Digital fabrication inspired design: Influence of fabrication parameters on a design process

The relation between architecture and building technologies has played a vital role in the development of both disciplines throughout the history. The link between the two is also valid in the present times, as the design and production processes are influenced by computational advances. Considering the use of a particular digital fabrication method, this research intends to look into the design-production relation and attempts to answer the question of how the manufacturing parameters can be integrated into the design process to facilitate the design-to-production communication. It is argued that the above is achievable through the application of a simulation-based algorithmic procedures derived from the inherent logic of a fabrication machine's functionality. The above stated was studied through creation of two custom tools facilitating the design process – namely a library for the Processing programming language and a bespoke design procedure - both based on a functionality of the CNC milling machines. Finally, the conclusion is made that broader implementation of custom design procedures with underlying digital fabrication logic has a potential of altering the design process and facilitate the design-to-factory communication

Parameterizable Library Components for SAW Devices

To facilitate quick fabrication of Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) sensors we have found it necessary to develop a library of parameterizable components. This library is the first module in our strategy towards a design tool that is integrated into existing Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools. This library is similar to the standard cell libraries found in digital design packages. The library cells allow the user to input the design parameters which automatically generate a detailed layout of the SAW component. This paper presents the results of our development of parameterizable cells for an InterDigitated Transducer (IDT), reflector, SAW delay line, and both one and two port resonators

UXperimentation: The Library as Design Studio

The university and seminary’s work and workplaces evolve within emerging digital ecologies, such as mobile communication, digital fabrication, and cloud hosting. At Abilene Christian University (ACU) in Abilene, TX, we have driven this transformation of educational spaces and curriculum with 1-to-1 and BYOD smartphone and tablet initiatives, and through construction of an interdisciplinary makerspace. Now our provision of personalized access to Adobe Creative Cloud for all students and faculty is again reorienting library spaces and practices with a focus on User Experience (UX). This paper explores: 1) the relation of UXD to library research and instruction. 2) an ecology for UXD and other design thinking in university academic support services, and 3) a trajectory beyond computer labs, media studios, and digital scholarship centers as library learning space

Makeshift: an experimental stage for spatial exchange

Underpinning this architectural design and discourse is the exchange of digital and physical space. An exchange that can be multi-directional, rapidly shifting embodiments of space between modes of digital and physical models. The parameters for translation are defined by a digital culture in flux, perpetually evolving new mediums for building real and virtual space. A new direct link has been established between design and construction, where digital methods of conceptualisation, modification and fabrication are questioning the historic relationship between architecture and its production systems. Sited at the University of the Witwatersrand, this thesis explores architecture’s role as a mediator for digital and physical translation. By proposing an experimental stage for spatial exchange, the building facilitates the collaborative and interdisciplinary integration of students, academics, industry partners and public around the archiving, projecting, conceptualising and fabricating of digital model space. As a hybrid, the building reimagines the factory, studio, library and archive typologies, subsequently speculating a new contextual role for university architecture that is educational, industrial, cultural and public. As a by-product of an evolving digital culture, digitals models can be conceptualised, manipulated and embedded with intelligence. Advancing applications of virtual reality, however, free these digital models from conventional two-dimensional modes through immersive simulations that enable users to engage and interact with digital models of all scales. Furthermore, virtual projection mediums have the potential to transform how designers conceive, perceive and modify digital model space through the advent of intelligent sensor and tracking devices that allow human gestures to shape digital form. While digital models have traditionally been generated from nothing, new three-dimensional scanning technologies enable the capturing of small to large-scale physical space digitally. Finally, digital and robotic fabrication tools facilitate the shift from digital to real space by constructing physical objects with a greater complexity, speed, scale, affordability and material composition than previously possible. Comprised of a sequence of interconnected ‘fields’ – namely scanning, projection, studio and fabrication fields – the building facilitates the local and global exchange of digital and physical model space. As a platform for integrating all the constituents of spatial exchange, this design and discourse challenges traditional modes of praxis by speculating an alternative future for architecture, technology, education and greater society

Printed Circuit Board (PCB) design process and fabrication

This module describes main characteristics of Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs). A brief history of PCBs is introduced in the first chapter. Then, the design processes and the fabrication of PCBs are addressed and finally a study case is presented in the last chapter of the module.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Development of 15kA/cm2^2 Fabrication Process for Superconducting Integrated Digital Circuits

A new fabrication process for superconducting integrated digital circuits is reported. We have developed the "SIMIT Nb04" fabrication technique for superconducting integrated circuits with Nb-based Josephson junctions based on the validated "SIMIT Nb03" process and Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP) technology. Seven Nb superconducting layers and one Mo resistor layer are included in the "SIMIT Nb04" process with 19 mask levels. The device structure is composed of active layers including junctions at the bottom, two passive transmission line (PTL) layers in the middle and a DC power layer at the top. The circuit fabrication started with the fabrication of Mo resistors with a target sheet resistance Rsh of 3 $\Omega$, followed by the deposition of Nb/Al-AlO$_x$/Nb trilayer Josephson-junction with a target critical current density Jc at 15 kA/cm$^2$. To increase the Al-AlO$_x$ barrier layer etching's repeatability, an additional barrier protection layer was applied. To accomplish high-quality planarization, we created a planarization procedure coupled with dummy filling. To assess the process dependability and controllability, a set of process control monitors (PCMs) for monitoring fabrication and design parameters was designed and monitored. The successful manufacturing and testing of a few small-scale circuits, like our standard library cells, further attests to the viability of our fabrication process for superconducting integrated circuits

Automatic synthesis of analog layout : a survey

A review of recent research in the automatic synthesis of physical geometry for analog integrated circuits is presented. On introduction, an explanation of the difficulties involved in analog layout as opposed to digital layout is covered. Review of the literature then follows. Emphasis is placed on the exposition of general methods for addressing problems specific to analog layout, with the details of specific systems only being given when they surve to illustrate these methods well. The conclusion discusses problems remaining and offers a prediction as to how technology will evolve to solve them. It is argued that although progress has been and will continue to be made in the automation of analog IC layout, due to fundamental differences in the nature of analog IC design as opposed to digital design, it should not be expected that the level of automation of the former will reach that of the latter any time soon

Novel Broadband Amplifier for Mid-Infrared Semiconductor laser and applications in spectroscopy

An amplifier design for broadband Mid-IR buried-hetero (BH) structure epitaxial laser is presented, and external cavity design based on this amplifier is described. Spectroscopy results characterizing such single frequency lasers are demonstrated with whispering gallery mode CaF2 disc/ball, saturated absorption in hollow waveguide and direct chemical analysis in water

From FPGA to ASIC: A RISC-V processor experience

This work document a correct design flow using these tools in the Lagarto RISC- V Processor and the RTL design considerations that must be taken into account, to move from a design for FPGA to design for ASIC