Exploring Microfluidic Design Automation: Thin-wall Membrane Regulator

Microfluidics and lab-on-a-chip are a growing technology, influential in many areas of engineering. This project focuses on the necessity for better computer aided design tools for this area. Specifically, it focuses on the automated synthesis of T-junction components with thin-walled membranes for stability. A T-junction is a passive droplet generation component, common in microfluidics which suffers from behavior instability in highly integrated circuits with many components. One way of improving stability is using flexible membranes to mitigate pressure perturbations. This thesis describes the design process of such membranes so that a model can be used to synthesize stable T-junctions. The thesis also discusses Manifold, a software framework for automated synthesis of microfluidic circuits. This is the framework where the design process fits in. To compare the result of the software framework with the analytic model described, physical circuits were fabricated to validate the accuracy of the analytic model and the software. Besides the T-junction, another microfluidics component that was investigated was a “Capillary Electrophoresis Channel”. This component was also investigated with respect to automated synthesis and verification using the Manifold framework, and the details are discussed

Optimization-Based Methodology for the Exploration of Cyber-Physical System Architectures

In this thesis, we address the design space exploration of cyber-physical system architectures to select correct-by-construction configuration and interconnection of system components taken from pre-defined libraries. We formulate the exploration problem as a mapping problem and use optimization to solve it by searching for a minimum cost architecture that meets system requirements. Using a graph-based representation of a system architecture, we define a set of generic mixed integer linear constraints over graph vertices, edges and paths, and use these constraints to instantiate a variety of design requirements (e.g., interconnection, flow, workload, timing, reliability, routing). We implement a comprehensive toolbox that supports all steps of the proposed methodology. It provides a pattern-based formal language to facilitate requirements specification and a set of scalable algorithms for encoding and solving exploration problems. We prove our concepts on a set of case studies for different cyber-physical system domains, such as electrical power distribution networks, reconfigurable industrial production lines and wireless sensor networks

Computational Capabilities and Compiler Development for Neutral Atom Quantum Processors: Connecting Tool Developers and Hardware Experts

Neutral Atom Quantum Computing (NAQC) emerges as a promising hardware platform primarily due to its long coherence times and scalability. Additionally, NAQC offers computational advantages encompassing potential long-range connectivity, native multi-qubit gate support, and the ability to physically rearrange qubits with high fidelity. However, for the successful operation of a NAQC processor, one additionally requires new software tools to translate high-level algorithmic descriptions into a hardware executable representation, taking maximal advantage of the hardware capabilities. Realizing new software tools requires a close connection between tool developers and hardware experts to ensure that the corresponding software tools obey the corresponding physical constraints. This work aims to provide a basis to establish this connection by investigating the broad spectrum of capabilities intrinsic to the NAQC platform and its implications on the compilation process. To this end, we first review the physical background of NAQC and derive how it affects the overall compilation process by formulating suitable constraints and figures of merit. We then provide a summary of the compilation process and discuss currently available software tools in this overview. Finally, we present selected case studies and employ the discussed figures of merit to evaluate the different capabilities of NAQC and compare them between two hardware setups.Comment: 32 pages, 13 figures, 2 table

Automated Deduction – CADE 28

This open access book constitutes the proceeding of the 28th International Conference on Automated Deduction, CADE 28, held virtually in July 2021. The 29 full papers and 7 system descriptions presented together with 2 invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 76 submissions. CADE is the major forum for the presentation of research in all aspects of automated deduction, including foundations, applications, implementations, and practical experience. The papers are organized in the following topics: Logical foundations; theory and principles; implementation and application; ATP and AI; and system descriptions

Understanding Quantum Technologies 2022

Understanding Quantum Technologies 2022 is a creative-commons ebook that provides a unique 360 degrees overview of quantum technologies from science and technology to geopolitical and societal issues. It covers quantum physics history, quantum physics 101, gate-based quantum computing, quantum computing engineering (including quantum error corrections and quantum computing energetics), quantum computing hardware (all qubit types, including quantum annealing and quantum simulation paradigms, history, science, research, implementation and vendors), quantum enabling technologies (cryogenics, control electronics, photonics, components fabs, raw materials), quantum computing algorithms, software development tools and use cases, unconventional computing (potential alternatives to quantum and classical computing), quantum telecommunications and cryptography, quantum sensing, quantum technologies around the world, quantum technologies societal impact and even quantum fake sciences. The main audience are computer science engineers, developers and IT specialists as well as quantum scientists and students who want to acquire a global view of how quantum technologies work, and particularly quantum computing. This version is an extensive update to the 2021 edition published in October 2021.Comment: 1132 pages, 920 figures, Letter forma

Layoutautomatisierung im analogen IC-Entwurf mit formalisiertem und nicht-formalisiertem Expertenwissen

After more than three decades of electronic design automation, most layouts for analog integrated circuits are still handcrafted in a laborious manual fashion today. Obverse to the highly automated synthesis tools in the digital domain (coping with the quantitative difficulty of packing more and more components onto a single chip – a desire well known as More Moore), analog layout automation struggles with the many diverse and heavily correlated functional requirements that turn the analog design problem into a More than Moore challenge. Facing this qualitative complexity, seasoned layout engineers rely on their comprehensive expert knowledge to consider all design constraints that uncompromisingly need to be satisfied. This usually involves both formally specified and nonformally communicated pieces of expert knowledge, which entails an explicit and implicit consideration of design constraints, respectively. Existing automation approaches can be basically divided into optimization algorithms (where constraint consideration occurs explicitly) and procedural generators (where constraints can only be taken into account implicitly). As investigated in this thesis, these two automation strategies follow two fundamentally different paradigms denoted as top-down automation and bottom-up automation. The major trait of top-down automation is that it requires a thorough formalization of the problem to enable a self-intelligent solution finding, whereas a bottom-up automatism –controlled by parameters– merely reproduces solutions that have been preconceived by a layout expert in advance. Since the strengths of one paradigm may compensate the weaknesses of the other, it is assumed that a combination of both paradigms –called bottom-up meets top-down– has much more potential to tackle the analog design problem in its entirety than either optimization-based or generator-based approaches alone. Against this background, the thesis at hand presents Self-organized Wiring and Arrangement of Responsive Modules (SWARM), an interdisciplinary methodology addressing the design problem with a decentralized multi-agent system. Its basic principle, similar to the roundup of a sheep herd, is to let responsive mobile layout modules (implemented as context-aware procedural generators) interact with each other inside a user-defined layout zone. Each module is allowed to autonomously move, rotate and deform itself, while a supervising control organ successively tightens the layout zone to steer the interaction towards increasingly compact (and constraint compliant) layout arrangements. Considering various principles of self-organization and incorporating ideas from existing decentralized systems, SWARM is able to evoke the phenomenon of emergence: although each module only has a limited viewpoint and selfishly pursues its personal objectives, remarkable overall solutions can emerge on the global scale. Several examples exhibit this emergent behavior in SWARM, and it is particularly interesting that even optimal solutions can arise from the module interaction. Further examples demonstrate SWARM’s suitability for floorplanning purposes and its application to practical place-and-route problems. The latter illustrates how the interacting modules take care of their respective design requirements implicitly (i.e., bottom-up) while simultaneously paying respect to high level constraints (such as the layout outline imposed top-down by the supervising control organ). Experimental results show that SWARM can outperform optimization algorithms and procedural generators both in terms of layout quality and design productivity. From an academic point of view, SWARM’s grand achievement is to tap fertile virgin soil for future works on novel bottom-up meets top-down automatisms. These may one day be the key to close the automation gap in analog layout design.Nach mehr als drei Jahrzehnten Entwurfsautomatisierung werden die meisten Layouts für analoge integrierte Schaltkreise heute immer noch in aufwändiger Handarbeit entworfen. Gegenüber den hochautomatisierten Synthesewerkzeugen im Digitalbereich (die sich mit dem quantitativen Problem auseinandersetzen, mehr und mehr Komponenten auf einem einzelnen Chip unterzubringen – bestens bekannt als More Moore) kämpft die analoge Layoutautomatisierung mit den vielen verschiedenen und stark korrelierten funktionalen Anforderungen, die das analoge Entwurfsproblem zu einer More than Moore Herausforderung machen. Angesichts dieser qualitativen Komplexität bedarf es des umfassenden Expertenwissens erfahrener Layouter um sämtliche Entwurfsconstraints, die zwingend eingehalten werden müssen, zu berücksichtigen. Meist beinhaltet dies formal spezifiziertes als auch nicht-formal übermitteltes Expertenwissen, was eine explizite bzw. implizite Constraint Berücksichtigung nach sich zieht. Existierende Automatisierungsansätze können grundsätzlich unterteilt werden in Optimierungsalgorithmen (wo die Constraint Berücksichtigung explizit erfolgt) und prozedurale Generatoren (die Constraints nur implizit berücksichtigen können). Wie in dieser Arbeit eruiert wird, folgen diese beiden Automatisierungsstrategien zwei grundlegend unterschiedlichen Paradigmen, bezeichnet als top-down Automatisierung und bottom-up Automatisierung. Wesentliches Merkmal der top-down Automatisierung ist die Notwendigkeit einer umfassenden Problemformalisierung um eine eigenintelligente Lösungsfindung zu ermöglichen, während ein bottom-up Automatismus –parametergesteuert– lediglich Lösungen reproduziert, die vorab von einem Layoutexperten vorgedacht wurden. Da die Stärken des einen Paradigmas die Schwächen des anderen ausgleichen können, ist anzunehmen, dass eine Kombination beider Paradigmen –genannt bottom-up meets top down– weitaus mehr Potenzial hat, das analoge Entwurfsproblem in seiner Gesamtheit zu lösen als optimierungsbasierte oder generatorbasierte Ansätze für sich allein. Vor diesem Hintergrund stellt die vorliegende Arbeit Self-organized Wiring and Arrangement of Responsive Modules (SWARM) vor, eine interdisziplinäre Methodik, die das Entwurfsproblem mit einem dezentralisierten Multi-Agenten-System angeht. Das Grundprinzip besteht darin, ähnlich dem Zusammentreiben einer Schafherde, reaktionsfähige mobile Layoutmodule (realisiert als kontextbewusste prozedurale Generatoren) in einer benutzerdefinierten Layoutzone interagieren zu lassen. Jedes Modul darf sich selbständig bewegen, drehen und verformen, wobei ein übergeordnetes Kontrollorgan die Zone schrittweise verkleinert, um die Interaktion auf zunehmend kompakte (und constraintkonforme) Layoutanordnungen hinzulenken. Durch die Berücksichtigung diverser Selbstorganisationsgrundsätze und die Einarbeitung von Ideen bestehender dezentralisierter Systeme ist SWARM in der Lage, das Phänomen der Emergenz hervorzurufen: obwohl jedes Modul nur eine begrenzte Sichtweise hat und egoistisch seine eigenen Ziele verfolgt, können sich auf globaler Ebene bemerkenswerte Gesamtlösungen herausbilden. Mehrere Beispiele veranschaulichen dieses emergente Verhalten in SWARM, wobei besonders interessant ist, dass sogar optimale Lösungen aus der Modulinteraktion entstehen können. Weitere Beispiele demonstrieren SWARMs Eignung zwecks Floorplanning sowie die Anwendung auf praktische Place-and-Route Probleme. Letzteres verdeutlicht, wie die interagierenden Module ihre jeweiligen Entwurfsanforderungen implizit (also: bottom-up) beachten, während sie gleichzeitig High-Level-Constraints berücksichtigen (z.B. die Layoutkontur, die top-down vom übergeordneten Kontrollorgan auferlegt wird). Experimentelle Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Optimierungsalgorithmen und prozedurale Generatoren von SWARM sowohl bezüglich Layoutqualität als auch Entwurfsproduktivität übertroffen werden können. Aus akademischer Sicht besteht SWARMs große Errungenschaft in der Erschließung fruchtbaren Neulands für zukünftige Arbeiten an neuartigen bottom-up meets top-down Automatismen. Diese könnten eines Tages der Schlüssel sein, um die Automatisierungslücke im analogen Layoutentwurf zu schließen

Embedded System Design

A unique feature of this open access textbook is to provide a comprehensive introduction to the fundamental knowledge in embedded systems, with applications in cyber-physical systems and the Internet of things. It starts with an introduction to the field and a survey of specification models and languages for embedded and cyber-physical systems. It provides a brief overview of hardware devices used for such systems and presents the essentials of system software for embedded systems, including real-time operating systems. The author also discusses evaluation and validation techniques for embedded systems and provides an overview of techniques for mapping applications to execution platforms, including multi-core platforms. Embedded systems have to operate under tight constraints and, hence, the book also contains a selected set of optimization techniques, including software optimization techniques. The book closes with a brief survey on testing. This fourth edition has been updated and revised to reflect new trends and technologies, such as the importance of cyber-physical systems (CPS) and the Internet of things (IoT), the evolution of single-core processors to multi-core processors, and the increased importance of energy efficiency and thermal issues