frequencies of 10 MHz and 3 GHz. Furthermore, DISTURB stations should provide the ability to observe the Sun from sunrise to sunset, at any location in the world and thus require full hemispherical coverage.

This master thesis project is concerned with the design of a conformal phased array antenna for a novel application in radio astronomy. The goal of this project is to provide an initial conformal array design that is able to provide full hemispherical coverage in the 1500 MHz to 3 GHz band of the DISTURB project.

A quasi-spherical array of radius 1.55 metres and with 343 crossed modified bow-tie antenna elements, distributed using a novel geodesic topology, is proposed and found to satisfy DISTURB requirements in the frequency range of 1.3 to 3 GHz. Hence, the designed array is found to achieve a fractional bandwidth of 79% and therefore even exceeds the initial design goal.

Finally, the designed array is compared to a parabolic reflector antenna, resulting in an insight in the complexity of a conformal phased array antenna design and the advantages and disadvantages such a conformal phased array antenna may bring to the DISTURB project.

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PhD Thesis Defence

3D Elements for Phased-Array Systems: Analysis and Design.

Cristina Yepes

In recent years, radar systems and satellite communications require phased array antennas that are capable of incorporating frequency and angular selectivity while maintaining a low profile. Active phased array antennas must comply with stringent requirements in terms of sensitivity to interference caused by other nearby radiating systems, especially in complex platforms, where a multitude of sensors and radiating systems need to co-exist. In such environments, antennas working at different frequencies can interfere with each other and the implementation of frequency filtering functions with a good out-of-band rejection are needed. Moreover, the interference between different systems can be mitigated by reducing the radiation in the direct path between them. For this purpose, angular filtering functions for pattern shaping can be beneficial. However, standard planar printed circuit board technology puts constraints on the possible antenna elements that can be realized to achieve frequency and angular selectivity. Thus, using new methods such as additive manufacturing technology and 3D printing can provide more degrees of freedom to fabricate complex geometries with a desired operation.

For these reasons, this work focuses on studying new solutions for frequency selectivity with rejection of higher order harmonics, developing a spectral method of moment to study antennas to achieve angular shaping and finding the guidelines needed to design such antennas, and testing additive manufacturing technology to find its suitability at high frequencies for phased array antennas. A bandpass miniaturize-element frequency selective surface with harmonic rejection properties has been designed and manufactured. The design is based on an equivalent circuit model, taking a 3-pole Chebyshev bandpass filter as a starting point, where the inter-layer interaction is only described with a single transmission line representing the fundamental Floquet wave. The prototype consists of five metallic layers, interdigitated patches and grids, separated by dielectric slabs and exhibiting good stability over a wide conical incidence range. A practical case to estimate the effects of placing the FSS in the proximity of a wide-scanning wideband connected array of dipoles has been performed. The performance of the array combined with the FSS has been experimentally characterized, de fining the optimal distance between FSS and array to avoid the propagation of surface waves between both structures, showing a good response within the FSS bandwidth and a good frequency rejection outside of this bandwidth.

A spectral method of moments for tilted elements in free space and in the presence of a backing reflector for infinite and finite arrays has been derived. Such method allows to study dipole and stacked dipole elements and find the guidelines needed to design, in a future, a phased array antenna with an undesired angular range where suppression of gain is intended. The parametric study concluded that the main parameters that shapes the pattern are the inter-element distance between elements and the tilt angle of the elements. The requirements to achieve an asymmetric radiation pattern are a directive element and an inter-elements distance higher than half wavelength, while the tilt of the elements allows to shape the gain levels in the suppressed angular region. To validate this study a linear arrays consisting of tilted dipoles loaded with artificial dielectric layers has been fabricated. The prototype shows a good comparison with simulations and measurements.

A simple design of a dipole antenna has been derived and fabricated using Stereolithography process as an additive manufacturing method. The polymer and metal paste used in the process have been characterized and results have been discussed. A good agreement between simulations and measurements has been achieved after including the geometric deviations found in the fabricated antenna. The fabrication process for high frequencies appears to be prone to systematic errors and the challenges related to the use of additive manufacturing technology for high frequency RF antennas and components has been discussed.

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Flexible Graphene-Based Passive and Active Spinal Cord Implants

Andrada Velea

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PhD Thesis Defence

AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) based sensors for gas sensing applications

Robert Sokolovskij

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Transferred Graphene as a Conductive Layer on a Thin Alumina Membrane

Thijs ten Bruggencate


MSc CE Thesis Presentation

Neuromorphic Retina Design for LIDAR

Rahul Vyas

Autonomous vehicle (AV technology) relies heavily on vision based applications like object recognition, obstacle/collision avoidance etc. In order to achieve this, understanding and estimating the dynamics in the environment is extremely important. LIDARs are proven to detect both shape as well as the speed/movement of the objects in the scene but one of the biggest challenges faced in adapting LIDAR technology is the huge amount of data it produces and the way it is processed. Most of this data is redundant static information which results in wastage of system memory, computational resources, power and time. Inspired from biological retina, first Neuromorphic-Retina for LIDAR is proposed that is able to extract and encode movement happening at particular distance, particular angle and with particular velocity from raw LIDAR temporal pulses into unique spike sequences so that the information about the dynamic environment can be efficiently classified and processed by event based and low powered Neuromorphic processing unit.

The system is designed in such a way that it avoids consumption of large amount of computational resources and system memory. Simulation results show that the Retina is able to filter out redundant static information from the LIDAR data stream thereby reducing data throughput of around 50 - 70 % with 5 - 22 % spatial quality loss (based on scenario) as well as remove noise caused due to luminous reflections. This has tremendous impact on system latency and power consumption due to drop in memory accesses.

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MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Particle Filter based Speaker Tracking in Distributed Pairwise Microphone Networks

Lantian Kou

The particle filter (PF) algorithm is appropriate to solve the problem of speaker tracking in a reverberant and noisy environment using distributed pairwise microphone networks. First, complete the tracking task based on PF algorithm in centralized manner, a processing center is required to collect the signal from all microphones to carry out the PF processing. The computation complexity and time consumption of the particle filter algorithm are relatively high, mainly because of the large number of particles exploited in the filtering process since the effectiveness and accuracy of the particle filter particularly rely on the sample set size.

However, almost all the existing particle filtering algorithms exploit the fixed number of particles, especially in the field of acoustic source tracking. To deal with this matter, Kullback-Leibler distance (KLD) sampling method was utilized as an adaptation technique to adjust the sample size instead of setting fixed number.

Two approaches based on particle filter algorithm for tracking speaker in distributed way are proposed. Compared to the centralized scheme, each microphone pair in the distributed network executes the local PF individually and exchanges local weights or posterior parameters among neighboring nodes to efficiently achieve the global estimate of the sound source position. Finally, simulation experiments demonstrate these two methods are feasible to track the speaker in distributed microphone networks with a variable number of particles.


Me colloquium

Impact Detector Noise in Medical X-ray Image, Deep trench isolation is here to stay!

Albert Theuwissen, Inge Peters

By clever use of biasing and/or clocking the gates in the DTIs : - complete pixels can be created in the third dimension (into the silicon), - in the case of high-speed burst mode sensors and high-dynamic range sensors, the in-pixel capacitances can be drastically increased, - light sensitivity can be increased, especially in the near-IR part of the spectrum, - the photodiode can be fully electrically isolated and be used in different electronic configurations. The talk will give an overview of the status of the DTI technology and the wide range of architectures in which the DTIs play a crucial role.

In the ideal world, the optimal X-ray image for radiologists is achieved when every X-ray photon is detected and displayed on the screen. In the real world, however, there are several noise contributions in the total imaging chain. This presentation will focus on the detector that converts the incoming X-rays to a digital image. It will discuss different noise contributions to the final X-ray image, how to optimize these for the different imaging tasks and some misunderstanding in the metrics when comparing detectors.

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

A load-modulation digital data link for miniature ultrasound probes

Mengxin Yu

Miniature ultrasound probes, such as intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) probes, are valuable diagnostic tools and provide image guidance during minimally-invasive interventions. As more ultrasound transducer elements are built into such probes to improve image quality and frame rate, it becomes increasingly difficult to accommodate the cables needed to connect these elements to an imaging system. Among several reported cable-count reduction approaches, in-probe digitization of the received echo signals is a promising solution, as it allows digital data-link techniques to be leveraged to minimize cable count.

This work takes a previously-developed application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for an IVUS probe as a starting point. This ASIC employs a load-modulation datalink to transmit digitized echo signals of one element via a single micro-coaxial cable at 0.6 Gb/s. This thesis extends this work to multi-bit per-symbol signalling to increase the data rate, allowing the echo signals of multiple elements to be combined into one cable. First, the measured performance of the existing ASIC is compared to simulation results, showing the need for an S-parameter based cable model to faithfully reproduce the measured performance. Based on this simulation model, load modulation with a maximum of three bits per symbol and a maximum symbol rate of 600 MHz is investigated. The trade-off between data-transmission conditions and bit-error rate is investigated and gives a general idea about how fast the data rate can be.

An experimental setup is proposed to experimentally validate the performance of multi-bit load-modulation data links. For this, a prototype chip has been designed that includes a multi-bit load-modulation circuit and interfaces with an FPGA that provides test data. The chip has been taped out in a TSMC 0.18 um HV CMOS technology. Post-layout simulation shows that the prototype is able to generate a data rate of 1.6 Gb/s when there are two bits per symbol at the symbol rate of 800 MHz. Compared to the 0.6 Gb/s of the previous design, this is a substantially higher data rate.


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

A Programmable Temperature Switch

Shardul Rautmare

Temperature threshold sensors facilitate temperature protection in microprocessors by indicating when the processor gets overheated or too cold. This thesis presents a BJT based temperature sensor with a programmable temperature threshold from -40°C to 150°C. Comparison of a CTAT voltage with a PTAT voltage gives a one-bit digital output when the temperature of the die exceeds the set threshold. This work achieves a temperature detection accuracy of ±0.75°C, leading to the lowest reported relative inaccuracy among temperature switches by using a room temperature digital trim and without the use of any dynamic techniques. The design has a current consumption of 7uA, and the estimated area of the system is less than 0.05mm2 in 0.16um CMOS technology.


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Active Semi-Supervised Learning For Diffusions on Graphs

Bishwadeep Das

In statistical learning over large data-sets, labeling all points is expensive and time-consuming. Semi-supervised classification allows learning with very few labels. Naturally, selecting a few points to label becomes crucial as the performance relies heavily on the labeled points. The motivation behind active learning is to build an optimal training set keeping the classifier in mind. Random or heuristic-driven selection does not care for the classification process or are trivially defined.

We are interested in the graph structure formed by the data, as seen in citation, social and biological networks. Accordingly, active semi-supervised learning on graphs labels nodes to enhance the performance of classification.

We propose a new methodology to perform active learning for diffusion-based semi-supervised classifiers. In particular, we focus on a classifier which diffuses probability distributions over the graph through random walks. We postulate the active learning problem as i) a linear inverse problem with a sparse starting distribution over the nodes; ii) a model output selection problem. For the former, we use sparsity-regularized inverse problems to select nodes. For the latter, we use tools from Compressed Sensing and Sparse Sensing to select the nodes with the relevant model output. We show that we can select all the relevant nodes in a single shot fashion, hence avoiding reliance on multiple training phases.

Results on simulated as well as real data-sets show the proposed methods outperform random labeling, thereby proving to be relevant for active semi-supervised learning on graphs.

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MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Magnetic Resonance Imaging Motion Correction in k-Space

Rajesh Rajwade

Magnetic Resonance Imaging is a widely used technique to obtain images of the interior of the human body for diagnosis and treatment. MRI machines capture the raw signal in spatial frequency domain i.e. k-space and the image is obtained via Fourier transform.

The Cartesian acquisition is one of the most commonly used acquisition patterns in MRI and is most susceptible to the patient's motion. Due to long scanning times, the possibility of the patient's movement is higher which introduces bulk motion artifacts reducing the quality of the image. Motion artifacts can affect the diagnosis and the necessity of re-scanning can cause significant financial costs as well as delays in diagnostics. 

Current methods for correcting motion artifacts work in image domain which need completely sampled k-space for reconstruction and hence are not useful for real-time artifacts correction.

In this thesis, machine learning methods that can detect, estimate and correct motion artifacts in k-space were investigated making it possible to correct artifacts in real-time without the necessity of reconstruction.  For each of these methods, we analyze the performance and discuss the merits and demerits.

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MSc CE Thesis Presentation

Object Detecting Architecture using Spiking Neural Networks

Joppe Lauriks

Spiking Neural Networks have opened new doors in the world of Neural Networks. This work implements and shows a viable architecture to detect and classify blob-like input data. An architecture consisting of three parts a region proposal network, weight calculations, and the classifier is discussed and implemented.

The region proposal network is build based on a blob detecting Laplacian of Gaussian function. The architecture is tested and verified on the Multi MNIST dataset that is generated based on the MNIST dataset that consists of handwritten digits. Results show that, on average, the region proposal network can locate the blobs in the input with an accuracy of within a single pixel distance from the ground truth. Two different ways of decoding the rate data coming from the region proposal network where discussed the Peak based decoder could propose regions even if these regions are situated closely together. A Center of Mass decoder is slightly more accurate than the Peak based decoder but at a higher computational cost and performance degradation when the regions are close together.

The region proposal network at worst only accounts for 3.19% of inaccuracy. The implementation shows that the architecture is a viable way of detecting and classifying multiple objects within the input. The data shows that the region proposal network itself is a feasible way of detecting blob-like objects within its input.


PhD Thesis Defence

Ultra-thin MEMS tynodes for electron multiplication

Violeta Prodanovic

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PhD Thesis Defence

Capacitively-Coupled Bridge Readout Circuits

Hui Jiang

This Ph.D. dissertation describes the design and realization of energy efficient readout integrated circuits (ROICs), that have an input referred noise density < 5 nV/√Hz and a linearity of < 30 ppm, as required by Wheatstone bridge sensors used in precision mechatronic systems. Novel techniques were developed, at both the system-level and circuit-level, to improve the ROIC’s energy-efficiency, while preserving its stability and precision. Two prototypes are presented, each with best-in-class energy efficiency, to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed techniques.

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PhD Thesis Defence

High-Speed Interfaces for Capacitive Displacement Sensor

Sha Xia

This thesis describes the theory, design, and implementation of high-speed capacitive displacement sensor interface circuits. The intended application is to readout the capacitive displacement sensor used in a servo loop, where the measurement time needs to be low to ensure loop stability. The work employs baseline-capacitance cancellation technique to reach a high energy-efficiency and high conversion speed.


Operational Amplifiers: Theory & Design

The course is addressing systematic analysis and design as well as hands-on simulation of operational amplifiers. It is shown that the topology of all operational amplifiers can be divided in nine main overall configurations. High-frequency compensation techniques are analyzed for all nine configurations. Special focus is on low-power low-voltage architectures with rail-to-rail output and/or input ranges. The design of fully differential operational amplifiers is developed. New emphasis is on low-offset chopper amplifiers, and capacitive coupled chopper amplifiers for high input-voltage current-sense applications. During hands-on simulation hours several input, output and overall designs will be covered.

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

A Dynamic Zoom ADC for Audio Applications

Efraïm Eland

Audio ADCs used in high-fidelity portable audio and IoT are not only required to have high linearity and dynamic range (DR) but are also expected to be very energy efficient and occupy minimum silicon area. Zoom-ADCs combine a coarse asynchronous SAR with a fine Delta-Sigma Modulator (∆ΣM) to satisfy these requirements. Existing zoom ADC architectures are limited in terms of SQNR due to the need for the fine ADC to have some over-ranging. That, together with the leakage of the SAR ADC’s quantization noise, “fuzz,” into the audio band, puts a lower limit on the sampling frequency.
This thesis describes the design of a zoom-ADC for an audio bandwidth of 20kHz. Using a 4-level quantizer, instead of a conventional 1b quantizer, mitigates the adverse effects of over-ranging, making it possible to keep a very low sampling frequency. On top of that, it makes use of a simple, low power analog “fuzz” cancellation scheme to prevent the SAR quantization noise from leaking into the audio band.
The chip has been prototyped in a standard 160nm CMOS technology and consumes 339μW with 107.7dB DR and 105dB SNDR. Compared to state-of-the-art ADCs with a similar bandwidth, this work achieves a 2x lower OSR (fs = 2.5MHz), significantly improving the energy efficiency and achieving a Schreier FoM of 185.4dB.


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Rail-to-rail input and output amplifier for ADC front-end applications.

Shubham Khandelwal

This work presents a unity-gain stable operational amplifier for an ADC front-end application. The op-amp focuses on delivering high linearity with low noise and offset while driving a switched capacitor load. To accomplish this the op-amp employs Current Spillover, Chopping and Gain-Boosting techniques. The op-amp achieves THD of -108 dB at 10kHz, offset of 2.7 µV and input noise density of 19.3 nV/√Hz while consuming 504 µW; resulting in an NEF of 12.28. The op-amp is fabricated in 0.16 µm CMOS technology and occupies 0.1 mm2 area.


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Estimating the room impulse response

Gabriele Zacca

The response of a sound system in a room primarily varies with the room itself, the position of the loudspeakers and the listening position. The room boundaries cause reflections of the sound that can lead to undesired effects such as echoes, resonances or reverberation. Therefore the location of these large reflecting surfaces is important information for sound field estimation in a room.

This work focuses on exploiting the inherent information present in echoes measured by microphones, to infer the location of nearby reflecting surfaces. A built-in microphone array is used that is co-located with the loudspeaker. The loudspeaker probes the room by emitting a known signal. A signal model is proposed which provides a relationship between reflector locations and measured microphone signals.

The locations of reflections are estimated by fitting a sparse set of modeled reflections with measurements. We present two novelties with respect to prior art. First, the method is end-to-end where from raw microphone measurements it outputs an estimate of the location of reflectors. Where specifically for the compact uniform circular microphone array the symmetry is exploited to create an algorithm that is of reduced computational complexity. Secondly, the model is extended to include a loudspeaker model that is aware of the inherent directivity pattern of the loudspeaker.

The performance of the proposed localization method is compared in simulation to the existing state-of-the-art localization methods. Real world measurements are also used to validate the proposed loudspeaker model.


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Atrial Fibrillation: Estimation of the local activation time in high-resolution mapping data

Bart Kölling

A common cardiac arrhythmia is atrial fibrillation, which is becoming more widespread worldwide. Currently there is some understanding about the mechanisms behind atrial fibrillation, however more insight into the conduction of the atrial tissue is desired.

Therefore, invasive mapping studies have been performed where an array of electrodes is used to record the electrical activity on the heart’s surface during open-chest surgery. The moment in time when the tissue under an electrode depolarizes, called the local activation time can be used to reconstruct the propagation pattern of the signal that triggers the tissue to contract.

In this thesis, the application of the cross-correlation for estimation of the local activation time of the atria is investigated. Specifically, the benefits of not only cross-correlating electrode pairs that are close, but also pairs that are far away are evaluated. A framework is constructed, based on a graph, that defines these higher order neighbouring pairs of electrodes.

This is compared to the golden standard of using the steepest deflection of an electrogram, as well as to other methods using the cross-correlation. Experiments are done on simulated electrograms where the true activation times are available, as well as on natural data recorded from patients. Finally some future research is proposed to investigate for which morphologies the proposed cross-correlation based methods may be most effective.

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Colloquium

The quantum supremacy experiment

Dr. Rami Barends
Google

Dr. Rami Barends @ Google (Credit: Austin Fowler)

Quantum supremacy, as originally defined by John Preskill, is "the day when well-controlled quantum systems can perform tasks surpassing what can be done in the classical world". I will discuss the challenges posed in performing a well-defined computational task on a programmable superconducting quantum processor, where the cost of doing the same task on a classical computer would be prohibitively higher.


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Electrothermal Filters for No-Trim Temperature Sensors

Daguang Liu

This thesis describes the design and characterization of thermistor-based electrothermal filters (ETFs) intended for use in high-accuracy CMOS temperature sensors. ETFs have been previously realized by placing an on-chip heater in close proximity to an on-chip thermopile, which then picks up the thermally-delayed signals generated by the heater. This delay is a well-defined function of absolute temperature and can be used as the basis for highly accurate temperature sensors. In this work, the thermopiles are replaced by a thermistor, resulting in greater sensitivity and higher resolution. Measurements show that the new ETFs can achieve 3.6mK resolution in a conversion time of 1s and 0.2°C(3 σ) untrimmed inaccuracy from 30 °C to 60°C.


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Mauricio Rosencwaig


Micro electronics colloquium

“New Results on Electromigration Modeling – A Departure from Blech’s Theory”/“Progress of Prognostics and Health Management for autonomous driving “

Xuejun Fan, Alexandru Prisacaru

Xuejun Fan is a Regents’ Professor of Texas State University System, and a Mary Ann and Lawrence E. Faust Endowed Professor at Lamar University, Beaumont, Texas. He is currently on his sabbatical leave and is a visiting professor with in the Laboratory of Electronic Components, Technology and Materials of the Delft University of Technology. Dr. Fan is an IEEE Fellow, and an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer. He serves as a member-at-large of the IEEE Electronic Packaging Society (EPS) Board of Governors. Dr. Fan gained significant experience in the microelectronics industry between 1997 and 2007, at IME, Philips and Intel. His current areas of expertise include characterization, modeling and reliability of materials, components, and systems in micro- and opto-electronics manufacturing and packaging. Dr. Fan received the Outstanding Sustained Technical Contribution Award in 2017, and Exceptional Technical Achievement Award in 2011, from the IEEE Electronic Packaging Society. In his early academia career in China, Dr. Fan was the recipient of a Young Faculty Award from the Fok Ying-Tung Education Foundation in 1994, and the nominee for the title of “Ten Outstanding Youth of China” in 1991. He was one of the youngest full professors in China at the age of 27 at Taiyuan University of Technology in 1991.

Abstract: “New Results on Electromigration Modeling – A Departure from Blech’s Theory” We have recently developed a multi-physics-based general coupling theory for electromigration (J. Appl. Phys. 125, 105101, 2019). The results show the mechanical stress is significantly less than the existing literature solutions. In addition, the vacancy concentration gradient plays an important role in formulating electromigration problems. We revisited Blech’s theory and a new threshold criterion for electromigration failure has been developed. This is a major departure from the Blech’s theory, and the preliminary results show the predicted results are consistent with the Blech’s original test data.

Alexandru Prisacaru is currently working in Bosch, Automotive Electronics in Reutlingen. He is also a parttime PhD candidate in cooperation with ECTM. His research activities focus on developing and implementing Prognostics and Health Management methodologies of safety relevant electronics for future automated driving applications. Amongst these, his technical expertise include computational structural mechanics, material modeling, statistical pattern recognition, IoT and machine learning methods. He holds a Master degree in Computational Engineering from Ruhr University of Bochum, Germany and a Master degree in Structural Engineering from Technical University "Gheorghe Asachi" from Iasi, Romania.’

Abstract: “Progress of Prognostics and Health Management for autonomous driving “ Recent trends in automotive electronics such as, automated driving, electromobility, connectivity, personalization and artificial intelligence will increase the number and complexity of electronics used in safety relevant applications. This will lead into a new type of electronics reliability requirements. A more dynamic, on demand way of assuring the functional safety and system availability is expected. The research output is providing the hardware, methodology, strategies and the engineering guidelines for the thermo-mechanical stress prognostic based sensor data in order to highlight the necessary information and knowledge for fault detection and prediction.


Master thesis defence

“Robust Feature Extraction Algorithm for analysis of Radar Targets using Multi-Object Tracking on Range Doppler Space”

Nagesh, Saravanan

In this thesis, we propose, a Robust data extraction algorithm capable of extracting reliable target features of multiple moving targets of different classes over all channels of a S Band Doppler Polarimetric Radar – PARSAX. The proposed algorithm is capable of generating a time series data by tracking, clusters of detections - representing extended targets using a multi target tracker modified to track on sequential frames of Range Doppler Maps .The targets considered in this study are Automobiles of different classes (4 wheel drive and above). A performance analysis of the algorithm, for data extraction possibility with respect to target density has been presented. In addition the possibility to use the extracted features for Radar Classification has been investigated.


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

A PLL-based eddy current displacement sensor for button applications

Matheus Ferreira Pimenta

This thesis presents an eddy current sensor (ECS) for button readout applications. The interface embeds the coil sensor in a digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) and uses a highly digital phase locked loop (PLL) to convert the displacement information into a digital output.
The sensor achieves more than 12bit effective resolution, which translates into an equivalent displacement resolution in excess of 10nm RMS. The interface consumes less than 235µA from a 1.8V supply, resulting in a very power efficient architecture.


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Indoor localization using narrowband radios and switched antennas in indoor environment

Ye Cui

In this thesis, we explore the potential of indoor localization using Bluetooth narrowband radios. To start with, a data model according to the property of the conducted measurement data is developed. The conducted measurement data is radio channel measure- ments based on channel sounding technique. Then the data model is developed as a channel impulse response model and multipath signals are indicated by different time delays.

Delays are estimated after subspace estimation of the data covariance matrix. Smoothing techniques are employed to improve the covariance matrix estimate. To detect the rank of the subspace, two techniques are investigated, namely the MDL algorithm and the threshold method. New estimates for the thresholds are derived, valid for Hankel-structured data matrices. Experiments are conducted to investigate the performance and reliability of those two techniques, under different parameter values.

Next, we consider subspace-based super-resolution algorithm, in particular the MUSIC algorithm. The functionality of the MUSIC algorithm on narrowband radios measurements is tested and evaluated firstly by simulation experiments, which demonstrate the practicability of applying MUSIC algorithm on narrowband radios measurements. Then experiments are extended to the measurement data that conducted from real indoor environments, for the purpose of indoor localization realization using narrowband radios.


MS3 seminar

Ultra Wide Band Surveillance Radar

Dr. Mark E. Davis, IEEE Fellow, IEEE Distinguished Lecturer
IEEE

Ultra Wide Band Surveillance Radar is an emerging technology for detecting and characterizing targets and cultural features for military and geosciences applications. It is essential to have fine range and cross-range resolution to characterize objects near and under severe clutter. This lecture will provide an in-depth look into:

  • The early history of battlefield surveillance radar
  • UWB phased array antenna
  • UWB Synthetic aperture radar (SAR)
  • UWB ground moving target indication
  • New research in multi-node ultra wind band radar

Lecturer Biography: Dr Mark E Davis has over 50 years’ experience in Radar technology and systems development. He has held senior management positions in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Air Force Research Laboratory, and General Electric Aerospace. At DARPA, he was the program manager on both the foliage penetration (FOPEN) radar advanced development program and the GeoSAR foliage penetration mapping radar.

His education includes a PhD in Physics from The Ohio State University, and Bachelor and Master’s Degrees in Electrical Engineering from Syracuse University. He is a Life Fellow of both the IEEE and Military Sensing Symposia, and a member of IEEE Aerospace Electronics Systems Society Board of Governors, VP Conferences, and past-Chair the Radar Systems Panel. He is the 2011 recipient of the AESS Warren D White Award for Excellence in Radar Engineering, and the 2018 IEEE Dennis J. Pickard Medal for Radar Technologies and Applications.


Master thesis Defence

STEREOID data processor: Design and Performance analysis

Prithvi Laguduvan Thyagarajan

Abstract: Stereo Thermo-Optically Enhanced Radar for Earth, Ocean, Ice, and land Dynamics (STEREOID) is one of the candidates of the ESA (European Space Agency) , Earth Explorer 10 missions. The novel constellation system will consist of the active Sentinel-1 satellites and two passive spacecrafts, which can provide flexible baseline configurations. The main objective of the mission liesin monitoring the variation of spatially diverse ice sheets, the eruptions of earthquakes, the volcano activities, and the landslides, playing therefore an extremely important role in understanding the global climate dynamics and the geophysical processes involved. The purpose of the thesis is to develop an end-to-end simulator incorporating the STEREOID bistatic configuration operating in TOPS ( Terrain Observation by Progressive Scans) mode and evaluate its performance. To achieve this goal, the key component of the simulator, the SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) processing kernel was first implemented. The kernel employs an imaging algorithm which assists in image formation and focusing for different bistatic geometries generated by relevant working modes of the STEREOID mission. This is further extended to bistatic TOPS acquisition mode with azimuth beamforming under dual antenna receiver configuration of STEREOID. The performance of STEREOID mission is evaluated under different bistatic geometries and the dual beamforming strategy is evaluated for parameters such as resolution, pointing errors and gain imbalances. This is evaluated to analyse and understand the importance of calibration errors introduced into the system.


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Radio astronomy image formation using Bayesian learning techniques

Yajie Tang

Radio astronomy image formation can be treated as a linear inverse problem. However, due to physical limitations, this inverse problem is ill-posed. To overcome the ill-posedness, side information should be involved. Based on the sparsity assumption of the sky image, we consider L1-regularization. We formulate the image formation problem as a L1-regularized weighted least square (WLS) problem and associate each variable with one regularization parameter. We use Bayesian learning to learn the regularization parameters from data by maximizing the posterior density. With the iterative update of the regularization parameters, the solution is updated until convergence of the regularization parameters. We involve a stopping rule based on the noise level to improve the computational eachciency and control the sparsity of the solution. We compare the performance of this Bayesian learning method with other existing imaging methods by simulations. Finally, we propose some future research directions in improving the performance of this Bayesian learning method.


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Design and Fabrication of Dielectric Elastomer Actuators for Organ-on-Chip Platforms

Chuqian Zhang


ME colloquium + drinks

" RF for Bio, from ideas to applications", " Design and applications of interferometer-based Vector Network Analyzers"

Marco Spirito, Faisal Mubarak

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

MEMS ultrasound for active implantable devices

Marta Saccher


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

A Complete Overview on Realizing Transfer-free Graphene-based Differential Pressure Sensor

Raghutham Ramesha


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

A Generative Neural Network Model for Speech Enhancement

Husain Kapadia

Listening in noise is a challenging problem that affects the hearing capability of not only normal hearing but especially hearing impaired people. Since the last four decades, enhancing the quality and intelligibility of noise corrupted speech by reducing the effect of noise has been addressed using statistical signal processing techniques as well as neural networks. However, the fundamental idea behind implementing these methods is the same, i.e., to achieve the best possible estimate of a single target speech waveform. This thesis explores a different route using generative modeling with deep neural networks where speech is artificially generated by conditioning the model on previously predicted samples and features extracted from noisy speech. The proposed system consists of the U-Net model for enhancing the noisy features and the WaveRNN synthesizer (originally proposed for text-to-speech synthesis) re-designed for synthesizing clean sounding speech from noisy features. Subjective results indicate that speech generated by the proposed system is preferred over listening to noisy speech, however, the improvement in intelligibility is limited. 

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

An ASIC with Bipolar High-Voltage Transmit Switching for a Single-Cable Intra-Vascular Ultrasound Probe

Rishabh Nagarkar

An ASIC is presented for intra-vascular ultrasound imaging. Despite being connected via a single coaxial cable, it is able to pass arbitrary high-voltage bipolar signals to the transducers for acoustic imaging. The thesis talks about the need to reduce the cable count to one and reviews the existing work in literature. It builds upon an existing single-cable design and focuses on the transmit part to make it compatible with a large number of ultrasound imaging modes by allowing it to pass high-frequency signals up to 20MHz and bipolar signal voltages up to +/-25V. The chip is phantom powered and thus its power supply and signals are transmitted on the same cable. The transmit switch designed for this ASIC is powered by and controlled by an on-chip low-voltage supply and circuitry. The prototype ASIC has been designed in TSMC 180nm HV BCD Gen2 technology. This single-cable design has 16 elements for transmit and 64 elements in the receive mode and has been evaluated using simulations.


Master thesis defence

Deep Learning-based identification of human gait by radar micro-Doppler measurements

Vasileios Papanastasiuo

The radar micro-Doppler (m-D) signature of human gait has already been used successfully for a few classification tasks of human gait, for instance walking versus running and determining the number of humans under observation. How ever, the more challenging problem of personnel identification has not been solved yet. The aim of this study is to prove that the human walking gait differs between individuals and that it can be used for personnel identification using CW X-band radar measurements. This study investigates the effect of human walking gait characteristics such as speed and stride as well as the gender on leading to distinctive m-D signatures. Both simulated data and measurements of 22 subjects walking from and towards the radar were used. Unsupervised learning based on Adversarial Autoencoders was used to map the m-D signatures to a latent space. TDistributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding and Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection were then used for clustering and visualization. This study shows that even very slight changes in the walking gait characteristics mentioned above lead to distinctive m-D signatures mapped into closely located points in the latent space. A VGG-16 convolutional neural network was used to identify the walking subjects based on their measured m-D signature. Accuracy of above 93.5% was achieved, proving that CW X-band radar m-D signature of human walking gait can be used for accurate personnel identification which is reliable for 22 participants.


Master thesis defence

A X-Band Patch Antenna Array with Low Cross-pol for Weather Radar Applications

Vizcarro, Marc

Meaningful dual-polarized radar estimations suitable for radar meteorology require a cross-polarization discrimination (XPD) and isolation (XPI) in excess of 30 dB to reach a differential reflectivity accuracy of 0.1 dB. A planar dual-polarized patch antenna array featuring low cross-polarization is presented meeting this requirement via a simple implementation of imaged feeding and candidates as a cost-effective active electronically steerable array (AESA) for short-range X-band weather radars. In this M.Sc. Thesis a 4x4 sub-array tile has been conceived, designed, manufactured and validated. Using a feed rotation technique and carefully designing a feeding network, high isolation and low cross-polarization suppression are achieved up to scanning in elevation. Through this initial prototype, a low-cost AESA concept has been demonstrated, a crucial step that will enable further advancements leading to the final array design for Weather Radar applications at Fraunhofer FHR.


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

A low-noise amplifier for ultrasound imaging with continuous time-gain compensation

Qiyou Jiang

This work presents a low-noise amplifier (LNA) for ultrasound imaging with built-in continuous time-gain compensation (TGC), which compensates for the time-dependent attenuation of the received echo signal and thus significantly reduces its dynamic range (DR).

The proposed design combines the LNA and TGC functions in a single variable-gain current-to-current amplifier. Compared to conventional ultrasound front-ends, which implement the TGC function after an LNA that needs to handle the full DR of the echo signal, this approach can highly reduce the power consumption and the size. Compared to earlier programmable gain LNAs with discrete gain steps, the continuous gain control avoids switching transients that may lead to imaging artefacts.

The TGC function is realized by a novel feedback network consisting of a double differential pair that feeds a fraction of the output current back to the input. This fraction can be changed continuously using a control voltage that is applied to the gates of the differential pairs, to realize a gain range from -20 dB to +20 dB. To achieve an approximately constant closed-loop bandwidth in the presence of the changing feedback factor, a loop amplifier has been implemented whose gain is changed along with the feedback factor by dynamically changing its bias currents. This loop amplifier employs a current-reuse architecture to achieve high power-efficiency. In addition, a variable bias current source has been designed to appropriately bias the TGC feedback network. By employing a similar double differential pair topology as in the feedback network, this current source provides the required low noise at the highest gain setting and high current at the lowest gain setting within the available headroom.

The LNA with built-in TGC function has been realized in 180nm CMOS technology. It has been optimized to interface with a 7.5 MHz capacitive micro-machined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT). Simulation results show that it achieves a 3dB bandwidth higher than 40 MHz across the full gain range. At the highest gain setting, its input current noise is 0.96 pA/rt-Hz at 7.5 MHz. This leads to an input dynamic range of 93 dB, which is compressed into an output dynamic range of 53 dB by means of the 40 dB variable gain. The amplifier consumes 10.8 mW from a 1.8V supply, and occupies an estimated 320 x 320 um2 die area.


Master thesis defence

Super-resolution Algorithm for Target Localization using Multiple FMCW Automotive Radars

Jiadi Zhang


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Spoofing detection in a loosely coupled GNSS and INS system via Synthetic Arrays

Kostadin Biserkov

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Master thesis defence

Detection of vital signs of auto driver and passengers using (distributed) radars inside auto

Guigeng Su


Master thesis defence

Multiple-input Multiple-output Grating Lobe Selection Scheme for Radar Applications

Nick Cancrinus


Master thesis defence

Multi-Channel Waveform Agile Radar: Experimental performance evaluation of Advanced Space-Time Adaptive Processing (ASTAP) radar system

Ahmed, Sheeraz

Recent advancements in Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) radar techniques has created a paradigm shift in the overall radar technology to increase degrees of freedom in multi-function radar capabilities. The underlying principle of MIMO transmissions is to use colored transmission by simultaneously radiating specific waveforms from each antenna elements/sub-arrays in different directions to achieve ‘space-time coding’. This can be explained as colored spatial distribution (multiple coded beams to probe the radar environment) instead of the white spatial distribution (single wide beam), such that the transmitted signals are now function of time as well as space. Recently, a novel multi-channel waveform agile demonstrator namely ASTAP (Advanced Space-Time Adaptive Processing) radar system has been designed and developed in Microwave Sensing, Signals and Systems (MS3) group, capable of generating and transmitting independent arbitrary waveforms specific for each transmit channel simultaneously . It consists of eight transmit channels with a single receive channeland hence can also be called as co-located Multiple-Input Single Output (MISO) radar. However, the transmission of different coded waveforms with a radar system such as ASTAP demonstrator requires that the desired measurements exclude the unwanted system response as much as possible. This includes waveform amplitude distortion, RF channels cross-talk and phase-misalignment, microwave components gain/phase variations and antenna mutual coupling. These effects can disturb the transmission signal waveforms and the orthogonality between them severely. For system performance analysis and beamforming applications, Over-the-Air (OTA) measurements have been done to eliminate the ASTAP system response significantly and obtain the near-ideal waveform responses. Furthermore, it is investigated that to what extent it is possible to separate signals corresponding to each transmit channel from the composite received signal in a single receive channel. This study is extended further to generate and transmit two orthogonal beams occupying the same frequency band simultaneously and the corresponding transmit radiation patterns are recovered from the composite received signal matched filtering. Finally, conclusions along with future aspects and recommendations have been discussed.


Master thesis defence

Model-based Interference Mitigation for FMCW Radar System

Min DIng


MSc TC Thesis Presentation

Erkut Yiğit


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

High density integrated capacitors for smart catheters and implants

Jeroen Naaborg


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Noninvasive Hemodynamic Monitoring: Left Ventricular Pressure-Volume Loop Reconstruction

Aoibhinn Larkin Reddington


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Calibration of single element 3D ultrasound with a aberration mask

Bram Visser

Previous work has demonstrated the possibility of high-resolution 3D ultrasound imaging through the use of a single element and an aberration mask. This thesis will expand on the previous work by examining the proposed method for errors in the creation of the model.

The analysis is performed by examining the various aspects of the measurements setup and underlying theoretical model, after which measurements are performed to determine their contribution and correctness with regard to the model. Results demonstrated a systematic error of a non-linear frequency scaling and semi-linear phase shift. The origin of the error lies in the unwanted addition of transfer functions of some of the components. A Tikhonov regularized least squares method is proposed to estimate this transfer function and supply compensation based on all the measurements.

The results of the application of this method on the uncalibrated model are demonstrated through 1D imaging experiments. The result of which shows a significant improvement over the previous uncalibrated results. After which the possibility of calibration due to a singular measurement is explored and an adaptation of the Tikhonov regularized least squares method is proposed for a close approximation of the previously found transfer function. Further to obtain an indication of possible remaining hurdles and successes with this method, extensive simulations are performed to examine the individual impact of various sources of noise and interference.

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PhD Thesis Defence

Nikolas Gaio

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PhD Thesis Defence

William Quiros Solano

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PRORISC and SAFE 2019

PRORISC and SAFE 2019

PRORISC is an annual conference on Integrated Circuit (IC) design and SAFE is an annual conference on Microsystems, Materials, Technology and RF-devices. Both conferences are organized together within the three technical Dutch universities Twente, Delft and Eindhoven. The conference is organized by PhD students and is intended for PhD candidates to expand their network and share their research ideas, which provides a unique opportunity for future collaborations. Each year, one of the technical universities will be responsible for the organization of the two conferences. In 2019 the PRORISC will be held at at the campus of Delft University of Technology.

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Micro electronics colloquium

A smart look into yur hart; How chips enable 3D imaging from the tip pf a catheder & Bringing a medical device to market; lessons learned and future perspectives

Michiel Pertijs (TU Delft), Ide Swager (Momo medical

Abstract Michiel Pertijs

Catheter-based ultrasound probes are an important tool to diagnose cardiac conditions and to guide minimally-invasive interventions. The probes commonly used in the clinic today produce 2D cross-sectional images only. There would be great benefit in having fast 3D imaging capability, but this is technically extremely challenging, due to the thousands of transducer elements that need to be integrated in the mm-size catheter, and due to the gigabytes of raw data that they produce. This talk will focus on how in-probe integrated circuits can address these challenges and enable the next generation of smart ultrasound probes.

Abstract Momo Medical

Ide is the co-founder of Momo Medical, a medical start-up established at the end of 2016. This summer the company will bring their first product named the Momo BedSense to the market. From a concept, to a pilot study, to a certified product; it’s been a journey. In this months colloquium, Ide will tell you about this journey from both an engineers perspective as well as an entrepreneurs perspective.


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Gradient Coil Design and Construction for a Halbach Based MRI System

Bart de Vos

MRI as a medical diagnostics tool is still unavailable to the majority of the developing world. Therefore the design and development of new low-cost hardware are essential. The design of gradient coils corresponding to this hardware is necessary for conventional imaging and reconstruction methods to be used.

The target field method, which was originally developed to deal with longitudinal main magnetic fields, is applied to a transverse field, as produced by a Halbach permanent magnet array. Using this method current densities for gradient fields in the three spatial directions are derived. Subsequently, using stream functions, wire patterns for the three gradient coils are determined. These are verified using a commercial magneto-static solver. Furthermore, one of the gradients is constructed to validate the performance of the method.

The measured fields are in good agreement with the simulations and their prescribed target fields. This confirms that the proposed method provides a reliable way to design and manufacture gradient coils for various requirements. Based on the experimental review of the constructed coil three optimized gradients are proposed for the low field MRI system developed at the LUMC in cooperation with the TU Delft. The method can also be readily generalized to other geometries and requirements due to the robust fundamental physical basis and accuracy with respect to computer simulations.


PhD Thesis Defence

Investigation of pressure assisted nanosilver sintering process for application in power electronics

Hao Zhang

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Microelectronics Colloquium

Quantum Computer on a Chip

Bogdan Staszewski
University College Dublin

Quantum computing is a new paradigm that exploits fundamental principles of quantum mechanics, such as superposition and entanglement, to tackle problems in mathematics, chemistry and material science that are well beyond the reach of supercomputers. Despite the intensive worldwide race to build a useful quantum computer, it is projected to take decades before reaching the state of useful quantum supremacy. The main challenge is that qubits operate at the atomic level, thus are extremely fragile, and difficult to control and read out. The current state-of-art implements a few dozen magnetic-spin based qubits in a highly specialized technology and cools them down to a few tens of millikelvin. The high cost of cryogenic cooling prevents its widespread use. A companion classical electronic controller, needed to control and read out the qubits, is mostly realized with room-temperature laboratory instrumentation. This makes it bulky and nearly impossible to scale up to the thousands or millions of qubits needed for practical quantum algorithms.

As part of our startup company, we propose a new quantum computer paradigm that exploits the wonderful scaling achievements of mainstream integrated circuits (IC) technology which underpins personal computers and mobile phones. Just like with a small IC chip, where a single nanometer-sized CMOS transistor can be reliably replicated millions of times to build a digital processor, we propose a new structure of a qubit realized as a CMOS-compatible charge-based quantum dot that can be reliably replicated thousands of times to construct a quantum processor. Combined with an on-chip CMOS controller, it will realize a useful quantum computer which can operate at a much higher temperature of 4 kelvin.

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Migrating Target Detection in Wideband Radars

Nikita Petrov

Modern surveillance radars are designed to detect moving targets of interest in an adverse environment, which can encompass strong unwanted reflections from ground or sea surface, clouds, precipitation, etc. Detection of weak and small moving targets in environmental clutter remains, however, a challenging task for the existing radar systems.  

One of the main directions for modern radar performance improvement is the application of wideband high-resolution waveforms, which provide detailed range information of objects at the observed scene. Together with such inherent advantages of wideband waveforms as multi-path separation, clutter reduction and improved target classification, additional benefits can be obtained by exploiting target range migration (range walk), essential for fast moving targets in the high-resolution mode.

This thesis aims at the development of novel signal processing techniques for migrating target detection in wideband radars. It involves both resolving range-velocity ambiguities and improvement in target discrimination from ground clutter by accounting for target range migration.

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MS3 seminar

Diversity and nonlinear processing: trends for future radar systems

Prof. Dr. Stéphanie Bidon
Department of Electronics, Optronics and Signal at ISAE-SUPAERO, Université de Toulouse, France

Radar is an exciting field where systems are constantly evolving thanks to technical advances in several domains including RF, electronics and signal processing. Focusing on the latter, this talk illustrates two important trends that are contributing to the development of future radar systems, namely diversity and nonlinear techniques. On the one hand, diversity brings redundant information about the radar scene thereby enabling target discrimination in a given space. On the other hand, nonlinear techniques produce outputs that are not linearly related to the input signals thereby enabling relevant processing in complex scenarios. Benefits of combining both diversity and nonlinear algorithms will be presented in two radar applications: 1) to estimate range migrating targets in blind velocities with a wideband waveform 2) to estimate targets hidden in the pedestal inherent to a multicarrier waveform.

Short bio

Stéphanie Bidon received the engineer degree in aeronautics and the master degree in signal processing from ENSICA, Toulouse, in 2004 and 2005 respectively. She obtained the Ph.D. degree and the Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches in signal processing from INP, Toulouse, in 2008 and 2015 respectively.

She is currently with the Department of Electronics, Optronics and Signal at ISAE-SUPAERO, Université de Toulouse, France, as a professor.

Her research interests include digital signal processing particularly with application to radar systems (STAP, wideband radar detection, RadCom) and GNSS (robust phase tracking).


MS3 seminar

Misspecification, Robustness and Cognition in Radar Signal Processing: Some Results

Prof. Dr. Maria Sabrina Greco
Dept. of Information Engineering of the University of Pisa

After a brief survey of the activities of the Radar Signal Processing Group of the Dept. of Information Engineering, University of Pisa, the talk will focus on some of the recent and on-going research topics in which Prof. Greco is involved.

Any scientific experiment which aims to gain some knowledge about a real-word phenomenon, in radar systems as in other applications, starts with the data collection. In statistical signal processing, all the available knowledge about a physical phenomenon of interest is summarized in the probability density function (pdf) of the collected observations. In practice, the pdf or/and its characteristic parameters are partly or fully unknown, then any inference procedure starts with its estimation. The easy case is when the hypothesized statistical model and the true one are the same, so they are matched. However, a certain amount of mismatch is often inevitable in practice. The reasons for a model misspecification can be various: it may be due to an imperfect knowledge of the true data model or to the need to fulfill some operative constraints on the estimation algorithm (processing time, simple hardware implementation, and so on).

The first part of the talk aims at providing a short overview on the misspecified estimation framework with a particular focus on the Misspecified Cramér-Rao bound (MCRB). Then a possible approach to minimize the misspecification risk is presented. Specifically, a more general semiparametric characterization of the statistical behavior of the collected data is addressed and some application to the radar scenario is shown.

The talk will then continue with a short introduction to the concept of cognition applied to passive and active radars highlighting the limits and the path forward and will describe some new results regarding the application of some machine learning techniques to “cognitive” MIMO radar.

Short Bio

Maria Sabrina Greco graduated in Electronic Engineering in 1993 and received the Ph.D. degree in Telecommunication Engineering in 1998, from University of Pisa, Italy. From December 1997 to May 1998 she joined the Georgia Tech Research Institute, Atlanta, USA as a visiting research scholar where she carried on research activity in the field of radar detection in non-Gaussian background.

In 1993 she joined the Dept. of Information Engineering of the University of Pisa, where she is Full Professor since 2017. She’s IEEE fellow since Jan. 2011 and she was co-recipient of the 2001 and 2012 IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society’s Barry Carlton Awards for Best Paper and recipient of the 2008 Fred Nathanson Young Engineer of the Year award for contributions to signal processing, estimation, and detection theory. In May-June 2015 and in January-February 2018 she visited as invited Professor the Université Paris-Sud, CentraleSupélec, Paris, France.

She has been general-chair, technical program chair and organizing committee member of many international conferences over the last 10 years. She has been guest editor of the special issue on “Machine Learning for Cognition in Radio Communications and Radar” of the IEEE Journal on Special Topics of Signal Processing, lead guest editor of the special issue on "Advanced Signal Processing for Radar Applications" of the IEEE Journal on Special Topics of Signal Processing, December 2015, guest co-editor of the special issue of the Journal of the IEEE Signal Processing Society on Special Topics in Signal Processing on "Adaptive Waveform Design for Agile Sensing and Communication," published in June 2007 and lead guest editor of the special issue of International Journal of Navigation and Observation on” Modelling and Processing of Radar Signals for Earth Observation published in August 2008. She’s Associate Editor of IET Proceedings – Sonar, Radar and Navigation, member of the Editorial Board of the Springer Journal of Advances in Signal Processing (JASP), and Senior area chair of the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing. She’s member of the IEEE AESS Board of Governors and has been member of the IEEE SPS BoG (2015-17) and Chair of the IEEE AESS Radar Panel (2015-16). She has been as well SPS Distinguished Lecturer for the years 2014-2015, and now she's AESS Distinguished Lecturer for the years 2015-2019, and AESS VP Publications.

Her general interests are in the areas of statistical signal processing, estimation and detection theory. In particular, her research interests include clutter models, coherent and incoherent detection in non-Gaussian clutter, CFAR techniques, radar waveform diversity and bistatic/mustistatic active and passive radars, cognitive radars. She co-authored many book chapters and more than 190 journal and conference papers.


MSc CE Thesis Presentation

A Real-time Low Latency Signal Concentrator for Ship Tracking using AIS

Ramkoemar Bhoera

Global AIS coverage is not possible with terrestrial AIS as base stations are required to be build on sea, which is impractical. With the use of LEO satellites, the field of view of a single receiver is increased and is capable of communicating with many AIS cells simultaneously. As many vessels are transmitting data to the same receiver, message collisions occur which results in data loss.

In order to increase the performance of the AIS receiver, blind beamforming techniques are used. This makes it possible to separate multiple collided messages. This solution is build in a hardware receiver which returns analog signals.

The goal of this thesis is to build a low latency data acquisition system, in order to process the signals from the hardware receiver. This system requires a processing board to send the samples over to the single user receiver, which is build in software.

The Raspberry Pi is used as the processing board, but as it was unable to do the realtime work, a microcontroller is added for this specific task. Fetching data from the ADC is realized through the popular Industrial IO subsystem which allows easy integration with other IIO compliant software and is used to transfer sample data over the network to the software receiver. The software receiver decodes the AIS data and sends it to chart plotter applications which can be used to plot data on a map.

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Micro electronics colloqiuim

Kamran Souri, Kofi Makinwa

Kamran Souri

MEMS Revolutionizing Timing Future

Abstract

SiTime Corporation, a market leader in MEMS timing offers MEMS-based silicon timing system solutions. With over 1 billion devices shipped, SiTime is revolutionizing the timing industry and supports expediting new technologies such as IoT and 5G networks. In this talk, Dr. Souri will present an overview of SiTime's MEMS technology and the basic architecture of typical products. This will be followed by a discussion of the various innovations that have been needed to achieve differentiated performances which outperform quartz. Lastly, there will be a discussion of the technical challenges involved with productizing MEMS timing devices.

Kofi Makinwa

Next Generation CMOS Temperature Sensors

Abstract

Today, CMOS Temperature sensors are predominantly based on parasitic bipolar junction transistors (BJTs). This is because such sensors can achieve high accuracy (< 0.1C error) after a single room-temperature calibration. Although resistor-based temperature sensors can achieve higher resolution and energy-efficiency, they usually require multi-point calibration to reach similar levels of accuracy. Recently, we have shown that temperature sensors based on silicided poly resistors are an exception to this rule. They can achieve excellent accuracy (< 0.2°C from -55°C to 125°C) after a one or two-point calibration, as well as state-of-the-art energy-efficiency and resolution.


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Detecting Electrode Array Tip Fold-over in Cochlear Implantation

Juriaan van der Graaf

In cochlear implantation surgery, the appropriate placement of the electrode array into the cochlea is vital. Suboptimal placement of the electrode array may lead to reduced hearing performance and speech recognition after the surgery. Currently, there are methods to confirm the electrode position post-operatively (e.g. through a CT scan), but it is not possible to monitor the insertion intra-operatively. This, combined with the fact that there is difference in surgical precision and insertion technique between surgeons, leads to great variability in electrode placement and in some cases to electrode malpositioning issues. One of the more problematic issues that may arise is folding of the electrode tip. Folding of the tip causes the electrode array to not reach deep enough into the cochlea, and it is likely to cause trauma due to the increased pressure on cochlear walls and membranes. On top of that, you effectively have “less” contacts to work with because contacts can be positioned very close to eachother due to the folding. Folding of the electrode array also disrupts the tonotopic organization of the cochlear implant (the contacts near the end of the array no longer correspond to the lowest frequencies). The effectivity of the treatment is thus reduced in patients with tip fold-overs. However, many modern day cochlear implants possess telemetry features. These are primarily used to check the implant’s proper functioning, but may also be helpful in monitoring the insertion of the electrode array. The telemetry features of a cochlear implant make it possible to measure the intracochlear electrical potential. The measured current spread is related to the electrode array’s shape and position, and thus may provide a way to detect folding of the tip. This can be done post-operatively, but can possibly also be done intra-operatively to monitor the insertion in real time. This application could be a useful tool to aid surgeons and clinicians. When used post-operatively, it may provide a cost-free method to detect tip fold-over. When used intra-operatively, it may provide a way to detect and prevent both fold-over and trauma to the cochlea.

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Conferences

IEEE-EURASIP Summer School on Network- and Data-driven Learning: Fundamentals and Applications

Geert Leus, e.a.
IEEE-EURASIP

The 2019 IEEE-EURASIP Summer School on “*Network- and Data-driven Learning: Fundamentals and Applications*,” will take place from May 20 to May 24 in the beautiful city of Lecce, Italy.

It will bring together researchers to share exciting advances in network and data sciences theory and applications.

The event will host students interested in signal processing, offering them opportunities to network with world-renowned professors and industry researchers as well as to engage in hands-on tutorials in signal processing and machine learning. In addition to the beautiful ambiance offered by /“The Florence of the South of Italy,” /attendants will benefit from a stimulating environment to learn about the latest advances in an exciting field. Students will have the possibility to present their current research work in a poster session.

The technical focus of this summer school is on fundamentals and algorithmic advances for learning from large volumes of data, with emphasis on network (i.e., graph) data.

More information about the Technical Program, the speakers and the registration procedure, can be found at the webpage.

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Inauguration Earl McCune and Cicero Vaucher

Who's talking, who's listening?

Earl McCune, Cicero Vaucher
TU Delft

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Who's talking? Who's listening?

It is all about (RF/mm-wave) Communication & Sensing!

Speakers: Patrcik Reynaert (KU Leuven, Belgium), Yiao-Hong Liu (IMEC), Bram Nauta (UT Twente), Peter Baltus (TU/e), Leo Vreede (TU de

Concept program

09:35 Welcome Leo de Vreede

09:45 Bram Nauta (University of Twente)

Abstract

With more upcoming frequency bands used for wireless communication, there is a growing need for transmitters and receivers that can operate at different frequencies in a flexible way. In this presentation a forgotten technique called N-path filters is highlighted, and examples of flexible channel filtering using this technique directly at RF are given. 10:15 Peter Baltus (Technical University Eindhoven)

Unconventional Wireless Applications

Abstract

Although it might be hard to believe, there are actually wireless applications beyond 5G. Some of them are rather unconventional if not downright weird, and for some reason I tend to get involved in projects exploring technologies for such applications more often than could be expected on a purely statistical basis. In this presentation I’ll discuss some of these applications and the related technologies that we’re working on. 10:45 break

11:15 Patrick Reynaert (University Leuven, Belgium)

Polymer Microwave Fibers: who's waiting for it?

Abstract

Using polymers or plastics as a flexible guided dielectric channel, together with mm-wave signals and Silicon chips, was recently proposed as a complementary alternative to optical and copper. Often referred to as Polymer Microwave Fibers (PMF), the mechanical robustness and EMI tolerance are key differentiators for this communication approach. Compared to optical communication, no EO/OE conversion is needed since the mm-wave signal is directly launched into the fiber with an antenna. Furthermore, the connectors have a much higher robustness compared to optical connectors. Compared to copper wireline, far less EMI issues arise since no metal is being used in the channel. Several demonstrators have been developed both at Universities and companies, revealing the strengths and weaknesses of this approach. This presentation will give an in-depth discussion of the topic, discuss some of the implementation challenges and will give a good understanding of the benefits and drawback of PMF, and conclude with an outlook of the future of PMF. 11:45 Leo de Vreede (Technical University Delft)

Digital Transmitters for Sub-6GHz Wireless Applications

Abstract

Digital-intensive transmitters (TX) concepts are rapidly gaining interest, since they can convert the high-speed digital baseband data directly into the transmitting RF signal, while allowing very compact and cost-effective integration. In addition, their digital (switching) nature opens up (new) possibilities in achieving high energy efficiency, spectral purity and frequency-agile operation. This talk will describe the strengths, challenges and promises of these digital inspired TX solutions for mMIMO applications and sub-6GHz wireless Applications.

12:15 lunch (Restaurantzaal)

13:00 Yao-Hong (IMEC)

Listen to your gut: swallable digital transmitter design

Abstract

Swallable smart pills are going to revolutionize the next-generation diagnosis tool of the digestive tract. This talk will introduce the design challenges of the RF transceiver targeted for such applications. A case study on an ultra-low power and digital-intensive RF transmitter will also be provided." 13:30 wrap-up Kofi Makinwa (Technical University Delft)

13:45 conclusion


Micro electronics symposium

GHz communication & THz sensing Utilizing modern IC technologies

Andrea Neto, Henk Visser, Viktram Chaturvedi

Andrea Neto (M’00–SM’10–F’16) received the Laurea degree (summa cum laude) in electronic engineering from the University of Florence, Italy, in 1994, and the Ph.D. degree in electromagnetics from the University of Siena, Italy, in 2000. He was with the Antenna Section, of ESA ESTEC for over two years. From 2000 to 2001, he was a Post-Doctoral Researcher with the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA. From 2002 to 2010, he was a Senior Antenna Scientist with TNO, The Hague, The Netherlands. In 2010, he became a Full Professor of applied electromagnetism with the EEMCS Department, Technical University of Delft, Delft, The Netherlands.

Prof. Neto served as an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, the IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation and of the IEEE Transactions on THz Sceinece and Technology. He is a member of the Technical Board of the European School of Antennas and an organizer of the course on antenna imaging techniques. In 2011, he was a recipient of the European Research Council Consolidator Grant to perform research on Advanced Antenna Architectures for THz Sensing Systems. In 2011 he also formed the Terahertz Sensing Group, that he still leads until now.

Abstract - Towards mm Resolution Super Vision with Photo Conductive Antenna Based THz Radars Recently powerful, reliable and cost-effective THz radiation micro-emitters have been developed. These innovative sources (emitting up to 1 mW in the spectrum from 100 GHz to 700 GHz) have been proven already to be sufficient for applications in the security domain. Their availability at higher frequencies promises to revolutionize also bio-chemistry and material science. To reach and demonstrate these goals, we are focusing on designing the front end of a mm resolution radar capable of generating “supervision”: 3D CAD like images with 20 million pixels within a second, on one side. On the other side we are trying to extend the operating frequencies of the sources up to 5 THz by exploiting fully integrated and IC-compatible technologies. The success of these activities will finally allow THz Radars and spectroscopy to become wide spread and robust techniques.

Qorvo

Henk Visser is a senior manager at Qorvo. He received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the HTS Zwolle in 1991. From 1991 to 1997, he worked as a research engineer at Philips Research Eindhoven, focusing on 2.5 GHz transmitter design. From 1997 to 2000, he worked at Philips Semiconductors Nijmegen, designing RF-ICs for GSM power amplifiers. From 2000 to 2004, he was with Philips Semiconductors, San Jose designing WLAN transceiver chips. In 2004, he went back to Philips Semiconductors Nijmegen (now NXP Semiconductors) designing transceivers for WiMax. From 2007, he worked for ST-Ericsson on Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS. He has been with Qorvo (formerly GreenPeak technologies) since 2014.

Vikram Chaturvedi is a senior analog design engineer at Qorvo. He received the Ph. D degree in 2013 from Electrical Communication Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. From January 2013 to September 2014, he worked in System and Technology Group, IBM. He was involved in designing 3D-integrated DC-DC converters and 28 Gbps high-speed serial links during this period. From October 2014 to August 2017, he was in TU Delft, the Netherlands as a postdoctoral researcher where he was worked on the design of precision analog circuits for Eddy current displacement sensors. He has been with Qorvo since September 2017.

Abstract - SoCs for wireless-connectivity in IoT Low energy and low data-rate wireless-connectivity solutions are very important for the enablement of the internet-of-things. Multi-standard radio with low power consumption and good sensitivity is indispensable. However, the radio is just a part of the complete solution and needs to be complimented with microprocessor, memory and software. This calls for system-on-chip integration. This talk will focus on the system architecture of these SoCs. An introduction to Bluetooth-Low-Energy and Zigbee standards will be provided. Various challenges in the design of analog/RF blocks such as transceiver, clock-generation and power-management will be discussed.


NEXT-GENERATION MOLECULAR IMAGING AND PARTICLE THERAPY SEMINAR

Symposium on advances in Positron Emission Tomography, in context of the PhD defense of Esteban Venialgo

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Micro electronics colloquium

High performance data converters; Rethink analog IC design

Nan Sun, Muhammed Bolatkale

Nan Sun: Rethink Analog IC Design

I will present several unconventional data conversion architectures. First, I will talk about how we can make use of noise, which is usually deemed as an undesirable thing, to estimate the conversion residue and increase the SNR of a SAR ADC. It is an interesting example of stochastic resonance, in which the presence of noise can lead to not SNR degradation but SNR enhancement. Second, I will talk about how we can perform data conversion below the Nyquist rate by exploiting the sparsity of the input signal. I will show two example compressive sensing ADCs and how the effective ADC conversion rate can be reduced by 4 times but without losing information. Third, I will show how we can prevent the seemingly inevitable kT/C noise in a Nyquist-rate pipelined ADC by using a continuous-time SAR based 1st-stage. This can substantially reduce the requirement on the ADC input capacitance, greatly reducing the ADC driver power and reference buffer power

Biography of Nan Sun

Nan Sun is Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He received the B.S. from Tsinghua in 2006 and Ph.D. degree from Harvard in 2010. Dr. Sun received the NSF Career Award in 2013. He serves on the Technical Program Committee of the IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference and the IEEE Asian Solid-State Circuit Conference. He is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems – I: Regular Papers, and a Guest Editor of the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits. He also serves as IEEE Circuits-and-Systems Society Distinguished Lecturer from 2019 to 2020.

Muhammed Bolatkale: High Performance Data Converters

A next generation automotive radio receiver, an all-digital Class-D amplifier, and an advanced Bluetooth transceiver have one thing in common: they rely on high-performance data converter architectures to enable best in class performance. This talk will give an overview of GHz-sampling data converters, especially focusing on wideband delta-sigma and hybrid data converter architectures. We will touch upon state-of-the-art systems and circuit level designs fabricated in advance CMOS nodes.

Bio Muhammed Bolatkale

Muhammed Bolatkale is Senior Principle Scientist at NXP Semiconductors and part-time Associate Professor in the Electronics Instrumentation Laboratory at Delft University of Technology. He received his B. Sc. (high honors) degree from Middle East Technical University, Turkey, in 2004 and the M. Sc. (cum laude) and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands, in 2007 and 2013. Since 2007, Dr. Bolatkale has worked for NXP Semiconductors, specializing in wideband Delta-Sigma ADCs for wireless communications and automotive applications. Dr. Bolatkale received the ISSCC 2016 and 2011 Jan Van Vessem Award for Outstanding European Paper and the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits 2016 and 2011 Best Paper Award.

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MS3 seminar

Radar Adaptivity: Antenna Based Signal Processing

Alfonso Farina
IEEE SPS Distinguished Industry Speaker

This lecture will provide an in-depth look into the history of radar systems and radar signal processing, from the beginning of radar to adaptive antenna arrays, including examples such as ground based radar systems, land and naval phased arrays, STAP for airborne radars, knowledge-based STAP, and Over the Horizon radar systems.

Biography

Alfonso FARINA , LFIEEE, FIET, FREng, Fellow of EURASIP, received the doctor degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Rome (IT) in 1973. In 1974, he joined Selenia, then Selex ES, where he became Director of the Analysis of Integrated Systems Unit and subsequently Director of Engineering of the Large Business Systems Division. In 2012, he was Senior VP and Chief Technology Officer of the company, reporting directly to the President. From 2013 to 2014, he was senior advisor to the CTO. He retired in October 2014.

From 1979 to 1985, he was also professor of “Radar Techniques” at the University of Naples (IT). He is the author of more than 800 peer-reviewed technical publications and of books and monographs (published worldwide), some of them also translated in to Russian and Chinese.


Microelectronics Colloquium

Introducing new CAS professors

Andrew Webb, Borbála Hunyadi

Andrew Webb:

MRI is one of the most important clinical imaging modalities for diagnosis and treatment monitoring. Recent trends have been towards ever higher magnetic fields and operating frequencies. This talk outlines some of the technical challenges faced by very high field and conversely very low field MRI, and the roles that electromagnetics and signal processing can play in improving image quality

Borbala Hunyadi

Electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) record a mixture of ongoing neural processes, physiological and non-physiological noise. The pattern of interest is often hidden within this noisy mixture. This talk gives an overview of signal processing and machine learning techniques to address this issue by capturing the spatiotemporal structure in the (multimodal) data. Special attention is given to tensor-based blind source separation techniques, with applications in epilepsy research.


Signal Processing Seminar

Sensor and Machine Learning at The Arizona State University

Andreas Spanias
Arizona State University - SenSIP

This seminar provides a description of the ASU Sensor Signal and Information Processing (SenSIP) center and its application-driven research projects. The center research activities include algorithm development for extracting information from sensors and IoT systems. More specifically center activities are focused on developing signal processing and machine learning methods for various applications including AI-enabled sensing for automotive, IoT solar energy system monitoring, surveillance systems, health monitoring, and sound systems. The center has several industry members that define and monitor research projects typically for Ph.D. student work. SenSIP has also affiliated faculty working on sensor circuits, flexible sensors, radar, smart cameras, motion estimation, secure sensor networks and other systems.

Biography

Andreas Spanias is Professor in the School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering at Arizona State University (ASU). He is also the director of the Sensor Signal and Information Processing (SenSIP) center and the founder of the SenSIP industry consortium (now an NSF I/UCRC site). Member companies of the NSF SenSIP center and industry consortium on sensor information processing include: Intel, National Instruments, LG, NXP, Raytheon, Sprint and several SBIR type companies. He is an IEEE Fellow and he recently received the IEEE Phoenix Section Award for Patents and Innovation. He also received the IEEE Region 6 section award (across 12 states) for education and research in signal processing. He is author of more than 300 papers,15 patents, two text books and several lecture monographs. He served as Distinguished lecturer for the IEEE Signal processing society in 2004.

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Radio-frequency engineering for space

Václav Valenta
European Space Agency

The key challenges in the design of radio-frequency instruments for space will be reviewed. Space environmental aspects will be discussed as well as the practical measures that need to be implemented to assure a high level of reliability. Selected examples will be presented, covering a wide spectrum of applications: from new satellite communication trends, such as active reconfigurable antennas to future scientific RF instruments that will be placed on other planets. Special focus will be put on high-power amplification concepts and integration solutions.

Speaker Bio: Václav Valenta was born in Czechoslovakia and received Master and Doctoral degrees in radio engineering and mathematics from the Brno University of Technology in the Czech Republic and Université Paris-Est in France, respectively. In the past, Dr. Valenta has designed and demonstrated active and passive radar systems operating up to a frequency of 140 GHz. His expertise is in the area of multi-functional RFIC design (SiGe BiCMOS and III-V) covering key functions from amplification, frequency generation/conversion, modulation/demodulation, and heterogenous RFIC integration. Dr. Valenta is currently with the European Space Agency, RF Equipment and Technology Section, running and supporting several R&D projects. Dr. Valenta is responsible for the development of the radio-science instrument "LaRa", which is a scientific payload that will be launched to Mars in the frame of the mission ExoMars 2020.


PhD Thesis Defence

Graph-Time Signal Processing Filtering and Sampling Strategies

Elvin Isufi

The necessity to process signals living in non-Euclidean domains, such as signals defined on the top of a graph, has led to the extension of signal processing techniques to the graph setting. Among different approaches, graph signal processing distinguishes itself by providing a Fourier analysis of these signals. Analogously to the Fourier transform for time and image signals, the graph Fourier transform decomposes the graph signals decomposes in terms of the harmonics provided by the underlying topology. For instance, a graph signal characterized by a slow variation between adjacent nodes has a low frequency content.

Along with the graph Fourier transform, graph filters are the key tool to alter the graph frequency content of a graph signal. This thesis focuses on graph filters that are performed distributively in the node domain–that is, each node needs to exchange information only within its neighbor to perform a given filtering operation. Similarly to the classical filters, we propose ways to design and implement distributed finite impulse response and infinite impulse response graph filters.

One of the key contributions of this thesis is to bring the temporal dimension to graph signal processing and build upon a graph-time signal processing framework. This is done in different ways. First, we analyze the effects that the temporal variations on the graph signal and graph topology have on the filtering output. Second, we introduce the notion of joint graph-time filtering. Third, we presentpr a statistical analysis of the distributed graph filtering when the graph signal and the graph topology change randomly in time. Finally, we extend the sampling framework from the reconstruction of graph signals to the observation and tracking of time-varying graph processes.

We characterize the behavior of the distributed autoregressivemoving average (ARMA) graph filters when the graph signal and the graph topology are time-varying. The latter analysis is exploited in two ways: i ) to quantify the limitations of graph filters in a dynamic environment, such as a moving sensors processing a time-varying signal in a sensor network; and i i ) to provide ways for filtering with low computation and communication complexity time-varying graph signals.

We develop the notion of distributed graph-time filtering, which is an operation that jointly processes the graph frequencies of a time-varying graph signal on one hand and its temporal frequencies on the other hand. We propose distributed finite impulse response and infinite impulse response recursions to implement a two-dimensional graphtime filtering operation. Finally, we propose design strategies to find the filter coefficients that approximate a desired two-dimensional frequency response.

We extend the analysis of graph filters to a stochastic environment, i.e., when the graph topology and the graph signal change randomly over time. By characterizing the first and second order moments of the filter output, we quantify the impact of the graph signal and the graph topology randomness into the distributed filtering operation. The latter allows us to develop the notion of graph filtering in the mean, which is also used to ease the computational burden of classical graph filters.

Finally, we propose a sampling framework for time-varying graph signals. Particularly, when the graph signal changes over time following a state-space model, we extend the graph signal sampling theory to the tasks of observing and tracking the time-varying graph signal froma few relevant nodes. The latter theory considers the graph signal sampling as a particular case and shows that tools from sparse sensing and sensor selection can be used for sampling.

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PhD Thesis Defence

Pan Liu


PhD Thesis Defence

Efficient computational methods in Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Jeroen van Gemert

This dissertation describes how to design dielectric pads that can be used to increase image quality in Magnetic Resonance Imaging, and how to accelerate image reconstruction times using a preconditioner.

Image quality is limited by the signal to noise ratio of a scan. This ratio is increased for higher static magnetic field strengths and therefore there is great interest in high-field MRI. The wavelength of the transmitted magnetic RF field decreases for higher field strengths, and it becomes comparable to the dimensions of the human body. Consequently, RF interference patterns are encountered which can severely degrade image quality because of a low transmit efficiency or because of inhomogeneities in the field distribution. Dielectric pads can be used to improve this distribution as the pads tailor the field by inducing a secondary magnetic field due to its high permittivity. Typically, the pads are placed tangential to the body and in the vicinity of the region of interest. The exact location, dimensions, and constitution of the pad need to be carefully determined, however, and depend on the application and the MR configuration. Normally, parametric design studies are carried out using electromagnetic field solvers to find a suitable pad, but this is a very time consuming process which can last hours to days. In contrast with these design studies, we present methods to efficiently model and design the dielectric pads using reduced order modeling and optimization techniques. Subsequently, we have created a design tool to bridge the gap between the advanced design methods and the practical application by the MR community. Now, pads can be designed for any 7T neuroimaging and 3T body imaging application within minutes.

In the second part of the thesis a preconditioner is designed for parallel imaging (PI) and compressed sensing (CS) reconstructions. MRI acquisition times can be strongly reduced by using PI and CS techniques by acquiring less data than prescribed by the Nyquist criterion to fully reconstruct the anatomic image; this is beneficial for patient's comfort and for minimizing the risk of patient's movement. Although acquisition times are reduced, the reconstruction times are increased significantly. The reconstruction times can be reduced when a preconditioner is used. In this thesis, we construct such a preconditioner for the frequently used iterative Split Bregman framework. We have tested the performance in a conjugate gradient framework, and show that for different coil configurations, undersampling patterns, and anatomies, a five-fold acceleration can be obtained for solving the linear system part of Split Bregman.

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MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Improving Ultrafast Doppler Imaging using Subspace Tracking

Bastian Generowicz

Ultrafast Doppler imaging provides a new way to image blood motion at thousands of frames per second. It has gained popularity due to its high spatio-temporal resolution, which is required to distinguish blood motion from clutter signals caused by slow moving tissue. By conducting functional UltraSound (fUS) experiments on the brain using this method, we are able to better understand the underlying processes during brain activity through neurovascular coupling. fUS relies on optimized signal processing techniques to acquire and process high frame-rate images in real-time.

For my thesis I have set up the backbone to allow for fUS experiments as well as created the analysis framework required to analyse and interpret the incoming data. Furthermore, I have developed a more computationally efficient method of obtaining vascular images, based on the Projection Approximation Subspace Tracking (PAST) method. The PAST algorithm is able to display accurate representations of the blood subspace, while maintaining a lower computational complexity than the state-of-the-art method, making it suitable for Doppler imaging. When applied to functional ultrasound, the exponentially weighted PASTd method achieves similar Pearson Correlation coefficients compared to the current state-of-the-art method, over multiple functional experiments. These findings highlight the potential of applying PAST to Ultrafast Doppler imaging.

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PhD Defence

Radar remote sensing of wind vector and turbulence intensity fields from raindrop backscattering

Albert Oude Nijhuis

Nowadays, well-validated (experimentally and theoretically) formulas exist for the raindrop terminal fall velocity, based on a balance between the forces acting on a raindrop. In Chapter 2 the next step is taken, and raindrop inertial parameters are derived by considering an imbalance of forces acting on a raindrop. Based on the `sudden jump' case, inertial distance and inertial time parameters are derived for each raindrop size, with different formulations for the x/y-direction and the z-direction. These parameters are essential for the development of models and retrieval techniques that take the influence of measuring from imperfect air tracers (read: raindrops) into account. A new raindrop inertia correction model was proposed that can easily be integrated into existing turbulence models and retrieval techniques as an extra factor. From simulations, it was derived that for large radar total sampling scales ( 30 m), the influence of raindrop inertia on retrieved turbulence intensities becomes negligible. For radar total sampling scales comparable to or smaller than 30 m, the raindrop inertia correction model was suggested. For small radar total sampling scales ( 10 m) and large raindrops (e.g. 4 mm), the application of the proposed correction model becomes limited, because the uncertainty in the retrieved turbulence intensity becomes very large as a result of the influence of raindrop inertia. In Chapter 3, state-of-the-art and commonly-used turbulence intensity retrieval techniques are assessed, when they are applied to raindrop-backscattering radar Doppler measurements. The inertia correction model was not used here for two reasons: (1) it is assumed that often a good estimation of the drop size distribution (DSD) is not available; and (2) it can be expected that the influence of inertia is negligible when a large total sampling scale is used. The quality of retrieved values for the energy dissipation rate (EDR) was optimized, based on comparisons with in situ measurements from a sonic anemometer. As a result, the most optimal technique is the wind speed variance (WSV) EDR retrieval technique, which uses the full 3D wind vector from a profiling radar, TARA. Other turbulence intensity retrieval techniques, which rely on terminal fall velocity corrections, and thus depend on accurate estimation of the DSD, are compromised by errors in the estimated turbulence spectral width. For further applications, it is recommended that the concept of EDR is applied cautiously, because of complex estimation errors. It is suggested to always estimate a minimal retrievable EDR, give uncertainty estimates for the retrieved EDR value, and provide the sampling and total sampling scales that were used in the EDR retrieval technique. In Chapter 4 the focus is on radar-based retrieved wind vectors. From a few simulations of raindrop motions in predefined wind fields, it was concluded that only for very special weather conditions a substantial influence of raindrop inertia on the retrieved wind vectors can be expected. As this work is not aimed at such special weather conditions, the influence of raindrop inertia is not accounted for in wind vector retrieval techniques that are proposed and studied in this work. A new wind vector retrieval technique was developed and implemented, which is the four-dimensional variational analysis (4D-Var) wind vector retrieval technique, which provides a more coherent and realistic wind field in comparison to other existing techniques. With the 4D-Var wind vector retrieval technique, it is also possible to show the solution space of wind vectors, which are associated with measurements from a single scanning Doppler radar. In the case of insufficient or no in situ wind vector measurements for validation, an alternative approach for quantitative validation of radar-based retrieved wind vectors is desired. Therefore, measures for curl and divergence of the wind vector field are used to qualify and optimize the retrieved wind vectors. By selecting the right settings for a wind vector retrieval technique, retrieval of spurious wind vectors can be prevented, which are related to the implementation and configuration of an algorithm. In Chapter 5, the application of raindrop-backscattering radar-based turbulence intensity retrieval techniques to small sampling scales is studied in detail. With ``small sampling scales'' the radar resolution volume scale of modern research weather radars is meant, which has a typical spatial scale of 30 m. A non-stochastic turbulence implementation to model radar observables is developed, the so-called ``ensemble of isotropic vectors'' approach, which can be used in radar-based turbulence intensity retrieval techniques. The goal for this turbulence implementation is to get the same turbulence-intensity dependencies in the polarimetric radar observables as for stochastic turbulence implementations. A novelty of this ``ensemble of isotropic vectors’' approach is that it implicitly reproduces the canting angle distribution of raindrops, on which so many polarimetric radar observables depend. The performance of the proposed technique is demonstrated in a case study. It was not possible to use radar-based estimations of the DSD in this case study at small sampling scales, because several state-of-the-art radar-based DSD estimations overestimated the Doppler spectral width due to raindrop terminal fall velocities. Therefore, in situ ground-level DSD measurements have been used in this case study. With the ground-level DSD information, the application of the raindrop inertia correction model is demonstrated for radar-based turbulence intensity retrieval techniques applied to the small sampling scales of modern research weather radars during the rain. In Chapter 6, the application of raindrop-backscattering radar-based retrieval techniques is demonstrated at an airport. This was done within the UFO project and can be used in the future to reduce wind hazards at airports. The 4D-Var wind vector retrieval technique is recommended, as it has several advanced processing features. In particular, this technique gives more control and versatility in the solutions. For turbulence intensity retrieval techniques applied at airports, it is recommended to avoid corrections for raindrop inertia, which relies on accurate estimation of the DSD.

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PhD Thesis Defence

Aleksandar Jovic

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PhD Thesis Defence

Multi-Microphone Noise Reduction for Hearing Assistive Devices

Andreas Koutrouvelis

The paramount importance of good hearing in everyday life has driven an exploration into the improvement of hearing capabilities of (hearing impaired) people in acoustic challenging situations using hearing assistive devices (HADs). HADs are small portable devices, which primarily aim at improving the intelligibility of an acoustic source that has drawn the attention of the HAD user. One of the most important steps to achieve this is via filtering the sound recorded using the HAD microphones, such that ideally all unwanted acoustic sources in the acoustic scene are suppressed, while the target source is maintained undistorted. Modern HAD systems often consist of two collaborative (typically wirelessly connected) HADs, each placed on a different ear. These HAD systems are commonly referred to as binaural HAD systems. The noise reduction filters designed for binaural HAD systems are referred to as binaural beamformers.

Binaural beamformers typically change the magnitude and phase relations of the microphone signals by forming a beam towards the target's direction while ideally suppressing all other directions. This may alter the spatial impression of the acoustic scene, as the filtered sources now reach both ears with possibly different relative phase and magnitude differences compared to before processing. This will appear unnatural to the HAD user. Therefore, there is an increasing interest in the preservation of the spatial information (also referred to as binaural cues) of the acoustic scene after processing. The present dissertation is mainly concerned with this particular problem and proposes several alternative binaural beamformers which try to exploit the available degrees of freedom to achieve optimal performance in both noise reduction and binaural-cue preservation.

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PhD Thesis Defence

Image formation for future radio telescopes

Shahrzad Naghibzadeh

Fundamental scientific questions such as how the first stars were formed or how the universe came into existence and evolved to its present state drive us to observe weak radio signals impinging on the earth from the early days of the universe. During the last century, radio astronomy has been vastly advancing. Important discoveries on the formation of various celestial objects such as pulsars, neutron stars, black holes, radio galaxies and quasars are the result of radio astronomical observations. To study celestial objects and the astrophysical processes that are responsible for their radio emissions, images must be formed. This is done with the help of large radio telescope arrays.

Next generation radio telescopes such as the Low Frequency Array Radio Telescope (LOFAR) and the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), bring about increasingly more observational evidence for the study of the radio sky by generating very high resolution and high fidelity images. In this dissertation, we study radio astronomical imaging as the problem of estimating the sky spatial intensity distribution over the field of view of the radio telescope array from the incomplete and noisy array data. The increased sensitivity, resolution and sky coverage of the new instruments pose additional challenges to the current radio astronomical imaging pipeline. Namely, the large amount of data captured by the radio telescopes cannot be stored and needs to be processed quasi-realtime.

Many pixel-based imaging algorithms, such as the widely-used CLEAN [3] algorithm, are not scalable to the size of the required images and perform very slow in high resolution scenarios. Therefore, there is an urgent need for new efficient imaging algorithms. Moreover, regardless of the amount of collected data, there is an inherent loss of information in themeasurement process due to physical limitations. Therefore, to recover physically meaningful images additional information in the form of constraints and regularizing assumptions are necessary. The central objective of the current dissertation is to introduce advanced algebraic techniques together with custom-made regularization schemes to speed up the image formation pipeline of the next generation radio telescopes.

Signal processing provides powerful tools to address these issues. In the current work, following a signal processing model of the radio astronomical observation process, we first analyze the imaging system based on tools from numerical linear algebra, sampling, interpolation and filtering theory to investigate the inherent loss of information in the measurement process. Based on these results, we show that the imaging problem in radio astronomy is highly ill-posed and regularization is necessary to find a stable and physically meaningful image. We continue by deriving an adequate model for the imagingproblem in radio interferometry in the context of statistical estimation theory. Moreover, we introduce a framework to incorporate regularization assumptions into the measurement model by borrowing the concept of preconditioning from numerical linear algebra.

Radio emissions observed by radio telescopes appear either as distributed radiation from diffuse media or as compact emission from isolated point-like sources. Based on this observation, different source models need to be applied in the imaging problem formulation to obtain the best reconstruction performance. Due to the ill-posedness of the imaging problem in radio astronomy, to guarantee a reliable image reconstruction, propermodeling of the source emissions and regularizing assumptions are of utmost importance. We integrate these assumptions implementing a multi-basis dictionary based on the proposed preconditioning formalism.

In traditional radio astronomical imaging methods, the constraints and priormodels, such as positivity and sparsity, are employed for the complete image. However, large radio sky images usually manifest individual source occupancy regions in a large empty background. Based on this observation, we propose to split the field of view into multiple regions of source occupancy. Leveraging a stochastic primal dual algorithm we apply adequate regularization on each facet. We demonstrate the merits of applying facet-based regularization in terms of memory savings and computation time by realistic simulations.

The formulation of the radio astronomical imaging problem has a direct consequence on the radio sky estimation performance. We define the astronomical imaging problem in a Bayesian-inspired regularized maximum likelihood formulation. Based on this formalism, we develop a general algorithmic framework that can handle diffuse as well as compact source models. Leveraging the linearity of radio astronomical imaging problem, we propose to directly embody the regularization operator into the system by right preconditioning. We employ an iterative method based on projections onto Krylov subspaces to solve the subsequent system. The proposed algorithmis named PRIor-conditioned Fast Iterative Radio Astronomy (PRIFIRA). We motivate the use of a beamformed image as an efficient regularizing prior-conditioner for diffuse emission recovery. Different sparsity-based regularization priors are incorporated in the algorithmic framework by generalizing the core algorithm with iterative re-weighting schemes.

We evaluate the performance of PRIFIRA based on simulated measurements as well as astronomical data and compare to the state-of-the-art imaging methods. We conclude that the proposed method maintains competitive reconstruction quality with the current techniques while remaining flexible in terms of different regularization schemes. Moreover, we show that the imaging efficiency can be greatly improved by exploiting Krylov subspace methods together with an appropriate noise-based stopping criteria.

Based on the results from this thesis we can conclude that with the help of advanced techniques from signal processing and numerical linear algebra, customized algorithms can be designed to tackle some of the challenges in the next generation radio telescope imaging. We note that since radio interferometric imaging can be considered as an instance of the broad area of inverse imaging problems, the numerical techniques as well as regularization methods developed in this dissertation have a direct impact on many different imaging application areas, such as biomedical and geophysics/seismic imaging.

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Signal Processing Seminar

Image Reconstruction Using Training Images

Per Christian Hansen
Technical University of Denmark

Priors are essential for computing stable solutions to ill-posed problems, and they take many different forms.  Here we consider priors in the form of cross-section images of the object, and this information must be used in a fast, reliable, and computationally efficient manner. We describe an algorithmic framework for this: From a set of training images we use techniques from machine learning to form a dictionary that captures the desired features, and we then compute a reconstruction with a sparse representation in this dictionary. We describe how to stably compute the dictionary through a regularized non-negative matrix factorization, and we study how this dictionary affects the reconstruction quality. Simulations show that for textural images our approach is superior to other methods used for limited-data problems.

About the speaker

Professor Per Christian Hansen has worked with numerical regularization algorithms for 30 years, and he has published 4 books and 100+ papers in leading journals. He has developed a number of software packages, of which Regularization Tools (now in its 4th version) is a popular toolbox for analysis and solution of discrete inverse problems. His current research projects involve algorithms for tomographic reconstruction and iterative image deblurring algorithms. He is a SIAM fellow in recognition of his work on inverse problems and regularization.

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PhD Thesis Defence

Surface Acoustic Mode Aluminium Nitride Transducer for micro-size liquid sensing applications

Thu Hang Bui

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ME tenure track colloquium

Radar; the eyes of the future autonomous vehicles, The Next Generation of Wireless TX, V

Morteza Alavi, Masoud Babaie, Faruk Uysal

Faruk Uysal (Microwave sensing, signals and systems) Radar; the eyes of the future autonomous vehicles

Radar is becoming the eyes of autonomous vehicles due to its all-weather, day and night capabilities. The coexistence of multiple radars in close proximity soon will be an issue with the increasing number of radar-equipped devices such as autonomous cars on the roads. To address this emerging issue in autonomous vehicles, the first part of my presentation concentrates on current problems; interference mitigation and advanced angle of arrival estimation; as well as future technologies like phase-coded radar, to support distributed radar processing. Finally, I will mention how other radar systems also take advantages of distributed radar network.

Morteza Alavi (Electronics research laboratory) The Next Generation of Wireless TX

Wireless technologies such as 5G and WiFi-6 are on the horizon and developing at a faster pace than ever before. These life-changing communication networks will impact every sector of society. They are increasing the data throughput more than 100×, boosting the network’s latency more than 15×, expanding the area coverage, facilitating the adoption of more new technologies such as augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR), machine learning (ML), drones, self-driving cars, and enabling the massive deployment of Internet of Thing (IoT) devices by connecting more machines to the wireless networks. Offering such advantages requires massive signal bandwidth, less complexity, more agility, considerable radiated power, and remarkable signal processing. More importantly, the energy efficiency and form factor of such systems are significantly critical. To address these challenging issues, this talk reflects on some of ELCA’s ongoing research activities focusing on advanced transmitters ranging from UHF up to W frequency band.

Masoud Babaie (Electronics research laboratory) RF Battleground for Biomedical and Quantum Applications

The focus of the first half of the presentation is on the design of a radar transceiver for detecting vital human signs such as heart and respiration rates. The proposed radar operates at ~7GHz UWB frequency band due to the lower path loss compared to millimeter-wave frequencies. However, it needs to satisfy the stringiest FCC requirements on the transmitting peak, average, and sideband power spectral density (PSD). Hence, it is challenging not impossible for pulse-based radar to fulfill the side-lobe PSD requirement without compromising detection range. On the other hand, frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radars have low sideband emission. However, they can easily violate the UWB average PSD requirement due to their continuous operation. To tackle the abovementioned challenges, a heavily duty-cycled FMCW radar with an innovative chirp generation is introduced to satisfy the FCC requirements while achieving a record-low power consumption of 680W. I then switch to the second part of the presentation on the design of cryogenic frequency synthesizers and low-noise amplifiers for future quantum computers. Unfortunately, the channel current noise of CMOS transistors does not scale linearly by the temperature due to the dominance of flicker and shot noise at the cryogenic temperatures. It directly degrades the receiver (PLL) noise figure (phase noise). To tackle this issue and truly benefit from the operation in the cryogenic temperatures, the first CMOS parametric amplifier is revealed here.

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MSc BME Thesis Presentation

The effect of dopamine release on electrical neural activity in the prefrontal cortex

Jack Tchimino

How can certain oscillations be detected from the measured brain signals?

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PhD Thesis Defence

Free standing interconnects for stretchable electronics

Shivani Joshi

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PhD Thesis Defence

The linearity research of a CMOS image sensor

Fei Wang

This thesis provides a thorough analysis of the linearity characteristics of a CMOS image sensor. Firstly, this thesis analyzes the factors that cause the nonlinearity of the image sensors. These factors are then verified by simulation results of a proposed behavioral model and the measurements in a prototype chip. Secondly, different techniques are presented to improve the linearity of the whole imaging system; and the effectiveness of these techniques is further confirmed by measurement results of several test chips.

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Fabrication and reliability study of parylene-ceramic based flexible interconnects for implantable devices

Diane Wu


Signal Processing Seminar

Signal Processing Mini-Symposium

Hagit Messer, KVS Hari, Andrea Simonetto

Talk 1: Capitalizing on the Cellular Technology Opportunities and Challenges for Near Ground Weather Monitoring

Prof. Hagit Messer
School of Electrical Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Israel

Talk 2: Spatial Modulation Techniques in Wireless Systems

Prof. K.V.S. Hari
Dept. of ECE, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

Talk 3: Time-varying optimization: algorithms and engineering applications

Dr. Andrea Simonetto
IBM Research Ireland, Dublin, Ireland

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PhD Thesis Defence

Spatio-temporal environment monitoring leveraging sparsity

Venkat Roy

Linking sensor measurements to unknown field intensities, with application to rainfall monitoring from cellular networks

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Microelectronics Colloquium

Material Engineering for Stability Improvement of Perovskite Solar Cells

C.P. Wong
Georgia Tech

Organolead halide perovskites have recently emerged as a fascinating light harvesting material that combines the advantages of simple fabrication process and excellent electronic properties. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) has been rapidly improved from 3.8% to 23.3% within the past several years. In contrast to the stunning rise in efficiency, the instability of the PSCs is its Achilles’ heel. The instability issue of the whole device originates not only from the perovskite layer itself, but also from the use of doped organic charge transport materials, such as spiro-MeOTAD. This talk is to provide material strategies to improve the stability of the organolead halide perovskite materials as well as other functional layers in PSCs. To improve the air-stability of perovskite films prepared from two-step sequential deposition by simultaneously eliminating PbI2 residue and improving the crystallinity of the perovskite films. We developed PbI2 thin films with nano-pores and tunable crystal sizes, which enabled full conversion of PbI2 to MAPbI3. A large perovskite crystalline domains, and that the impurity-free, lead to reduced trap states and improved air-stability of the perovskite thin films. The second part of my talk is devoted to improve the stability of the entire PSC device by developing a solution-processed NiOx hole-transport layer, as the hygroscopic nature of the NiOx film suppresses the diffusion of water molecules to the perovskite, and it is also insusceptible to heat. As a result, the PSCs with a structure of FTO / TiO2 / Perovskite / NiOx / Au demonstrated remarkable air-stability and thermal stability. By further modifying of the NiOx / metal interface by CuSCN, we further realized high-efficiency PSCs with excellent air stability, exhibiting nearly no efficiency degradation after exposed to air for 4 months. Furthermore, the ion migration-induced instability issue through incorporating extrinsic alkali cations (i.e., Rb+, K+, Na+, or Li+) into the perovskite. The size-dependent interstitial occupancy of the extrinsic alkali cations in the perovskite lattice was proposed and verified for the first time through density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Such interstitial doping method suppressed I- ion migration in the bulk of perovskites, thus resulting in reduced I-V hysteresis of the PSCs, weakened poling effects and improved photo stability of wide-bandgap mixed-halide perovskites.


Signal Processing Seminar

Machine learning in physical sciences

Peter Gerstoft
UC San Diego

Machine learning (ML) is booming thanks to efforts promoted by Google. However, ML also has use in physical sciences. I start with a general overview of ML for supervised/unsupervised learning. Then I will focus on my applications of ML in array processing in seismology and ocean acoustics. This will include source localization using neural networks or graph processing. Final example is using ML-based tomography to obtain high-resolution subsurface geophysical structure in Long Beach, CA, from seismic noise recorded on a 5200-element array. This method exploits the dense sampling obtained by ambient noise processing on large arrays by learning a dictionary of local, or small-scale, geophysical features directly from the data.

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MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Phase estimation of recurring patterns in nonstationary signals

Rik van der Vlist

A phase estimation algorithm is presented to estimate the phase of a recurring pattern in a nonstationary signal. The signal is modelled by a template signal that represents one revolution of the recurring pattern, and that the frequency of this pattern can change at any time with no assumptions about local stationarity. The algorithm uses a constraint maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) to estimate the phase of the recurring pattern in the time series. Using the dynamic programming techniques from the dynamic time warping (DTW) algorithm, the solution is found in an efficient manner. The algorithm is applied to the digitization of meter readings from analog consumption meters.

As of today, analog consumption meters are still widely used to measure the consumption of gas, electricity and water. Often, smart home appliance use a simple reflective photosensor located on a rotating part of the meter to obtain information about the state of the consumption meter. The algorithm presented in this thesis accurately estimates the phase of the repeating pattern that occurs in the sensor observation when the meter rotates. Using this estimate, the signal of the photosensor can be converted to an estimate of the total resource consumption and consumption rate.

The algorithm improves in accuracy over conventional methods based on peak detection, and is shown to work in cases where the peak detection methods fails. Examples of this are signals where there is no distinctive peak in the signal or a signal where the recurring pattern is reversed. Furthermore, a template compression scheme is proposed that is used to decrease the computational complexity of the algorithm. Different time series compression methods are applied to the algorithm and evaluated on their performance.

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Microelectronics Colloquium

Tenure track colloquium

Sten Vollebregt, Massimo Mastrangeli, Daniele Cavallo

Wideband phased arrays for future wireless communication terminals, Daniele Cavallo (TS group)

Wireless data traffic will grow exponentially in the next years, due to the proliferation of user terminals and bandwidth-greedy applications. To address this demand, the next generations of mobile communication (5G and beyond) will have to shift the operation to higher frequencies, especially to millimetre-wave (mmWave) spectrum (30-300 GHz), that can provide extremely high-speed data links. To enable mm-wave wireless communication, mobile terminals such as smartphones will need phased arrays antennas, able to radiate or receive greater power in specific directions that can be dynamically steered electronically. However, to cover the different 5G mm-wave bands simultaneously (28, 39, 60 GHz, …) and to achieve total angular coverage, too many of such antennas should be on the same device: the main bottleneck is the insufficient space available to place all antenna modules. Therefore, I propose to investigate novel phased array antenna solutions with very large angular coverage and ultra-wide frequency bandwidth, to massively reduce the overall space occupation of handset antennas and overcome the current limitations of mobile terminal antenna development.

Towards smart organs-on-chip, Massimo Mastrangeli (ECTM Group)

Organs-on-chip are microfluidic systems that enable dynamic tissue co-cultures under physiologically realistic conditions. OOCs are helping innovating the drug screening process and gaining new fundamental insights in human physiology. In this talk, after a summary of my past research journey, I will describe how the ECTM group at TU Delft is envisioning the use microfabrication and materials science to embed real-time sensing and actuation in innovative and scalable OOC platforms.

Emerging electronic materials: from lab to fab, Sten Vollebregt (ECTM group)

Due to their nm-size features and often unique physical properties nanomaterials, like nanotubes and 2D materials, can potentially outperform classical materials or even provide functionality which cannot be obtained otherwise. Because of this, these nanomaterials hold many promises for the next generation of devices for sensing & communication and health & wellbeing.

Unfortunately, many promising applications of nanomaterials never reach sufficient maturity to be implemented in actual products. This is mostly because the interest in the academic community reduces once the initial properties have been demonstrated, while the risk for industrialization is still too high for most companies to start their own R&D activities. My goal is to bridge these two worlds by investigating the integration of novel nanomaterials in semiconductor technology and demonstrating the scalability of novel sensing devices. In this talk, I will give examples on how carbon nanotubes, graphene and other emerging nanomaterials can be used in the next generation of sensing devices.


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Integration of a local drug delivery system in a micro-fabricated Brain-on-Chip device

Hanieh Mastyani


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Flexible parylene-platinum based electrodes and interconnects

Arshaad Ishrat Kanhai


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Multidomain Graph Signal Processing: Learning and Sampling

Guillermo Ortiz Jiménez

In this era of data deluge, we are overwhelmed with massive volumes of extremely complex datasets. Data generated today is complex because it lacks a clear geometric structure, comes in great volumes, and it often contains information from multiple domains. In this thesis, we address these issues and propose two theoretical frameworks to handle such multidomain datasets. To begin with, we extend the recently developed geometric deep learning framework to multidomain graph signals, e.g., time-varying signals, defining a new type of convolutional layer that will allow us to deal with graph signals defined on top of several domains, e.g., electroencephalograms or traffic networks. After discussing its properties and motivating its use, we show how this operation can be efficiently implemented to run on a GPU and demonstrate its generalization abilities on a synthetic dataset. Next, we consider the problem of designing sparse sampling strategies for multidomain signals, which can be represented using tensors. To keep the framework general, we do not restrict ourselves to multidomain signals defined on irregular domains. Nonetheless, this particularization to multidomain graph signals is also presented. To do so, we leverage the multidomain structure of tensor signals and propose to acquire samples using a Kronecker-structured sensing function, thereby circumventing the curse of dimensionality. For designing such sensing functions, we develop several low-complexity greedy algorithms based on submodular optimization methods that compute near-optimal sampling sets. To validate the developed theory, we present several numerical examples, ranging from multi-antenna communications to graph signal processing.

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MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Impedance-based bioassay for characterization of single malignant melanoma cancer cells usinG CMOS-MEA systems

Makrina Sekeri

Malignant Melanoma (MM) is the most aggressive type of skin-cancer. Current diagnostic tools for the detection of malignancies of the skin (MM cancer) include histological, optical, ultrasound, and impedance-based techniques. The inadequacies of the first three practices are overwhelmed by the Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) method. EIS overcomes reported spatiotemporal tradeoffs as a label-free and optics-free analytical method. Yet, MM’s enhanced heterogeneity and metastatic potential still results in misdiagnosis, or late diagnosis leading to stages characterized by high mortality rates. Important biological information and processing ability on single-cell level is missing. Single-cell dynamics recorded with a high-throughput system, contain important biological information on the heterogeneous subpopulations which are responsible for the MM aggressiveness.

This project aims to investigate experimentally the possibility and capabilities of such a bioassay development, create working protocols and generate a fundamental basis for analysis and interpretation of the big-data-sets which derive from Impedance monitoring from a high-throughput transducer.

Experiments were performed, employing two diverse, human-derived, MM cancer cell-lines, and using a high-throughput HD-MEA system with a 1024-channel impedance readout unit developed at IMEC, in Belgium. The measurements were realized at 1kHz aiming to extract Rseal information. The main proposal presents an experimental protocol of mid-term and long-term experiments Temporal and spatial resolutions were enhanced (Control System Automation), allowing for implementation of an experimental set to test the assay’s capabilities and determine any necessary additions to make the assay more robust for research (i.e. Z-Map, templates and scripts for OriginLab and Matlab, statistical methods for validation of findings on the big-data sets, optimizations in the experimental process, etc).

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TU Delft Health College

From Nano-Structures in Health to Health in Space

Andre Kuipers, Amir Zadpoor, Wouter Serdijn, Julia Cramer
Delft University of Technology

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Symposium

Waves, model reduction and imaging

Symposium in context of the PhD defense of Jorn Zimmerling on 2 July. Click here for the program.

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PhD Thesis Defence

Model Reduction of Wave Equations

Jörn Zimmerling

How do you look inside a box without opening it? How can we know whether or not a heart valve is functioning correctly without cutting a person open?

Imaging – the art of seeing the unseeable. A CT-scan at the doctor’s office, crack detection in the wing of an airplane, or medical ultrasound are all examples of imaging techniques that allow us to inspect the interior of an object or person and enable us to observe features that are not directly visible to the naked eye. Science continuously improves upon existing imaging methods and occasionally invents new ones leading to improved image quality and faster image acquisition.

Many imaging applications rely on acoustic, electromagnetic, or elastodynamic waves for imaging. These waves illuminate a penetrable object and an image is formed of its interior from measurements of the transmitted or scattered waves. Being able to efficiently compute wavefields in complex geometries is key in such wavefield imaging problems. To keep up with the developments within the imaging industry to move to larger domains, higher resolution, and larger data sets, new mathematical methods and algorithms need to be developed, since advancements in the computer industry cannot keep up with these demands.

This thesis is about reduced-order modeling of the equations that describe the dynamics of wave propagation. In reduced-order modeling, the aim is to systematically develop a small model that describes a complex system without losing information that is valuable for a specific application. Evaluating such a model is computationally much more efficient than direct evaluation of the unreduced system and in the context of imaging it can lighten the computational burden associated with imaging algorithms. The central question is, of course: How does one construct a model that describes the wave dynamics relevant for a particular application?

Wave equations are partial differential equations that interrelate the spatial and temporal variations of some physical wavefield quantity. When we discretize such equations in space, sparse systems of equations with hundreds of thousands or even millions of unknowns are obtained. Via projection onto a small subspace such a large-scale system can be reduced to a much smaller reduced system. The solution of this small system is called a reduced-order model. A properly constructed reduced-order model can be easily evaluated and gives an accurate wavefield description over a certain time or frequency interval or parameter range of interest.

In this thesis, we discuss different choices for the subspaces that are used for projection in model-order reduction. In particular, we show what types of subspaces are effective for wavefields that are localized and highly resonant and how to efficiently generate such subspaces by exploiting certain symmetry properties of the wave equations. We illustrate the effectiveness of the resulting reduced-order models by computing optical wavefield responses in three-dimensional metallic nano-resonators.

Not all wavefields are determined by a few resonances, of course. Waves can also travel over long distances without losing information; a property that is used by mobile phones every day. The reduction methods developed for resonating fields are not efficient for these types of propagation problems and require a different approach. In this thesis, we present a so-called phase-preconditioning reduction method, in which a specific subspace is generated that explicitly takes the large travel times of the waves into account. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this reduction approach using examples from geophysics, where waves with long travel times are frequently encountered or used to probe the subsurface of the Earth.

Finally, we show how reduced-order modeling techniques can be incorporated in advanced nonlinear imaging algorithms. Here, we focus on an imaging application in geophysics, where the goal is to retrieve the conductivity tensor of a bounded anomaly located in the subsurface of the Earth, based on measured electromagnetic field data that is collected on a borehole axis. We demonstrate that the use of reduced-order models in a nonlinear optimization framework that attempts to solve this imaging problem indeed leads to significant computational savings without sacrificing the quality of the imaging results. To illustrate the wide applicability of model-order reduction techniques in imaging, an additional example from nuclear geophysical imaging is presented as well.

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5G Phased Arrays

International Summer School on 5G Phased Arrays

Understanding of phased array operation requires multi- disciplinary approach, which is based on the antenna array, microwave circuit and signal processing theories. By bringing these three areas together, the school provides integral approach to phased array front-ends for 5G communication systems.

At the school the phased array foundations will be considered from antenna, RF technology and signal processing points of view. Realization of 5G capabilities such as high data-rate communication link to moving objects will be discussed. The education will be concluded by a design project.

The summer school is open for all young specialists and researchers from both industry and academia. The attendees should have basic knowledge about EM, electrical circuits and signal processing (graduate courses on electromagnetic waves, electrical circuits including microwave (RF) circuits, and signal processing).

Topics:

  • Foundations of antenna arrays
  • Antenna array topologies for 5G applications
  • Analog and digital beamforming in antenna arrays
  • Front-end architecture and performance
  • 5G applications and system requirements

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Conferences

PRORISC 2018 Conference

Annual conference on Integrated Circuit (IC) design, organized within the three technical Dutch universities Twente, Delft and Eindhoven

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Conferences

SAFE 2018 Conference

Annual conference on Micro-systems, Materials, Technology and RF-devices, organized within the three technical Dutch universities of Twente, Delft and Eindhoven.

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TU Delft International Festival of Technology

Xperience Day - EEMCS evening program

John Schmitz, Ionica Smeets, Wouter Serdijn, Geurt Jongbloed, Cynthia Liem, Vinay Balaji, Alberto Gancedo

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Advances in Analog Circuit Design

27th Workshop on Advances in Analog Circuit Design

The AACD workshops are a high-quality series of events held all over the world. They have been held annually since 1992 with the aim of bringing together a large group of people working at the forefront of analog circuit design. The workshops offer the opportunity to discuss new possibilities and future developments whilst networking with key figures from across the analog design community.

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The possibilities of swarm robotics research

The possibilities of swarm robotics research

Matthijs Otten

During this presentation, I would like to introduce the topic of swarm robotics and the vision on the development of this technology that the Zebro Team (18th floor, under Chris Verhoeven) has. At Zebro we develop both the swarming technology, as well as the robots that eventually execute the swarming algorithms. We use an integrated approach, letting research and engineering go hand in hand. I would like to show the robotic platform (Zebro) that we have developed to test the swarm, alongside with the technology (Swarming algorithms, ad-hoc communication protocols and localization methods). At the end of my short presentation (+- 10 – 15min) I would like to have a brainstorm session to discuss the possibilities for cooperation. We would like the Zebro Swarming Platform to be useful to the TU Delft, and allow researchers to use the platform for their own research. Research topics for which swarm robotics could include (but are not limited to): • Indoor / Outdoor (Mobile) Localization • Signal processing in sensor networks • Sensor systems for self-deploying sensor networks • Distributed Algorithms • Ad-Hoc Mass Communication • Potential field sensing


PhD Thesis Defence

Reducing Switching Artifacts in Chopper Amplifiers

Yoshinori Kusuda

Program:
14:30 - 14:45 Layman’s talk
15:00 - 16:00 Public defense
16:15 - 16:30 Diploma ceremony
16:30 - 17:30 Reception


The abstract and the dissertation can be found in the link below. abstract
dissertation

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Electronic Instrumentation Colloquium

Reducing Switching Artifacts in Chopper Amplifiers

Yoshinori Kusuda

Abstract

Chopping is a technique with which amplifier offset can be reduced to sub-μV levels, at the expense of reduced signal bandwidth due to chopping artifacts such as up-modulated ripple and glitches. In this talk, some circuit techniques to reduce such artifacts are proposed.These circuit techniques have been used in three commercially-available operational amplifiers, whose design and measured performance will be discussed. Lastly, some of the challenges associated in testing low-offset amplifiers in mass-production will be discussed..

Biography

Yoshinori Kusuda received the B.S. degree in electrical and electronic engineering in 2002, and M.S. degree in PhysicalElectronics in 2004, both from Tokyo Institute of Technology. Upon his graduation in 2004, he joined the Japan DesignCenter of Analog Devices (ADI) as an IC design engineer. He is currently based in San Jose, CA, U.S.A., working for the Linear and Precision Technology Group of ADI. The focus of his work is on precision CMOS analog designs, including stand-alone amplifiers and application specific mixed-signal products. This has resulted in presentations and papers at IEEE conferences and journals, as well as nine issued U.S. patents. Since August2015, he has been a guest researcher at the ElectronicInstrumentation Laboratory of the TU Delft.


Predicting the intelligibility of speech

Predicting the intelligibility of speech

Steven van Kuyk
visitor New Zealand

When designing a speech-based communication system it is important to understand how the system will affect intelligibility (i.e., the proportion of correctly identified words). Although formal listening tests can provide valid data, such tests are laborious to conduct. For this reason, algorithms that predict the intelligibility of communication systems have been proposed. This talk will describe a recently proposed algorithm called SIIB, which is based on information theoretic principles. In addition, we will analyze the results of a recent evaluation that investigates the accuracy of popular intelligibility metrics.


Active Implantable Biomedical Microsystems Course

Active Implantable Biomedical Microsystems Course

Vasiliki Giagka, Virgilio Valente, Christos Strydis, Wouter Serdijn
Delft University of Technology and Erasmus Medical Center

Course on the understanding, design and future developments of active implantable biomedical microsystems, such as cochlear implants, cardiac pacemakers, spinal cord implants, neurostimulators and bioelectronic medicine.

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Levar Goossens


Smart Sensor Systems 2018

Smart Sensor Systems 2018

This course addresses the design and development of smart sensor systems. After a general overview, various key aspects of sensor systems are discussed: measurement and calibration techniques, the design of precision sensor interfaces, analog-to-digital conversion techniques, and sensing principles for the measurement of magnetic fields, temperature, capacitance, acceleration and rotation. The state-of-the-art smart sensor systems covered by the course include smart magnetic-field sensors, smart temperature sensors, physical chemosensors, multi-electrode capacitive sensors, implantable smart sensors, DNA microarrays, smart inertial sensors, smart optical microsystems and CMOS image sensors. A systematic approach towards the design of smart sensor systems is presented. The lectures are augmented by case studies and hands-on demonstrations.

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Imaging

Forward-Looking Ultra-Wideband Synthetic Array Imaging

Jianping Wang

Forward-Looking Ultra-Wideband Synthetic Array Imaging Radar imaging extends human’s “vision”, and improves people’s awareness to unknowns and invisible objects in the surrounding living environment. A motivation for the research presented in the thesis is to develop a forward-looking ground penetrating radar (GPR) system to predict hazards ahead of tunnel boring machines (TBM) during tunnel excavation. In this circumstance, GPR antennas mounted on the cutter-head of a TBM acquire electromagnetic (EM) signals with the rotation of the cutter-head, which leads to a new imaging modality termed as the Radial-scanned Synthetic Aperture Radar (RadSAR). The rotation of the antenna array benefits the formation of the RadSAR but also makes it distinct from traditional Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) modalities. In this research, we have thoroughly investigated the feasibility of the RadSAR for high-quality, high-resolution imaging by combining both the Ultra-wideband (UWB) and full polarimetry techniques. Moreover, taking advantage of the forward motion of the antenna platform (e.g. the advancement of a TBM during tunnel excavation), the RadSAR has also been extended to the Elevation-RadSAR (E-RadSAR). Compared to the RadSAR, the E-RadSAR provides the potential to get comparable imaging capability by using even fewer antennas, which is very attractive for building compact and/or cost-efficient imaging systems. To address the three-dimensional spatial sampling problem of the E-RadSAR, a general multi-dimensional sampling framework has been developed which enables to fully exploit spatial-, frequency- and polarization-diversities for signal acquisition by an advanced microwave imaging system. Beyond the applications in TBMs, some of the research results can also be extended to other applications, for instance, automotive driving and medical imaging.

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Special EI Colloquium

Capsule Endoscopy: Engineering for Preclinical Testing

Prof. Sandy Cochran, Univ. of Glasgow

Video capsule endoscopy is now a well-established clinical tool with an increasing number of diagnostic applications in the gastrointestinal tract. However, for anything other than visual diagnosis, conventional endoscopy is still required. This talk will explain progress towards more advanced capsule endoscopy devices for both diagnosis and therapy including pre-clinical testing. The diagnostic technologies explored include ultrasound and fluorescence imaging as well as pressure measurement. Ultrasound-mediated targeted drug delivery is the technique chosen for therapy; the rationale will be explained and early results will be presented. Finally, a blueprint for future progress will be proposed, including the key electronics to be implemented in application-specific integrated circuits.

Sandy Cochran holds BSc, MBA and PhD degrees. He is Professor of Ultrasound Materials and Systems with the School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, U.K., previously holding posts in Engineering, Physics, and Medicine at other Scottish universities. He is a co-author of more than 300 journal and conference papers, presentations, book chapters and patents. His research interests include devices and systems for ultrasound in medicine and life sciences, new piezoelectric materials and better utilization of existing materials, and microscale and miniature devices for new applications including microultrasound imaging. Prof. Cochran is VP Ultrasonics in the IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control Society and a Fellow of the U.K. Institute of Physics.


Special EI Colloquium

Implantable electronics : the shift from circuits to materials

Prof. Robert Puers, KU Leuven

One of the most important research topic done at MICAS is upon generic concepts for comfortable implants. Indeed human body has a strong tendency to reject foreign bodies. To create comfortable implants, the necessary steps are successively: selection of proper materials, manufacturing, in vivo testing (usually in rodents). The main problems with foreign material in the bloodstream are thrombosis and clogging. And finally the biggest challenge is properly packaging the sensors for invasion of the body. All this yields to the birth of a neologism: electroceuticals, i.e. treatment of diseases by electricity instead of drugs. One of the used methods would be electrical or optical stimulation. Of course the first thing to do is the study of the origin of the bio-potentials. Main focus is on novel materials, including polymers, and transducers, assembly in flexible and stretchable 3D interconnection matrices and packages, using biocompatible and/or bioresorbable carrier materials.

Robert (Bob) Puers received his Ph.D. in 1986 at the KU Leuven. He is a European pioneer in the research on micromachining, MEMS and packaging techniques, mainly for biomedical implantable systems. To this purpose, he installed a dedicated clean room, that now runs for more than 30 years under his guidance. In 2014, he was appointed the chair of the Leuven Nanocenter (LENA), a new research facility that merges different multidisciplinary teams in an up to date facility for nano- and bio-research. He took major efforts to increase the impact of MEMS and Microsystems in both the international research community as well as in industry. He helped to launch three spin-off companies, ICSense, Zenso and MinDCet. Dr. Puers is also an IEEE and IoP fellow.


PhD Thesis Defence

Front-End ASICs for 3-D Ultrasound: From Beamforming to Digitization

Chao Chen

Program:
12:00 - 12:15 Introductory presentation
12:30 - 13:30 Public defense
13:45 - 14:00 Diploma ceremony
Address: Senaatszaal of the Aula Congress Center

SUMMARY
This thesis describes the analysis, design and evaluation of front-end application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for 3-D medical ultrasound imaging, with the focus on the receive electronics. They are specifically designed for next-generation miniature 3-D ultrasound devices, such as transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) and intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) probes. These probes, equipped with 2-D array transducers and thus the capability of volumetric visualization, are crucial for both accurate diagnosis and therapy guidance of cardiovascular diseases. However, their stringent size constraints, as well as the limited power budget, increase the difficulty in integrating in-probe electronics. The mismatch between the increasing number of transducer elements and the limited cable count that can be accommodated, also makes it challenging to acquire data from these probes. Front-end ASICs that are optimized in both system architecture and circuit-level implementation are proposed in this thesis to tackle these problems.
The techniques described in this thesis have been applied in several prototype realizations, including one LNA test chip, one PVDF readout IC, two analog beamforming ASICs and one ASIC with on-chip digitization and datalinks. All prototypes have been evaluated both electrically and acoustically. The LNA test chip achieved a noise-efficiency factor (NEF) that is 2.5 × better than the state-of-the-art. One of the analog beamforming ASIC achieved a 0.27 mW/element power efficiency with a compact layout matched to a 150 µm element pitch. This is the highest power-efficiency and smallest pitch to date, in comparison with state-of-the-art ultrasound front-end ASICs. The ASIC with integrated beamforming ADC consumed only 0.91 mW/element within the same element area. A comparison with previous digitization solutions for 3-D ultrasound shows that this work achieved a 10 × improvement in power-efficiency, as well as a 3.3 × improvement in integration density.

The dissertation can be found in the TU Delft repository: http://doi.org/10.4233/uuid:a5002bb0-4701-4e33-aef6-3c78d0c9fd70

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Dutch Ultra Low Power Conference

The medicine of the future you’ll need to take only once, and it’s a bioelectronic one

Wouter Serdijn

The Dutch Ultra Low Power Conference brings together Belgian and Dutch professionals and companies involved in the development and application of devices with ultra low power technologies. It targets engineers, designers and technical managers in the advanced field of energy harvesting and ultra low power and energy-efficient designs. The keynote will be given by Wouter Serdijn, professor of bioelectronics at Delft University of Technology.

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MSc CE Thesis Presentation

Energy Efficient Feature Extraction for Single-Lead ECG Classification Based On Spiking Neural Networks

Eralp Kolagasioglu

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in the developed world. Preventing these deaths, require long term monitoring and manual inspection of ECG signals, which is a very time consuming process. Consequently, a wearable system that can automatically categorize beats is essential.

Neuromorphic machines have been introduced relatively recently in the science community. The aim of these machines is to emulate the brain. Their low power design makes them an optimal choice for a low power wearable ECG classifier.

As features are crucial in any machine learning system, this thesis aims at proposing an energy efficient feature extraction algorithm for ECG arrhythmia classification using neuromorphic machines. The feature extraction algorithm proposed in this thesis consists of the merger of a low power feature detection and a feature selection algorithm. Also, different network configurations have been investigated to achieve classification using an LSM architecture. The resulting system can accurately cluster seven beat types, has an overall classification rate of 95.5%, and consumes an estimate of 803.62 nW.


MEST Symposium

Mini Symposium on Hardware Security

Three talks from leading companies in the industry: Brighsight, Intrinsic ID and Riscure with the following topics:

  1.    “Past , Present and Future of Hardware Attacks on Smart Cards and SOCs” by Gerard van Battum, Sr. Security Evaluator at Brightsight;
  2.     “Removing the barriers of securing a broad range of IoT devices” by Dr. Georgios Selimis, Senior Security Engineer, Intrinsic ID;
  3.    “How to use Deep Learning for hardware security testing?” by Marc Witteman (MSc), Chief Executive Officer, Riscure.
Organized by the Micro-electronic Systems and Technology Association (MEST).

Free but required registration at the link below.

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MSc SS Thesis Presentation

The cocktail party problem: GSVD-beamformers in reverberant environments

Derk-Jan Hulsinga

Hearing aids as a form of audio preprocessing is increasingly common in everyday life. The goal of this thesis is to implement a blind approach to the cocktail party problem and challenge some of the regular assumptions made in literature. We approach the problem as wideband FD-BSS. From this field of research, the common assumption of continuous activity is dropped. Instead a number of users detection is implemented as a preprocessing step and ensure the appropriate number of demixing vectors for each time frequency bin. The validity of the standard mixing model used for STFT’s is challenged by looking at the response of a linear array.

Source separation is achieved by demixing vectors based on the GSVD, derived in a model-based approach. While most permutation solvers offer an a posteriori solution for all users, we looked at finding local solutions for a single user. Combining this with the user identification called the alignment step, we conclude that the permutation problem can be reduced to selecting a demixing vector for each discrete time-frequency instance. The correlation coefficient proves to be a sufficient metric to couple reconstructions to the original data as it selects most of the active time-frequency bins.

In simulations, our demixing vectors achieve comparable inteligibility, measured by STOI, as the compared techniques and it is more robust against smaller sample sizes than the theoretically SINR optimal MVDR.

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Fabrication and Characterization of PEDOT coated microelectrode array for Organ on Chip Application

Affan Kaysa Waafi


PhD Thesis Defence

Efficient computational methods in magnetic resonance imaging

Jeroen van Gemert
Technical University Delft

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MSc Thesis Presentation

Blind Graph Topology Change Detection: A Graph Signal Processing Approach

Ashvant Mahabir

Graphs are used to model irregular data structures and serve as models to represent/capture the interrelationships between data. The data in graphs are also referred as graph signals. Graph signal processing (GSP) can then be applied which basically extends classical signal processing to solve problems. Anomaly detection is an example of such a problem. Two hypothetical situations are given, and a detector has to be designed to distinguish between these. Under the null hypothesis, graph structures are considered to be untouched. Under the alternative hypothesis, (unknown) topological changes might have occurred. Now by incorporating a priori knowledge about the graphs, the decision making process should improve. In most works, a priori knowledge of the graphs under the null and alternative hypothesis was incorpo- rated. This means that detectors were designed which were able to anticipate on possible topological changes. In this thesis, the problem is considered where only a priori knowledge of the graph under the null hypothesis is exploited. This means that detectors are not able to anticipate on potential changes and this where blind detection comes into play. Blind detection is important because it considers a more realistic scenario. In this work, the blind topology change detector (BTCD) and the constrained blind topology change detector (CTCD) are derived which exploit different properties of the data re- lated to the known graph structure. For the BTCD, the bandlimitedness of graph signals was exploited and for the CTCD, the graph signal smoothness. The main question in this work, was to find out what the potentials are with the blind detection principle for graph change detection. Different test scenarios are used to evaluate the detectors on both synthetic and real data. For the BTCD, the obtained results compare well when information about the alternative graph is available. For this detector, the potential of blind detection was highly visible. For bandlimited graph signals, the BTCD as good as detectors using full information. For the CTCD, comparable results (with detectors using full information) are attained for just a few test scenarios. For small changes, the graph signal smoothness seems to be less powerful as to the graph signal bandlimitedness. This study showed that graph change detection is still possible without having full information. Some graph signal properties are more powerful w.r.t. others.


Antenna designs for 5G communications

Antenna designs for 5G communications

Jan Puskely

The seminar will be focused on design of future antenna system for 5G. I will give you short introduction into the problematic of Substrate Integrated Waveguide technology and its exploitation in antenna designs.

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Electrostatically activated graphene resonators

Manvika Singh


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

FPGA based real time detection and signal, processing of electric nanosecond Partial Discharge (PD) pulses to extract parameters facilitating PD classication.

Ayush Joshi

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Fabrication and characterization of High aspect ratio MEMS Electrochemical Sensor

Dong Bin Cai

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Effects of silicon oxides as substrates for graphene gas sensor

Shengtai Shi


5G Multi-Beam Antenna Topologies

5G Multi-Beam Antenna Topologies

Yanki Aslan

Description: Using the concept of beam-division multiple access, a base station can communicate with multiple users sharing the same time and frequency resources. In this seminar, I will talk about possible ways to design low-cost 5G phased array base station antenna systems at mm-waves for multiple beam forming with enhanced spatial multiplexing, limited interference, acceptable power consumption, passive cooling and suitable processing complexity and speed.

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InScience Festival Movie (Nijmegen)

Cyborgs Among Us

Wouter Serdijn

Imagine having a sixth sense! These are the first cyborgs that transcend the boundaries of human possibility and spark the debate about the technological evolution of mankind. Cyborgs Among Us offers insight into how technology can become part of us and the social and ethical implications associated with it. 

Professor Wouter Serdijn from Delft University of Technology explains technology and the human body from the perspective of bioelectronics.

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MSc BME thesis presentation

SOMNUS: An Ultra-Wideband Radar-Based Approach for Neonatal Sleep State Classification

Maria Silos Viu

Abstract:
br> In the recent years, there has been an increasing awareness of the critical role of sleep for brain development of young infants. During the early neonatal stages of human development, the basic activity of the brain is to sleep. Prolonged sleep is required in infants for further development of the nervous system. Sleep also plays an important role as body temperature regulation and energy saving system. Neonatal sleep is divided into two main different sleep stages: Rapid Eye Movement (REM) and Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM). As the infant develops, sleep stages vary in maturity, length and distribution, thus the importance of the quantification of these stages that could eventually lead to new biomarkers of neonatal brain development.

Nowadays, the gold standard in sleep monitoring are Polysomnography (PSG) studies, in which vital signs, as well as EEG and muscle activity, are recorded during a whole-night study and subsequently, sleep stages are classified by an expert. However, the high obtrusiveness of the multiple electrodes involved in the PSG and its high associated cost make it impossible to be used as routinely monitor system. SOMNUS project was divided into two main goals: (1) accurately measure respiration signals from patients using an ultra-wideband radar module, and (2) detect differences in respiration between REM and NREM phases in order to unobtrusively and automatically score sleep states of infants without the need for an electrode attached to the patient. The system was developed using a training dataset of 22 patients ranging from 3 months to 14 years old age. Previous studies had used radar technology for vital signs detection during the last years. This work provides a new data analysis algorithm to suppress motion artifacts movements from radar signals and increase the robustness of respiration monitoring. Furthermore, it represents the first time such technology is used to monitor sleep in young patients, reaching an overall sleep classification accuracy of 80%.


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Silicon based microfluidic device for smart assessment of cellular stiffness

Shinnosuke Kawasaki

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

A Dynamic Zoom ADC for Instrumentation Applications

Shoubhik Karmakar

Analog to digital converters (ADCs) are critical blocks in most signal processing chains. Especially in low bandwidth applications, there exists a need to digitize signals with high resolution and accuracy, while expending minimum energy. This thesis presents a dynamic zoom ADC for use in such applications. It takes advantage of a low power SAR ADC to maintain energy efficiency, while offering a high resolution with a ΔΣ Modulator. Fabricated in a 0.16-µm CMOS process, the prototype achieves state-of-the-art performance in a 1kHz bandwidth.


The BELCA music festival!

Annual Music Festival of the Sections Bioelectronics and Electronics

The BELCA Band, Doe Normaal, Rotterdam Centraal

Annual music festival with two invited bands and of course the BELCA band. Highly recommended. Free entrance.


MSc BME thesis presentation

System Building Blocks for Mathematical Operators Using Stochastic Resonance -- Application in an Action Potential Detection System

Insani Abdi Bangsa

MSc thesis presentation on Stochastic Resonance Systems for Biomedical Applications


PhD Thesis Defence

Signal Strength Based Localization and Path-Loss Exponent Self-Estimation in Wireless Networks

Yongchang Hu

In wireless communications, received signal strength (SS) measurements are easy and convenient to gather. SS-based techniques can be incorporated into any device that is equipped with a wireless chip.

This thesis studies SS-based localization and path-loss exponent (PLE) self-estimation. Although these two research lines might seem unrelated, they are actually marching towards the same goal. The former can easily enable a very simple wireless chip to infer its location. But to solve that localization problem, the PLE is required, which is one of the key parameters in wireless propagation channels that decides the SS level. This makes the PLE very crucial to SS-based localization, although it is often unknown. Therefore, we need to develop accurate and robust PLE self-estimation approaches,which will eventually contribute to the improvement of the localization performance.

We start with the first research line, where we try to cope with all possible issues that we encounter in solving the localization problem. To eliminate the unknown transmit power issue, we adopt differential received signal strength (DRSS) measurements. Colored noise, non-linearity and non-convexity are the next three major issues. To deal with the first two, we introduce a whitened linear data model for DRSSbased localization. Based on that and assuming the PLE is known, three different approaches are respectively proposed to tackle the non-convexity issue: an advanced best linear unbiased estimator (A-BLUE), a Lagrangian estimator (LE) and a robust semidefinite programming (SDP)-based estimator (RSDPE). To cope with an unknown PLE, we propose a robust SDP-based block coordinate descent estimator (RSDP-BCDE) that jointly estimates the PLE and the target location. Its performance iteratively converges to that of the RSDPE with a known PLE.

As mentioned earlier, while generating DRSS measurements, we eliminate the unknown transmit power. This is very similar to the way time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA) methods cope with an unknown transmit time. Both of them use a differencing process to cope with an unknown linear nuisance parameter. Our DRSS study shows the differencing process does not cause any information loss and hence the selection of the reference is not important. However, this apparently contradicts what is commonly known in TDOA-based localization, where selecting a good reference is very crucial. To resolve this conflict, we introduce a unified framework for linear nuisance parameters such that all our conclusions apply to any kind of problem that can be written into this form. Three methods that can cope with linear nuisance parameters are considered by investigating their best linear unbiased estimators (BLUEs): joint estimation, orthogonal subspace projection (OSP) method and differential method. The results coincide with those obtained in our DRSS study. For TDOA-based localization, it is actually the modelling process that causes a reference dependent information loss, not the differencing process. Many other interesting conclusions are also drawn here.

Next, we turn our attention to the second research line. Undoubtedly, knowledge of the PLE is decisive to SS-based localization and hence accurately estimating the PLE will lead to a better localization performance. However, estimating the PLE also has benefits for other applications. If each node can self-estimate the PLE in a distributed fashion without any external assistance or information, it might be very helpful for efficiently designing some wireless communication and networking systems, since the PLE yields a multi-faceted influence therein. Driven by this idea, we propose two closedform (weighted) total least squares (TLS) methods for self-estimating the PLE, which are merely based on the locally collected SS measurements. To solve the unknown nodal distance issue, we particularly extract information fromthe random placement of neighbours in order to facilitate the derivations. We also elaborate on many possible applications thereafter, since this kind of PLE self-estimation has never been introduced before.

Although the previous two methods estimate the PLE by minimizing some residue, we also want to introduce Bayesian methods, such as maximizing the likelihood. Some obstacles related to such approaches are the totally unknown distribution for the SS measurements and the mathematical difficulties of computing it, since the SS is subject to not only the wireless channel effects but also the geometric dynamics (the random node placement). To deal with that, we start with a simple case that only considers the geometric path-loss for wireless channels. We are the first to discover that in this case the SS measurements in random networks are Pareto distributed. Based on that, we derive the CRLB and introduce two maximum likelihood (ML) estimators for PLE selfestimation. Although we considered a simplified setting, finding the general SS distribution would still be very useful for studying wireless communications and networking.

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Investigation on Viscoplastic Properties of Au-Sn Die-attach Solder

Tianyi Jin


The monthly meeting of the Section Bioelectronics

Insani Abdi Bangsa, Kostas Konsolakis


Distributed and MIMO radar

Marc Lesturgie
ONERA, France

MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) radar refers to the use of multiple transmitters and receivers, for sensing the environment and the targets present in this environment. Basically MIMO radar uses multiple antennas that transmit correlated or uncorrelated waveforms. For the last ten years MIMO has led to extensive research and publications, both in communications and Radar domains. Why such interest for MIMO in radar? Beside the prolific amount of publications, how to assess the interest of MIMO to overcome the current limitations of conventional radar?

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Bioelectronics Colloquium

On the Relationship between Nyquist Rate and Healthcare: Silicon Systems to Close the Sub-Sampling Gap in Health Screening and Monitoring

Amin Arbabian, PhD (Stanford University)

Abstract
Advances in healthcare technologies have mainly focused on therapeutics, interventional procedures, and “late-stage” diagnostics. These steps have undergone significant improvements, leading to higher survival rates and enhancements in quality of life. Nevertheless, current trends are unsustainable due to the inadequate outcomes on specific critical diseases and skyrocketing national healthcare costs. An important example is cancer, where mortality rates have not seen major improvements, even with the tremendous technological advances in diagnostic imaging tools over the last four decades.

In this talk I will outline our efforts in better marrying technology and healthcare with new systems that 1) enable continuous “Nyquist” imaging and screening to enable preventive/predictive care, and 2) introduce smart implants for precision monitoring and closed-loop therapies. Preventive screening through continuous monitoring has the potential to fundamentally revamp our understanding of disease as well as targeted therapy. Today, the human body is monitored infrequently, perhaps on an annual basis and with a low “resolution”. This is in contrast with advanced electronic systems (many of which our community designs and ships), which are frequently monitored and calibrated. I will summarize a few example projects that aim to address these issues, including portable, semiconductor-based, “Tricorder” imaging systems, ultrasound-powered implantable devices that can measure, detect, and act upon local physiological changes through closed-loop neuromodulation or “electroceuticals”, and finally our new investigation of a noninvasive methods of neuromodulation based on ultrasonic excitation.

Biography
Amin Arbabian received his Ph.D. degree in EECS from UC Berkeley in 2011 and in 2012 joined Stanford University, as an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering. His research interests are in mm-wave and high-frequency circuits and systems, imaging technologies, and ultra-low power sensors and implantable devices. Prof. Arbabian currently serves on the steering committee of RFIC, the technical program committees of RFIC and ESSCIRC, and as associate editor of the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Letters (SSC-L) and the IEEE Journal of Electromagnetics, RF and Microwaves in Medicine and Biology (J-ERM). He is the recipient or co-recipient of the 2016 Stanford University Tau Beta Pi Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, 2015 NSF CAREER award, 2014 DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA) including the Director’s Fellowship in 2016, 2013 Hellman faculty scholarship, and best paper awards from several conferences including ISSCC (2010), VLSI Circuits (2014), RFIC symposium (2008 and 2011), ICUWB (2013), PIERS (2015), and the MTT-S BioWireless symposium (2016).

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PhD Thesis Defence

Solid State Lighting Color Shift

Guangjun Lu

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PhD Thesis Defence

The Lifetime Prediction of LED Drivers and Lamps

Bo Sun

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Microelectronics Tenure Track Review Colloquium

Masoud Babaie, Morteza Alavi, Faruk Uysal

On September 20, The next Tenure Track Review Colloquium will take place. Two assistant professors from the ElCA group and one from the MS3 group will present their research. The colloquium starts at 15.00 hrs and will be followed by a drink.


Faruk Uysal (15.00 - 15.30)
Distributed Radar Networks: Automotive Radar and more


The number of automotive radar is rapidly increasing due to the growing demand of the remote sensing for autonomous driving. With the increase of active transmitters, spectrum management and coexistence started to become a concern for some radar systems. In this talk, the challenges in automotive radar will be discussed. The applications of waveform agility will be reviewed to bring multi-functionality (such as simultaneous ranging and communication) to not only the automotive radar but also the large scale radar systems. Finally, we will discuss the future research for distributed radar networks to address the needs in Safety and Security.

Masoud Babaie (15.30 - 16.00)
An adventure for All Seasons: Hunting Spurious tones


Frequency synthesizers are one of the main building blocks of any wireless transceiver. Different analog and digital-intensive architectures have been proposed to efficiently generate LO signals for frequency up/down-conversion. However, all structures suffer from reference/fractional spurious tones in their output spectrum due to the phase detector's nonlinearity and the oscillator's sensitivity to the environmental disturbance. In this presentation, we introduce two different techniques to improve the spurious emission of frequency synthesizers. In the first part, we propose a method to significantly reduces the supply sensitivity of RF oscillators. The second part of this talk investigates the roots of spurious tones in an injection-locked PLL and offer some remedies.

Morteza Alavi (16.00 - 16.30)
Direct Digital Radio


With the proliferation of wireless technology and ever-growing demand to get access to a super-fast Internet connection, there is a need to revitalize radio systems aimed for supporting the next generations of the wireless mobile network. These advanced mobile communication systems facilitate seamless online streaming of cloud big data along with 4k Ultra-HD TV programs through mobile gadgets such as smartphones, tablets and augmented reality (AR) devices.

Moreover, to benefit from the advanced CMOS technology and swiftly migrate to the lower process nodes, the transceiver architecture is reinvented towards direct-digital transceiver.

In such communication system, the digital-intensive transmitter (TX) is one of the fundamental building blocks that translates highspeed digital baseband signals into a radio frequency (RF) analog counterpart. This short presentation will briefly describe strengths, feasibilities, and challenges that exist in the direct-digital TX. To address their major issues, recently advanced techniques that have been verified by the ELCA group will concisely be discussed.


EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON CIRCUIT THEORY AND DESIGN, CATANIA, SEPTEMBER 4-6, 2017

Getting Better with Electroceuticals – electronic medicine to the rescue

Wouter Serdijn

Wouter Serdijn will give a keynote at the 23th European Conference on Circuit Theory and Design, Sept. 4-6, 2017, in Catania, Italy

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Msc Thesis Presentation

Multi-FPGA Interconnection Simulation

He Zhang

The scalable simulation of neuron communication needs a large amount of computing resources. The high throughput of data cause the high requirement of interconnection network. This thesis is aimed at the finding the proper multi-FPGA connection for the neuron network. First describe the characteristics of the network in terms of the topology, routing and flow control. To find the proper connection, analysis of the throughput for the different network with different traffic pattern by considering the hopcount and bandwidth are made. It shows that the multicast is a good solution. Based on the interconnection router architecture, a simulator is built to make a cycle accurate simulation in systemC and test different traffic pattern by unicast and multicast routing. To break the limitation of FPGA ports, the source synchronous serdes connection is built by using the primitive in the Xilinx FPGA. With the requirement of bandwidth, the possible solution of number of channels and the overhead are anaylsed.


Msc Thesis Presentation

Full-Custom Multi-Compartment Synaptic Circuits in Neuromorphic Structures

Xuefei You

Neuromorphic engineering, aiming at emulating neuro-biological architectures in efficient ways, has been widely studied both on component and VLSI system level. The design space of neuromorphic neuron, the basic unit to conduct signal processing and transmission in nervous system, has been widely explored while that of synapse, the specialized functional unit connecting neurons, is less investigated. In this thesis, a current-based phenomenological synapse model with power-efficient structures, consisting of efficient synaptic learning algor ithms and multi-compartment synapses, has been proposed. A vertical insight is given into the design space of spike-based learning rules in regards to design complexity and biological fidelity. Due to various biological conducting mechanisms, the receptors, namely AMPA, NMDA and GABAa, demonstrate different kinetics in response to stimulus. The designed circuit offers distinctive features of receptors as well as the joint synaptic function. A better computation ability is demonstrated through a cross-correlation detection experiment with a recurrent network of synapse clusters. The analog multi-compartment synapse structure is able to detect and amplify the temporal synchrony embedded in the synaptic noise. The maximum amplification level is 2 times larger than that of single-receptor configurations The final design implemented in UMC65nm technology consumes 1.92, 3.36, 1.11 and 35.22pJ per spike event of energy for AMPA, NMDA, GABAa receptors and the advanced learning circuit, respectively.

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Msc Thesis Presentation

A 32 x 32 Spiking Neural Network System On Chip

Ester Stienstra

In this thesis a prototyping system on chip of a 32 x 32 spiking neural network is presented. This network has been designed in UMC 65. In order to determine which neuron model to use three different analog CMOS neuron models are studied. One of these models is used in the network. The network consists of arrays of synapses and neurons, 32 synapses for each neuron. In order to be able to control all the synaptic inputs and read all the neural outputs, logic is presented that minimizes the number of pads needed, while maintaining controllability and keeping all the important information in the neural signal. Simulations are performed to determine the influence of several behaviors of the neuron and the synapse on the output of the network. Also a floorplan and place and route design for the chip are presented.


Msc Thesis Presentation

Source-Synchronous Interface with All-Digital Data Recovery

Shizhao Zhang

This thesis proposes a low-cost high-efficiency source-synchronous interface for high-speed inter-chip communication. The interface is composed of LVDS transceivers as external I/O buffers, and an alldigital data recovery, which can calibrate the received data phase to be aligned to the 90◦ phase of the received half-rate reference clock, for error free data sampling. The proposed data recovery adopts a fulldigital scheme, which uses time-to-digital converters (TDC) as phase acquisition, a digitally-controlled delay line (DCDL) to calibrate the phase, and a finite-state machine (FSM) as the control unit. Reference clock generated from phase-locked loops (PLL) or delay-locked loops (DLL) is not needed for the proposed data recovery. The interface is implemented in UMC 65 nm Low-leakage technology, with circuits designed at both transistor-level and RTL-level. The postlayout simulation shows the proposed interface works properly with data rates from 412.4Mbps to 1.25Gbps in all process corners. The total layout area is 688 ñm × 87 ñm, and the total power consumption is 16.74 mW.


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

High Density Flexible Interconnect for Minimally Invasive Medical Instruments

Michel van der Kaay


MSc CE Thesis Presentation

An Accurate System-Level Device Aging Assessment and Mitigation Simulation Framework

Evelyn Rashmi Jeyachandra

As technology scaling enters the nanometer regime, device aging effects cause quality and reliability issues in CMOS Integrated Circuits (ICs), which in turn shorten its lifetime. Evaluating system aging through circuit simulations is very complex and time consuming. In this thesis, a framework is proposed, which allows for the evaluation of long-term aging effects of ICs and the corresponding measures to counteract premature failure. The focus of this work lies in the abstraction of low-level aging models to system-level models, in order to facilitate swift high-level simulation, without any knowledge of underlying circuit dynamics.

Two major aging mechanisms, namely Negative Bias Temperature Instability (NBTI) and Channel Hot Carrier (CHC) degradation are considered for analysis. System-level aging management is performed with the prototype of a System-on-Chip (SoC) including a Management Unit (MU), which counteracts aging by employing Dynamic Voltage Scaling (DVS), Dynamic Frequency Scaling (DFS), and Adaptive Body Biasing (ABB). The simulation platform prototype is based on System-C and a 65-nm technology library. This SoC simulation computes path delay using characterized models, which represent the aged behaviour of individual circuit elements. Results show that the obtained values are within 2% of circuitlevel simulation values.

Furthermore, the System-C implementation has a shorter execution time with an approximate speedup of 15 times over conventional circuit simulators (e.g. Cadence NCSim).

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PhD Thesis Defence

Cinzia Silvestri

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Scientific seminar on radar technology

Various TU presenters: Delft, Université Toulouse, Thales

EEMCS Chip 10.30-11.00 Walk in, with coffee and tea 11.00-11.10 Welcome by Alexander Yarovoy (TUD) 11.10-11.45 Nikita Petrov (TUD), ‘ Range migrating targets detection with wideband radar”. (TUD) 11.50-12.30 Pascal Aubry (TUD) , ’ Coloured transmission at MS3’ Lijm & Cultuur, Chaos 14.00-14.05 Welcome by Leo Ligthart (em. prof. TUD) 14.05-14.40 Willem Hol (Thales NL) 14.45-15.20 Stephanie Bidon (Université Toulouse , ‘Bayesian sparse estimation of migrating targets in wideband radar’ 15.25-16.00 Stephane Kemkemian (Thales Fr) , ‘Advance in airborne AESA radars over 3 decades. From slotted plane arrays to multi functions AESA’ 16.00-16.35 Cyrille Enderli (Thales Fr) ‘Detection of extended targets with wideband radars’ Drinks


Microelectronics IoT Pitch

and Summer Drink

All ME-MSc’s and ME-employees are cordially invited to make a 2-minute pitch for an interesting and unexpected IoT application.

The format is free like the level of seriousness and feasibility are but there is a meaningful purpose as the event is meant to inspire the definition of technology integrating projects in the field of IoT. The pitches will be ‘graded’ by measuring the intensity of the applause. The pitch wil be followed by the yearly Summer Drink of the Microelectronics Department.


PhD thesis defence Yao Liu

Analysis and Design of Low-Power Receivers: Exploiting Non-50-Ohm Antenna Impedance and Phase-Only Quantization

Yao Liu

Summary

Reducing the power consumption of low-power short-range receivers is of critical importance for biomedical and Internet-of-Things applications. Two interesting degrees of freedom (or properties) that have not been fully exploited in the pursuit of low power consumption are the antenna impedance and the phase-only modulation property of FSK/PSK signals. This dissertation explores the possibility of reducing the power consumption of the receiver by utilizing these two degrees of freedom.

The feasibility of using a non-50-ohm antenna impedance in an active receiver front-end is first studied. A general antenna-electronics interface analysis is carried out, suggesting that power transfer is not the only design objective in the interface, but that the impedances of antenna and load need to be optimized for either voltage or current, depending on which is more favorable to measure with the electronics. This principle has been applied to a co-design example of an inductive antenna impedance and a low-noise amplifier (LNA). A passive RF gain can be achieved by using the proposed principle, and hence the noise figure (NF) can be reduced without sacrificing power consumption. The concept of a non-50-ohm antenna impedance is also exploited in the context of passive front-ends (PFEs). An inductive antenna impedance proves beneficial for increasing the passive voltage gain of an antenna-LNA interface. The study of the PFE aims for the same voltage-boosting effect by incorporating the inductive antenna impedance in the PFE. An analysis reveals that the inductive antenna impedance introduces two extra degrees of freedom to increase the downconverted voltage of the front-end for a given antenna available power. In order to well maintain the passive gain offered by the inductive antenna impedance together with its resonant load, the passive mixer should present a high-quality-factor capacitive input. This is achieved by incorporating an intermediate inductance in the passive network. The proposed front-end and a baseband LNA have been implemented to verify the voltage-boosting effect. The implementation has a passive gain of 11.6 dB, which is close to the state-of-the-art of 12 dB.

A promising concept which can fully utilize the phase-only modulation property of FSK/PSK signals is that of phase-domain analog-to-digital converters (PhADCs). This dissertation also deals with the analysis and design of PhADCs. First of all, analytical methods are proposed to comprehensively compare the PhADC and an (in-phase and quadrature) IQ ADC. Phase signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) expressions of the two ADC types are formulated analytically to facilitate a quantitative comparison of the ADCs. In comparison with the IQ ADC, the PhADC, due to its embedded demodulation attribute, is a more compact quantization and demodulation solution when interference accommodation is not required. Moreover, considering a flash ADC as an example of the low resolution (3-4 bit) IQ ADC, the PhADC has a lower theoretical energy limit than the flash IQ ADC for a given phase effective number of bits (ENOB) due to the immunity to magnitude variations and the phase-only quantization, thereby showing the great room for energy efficiency improvement that the PhADC has. Second, having discussed the interesting attributes of the PhADC, an IQ-assisted conversion algorithm and a corresponding circuit topology to improve the energy efficiency of the PhADC are proposed. Thanks to the successive approximation (SAR)-like algorithm and charge-domain operation, the prototype achieves a FoM of 1.2 pJ/step, which is better than the state-of-the-art of 8.3 pJ/step. Finally, the explicit relationship between the input amplitude SNR and the output phase SNR of the PhADC has been formulated. This relationship facilitates the system analysis of a receiver using a PhADC.

Using the proposed PFE and charge-redistribution PhADC, a receiver system is constructed. Based on the measured specifications of the PFE and the PhADC, the simulated performance of a PGA and a 2nd-order filter and the analysis outcomes of the PhADC presented in Chapter 4, the benefit of using the PhADC for a receiver system is quantified. For the proposed PFE and the IEEE 802.15.6 application, two ADCs (for I and Q paths) with a SNR of 30.4 dB are needed if an amplitude ADC is used, while a PhADC with a phase SNR of 24.5 dB (when the input amplitude is -11.9 dBm) is sufficient if a PhADC is used. For an antenna input level of -83.6 dBm (which corresponds to the minimum input level that has been specified for the PhADC), the presented receiver system demonstrates a sufficient overall SNR for the IEEE 802.15.6 standard, thereby paving the way to fully-integrated low-power receivers for the standard.

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DCSE/SIAM Seminar

Untangling nonlinearity in  inverse scattering with data-driven reduced order models

Vladimir Druskin
Schlumberger-Doll, Boston

We consider an inverse problem for the acoustic wave equation, where an array of sensors probes an unknown medium with pulses and measures the scattered waves. The goal is to determine from these measurements the structure of the scattering medium, modeled by a spatially varying acoustic impedance function.

Many inversion algorithms assume that the mapping from the unknown  impedance to the scattered waves is approximately linear. The linearization, known as the Born approximation, is not accurate in strongly scattering media, where the waves undergo multiple reflections before they reach the sensors in the array. Thus, the reconstructions of the impedance have numerous artifacts.  In this talk we show that it is possible to remove the multiple scattering effects from the data registered at the array, using a reduced order model (ROM). The ROM is defined by an orthogonal projection of the wave propagator operator on the subspace spanned by the time snapshots of the solution of the wave equation. The snapshots are known only at the sensor locations, which is enough information to construct the ROM. The main result of the paper is a novel  algorithm that uses the ROM to map the data to its Born approximation.  We develop the algorithm from first principles and demonstrate its accuracy with numerical simulations.


Chip Design Workshop

IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society

Program: 12:30 Coffee, 12:50 Welcome, Kofi Makinwa, TU Delft, 13:00 Introduction, Patrick Reyanert, KU Leuven, 13:15 – 13:40 A Dynamic Zoom ADC with 109 dB DR for Audio Applications, Burak Gönen, TU Delft, 13:40 – 14:00 A 0.3-2.6 TOPS/W Precision-Scalable Processor for Real-Time Large-Scale ConvNets - Bert Moons, KU Leuven, 14:20 – 14:45 Coffee Break, Talks by Benelux Chip Design Contest Winners: 14:0 – 14:20 A 94.6%-Efficiency Fully Integrated Switched-Capacitor DC-DC Converter in 40nm - Nicholas Butse, KU Leuven, Talks by Invited Speakers: 14:45 – 15:15 Design mistakes you’d rather not talk about, Klaas Bult 15:15 – 15:45 Cryo-CMOS for Quantum Computing, Fabio Sebastiano, TU Delft,


MSc thesis presentation

A Low-Complexity CMOS Receiver for UWB siqnals

Ernesto Huaman

Ernesto's MSc thesis presentation on localization using UWB and its implementation in CMOS


NeuroControl Symposium 2017

Electroceuticals -- bio-electronic medicine as an alternative to drugs

Wouter Serdijn

Wouter Serdijn will give a keynote at the 2017 symposium of IMDI NeuroControl on the future of medicine, which will be electronic

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Seminar autonomous driving

Autonomous driving

Leo de Vreede, Alexander Yarovoy, Cicero Vaucher, Riender Happee, Dariu Gravila, Rossiza Gourova, Joris Domhof

Program 11.00 - 11.05 Opening (by Alexander Yarovoy and Leo de Vreede 11.05 - 11.35 S4-Drive project (PhD’s Rossiza Gourova (EEMCS) and Joris Domhof (3ME)) 11.35 - 12.05 Dariu Gavrila,‘Autonomous driving' 12.05 – 13.35 Riender Happee,‘Human Factor on autonomous driving’ Lunch break Lipkenszaal 13.00 - 13.30 Cicero Vaucher,‘Automotive radars’ 13.30 -14.00 CRUISE project proposal (Cicero Vaucher, Masoud Babaie and Faruk Uysal)


Conferences

2017 Symposium on Information Theory and Signal Processing in the Benelux

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Conferences

Eurosensors dead-line


Millimeter- and Submillimeter-Wave Applications in Biology: Potential and Challenges

Peter H. Siegel
California Institute of Technology

The millimeter and submillimeter wave regimes, roughly spanning 30-3000 GHz, have moved to the forefront of recent expansion and innovative use of the RF spectrum. Traditional motivations for working at millimeter wavelengths have tended to focus mainly on commercial and defense-motivated wireless applications, such as communications, radar and to some extent, imaging. At higher THz frequencies, despite considerable commercial pressure, most of the emphasis is still on basic science, with a strong concentration in fundamental physics and chemistry, spectroscopy, and ground and space-based astrophysics, planetary atmospheres, and Earth science. As we move from the “Space Age” into the “Age of Biology” it is appropriate to take a closer look at what we can already do with millimeter and submillimeter-wave technology, and whether we might turn up any interesting new applications, or at least find some low hanging fruit which might be easily plucked, by simply refocusing some existing circuits and techniques. On the way, there are essential tweaks that have to be made to common devices and circuits, particularly antennas, in order to accommodate the constraints of water-based tissue.


Professoren in de Arena

Professoren in de Arena: De bionische mens, van protheses naar upgrades

Wouter Serdijn, Just Herder, Harrie Weinans, Project March

Op 28 maart gaan drie hoogleraren, waaronder Wouter Serdijn, met elkaar in debat over 'de bionische mens'. Wat is er mogelijk en hoe ver kun, wil en mag je gaan? In drie korte minicolleges praten de heren u bij en worden ze vervolgens stevig aan de tand gevoeld door cabaretier, columnist en TU-docent Jasper van Kuijk. In de discussie die daarop volgt, wordt het publiek van harte uitgenodigd mee te doen.

De sprekers van deze avond zijn:

Just Herder - Professor of Interactive Mechanisms and Mechatronics

Harrie Weinans - Professor of Tissue Biomechanics and Implants

Wouter Serdijn - Professor in Bio-Electronics

Project March

Deze editie van ‘Professoren in de Theaterarena’ wordt georganiseerd i.s.m. het ‘Explore your Brain’ evenement van de TU Delft Library in het kader van het 175 jarig bestaan van de TU Delft.

Over Professoren in de Arena

In nauwe samenwerking met de TU Delft en de universiteiten van Leiden en Rotterdam zetten wij in een theatrale setting steeds drie spraakmakende hoogleraren op het podium rondom een actueel thema. Deze onderwerpen worden van verschillende kanten belicht, vanuit de harde wetenschap en/of maatschappelijke en ethische hoek. In een magazine-achtig format met korte colleges, stand-up colums wordt u bijgepraat en doet u mee in de discussie.

Locatie: Theatercafé, Theater de Veste

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Microelectronics Colloquium

Microelectronics Department Colloquium

Daniele Cavallo, Vasiliki Giagka, Fabio Sebastiano, Rob Remis

On Wednesday March 15 the next Microelectronics colloquium wil take place, including four lectures by staff members.

Please register online by completing the form.

  • Vasso Giagka
    Flexible bioelectronic medicines

    Abstract: Bioelectronic medicines are the next generation of neuromodulation devices: small active three-dimensional neural interfaces able to modulate nerve activity by targeting a specific neural region. They aim to treat a number of conditions, such as diabetes and asthma, in a tailored (per individual) and reversible fashion, avoiding the side effects of conventional drug-based interventions (pharmaceuticals). They achieve so by recording signals from the respective nerves, extracting information and using it as feedback to electrically stimulate the neural region in a closed-loop manner.

    Current technologies for active implants have not yet managed to achieve the miniaturisation and integration levels required for the development of bioelectronic medicines. For such breakthrough devices, novel concepts need to be explored, developed, and tested.

    In this talk I will present my current activities as well as my vision on realizing the first flexible three-dimensional graphene active implant, for safe chronic neural stimulation and recording from the peripheral nerves.

  • Fabio Sebastiano
    Cryo-CMOS for Quantum Computing: does it work?

    Quantum computing holds the promise to change our lives by efficiently solving computing problems that are intractable today, such as simulation of quantum systems for synthesis of materials and drugs. A quantum computer comprises both a quantum processor and a classical electronic controller to operate and read out the quantum devices. The quantum processor must be cooled at cryogenic temperature in order to show quantum behavior, thus making it unfeasible to wire thousands of signals from the cryogenic quantum devices to a room-temperature controller.

    While this issue can be solved by placing also the electronic controller at cryogen¬ic temperature, which electronic technology is the best choice for its implementation? This talk will address the challenges of building such electronic controller, and answer whether a standard CMOS technology can be employed for the required analog and digital circuits operating at 4 K and below.

  • Daniele Cavallo
    Advanced Antenna Arrays for Modern Radar and Communication Systems

    Abstract: Several of today’s radar and wireless communication applications are shifting their operation to higher frequency to fulfil more demanding requirements on resolution, compactness and data rates. For this reason, there is a growing need to develop low-cost integrated circuit transceivers working at millimeter and sub-millimeter waves.

    However, on-chip antennas are currently characterized by very poor radiation efficiency and extremely narrow bandwidth. My approach of combining the concepts of connected arrays with artificial dielectrics will solve the inefficiency problem and enable high-efficiency on-chip antenna designs.

    Similar concepts can be also realized at microwave frequencies in printed circuit board, allowing for low-cost phased array antennas with state-of-the-art performance in terms of scan range, bandwidth and polarization purity.

  • Rob Remis
    Imaging with Waves

    We present an overview of our current wave field imaging and inversion research. Effective inversion strategies for important applications in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), nano-optics, and subsurface monitoring will be discussed. In particular, dielectric shimming (shaping of the radio frequency field in MRI) as well as inversion algorithms that determine the dielectric properties of various tissue types based on measured MRI data will be considered, and state-of-the-art model-order reduction techniques for large-scale wave propagation problems will be discussed as well.


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Inverse Problems in Electromangetics

Challenges and New Frontiers

IEEE AP-Sdistinguished Professor Andrea lecturer: MASSA
University of Trento and Director Eledia Research Center

Inverse problems arise when formulating and addressing many synthesis and sensing applications in modern electromagnetic engineering. Indeed, the objective of antenna design, microwave imaging, and radar remote sensing can be seen as that of retrieving a physical quantity (the shape of the radiating system, the dielectric profile of a device under test, the reflectivity of an area) starting from (either measured or “desired”) electromagnetic field data. Nevertheless, the solution of the well‐known theoretical features (including ill‐posedness, non‐uniqueness, ill‐conditioning, etc.) of electromagnetic inverse problems still represents a major challenge from the practical viewpoint. Indeed, developing and implementing robust, fast, effective, and general‐purpose techniques able to solve arbitrary electromagnetic inverse problem still represent a holy grail from the academic and industrial viewpoint. Accordingly, several ad‐hoc solutions (i.e., effective only for specific application domains) have been developed in the recent years

In this framework, one of the most important research frontiers is the development of inversion techniques which enable the exploitation of both the information coming from the electromagnetic data and of that which is provided by prior knowledge of the scenario, application, or device of interest. Indeed, exploiting a‐priori information to regularize the problem formulation is known to be a key asset to reduce the drawbacks of inversion processes (i.e., the its ill‐posedness). However, properly introducing prior knowledge within an inversion technique is an extremely complex task, and suitable solutions are available only for specific classes of scenarios (e.g., comprising sparseness regularization terms).The aim of this talk is to provide a broad review of the current trends and objectives in the development of innovative inversion methodologies and algorithms. Towards this end, after a review of the literature on the topic, different classes of methodologies aimed at combining prior and acquired information (possibly in an iterative fashion) will be discussed, and guidelines on how to apply the arising strategies to different domains will be provided, along with numerical/experimental results. The open challenges and future trends of the research will be discussed as well

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MS3 seminar

Capabilities and Research Activities at the University of Oklahoma Advanced Radar Research Center

Prof. Nathan A. Goodman
The Advanced Radar Research Center (ARRC) at the University of Oklahoma

The Advanced Radar Research Center (ARRC) at the University of Oklahoma consists of a vibrant group of faculty and students from both engineering and meteorology, focused on solving challenging radar problems and preparing the next generation of students. Through the collaborative nature instilled in its members, the ARRC has proven effective at developing synergy between science and engineering in the field of radar. The ARRC resides in state-of-art Radar Innovations Laboratory, a one-of-a-kind and unrivalled facility for radar research, development, and education. This 35,000-sqft facility includes microwave labs, advanced fabrication capability, and two anechoic chambers.

Bio Prof. Goodman: Nathan A. Goodman received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Kansas, Lawrence, in 1995, 1997, and 2002, respectively. From 1996 to 1998, he was an RF systems engineer for Texas Instruments, Dallas, TX., and from 2002 to 2011, he was a faculty member in the ECE Department of the University of Arizona, Tucson. He is now a Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Director of Research for the Advanced Radar Research Center at the University of Oklahoma, Norman.


MS3 seminar

MS3 Master Event

Come to learn about our group and current Master Thesis Projects...

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Terahertz Sensing group seminar

Design of mm-wave, multifunction ICs for data communication and remote sensing

Prof. Herbert Zirath
Chalmers University of Technology

FLYER OF THE SEMINAR___________
The transmission rate of wireless data in the mobile networks is doubling every year due to the increased usage of mobile multimedia services like streaming video, music, television, data transfer in smartphones and laptop-computers etc. This tendency will require continuously improved telecom infrastructure regarding both base-stations and the backhaul communication links. Today, the E-band (71-76, 81-86, 92-95 GHz) is employed increasingly in the networks, allowing multi Gbps data rate. In a near future however, the E-band will be crowded, and novel, higher frequency bands will have to be employed as well. Several hundred Gigahertz bandwidth is available for new communication and sensing applications just waiting to be exploited at frequencies above 100 GHz. Until now, components for making such ‘THz-systems’ have been too expensive, too bulky, too power hungry and nonsufficient in terms of generating enough power for communication systems. With newly developed RFIC-processes, it is now possible to design multifunctional integrated circuits, realizing a full ‘frontend on a chip’ at frequencies well beyond 100 GHz. Recent results from ongoing projects aiming at enabling new applications for next generation mobile infrastructure, 5G, and security imaging, up to 340 GHz will be reported. So far, critical building blocks such as LNA, PA, VCO, modulator and demodulator, frequency multiplier, power detector and mixer have recently been developed, and results will be reported. Multifunction front-end circuits such as complete receive and transmit RFICs, mixed signal designs for co-integrated baseband/frontend ICs, and radiometer ICs have also been developed and will be reported as well, including the newly developed D-band (110 to 170 GHz) frontend chipset demonstrating state-of-the-art bitrate of beyond 40 Gbps.

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MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Enhancement of the Spatial Resolution for the Temperature Sensing System of the 7 Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging Scanner

Tariq Saboerali

The MRI scanner with an ultrahigh magnetic field of 7T not only increases the image resolution but it also increases the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) of the patient. In other words, the body temperature of the patient increases due to the absorption of heat produced by the 7T MRI scanner. This is dangerous for the health of the patient. In order to ensure that the SAR level of the patient does not exceed the acceptable limit, the body temperature of the patient should be monitored during the scan with a spatial resolution as small as possible. This way safety measures can be taken immediately if the body temperature increases. In order to monitor the temperature during the MRI scan, fiber optic sensors (FOS) can be used. The fiber optic sensors (FOS) are immune from electromagnetic interference and there is no electrical connection to the patient and thus it is safe to monitor the temperature during an MRI scan by using FOS [1]. However, the FOS may have a spatial resolution which is not acceptable for medical purposes. This study focuses on methods to increase the spatial resolution of an existing fiber optic temperature sensing system of a 7T MRI scanner. To increase the spatial resolution of the existing temperature sensing system two methods are evaluated, namely the total variation deconvolution method and the blind deconvolution method. This study shows that the total variation deconvolution method gives the best results for the input temperature estimate. The blind deconvolution method strongly depends on the initial guess of the impulse response of the temperature sensing system, which is difficult to find. Therefore the results of the input temperature and the impulse response are less reliable when using the blind deconvolution method. Also it is shown that the machine resolution gets worse when increasing the spatial resolution by interpolating the input temperature in the Fourier domain.


Non-instrusive near-field characterization of Microwave circuits and devices

Rui Hou

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PhD Thesis Defence

Monolithic 3D Wafer Level Integration Applied for Smart LED Wafer Level Packaging

Zahra Kolahdouz Esfahani

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Signal Processing Seminar

Transmitter and Receiver Optimization for MIMO Radar Systems

Tuomas Aittomaki
Aalto University, Finland

The spatial and waveform diversity achieved in MIMO radars can be beneficial for target detection and target parameter estimation, especially for low-observability targets. Taking advantage of the diversity requires optimization of both the transmitter and the receiver end. For the transmitter, it is necessary to encode the transmitted waveforms to have minimal sidelobe and cross-correlation levels. Also by appropriate spatial coding, the channel estimation error can be reduced. Furthermore, the transmit power allocation can be optimized. For the receivers, mismatched filters can be optimized to reduce jamming and clutter as well as the sidelobe and the cross-correlation levels for any Doppler frequency.


PhD Thesis Defence

Radar networks performance analysis and topology optimization

Inna Ivashko

Inna Ivashko succesfully defended her defence on December 13th.

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MSc CE Thesis Presentation

A Real-Time Hybrid Neuron Network for Highly Parallel Cognitive Systems

G.J. Christiaanse

For comprehensive understanding of how neurons communicate with each other, new tools need to be developed that can accurately reproduce and mimic the behaviour of such neurons in real-time. By using current complex mathematical models, simulated neurons are able to accurately approximate the behaviour of biological neural tissue. This comes at the price of computing complexity, resulting in responses that lag behind, and thus cannot interface with biological neurons.

The proposed design in this thesis, models an Inferior Olivary Nucleus network on an FPGA device, with a maximised amount of simulated neurons for the given FPGA family type. To achieve both accuracy and real-time speed, a complex biophysically meaningful mathematical model has been analysed and scheduled on a highly pipelined, and parallel running architecture design, specified within a SystemC specification. This has contributed to the creation of hybrid neuron network that executes optimally scheduled floating-point operations that, together with open source IP, has resulted in cost-effective solutions, capable of simulating responses faster or on par with their biological counterparts.


Microelectronics Introduction Colloquium

Introduction 3 new Tenure Trackers

Masoud Babaie, Morteza Alavi, Faruk Uysal

On December 12 we organize the next Microelectronics Colloquium to introduce three new Assistant Professors (Tenure Trackers) of the Microelectronics department. They are happy to present a lecture about their research.

The colloquium start at 15.00 hrs. there will be a drink afterwards in the foyer.
Location: Theatre of Culture Builing (38) Mekelweg 10.
Please register online if you want to attend, latest December 5.

  • Masoud Babaie: Pushing The Limits of CMOS Circuits for Emerging Technologies
    Within the next few years, quantum processors, Fifth Generation (5G) cellular systems and the wireless Internet-of-Things (IoT) are expected to see significant deployment to realize more integration between the physical and digital worlds, promising enormous computation power, high data rate communications and enabling more objects to be remotely sensed and controlled.

    This talk will address some of the main challenges in the design and implementation of IoT devices, mm-wave 5G transceivers, and cryogenic CMOS controller for quantum computers. An overview of my past and ongoing research activities will be also presented, with emphasis on novel solutions to improve power efficiency and spectral purity of RF/mm-wave transceivers.

  • Morteza Alavi: Universal Transmitters for 5G
    Today, our daily activities are intertwined with the Internet. The ever-growing demand to swiftly get access to the data-cloud systems leads to huge data traffic. In order to seamlessly transmit and receive these gigantic data, _ 40 GB, agile radio-frequency (RF) transceivers are inevitable.

    These radios must be capable of supporting the current and future communication standards such as 5th generation of wireless mobile communications. The ultimate goal is that they can be implemented as universal radios whose modes of operation can be defined by their clients. To address these demands, RF transmitters are currently reinvented and are directed towards digital-intensive architecture. In this short presentation, we will briefly describe the strengths,possibilities, and challenges that exist for these advanced transmitters. First and foremost, the concept of RF-DAC based transmitters will be introduced. Next, the talk will review various RF-DAC based transmitters that have already been implemented at ELCA. Eventually, the presentation will concisely unveil the future directions of the research of these software-defined transmitters at ELCA.

  • Faruk Uysal: Distributed Radar Networks: Beyond a single radar
    The number of operational radar is rapidly increasing due to the growing demand of the remote sensing. Software defined radio and emerging single-chip radar technology make use of radars in every aspect of life such as autonomous driving, safety and security applications. With the increase of active transmitters, spectrum management and coexistence started to become a concern for some radar systems. In this talk, the previous applications of waveform, frequency agility will be reviewed to bring multi-functionality to the modern radar system. Finally, we will discuss the future research for distributed radar networks and how to fuse data from various radars to acquire different aspects of a target to be viewed simultaneously.


MSc BME Thesis Presentation

Wireless Power Transfer and Optogenetic Stimulation of Freely Moving Rodents

Farnaz Nassiri Nia

Animal studies are commonly used to test the feasibility and effectiveness of promising novel neuroscience research ideas. One such new technique is optogenetic stimulation, which refers to stimulation of the brain by means of light. Current optogenetic stimulation methods use tethered setups and, typically, the animal-under-study is put into a fixed position. This introduces stress, an obvious reduction in animal welfare, and may thus influence the experimental results. Hence, an untethered setup is highly desirable. Therefore, in this thesis, we propose a complete wireless optogenetic stimulation setup, which allows for full freedom of movement for multiple rodents-under-study in a 40x40x20 cm environment.

This thesis includes a thorough design space exploration and the subsequent development of: an inductive wireless link, a wireless receiver module that resides on the animal, and novel micro-LED array implants.


Signal Processing Seminar

Jiani Liu

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PhD Thesis Defence Mina Shahmohammadi

RF CMOS Oscillator for Cellular Applications

Mina Shahmohammadi

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Signal Processing Seminar

Accurate ranging and localization capabilities of narrowband ISM band radios

Jac Romme

In this presentation, the results are presented of a feasibility study on the ranging and localization capabilities of narrowband radio. Starting point of the study was the phase-difference (PD) principle used by Atmel’s AVR2151 chipset. To quantify the ranging performance in indoor environment, multi-channel VNA-based channel measurements have been conducted. The analyses revealed that PD principle is sensitive to multipath, even in the presence of a line-of-sight. To improve the accuracy, two super-resolution-based ranging algorithms (using Matrix-Pencil and Music) have been evaluated, which are shown to be considerably more robust against multipath. Additionally, the channel measurements have been used to quantify the benefit of antenna/polarization diversity for ranging. The diversity gave an additional, significant improvement and resulted in ranging with 0.5 meter accuracy in combination with the super-resolution algorithms using only the 2.4 GHz ISM band.

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PhD Thesis Defence Andre Mansano

Radio Frequency Energy Harvesting and Low Power Data Transmission for Asynchronous Wireless Sensor Nodes

Andre Luis Mansano

SUMMARY

Since the Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to be the new technology to drive the semiconductor industry, significant research efforts have been made to develop new circuit and system techniques for autonomous/very low-power operation of wireless sensor nodes. Very low-power consumption of sensors is key to increase battery lifetime or allow for battery-less (autonomous) operation of sensors, which contributes to reducing or preventing the high maintenance costs of battery supplied sensors and reduce the amount of discarded batteries.

This thesis, entitled Radio Frequency Energy Harvesting and Low Power Data Transmission for Autonomous Wireless Sensor Nodes, presents very low-power consumption circuit and system techniques combined with energy harvesting that allow the creation of autonomous wireless sensor nodes. This work focuses on three main challenges:
1) how to improve energy harvesting efficiency,
2) how to minimize power consumption of data transmission and
3) howto combine low-power techniques and energy harvesting in a system.
These challenges are addressed in this thesis with on-PCB and integrated circuit (IC) solutions.

The efficiency of radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting is improved by proposing a new topology of a charge-pump rectifier. The proposed topology uses a voltage boosting network to compensate for the voltage drop in the transistors. The new topology is presented as well as a non-linear circuit analytical analysis. Simulation results are compared to the analytical analysis and measurement results of the circuit that has been fabricated in a 0.18 um CMOS technology and operates at 13.53 MHz. Although the efficiency of RF energy harvesting is improved using the above technique, at the same time, low power techniques in data transmission should be developed to save energy. Pulse width modulation and impulse transmission techniques to minimize power consumption have been developed and are presented in this thesis.

The developed pulse modulation circuitry has been fabricated in 0.18 um CMOS technology as part of a System on Chip (SoC). The new impulse transmitter topology for low-voltage low-power operation has been fabricated on PCB with micro-wave discrete components. Theoretical analysis, simulations and measurements results are shown to prove the impulse transmitter concept.

The circuits developed are integrated in a SoC with energy harvesting to prove the concept of autonomous wireless sensor nodes. Two sensor nodes have been designed and measured: one for autonomous temperature monitoring and the second for autonomous ECG monitoring. Both designs operate from wireless power without the use of batteries.

Finally, the work developed in this thesis is analyzed and future research possibilities are discussed.

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PhD Thesis Defence

Gigabit Wireless Transmission in Dispersive Environments

Seyran Khademi

The advent of the digital era has revolutionized many aspect of our society and has significantly improved the quality of our lives. Consequently, signal processing has gained a considerable attention as the science behind the digital life. Among different applications for signal processing theory and algorithms, wireless communications remains one of the attractive and popular ones due to the widespread use of mobile devices.

This thesis is dedicated to develop signal processing algorithms to design highspeed wireless transceivers that can perform in highly reflective and harsh environments. The start of this research work initiated as a collaboration between TU Delft and an industrial partner, on a research aimed at short range gigabit wireless link within a lithography machine. The underlying unique wireless environment, together with the challenging specifications of the communication link for mechatronic systems, made this a compelling research project.

The first part of this research work focuses on constructing a reliable propagation model for dispersive environments, based on actual measurements. In our opinion it is crucial to have decent models to build effective theory and applications upon it. We developed a statistical channel model for the 60 GHz band for the extreme case of a confined metal enclosure in order to evaluate and test the existing signal processing algorithms under such pessimistic ambient conditions. This unique experiment opened up new research challenges to look back to popular design paradigms and reevaluate them with respect to the proposed channel model with a delay spread in the order of miliseconds. The concept of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) transmission was revisited and a customized OFDM system was designed which meets the data rate requirements of the mechatronic system of interest. The effectiveness of the proposed OFDM design was examined via Matlab simulations using the measured and modeled channels. Interestingly, the performance of the OFDM system is not heavily affected by the frequency selectivity of the extreme propagation environment. The loss is mainly due to the time guard that is dedicated to avoid interference between consecutive OFDM blocks, suggesting the use of longer OFDM blocks to minimize the bandwidth loss.

The second part of this thesis is dedicated to multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems versus the single-input single-output (SISO) system which was studied in the first part. The emphasis is on general challenges in high speed (wideband) communication systems rather than the specific wireless link within a mechatronic machine. Challenging research questions are posed regarding the design and implementation of MIMO systems. This part starts with a brief introduction to such systems and redefining our system model with respect to the MIMO setting and it continues by revisiting the timely problem of peak-to-average power-ratio (PAPR) reduction in OFDMsystems, which deals with stochastic (data-dependent) OFDM waveforms, and the proposal of an effective algorithm to handle this challenge within the MIMO context . The hard problem of antenna selection for MIMO system was considered at the end by investigating different linear precoding designs subject to the realistic hardware constraints including per antenna power constraints (rather than conventional total power constraint) and limited number of RF chains.

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

A 0.6V Low Noise Current Generator for Bio-Impedance Measurements in 40nm CMOS

Yao Li


Signal Processing Seminar

Bilinear Inverse Problems: Bad News and Good News

Urbashi Mitra
University of Southern California, USA

A number of important inverse problems in signal processing, such as blind deconvolution, matrix factorization, dictionary learning and blind source separation share the common characteristic of being bilinear inverse problems. In such problems, the observation model is a function of two inputs and conditioned on one input being known, the observation is a linear function of the other. We will review important applications and challenges.

A key question is that of identifiability: can one unambiguously recover the pair of inputs from the output? We shall consider both deterministic conditions for identifiability as well as probabilistic statements that result in new scaling laws under cone constraints. We provide additional results specific to blind deconvolution and show, surprisingly, that adding the sparsity structural constraint is insufficient for signal identifiability suggesting that other strategies such as coding are necessary to achieve identifiability. However, there is hope that additional structure can help in certain cases. To this end, we discuss a novel strategy that exploits low rank matrix factorization to estimate parameters of a time-varying wireless channel.

Biography

Urbashi Mitra received the B.S. and the M.S. degrees from the University of California at Berkeley and his Ph.D. from Princeton University. Dr. Mitra is currently a Dean’s Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Southern California.

Dr. Mitra is a Fellow of the IEEE. She is the inaugural Editor-in-Chief for the IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological and Multi-scale Communications. She is a member of the IEEE Information Theory Society's Board of Governors (2002-2007, 2012-2017) and the IEEE Signal Processing Society’s Technical Committee on Signal Processing for Communications and Networks (2012-2016).

Her research interests are in: wireless communications, communication and sensor networks, biological communication systems, detection and estimation and the interface of communication, sensing and control.

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PhD Thesis Defence

Energy-Efficient Smart Temperature Sensors in CMOS Technology

Kamran Souri

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MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Three dimensional Contrast Source Inversion-Electrical Properties Tomography (3D CSI-EPT)

Reijer Leijsen

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PhD Thesis Defence

Relative Space-Time Kinematics Of an Anchorless Network

Raj Thilak Rajan

Space and time awareness has been an integral quest of human evolution, and more so in the currently burgeoning era of wireless sensor networks (WSN), internet of things (IoT) and big data. The rapid advances in technology in recent times has led to affordable, miniaturized and low-power sensor nodes, enabling the feasibility of networks with numerous nodes. These nodes are typically equipped with diverse portfolio of sensors to measure various physical phenomenon, which are cooperatively communicated and processed for appropriate statistical inference. To ensure coherent sampling, efficient communication and prudent inference, the knowledge of position and time of the sampled data is imperative, and consequently accurate space-time estimation of the nodes is as valuable as the sampled data itself.

In this dissertation we address the space-time estimation of a specific class of WSNs, namely an anchorless network of asynchronous mobile nodes. As the terminology suggests, we consider a network of mobile nodes under non-relativistic motion, whose space-time kinematics are to be estimated. In addition, the term anchorless indicates no apriori information on the absolute position or time of any node within the network. This approach is a stark contrast to conventional anchored scenarios, e.g., GPS-based localization, where absolute space-time reference is known. Anchorless networks arise naturally when deployed in inaccessible regions, where an absolute space-time reference is non-existent or only intermittently available. Moreover, when a swarm of nodes is considered, imparting the absolute reference to all the nodes could be limited by communication resources. A few application scenarios include, for example, indoor localization, underwater networks, drone swarms and space-based satellite arrays. In such anchorless networks, it is paramount to understand the relative space-time kinematics, which is the primary theme of this dissertation.

Unfortunately, our understanding of relative kinematics in Euclidean space is inherently dependent on an absolute reference. For instance, consider the first-order relative spatial kinematics, i.e., relative velocity, which is rightly defined as the vector difference between absolute velocities of the respective nodes. However, in the absence of apriori information on any absolute velocities, a natural question arises if these relative velocities can be estimated using only pairwise distance measurements between the nodes. In addition to relative spatial estimation, the asynchronous clocks on-board each of these nodes must also be synchronized, in the absence of a known absolute time-reference. These are some of the fundamental challenges which are addressed in this dissertation.

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Structured electronic design of high-pass ΣΔ converters and its application to cardiac signal acquisition

Samprajani Rout

Abstract:

With the bandwidth of the ECG signal extending from sub-Hz to 200 Hz, a major challenge in developing the analog front-end responsible for digitizing the analog signal for an ECG readout system lies in implementing the large time-constants on chip due to area constraints. While techniques to obtain very large time constants exist, they are heavily limited by both linearity and accuracy, which clearly dictates the need for alternative structures.

In this thesis, a ΣΔ converter is used for its noise-shaping property to digitize the acquired signal. A structured electronic design methodology based on state-space forms is proposed to develop high-pass (HP) ΣΔ converter topologies. As opposed to conventional low-pass or band-pass ΣΔ, a generalized signal transfer function which includes the high-pass characteristic is used. The proposed HP ΣΔ topologies satisfy the signal transfer function, which is high-pass characteristic in this application and the noise transfer function, which is a 2-nd order noise shaping in this case. Furthermore, the noise contribution of each of the integrators is evaluated and the topologies are compared in terms of their total noise contribution. Finally, one of the structures is implemented in 0.18 um technology as a final step of verification.

Additional information ...


MSc BME Thesis Presentation

aEEG analog front-end IC for neonatal brain development monitoring

Maciej Kostalkowski

Abstract:

Every year number of prematurely born infants grows. Most underdeveloped organ after birth is brain. Therefore its monitoring is very important, especially as it can provide indications about health state in a future, both short and long term. Non invasive method of brain monitoring is aEEG recording.

Although aEEG is already well known and accepted in neonatology, it is still not used to monitor every patient. Problem is high price of a device starting from 30000 euro. In a result, hospital is not able to provide proper monitoring for each and every patient. For this reason, main task of this thesis is to propose cheaper version of a system.

In order to propose cheap design, minimal requirements have to be specified. Two tests were performed. First one was to identify interferences disturbing aEEG recording. Only registered interference was 50Hz spike coming from the mains. Noise floor peak to peak amplitude was measured on 1μV level, while magnitude of 50Hz spike was on the level of 9μV for devices turned off and 25μV for devices turned on.
Second performed test was resolution test. Test showed that in order to keep the number of bits low, amplification of the signal is required. Amplification by factor of 1000 allowed to reduced this value to 7bits.

Proposed system consists of amplifying stage realising 60dB gain with high pass cut off filtration and ADC. Amplifying stage is realised by amplifier providing 35dB gain with filtration below 2Hz and second amplifier realising 25dB gain. ADC is implemented by continuous time second order Sigma Delta Modulator. Proposed system was designed in CMOS 0.18μ and h18a6am technology. Tests of full system showed SNR no lower than 51dB, power consumption of 217.5μV. Input stage has CMRR of 113dB and input impedance above 2.25GΩ for the bandwidth 2-15Hz. System reliability was checked with corner analysis and wide range of temperatures. Results showed small variations of SNR.


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

A 0.6V, 1uW, 0.95µVrms low-power low-noise instrumentation amplifier for ECG/BioZ in 40nm CMOS

Qiuyang Lin

Abstract:

This thesis presents a low-power low-noise instrumentation amplifier designed to be implemented in 40 nm CMOS technology and operating from a 0.6 V supply, intended for use in electrocardiogram (ECG) and bio-impedance (BioZ) signal acquisition. This instrumentation amplifier has one ECG channel, one BioZ channel and allows both signals to be measured at the same time.

The core of the system is an AC-coupled instrumentation amplifier. A DC servo-loop is applied to handle large differential electrode offset (>300 mV) and a positive feedback loop is used to boost the input impedance (>100 MOhms). This instrumentation amplifier achieves low noise (<1 uVrms over a bandwidth of 150 Hz), large CMRR (>100 dB) while only consuming 1 uW of power. The instrumentation amplifier has a noise efficiency factor (NEF) of 2.4 and it occupies only 0.1 mm^2 chip area.

Additional information ...


DCSE and SIAM Seminar

Finite Difference Interpretation of Reduced Order Models and Applications to Wave Propagation

Vladimir L. Druskin
Schlumberger-Doll Research, Cambridge (USA)

In model order reduction, one approximates the response (transfer function) of a large scale dynamic system using a smaller system, known as reduced order model (ROM), that retains certain features of the larger problem.

For lossless wve propagation such a feature is energy conservation, that manifests in the Stieltjess-Markov property of (frequency-domain) transfer functions. In his seminal ork (1952) Mark Krein showed that the Stieltjes rational transfer functions can be equivalently presented by (Stieltjes) strings of point masses and weightless springs, i.e., described by a dynamic system with s.p.d. tri-diagonal matrix.

In turn, the Stieltjes strings give rise to interpretation of the ROMs via the second-order finite-difference approximation of the underlying PDE on judiciously chosen grids. A known application of such an approach is construction of optimal discrete perfectly matched layers (PMLs) for exterior wave problems.

In this talk I will present two more recent applications of the Stieltjes string technology. The first one is construction of so-called S-fraction multiscale reduced order model with sparse coarse cell approximation for hyperbolic problems, illustrated ith simulation examples for large scale 3D elastic anisotropic wave problems. The second application is direct nonlinear imaging algorithm via the data-driven discrete-time ROM with 2D examples from seismic exploration and ultrasonic medical imaging.

This is joint work with Alexander Mamonov, Andre Thaler and Mikhail Zaslavsky.

Biography

Vladimir L. Druskin is Scientific Advisor at Schlumberger-Doll Research and a SIAM Fellow. Throughout his career, Vladimir Druskin made fundamental contributions to inverse problems, scientific computing, and numerical analysis and their application to hydrocarbon exploration.


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Accelerating Diffusion-Weighted Chemical Shift Imaging using Compressed Sensing with Parameter Mapping

Joost van der Kemp

Diffusion-weighted chemical shift imaging (DW-CSI) is a recently developed MRI modality that enables radiologists to reveal the diffusion properties of small molecules that act in metabolic reactions in-vivo. In order to extract this diffusion information from a patient, DW-CSI requires approximately one hour of scan time. This extensive scan time makes DW-CSI currently inapplicable for the clinical setting. This thesis describes the closely intertwined implementation of compressed sensing with parameter mapping (CS-PM) in the DW-CSI processing pipeline to accelerate its acquisition. The CS-PM algorithm enables DW-CSI to acquire less measurements (sample under Nyquist) and subsequently reconstruct the missing samples with the use of a custom designed, model-based sparsifying dictionary. As proof of concept, CS-PM was evaluated on the water signal of a non-water-suppressed scan. The results of the integration of CS-PM in the DW-CSI processing pipeline already indicate a feasible acceleration factor of 1.5 along with valuable insight to further improve the performance of DW-CSI in combination with CS-PM.

Additional information ...


ECTM Fall meeting

From Devices to Systems: New MEMS for radio frequency applications

Cristian Cassella
North-eastern University, Boston

We would like to invite you to our Laboratory of Electronic Components, Technology and Materials (ECTM) 2016 Autumn event with a special guest lecture. The lecture will be given by Dr. Cristian Cassella who is currently an associate research scientist in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at North-eastern University, Boston. His talk will cover:

“The operation and performance of two new-classes of Aluminium Nitride (AlN) piezoelectric RF resonators. The first is a fully-passive MEM-based sensor for near-zero power detection in radios. Such sensor behaves as a trigger capable of activating the CMOS circuitry through extremely low-power (-60 dBm) wake-up signatures. The achievement of such a low-power RF-sensor is a key advance towards the commercialization of energy-efficient wireless platforms, with supreme battery-time. The second system is a MEMS-based RF circulator for multiband SPAR platforms, thus relying on the same carrier frequency for both transmitter and receiver modules.”

We will have the following program with plenty of room for questions:

11:00 – 11:40 Dr. Cristian Cassella From Devices to Systems: New MEMS for radio frequency applications
11:40 – 12:05 Nikolas Gaio Next generation of in vitro test
12:05 – 12:30 Dr. Paolo Sberna TFTs fabricated on paper using waste materials


PhD Thesis Defence

Mingzhi Dong

Additional information ...


PhD Thesis Defence

Jianlin Huang

Additional information ...


Special Celebrative Seminar: New model of Sino-Dutch R&D cooperation


Since the establishment of TU Delft's Beijing Research Centre (BRC) in 2012, 10 PhD researchers have been enrolled for this unique program in close cooperation with our Chinese Academic Partners. We are very pleased that the first two BRC PhD candidates will have their PhD thesis defence on September 19 2016, in the Aula of Delft University of Technology.

To celebrate this important milestone, we would like to invite you to join a special seminar after the defences, about the New model of Sino-Dutch R&D cooperation, to share the experiences, look to the future and raise the glass together.

Additional information ...


PhD Thesis Defence

Pengfei Sun

Additional information ...


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

t.b.d. (multi-channel backscattering for reading out the ECoG of freely moving rodents)

Ide Swager

Additional information ...


Multivariate signal processing for "big data" sensing

Gabri?l Vasile
GIPSA lab, Grenoble

Big data?sensing brings a strong impact on many sensor-oriented application fields, such?as disaster control and monitor, healthcare services, and environment?protection. This presentation aims at providing an?overview on several application-driven?signal processing schemes, which have been carried out?in the field of environment protection at the?Grenoble-Image-sPeech-Signal-Automatics?Lab.


PhD Thesis Defence

Miki Trifunovic

Additional information ...


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Ultrasound Imaging Using a Single Element Transducer

Andrejs Fedjajes

Most of nowadays ultrasound systems visualize 3D space in 2D images. State of the art matrix transducers are very expensive and have not achieved the same popularity yet. We prove the possibility to image a 3D volume with a single element transducer. The core idea is to deliberately change the transducer?s spatial field and collect the knowledge about that change into a system matrix A. This is done by means of a static aberration mask and a calibration procedure. Opposite to the conventional beamforming, we formulate the imaging task as a least squares inverse problem. This comes at the price of computational resources needed due to the problem dimensionality. The project potentially can lead to low-cost ultrasound imagers as a part of growing industry of body area sensors.


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Regularized Least Squares Imaging for High Resolution Ultrasound

Pim van der Meulen

Conventional ultrasound imaging by delay-and-sum beamforming is based on geometrical operations on the ultrasound measurements. We think that it makes more sense to try and estimate the scattering composition that best explains the measurement. We have investigated this approach by formulating a linear mathematical model, which allows for a large and flexible variety of techniques to estimate the image, which have been well established and investigated in mathematics. Such a formulation also makes it easier to incorporate prior information about an experiment, such as the sparsity of an image, or its statistical properties. In our work, we have focused on using these techniques to attain high-resolution images, obtained by finding the image that minimizes the squared error between the formulated model and the measurement (i.e. tries to 'explain' the measurement), which vastly improves the common delay-and-sum technique. In the coming presentation some of these exciting results will be shown.


PhD thesis defence Mark Stoopman

Circuit Design for Highly Sensitive RF-Powered Wireless Sensor Nodes

Mark Stoopman

Emerging applications such as Internet of Things (IoT), smart buildings and warehouse inventory management are important driving forces behind the development of Wireless Sensor Nodes (WSNs). With future advancements made in the semiconductor industry, these WSNs are expected to become smaller, cheaper, more reliable and with improved functionality. The prospect of energy scavenged WSNs is to eliminate the burden of battery replacement, thereby significantly saving on maintenance costs in large WSN networks.

This dissertation focuses on the research, design and implementation of various circuit blocks and the system integration of energy scavenged WSNs used in the aforementioned applications. To select a suitable energy harvester, four different energy harvesting approaches are discussed: vibrational, thermal, photovoltaic and RF. Of these harvesters, it shows that RF-powered WSNs have the distinct advantage over WSNs using other forms of energy harvesting that they are low cost and can operate wirelessly in a large variety of applications, even in cold, dark and static environments. Moreover, additional advantages such as utilizing a dedicated RF source for both energy harvesting as well as the generation of a reference frequency greatly reduces the complexity and power consumption of the WSN.

A co-design methodology is presented to optimize the interface between the RF energy harvester and the WSN electronics for maximum sensitivity, efficiency and output power. First, general co-design principles for antennaelectronics interfaces in the receiving mode are introduced, which includes optimum reception of wireless information and wireless power. It is shown that the choice of interface impedance plays a crucial role during the optimization procedure and that, besides maximum power transfer, the interface needs to be optimized for either voltage or current, depending on which is more favorable for the electronics. Design examples are given to, for example, improve noise figure, efficiency and sensitivity without increasing power consumption.

Based on the presented co-design principles, a CMOS rectifier and a compact loop antenna are presented for a highly sensitive RF energy harvester. A 5-stage cross-connected differential rectifier with a complementary MOS diode in the last rectifying stage is designed that significantly improves the harvester?s ability to store and hold energy over a longer period of time than a conventional MOS diode. A low resistive and high-Q interface is utilized to obtain good sensitivity. To compensate variations at the interface, a control loop with a 7-bit binary-weighted capacitor bank is proposed that provides self-calibration. The chip is implemented in TSMC 90 nm CMOS technology, includes ESD protection and is directly mounted on the backside of the custom designed antenna. Measurements in an anechoic chamber at 868 MHz demonstrate an end-to-end maximum PCE of 40% and a sensitivity of -27 dBm to generate 1V across a capacitive load. In an office corridor, 1V could be generated from a 1.78 W RF source at 27 meter distance.

A high efficiency tuned switching Power Amplifier (PA) is proposed for < 0 dBm output power. It is shown theoretically that an optimum duty cycle exists for maximum drain efficiency for a given switch and effective load resistance. To set this duty cycle, an on-chip duty cycle calibration loop is proposed that fixes the duty cycle over PVT variations. A 2.4 GHz PA prototype is implemented in 40nm CMOS technology and supports On-Off Keying (OOK) modulation with pulse shaping capabilities. A global efficiency of 40% is achieved when delivering -5 dBm to a 50 W load, which compares favorably to the state-of-the-art. Due to the introduced memory in the duty cycle calibration loop, the rise and fall times are kept below 3.3 ns, making high data rate OOK modulation feasible.

The findings in this thesis have been used for the system integration of a compact RF-powered DLL-based 2.4 GHz CMOS transmitter. The received dedicated RF signal is used for both RF energy harvesting as well as frequency synthesis. An RF energy harvester with a nanowatt power management circuit harvests and subsequently monitors the energy in the storage capacitor to determine when enough energy is accumulated to initiate wireless data transmission. Once the voltage regulator and bias current circuit blocks are enabled, the incoming RF carrier is extracted and used as frequency reference. The frequency synthesizer consits of a frequency divider, Delay Locked Loop (DLL) and XOR-based frequency multiplier and thus allows for a compact integrated solution. All building blocks have been implemented in 40 nm CMOS technology and occupy only 0.16 mm2. Experimental results show a maximum rectifier efficiency of 36.83% at -11.47 dBm. In harvesting mode, the complete power management circuit only consumes 120 nA. For a 1 mF storage capacitor and -18.4 dBm minimum available power at 915 MHz RF input, the TX outputs a continuous 2.44 GHz RF signal of -2.57 dBm for 128 ms with 36.5% PA drain efficiency and 23.9% global efficiency. The complete TX consumes 1.46 mW during OOK modulation at 0.5 Mbps.

Additional information ...


Free Webinar on Bioelectronics and Biosensors

IMPACT and Electroceuticals: getting better with electricity

Stewart Smith, Wouter Serdijn
Oxford Global

Complimentary Registration - Bioelectronics and Biosensors Webinar

Do not miss out on the complimentary Bioelectronics and Biosensors Webinar, to be held on Wednesday 7th September 2016, 10a.m. GMT.

Can't attend the live webinar? Still register and the recording will be sent to you


This webinar is for biosensors and bioelectronics professionals and those interested in hearing about the current and future challenges in this exciting and rapidly moving industry. It is for those who are based in UK and Europe who would like to hear views from leading experts about their current research.


Featuring the first presentation on Anti-Cancer Therapy ? a key application for biosensor devices by Dr. Stewart Smith, from the University of Edinburgh and the second presentation on The Current Research and Applications in Bioelectronic Medicine by Professor Wouter A. Serdijn, from Delft University of Technology, the one hour webinar gives an insightful introduction to the topics covered at the forthcoming Bioelectronics and Biosensors Congress, 17-18 November 2016, London.


Click here to register for the webinar today, for free


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Download the 2016 Bioelectronics & Biosensors Congress agenda today here


Why register to attend the Bioelectronics & Biosensors Congress?


Our event features over 35 international world-class speakers who will share their research into diagnostic sensors, nerve stimulation, implantable devices and ?electroceuticals?.

 

  • Getting Better With Electroceuticals: Electronic Medicine To The Rescue. Wouter Serdijn, Professor, Delft University of Technology
  • Discovery And  Application Of Biomarkers For Biosensor Use In Infectious Disease Diagnosis. Nigel Silman, Strategic R&D Lead, Public Health England
  • Bioelectronics Technology Research At GSK. Brad Holinski, ‎Bioelectronics R&D Manager, GSK
  • Gammacore, A Hand-Held Bioelectric Device For The Treatment Of Chronic Headache Conditions. Iain Strickland, Director, Electrocore

This is a free webinar open to all, so why not sign up and benefit from the expertise of our speakers?

Contact Angela Fernandez for further information

a.fernandez@oxfordglobal.co.uk | +(44)01865 248455

Terms & Conditions: This webinar is exclusively for Bioelectronics & Biosensors professionals. If you are unsure whether you should attend please contact marketing@oxfordglobal.co.uk for clarification.
In very rare circumstances the event may be cancelled, postponed or the time changed. We will endeavour to contact you by telephone and email, it is therefore imperative that you provide the correct information. Failure to provide all the details we require on the registration form may result in your registration being cancelled.
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Please note the personal information provided by you will be held on a database by Oxfrod Global in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. Data may be shared with the selected partners for the event that you are attending however we will not disclose personal data that you have provided to any other third party and the information you supply to us will only be used by Oxfrod Global and selected partners to contact you regarding training/events or our other services.


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

In-vivo multicell inferior olivary recordings: alternative design methods for creating cheap and flexible electrode structures

Joost Kerpels

In order to allow neuroscientists to do in-vivo recordings on hard to reach brain tissue, such as the Inferior Olivary Complex, specially designed electrodes are required. Although a variety of electrodes are commercially available, they are usually expensive and it is hard to rapid prototype new designs.

This thesis describes the design process of three electrode array designs, each improved based on the findings of the previous one. The first design was made using a FlexPCB production technique, on which gold spots were added to create conducting measuring sites. The second design combined this technique with commercial microwire electrodes. The third design used 3d-print technology combined with microwire electrodes to create an electrode array.

All designs were tested in in vivo measurements on mice. Although successful measurements were done, the robustness and reproducibility needs to improve in order for this technique to really be applicable in a laboratory environment. Furthermore, the peripherals need to be improved in order to minimize the system to create a wearable system and perform recordings on wake animals.

Additional information ...


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

A compact multi-electrode system to measure in vivo electrical activity in the olivocerebellar system -- measuring sub-threshold oscillations and action potentials spatially and over time

Matthijs Weskin

Additional information ...


BBQ Theme Meeting

From Microelectronics Packaging to Power Electronics Packaging

Prof. Ferreira TU of Delft

It is a clear trend that increasing number of advanced microelectronic packaging technologies and know-how are being transferred to power electronics applications. We’re glad to welcome Prof.  dr. Braham Ferreira, the president of IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS), will join us and give an informal talk regarding his view of this trend, focusing on the challenges and opportunities. To provide a wide platform some IEEE members from power electronics society are invited as well, to share their knowledge during social networking. This summer event offers a great opportunity for CPMT members to broaden their views, and to seek new collaboration chances.

Program:
18.00 walk-in with drinks and BBQ
18.30 Prof. Ferreira of TU Delft: “From Microelectronics Packaging to Power Electronics Packaging”
18:45 Questions and discussions, together with drinks and BBQ, networking
21:00 Closing and drinks

Location:
TU Delft Campus, FreeZone D

Cost:
For IEEE CPMT members: Free
For others: 5 Euro

If you would like to join our summer event, please register by sending an email to Pan Liu: p.liu-1@tudelft.nl before the 15th of July 2016.

For more information, please contact Jing Zhang (Chair of IEEE CPMT Benelux Chapter) by e-mail: j.zhang-1@tudelft.nl

 

 


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Dielectric Shimming

Michiel Gerlach

Dielectric shimming is proven to be very useful in increasing the homogeneity of the B1+ field in high field MRI. Current optimization and design techniques for dielectric pad parameters are slow. The goal of this thesis is to find a fast and accurate pad design and optimization technique. Two new techniques are proposed. The first, a method that simply uses inspection by solving the forward problem in a relatively fast way. The other proposed technique follows a more analytical approach to find the optimal permittivity and conductivity of a pad in a couple of iterative steps with a Gauss-Newton method. This last technique uses a new proposed approach to predict the phase of the B1+ field in a direct fashion.

These techniques provide fast and accurate simulation results for a two-dimensional abdominal body slice placed in a 3T MRI scanner for different pad scenarios. From these results it can be concluded that both proposed techniques generate comparable pads, which are able to increase the homogeneity of the B1+ field.

A comparison between the two techniques is made. The Gauss-Newton method provides a fast, robust and accurate optimization technique for large scale problems, but offers less flexibility and insight to the data compared to the method via inspection.

The flexibility of the method via inspection and the insight it provides is shown for different scenarios (pad location, multiple pads, pad shape, pad thickness), where the effect of the optimal permittivity and conductivity on the homogeneity of the resulting B1+ field is simulated. Even the maximum allowed SAR can be incorporated in this pad optimization technique.


PhD Thesis Defence Ozan Yurduseven

Wideband Integrated Lens Antennas for Terahertz Deep Space Investigation


The Terahertz (THz) band is the portion of the spectrum that covers a frequency range from 300 GHz to 3 THz. The potential of this band has been proven for numerous type of applications including medical imaging, non-destructive testing, space observation, spectroscopy and security screening, thanks to its good compromise between the spatial resolution and penetration. Most of these applications demand for high spatial and range resolution of the images, as well as fast acquisition time. To fulfill such requirements, focal plane arrays (FPAs) need to comprise a large number of elements and be able to operate over broad bandwidths. Moreover, fabrication of the FPAs with thousands of antenna elements becomes a real issue at such frequencies due to the fabrications constraints and immense manufacturing costs

Additional information ...


It is a clear trend that increasing number of advanced microelectronic packaging technologies and know-how are being transferred to power electronics applications. We?re glad to welcome Prof. dr. Braham Ferreira, the president of IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS), will join us and give an informal talk regarding his view of this trend, focusing on the challenges and opportunities. To provide a wide platform some IEEE members from power electronics society are invited as well, to share their knowledge during social networking. This summer event offers a great opportunity for CPMT members to broaden their views, and to seek new collaboration chances.

Program: 18.00 walk-in with drinks and BBQ
18.30 Prof. Ferreira of TU Delft: ?From Microelectronics Packaging to Power Electronics Packaging?
18:45 Questions and discussions, together with drinks and BBQ, networking
21:00 Closing and drinks


Location:
TU Delft Campus, FreeZone D


Cost:
For IEEE CPMT members: Free
For others: 5 Euro


If you would like to join our summer event, please register by sending an email at p.liu-1@tudelft.nl before the 15th of July 2016. Also for more information please contact Jing Zhang, Chari of IEEE CPMT Benelux Chapter


Energy harvesting wireless networks: A new frontier for communication and information theory

Aylin Yener
Pennsylvania State University

Wireless communication networks composed of devices that can harvest energy from nature will lead to the green future of wireless, as energy harvesting offers the possibility of perpetual network operation without adverse effects on the environment. By developing effective and robust communication techniques to be used under energy harvesting conditions, some of the communication devices in a heterogeneous network can even be taken off the grid. Energy harvesting brings new considerations to system level design of wireless communication networks, leading to new insights. These include randomness and intermittency of available energy, as well as additional system issues to be concerned about such as energy storage capacity and processing complexity. The goal of this talk is to furnish the audience with fundamental design principles of energy harvesting wireless communication networks which is an emerging area. The focus will be on identifying optimum transmission scheduling policies in various settings, and the ensuing algorithmic solutions. Time permitting we will also go into the information theory of energy harvesting communications, which brings in new challenges taking into account energy availability and storage at the channel use level.

Biography

Aylin Yener is a professor of Electrical Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA since 2010, where she joined the faculty as an assistant professor in 2002. During the academic year 2008-2009, she was a Visiting Associate Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, CA. Her research interests are in information theory, communication theory and network science with recent emphasis on green communications, information security and networked systems.

She received the NSF CAREER award in 2003, the best paper award in Communication Theory in the IEEE International Conference on Communications in 2010, the Penn State Engineering Alumni Society (PSEAS) Outstanding Research Award in 2010, the IEEE Marconi Prize paper award in 2014, the PSEAS Premier Research Award in 2014, and the Leonard A. Doggett Award for Outstanding Writing in Electrical Engineering at Penn State in 2014. She is a fellow of the IEEE. Dr. Yener is an elected member of the board of governors of the IEEE Information Theory Society for the term 2015-2017.

Additional information ...


MSc TC Thesis Presentation

Chinese Digital Radio Receiver Design and Development with FM Interference Cancellation

Yiling Zhang

A Chinese Digital Radio (CDR) has been made and become effective in 2013 by SGAPPRFT (State General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television), which is an In-Band On-Channel (IBOC) digital audio broadcasting hybrided with analog FM signal in one FM channel. This project investigates the interferences to the CDR digital signals caused by both co-channel and adjacent-channel FM signals, and proposes solutions to combat such influences. A new acquisition algorithm is implemented to realize mode detection and synchronization for the hybrid signal. Two FM interference removal methods have been proposed and studied in simulation. An energy detector is introduced to select the best FM interference removal method in run time. The proposed solution has reached very good reception performance against co-channel FM interference in commonly used CDR modes. For the adjacent-channel FM interference, if we can detect and select the better removal method in real time, the performance degradation can be controlled to[LINK] a limited SNR increase under the AWGN channel.


BELCA Festival

The bi-annual music festival of the Bioelectronics and Electronics groups in the /Pub at EEMCS

BELCA festival

What started out as a way to showcase the talent of faculty members in 2010 has grown into a small-scale festival, a collaboration between the Bioelectronics Department and the Electronics Research Lab. This year it's on July 1 at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science's cellar /Pub. "We'll have two external bands plus the BELCA band. As well as music there'll be dancing and shows too," said Farnaz Nassiri Nia, festival coordinator. "People are already rehearsing for their performances including some pop, jazz and Rammstein. We've tried to make it multicultural so there'll be Indian, Italian, Brazilian and Iranian songs." It's not ticketed, so you can just turn up and enjoy the show. The /Pub can accommodate 300 people.

Additional information ...


Physical Foundations Underlying Green Information and Communication Technologies

Earl McCune

There are physical limitations on how much energy efficiency can be realized from any actual hardware used to implement any communications standard.? Experience shows that in most instances the signals adopted by the standard committee place an additional ceiling on the achievable energy efficiency using that hardware.? For example, there is hardware that is capable of providing more than 60% energy efficiency under ideal conditions, but for some standardized signals the maximum achievable efficiency drops to 7%.? This drop in achievable efficiency is predictable, and such analyses should become part of standards committee deliberations.? Such a low operating efficiency is not compatible with IoT, 5G, and other upcoming Standards objectives.

This presentation was originally given to the IEEE Green-ICT Initiative Steering Committee at the IEEE Board meeting series in New Jersey on June 16, 2016.? It establishes the reasons why such efficiency ceilings occur and shows how to predict them.? Further, recipes are provided on how it is physically possible to simultaneously achieve high bandwidth efficiency and optimum energy efficiency ? along with the PSD impacts that come with these more Green-optimized signal modulations.

Additional information ...


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Electrical properties tomography for MRI

Patrick Fuchs

In Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) an interest in electrical properties tomography (EPT) is growing. In current EPT the reconstruction is performed based on the Helmholtz equation which relies on the assumption of a homogeneous contrast. The goal of this thesis is to present new approaches to reconstruct the electrical properties that require less assumptions on the contrast. Two new approaches are presented, one based on first order differentiation and one on the global integral field equations using a contrast-source variable. In this thesis these methods are described alongside the existing Helmholz based approach, the contrast source inversion - EPT approach and the deconvolution approach. These last three approaches have already been published on, but are reviewed here for completeness.

Reconstruction of both two dimensional and three dimensional simulations as well as the reconstruction of an in-situ measurement are performed to compare the five different methods. It can be concluded from this comparison that all methods that are not based on the homogeneous contrast assumption perform much more accurate (overall) than the Helmholtz equation based method. Both contrast source inversion and the direct inversion method based on the global integral equations perform comparable, but the latter is a lot faster and offers almost the same range of flexibility regarding regularisation and preconditioning. The direct inversion method is a straight improvement on the deconvolution method, performing equally well regarding noise robustness, but offering better reconstructions in almost all cases due to the lack of apodisation step. The first order differential method provides a surprisingly robust, accurate and extremely fast way to get insight into the data, and shows that the inversion problem in MRI is actually very well behaved as far as inversion problems go. These new methods provide fresh insight into the inversion problem in MRI, specifically for EPT and get us one step closer to accurate electric properties reconstruction from an MRI scan.

Additional information ...


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Acoustic Vector Sensor Based Source Localization

Krishnaprasad

MSc work done at Microflown

Additional information ...


Join project presentations of Msc course System Engineering

Students System Engineering

Students present and defend their group projects Including: - Crashed Aeroplane and Treasure Finding Sensor Hive - Low Cost and Unobtrusive Elderly House - Increasing the Accessibility of Hydrocephalus Diagnosis in Uganda - Interchangeable Block Design of Prorail System - DC house For : all Faculty Staff and PhD students


PhD Thesis Defence

Underwater Acoustic Localization and Packet Scheduling

Hamid Ramezani

Additional information ...


Signal Processing Seminar

Fundamentals of Graph Signal Processing and Applications to Diffusion Processes

Prof. Antonio G. Marques
King Juan Carlos University, Madrid

Coping with the challenges found at the intersection of Network Science and Big Data necessitates broadening the scope beyond classical temporal signal analysis and processing in order to also accommodate signals defined on graphs. Under the assumption that the signal properties are related to the topology of the graph where they are supported, the goal of graph signal processing (GSP) is to develop algorithms that fruitfully leverage this relational structure. Instrumental to that end is the so-termed graph-shift operator, a matrix capturing the graphs local topology and whose spectral decomposition is central to defining graph Fourier transforms.

In the last years a body of works has successfully implemented this approach, showing how several classical signal processing results can be gracefully generalized to the more irregular graph domain.

The talk consists of two parts. The first part introduces the field of GSP, motivates its usefulness via meaningful applications, and presents its foundational concepts, which have been derived over the past five years. The second part focuses on contemporary results, including optimal filter design, blind identification and network topology inference. For each of these results, the theoretical contribution will be first described and then the implications for distributed and dynamic processing will be discussed.

Biography

Antonio G. Marques received the Telecommunications Engineering degree and the Doctorate degree, both with highest honors, from the Carlos III University of Madrid, Spain, in 2003 and 2007, respectively. In 2007, he became a faculty of the Department of Signal Theory and Communications, King Juan Carlos University, Madrid, Spain, where he currently develops his research and teaching activities as an Associate Professor. From 2005 to 2015, he held different visiting positions at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. In 2015 and 2016 he was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. His research interests lie in the areas of communication theory, signal processing, and networking. His current research focuses on stochastic resource allocation wireless networks and smart grids, nonlinear network optimization, and signal processing for graphs. Dr. Marques has served the IEEE and the EURASIP in a number of posts (currently, he is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Signal Process. Letters and of the EURASIP J. on Advances in Signal Process.), and his work has been awarded in several conferences and workshops.


PhD Thesis Defense

Covariance matching techniques for radio astronomy calibration and imaging

Millad Sardarabadi

The search for the answer to one of the most fundamental scientific questions, ?How was the universe formed??, requires us to study very weak radio signals from the early universe. In the last eighty years, radio astronomers have been able to use radio frequency observations for significant discoveries such as quasars, supermassive Black Holes and the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation. Radio astronomers use a radio telescope to study the cosmos. A radio telescope usually consists of an array of radio receivers (antennas) and supporting hardware/software to produce synthesized images of the sky. While the earlier generation of the radio telescopes such as the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT), the Very Large Array (VLA) and the Giant Meter?wave Radio Telescope (GMRT) consisted of 14-45 receivers separated a few kilometers (3-25 km basedlines), the next generation of radio telescopes such as LOFAR and SKA have thousands of receivers which cover distances of over 1000 km. This massive increase in the number of receivers and the geometric dimensions is a consequence of the required (high) resolution and sensitivity for modern scientific studies and while it is necessary, it does not guarantee the desired results without the appropriate data and signal processing.

The main challenges in radio astronomy can be divided in three closely related problems: mitigation of man?made radio frequency interference, calibration and image formation. The main goal of this thesis is to investigate howthe signal processing formalism can be used to systematically model and analyze these three problems and what signal processing tools are needed for addressing them.

The number of RFI free bands is diminishing rapidly as a consequence of the increased number of wireless services and applications. The shift towardswideband digital systems has created new problems which are not sufficiently addressed by currently implemented RFI detection and mitigation systems. For this class of continuously present wide?band RFI, the use of array processing techniques such as spatial filtering could provide access to frequency bands otherwise unusable by astronomers. Such a spatial filtering can be achieved by estimating and removing the subspace that the interfering signal is occupying. Many signal processing algorithms use the eigenvalue decomposition (EVD) for estimating the signal subspace. However the use of EVD is limited to systems where the noise is white or known from calibration. This requirement is a limiting factor for applying these techniques to uncalibrated arrays with unknown noise models. In these situations a more generic approaches which allows for combined RFI filtering and noise power calibration is preferred. In this thesis factor analysis (FA) is proposed as suitable substitution for EVD.

FA is a technique that allows for the decomposition of the signal into a low?rank part corresponding to the signal and a diagonal part which represents the covariance of the noise on the receivers. Because the diagonal elements can be different this technique can be used when the noise is not white and forms a generalization of the EVD. In RFI mitigation applications the signal part of the data is dominated by RFI and changes more rapidly than the noise. Estimating the noise covariance which is shared by several measurements jointly allows for a more accurate estimation. As a result extensions to the classical FA are proposed to improve the estimates for the diagonal part of the decomposition in a joint fashion. Even a diagonal noise structure can be limiting in some applications. For example the contribution of theMilkyWay affects the short baselines which can be modeled by using a non?diagonal covariance matrix. The FA model can be extended for this type of signals. An extension to FA called Extended FA (EFA) is used to allow for capturing such structures into the model. Similar to JFA we can also estimate the parameters in EFA jointly, and the resulting method is denoted by Joint EFA (JEFA). Using nonlinear optimization techniques combined with Krylov subspace based solvers an scalable algorithm is developed. The statistical efficiency of this algorithm is shown by comparing its results to the Cram?r?Rao bound and its application in RFI mitigation has been demonstrated on measurements from the WSRT and LOFAR.

Antenna gain calibration is an essential step in producing accurate images. Using common array processing data models, the gain calibration is formulated as a nonlinear covariance matching problem. In this thesiswe showthat the matrices involve in this estimation problem are highly structured and that the systemof equations involving these matrices can be efficiently solved using Krylov subspace based solvers (similar to JEFA). The resulting calibration algorithm is scalable and requires a low number of iterations in order to converge which makes it an attractive alternative to currently available techniques.

Both classical and parametric based image formations consist of two steps. First a ?dirty? image is constructed from the measurements and then an improved estimate is found by performing a deconvolution step. When the number of pixels on the image becomes large, the deconvolution step becomes an ill?posed problem. In this thesis we showthat image values are bounded frombelowby a nonnegativity constraint and above by the dirty image. Using beamforming techniques, we show that tighter upper bounds can be constructed using the MVDR beamformer. These bounds allow us to regularize the deconvolution problem by a set of inequality constraints. Following a signal processing model, the image formation is then formulated as a parameter estimation problem with inequality constraints. This optimization problem can be solved using an active set algorithm. We show that, with the right initialization, the active set steps are very similar to sequential source removing techniques such as CLEAN. This connection between classical approaches and parametric imaging techniques provides the necessary theoretical basis for further analysis and allows for improving both methods.

Based on the results presented in this thesis we can conclude that signal processing methodologies can provide new solutions to the radio astronomical problems and also shed light on the inner working of the classical techniques. Hence, a signal processing approach is extremely beneficial in tackling the problems that the next generation of radio telescopes will face.

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SP Seminar

Signal Processing for Radio Astronomy

Yves Wiaux, Stefan Wijnholds, Amir Leshem

Yves Wiaux: "Astronomical imaging, in every sense of the word: scalable optimisation algorithms in radio-interferometry"

Amir Leshem: "Detection of transient sources"

Stefan Wijnholds: "Blind calibration of aperture arrays"


Workshop

High Frequency Coherent Arrays

Nuria Llombart

As a kick-off of the ERC grant, dr. Nuria Llombart, organizes a one day workshop oriented towards the development of coherent arrays at high frequencies. The workshop will consist on 30-minitutes talks by international speakers working in this area plus a 15-min questions and open discussion on relevant topics. The speakers will be Cicero Voucher from NXP, Goutam Chattopadhyay and Ken Cooper from JPL, Tomas Bryllert from Chalmers University. The workshop will end with a presentation from Andrea Neto and a kick-off presentation of the ERC grant of Nuria Llombart.

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Colloquium

Birth of the silicon-boron junction

Stoyan Nihtianov, Vahid Mohammadi

We shall share with you the fascinating story behind the birth of a new type of junction ?the silicon-boron (Si-B) junction? and its amazing properties. In the colloquium, an introduction will be given by the Dean of EEMCS, Prof Rob Fastenau, followed by a short retrospection of the events leading up to the discovery by Dr. Stoyan Nihtianov. The Si-B junction will be introduced by Dr. Vahid Mohammadi, who has made the main contribution to its discovery. The recent finding became possible thanks to the hard work, ingenuity and inventiveness of a significant number of talented researchers and engineers over the last more than 10 years in the Microelectronics department of TU Delft, using the facilities of DIMES (now EKL). The understanding of the physics behind the junction and the mechanism of its formation could not have been possible without the collaboration between scientists from multiple disciplines: solid-state physics, computational materials sciences, semiconductor technology, optoelectronics?nor without the generous financial support from the Dutch hi-tech companies ASML and FEI, and the Dutch foundation of Technology (STW).

The discovery of the Si-B junction can be considered a ?bonus? for a research effort directed first towards linear and high-quality-factor varactors for RF applications, and later on towards the detection of low-penetration radiation such as: vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) radiation used in EUV/DUV wafer steppers, and low energy electron (< 200 eV) beams used in electron microscopes. This type of junction might also become a vital solution for creating high quality junctions with wide bandgap materials such as SiC, without the need for doping.

This colloquium is organised by Stoyan Nihtianov and Vahid Mohammadi, Electronic Instrumentation Laboratory, EEMCS, TU Delft. Registration Please register before 26 May via an e-mail to Joyce Siemers, secretary Electronic Instrumentation Laboratory.

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PhD Thesis Defence

Cognitive Radio-based Home Area Networks

Mohd Adib Sarijari

A future home area network (HAN) is envisaged to consist of a large number of devices that support various applications such as smart grid, security and safety systems, voice call, and video streaming. Most of these home devices are communicating based on various wireless networking technologies such as WiFi, ZigBee and Bluetooth which typically operate in the already congested ISM licensed-free frequency band. As these devices are located in a small physical space (i.e., limited by the size of the house), they might interfere with one another which causes a severe limitation to the quality-of-service (QoS) such as throughput. These issues are further aggravated in dense cities where the HAN also receives interference from neighboring HANs. Cognitive radio (CR) is seen as one of the most promising technologies to solve these problems and at the same time fulfill the HANs communication needs. CR technology enables the HAN devices to intelligently exploit idle spectrum including licensed spectrum for their communications, avoiding from being interfered as well as causing interference to others (in particular the incumbent user). We study these problems and the appropriateness of CR as a candidate solution.

We start by designing a new communication system for HAN based on CR technology and clustered network topology, called TD-CRHAN. TD-CRHAN aims at sustainably and efficiently supports the ever-rising throughput demand as well as solving the interference issue in HAN. In the TD-CRHAN, the achievable throughput is optimized to be just equal or slightly higher than the total network?s throughput demand, instead of being maximized. We then mathematically model the proposed TD-CRHAN where in the model, general expressions of the cooperative spectrum sensing performance parameters are considered. This allows us to analyze the performance of TD-CRHANfor amore realistic scenario where the incumbent user signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) is not the same at different sensing devices. We illustrate promising results, numerically and through simulation, confirming the performances of the proposed design.

As a cognitive radio based network also imposes additional overhead in energy consumption due to the spectrum sensing, we then propose an energy efficient cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS) scheme. The scheme is designed based on the proposed TD-CRHAN. In this scheme we also ensure that the throughput demand is kept satisfied efficiently. From the difference in sensing devices? incumbent user SNR (that is previously considered), we select the optimal sensing devices for CSS with the corresponding sensing time and detection probability which can be varied from one sensing device to another. We then evaluate the proposed CSS scheme and exhibit the gains obtained in energy- and throughput-efficiency.

Finally, we present a sensing device grouping and scheduling scheme for multichannel CSS. In addition to the energy- and throughput-efficiency, this scheme addresses the fairness in spectrum sensing load distribution among the available sensing devices in a HAN. In this work, we consider the fairness objective as to maximize the lifetime of each sensing device to its expected lifetime. In the proposed scheme, we determine the optimal number of channels that should be used for the network and the selected channels. We also determine the optimal number of devices in each sensing group and which devices. Subsequently, we optimally schedule the formed sensing groups to sense the selected channels. The results from the performance analysis verify our claims.

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Inaugural Speech dr.ir. Wouter A. Serdijn

Beter worden met elektroceutica -- elektronische medicijnen reiken de helpende hand

Wouter Serdijn

This inaugural speech will be spoken in Dutch. However, the presentation material will be in English or with English subtitles.

The symposium that precedes the inaugural speech will be in English.

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Symposium: Bioelectronics meets Electrophysiology

Johan Frijns (LUMC), Jeroen Dudink (ErasmusMC), Richard Houben (AB-Sys), Freek Hoebeek (ErasmusMC), Dirk Ridder (Otago Univ.)

On the occasion of Wouter Serdijn?s recent appointment to full professor in bioelectronics and the inaugural ceremony in which he accepts his appointment, a full-day symposium will be organized. This symposium addresses bioelectronics from a technological, a medical, a clinical, an industrial and a societal perspective. Five distinguished speakers from the Erasmus and Leiden Medical Centers, from the Dunedin School of Medicine and from Applied Biomedical Systems will address these challenging topics.

The symposium language will be English and free of charge. Registration is required, though. Please click the following link to register: Registration

Programme:

9:30 hrs: registration and coffee  
10:00 hrs: opening of the symposium by the chairman, Dr.ir. Marijn van Dongen  
10:10 hrs: Prof.dr.ir. Johan Frijns, Leiden University Medical Center, ENT Cochlear Implants: Clinical problem, technical solution and social impact
10:40 hrs: Dr. Jeroen Dudink, Erasmus Medical Center, Neonatology The future of baby brain monitoring
11:10 hrs: Ing. Richard Houben, Applied Biomedical Systems Electroanatomical Mapping of Persistent Atrial Fibrillation
11:40 hrs: coffee break  
12:10 hrs: Dr. Freek Hoebeek, Erasmus Medical Center, Neuroscience Bioelectronics allow the small brain to conquer the big brain
12:40 hrs: Prof.dr. Dirk de Ridder, Dunedin School of Medicine, New Zealand

Bioelectronics controls the brain by mimicking nature

13:10 hrs: lunch  
15:00 hrs: inaugural ceremony and speech of Dr.ir. Wouter Serdijn, Delft University of Technology

Beter worden met elektrceutica: elektronische medicijnen reiken de helpende hand

(Eng: Getting Better with Electroceuticals: electronic medicine to the rescue)

16:30 hrs reception+  

 


PhD Thesis Defence

Array of single-photon detectors applied to PET imaging

Chockalingam Veerappan

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High-accuracy Positioning in Multipath Channels: Location-Awareness for 5G Networks

Klaus Witrisal
Graz University of Technology

Location-awareness is the capability of a mobile network to employ position information for the sake of operating more efficiently. It is foreseen that fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks will be able to exploit much more accurate position information than any previous generation of wireless networks. This comes naturally due to the increased bandwidth and the application of multi-antenna techniques, which will eventually turn multipath propagation from an enemy to a friend.

This talk will first highlight the impact of multipath propagation on the accuracy of wireless range and position estimation. The important influence of bandwidth and the benefit of MIMO processing will be analyzed. Next it will be shown how one can make use of multipath to benefit from improved positioning accuracy, robustness, and a relaxed need for infrastructure nodes. Analytical performance bounds, their experimental validation, and algorithms derived thereof will be discussed. Finally, it will be shown that a multipath-enabled positioning system is a showcase example of a cognitive dynamic system that can optimize the information gained from each measurement, exploiting its memory of past measurements to plan future measurements. The environment map it collects can be used to predict the propagation characteristics, yielding location-awareness for positioning and communications. It is concluded that the use of position information may become as important to 5G networks as other new, disruptive technologies such as massive MIMO and mm-wave.

Biography

Klaus Witrisal received the Dipl.-Ing. degree in electrical engineering from Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria, in 1997, the Ph.D. degree (cum laude) from Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands, in 2002, and the Habilitation from Graz University of Technology in 2009. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Signal Processing and Speech Communication Laboratory (SPSC) of Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria, where he has been participating in various national and European research projects focused on UWB communications and positioning. He is co-chair of the Technical Working Group "Indoor'' of the COST Action IC1004 "Cooperative Smart Radio Communications for Green Smart Environments.'' His research interests are in signal processing for wideband and UWB wireless communications, propagation channel modeling, and positioning. Prof. Witrisal served as a leading chair for the IEEE Workshop on Advances in Network Localization and Navigation (ANLN) at the IEEE Intern. Conf. on Communications (ICC) 2013 - 2016, as a TPC (co)-chair of the Workshop on Positioning, Navigation and Communication (WPNC) 2011, 2014, and 2015, and as a co-organizer of the Workshop on Localization in UHF RFID at the IEEE 5th Annual Intern. Conf. on RFID, 2011. He is an associate editor of IEEE Communications Letters since 2013.


Automotive radar

Holger Meinel (automotive specialist Germany), Riender Happee (TU Delft)

The Dutch Automated Vehicle Initiative (DAVI) aims to investigate, improve and demonstrate automated driving on public roads (http://davi.connekt.nl). In a range of projects DAVI aims to: assess & improve automation technology, study human behaviour, assess safety, pursue legalisation, and create public awareness. The presentation will provide an overview of DAVI and Automotive research at TU Delft, including the WEpods project on driverless public transport and the interaction with pedestrians and other vulnerable road users (http://davi.connekt.nl/wepods-project). Riender Happee coordinates Automotive research and education at TU Delft with a focus on human factors, biomechanics, automated driving, and driver modelling. Automotive radar based on millimetre waves - today in the 24/ 26 GHz and in the 77/ 79 GHz range ? has been under investigation and development since several decades. Already in the early 1970?ies first 35 GHz radar sensors were tested over several millions of road kilometres. Since 1998 ? beginning with an ACC (Autonomous Cruise Control) radar sensor in the Mercedes-Benz S-class sedan ? automotive radar is commercially available and employed by various OEM?s all over the world, and no longer in expensive Premium cars only. With the standard-series implementation of the CPA 2.0 sensor (Collision Prevention Assist) in the Mercedes-Benz B-class in September 2011 radar sensor democratization for the benefit of vehicle safety has become reality. These days such radar systems are used for various vehicular applications, predominantly for functions like ACC, or BSD (Blind Spot Detection) to name just 2 important safety functions. The final goal of autonomous driving has come into view, e.g. the ?Bertha-Benz-Drive? by Mercedes, ?Drive Me? by Volvo or the ?iBus? by Yutong Bus Co. Ltd. in China. Different frequency bands, modulation schemes, emission powers, or radiation patterns are employed today. However, more sophisticated approaches, like DBF (Digital BeamForming) antennas or polarimetric signal evaluation are - concerning automotive radar - still in research and development. Automotive radar, its history, today?s state-of-the-art for comfort and safety as well as possible future trends on the road to autonomous driving will be reviewed in this lecture. From ?feet off? (SAE level 2) to ?brains off? (SAE level 5) ? ? we will have to see when ? Curriculum Vitae Holger H. Meinel joined the AEG-TELEFUNKEN Advanced Technology Department in Ulm, Germany, in 1973 after graduating with a Diploma in Microwave Engineering from the RWTH AACHEN in Aachen, Germany. He started to design mm-wave components, among others for a 35 GHz collision avoidance radar. Never changing company but only their names over the last 40 years, he switched his location and role of work nearly every 5 years. However, working in the US or France in the 1980s, and again the US in the 1990s he normally was located in Germany. Coming full circle in his career, from May 2010 to December 2012 he has been responsible for external contacts of Daimler AG within the EU-Project MOSARIM (More Safety for All by Radar Interference Mitigation); thus finally coming back-to-his-roots again: ACC radar for cars. Holger H. Meinel is author and co-author of over 175 technical papers, mostly on millimeter-wave integration and application. He holds or has held 14 patents and among other things has been involved in key-functions with the European Microwave Association (EuMA). During the restructuring of the European Microwave Conference (EuMC) from 1996 to 1998 he served in the newly founded Steering Committee, and became one of the 6 founder members of EuMA. He especially fostered application oriented contributions to EuMW, as well as he supported and enhanced the student involvement in EuMA. In 2011 ? during the EuMW in Manchester, UK, - he was awarded with the EuMA Distinguished Service Award for his lifelong contributions to the microwave community. Since September 2014 he officially is in retirement. However, since then he has been actively involved in different conferences and events, concerning automotive radar and autonomous driving, such as: EuRAD 2014 in Rome (Oct.), Telematics Munich 2014 (Nov.), Automotive Tech.AD 2015 in Berlin (Feb.), EuMC 2015 in Paris (Sept.), 2nd International Forum on Intelligent Vehicles, 2015, in Chengdu, China, Telematics Stuttgart 2015 (Nov.), or recently again Automotive Tech.AD 2016 in Berlin (Feb.). In January 2015 Holger H. Meinel was appointed by the EuMA BOD to be the speaker of the EuRaMIG (European Radio and Microwave Interest Group), one of three core groups within EuMA, for the next 3 years. EuRaMIG being the body to hold contact with the EU-Commission for EuMA on behalf of innovative technology related EU calls.


Antenna Design at Fraunhofer FHR

Peter Knott
Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques

The Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques FHR in Wachtberg, Germany, develops concepts, methods and systems of electromagnetic sensors, particularly in the field of radar and communication, jointly with novel signal processing methods and innovative technology from the microwave to the lower Terahertz region. The institutes competency covers almost every aspect of modern radar and communication techniques.

The presentation will give an overview of research at FHR and its department AEM, including EM Modelling and Antenna Technology. Specific research topics will be presented, e.g. in the field of Automotive and Maritime Radar, Conformal Array and Circular Switched Parasitic Antennas (CSPA).

Peter Knott joined Fraunhofer FHR in 1994. The focus of his work is design and development of antenna arrays and active antenna front-ends as well as electromagnetic modelling and beamforming methods for conformal antenna arrays. Since 2005 he is head of the Department Antenna Technology and Electromagnetic Modelling (AEM). Until 2012, he has been chairman of the NATO research task group SET-131 on Vibration Control and Structure Integration of Antennas. He has published numerous articles in scientific journals and on conferences and holds several patents. Dr. Knott is also an Assistant Professor of Antenna Engineering at RWTH Aachen University. He is currently chairman of the German IEEE MTT/AP Joint Chapter, member of the VDE/ITG board 7.1 on Antennas, and member of the Board of Trustees of the German Institute of Navigation (DGON e.V.).


PhD Thesis Defence

Sparse Sensing for Statistical Inference: Theory, Algorithms, and Applications

Sundeep Prabhakar Chepuri

In today's society we are flooded with massive volumes of data of the order of a billion gigabytes on a daily basis from pervasive sensors. It is becoming increasingly challenging to locally store and transport the acquired data to a central location for signal/data processing (i.e., for inference). Consequently, most of the data is discarded blindly, causing serious performance loss. It is evident that there is an urgent need for developing unconventional sensing mechanisms to extract as much information as possible yet collecting fewer data. Thus, reducing the costs of sensing as well as the related memory and bandwidth requirements.

The first aim of this thesis is to develop theory and algorithms for data reduction. We develop a data reduction tool called sparse sensing, which consists of a deterministic and structured sensing function (guided by a sparse vector) that is optimally designed to achieve a desired inference performance with the reduced number of data samples. The first part of this thesis is dedicated to the development of sparse sensing models and convex programs to efficiently design sparse sensing functions.

Sparse sensing offers a number of advantages over compressed sensing (a state-of-the-art data reduction method for sparse signal recovery). One of the major differences is that in sparse sensing the underlying signals need not be sparse. This allows us to consider general signal processing tasks (not just sparse signal recovery) under the proposed sparse sensing framework. Specifically, we focus on fundamental statistical inference tasks, like estimation, filtering, and detection. In essence, we present topics that transform classical (e.g., random or uniform) sensing methods to low-cost data acquisition mechanisms tailored for specific inference tasks. The developed framework can be applied to sensor selection, sensor placement, or sensor scheduling, for example.

In the second part of this thesis, we focus on some applications related to distributed sampling using sensor networks. Recent advances in wireless sensor technology have enabled the usage of sensors to connect almost everything as a network. Sensor networks can be used as a spatial sampling device, that is, to faithfully represent distributed signals (e.g., a spatially varying phenomenon such as a temperature field). On top of that, the distributed signals can exist in space and time, where the temporal sampling is achieved using the sensor's analog-to-digital converters, for example. Each sensor has an independent sample clock, and its stability essentially determines the alignment of the temporal sampling grid across the sensors. Due to imperfection in the oscillators, the sample clocks drift from each other, resulting in the misalignment of the temporal sampling grids. To overcome this issue, we devise a mechanism to distribute the sample clock wirelessly. Specifically, we perform wireless clock synchronization based on the time-of-flight measurements of broadcast messages. In addition, clock synchronization also plays a central role in other time-based sensor network applications such as localization. Localization is increasingly gaining popularity in many applications, especially for monitoring environments beyond human reach, e.g., using robots or drones with several sensor units mounted on it. Consequently we now have to localize more than one sensor or even localize the whole sensing platform. Therefore, we extend the classical localization paradigm to localize a (rigid) sensing platform by exploiting the knowledge of the sensor placement on the platform. In particular, we develop algorithms for rigid body localization, i.e., for estimating the position and orientation of the rigid platform using distance measurements.

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Signal Processing Seminar

Censor, Sketch, and Validate for Learning from Large-Scale Data

Georgios Giannakis
Univ. of Minnesota

We live in an era of data deluge. Pervasive sensors collect massive amounts of information on every bit of our lives, churning out enormous streams of raw data in various formats. Mining information from unprecedented volumes of data promises to limit the spread of epidemics and diseases, identify trends in financial markets, learn the dynamics of emergent social-computational systems, and also protect critical infrastructure including the smart grid and the Internet?s backbone network.

While Big Data can be definitely perceived as a big blessing, big challenges also arise with large-scale datasets. This talk will put forth novel algorithms and present analysis of their performance in extracting computationally affordable yet informative subsets of massive datasets. Extraction will effected through innovative tools, namely adaptive censoring, random subset sampling (a.k.a. sketching), and validation. The impact of these tools will be demonstrated in machine learning tasks as fundamental as (non)linear regression, classification, and clustering of high-dimensional, large-scale, and dynamic datasets.

Biography

Georgios B. Giannakis received his Diploma in Electrical Engr. from the Ntl. Tech. Univ. of Athens, Greece, 1981. From 1982 to 1986 he was with the Univ. of Southern California (USC), where he received his MSc. in Electrical Engineering, 1983, MSc. in Mathematics, 1986, and Ph.D. in Electrical Engr., 1986. Since 1999 he has been a professor with the Univ. of Minnesota, where he now holds an ADC Chair in Wireless Telecommunications in the ECE Department, and serves as director of the Digital Technology Center.

His general interests span the areas of communications, networking and statistical signal processing ? subjects on which he has published more than 380 journal papers, 650 conference papers, 20 book chapters, two edited books and two research monographs (h-index 115). Current research focuses on big data analytics, wireless cognitive radios, network science with applications to social, brain, and power networks with renewables.

He is the (co-) inventor of 22 patents issued, and the (co-) recipient of 8 best paper awards from the IEEE Signal Processing (SP) and Communications Societies, including the G. Marconi Prize Paper Award in Wireless Communications. He also received Technical Achievement Awards from the SP Society (2000), from EURASIP (2005), a Young Faculty Teaching Award, the G. W. Taylor Award for Distinguished Research from the U. of Minnesota, and the IEEE Fourier Technical Field Award (2015). He is a Fellow of IEEE and EURASIP, and has served the IEEE in a number of posts including that of a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE-SP Society.

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PhD Thesis Defence

Rene Poelma

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MSc Thesis Presentation

Multi-Domain SystemC Model of a Neural Interface

Kiki Wirianto

Neural networks have been investigated by researchers for several decades. Microelectrodes and neural interface are used to obtain the informations contained in the neuronal networks activity, which can be used to control neural prosthetic devices. This field has developed rapidly and the current research is focusing on multi-channel implementation of neural interface system to monitor the activity of a large number of neurons simultaneously.

Area and safety are two main constraints in the design of neural interface electronics. The chip area constrain is important to minimize the severity of the surgery and limit the displacement of the brain caused by the implanted device. The safety constrain is critical in avoiding the damage to the brain tissue. Both constrains create a limitation on the power consumption of the neural interface system. This limited power budget needs to be utilized carefully to implement a design with low noise and high data rate with as few computational resources as possible. An efficient design allows a large number of channels to be implemented within the allowed power budget.

This thesis proposes behavioral models of the electrode and the neural interface front-end, a part which precondition the neural signals before they are further processed and stored. The functionality of the proposed models are verified and, together with a power estimation model, they are used to perform a system study to investigate the trade-offs between neural interface design parameters.

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PhD thesis defence Wannaya Ngamkham

Analog Integrated Circuit and System Design for a Compact, Low-Power Cochlear Implant

Wannaya Ngamkham

Cochlear Implants (CIs) are prosthetic devices that restore hearing in profoundly deaf patients by bypassing the damaged parts of the inner ear and directly stimulating the remaining auditory nerve fibers in the cochlea with electrical pulses. This thesis describs the electronic circuit design of various modules for application in CIs in order to save area, reduce power consumption and ultimately move towards a fully implantable CI.

To enhance the perception of tonal languages (such as Thai and Chinese) and music, an effort to realize the speech processor in a CI that imitates the inner hair cells and the auditory nerve behaviour more precisely should be made. According to recent physiological experiments, the envelope and phase of speech signals are required to enhance the perceptive capability of a CI implanted patient. The design of an analog complex gammatone filter is introduced in order to extract both envelope and phase information of the incoming speech signals as well as to emulate the basilar membrane behavior. A subthreshold Gm−C circuit topology is selected in order to verify the feasibility of the complex gammatone filter at very low power operation.

Several speech encoding strategies like continuous time interleaved sampling (CIS), race-to-spike asynchronous interleaved sampling (AIS), phase-locking zero-crossing detection (PL-ZCD) and phase-locking peak-picking (PL-PP) are studied and compared in order to find a compact analog speech processor that allows for full implantation and is able to convey both time and frequency components of the incoming speech to a set of electrical pulse stimuli. A comparison of the input and reconstructed speech signals in terms of correlation factor and hardware complexity pointed out that a PL-PP strategy provides a compact solution for the CI electronic hardware design since this strategy does not require a high precision envelope detector. A subthreshold CMOS peak-instant detector to be used in a PL-PP CI processor has been designed. Circuit simulations, using AMIS 0.35 􀀀m technology, show that the proposed detector can be operated from a 1.2 V supply and consumes less than 1 􀀀W static power for detecting a 5 kHz input signal. The output signal of the detector together with the input signal amplitude (the output of the band-pass of each channel) is expected to be used as control parameters in a stimulator for cochlear apical electrodes.

To design stimulators that are implanted inside the body, there are very strict requirements on the size and power consumption. Therefore, it is important to convey as much charge as possible into the tissue while using an as low as possible supply voltage to minimize power consumption. A novel method for maximizing the charge transfer for constant current neural stimulators has been presented. This concept requires a few additional current branches to form two feedback loops to increase the output resistance of a MOS current mirror circuit that requires only one effective drain-source voltage drop. The main benefit we achieve for neural stimulation is the larger amount of charge that can be conveyed to the stimulation electrode. In other words, for the same amount of charge required, the supply voltage can be reduced. Also, a compact programmable biphasic stimulator for cochlear implants has been designed by using the the above concept and implemented in AMS 0.18 􀀀m high-voltage CMOS IC technology, using an active chip area of only 0.042 mm2. Measurement results show that a proper charge balance of the anodic and cathodic stimulation phases is achieved and a dc blocking capacitor can be omitted. The resulting reduction in the required area enables many stimulation channels on a single die.

As the work laid out in this thesis produced only stand-alone modules, future work should focus on combining all these modules together to form an analog CI processor suitable for a fully implantable cochlear implant.

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PhD Thesis Defence

Blind Beamforming Techniques for Global Tracking Systems

Mu Zhou

In lower frequency bands, existing communication systems face unprecedented demands to accommodate more users in new applications. These growing demands exceed the designed system capacity and thus call for innovative solutions while keeping compatibility to the current setup to reduce the cost of users. For example, in the automatic identification system (AIS), satellite receivers are being used for expanding the service coverage of ship tracking to the global range, and similarly in the automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) system for aircraft tracking. These systems are narrowband and originally designed in the last century, but they will continue to run for at least another couples of years without major updating of the user-side equipment.

The new application of AIS considered in this thesis is Satellite AIS. The satellite runs in the low-earth orbit (LEO). On the satellite, receiving AIS signals becomes much more difficult than before: one has to combat in-cell and inter-cell interfering sources from the system itself. Interference suppression is the main topic of this thesis.

Narrowband spatial beamforming techniques for antenna arrays are candidate solutions to this challenge. This thesis tries to develop new beamforming techniques with a simple structure and a low computational complexity. With these techniques, this thesis establishes a framework of multiuser reception for Satellite AIS.

As a basic tool for the proposed algorithms in this thesis, a signed URV algorithm (SURV) is proposed for the basic problem of principal subspace computation and tracking as a replacement of the singular value decomposition (SVD). The updating and downdating of SURV is direct and simple. SURV has no issue of numerical stability unlike previous algorithms in linear algebra and shows consistent performance in both stationary and nonstationary cases.

New blind beamforming techniques are proposed for separating overlapping packets in nonstationary scenarios. The connections between subspace intersection, oblique projection, the generalized SVD (GSVD), the generalized eigenvalue decomposition (GEVD), and SURV are exposed. Simulation and experimental results of the proposed algorithms are shown.

In the remaining part of the thesis, the work developing the software simulation model and constructing the hardware platform is presented. The outputs of the work are used for the verification and validation of the proposed algorithms in this thesis.

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Sensor Selection and Bit Allocation in WSNs with Realistic Digital Communication Channels

Hongrun Zhang

For energy management in wireless sensor networks, only the sensors with most informative measurements are activated to operate. How to select sensors that make good tradeoff between performance and energy consumption is what many researchers are focusing on. Existing solutions assume analog data model, i.e., the data from sensors collected by a center node, called fusion center, are analog measurements. In practical application, due to limitations of energy of sensors and bandwidth of wireless channel, original measurements are usually compressed before being transmitted to the fusion center. In addition, transmitted signals are usually distorted by wireless channel effects, therefore it is possible that the received data are corrupted with errors. In this thesis, we consider two compressive techniques: one-bit quantization and multi-bit quantization. In one-bit quantization, an indicator message is generated in a sensor according to whether the original measurement is larger than a threshold or not. In multi-bit quantization, the original measurements are quantized to multiple bits and only the most significant bits are reserved. The indicators or the most significant bits are then transmitted through realistic wireless channel to the fusion center for it to process. By these ways, the transmitted signals are digital, and they may flip into opposite values by the effects of wireless channels. For one-bit quantization case, we develop a sensor selection approach, based on convex programming. For multi-bit quantization, we extend the sensor selection to bit allocation and propose a novel algorithm to determine the number of bits to transmit for each sensors, which is also based on convex programming. In both cases we consider the effects of wireless channels, which are characterized as bit error rate. Particularly, for the multi-bit quantization, numerical results show that the bit allocation can further reduce the cost that we defined compared with existing solutions where transmitted data are assumed to be analog.


PhD Thesis Defence

Thesis defence Maryam Yazdan Mehr: Organic Materials Degradation

Maryam Yazdan Mehr

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MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Speech Based Onset Estimation for Multisensor Localization

Rodolfo Solera Urcuyo

This work presents a study of a current problem in the field of audio processing: Source and receiver localization. Currently, this problem requires that either the onset time of the sources or the internal delay of the receivers are known. The algorithms studied here, take advantage of the structure of the time matrix, which contains the TOA of all the receivers with respect to all the sources, and finds the solution to the locations when the onset times are known. The problem here is then approached from a time difference of arrival (TDOA) perspective, which inherently cancels the onset times by subtracting the time of arrival (TOA) of a source at every receiver.

An alternative approach is also proposed, which uses speech signals as calibration signals in order to estimate the onset times. Such an approach is based on an algorithm which uses artificial calibration signals to calculate the onsets. Those signals are known a-priori, which implies that an additional device which produces those signals is needed. Once both internal delays and onset times are known, the locations of both sources and receivers can be estimated using a current algorithm which is also described here


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

A 1 GSa/s Deep Cryogenic, Reconfigurable Soft-core FPGA ADC for Quantum Computing Applications

Stefan Visser

This project proposes a solution using a FPGA to create a soft-core ADC architecture. Except for some small resistors on the PCB, the ADC can be completely integrated into the reconfigurable hardware blocks of an FPGA. Therefore the ADC can be easily interfaced with the remainder of the digital circuitry, it can be scaled to the required sampling rate or resolution and it even allows ADCs with different specifications in one system.

This approach allows calibration to each new environment the system is operating in, i.e. changes in voltage, temperature or chip can be calibrated out. We aim to show the effectiveness of our calibration techniques by operating the ADC both at room temperature and in a deep cryogenic environment at 4 Kelvin.


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Automated Detection of Central Apnea in Preterm Infants

Marina Nano

In 2010, an estimated 14.9 million babies were born preterm, which amounted to 11.1% of?all?livebirths worldwide, ranging from about 5% in several European countries to 18% in?some?African countries. The rate of preterm births has increased remarkably. Prematurity of birth can?predispose neonates to undesirable cessations of breathing, a condition?termed as Apnea of?Prematurity. The prevalence of this condition poses problems, because?when untreated or?inadequately treated Apnea of Prematurity, may impair development.?

This thesis investigates the?automated central apnea detection in preterm infants based on?raw waveform analysis of one-lead ECG and chest impedance signals. For this purpose,?18 novel features and 34 features of?existing research that characterize different aspects?of chest impedance and ECG signals were?extracted for automated apnea classification.?Features aim to extract information regarding?respiratory and cardiac regularity, estimated?from chest impedance and ECG signals. These?features are indicators of some properties?of cardio-respiratory physiology, which is not?independent of the presence of apnea and?thus can be in turn used to classify apnea.

The?objective is to find the most discriminative subset of features from one-lead ECG and chest?impedance signals that can be used?by a machine-learning approach to study and accurately?detect central apnea. This was?achieved by applying feature selection algorithms in order to?remove redundant or irrelevant features without incurring much loss of information.

In this?thesis, nine hours of continuously recorded data of ten very low-birth-weight infants (birth weight?< 1,500 gr) undergoing continuous cardiopulmonary monitoring in the NICU at Maxima Medisch?Centrum?from 2008 were included in the analysis. The dataset was annotated by two?neonatologists.?Results from this work indicate that the analysis of chest impedance and ECG?signals with?a support vector machine can automatically detect Apnea of Prematurity.

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MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Blind Segmentation of Time-Series

Vana Panagiotou

Change-point detection is an indispensable tool for a wide variety of applications which?has been?extensively studied in the literature over the years. However, the development of?wireless devices and?miniature sensors that allows continuous recording of data poses new?challenges that cannot be?adequately addressed by the vast majority of existing methods.

?In this work, we aim to balance?statistical accuracy with computational efficiency, by developing a hierarchical two-level algorithm?that can significantly reduce the computational?burden in the expense of a negligible loss of detection?accuracy. Our choice is motivated?by the idea that if a simple test was used to quickly select some?potential change-points?in the first level, then the second level which consists of a computationally?more expensive algorithm, would be applied only to a subset of data, leading to a significant run-time?improvement. In addition, in order to alleviate the difficulties arising in high-dimensional?data, we use a?data selection technique which gives more importance to data that are more?useful for detecting?changes than to others.

Using these ideas, we compute a detection?measure which is given as the?weighted sum of individual dissimilarity measures and we?present techniques that can speed up some?standard change-point detection methods.?Experimental results on both artificial and real-world data?demonstrate the effectiveness?of developed approaches and provide a useful insight about the?suitability of some of the?state-of-the-art methods for detecting changes in many different scenarios.

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Thermally Driven Sound Source: Application of CNT nanofoams

Hengqian (Daniel) Yi


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Wafer Scale Flexible Interconnect Fabrication for Heterogeneous Integration

Jian Li


International Symposium on Bioelectronics and Bioinformatics

Getting better with electroceuticals: implantable and injectable electronics to the rescue

Wouter Serdijn

The 21st century will be the century in which we will unravel the intricacies of the brain and in which we will use electricity to interact with our electro-chemical mainframe better. In this talk Prof. Serdijn will explain how electroceuticals, the electronic counterparts of pharmaceuticals, can help to successfully treat neurological disorders. Further, he will sketch a technological avenue of their future development by making electroceuticals smaller, more energy efficient and more intelligent. Examples will be given for fully-implantable bionic ears and neurostimulators for the treatment of tinnitus, Tourette?s syndrome and epilepsy.

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ECTM Fall meeting

Quantum to brain

Juan Alfaro Barrantes, Daniel Yi, Marta Kluba, William Quiros Solano

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Highly Accurate Synchronization Over Ethernet

Jeroen Somers

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Microelectronics Colloquium

Extreme Electronics

Fabio Sebastiano, Vasiliki Giagka, Daniele Cavallo

Please Register if you want to join the colloquium.
During the Microelectronics Colloquium "Extreme Electronics". Three new Assistant Professors (Tenure Tracker) of the Microelectronics Department will present a lecture in this context.



This will be a good occasion to meet the new staff members and learn about their research. There will be a drink afterwards as well.

Vasiliki Giagka - Active Implantable Microsystems
Implantable devices have been part of our lives for many decades now. The understanding of the electrical properties of the transmitted signals in our bodies have given researchers ideas on how to interface with them by using electronics. The concept of active implants refers to the miniaturisation of the electronics and their integration into microsystems suitable to live in our bodies. These devices can be employed to write signals to the body, inhibit undesired functionality for target organs, or read signals that convey the intention of our organism. This talk will focus on presenting some of the main applications and possibilities of active implants, and will discuss the challenges related to implantable microsystems, through the example of the design, fabrication and evaluation of a stimulating active electrode array for rehabilitation of walking after spinal cord injury

Daniele Cavallo - Towards the implementation of Integrated,On Chip Terahertz Systems
Terahertz (THz) sources and detectors have been developed in the last years for applications such as space observation, spectroscopy and security screening. However, until now, the components for making such THz systems have been very bulky and pricey, and thus not suitable for cost-driven commercial applications of THz technology. In the next years, my research will be focused on the development of low-cost, efficient and highly-integrated THz systems. On the one hand, the rapid scaling of CMOS and SiGe BiCMOS will eventually enable the realization of low-cost THz electronics. On the other hand, a careful co-design of the electronic circuit, the antenna and the quasi-optical system is crucial to bring real advances in this field. An overview on the ongoing research activities on integrated THz transceivers will be presented, with emphasis on novel solutions to improve the efficiency of on-chip antennas.

Fabio Sebastiano - Cryogenic CMOS for Quantum Computers
Quantum computers hold the promise to change our everyday lives in this century in the same radical way as the classical computer did in the last century, by efficiently solving problems that are intractable today, such as large number factorization and simulation of quantum systems. Quantum processors must be cooled at cryogenic temperatures well below 1 K and each of their quantum bits (qubit) must be controlled by a classical electronic interface. Since future quantum processors with practical applications will require up to thousands or millions of quantum bits (qubit), the electronic controller must operate at cryogen?ic temperatures as close as possible to the quantum processor, to avoid the unpractical requirement of thousands of cables from the cryogenic refrigerator to a room-temperature controller. This talk will address the challenges of building such a scalable silicon-based cryogenic electronic controller, focusing on to use standard CMOS technology to build complex analog and digital systems and circuits operating down to 4 K and below.

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PhD Thesis Defence

Thermal-Aware Design and Runtime Management of 3D Stacked Multiprocessors

Sumeet Kumar

This dissertation presents architectural techniques to enable the realization of efficient, high-performance chip multiprocessors, and facilitate runtime temperature management to ensure their dependable operation. Most importantly, it provides new insights into the complex thermal behaviour of 3D ICs, and illustrates how the design space of stacked die architectures can be effectively explored in order to maximize performance in the dark silicon era. This dissertation consists of two main themes, architecture and temperature.

The thesis addresses the following questions.

  • How can the performance and efficiency of on-chip memory operations in multiprocessors be improved?
  • How do the physical design parameters in Nagata?s equation affect the thermal behavior of 3D Integrated Circuits?
  • How can the knowledge of thermal behaviour be effectively leveraged in the design of 3D stacked multiprocessors?
  • How can the architecture and operating parameters be efficiently adapted at runtime to mitigate the severity of thermal issues, and improve execution performance?

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PhD thesis defence Yongjia Li

Level-Crossing ADCs and their Applications in Biomedical Readout Systems

Yongjia Li

Chapter 1 introduces the background of the thesis topic. The basic knowledge of level-crossing sampling is described. In a wireless sensor node, the system power consumption is usually dominated by the wireless power transmission. Reducing the data size is crucial to save system power consumption under such circumstances. Therefore, a comparison between conventional uniform sampling and level-crossing sampling is made in terms of sampling data size. For low resolution (< 7 bits) in amplitude, LC-ADCs generate fewer samples than uniform-sampling ADCs for various biomedical signals (ECG, EEG, EMG, ECoG). Furthermore, the design challenges and motivation of realizing a level-crossing sampling based readout system are described.

Chapter 2 reviews and analyzes previously reported LC-ADCs from different aspects. Based on various window detection methods and feedback DACs, LC-ADCs are classified into various groups. Advantages and disadvantages of each structure are discussed. Since LC-ADCs work in the continuous-time domain without a clock, conventional offset cancellation topologies are not applicable. Therefore, LC-ADCs with automatic onchip offset calibration are reviewed. Moreover, LC-ADCs with various system applications are discussed.

Two standalone level-crossing ADCs for biomedical applications are presented in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4, respectively. A single-bit charge accumulation DAC is proposed to save power consumption while relaxing the settling time requirement. Asymmetrical window detection allows the two comparators to consume power more efficiently without sacrificing performance. Innovations at both system level and circuit level pave the way to low-power operation for the LC-ADC. The circuits have been designed and fabricated in AMS 0.18 mm CMOS IC technology. Compared to other LC-ADCs, lower power consumption and less design complexity have been achieved due to the proposed topologies. The event-driven nature makes the proposed ADC very suitable for biomedical applications.

Chapter 5 presents the system integration of an LC-ADC. An ECG recording system with level-crossing sampling is proposed. The system is a voltage and current mixed-mode system. The LNA with fully balanced pseudo-resistors provides good linearity. Resolving the input signal further in the current domain allows for a large dynamic range while operating from a low-voltage supply, avoids leakage and offers more design flexibility. The use of a current feedback DAC eases the integration of calibration blocks in the continuous-time domain. The circuit has been designed and fabricated in a 0.18 μm CMOS IC technology. The proposed system is also very suitable for other biomedical applications where the signals are sparse.

In the final chapter, the thesis is summarized and concluded. The measurement results confirm the effectiveness of the techniques presented in this thesis. Last but not least, possible improvements and research fields that are related to this work are discussed. Suggestions for future work are made.

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Microelectronics Colloquium

Remotely powered sensor networks and RFIDs for medical and telecoms applications

Catherine Dehollain
EPFL Lausanne, RFIC Group, Switzerland

Remotely powered systems are used in a lot of different applications, and in particular in the medical and telecoms fields. The main principle of remote powering is to get energy by magnetic, electro-magnetic or electro-acoustic coupling between the sensor node and the base station. Each scenario of use implies a custom-design approach due to the fact that the distance of operation between the sensor node and the base station as well as the maximum targeted volume of the sensor node dictate the choice of the frequency for remote powering and for data communication. Moreover, one single frequency approach for which the same frequency is used for remote powering and data transmission has to be compared to a two frequency solution by taking into account the data rate for communication as well as the power consumption of the sensor node. All these different aspects will be discussed in this talk by starting from a system level approach down to the transistor implementation including the design of the antennas.

Biography
Professor Catherine Dehollain received the Degree in electrical engineering in 1982 and the Ph.D. degree in 1995 from EPFL. From 1982 to 1984, she was a Research Assistant at the Electronics Laboratories (LEG), EPFL. In 1984, she joined the Motorola European Center for Research and Development, Geneva, Switzerland, where she designed integrated circuits applied to telecommunications. In 1990, she joined EPFL as a Senior Assistant at the "Chaire des Circuits et Systemes," where she was involved in impedance broadband matching. Since 1995, she has been responsible for the EPFL-RFIC Group. She has a large experience in CMOS analog and RF circuits design as well as in the design of antennas, coils and transformers. She has participated to different European FP6 and FP7 projects. She has been the project leader of the Swiss CAPED project dedicated to the design of a capsule for the tracking motility in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. She has been the coordinator of the FP7 UltraSponder project dedicated to the design of a remotely powered sensor by using ultrasonic waves to monitor the heart health conditions. She is involved in different biomedical projects and wireless communication projects.


MSc BME Thesis Presentation

Application of Ultrasound to Remove Thrombi from a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD)

Arundhati Radhakrishnan

Due to limited number of donor hearts and stringent eligibility criteria for heart transplant the Left ventricular assist device (LVAD) has emerged as a relevant treatment option for heart failure. Occlusion in the form of a thrombus (blood clot) is a feared complication associated with the LVAD. The ability of ultrasound to result in effects like cavitation, which is hypothesized to be one of the mechanisms contributing to sonothrombolysis(ultrasound mediated thrombolysis) forms the basis of proposing a solution wherein ultrasound is used to remove thrombi from the LVAD. The proposed solution entails catheter delivery of ultrasound into the LVAD to break down the thrombus.

In this master thesis an experimental setup to conduct sonothrombolysis tests on in vitro clots has been realized. In order to understand the mechanism contributing to a high degree of sonothrombolysis a commonly used method - passive cavitation detection is also employed. In the final experiments sonothrombolysis and passive cavitation detection tests are conducted on two sets of 6 clots each. For majority of the clots, sonothrombolysis occurs at a peak negative pressure of 2.71MPa - 3.18 MPa. Clots which underwent a high degree of sonothrombolysis were always accompanied by high counts and violent movement. We assume the intermittent spikes termed as cavitation events being counted are due to physical effects like inertial bubble collapse, shockwaves and microjets, which are characteristic of inertial cavitation. Hence we can conclude that the high counts are indicative of inertial cavitation and play a dominant role in achieving a high degree of sonothrombolysis. The results of this master thesis provide experimental evidence as to why a certain threshold of peak negative pressure must be attained in order to achieve a high degree of sonothrombolysis. This evidence can be utilized in the next step of catheter design. At this stage it can be said that the application of ultrasound to remove thrombi from the LVAD will prove to be successful if high intensity ultrasound resulting in inertial cavitation can be delivered to the site of the thrombi formation in the LVAD.


MSc thesis presentation Sander Fondse

Sleeping Wireless Energy Transfer and Trickle Charging

Sander Fondse

In a world of improving health care, some diseases are still very hard to diagnose. The most common reasons for this problem is the fact that those diseases are non-symptomatic. To gain better diagnoses of such illnesses long term ExG by using bio-medical implants is a good option. These implants have to be powered by a wireless power link. This thesis analyses the possibilities for the development of a wireless transfer system that can transfer at least 360 ?Wh of energy within six hours through the air and into tissue tissue. After analysis of the influence of the environment on the wave efficiency it is proven that resonant magnetic transfer is the best option for the given scenario. 13.56 MHz is chosen as operating frequency. Energy for the implant is needed at DC level, therefore a rectifier layout is analysed, designed and built out of discrete parts. With the use of discrete components and hand-made inductors, the final operating frequency became 17.50 MHz. The laboratory equipment used restricted the maximum input voltage amplitude to 4.56 V. The final result of this thesis is a prototype wireless energy transfer system that generates a maximum of 75.9 ?W of power continuously at a power efficiency of 10.1 percent at a distance of 15 mm.At a distance of 75 mm, the maximum output power was still equal to 2 ?W. The power efficiency at 75 mm distance is equal to 0.29 percent, which means that to generate 360 ?Wh within six hours the input power must be at least 25.9 mW, a value that can easily be reached without causing flicting damage to human tissue or the system itself. This proves that magnetically coupled inductor systems can be used for the future development of autonomous ExG implants.


MSc TC Thesis Presentation

Sparse Arrays: Vector Sensors and Design Algorithms

Shilpa Rao

Direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation of acoustic sources is of great interest in a number of applications. Acoustic vector sensors (AVSs) provide an edge over traditional scalar sensors since they measure the acoustic velocity field in addition to the acoustic pressure. It is known that a uniform linear array (ULA) of M conventional scalar sensors can identify up to M-1 DOAs. However, using second-order statistics, the class of sparse scalar sensor arrays have been shown to identify more source DOAs than the number of sensors. In this thesis, we extend these results using sparse AVS arrays. We first assume that the sources are quasi-stationary and use the Khatri-Rao subspace approach to estimate the source DOAs. In addition, a spatial-velocity smoothing technique is proposed to estimate the DOAs of stationary sources. For both scenarios, we show that the number of source DOAs that can be identified is significantly greater than the number of physical vector sensors. The second problem considered in this thesis is sensor selection for non-linear models. It is often necessary to guarantee a certain estimation accuracy by choosing the best subset of the available set of sensors. A non-linear measurement model in additive Gaussian noise is considered. To solve the sensor selection problem, which is inherently combinatorial, a greedy algorithm based on submodular cost functions is developed. The proposed low-complexity greedy algorithm is computationally attractive as compared to existing sensor selection solvers for non-linear models. The submodular cost ensures optimality of the greedy algorithm. Such a sensor selection can be applied, for example, to design sparse AVS arrays that also ensure a certain quality of the DOA estimates next to their identifiability.

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PhD Thesis Defence

Silicon Carbide Technologies applied to MEMS Nanoreactors for in-situ Transmission Electron Microscopy

Bruno Morana

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Implementation of in-situ monitoring techniques for power reduction in smart sensors

Guozhi Xu

Nowadays, smart sensors are widely used in a variety of application domains, such as telecommunication, health care, cars, mobile phones, smart cities. Because of limited battery capacity, low-power design is required for smart sensors. Low-voltage operation is a key leverage to reduce power consumption in smart sensors. However, uncertainties due to process, voltage and temperature variations or random fluctuations gain in relevance when operating in the near-threshold range. Hence, monitoring of the actual silicon behavior is crucial to lowering supply voltage while preserving reliable operation. An interrupt-based in-situ monitoring approach is proposed in this thesis. This approach uses an interrupt service routine to stimulate the critical paths on the chip. By monitoring the timing of the exercised paths, a warning signal is generated to steer the control of reliable supply voltage levels. This approach is developed, validated and applied on an ARM-based processor. Finally, a 10 mV supply voltage margin is achieved based on measurements in the near-threshold range. In addition, reliable operation is verified by running different self-checking codes over multiple dies while varying the environmental conditions.


MSc TC Thesis Presentation

Software Defined Radio Receiver Design Developement for China Digital Radio

Yun Wang

(Thesis work done at NXP, Eindhoven)


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Distributed Convex Optimization

He Ming Zhang

The Primal-Dual Method of Multipliers (PDMM) is a new algorithm that solves convex optimization problems in a distributed manner.?This study focuses on the convergence behavior of the PDMM. For a deeper understanding, the PDMM algorithm was applied to distributed averaging and distributed dictionary learning problems. The results were compared to those of other state-of-the-art algorithms. The experiments show that the PDMM algorithm not only has a fast convergence rate but also robust performance against transmission failures in the network.?Furthermore, on the basis of these experiments, the convergence rate of the PDMM was analyzed. Different attempts at proving the linear convergence rate were carried out. As a result, the linear convergence rate has been proven under certain conditions.


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Heart Rate Variability Analysis based on Instantaneous Frequency Estimation

Di Feng

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PhD Thesis Defence

Thesis defence Negin Golshani: New detector technology for SEM imaging (Silicon Drift Detectors using boron layer)

Negin Golshani

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Conferences

Circuits and Systems for Electroceuticals

Wouter Serdijn

Invited talk at the 47th annual meeting of the Associazione Gruppo Italiano di Elettronica (GE Association)

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PhD Thesis Defence

Distributed Speech Enhancement in Wireless Acoustic Sensor Networks

Yuan Zeng

In digital speech communication applications like hands-free mobile telephony, hearing aids and human-to-computer communication systems, the recorded speech signals are typically corrupted by background noise. As a result, their quality and intelligibility can get severely degraded. Traditional noise reduction approaches process signals recorded by microphone arrays using centralized beamforming technologies. Recent advances in micro-electromechanical systems and wireless communications enable the development of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), where low-cost, low-power and multi-functional wireless sensing devices are connected via wireless links. Compared with conventional localized and regularly arranged microphone arrays, wireless sensor nodes can be randomly placed in environments and thus cover a larger spatial field and yield more information on the observed signals. This thesis explores some problems on multi-microphone speech enhancement for wireless acoustic sensor networks (WASNs), such as distributed noise reduction processing, clock synchronization and privacy preservation.

First, we develop a distributed delay-and-sum beamformer (DDSB) for speech enhancement in WASNs. Due to limited power of each wireless device, signal processing algorithms with low computational complexity and low communication cost are preferred in WASNs. Distributed signal processing allows that each node only communicates with its neighboring nodes and perform local processing, where communication load and computational complexity are distributed over all nodes in the network. Without central processor and network topology constraint, the DDSB algorithm estimates the desired speech signal via local processing and local communication. The DDSB algorithm is based on an iterative scheme. More specifically, in each iteration, pairs of neighboring nodes update their estimates according to the principle of traditional delay-and-sum (DSB) beamformer. The estimation of the DDSB converges asymptotically to the optimal solution of the centralized beamformer. However, experimental study indicates that the noise reduction performance of the DDSB is at the expense of a higher communication cost, which can be a serious drawback in practical applications.

Therefore, in the second part of this thesis, a clique-based distributed beamformer (CbDB) has been proposed to reduce communication costs of the original DDSB algorithm. In the CbDB, nodes in two neighboring non-overlapping cliques update their estimates simultaneously per iteration. Since each non-overlapping clique consists of multiple nodes, the CbDB allows more nodes to update their estimates and leads to lower communication costs than the original DDSB algorithm. Furthermore, theoretical and experimental studies have shown that the CbDB converges to the centralized beamformer and is more robust for sensor nodes failures in WASNs.

In the third part of this thesis, we propose a privacy preserving minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) beamformer for speech enhancement in WASNs. Different wireless devices in WASNs generally belong to different users. We consider a scenario where a user joins the WASN and estimates his desired source via the WASN, but wants to keep his source of interest private. To introduce a distributed MVDR beamformer in such scenario, a distributed approach is first proposed for recursively estimation of the inverse of the correlation matrix in randomly connected WASNs. This distributed approach is based on the fact that using the Sherman- Morrison formula, estimation of the inverse of the correlation matrix can be seen as a consensus problem. By hiding the steering vector, the privacy preserving MVDR beamformer can reach the same noise reduction performance as its centralized version.

In the final part of this thesis, we investigate clock synchronization problems for multi-microphone speech enhancement in WASNs. Each wireless device in WASNs is equipped with an independent clock oscillator, and therefore clock differences are inevitable. However, clock differences between capturing devices will cause signal drift and lead to severe performance degradation of multi-microphone noise reduction algorithms. We provide theoretical analysis of the effect of clock synchronization problems on beamforming technologies and evaluate the use of three different clock synchronization algorithms in the context of multi-microphone noise reduction. Our experimental study shows that the achieved accuracy of the three clock synchronization algorithms enables sufficient accuracy of clock synchronization for the MVDR beamformer in ideal scenarios. However, in practical scenarios with measurement uncertainty or noise, the output of the MVDR beamformer with time-stamp based clock synchronization algorithms gets degraded, while the accuracy of signal based clock synchronization algorithms is still enough for the MVDR beamformer, albeit at a much higher communication cost.

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PhD Thesis Defence

Thesis defence Giuseppe Fiorentino

Giuseppe Fiorentino

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PhD Thesis Defence

On the Control of Surface Waves in Integrated Antenna: Analysis and Design Exploiting Artificial Dielectric Layers


In the design of planar antennas, good front-to-back radiation ratio can be achieved by loading the radiating element with an electrically thick and dense dielectric slab. However, this leads to significant coupling of power into surface wave modes, via those rays that are radiated by the antenna at angles greater than the critical angle, thus deteriorating the antenna radiation performances.

In this dissertation, a planar methodology to solve the issue of surface waves is presented, which can be used to obtain simultaneously high radiation efficiency and good front-to- back radiation ratio. This consists in engineering anisotropic equivalent materials, referred to as artificial dielectric layers (ADL), and use them to enhance the performance of planar antennas. A practical planar realization of this concept can be achieved by embedding inside the host dielectric a periodic array of sub-wavelength square metal patches in a multilayer configuration. In this work, the main aspects pertaining to the theoretical development and the practical implementation of ADLs are investigated.

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PhD Thesis Defence

Thesis defence Saeed Khosferat Pakazad

Saeed Khoshfetrat Pakazad

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PhD Thesis Defence

Quasioptical Imaging Systems at THz Frequencies

Beatriz Blázquez

The Terahertz gap is the portion of the spectrum lying between 300 GHz and 3 THz. The initial development of Terahertz technology was driven by Space-based instruments for astrophysics, planetary, cometary and Earth science. However, in recent years, the interest of Terahertz science has been rapidly expanded due to the emergence of new applications as secure screening of concealed weapons for military and civil purposes, biological screening, medical imaging, industrial process control and communication technology, to mention some of them. A common characteristic of THz systems is that all of them use quasioptical elements to focus the beams and achieve sufficient signal-to-noise ratios.

This doctoral thesis has focus on the analysis and development of quasioptical systems for two different types of THz applications: direct detection for space and heterodyne imaging for security. In the first part, THz absorbers-based detectors for space applications are studied. As this type of detectors can only be studied in reception, their analysis, when located under focusing systems, is usually done by full wave simulations under normal incidence illumination. This method does not describe well the actual coupling to the focusing element when the F/D ratio of the system is relatively small. A spectral model based on Fourier optics has been developed for an accurate and efficient analysis of linear absorbers under THz focusing systems for both small and large F/D ratios. The second part of this thesis is devoted to the optical system of a THz imaging radar for security screening. The goal in this part was to provide an existing THz imaging radar with new capabilities by using quasioptical solutions that do not modify the scanning mechanism and the back-end electronics. On one hand, the radar has been provided with an all quasioptical waveguide that performs time-delay multiplexing of the beams, reducing the image acquisition time a factor of two by only adding some extra optical elements to the system. Furthermore, the feasibility of this technique to be applied to large linear arrays of transceivers is proven. On the other hand, the radar was provided with refocusing capabilities by implementing the classical optical solution of translating the transceiver.

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CMOS and SiGe RFICs for Microwave and MM-Wave Phased Arrays

Gabriel M. Rebeiz, University of California, San Diego

This talk will present the latest work on microwave and mm-wave phased arrays and imaging systems at UCSD. The talk shows that one can build large phased arrays on a single chip covering distinct frequency bands, from 2 GHz to > 94 GHz, using commercial CMOS and SiGe processes. Typical designs include an 8-element 8-16 GHz SiGe phased array receiver, a 16-element Tx/Rx phased array at 42-48 GHz with 5-bit amplitude and phase control, and a 16-element Rx phased array at 77-84 GHz which includes a built-in-self-test system Also, an 8-20 GHz digital beam-former chip capable of multiple-beam operation and with high immunity to interferers will also be presented. IN terms of wafers-scale designs, 94 GHz and 110 GHz wafer-scale phased arrays will also be presented including high efficiency antennas. It will be shown that SiGe and CMOS has changed the way we think about phased arrays and imaging systems.

Gabriel M. Rebeiz
Distinguished Professor
Wireless Communications Industry Chair
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
The University of California, San Diego
rebeiz@ece.ucsd.edu


PhD thesis defence

Design of efficient and safe neural stimulators - a multidisciplinary approach

Marijn van Dongen

Neural stimulation is an established treatment methodology for an increasing number of diseases. Electrical Stimulation injects a stimulation signal through electrodes that are implanted in the target area of the central or peripheral nervous system in order to evoke a specific neuronal response that suppresses or treats pathological activity. This thesis discusses the design of neural stimulators: the device that is responsible for generating the stimulation signal in a safe, efficient and controlled manner. The design of such a device requires a highly multidisciplinary approach which involves disciplines such as neuroscience, electrophysiology, electrochemistry and electrical engineering.
The first part of this thesis focuses on the processes associated with the neuronal recruitment. After describing the stimulation processes in detail at various levels, the discussion zooms in on the processes at the electrode-tissue interface and in particular the electrochemical behavior. Many neural stimulators include coupling capacitors between the stimulator and the electrodes to reduce the risk of potentially harmful electrochemical reactions. However, it is shown that coupling capacitors also have negative implications that need to be considered, such as a shift in the equilibrium potential of the electrode-tissue interface. Also, the reversibility of charge transfer processes at the electrode-tissue interface is analyzed. Most studies rely on monitoring the electrodetissue interface potential to determine the maximum reversible charge injection limits. By measuring the reversible charge in a more direct way, it was found that irreversible charge transfer processes already play a role for stimulation intensities that are well below the established charge injection limits.
The extensive description of the stimulation process is furthermore used to introduce a fundamentally different stimulation paradigm. Instead of using a constant current or voltage to stimulate the electrodes, a high frequency, switched-mode stimulation signal is applied. The advantage of such a stimulation pattern is that it can be generated in a power efficient way by the neurostimulator circuit using switched-mode operation that is common in energy efficient amplifiers (class-D operation) or power management circuits. The efficacy of the proposed stimulation pattern is verified both using modeling as well as using in vitro measurements by analyzing the response of patch-clamped Purkinje cells.
The second part of the thesis focuses on the electrical design of neural stimulators. The first system is designed to be used in a specific neuroscientific experiment and features arbitrary waveform stimulation. The user has full flexibility over the choice of stimulation waveform, while the stimulator circuit guarantees safety by ensuring charge balanced operation. The stimulator circuit is realized and included in a system implementation that is suitable for the in vivo experimental setup. The stimulation pulse (which uses a burst pattern) is synchronized with auditory stimulation in an attempt to recondition the neural pathways in a mouse that suffers from tinnitus.
The second design implements the high-frequency switched-mode stimulation pattern that was introduced in the first part of the thesis. The system features an unfiltered forward buck-boost converter at its core to directly stimulate the target tissue. It is possible to operate the system with multiple independent channels that connect to an arbitrary electrode configuration, making the system well suited for current steering techniques. Furthermore, comprehensive control was implemented using a dual clock configuration that allows both autonomic tonic stimulation, as well as single shot stimulation. Each channel can be configured individually with tailored stimulation parameters and multiple channels can operate in a synchronized fashion. The system is power efficient, especially when compared with state-of-the-art constant current stimulators with an adaptive power supply that operate in multichannel mode. Efficiency improvements up to 200% compared with state of the art constant current stimulators are demonstrated. Furthermore, the number of external components required is reduced to a single inductor.

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PhD Thesis Defence

Fast qualification of solder reliability in solid state lighting system

Jing Zhang

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Antennas for Frequency Reconfigurable Phased Arrays

PhD thesis defence

Nadia Haider

Sensors such as phased array radars play a crucial role in public safety. They are unavoidable for surveillance, threat identification and post-disaster management. However, different scenarios impose immensely diverse requirements for these systems. Phased array systems occupy a large space. In addition, if different antenna systems are needed for each function, the space required can be considerably large. For transportable platforms, such as ships and aircrafts, space and weight are at a premium. Therefore, reconfigurable multi-band antennas are very attractive solutions for future multi-function sensor systems. Within this research work three different approaches are investigated to realize antennas for reconfigurable phased arrays. Wideband antenna designs constitute the first approach. Integrating this type of antennas with frequency selective filters provide the opportunity for fine tuning within one radar band. The wideband operation of the antenna is achieved by the blind-via feeding section and the quasi electric-magnetic radiating structure. The second approach involves the design of an antenna element with p-I-n diode switches. The switches are used to alter the antenna structure and thereby the operating frequency. Measured results verified the frequency reconfigurable capability of the antenna within L/S radar bands with frequency ratio more than 2:1. The planar structure, the back feeding mechanism, the compact size and the simple bias network made the proposed antenna suitable for array applications. The large frequency ratio and its usability in phased array applications made the design novel. Furthermore, for these frequency reconfigurable elements, a unique multi-scale array structure is introduced which can assure wide angle scanning for both frequency bands. The advantage of this novel array configuration is twofold: reduce the Mutual couplings in the lower band, and increase the scanning volume for the higher band. A planar array demonstrator validated the proposed concept. In the third approach the operational band of an antenna is tuned by variableimpedance matching. In this study, the standard 50 Ω matching is avoided and many advantages of variable-impedance matching are demonstrated. First, the principle is verified by tuning the frequency band of a microstrip antenna by an input-impedance tuneable CMOS RF-frontend. In the second design a novel dual-band E-slot antenna,with 2.5:1 frequency ratio, was designed. By changing the input-impedance the operating frequency of the antenna can be switched from L- to S-band. Variable impedance matching provides few other advantages to phased array antennas. A scan-angle dependent impedance matching will assure low reflection coefficients for the entire scanning volume. On the other hand, it will reduce interfering and jamming signals coming from adjacent angles. The outcomes of this research work have led to solid understanding of how we can realize frequency reconfigurable antennas for adaptive phased arrays. The results will be particularly valuable in developing future narrow or wide beam radar systems with frequency reconfiguration and angular filtering capabilities.

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PhD Thesis Defence

Thesis defence Aslihan Arslan

Aslihan Arslan

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Sense of Contact

Sensing and Stimulating the Body with Electroceuticals

Wouter Serdijn

The 21st century will be the century of unravelling the intricacies of the brain and in which we will explore the use of electricy to interact with our electro-chemical mainframe better. In this talk I will explain how electroceuticals, the electronic counterparts of pharmaceuticals, can help to successfully treat neurological disorders. Further, I will sketch a technological avenue of their future development by making electroceuticals smaller, more energy efficient and more intelligent.

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Master thesis defence Nikolas Gaio

Nikolas Gaio

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QuTech Seminar

Designs for quantum information hybrid devices and systems

Prof. Kae Nemoto
National Institute of Informatics, Quantum Information Sciences, Tokyo, Japan

There have been many architectures for quantum computer and quantum information devices proposed, yet we face a gap between these proof-of-principle idea and feasible quantum devices. We focus on an integrated cavity device based on a single diamond NV center to identify the problems and obstacles by integrating necessary elements to perform computational tasks.

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PhD Thesis Defence

Compressive Power Spectral Analysis


The main focus of this thesis is on the reconstruction of the second-order statistics (including correlations and power spectrum) from digital samples produced by compressive sampling a.k.a. sub-Nyquist-rate sampling. Note that it has been known that compressive sampling offers substantial assistance in sampling rate reduction, which is important when we deal with signals having a very large bandwidth.

What interests us is that there are applications where the sampling still needs to be done at sub-Nyquist rate (due to the high bandwidth of the signal of interest) but where the second-order statistics (instead of the original signal) are of interest. One application is, for instance, spectrum sensing for a cognitive radio network, which is a network where unlicensed radio systems opportunistically search for a currently unoccupied frequency band in the licensed spectrum and then borrow these discovered ?white spaces? to establish a communication link. This spectrum sensing is continuously performed by these unlicensed systems since they have to monitor when the actual owners of the borrowed bands (called licensed users) become suddenly active, in which case the unlicensed radios have to vacate the spectrum. In this application, sampling the signal at sub-Nyquist rate is of interest since the spectral range that has to be sensed is generally very wide. However, note that the unlicensed radio systems are never interested in the original signal of the licensed users occupying the bands to be monitored. This implies that a power spectrum plot describing which frequency bands are occupied together with the amount of power in the occupied bands is more than enough and any efforts to reconstruct the original signal in this application will be overkill. We show that power spectrum reconstruction of WSS signals below the Nyquist rate is possible without any additional constraints on the original signal or the power spectrum.

Other applications are the estimation of directions-of-arrival from more sources than antennas.

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Signal processing mini-symposium

Roberto L?pez Valcarce, Visa Koivunen, Yonina Eldar
University of Vigo, Vigo, Spain. Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland. Technion, Haifa, Israel.

Facilitator: Prof. dr. ir. Geert Leus, Circuits and Systems group

1. Carving the Multicarrier Spectrum

Roberto L?pez Valcarce University of Vigo, Vigo, Spain

Multicarrier modulation has become the format of choice in modern high-speed wireless and wireline systems, due to its many well-known qualities. Nevertheless, the large IFFT sidelobes result in substantial leakage across subcarriers with the ensuing adjacent channel interference. The usual approach of deactivating a number of guard subcarriers at the edges of the signal spectrum is very inefficient in terms of data rate. In order for OFDM to be adopted by future high-performance systems, e.g., 5G, a number of enhancements will become necessary to overcome this and other drawbacks. The leakage problem is also of concern in wideband OFDM-based cognitive systems, in which deep notches must be sculpted in the spectrum to avoid interfering to narrowband licensed users. Judiciously modulating (a few) cancellation subcarriers in order to reduce leakage is an appealing alternative, which originally incurred in high online implementation complexity. We will review this Active Interference Cancellation approach and present efficient designs recently developed in our group, with extensions to linear symbol precoding.

Roberto Lopez-Valcarce received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, in 2000. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology from 2001 to 2006, with the Signal Theory and Communications Department, University of Vigo, Spain, where he currently is an Associate Professor. His main research interests lie in the areas of adaptive signal processing, digital communications, and sensor networks, having coauthored over 50 papers in leading international journals. He holds several patents in collaboration with industry. Roberto was the recipient of a 2005 Best Paper Award of the IEEE Signal Processing Society. He served as an Associate Editor of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SIGNAL PROCESSING from 2008 to 2011, and as a member of the IEEE Signal Processing for Communications and Networking Technical Committee from 2011 to 2013.

2. Optimal Array Signal Processing in the Face of Non-Idealities

Visa Koivunen Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland

In this talk we describe techniques that facilitate applying high performance array processing algorithms using real-world sensor arrays with nonidealities. The theoretical background is in wavefield modeling that allows one to develop computationally-efficient and asymptotically-optimal array processing methods regardless of the array geometry (conformal arrays). Wavefield modeling also facilitates incorporating array nonidealities into array processing methods and performance bounds. Parameter estimation and beamforming in the azimuth-elevation-polarimetric domain will be addressed. We acquire a realistic array steering vector model by taking into account array nonidealities such as mutual coupling, mounting platform reflections, cross-polarization effects, errors in element positions as well as individual directional beampatterns. This facilitates achieving optimal or close-to-optimal performance and retaining high-resolution capability despite the nonidealities. Moreover, tighter performance bounds may be established for parameter estimation. We describe how the various approaches can be applied in practice in the context of high-resolution direction finding as well as beamforming so that problems related to beamsteering, SOI and interference cancellation are mitigated. This is joint work with Dr. Mario Costa.

Visa Koivunen received his Ph.D in electrical engineering from the University of Oulu, Finland. He was visiting researcher at the Univ of Pennsylvania in 1992-1995. Since 1999 he has been full professor of signal processing at Aalto University (Helsinki Univ of Technology), Finland where he currently holds the Academy Professor position. He has been an adjunct professor at Penn and visiting fellow at Nokia Research Center. He has spent multiple research visits and sabbaticals terms at Princeton University. His research interests include statistical, communication and array signal processing. Dr. Koivunen is an IEEE Fellow and 2015 IEEE SPS Distinguished Lecturer. He received the 2007 IEEE Signal Processing Society best paper award.

3. Sub-Nyquist Sampling: Bounds, Algorithms and Hardware

Yonina Eldar Technion, Haifa, Israel

The famous Shannon-Nyquist theorem has become a landmark in the development of digital signal processing. However, in many modern applications, the signal bandwidths have increased tremendously, while the acquisition capabilities have not scaled sufficiently fast. Consequently, conversion to digital has become a serious bottleneck. Furthermore, the resulting high rate digital data requires storage, communication and processing at very high rates which is computationally expensive and requires large amounts of power. In this talk, we present a framework for sampling and processing a wide class of wideband analog signals at rates far below Nyquist. We refer to this methodology as sampling:combination of compression and sampling, performed simultaneously.

Using the Cramer-Rao bound we develop a generic low-rate sampling architecture that is optimal in a mean-squared error sense, and can be applied to a wide variety of wideband inputs. The resulting system can be readily implemented in hardware, and is easily modified to incorporate correlations between signals. We consider application of these ideas to a variety of problems including low rate ultrasound imaging, radar detection, ultra wideband communication, and cognitive radio, and show several demos of real-time sub-Nyquist prototypes.

Yonina Eldar received the B.Sc. degree in physics and the B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering both from Tel-Aviv University (TAU), Tel-Aviv, Israel, in 1995 and 1996, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, in 2002. She is currently a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Technion?Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa. She is also a Research Affiliate with the Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT and a Visiting Professor at Stanford University, Stanford. Dr. Eldar was a Horev Fellow of the Leaders in Science and Technology program at the Technion and an Alon Fellow. In 2004, she was awarded the Wolf Foundation Krill Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research, in 2005 the Andre and Bella Meyer lectureship, in 2007 the Henry Taub Prize for Excellence in Research, in 2008 the Hershel Rich Innovation Award, the Award for Women with Distinguished Contributions, the Muriel & David Jacknow Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Technion Outstanding Lecture Award, in 2009 the Technion's Award for Excellence in Teaching, in 2010 the Michael Bruno Memorial Award from the Rothschild Foundation, and in 2011 the Weizmann Prize for Exact Sciences. In 2012 she was elected to the Young Israel Academy of Science and to the Israel Committee for Higher Education, and elected an IEEE Fellow. In 2013 she received the Technion's Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Hershel Rich Innovation Award, and the IEEE Signal Processing Technical Achievement Award. In 2014 she was awarded the IEEE/AESS Fred Nathanson Memorial Radar Award. She received several best paper awards together with her research students and colleagues. She is the Editor in Chief of Foundations and Trends in Signal Processing. In the past, she was a Signal Processing Society Distinguished Lecturer, a member of several Signal Processing technical committees, and an associate editor for several IEEE and SIAM journals.

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MEST Symposium

THE SILICON CRYSTAL BALL

Symposium on silicon technology -?where speakers from industry, academia and from leading research?centers?within?Netherlands and from abroad will cover the latest advancements and challenges in silicon technology.

Speakers

  • P. de Jager( ASML) Lithography beyond EUV
  • E. Vreugdenhil (ASML) 3D-NAND Flash: vertical stacking of new thin-film gate-all-around transistors
  • M. Pelgrom (PelgromConsulting) Statistical design has the future
  • Z. Tokei (IMEC) Wiring in 3D
  • F. Rosenboom (TU Eindhoven) Plasma etching for continued semiconductor scaling
  • S. Hamdioui (TU Delft) Computing for Data-Intensive Applications: Beyond CMOS and beyond Von Neumann
  • J. Dorgelo (Marvell) Terabit NAND Flash comes with advanced error correction

Open to all

It is FREE for all?Msc, PhD, PD and Professors in Micro-electronics, Computer engineering and Telecommunications. Don't forget to REGISTER?at?www.mest-delft.nl

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MSc market

Leo de Vreede, Marco Spirito, Chris Verhoeven

Dear all, ELCA organizes a M.Sc. project market,

Monday, March 16 from 16.00-18.00 in the Snijderzaal.

Please indicate your presence to Marion de Vlieger in view of the pizza ordering. Most project descriptions have already been uploaded on black board (ET4254) and the elca website projects, more will follow. We hope to see you on Monday! Leo, Marco, Chris and Xun

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PhD Thesis Defence

Thesis defence Vahid Mohammadi

Vahid Mohammadi

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Sensor Data Fusion @ Fraunhofer FKIE: Surveillance and Protection for Defence and Security Applications

Dr. Wolfgang Koch from FKIE, Bonn
Fraunhofer FKIE, Bonn, Germany

Advanced algorithms to effectively exploit data streams from heterogeneous sources and optimally manage available sensor and unmanned platforms are of crucial importance. The talk will provide an overview of both, methodological work and advanced applications at Fraunhofer FKIE. We will place emphasis on exact track-to-track fusion, multistatic exploration and passive surveillance, aspects of resources management, and fusion tasks with unmanned aerial vehicles.


PhD Thesis Defence

Sensor management for surveillance and tracking. An operational perspective. March 5, 12.00 Aula, Senaatszaal. Promotor A. Yarovoy, co- promotor, H. Driessen

Fotios Katsilieris

Defence, March 5, 12.00 Aula, Senaatszaal. Sensor management for surveillance and tracking. An operational perspective. In the literature, several approaches to sensor (including radar) management can be found. These can be roughly grouped into: a) rule-based or heuristics; b) task-based; c) information-driven; and d) risk/threat-based. These approaches are compared in this dissertation and it is found that there is not a single approach that is both Bayes-optimal and takes into account explicitly the user requirements in different operational contexts. In order to overcome the challenges with the existing approaches, this dissertation proposes managing the uncertainty in higher-level quantities (as per the JDL model) that are directly of interest to an operator and directly related to the operational goal of a radar system. The proposed approach is motivated by the threat assessment process, which is an integral part of defence missions. Accordingly, a prominent example of a commonly used higher-level quantity is the threat-level of a target. The key advantage of the proposed approach is that it results in Bayes-optimal sensor control that also takes into account the operational context in a model-based manner. In other words: a) a radar operator can select the aspects of threat that are relevant to the operational context at hand; and b) external information about the arrival of targets and other scenario parameters can be included when defining the models used in the signal processing algorithms, leading to context-adaptive sensor management.

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MEST event

TU Delft in ISSCC 2015

Program:

9:00 Prof. Kofi Makinwa Welcome
9:10 A. Carimatto A 67,392 SPAD PVTB-Compensated Multi-Channel Digital SiPMwith 432 column-Parallel 48ps 17b TDCs for Endoscopic Time-of-Flight PET
9:50 M. Shahmohammadi A 1/f Noise Up-conversion Reduction Technique Applied to Class-D and Class-F Oscillators
10:15 R. Quan A 4600um2 1.5oC (3s) 0.9kS/s Thermal-Diffusivity Temperature Sensor with VCO-Based Readout
10:40 Break
10:55 L. Xu A 110dB SNR ADC with +/-30V Input Common-Mode Range and 8uV offset for Current Sensing Applications
11:35 Y. He A 0.05-mm2 1-V Capacitance-to-Digital Converter Based on Period Modulation
12:00 H.Jiang A 30-ppm <80-nJ Ring-Down-Based Readout Circuit for Resonant Sensors

There will be free pizza from 12:45 to 13:15


A drone for everyone

Drones we know mainly from the news, unmanned aircraft that in distant countries eliminate precisely US enemies. There are also a lot closer to home, to bring around packets to take spectacular photographs or video recordings, to bring a defibrillation device quickly in a patient with a heart problem. Chris Verhoeven, Associate professor Electronics Research Laboratory, from the Microelectronics department will participate in this discussion in the ?Kenniscaf?? in the Balie in Amsterdam.

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Signal Processing Seminar

Computational challenges in Mass Spectral Imaging

Raf Van de Plas
3ME DCSC

Mass spectral imaging (MSI) is a novel imaging modality capable of concurrently measuring the spatial distribution of thousands of molecular species throughout an organic tissue section. This technique, also known as imaging mass spectrometry, has been gaining considerable attention in recent years with applications ranging from medicine to plant science and from material science to forensics. In this talk, we introduce the nature of MSI data with a specific focus on its high-dimensional aspects. We illustrate some of the low-level signal processing challenges using wavelet analysis and matrix factorization examples. High-level biological interpretation challenges are demonstrated using recent work on the automated anatomical interpretation of ion images.


Signal Processing Seminar

Fiber-Optic Communication using Nonlinear Fourier Transforms

Sander Wahls
3ME DCSC

When a signal travels through optical fiber, it evolves in a complicated way that is approximately described by the nonlinear Schroedinger equation. However, it turns out that the evolution of a solution to the nonlinear Schroedinger equation becomes simple when it is considered in the so-called nonlinear Fourier domain. This fact has recently started to attract attention in fiber-optic communications, where the idea has risen to encode information in the nonlinear Fourier domain instead of the time or the conventional Fourier domain. In this talk, the advantages of this concept will be explained. Recent results as well as open questions will also be discussed.


MS3 PhD event

MS3 PhD event

Annual overview of PhD research projects


MSc CE Thesis Presentation

Profiling of Polyhedral Process Networks

Wouter van Teijlingen

High-level synthesis (HLS) is a design method to raise the level of abstraction in the design of digital circuits. We use HLS to map sequential C-code to Polyhedral Process Networks (PPN), which are implemented in hardware. Designers need feedback on performance limitations as soon as possible, as going through the complete design flow to derive PPNs is time-consuming. The result is that only a few design points can be evaluated in a given amount of time.

In this work, we leverage previous research, and present cprof. Additionally, it estimates the performance of sequential C-code, when implemented as a PPN in hardware. Cprof estimates the execution finish time and the degree of parallelism of a PPN. Cprof provides assistance in Design Space Exploration (DSE), and Hierarchical Program Analysis (HPA) is used to profile programs with inter-procedural behavior.

We verified that cprof is capable of profiling and optimizing sequential C programs, which are realized in hardware as PPNs. We have also shown that on average, cprof overestimates the execution finish time of PolyBench/C benchmarks implemented in hardware by 0.44%. Cprof helps increasing engineering productivity by assisting in DSE, and risk is reduced by making design limitations explicit at an early stage in the design process. The result is that the hardware design flow looks like a regular software design flow, and no special hardware skills are required to analyze and optimize a design that is implemented as a PPN in hardware.

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Monolithic Integration of light sensor readout system for multi-functional LED wafer-level package based on BICMOS process technology

Teng Ma


PhD Thesis Defence

A GPS inspired terrain referenced navigation algorithm

Daniela Vaman

Terrain Referenced Navigation (TRN) refers to a form of localization in which measurements of distances to the terrain surface are matched with a digital elevation map allowing a vehicle to estimate its own position within the map. The main goal of this dissertation is to improve TRN performance through better signal processing. More specifically, the project aims to explore opportunities in the field of TRN by using digital signal processing techniques that were originally developed for the acquisition and tracking of GPS signals.

A typical TRN system uses speed, heading and time to establish the relative horizontal position between subsequent elevation measurements. Thus, any error in speed, heading or time will cause an error in the resulting relative position. If the speed or heading error contains a bias, this will cause a gradual reduction in the correlation. To prevent that a reduction in correlation causes the estimated position to drift away, the idea behind the research described in this thesis is the use of arrays of terrain elevation measurements with intentional (positive and negative) offsets in speed and heading in a tracking-loop configuration. It is well known that such a concept works well for optimized signals such as the ones used in GPS.

To further explore the viability of this idea for a signal defined by a series of terrain elevation measurements, an analysis of similarities and differences with the GPS signal is performed. In accordance to the GPS receiver approach, a novel correlation algorithm for TRN is proposed and implemented. The basic rationale for the algorithm is to use terrain correlation to ?acquire and track? the speed and heading of the host vehicle, while the position advances are calculated using these estimates together with the previously determined position. The novelty of the approach consists in the implementation of a tracking scheme based on the DLL concept. To answer feasibility-related questions, the algorithm is first evaluated in a purely theoretical framework. Based on this analysis it is concluded that the concept seems feasible and promising, but additional considerations in the design are required to compensate for the differences between the GPS and TRN signals. Enhancements are brought to the initial design resulting in the development of an adaptive tracking scheme, in which the tracking loops are configured based on an analysis of the terrain signal.

Next, an in-depth sensitivity analysis is carried out to understand how sensor measurement errors (in speed, heading and terrain height) impact the algorithm performance. The analysis is performed using exclusively simulated data. It is shown that sensitivity to speed and heading errors is dependent on terrain features and it is possible to assess the degree of sensitivity by analysing the terrain signal. By combining this information with the expected error characteristic of the navigation sensors, the performance of the algorithm can be predicted. The sensitivity to terrain measurement errors depends on the ratio between the terrain signal strength and the measurement errors. It is shown that this ratio can be predicted up to a certain extent and a method to improve the ratio is proposed and discussed.

The developed capabilities are validated with recorded sensor data from flight tests. Two different types of recorded sensor data are used: radar and lidar based datasets.

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Monolithic Integration of rectifiers and drivers for low power SSL Application on Flex-to-Rigid Substrate

Manjunath Venkatesh Ramachandrappa


TU Delft best graduate ceremony

Final competition

Jörn Zimmerling

The best graduates from each faculty (for EWI: Jorn Zimmerling, member of CAS) will try to convince the jury that they are the Best Graduate 2014 by shortly presenting their graduation project. Together with a professional film crew, the study associations of the faculties made short movies about why their each lecturer deserves the ?Best Lecturer TU Delft 2014? title. Once again, it promises to be a festive celebration of the people who make our education special. The best graduates and best lecturers count on your support!

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Graduate School Symposium

PhD event

On November 6th, the 2nd EEMCS PhD event takes place at our Faculty with Poster presentations, lectures and a theatre session. The objective of this event is to promote the visibility of the PhD research, foster the exchange of information and strengthen the PhD community.

The event is meant for all PhD candidates of the Faculty EEMCS (both within and outside the graduate school). MSc students, supervisors and promotors are invited to visit the exposition during lunch time or join the discussion around the posters.

Register here before the 20th of October.


VWO Math & Science Class

Pilot meeting

Alexander Yarovoy (EWI), Yaroslav Blanter (TNW)

Pilot Math & Science Class van start

Op 31 oktober start de pilot Math & Science Class. In dit onderwijsprogramma van twintig dagdelen, worden leerlingen uit 5 vwo uitgedaagd en gestimuleerd om op een meer wetenschappelijke manier om te gaan met wiskunde en science. Achttien scholieren nemen deel aan de pilot. De opleidingen Technische Natuurkunde, Technische Wiskunde, Technische Informatica en Elektrotechniek ervaren al een aantal jaren een hoge uitval van studenten in het eerste jaar. Met de pilot Math & Science Class willen de faculteiten TNW en EWI scholieren de kans geven om het 'gat' tussen voortgezet en hoger onderwijs te overbruggen. De scholieren maken kennis met de manier van denken die nodig is voor het succesvol volgen van een studie aan de TU Delft.

Science project

De pilot is bestemd voor leerlingen met een N&T-profiel die interesse hebben in een studie aan de TU Delft. Op 31 oktober starten achttien scholieren, zij zijn voorgedragen door de scholen in het scholennetwerk van de universiteit. Op 1 mei wordt de pilot afgesloten met een demonstratie van het science project, waar de scholieren in de laatste weken van het programma aan werken.

Initiatief

Math & Science Class is een initiatief van Alexander Yarovoy (EWI) en Yaroslav Blanter (TNW). Samen met Sylvia Walsarie (O&S ) en het scholennetwerk hebben zij deze pilot opgezet.

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Signal Processing Seminar

Like-Tex : Simplify the writing of your PhD thesis (and all your other scientific documents)

Seyran Khademi, Andrea Simonetto

During her PhD the candidate is required to write high-quality scientific documents. To achieve this, Latex and its ecosystem of tools constitute a very powerful yet difficult to learn tool.

In this special session of the SP Seminar we will cover the use of Latex and some of its related tools. Getting to know these tools will allow the user to considerably simplify the workload inherent in writing high-quality scientific documents. In this session we will focus on writing the PhD thesis, but the tips and ideas we give can of course be used for writing documents at any level. Anyone interested is therefore welcome.

The presentation will be given during lunch time, including pizza and mexican burritos. So if you are interested please fill in your name in this doodle so that we can estimate how much food we need to order:

http://doodle.com/sdyswx7idgktuydd

See you all there!

Seyran, Andrea and Jorge.


Dimes colloquia of Prof. dr. ShaoJun Wei and Prof. Zewen Liu

?Several Key Technologies for Emerging Applications? and ?Recent MEMS/NEMs research progress in IMETU?

ShaoJun Wei, Zewen Liu

ShaoJun Wei: Several Key Technologies for Emerging Applications
There are many emerging applications, such as cloud computing, big data, mobile internet, internet of things (IoT) , wearable device, smart hardware, and etc.. All of them need integrated circuits. With a huge population basis, China has an inborn advantages in this circumstance but with many challenges. Smart sensor, extremely low power pre-processing, micro assembly, high energy efficiency computing, low power high reliable memories are indispensable. We are entering a different ear while technologies we are familiar today should be pushed to their limits. In this presentation, the background of mobile internet, wearable devices, implanted hardware/software platform, IoT will be introduced and then several related technologies will be discussed with the emphasis on 3D Nand and reconfigurable computing. As these emerging applications are rapidly developing, it is very difficult to predict their evolution. Although semiconductors surely play a key role in these applications, with nanometer feature size and very high cost, how to find a way to support the low price and low margin applications is a big challenge.

Zewen Liu: Recent MEMS/NEMs research progress in IMETU
The MEMS and sensors research activities in IMETU ranges from process, materials to devices and packaging. A diversity of device had been recently developed such as sensors and MEMS energy harvester, super-capacitor for energy storage, microlens and RF MEMS. With the fast technology evolution, NEMS devices such as grapheme based device, nanohole and cantilevers are also explored which opens novel application in trace chemical sensing, flexible electronics and single DNA molecule detection. The highlights of the presentation are RF MEMS for modern communication and Nanopores for future DNA sequencing application. The prospect of integration of all devices on a chip for future IOT or smart city and the possible technical challenges will be also discussed.


Bistatic SAR multi-angle image enhancement and differential interferometry technology based on GNSS satellite

Prof. Cheng Hu
Beijing Institute of Technology

Bistatic SAR (BiSAR) systems have attracted the interests from global researchers and become a hotspot in the international radar community due to the progress of radar technology and rapidly increased applications nowadays. As a special kind of BiSAR systems, BiSAR based on GNSS satellite has a lot of advantages because of the time and space continuity of GNSS satellite, such as multi-angle observation and long-time monitoring. Therefore, some BiSAR experimental results based on GNSS satellite will be presented, especially for the multi-angle fusion enhancement and image understanding. Meanwhile, a novel BiSAR differential interferometry technology based on GNSS satellite will be discussed, the primary experimental results will be shown.

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SP Mini symposium

Where am I? An experiment in Indoor Localization

Prof. K.V.S. Hari
Department of ECE, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

Abstract: Indoor Localization of people (or objects), where GPS is not available, is an interesting problem with several applications. Several solutions exist, of which, positioning based on WiFi, Video-Tag identification, Ultra Wideband signals and Inertial sensors, are a few examples. In this talk, we consider a scenario where a First-Responder team enters a building after a disaster and the position of each member of the team needs to be known to the control center outside the disaster-affected building. Specifically, we will discuss how an Inertial Navigation System (INS) embedded in a shoe can be designed, to address this problem.

Brief Bio: K.V.S. Hari received the B.E., M.Tech and PhD(1990) degrees from Osmania University, IIT Delhi, University of California at San Diego, respectively. Since 1992, he has been a Faculty Member at the Department of ECE, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, where he is currently a Professor and coordinates the activities of the Statistical Signal Processing Lab in the department. Currently, he is also an Affiliated Professor in the Department of Signal Processing, KTH-Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. His current research and development interests include MIMO Wireless Communication, Sparse signal Processing, Indoor Localization and Assistive technologies for the Elderly.


Dimes Colloquium

Linear and nonlinear springs in electrostatic micro-actuators

David Elata
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology

In this presentation I will discuss the static and dynamic responses of mechanical springs that are used in electrostatic actuators. With respect to quasi-static applications, I will show how nonlinear mechanical springs can be used to counteract the nonlinear electrostatic attraction forces in gap-closing actuators. Instead of the pull-in instability, we may achieve an extended stable range with a linear voltage-displacement relation. Alternatively, beyond what would have been the pull-in point, we may achieve a constant voltage for any displacement. This effectively turns the transducer into a rechargeable mechanical battery, which is a neat design though mostly impractical. With respect to dynamic applications, I will show why the standard folded beam suspension, which is supposed to be linear by design, induces a nonlinear response in electrostatic comb-drive resonators. I will present a new suspension design which solves this problem.


International Radar Conference 2014, Lille, France

Alexander Yarovoy, François Le Chevalier, Fotios Katsilieris, Nikita Petrov, Alexey Narykov, Oleg Krasnov

The French SEE Society (Soci?t? de l'Electricit?, de l'Electronique, et des Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication) organises RADAR 2014 in Lille, from 13 to 17 of October 2014. The conference will be organized in the frame of the international relations set up between the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Chinese Institute of Electronics (CIE), the Institution of Engineers Australia (IEAust) and the SEE.

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Signal Processing Seminar

Joint antenna selection and precoding with quadratic sparsity inducing regularizer for multi-user MIMO systems

Seyran Khademi

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MEST Colloquium

Electronics in Nano-Era: Are we Facing a Reliability Wall?

Said Hamdioui

The talk will address technology scaling and its impact on different aspects of IC and electronics, and in particular the emerging reliability bottlenecks. First the basics of scaling will be covered, together with its impact on integration density, performance and power. The technology outlook will be analyzed in order to extract the challenges with respect to design, test and reliability both for near and long terms. IC realization process will be (re) defined while considering the technology trends and business pressure. Possible ways for the realization of future systems will be discussed.


11th European Radar Conference (EuRAD 2014), Rome, Italy

Oleg Krasnov, Inna Ivashko, Alexander Yarovoy

The 11th European Radar Conference (EuRAD 2014) will be held from October the 8-th to October the 10-th, 2014 in Rome, Italy, in the framework of the European Microwave Week 2014. This Radar Conference is the major European event for the present status and the future trends in the field of radar technology, system design, and applications. In the radar and sub-systems area, the conference focuses on radar EM scattering and propagation, antenna design, modelling and measurements, active/passive phased arrays and transceiver technologies, also for dual use applications (radar/communications). The radar signal processing topic intends to collect the main recent research innovative contributions on digital beamforming, interferometry, polarimetry, waveform diversity, tracking and target localization, multidimensional radar imaging. A specific focus is also expected on the use of compressive sensing for radar application. Radar architecture and systems topic addresses all new kinds of sensors starting from the more classical ones, namely CW, over-the-horizon, passive, noise and polarimetric radar, up to the most complex and sophisticated architectures like UWB systems, multidimensional radar, multifunctional systems. New tools for radar system performance modelling and simulation are also included. Radar applications are also encouraged covering various fields such as environmental, surveillance, traffic control, automotive, avionic, homeland security and defence, medical and other possible radar uses.

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Receivers Topology Optimization of the Combined Active and WiFi-based Passive Radar Network

Presentation for the EuRAD?14 conference

Inna Ivashko

This paper focuses on the accuracy analysis of the combined active and WiFi-based passive radar network. The Cramer-Rao Lower Bound is used as an accuracy metric. It is shown that localization performance of the active radar network can be improved with exploitation of the signals from passive bistatic WiFi radars. This makes reasonable to use information from passive and active radars simultaneously in order to enhance system localization capability. Sparsity-based algorithm is applied to find optimum geometry of the WiFi receivers at the fixed positions of the WiFi access points and active radars.

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Effectiveness-based radar resource management for target tracking

Presentation for the RADAR?14 conference

Alexey Narykov

Radar resource management (RRM) is an active research field that attracts attention of both the scientists and industry experts. A discussion of the various approaches to RRM became essentially a discussion on how to formulate the optimization problem. Although much work has been done on optimal performance-based RRM, the approaches that take mission objectives into account still belong to the domain of heuristic RRM. This paper proposes a shift from performance-based management and presents a novel effectiveness-based approach to optimal RRM. The approach is illustrated with a case study of single target tracking.

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Outlook for a new wind field retrieval technique: The 4D-Var wind retrieval

Presentation for the RADAR?14 conference

Albert OudeNijhuis

In this presentation we introduce the 4D-Var wind retrieval, which is inspired on four-dimensional variational assimilation, typically used in numerical weather models. We simulate simple wind scenarios, with single or double vortices, to get insight in radar measurements. We apply the linear wind model to radar measurements of IDRA radar measurements and identify some problems with the linear wind model retrieval technique. Then we apply the 4D-Var wind retrieval on the same IDRA measurements and the results are compared and discussed. In the implementation it is possible to specify correlation lengths for the horizontal wind speed and horizontal wind direction. With this option, it is possible to show the ambiguity of the wind field, that is associated with the radar measurements.

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Signal Processing Seminar

Indoor granular presence sensing with an ultrasonic circular array sensor

Shahrzad Naghibzadeh

Shahrzad will talk about a paper she is preparing based on her Msc. work.

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MSc CE Thesis Presentation

Guaranteed Quality ECG Signal Compression Algorithm

Dongni Fan

The aim of the project is to develop an ECG signal compression algorithm that has a high compression ratio while guaranteeing signal quality.

An electrocardiography (ECG) signal is a representation of cardiac activity and has an need to be compressed to reduce data storage requirements. Previous ECG signal compression techniques have shown steady improvement on compression ratio. However, these techniques generally lack quality considerations, so their applications are limited. We present a discrete cosine transform (DCT) based compression scheme and use beat detection which considerably improve the compression ratio. The quality of the compressed signal is configurable, and the accuracy of the signal is maintained given a signal quality requirement.

The algorithm is implemented in a software/hardware solution. Some parts need to be done in the software. As a proof of concept, we have chosen the filter to be implemented in hardware. Mathworks HDL coder was used for generating RTL code and testbenches. Results show that our algorithm is capable of maintaining the specified quality, has a better compression ratio compared to previous work and is also capable to compress noisy ECG signals.

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EI Colloquium

Analog-to-digital converters

Jesper Steensgaard
Linear Technology, Milpitas, CA

Analog-to-digital converters have traditionally been a weak link in mixed-mode signal chains. As such, logarithmic and programmable-gain amplifiers have been used to effectively increase their overall dynamic range. In recent years, however, ADC performance has dramatically improved, making it difficult to design amplifiers and references capable of matching their performance. This talk will discuss the challenges of designing a circuit capable of driving a 20-bit SAR ADC with better than 1-part-per-million accuracy.

Biography

Jesper Steensgaard, obtained his MSEE and then his PhD from the Technical University of Denmark in 1999. He has 20+ years of experience in the design of high-resolution data converters. His early work focused on delta-sigma data converters, including mismatch-shaping binary-weighted-element DACs and continuous-time delta-sigma ADCs. Recently, Jesper developed a family of high-resolution low-power SAR ADCs, including the LTC2378-20, which combine the best features of delta-sigma ADCs (precision, low noise) and SAR ADCs (speed, low power, ease of use).


MSc CE Thesis Presentation

CacheBalancer: A communication latency and utilization aware resource manager

Jurrien de Klerk

As the number of processors increases in today's many-core processors, new issues regarding memory management arises. Performance of many-core processors, including large numbers of processors, is often limited by the communication latency due to transfer of data from one node to another. Conventional dynamic memory allocators are unaware of the communication costs, and do not consider what data is send between nodes due to memory allocation. Existing proposals that address this issue result in a limited number of utilized memory resources, potentially leading to over utilized memory resources.

This work introduces a technique for dynamic memory allocation, where state-of-the-art is improved to overcome the limited utilization of the memory resources. The proposed memory allocation method measures the utilization of the different memory resources and uses this information to determine which memory section should be assigned to a requesting task.

This work demonstrates that the proposed memory allocation scheme can reduce memory access latency up to 63.4%, by avoiding the allocation of memory that maps to over utilized resources. The memory allocation scheme is implemented in a run-time manager called Cache Balancer. In addition, the Cache Balancer includes a task mapping algorithm that combines information on the tasks themselves with information communication costs, to map task such that memory throughput is improved. The task mapping algorithm showed a further reduction of memory access latency of 14.5%.

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Quantum imaging seminar

Quantum Nonlinear Optics in Integrated Devices

Marco Liscidini
University of Pavia, Italy

There is a burgeoning interest in the study of parametric fluorescence in integrated devices to obtain compact and efficient sources of non-classical states of light, which are necessary toward the full integration of quantum optical devices. As in the case of quantum linear optics, the use of microstructures gives the opportunity for investigating new phenomena that would be hardly observable in larger bulk-crystal sources. Yet, integrated sources present also several challenges, such as their efficient and fast characterization, which is typically quite demanding because of their low external brightness. In this talk, I will review all these points, starting with the demonstration of silicon microring resonators as CMOS compatible room-temperature sources of time-energy entangled photon pairs.

About the speaker

Marco Liscidini received the Ph.D degree in physics from the University of Pavia (Italy) 2006, working in the group of Prof. Lucio Andreani, with a dissertation entitled "Nonlinear optical properties of planar microcavities and photonic crystal slabs". From 2007 to 2009, he was Post-Doctoral Fellow in the group of Prof. John E. Sipe at the Department of Physics of the University of Toronto, Canada. From 2009 to 2013 is research scientist at the University of Pavia. He is currently tenure-track Assistant Professor at the Department of Physics of the University of Pavia. Since October 2011 is professor of Photonics at the Department of Physics of the University of Pavia. His research activity is focused on the theoretical study and modeling of light-matter interaction in micro- and nano?structures. He works in several areas of photonics, including classical and quantum nonlinear optics, spontaneous emission, plasmon and QW-exciton polaritons, optical sensing and bio-sensing, and photovoltaic effects. He is coauthor of more than 50 papers in peer-reviewed journals. His theoretical research activity is in strong collaboration with experimental groups and in the framework of national, European, and Canadian research programs.


Signal Processing Seminar

Sparse Sensing for Statistical Inference Tasks

Sundeep Prabhakar Chepuri

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DIMES colloquium

Probabilistic Design for Reliability in Electronics and Photonics: Role, Attributes, Challenges

Prof.dr. Ephraim Suhir
Portland State University, USA

The recently suggested probabilistic design for reliability (PDfR) concept is based on:?1) highly focused and highly cost-effective failure oriented accelerated testing (FOAT),??aimed at understanding the physics of the anticipated failures and at quantifying, on the probabilistic basis, the outcome of FOATs conducted for the most vulnerable element(s) of the product of interest and the most likely and meaningful combination of possible stressors (the principle of superposition does not work in reliability engineering), and? 2) simple and physically meaningful predictive modeling (PM), both analytical and computer-aided, aimed at bridging the gap between what one "sees" as a result of FOAT and what he/she will supposedly "get" in the field. FOAT and PM based sensitivity analysis (SA) algorithms are developed as by-products.

The PDfR concept is based on the recognition of the fact that nobody and nothing is perfect, and that the difference between a highly reliable and insufficiently reliable product is ?merely? in the level of its probability of failure. If this probability (evaluated for the anticipated loading conditions and the given time in operation) is not acceptable, then such a SA can be effectively employed to determine what could be possibly changed, in terms of materials, geometries, application restrictions, etc., to improve the situation.

The PDfR analysis enables one also to check if the product is not "over-engineered", i.e., is not superfluously robust: if it is, it might be too costly: although the operational reliability cannot be low, it does not have to be higher than necessary either, but has to be adequate for the given product and application. This means that when both reliability and cost-effectiveness are imperative, ability to quantify reliability is a must. In this seminar the major PDfR concepts will be illustrated by case studies and practical examples. Although some advanced and subtle PDfR predictive modeling techniques have been recently developed for quantifying and assuring reliability of electronic and photonic products, especially those intended for aerospace applications, the practical examples addressed employ more or less elementary analytical models.

Biography

Prof. Dr. E. Suhir is Fellow of ASME, IEEE, American Physical Society (APS), Institute of Physics (UK), Society of Optical Engineers (SPIE), International Microelectronics and Packaging Society (IMAPS), Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), Foreign Full Member (Academician) of the NAE, Ukraine, and Fulbright Scholar in Information Technologies. He has authored above 300 publications (patents, books, book chapters, papers) and received numerous professional awards, including 2004 ASME Worcester Read Warner Medal for outstanding contributions to the permanent literature of engineering and laying a foundation of a new discipline ?Structural Analysis in Electronics and Photonics Systems?. Dr. Suhir is the third Russian American, after Steven Timoshenko and Igor Sikorsky, who received this prestigious award. Dr. Suhir is co-founder of the ASME Journal of Electronic Packaging and served as its Technical Editor for eight years (1994-2002).

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MEST welcome drink

Meet and greet your friends and colleagues with a FREE Drink to say Hallo !!!

Organized by MEST student association

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MSc CE Thesis Presentation

Multi-chip dataflow architecture for massive scale biophysically accurate neuron simulation

Jacco Hofmann

The ability to simulate brain neurons in real-time using biophysically-meaningful models is a critical pre-requisite grasping human brain behavior. By simulating neurons behavior, it is possible, for example, to reduce the need for in-vivo experimentation, to improve artificial intelligence and to replace damaged brain parts in patients.

A biophysically accurate but complex neuron model, which can be used for such applications, is the Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) model. State of the art simulators are capable of simulating, in real-time, tens of neurons, at most. The currently most advanced simulator is able to simulate 96 HH neurons in real-time. This simulator is limited by its exponential growth in communication costs.

To overcome this problem, in this thesis, we propose a new system architecture, which massively increases the amount of neurons which is possible to simulate. By localizing communications, the communication cost is reduced from an exponential to a linear growth with the number of simulated neurons As a result, the proposed system allows the simulation of over 3000 to 19200 cells (depending on the connectivity scheme). To further increase the number of simulated neurons, the proposed system is designed in such a way that it is possible to implement it over multiple chips. Experimental results have shown that it is possible to use up to 8 chips and still keeping the communication costs linear with the number of simulated neurons. The systems is very flexible and allows to tune, during run-time, various parameters, including the presence of connections between neurons, eliminating (or reducing) resynthesis costs, which turn into much faster experimentation cycles. All parts of the system are generated automatically, based on the neuron connectivity scheme.

A powerful simulator that incorporates latencies for on and off chip communication, as well as calculation latencies, can be used to find the right configuration for a particular task. As a result, the resulting highly adaptive and configurable system allows for biophysically accurate simulation of massive amounts of cells.


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Long-range 3D Range Detector Based on Time-correlated Single-photon Counting

Dali Zhang

Three-dimensional (3D) range detectors enabling 3D computer vision is now popular in automotive industry. With their participation, automobile safety has been further enhanced, autonomous driving has become realizable. Time-correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC) technique utilizing complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) single photon detectors (SPDs) and time-to-digital converters (TDCs) embodies the proper participant of automotive 3D vision, with low power consumption, low cost, high speed, high robustness, small size, and portability.

In this thesis, a TCSPC 3D range detector for automotive application was studied and modeled. The model covered all main components of a TCSPC system, including the TCSPC range detection process, the signal, and the noise. It was designed to predict the behavior of TCSPC systems and help future designers optimize the performance in accordance with the targeted application.

To verify the model, a experimental setup was designed, implemented, and characterized. The setup consists of a data acquisition system, data processing procedures, and an optical-mechanical system. Measurements performed using the setup have confirmed that the model was designed correctly. For further exploration, range detection from 0.2 m to 60 m were carried out.


CMOS-based implantable electronics for bioscientific and medical applications

Takashi Tokuda
NAIST, Japan

CMOS-based implantable device technology is attracting a lot of interest because of its potential for next-generation bioscientific and medical applications. In this presentation, circuit design, device packaging, and functional demonstration of some CMOS-based implantable devices are presented. An implantable imaging device for in vivo (in a living body) optical brain imaging, implementation of light source for neural stimulation in optogenetics, and flexible neural stimulator for retinal prosthesis will be mainly described.

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MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Opto-electronic MEMS oscillator for resonant pressure sensing

Lalit Kumar


MSc SS Thesis Presentation

Speech Production Modelling and Analysis

Andreas Koutrouvelis

The first part of the present thesis reviews the speech production mechanism and several models of the glottal flow derivative waveform and of the vocal tract filter. The source filter model is investigated in depth, since it is the most important "ingredient" of linear prediction analysis. We also review seven linear prediction (LP) methods based on the same general LP optimization framework. Moreover, we examine the importance of pre-emphasis and glottal-cancellation prior to LP.

The second part of the thesis, provides an experimental evaluation of the LP methods combined with several pre-emphasis and glottal-cancellation techniques in the context of two general application areas. The first area consists of applications which aim to estimate the true glottal flow or glottal flow derivative signal. The second area consists of applications which aim to find a sparse residual. In particular, five factors are investigated: the sparsity of the residual using the Gini index, the estimation accuracy of the glottal flow derivative using the signal to noise ratio (SNR), the estimation accuracy of the vocal tract spectral magnitude using the log spectral distortion distance (LSD) metric, and the probability of obtaining a stable linear prediction filter. All these factors are evaluated for clean and reverberated speech signals. The sparse linear prediction methods and the iteratively reweighted least squares method combined with the second order pre-emphasis filter give the most accurate glottal flow derivative estimates, the most accurate vocal tract estimates and the sparsest residuals in most cases. Finally, we compare several linear prediction methods in the context of the speech dereverberation method proposed in [1, 2]. This method enhances the reverberated residual obtained via the autocorrelation method. In the context of this application, we show that the sparse linear prediction method and the weighted linear prediction method combined with a second-order pre-emphasis filter perform better than the autocorrelation method.


MSc TC Thesis Presentation

Network Coding in Underwater Communications

Elvin Isufi


MSc TC Thesis Presentation

Indoor Granularity Presence Sensing and Control Messaging with an Ultrasonic Circular Array

Shahrzad Naghibzadeh


MSc ME Thesis Presentation

Development of a Multichannel TCSPC System in a Spartan 6 FPGA

Harald Homulle

For the master project work was carried out for the development of a fluorescence lifetime imaging probe for fluorescence guided surgery. For this project a prototype was designed. The work on the prototype was divided into three main parts, hardware, firmware / software, and system / optics. In this thesis the firmware / software of the system are described. An overview of the system is given and the performance is evaluated.

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PhD Thesis Defence

Multichannel Digital Silicon Photomultipliers for Time-of-Flight PET

Shingo Mandai

This thesis discusses the potential of CMOS based SiPMs, especially for TOF PET applications, in a systematic and comprehensive fashion. CMOS based SPADs are still need to be designed carefully to improve fill factor, TDCs be improved from the point of the area and power consumption, and the necessity of high voltage for SPADs be handled efficiently. Thus, this thesis also aims to design and integrate various circuits in the SiPM to realize the high integrations utilizing the biggest advantage of the CMOS technology.

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PhD Thesis Defence

Compressive Sampling for Wireless Communications

Shahzad Gishkori

Wireless communications is undergoing massive development in all forms of its manifestations. In the field of short-range communications, technologies like ultra-wideband (UWB) systems are promising very high data rates, fine timing resolution and coexistence with other physical layer standards. Along with these benefits, the promise of low cost and low complexity devices makes UWB systems a highly sought-after option. The main reason for these benefits is the utilization of a very large bandwidth. However, these benefits come at a price, that is the high sampling rate required to receive such signals. According to the Nyquist sampling theorem, a signal can be fully determined if sampled at twice its maximum frequency. This means that the UWB signals may require a sampling rate in the order of Giga samples per second. At the receiver, the sampling is carried out by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The power consumption of an ADC is proportional to its sampling rate. A very high sampling rate means stressing the ADC in terms of power consumption. This can put the whole idea of low cost and low complexity UWB systems in jeopardy. Therefore, using subsampling methods is indispensable. In this regard, we propose the utilization of compressive sampling (CS) for UWB systems. CS promises a reasonable reconstruction performance of the complete signal from very few compressed samples, given the sparsity of the signal. In this thesis, we concentrate on impulse radio (IR) UWB systems. IR-UWB systems are known to be sparse, meaning, a large part of the received signal has zero or insignificant components. We exploit this time domain sparsity and reduce the sampling rate much below the Nyquist rate but still develop efficient detectors.

We propose CS based energy detectors for IR-UWB pulse position modulation (PPM) systems in multipath fading environments. We use the principles of generalized maximum likelihood to propose detectors which require the reconstruction of the original signal from compressed samples and detectors which skip this reconstruction step and carry out detection on the compressed samples directly, thereby further reducing the complexity. We provide exact theoretical expressions for the bit error probability (BEP) to assess the performance of our proposed detectors. These expressions are further verified by numerical simulations.

We also propose CS based differential detectors for IR-UWB signals. These detectors work on consecutive symbols. We develop detectors with separate reconstruction and detection stages as well as detectors that perform these steps jointly. We further present detectors which do not need reconstruction at all and can work directly on the compressed samples. However, this can put some limitations on the overall flexibility of the detector in terms of the measurement process. To assess the performance of all these detectors, we also provide maximum a posteriori (MAP) based detectors. We provide numerical simulations to display the detection results.

We extend the CS based classical differential detectors to the case of multiple symbol differential detectors. To keep the implementation complexity at its minimum, we work only with compressed samples directly. We use the principles of the generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) to eliminate the limitations on such detectors, in terms of the measurement process. Apart from focusing on compressed detectors which contain full timing information, we also propose detectors which need such information at symbol level only. This effectively results in low cost and low complexity detectors.

Finally, we present some work on the theoretical aspects of CS. We develop algorithms which exploit the block sparse structure of the signal. This block sparsity is combined with varying block sizes and signal coefficients having smooth transitions. Such signals are often encountered in a wide range of engineering and biological fields.

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Signal processing seminar

Relaying Techniques for Multi-Hop Noncoherent UWB Communications

Dr. Vincenzo Lottici
University of Pisa

Ultra-wideband impulse radio has been attracting an interest as a strong candidate for short-range high-rate indoor connectivity, low-rate communications with high-resolution ranging, and location-aware wireless sensor networks. On top of this communication format, multi-hop relaying techniques can effectively contribute to extend the coverage and boost the system performance, especially when the energy available to each relay node of the network is a critical issue. This talk discusses a few novel cooperative approaches for both amplify-and-forward (AF) and decode and forward (DF) relaying. Firstly, we focus on a non-coherent setup employing a double-differential encoding scheme at the source node and a single differential demodulation at the relay and destination. The log-likelihood ratio based decision rule is derived at the destination node, and a semi-analytical power allocation strategy is presented by evaluating a closed-form expression for the effective signal to noise ratio (SNR) at the destination. Secondly, we focus on developing a single differential encoded DF non-cooperative relaying scheme. To favor simple receiver structures, differential noncoherent detection is employed which enables effective energy capture without any channel estimation. Putting emphasis on the general case of multi-hop relaying, we illustrate an original algorithm for the joint power allocation and path selection (JPAPS), minimizing an approximate expression of the overall bit error rate (BER). After deriving a closed-form power allocation strategy, the optimal path selection is reduced to a shortest path problem on a connected graph, which can be solved without any topology information with complexity O(N3), N being the number of available relays of the network. An approximate scheme is also presented, which reduces the complexity to O(N2), while showing a negligible performance loss. For benchmarking purposes, an exhaustive-search based multi-hop DF cooperative strategy is taken into consideration. Simulation results for various network setups corroborate the effectiveness of the proposed low-complexity JPAPS algorithm, which favorably compares to existing AF and DF relaying methods.
CV. Since 1993, Vincenzo Lottici has been with the Department of Information Engineering of the University of Pisa, where he is currently Professor in Communication Systems. He participated in several international and national research projects, and as TPC member, in numerous IEEE conferences in wireless communications and signal processing, He recently joined the Editorial Board of EURASIP Advances on Signal Processing. His research interests include the broad area of signal processing for communications, with emphasis on synchronization, channel estimation, dynamic resource allocation, cognitive radio and compressive sensing.

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Signal Processing Seminar

Noncoherent Decision-Feedback Equalization in Massive MIMO Systems

Dr. Robert Fischer

We discuss noncoherent receivers in multi-user massive MIMO uplink systems. On the one hand, sorted decision-feedback differential detection (DFDD) is attractive for the detection of a particular user over a transmission burst. On the other hand, we present a noncoherent approach to decision-feedback equalization (DFE) over the users. Thereby, the contradicting principles of DFE, where interference of already detected symbols is canceled using actual channel knowledge, and noncoherent reception, where the symbols are detected without any channel-state information, are combined. Based on an analysis of the statistics of the interference terms in autocorrelation-based noncoherent receivers, DFE is proposed and optimized. Moreover, we discuss a joint user/temporal detection with optimized sorting and an iterative scheme. Numerical results quantifying the performance of the noncoherent schemes relative to coherent BLAST, taking the non-perfect channel knowledge due to finite-length training sequences into account, are presented. CV. Since 2011 Dr. Robert Fischer has been full professor for communications and signal theory at the University of Ulm, Germany. Currently, he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on signals and systems and on digital communications. His research concentrates on fast digital transmission including single- and multicarrier modulation techniques. Current interests are information theory, coded modulation, digital communications and signal processing, and especially precoding and shaping techniques for high-rate transmission schemes.

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Signal Processing Seminar

Channel Estimation and Hybrid Precoding for Millimeter Wave Cellular Systems

Geert Leus

Millimeter wave (mmWave) cellular systems will enable gigabit-per-second data rates thanks to the large bandwidth available at mmWave frequencies. To realize sufficient link margin, mmWave systems will employ directional beamforming with large antenna arrays at both the transmitter and receiver. Due to the high cost and power consumption of gigasample mixed-signal devices, mmWave precoding will likely be divided among the analog and digital domains. The large number of antennas and the presence of analog beamforming requires the development of mmWave-specific channel estimation and precoding algorithms. This talk discusses an adaptive algorithm to estimate the mmWave channel parameters that exploits the poor scattering nature of the channel. To enable the efficient operation of this algorithm, a novel hierarchical multi-resolution codebook is designed to construct training beamforming vectors with different beamwidths. Using the estimated channel, a new hybrid analog/digital precoding algorithm that is proposed that overcomes the hardware constraints on the analog-only beamforming, and approaches the performance of digital solutions. Simulation results show that the proposed low-complexity channel estimation algorithm achieves comparable precoding gains compared to exhaustive channel training algorithms. The results also illustrate that the proposed channel estimation and precoding algorithms can approach the coverage probability achieved by perfect channel knowledge even in the presence of interference.

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Signal Processing Seminar

Sparsity-Aware Sensor Selection: Centralized and Distributed Algorithms

Hadi Jamali-Rad

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MSc TC Thesis Presentation

Modeling of wave propagation in open domains: A Krylov subspace approach

Jorn Zimmerling

Simulating electromagnetic or acoustic wave propagation in complex open structures is extremely important in many areas of science and engineering. In a wide range of applications, ranging from photonics and plasmonics to seismic exploration, efficient wave field solvers are required in various design and optimization frameworks.?? ?

In this talk, a Krylov subspace projection methodology is presented to efficiently solve wave propagation problems on unbounded domains. To model the extension of the computational domain to infinity, an optimal complex scaling method is introduced. Traditionally, complex scaling has been used to simulate open quantum systems. Here, an optimized complex scaling method is implemented that allows us to simulate wave propagation on unbounded domains provided we compute the propagating waves via a stability-corrected wave function. In our Krylov subspace framework, this wave function is approximated by polynomial or rational functions, which are obtained via Krylov subspace projection. We show that the field approximations are actually expansions in terms of approximate open resonance modes of the system and we present a novel and highly efficient Krylov subspace implementation for media exhibiting second-order relaxation effects. Numerical examples for one-, two-, and three-dimensional problems illustrate the performance of the method and show that our Krylov resonance expansions significantly outperform conventional solution methods.


Signal Processing Seminar

Venkat Roy


ISCAS 2014

2014 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems

Welcome from the General Chairs of the Organising Committee

On behalf of the Organising Committee we welcome you to Melbourne, ranked by the Economist Intelligence Unit in 2011, 2012 and 2013 as the most liveable City in the world, to Australia, and to the 2014 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems.

ISCAS?2014 is sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Circuits and Systems Society (IEEE CASS), and generously supported by the State Government of Victoria and the Melbourne Convention Bureau.

As you all know, ISCAS is the flagship annual conference of IEEE CASS, and it is well established as the world?s premier networking forum in the fields of theory, design and implementation of circuits and systems. As a result of the release of its 2012 Vision and Mission (see ieee-cas.org), the CASS goal is to develop ISCAS also as the leading forum for pioneering circuits and systems contributions to humanity?s grand challenges.

Accordingly, the special theme of ISCAS 2014 is nano/bio circuits and systems applied to enhancing living and lifestyles, particularly in relation to the multidisciplinary grand challenges in healthcare and wellbeing, the environment and climate change.

Keynotes

ISCAS?2014 has four keynote presentations, two of which address crucial aspects of high priority grand challenges, in health and in sustainability, while the other two describe frontier work at the extreme ends, in terms of scale, of circuits and systems engineering ? new devices that promise to sustain the remarkable advances in semiconductors that we have enjoyed for over 60 years, and design methods for systems of systems, which are relevant to so many grand challenge problems:

Dr Donald E. Ingber from Harvard University on Monday will present Microengineered Human Organs On Chips, describing advances he and his team have made in the engineering of microfluidic ?Organs-on-Chips??microchips lined by living human cells created with microfabrication techniques that recapitulate organ-level structure and functions as a way to replace animal testing for drug development and mechanistic discovery.

Professor Iven Mareels from The University of Melbourne in his talk on Wednesday, titled Circuits and Systems for Modern Irrigation Management, describes work over 15 years on circuits and systems research, development and commercialisation of an internet-of-things dedicated to smart irrigation water management.

Professor Victor Zhirnov from the Semiconductor Research Corporation, in Scaling Limits of Nanoionic Devices, elaborates how recognition that crystal ?defects? could be used as controllable entities, rather than being seen as imperfections, leads to the possibility that nanoionic resistive switching devices may be scalable down to ~ 1nm and thus may offer a promising path to replace the foundation of today?s computing technologies.

Dr. Stephan C. Stilkerich from Airbus Group will present Model Based Engineering of Highly Mobile Systems of Systems: Safe Aeroplanes; Safer Automobiles, with an introduction and post-talk discussion moderated by Dr Graham Hellestrand from Embedded Systems Technology. This keynote deals with front-line approaches to engineering electronic systems and their software, that are required to perform real-time control critical for the safe operation of airplanes and cars, including while operating in dense traffic and simultaneously reducing environmental impact.

Technical Program Regular Sessions

The technical program consists of tutorials, lecture papers, poster papers and demonstrations accepted based on peer review of the submission from regular open calls. We have retained many of the ISCAS features that have evolved in recent years, and added new features, some in response to ISCAS feedback, to continue to improve attendees? experience of the event.

We are very pleased to report that ISCAS?2014 will be first time that the new CASS Conference App will be made available to all attendees, and we look forward to your feedback to improve it. The CAS Society has supported the development of the Conference App, through Conference4Me, to facilitate the navigation of the conference agenda and venues, secure access to proceedings, micro-blogging, live discussion and ranking of papers, providing feedback to organizers and general improvement of attendees? experience at CAS conferences.

Lecture papers follow the traditional ISCAS format. There are nine lecture sessions over three days, with session having 11 parallel streams. Sessions are 90 minutes with up to five papers, allowing 18 minute for each including introduction, presentation and discussion.

The Demonstration session and Poster sessions are held over 3 hours commencing at the 3pm coffee break on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The Demonstration session is Monday only. There are no competing parallel lecture sessions during the first 90 minutes of each day?s Posters/Demonstrations, allowing increased attention to them from all attendees.

We have increased the length of the lunch break to 90 minutes. This will allow more time for the CASS side meetings, particularly the annual meetings of the 15 CASS Technical Committees, which are playing an increasingly important role in leadership of the Society. The longer break will also provide a more relaxed walk to the nearby restaurants for the lunch break, and we hope it will facilitate a greater level of networking.

Following the ISCAS?2013 lead we continue the trial of offering free attendance at Tutorial and CAS-FEST sessions for all ISCAS?2014 registrants. We have also expanded both the tutorial program and CAS-FEST. CASS? goals in these moves are both to widen the reach of and to increase participation in the tutorial program and CAS-FEST. We will greatly appreciate feedback from attendees on the value you perceive in these offerings.

Tutorials

ISCAS?2014 commences on Sunday with 19 half-day and 1 full-day Tutorial sessions.

We have included two Tutorial sessions on Technology Management in response to feedback from CASS industry members:

T19 ? Interfacing Organisations: How to successfully manage organizational interfaces by Felix Lustenberger; and T20 - Managing Technology Professionals by Tuna B. Tarim: Transitioning from Individual Contributor to Management. Felix and Tuna are CASS members and also leaders of IEEE?s Technology Management Council, which was recently approved to transition to an IEEE Society.

Also in response to feedback, from the Women in CAS (WiCAS) and Young Professionals Program (formerly GoLD) groups, is a tutorial on career development, social skills, collaboration and networking:

T7 ? Engineering Networks that Work: Design Tools for Your Career by Dr Margaret Collins Margaret is a Cardiff-based research consultant, professional coach and trainer with extensive experience in helping people achieve their career goals. Come ready to get involved ? this is an active workshop session!

A third initiative in the Tutorials is a full day introduction to Memristive devices, circuits, systems and applications, the topic of this year?s CAS-FEST. This will cover all aspects of this emerging technology, namely: theory, practical nanodevices, physical switching mechanisms, circuits and emerging applications:

T21 ? If it?s Pinched it?s a memristor (AM), Professor Leon Chua T22 ? ReRAM Memristive Devices: Electrochemical Systems at the Atomic Scale (AM), Dr Ilia Valov T23 ? Analog and Mixed-Signal Applications of Memristive Devices (PM), Professor Dmitri Strukov T24 Integrating memristive devices in CMOS neuromorphic computing architectures (PM), Professor Giacomo Indiveri The aim of these sessions is to provide sufficient introduction to enable a typical ISCAS attendee to appreciate the state of the art material that will be presented in the CAS-FEST sessions.

CAS-FEST

Since its inception in 2010, the Circuits and Systems ? Forum on Emerging and Selected Topics has progressively become more closely integrated with ISCAS. This year?s topic was again selected from an open call and the winning proposal, from members of the Nonlinear Circuits and Systems (NCAS) Technical Committee, has taken still further this level of integration with ISCAS. This includes the presentation of invited introductory tutorials in the regular ISCAS Tutorials program (see above), the inclusion of three Special Sessions in the regular ISCAS Lecture Papers program, a full day of CAS-FEST Special Sessions on Wednesday, and the highlight full day of CAS-FEST Keynote talks on Thursday.

With this additional integration, CAS-FEST 2014 will bring together leading experts and provide a thorough coverage of the field of memristors, from an introduction to those unfamiliar with the field, through solidifying existing knowledge, to highlighting developments at the forefront of the field, and pointing to future challenges and promising directions for research. We hope that this coordinated approach will result in a landmark event in the development of the field.

Social Events and Awards Dinner

We are planning the now standard set of ISCAS evening events, with the Welcome Reception on Sunday evening soon after the conclusion of Tutorials, the WiCAS/YPP (formerly GoLD) event on early Monday evening, the Awards Dinner on Tuesday evening, and the Closing Reception immediately following the last session on Wednesday. Watch out for the Australian twists!

We hope that you will have a rewarding and enjoyable time in Melbourne at ISCAS?2014 and look forward to meeting as many of you as we can!

Professor Jugdutt (Jack) Singh & Dr David Skellern General Co-Chairs, ISCAS 2014

Additional information ...


Signal Processing Seminar

Rocio Arroyo-Valles


IEEE Distinguished Lecturer talk Wouter A. Serdijn

Circuits and Systems for Electroceuticals

Wouter Serdijn
Delft University of Technology

In the design process of electroceuticals, such as hearing instruments, pacemakers, cochlear implants and neurostimulators, the tradeoff between performance and power consumption is a delicate balancing act. In this presentation I will cover techniques to deal with the acquisition and generation of electrophysiological signals and to provide reliable communication with and through the body.

We will discuss signal-specific analog-to-digital converters, morphological filters, arbitrary-waveform neurostimulators, energy harvesting and ultra wideband wireless communication from a low-power circuits and system perspective. Design examples and their performance will be discussed and an avenue sketched for treatment of various neurological disorders, such as tinnitus and addiction.

Additional information ...


Lecture on wearable and implantable medical devices

Lecture on wearable and implantable medical devices

Wouter Serdijn

Wouter Serdijn will present a lecture on wearable and implantable medical device electronics

Additional information ...


Joint clock synchronization and delay estimation under quadratic clock model in wireless networks

"Joint clock synchronization and delay estimation under quadratic clock model in wireless networks"

Yan Xie

Additional information ...


Lecture on ExG signal acquisition and processing electronics

Lecture on ExG signal acquisition and processing electronics

Wouter Serdijn

Wouter Serdijn will present the BELEM lecture on ExG signal acquisition and processing electronics

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Conferences

IEEE ICASSP'2014

IEEE ICASSP is the world's largest and most comprehensive technical conference focused on signal processing and its applications. The series is sponsored by the IEEE Signal Processing Society and has been held annually since 1976. The conference features world-class speakers, tutorials, exhibits, a Show and Tell event, and over 120 lecture and poster sessions.

Additional information ...


Signal Processing Seminar

Compressive Cyclic Spectrum Reconstruction


Additional information ...


Signal Processing Seminar

GPU-Accelerated Adaptive Unstructured Road Detection Using Close Range Stereo Vision

Bugra Ozutemiz, PhD candidate, Middle-East Technical University

Detection of road regions is not a trivial problem especially in unstructured and/or off-road domains since traversable regions of these environments do not have common properties. Even the properties and appearance of these environments can change on the run. Hence, an algorithm working under unstructured conditions should have a continuous adaptation capability. To achieve this, a novel unstructured road detection algorithm that can continuously learn the road region is proposed in this work. The algorithm gathers close-range stereovision data using a simple roughness threshold and uses this information to estimate the road region in the far field. The proposed approach simplifies over the approaches in the literature by changing offline supervised learning and pose estimation of the vehicle and sensor with a simple heuristic coming from the nature of the problem: roughness (or smoothness) of the terrain. Thanks to the parallel nature of the algorithm, it is also implemented on a GPU with CUDA and a real-time running performance is achieved even on a low-performance graphics card. The experiments show that the algorithm gives excellent road detection results even under fast-changing light conditions and a running frequency of 50 Hz is achieved even in the worst case.


Signal Processing Seminar


Additional information ...


MSc TC Thesis Presentation

Joint Angle-Frequency Estimation for Multiple Signals with Circular Arrays

Joost Geelhoed
CAS, TNO

(Work carried out at TNO Defence, Safety and Security--The Hague)

In electronic warfare information about radio signals is gathered. Parameters as the directionof- arrival (DOA) and the frequency can be estimated from sampled data received on antenna arrays. The objective of this thesis is to design a joint angle-frequency estimation (JAFE) algorithm for a circular uniform antenna array.

A 1-D and 2-D JAFE algorithm is presented. Both algorithms use phase-mode excitation and ESPRIT. The 1-D algorithm with spatial smoothing is introduced. With this algorithm it possible to estimate signals with similar frequencies, when the elevation is 90 degrees. Simulations demonstrate that when two signals are coherent and a spatial smoothing factor of two is applied the mean of the azimuth estimation is the true mean. It is also demonstrated that when two signals have the same DOA a temporal smoothing factor of two is necessary and that more temporal smoothing reduces the standard deviation of the azimuth estimation. It is shown that the phase-mode excitation technique introduces a systematic error that is considerably high for few antenna elements and an even number of elements. It is demonstrated that interpolation can reduce this error in case a UCA of 5 elements or a UCA of 12 elements.


PhD Thesis Defence

Human Target Tracking in Multistatic Ultra-Wideband Radar


Additional information ...


MS3 seminar

Sparsity-based geometry optimization of the multisite radar networks

Inna Ivashko

Additional information ...


Signal Processing Seminar

Tamas Keviczky
3ME DCSC

Additional information ...


Signal Processing Seminar

OFDM Analysis: an Industry Point of View

Earl McCune

With more than 40 years of experience in wireless communications technology and its associated hardware construction, this presenter finds the current flurry of interest in orthogonal frequency division modulation (OFDM) very interesting. It is surprising that the extremely revolutionary nature of this signal class is actually poorly understood, particularly by the academic community. On the industrial side, there is a general misunderstanding of the economic consequences of building hardware needed to generate and receive an OFDM signal. Here the motivation and physical principles of OFDM are built from fundamental concepts, from which the signal characteristics are evaluated and compared with conventional QAM. Conclusions on the comparative economics of OFDM are drawn.


EUCAP14 conference on antennas and propagation

Abstract submission: 13 Oct 2013

Conference dates: 6-8 April 2014

Application areas:

  • Fundamental research
  • Satcom on-the-move terminal antennas
  • Navigation, localisation, positioning and tracking
  • Cellular mobile communications (includes: base station, handheld devices)
  • Machine to machine, internet on devices
  • Wireless networks (includes: WLAN, indoor communication)
  • High data-rate transfer and backbone networks
  • RFID and sensor networks
  • Biomedical (includes: human body interaction, on-body antennas, electromagnetic exposure and interactions)
  • Satellite communications
  • Satellite passive and active remote sensing
  • RADAR
  • Radio astronomy
  • Signal and image processing
  • Defense and security
  • Short-range Giga-bit communications
  • Commercial software

Additional information ...


MS3 seminar

Wideband Electric-Magnetic Antenna for Polarimetric Applications

Nadia Haider

Additional information ...


MS3 seminar

Efficient Sequential-Hierarchical Deployment Strategy for Heterogeneous Sensor Networks

Teun de Groot

Additional information ...


Signal Processing Seminar

Andreas Loukas
EWI, Embedded Systems group

Additional information ...


Signal Processing Seminar

Millad Sardarabadi


Signal Processing Seminar

Speech reinforcement in noisy reverberant environments using a perceptual distortion measure

Joao Crespo

Additional information ...


Signal Processing Seminar

On indoor localization based on acoustic signals and channel fingerprinting

Yongwei (Enki) Wang
NWPU, China

Additional information ...


MSc CE Thesis Presentation

Modeling of Olivocerebellar Neurons using SystemC and High-Level Synthesis

M.F. van Eijk

Neuro-scientific experiments often require a heavy amount of computational power to achieve a more efficient research process. Speeding up neuron models, used in such experiments, facilitates faster testing of scientific hypotheses and faster model refinement in order to better replicate the biological-cell behavior in question. To be able to simulate realistic behavior, high-detail neuron models need to be built and typically require maximal computing power. Hardware acceleration can be used to execute such simulations in a realistic amount of time. However, building a hardware implementation is very time-consuming and error-prone. Recent trends in RTL design have resulted in tools which can convert a high-level behavioral hardware description to an RTL description targeting an FPGA, which makes them ideal tools for complex FPGA designs, such as high-detail neuron models. In this thesis, a model of the Inferior-Olivary Nucleus (ION) network has been implemented with SystemC RTL and mapped onto an FPGA using a High-Level Synthesis (HLS) tool-flow. A shared-bus architecture has been used as proof of concept to interconnect the various cells in the modeled network. SystemC Transaction Level Modeling (TLM) facilitates fast network-interconnect modeling and verifying of model functionality. We have thus developed a SystemC TLM model that can predict trends of our RTL implementation. With this TLM model we were able to quickly model large network sizes and assess the model?s scalability with respect to utilized resources and performance. The complete network model has, subsequently, also been synthesized. Xilinx Vivado HLS has been used to convert the SystemC implementation to an RTL description mapped on a Virtex 7 (XC7VX550T) FPGA device. The resulting design achieved a speed-up of x6 compared to a reference C model, making it possible to simulate a network of 48 cells in real-time. Because HLS tools are used, the model can be easily modified to accommodate last-minute changes and models updates by the neuroscientific community.


Signal Processing Seminar

Current and future research lines in audio signal processing

Richard Heusdens


Signal Processing Seminar

AIS ship identification signal separation using GSVD and the Signed URV algorithm

Alle-Jan van der Veen

Separating partially overlapping data packets using subspace intersection.


Signal Processing Seminar

Low-complexity computer simulation of multichannel room impulse responses


CAS

Additional information ...


Signal Processing Seminar

Rocio Arroyo-Valles
CAS

Additional information ...


Signal Processing Seminar

Relative velocity estimation using Multidimensional Scaling

Raj Thilak Rajan
CAS

Additional information ...


Signal Processing Seminar

Tracking Position and Orientation of a Mobile Rigid Body

Sundeep Prabhakar Chepuri
CAS

Additional information ...


PhD Thesis Defence

Spectrum sensing for cognitive sensor networks

Sina Maleki

Additional information ...


Signal Processing Seminar

Resource allocation for mobile ad hoc networks

Philippe Ciblat
TELECOM ParisTech

Additional information ...


Signal Processing Seminar

ICA and IVA: Theory, Connections, and Applications to Medical Imaging

Tulay Adali
University of Maryland at Baltimore County

Data-driven methods are based on a simple generative model and hence can minimize the assumptions on the nature of data. They have emerged as promising alternatives to the traditional model-based approaches in many applications where the underlying dynamics are hard to characterize. Independent component analysis (ICA), in particular, has been a popular data-driven approach and an active area of research. Starting from a simple linear mixing model and imposing the constraint of statistical independence on the underlying components, ICA can recover the linearly mixed components subject to only a scaling and permutation ambiguity. It has been successfully applied to numerous data analysis problems in areas as diverse as biomedicine, communications, finance, geophysics, and remote sensing.

This talk reviews the fundamentals and properties of ICA, and provides a unified view of two main approaches for achieving ICA, those that make use of non-Gaussianity and sample dependence. Then, the generalization of ICA for analysis of multiple datasets, independent vector analysis (IVA), is introduced and the connections between ICA and IVA are highlighted, in particular in the way both approaches make use of signal diversity. Several key problems for achieving a successful decomposition, such as matrix optimization and density matching are discussed as well, along with examples of their application to medical image analysis.

Additional information ...


Signal Processing Seminar

Yongchang Hu
CAS

Additional information ...


Signal Processing Seminar

Constrained Imaging with Active-set methods

Millad Mouri Sardarabadi
CAS

Can radio astronomy imaging be improved by incorporating constraints such as non-negativity and known upper bounds?


Signal Processing Seminar

Secure Signal Processing: Challenges and Opportunities

Zekeriya Erkin
TU Delft ISP Lab

Additional information ...


Short Course

Network Information Theory: Cooperation and Interference

Prof.dr. M.C. Gastpar
EPFL

Information Theory has proved to be a relevant and successful foundation for the understanding of point-to-point digital communication systems. In today's networked world, information flows in more complex patterns: We can think of networks of sensors or cameras that are wirelessly connected or of cooperating base stations in mobile telephony systems. Over the past decade, significant progress has been made towards extending information theory to such communication systems. In this short course, we survey both classical results and recent progress in Network Information Theory.

Registration:

This course is intended for interested PhD/MSc students with some background in information theory. They should register before Monday, September 2, 2013, via e-mail to J.H.Weber@tudelft.nl

Credit:

Upon completion of the class, including homework, PhD students in the TU Delft Graduate School will earn 2 credits for their doctoral education program. Other students can receive a certificate.

Outline:

The short course will be taught mostly on the blackboard, along with some slides. It contains four modules:
  • Review of Basic Information Theory
  • Broadcast and Multiple Access
  • Techniques for Relaying and Cooperation
  • Managing Interference
Two short homework sets will be provided to the students.

Textbook:

Recommended (but not necessary) is the book by Abbas El Gamal and Young- Han Kim, Network Information Theory, Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Additional information ...


Master Kick-off

During the Master Kick-Off on Sept. 2-4, the new master students will be welcomed at an off-site location near Arnhem. The 3-day program is intended to familiarize the new (mostly international) students with the studies, The Netherlands, and each other.

Additional information ...


MSc TC Thesis Presentation

Compressive power spectral density estimation with non-uniform sampling

Fernando de la Hucha Arce


MSc TC Thesis Presentation

Photo-acoustic imaging

Victor Sloev

A new non-invasive imaging modality is based on transmitting a laser pulse on the skin; the created heat will cause an acoustic pulse that is detected with an ultrasonic array. How can an image be formed?


Signal Processing Seminar

Optimal power allocation for energy harvesting cognitive radio networks

Ning
CAS


Signal Processing Seminar

Location tracking

Raj Thilak Rajan
CAS


Signal Processing Seminar

Underwater localization

Hamid Ramezani
CAS


PhD Thesis Defence

Wireless Transceiver Design For High Velocity Scenarios

Tao Xu

This thesis is dedicated to transceiver designs for high data-rate wireless communication systems with rapidly moving terminals. The challenges are two-fold. On the one hand, more spectral bandwidth of the transmitted signals is required by future wireless systems to obtain higher transmission rates, which can result in the frequency selectivity of the communication channels. On the other hand, Doppler effects emerge when high mobile speeds are present, which can result in the time selectivity of the communication channels. Therefore, it is likely that future wireless communication systems operate in doubly-selective channels, which impose many difficulties on transceiver designs. In this thesis, we investigate these challenges in the four scenarios, and propose a number of corresponding solutions.

  1. OFDM over Narrowband Channels;
  2. OFDM over Wideband Channels;
  3. Multi-Rate Transmissions over Wideband Channels;
  4. Robust Multi-band Transmissions over Wideband Channels.


MSc Thesis Presentation

Underwater Ultra-Wideband Fingerprinting-Based Localization

Siavash Shakeri

In this work a new location fingerprinting-based localization algorithm is proposed for an underwater medium by utilizing ultra-wideband (UWB) signals. In many conventional underwater systems, localization is accomplished by utilizing acoustic waves. On the other hand, electromagnetic waves haven?t been employed for underwater localization due to the high attenuation of the signal in water. However, it is possible to use UWB signals for short-range underwater localization. In this work, the feasibility of performing localization for an underwater medium is illustrated by utilizing a location-based fingerprinting approach. Existing algorithms for an indoor environment are evaluated in this project for an underwater medium. These algorithms are based on a neural networks or maximum likelihood estimator. Further, we also consider a classical k-nearest neighbors (KNN) approach. In addition, by employing the concept of compressive sampling, we propose a sparsity-based localization approach for which we define a system model exploiting the spatial sparsity. Moreover, a recently proposed grid mismatching algorithm is also adapted to the current localization framework and its performance is evaluated. Finally, the performance of the proposed methods is compared with the existing fingerprinting-based localization approaches.


Smart Sensor Systems 2019

SSS course

For registering and a detailed course program, please look at the website of: MEAD (http://mead.ch/MEADNEW/

-> TUDelft – The Netherlands

-> Smart Sensor Systems

(http://mead.ch/MEADNEW/smart-sensor-systems/)