Precision at Scale: System Design from Tiny Biosensors to Giant Arrays

In order to change the world, technological advancements must be made affordable and available for the general public to use. In other words, we must be able to scale our inventions effectively. Silicon integrated circuits are crucial components in scaling electronic systems because they are mass producible and offer a phenomenal cost-to-complexity ratio. This thesis summarizes the author’s work on highly scalable sensor and array systems. It presents three high precision systems, that demonstrate how the use of highly functional radio-frequency integrated circuits enables the realization of previously unfeasible architectures

Electromagnetic Field Manipulation: Biosensing to Antennas

We will explore how understanding and controlling electromagnetic fields can provide significant impact across a multitude of applications throughout the whole frequency spectrum from DC to daylight. Starting from the DC end of the electromagnetic spectrum, we motivate the design of a new integrated magnetic biosensing design as well as various improvements to the initial design based on spatial and temporal manipulations of the magnetic fields. Next, we look into the RF domain and develop maximal performance bounds for antennas and other electromagnetic structures. We develop rapid simulation techniques which when coupled with heuristic optimization algorithms can quickly and effectively produce new antenna structures with little to no manual intervention. We demonstrate the efficacy of these techniques in the context of on-chip antenna designs and a 3D printed coupling antenna for a dielectric waveguide communication link. We present the design of a 120GHz dual-channel 100Gbps QPSK/64QAM transceiver IC developed in a standard 28nm bulk CMOS process. Finally, we explore the higher THz regime in the context of photonic device optimization. We optimize compact photonic multiplexer devices which are fabricated in a standard foundry process and evaluate their performance against simulation results

Micro-Resonators: The Quest for Superior Performance

Microelectromechanical resonators are no longer solely a subject of research in university and government labs; they have found a variety of applications at industrial scale, where their market is predicted to grow steadily. Nevertheless, many barriers to enhance their performance and further spread their application remain to be overcome. In this Special Issue, we will focus our attention to some of the persistent challenges of micro-/nano-resonators such as nonlinearity, temperature stability, acceleration sensitivity, limits of quality factor, and failure modes that require a more in-depth understanding of the physics of vibration at small scale. The goal is to seek innovative solutions that take advantage of unique material properties and original designs to push the performance of micro-resonators beyond what is conventionally achievable. Contributions from academia discussing less-known characteristics of micro-resonators and from industry depicting the challenges of large-scale implementation of resonators are encouraged with the hopes of further stimulating the growth of this field, which is rich with fascinating physics and challenging problems

Solid State Circuits Technologies

The evolution of solid-state circuit technology has a long history within a relatively short period of time. This technology has lead to the modern information society that connects us and tools, a large market, and many types of products and applications. The solid-state circuit technology continuously evolves via breakthroughs and improvements every year. This book is devoted to review and present novel approaches for some of the main issues involved in this exciting and vigorous technology. The book is composed of 22 chapters, written by authors coming from 30 different institutions located in 12 different countries throughout the Americas, Asia and Europe. Thus, reflecting the wide international contribution to the book. The broad range of subjects presented in the book offers a general overview of the main issues in modern solid-state circuit technology. Furthermore, the book offers an in depth analysis on specific subjects for specialists. We believe the book is of great scientific and educational value for many readers. I am profoundly indebted to the support provided by all of those involved in the work. First and foremost I would like to acknowledge and thank the authors who worked hard and generously agreed to share their results and knowledge. Second I would like to express my gratitude to the Intech team that invited me to edit the book and give me their full support and a fruitful experience while working together to combine this book

1-D broadside-radiating leaky-wave antenna based on a numerically synthesized impedance surface

A newly-developed deterministic numerical technique for the automated design of metasurface antennas is applied here for the first time to the design of a 1-D printed Leaky-Wave Antenna (LWA) for broadside radiation. The surface impedance synthesis process does not require any a priori knowledge on the impedance pattern, and starts from a mask constraint on the desired far-field and practical bounds on the unit cell impedance values. The designed reactance surface for broadside radiation exhibits a non conventional patterning; this highlights the merit of using an automated design process for a design well known to be challenging for analytical methods. The antenna is physically implemented with an array of metal strips with varying gap widths and simulation results show very good agreement with the predicted performance

Beam scanning by liquid-crystal biasing in a modified SIW structure

A fixed-frequency beam-scanning 1D antenna based on Liquid Crystals (LCs) is designed for application in 2D scanning with lateral alignment. The 2D array environment imposes full decoupling of adjacent 1D antennas, which often conflicts with the LC requirement of DC biasing: the proposed design accommodates both. The LC medium is placed inside a Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) modified to work as a Groove Gap Waveguide, with radiating slots etched on the upper broad wall, that radiates as a Leaky-Wave Antenna (LWA). This allows effective application of the DC bias voltage needed for tuning the LCs. At the same time, the RF field remains laterally confined, enabling the possibility to lay several antennas in parallel and achieve 2D beam scanning. The design is validated by simulation employing the actual properties of a commercial LC medium

EUROSENSORS XVII : book of abstracts

Fundação Calouste Gulbenkien (FCG).Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

Microelectromechanical Systems and Devices

The advances of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and devices have been instrumental in the demonstration of new devices and applications, and even in the creation of new fields of research and development: bioMEMS, actuators, microfluidic devices, RF and optical MEMS. Experience indicates a need for MEMS book covering these materials as well as the most important process steps in bulk micro-machining and modeling. We are very pleased to present this book that contains 18 chapters, written by the experts in the field of MEMS. These chapters are groups into four broad sections of BioMEMS Devices, MEMS characterization and micromachining, RF and Optical MEMS, and MEMS based Actuators. The book starts with the emerging field of bioMEMS, including MEMS coil for retinal prostheses, DNA extraction by micro/bio-fluidics devices and acoustic biosensors. MEMS characterization, micromachining, macromodels, RF and Optical MEMS switches are discussed in next sections. The book concludes with the emphasis on MEMS based actuators