Active Inductor with Feedback Resistor Based Voltage Controlled Oscillator Design for Wireless Applications

This paper presents active inductor based VCO design for wireless applications based on analysis of active inductor models (Weng-Kuo Cascode active inductor & Liang Regular Cascode active inductor) with feedback resistor technique. Embedment of feedback resistor results in the increment of inductance as well as the quality factor whereas the values are [email protected] (Liang) and [email protected] (Weng- Kuo). The Weng-Kuo active inductor based VCO shows a tuning frequency of 1.765GHz ~2.430GHz (31.7%), while consuming a power of 2.60 mW and phase noise of -84.15 dBc/Hz@1MHz offset. On the other hand, Liang active inductor based VCO shows a frequency range of 1.897GHz ~2.522GHz (28.28%), while consuming a power of 1.40 mW and phase noise of -80.79 dBc/Hz@1MHz offset. Comparing Figure-of-Merit (FoM), power consumption, output power and stability in performance, designed active inductor based VCOs outperform with the state-of-the-art

Efficient Implementation on Low-Cost SoC-FPGAs of TLSv1.2 Protocol with ECC_AES Support for Secure IoT Coordinators

Security management for IoT applications is a critical research field, especially when taking into account the performance variation over the very different IoT devices. In this paper, we present high-performance client/server coordinators on low-cost SoC-FPGA devices for secure IoT data collection. Security is ensured by using the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol based on the TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256 cipher suite. The hardware architecture of the proposed coordinators is based on SW/HW co-design, implementing within the hardware accelerator core Elliptic Curve Scalar Multiplication (ECSM), which is the core operation of Elliptic Curve Cryptosystems (ECC). Meanwhile, the control of the overall TLS scheme is performed in software by an ARM Cortex-A9 microprocessor. In fact, the implementation of the ECC accelerator core around an ARM microprocessor allows not only the improvement of ECSM execution but also the performance enhancement of the overall cryptosystem. The integration of the ARM processor enables to exploit the possibility of embedded Linux features for high system flexibility. As a result, the proposed ECC accelerator requires limited area, with only 3395 LUTs on the Zynq device used to perform high-speed, 233-bit ECSMs in 413 µs, with a 50 MHz clock. Moreover, the generation of a 384-bit TLS handshake secret key between client and server coordinators requires 67.5 ms on a low cost Zynq 7Z007S device

Energy Harvesting Wireless Communications: A Review of Recent Advances

This article summarizes recent contributions in the broad area of energy harvesting wireless communications. In particular, we provide the current state of the art for wireless networks composed of energy harvesting nodes, starting from the information-theoretic performance limits to transmission scheduling policies and resource allocation, medium access and networking issues. The emerging related area of energy transfer for self-sustaining energy harvesting wireless networks is considered in detail covering both energy cooperation aspects and simultaneous energy and information transfer. Various potential models with energy harvesting nodes at different network scales are reviewed as well as models for energy consumption at the nodes.Comment: To appear in the IEEE Journal of Selected Areas in Communications (Special Issue: Wireless Communications Powered by Energy Harvesting and Wireless Energy Transfer

OPTIMIZATION OF NFC ANTENNA TO MICROCONTROLLER’S BOARD DIMENSIONS

This paper is focused on Near-Field Communication (NFC), which is one of the most popular wireless communication. Although the NFC was developed in recent years, it is inseparable part of the everyday activities. NFC antenna is the key element for the realization of the NFC. This paper deals with the design of the miniaturized NFC antenna. Basic equations for coil inductance calculation, which are necessary for the NFC antenna design are presented as well. This paper also focuses on the influence of the coil’s aspect ratio to its inductance. The aim of this paper was the optimization of the NFC antenna dimensions. NFC antenna dimensions were calculated according to dimension of microcontroller Printed Circuit Board (PCB), so the antenna can be laminated directly to microcontroller PCB

FPGA-based architectures for acoustic beamforming with microphone arrays : trends, challenges and research opportunities

Over the past decades, many systems composed of arrays of microphones have been developed to satisfy the quality demanded by acoustic applications. Such microphone arrays are sound acquisition systems composed of multiple microphones used to sample the sound field with spatial diversity. The relatively recent adoption of Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) to manage the audio data samples and to perform the signal processing operations such as filtering or beamforming has lead to customizable architectures able to satisfy the most demanding computational, power or performance acoustic applications. The presented work provides an overview of the current FPGA-based architectures and how FPGAs are exploited for different acoustic applications. Current trends on the use of this technology, pending challenges and open research opportunities on the use of FPGAs for acoustic applications using microphone arrays are presented and discussed

An FPGA-based quantum computing emulation framework based on serial-parallel architecture

Hardware emulation of quantum systems can mimic more efficiently the parallel behaviour of quantum computations, thus allowing higher processing speed-up than software simulations. In this paper, an efficient hardware emulation method that employs a serial- parallel hardware architecture targeted for field programmable gate array (FPGA) is proposed. Quantum Fourier transform and Grover’s search are chosen as case studies in this work since they are the core of many useful quantum algorithms. Experimental work shows that, with the proposed emulation architecture, a linear reduction in resource utilization is attained against the pipeline implementations proposed in prior works. The proposed work contributes to the formulation of a proof-of-concept baseline FPGA emulation framework with optimization on datapath designs that can be extended to emulate practical large-scale quantum circuits

Proceedings Scholar Metrics: H Index of proceedings on Computer Science, Electrical & Electronic Engineering, and Communications according to Google Scholar Metrics (2011-2015)

The objective of this report is to present a list of proceedings (conferences, workshops, symposia, meetings) in the areas of Computer Science, Electrical & Electronic Engineering, and Communications covered by Google Scholar Metrics and ranked according to their h-index. Google Scholar Metrics only displays publications that have published at least 100 papers and have received at least one citation in the last five years (2010-2014). The searches were conducted between the 7th and 12th of December, 2016. A total of 1634 proceedings have been identified.Martín-Martín, A.; Ayllón, JM.; Orduña Malea, E.; Delgado López-Cózar, E. (2016). Proceedings Scholar Metrics: H Index of proceedings on Computer Science, Electrical & Electronic Engineering, and Communications according to Google Scholar Metrics (2011-2015). http://hdl.handle.net/10251/11237

Simulation of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells for wearable applications

Advancements in the semiconductor industry have enabled wearable devices to be used for a wide range of applications, including personalised healthcare. Novel energy harvesting technologies are therefore necessary to ensure that these devices can be used without interruption. Crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells provide high energy density to electronic loads. However, the optimization of these cells is a complex task since the optical performance is coupled to the surroundings, and the electrical performance is influenced by the intrinsic PV characteristics and parasitic losses.Without doubt, accurate simulation tools can provide the necessary insight to PV cell performance before device fabrication. However, the majority of these tools require expensive licensing fees. Thus, the aim of this article is to review the range of non-commercial PV simulation tools that can be used for wearable applications. We provide a detailed procedure for device modelling and we compare the performance of these tools with previously published experimental data, as well as commercial software. According to our findings, non-commercial 3D simulation tools such as PC3D provide accurate results, with only a relative error of ≈2.2% in Jsc after setting off the difference in geometrical modelling due to the software limit

How does the rise of China affect Malaysia's electronic and electrical sector?

After joining the WTO in 2001, China’s total exports grew by 19.3% per annum up to 2013 and the country emerged as the world’s biggest exporter of manufactured electronics. China’s rise has had an impact on developing countries such as Malaysia, a major exporter of electronic and electrical (E&E) goods. Malaysia aims to be a high-income economy by 2020, and upgrading its E&E value chain is critical to this goal. Malaysia is part of the East Asian production network and China imports intermediate inputs from Malaysia’s E&E for its final exports while simultaneously expanding in similar product spaces. This means the effect on Malaysia of China’s rise is complex. Contemporary literature divides the impact of China’s rise into competitive and complementary effects, and this research aims to further understand the effect of China’s rise on Malaysia’s E&E trade and investment channels, using a mixed methodology approach. The research analyses the bilateral E&E trade patterns, the extent of trade competition at the destination markets, with the trade structure disaggregated by sophistication and by type of goods1 analysis. Subsequently it examines China’s impact on the semiconductor machinery segment, a backward linkage of the IC industry. Finally, the influence of China’s rise on investments aspects of Malaysia’s E&E industry is also explored. 1 Types of goods category such as final goods, parts and accessories or durables. v The research finds that while imports from China compete with imports from Malaysia in the US and Japanese markets (the EU market is different), China’s competition in trade is also spurring Malaysia to upgrade its exports’ sophistication. China also creates new demand for Malaysia’s semiconductor machinery. Finally, while resulting in short-term job losses, China’s diversion of E&E investment from Malaysia provide opportunities for Malaysians to start new firms, and for MNCs based in Malaysia to upgrade their production