Narrow Results

Inkjet printing is a promising and challenging technique that could potentially revolutionize large area and organic electronics fabrication. Inkjet systems are designed to construct devices and circuits drop by drop, which would lead to a new paradigm in electronics fabrication. However, inkjet technology for Printed Electronics is still under development and several challenges remain. While there is significant progress being made in the development of electronic devices, such as transistors or sensors, there is a lack of work on circuit and system level design. Designing devices and circuits implies a wide knowledge of process aspects, requiring a complex interaction among concepts, tools and processes coming from different science and engineering disciplines. An explicit methodology is needed to separate design from fabrication in a similar way as in silicon design, to design devices and systems without a deep knowledge of process and materials; thus making it possible to open up inkjet technology to a larger community and undergo more rapid design implementations. In this paper we present the main aspects of such a methodology and we discuss the key topics on inkjet technology that allow us to propose these new specific steps.

We present an unified explanation of the transconductance-to-drain current (g_m/I_D)-based noise analysis in this paper. We show that both thermal noise coefficient (γ) and device noise corner frequency (f_co) are dependent on the g_m/I_D of a transistor. We derive expressions to demonstrate the relationship between the normalized noise power spectral density technique and the technique based on γ and f_co. We conclude this letter with examples to demonstrate the practical implication of our study. Our results show that while both techniques discussed in this letter can be used to compute noise numerically, using γ and f_co to separate thermal noise from flicker noise provides additional insight for optimizing noise.

Room-temperature analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) based on nanoscale silicon (Si) quantum dot (QD)-based single-electron transistors (SETs) can be very attractive for high-speed processors embedded in future generation nanosystems. This paper focuses on the design and modeling of advanced single-electron converters suited for operation at room temperature. In contrast to conventional SETs with metallic QD, the use of sub-10-nm Si QD results in stable operation at room temperature, as the observable Coulomb blockade regime covers effectively the higher temperature range. Si QD-based SETs are also fully compatible with advanced CMOS technology and they can be manufactured using routine nanofabrication steps. At first, we present the principles of operation of Si SETs used for room-temperature operation. Possible flash-type ADC architectures are then investigated and the design considerations of possible Coulomb oscillation regimes are addressed. A modified design procedure is then introduced for $n$-bit SET-based ADCs, and validated through simulation of a 3-bit ADC with a sampling frequency of 5 GS/s. The ADC core is comprised from a capacitive signal divider followed by three periodic symmetric functions (PSFs). Simulation results demonstrate the stability of output signals at the room-temperature range.

A design methodology of CMOS LC voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) is proposed in this paper. The relation between components and specifications of the LC-VCO is studied to easily identify its design trade-offs. This methodology has been applied to design ultra-low-power LC-VCOs for different frequency bands. An LC-VCO based on the current reuse technique has been realized with the proposed methodology in 0.13$\mu$m CMOS process. Measurements present an ultra-low power consumption of only 262$\mu$W drawn from 1V supply voltage. The measured frequency tuning range is about 10% between 2.179GHz and 2.409GHz. The post-layout simulation presents a phase noise (PN) of $-114.7$dBc/Hz, while the measured PN is $-102.16$dBc/Hz.

The objective of this work is to examine the feasibility of, as well as to learn about, a process of developing software architecture that prevents the possibility of mismatch between homogeneous components implemented according to the architectural specification. This paper shows how the architecture can be organized, which restrictions it can use and, provided that they are used, how elaborate it should be in order to ensure that independently-developed artifacts are structurally compatible. Two components are deemed structurally compatible as long as they have appropriate code to avoid mismatch. Since the focus of the paper is on the structural forms of mismatch, the results are derived under the assumption that no run-time environment can prevent a component from executing any path in its code. The paper develops a formal model of architecture that provides a minimal set of concepts in terms of which the designers can reason about incompatibility of components. The model is used to identify the causes of structural mismatch and examine alternative ways of eliminating these causes. Following that, the paper adopts a set of architectural restrictions and shows how these restrictions can be applied in the design of software architectures to prevent the possibility of structural mismatch.

Problem solving through design of systems and physical artifacts is a professional activity with major financial significance. Problems in modern society tend to grow more complex and intricate, and as a response, systems grow larger. Therefore, design increasingly has also become a collaborative task. Design in itself already is challenging but collaboration adds its own challenges into the mix. In this paper, we explore the challenges of collaborative design. We approach the research problem through design science research framework; we synthesize the knowledge base and expert experiences from the environment to propositions about the challenges of collaborative design. By forging theme propositions we lay a ground for design and development of better support for collaborative design.

In this paper we use the design of an innovative on-board vision system for a small commercial minirobot to demonstrate the application of the demand compliant design (DeCoDe) method. Vision systems are amongst the most complex sensor systems both in nature and in engineering and thus provide an excellent arena for testing design methods. A review of current design methods for mechatronic systems shows that there are no methods that support or require a complete description of the product system. The DeCoDe method is a step towards overcoming this deficiency. The minirobot robot design is carried from the generic vision system level down to first refinement for a minirobot vision system for visual navigation.

The problems faced by social design are different from those of conventional designs that show more macroscopic, comprehensive, systematic, trans-disciplinary, and complicated features, which challenges the agility and capacity of existing design methodology. This study aims to analyze the challenges encountered by design methods in dealing with public issues and to provide references for improving social design methodology. Therefore, the Design Council’s Framework for Innovation model and the tools commonly used in the conventional design was applied to a case of public interest. By reflecting and investigating this process and results, this study suggests the implementation of current practical design methods to accommodate coherently the many volatile aspects of social design.

Natural vision systems are yet unrivaled with regard to parameters such as performance, size, and power consumption in comparison to todays technical and predominantly digital implementations. This especially holds for complex vision tasks, e.g., in image sequence analysis. Application-specific constraints, imposed by many real time vision tasks, can be met by an opportunistic design of bio-inspired circuits and systems employing analog and mixed-signal design techniques. Consequently, a plethora of vision chips exploiting basic principles have been designed but only few can actually serve in real applications. Today, the modeling of complete application systems requires a hybrid approach and an appropriate design methodology to assure the viability of the resulting integrated system. This paper reports on a research activity that tackles the development of a corresponding design methodology. Several application projects, e.g., OCR, automotive image processing, eye tracking, and visual inspection, will be introduced, that were subject to this design methodology and gave feedback to advance the methodology for systematic design of integrated cognitive systems.

This paper proves a whole flexible manipulator prototyping by the TRIZ theory. It is composed by five steel wires which does not only make the structure become compact and easy to manipulate, but also have a low cost, nicely adapted to the working environment. The design process verified the application of the former method. The structure breaks through the joint type of flexible structure, and provides a reference for the similar flexible structure in different fields. The method that combines structure design and TRIZ theory also has been proven to be an efficient tool for engineering design.

To solve the problem of low product design efficiency caused by information search difficulties under the environment of information explosion, product genes research was doneon the basis of analogy with biological genetic engineering ideas. The connotation of product genes was redefined, which is more consistent with biological genes so that it is benefit for deeper study on product genes drawing on biological genetic engineering advanced technology. Operating technologies of product genes were summarized. Based on this, a product gene based approach for conceptual design of mechanical products was presented. Take corn combine harvest stalks device as an example, the design approach was verified, and the results show that the conceptual design method based on product genes greatly improved the design efficiency and shortened the product design cycle.