6,077 research outputs found
A review of advances in pixel detectors for experiments with high rate and radiation
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments ATLAS and CMS have established
hybrid pixel detectors as the instrument of choice for particle tracking and
vertexing in high rate and radiation environments, as they operate close to the
LHC interaction points. With the High Luminosity-LHC upgrade now in sight, for
which the tracking detectors will be completely replaced, new generations of
pixel detectors are being devised. They have to address enormous challenges in
terms of data throughput and radiation levels, ionizing and non-ionizing, that
harm the sensing and readout parts of pixel detectors alike. Advances in
microelectronics and microprocessing technologies now enable large scale
detector designs with unprecedented performance in measurement precision (space
and time), radiation hard sensors and readout chips, hybridization techniques,
lightweight supports, and fully monolithic approaches to meet these challenges.
This paper reviews the world-wide effort on these developments.Comment: 84 pages with 46 figures. Review article.For submission to Rep. Prog.
Phy
Sensitivity Limit of Nanoscale Phototransistors
In this paper the optical gain mechanism in phototransistor detectors (PTDs)
is explored in low light conditions. An analytical formula is derived for the
physical limit on the minimum number of detectable photons for the PTD. This
formulation shows that the sensitivity of the PTD, regardless of its material
composition, is related to the square root of the normalized total capacitance
at the base layer. Since the base total capacitance is directly proportional to
the size of the PTD, the formulation shows the scaling effect on the
sensitivity of the PTD. We used the extracted formula to study the sensitivity
limit of a typical InGaAs/InP heterojunction PTD. Modeling predicts that a PTD
with a nanoscale electronic area can reach to a single photon noise equivalent
power even at room temperature. The proposed model can also be used to explore
the sensitivity and speed of the nanowire-based photodetectors. To the best of
our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive study on the sensitivity of the
PTD for low light detection.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Communication channel analysis and real time compressed sensing for high density neural recording devices
Next generation neural recording and Brain-
Machine Interface (BMI) devices call for high density or distributed
systems with more than 1000 recording sites. As the
recording site density grows, the device generates data on the
scale of several hundred megabits per second (Mbps). Transmitting
such large amounts of data induces significant power
consumption and heat dissipation for the implanted electronics.
Facing these constraints, efficient on-chip compression techniques
become essential to the reduction of implanted systems power
consumption. This paper analyzes the communication channel
constraints for high density neural recording devices. This paper
then quantifies the improvement on communication channel
using efficient on-chip compression methods. Finally, This paper
describes a Compressed Sensing (CS) based system that can
reduce the data rate by > 10x times while using power on
the order of a few hundred nW per recording channel
Neuromorphic In-Memory Computing Framework using Memtransistor Cross-bar based Support Vector Machines
This paper presents a novel framework for designing support vector machines
(SVMs), which does not impose restriction on the SVM kernel to be
positive-definite and allows the user to define memory constraint in terms of
fixed template vectors. This makes the framework scalable and enables its
implementation for low-power, high-density and memory constrained embedded
application. An efficient hardware implementation of the same is also
discussed, which utilizes novel low power memtransistor based cross-bar
architecture, and is robust to device mismatch and randomness. We used
memtransistor measurement data, and showed that the designed SVMs can achieve
classification accuracy comparable to traditional SVMs on both synthetic and
real-world benchmark datasets. This framework would be beneficial for design of
SVM based wake-up systems for internet of things (IoTs) and edge devices where
memtransistors can be used to optimize system's energy-efficiency and perform
in-memory matrix-vector multiplication (MVM).Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, MWSCAS 201
Pixel Detectors
Pixel detectors for precise particle tracking in high energy physics have
been developed to a level of maturity during the past decade. Three of the LHC
detectors will use vertex detectors close to the interaction point based on the
hybrid pixel technology which can be considered the state of the art in this
field of instrumentation. A development period of almost 10 years has resulted
in pixel detector modules which can stand the extreme rate and timing
requirements as well as the very harsh radiation environment at the LHC without
severe compromises in performance. From these developments a number of
different applications have spun off, most notably for biomedical imaging.
Beyond hybrid pixels, a number of monolithic or semi-monolithic developments,
which do not require complicated hybridization but come as single sensor/IC
entities, have appeared and are currently developed to greater maturity. Most
advanced in terms of maturity are so called CMOS active pixels and DEPFET
pixels. The present state in the construction of the hybrid pixel detectors for
the LHC experiments together with some hybrid pixel detector spin-off is
reviewed. In addition, new developments in monolithic or semi-monolithic pixel
devices are summarized.Comment: 14 pages, 38 drawings/photographs in 21 figure
Ultra-thin rigid endoscope: Two-photon imaging through a graded-index multi-mode fiber
Rigid endoscopes like graded-index (GRIN) lenses are known tools in
biological imaging, but it is conceptually difficult to miniaturize them. In
this letter, we demonstrate an ultra-thin rigid endoscope with a diameter of
only 125 microns. In addition, we identify a domain where two-photon endoscopic
imaging with fs-pulse excitation is possible. We validate the ultra-thin rigid
endoscope consisting of a few cm of graded-index multi-mode fiber by using it
to acquire optically sectioned two-photon fluorescence endoscopic images of
three-dimensional samples.Comment: 17 pages, 15 figures, submitted to Opt. Expres
Recent Advances in Neural Recording Microsystems
The accelerating pace of research in neuroscience has created a considerable demand for neural interfacing microsystems capable of monitoring the activity of large groups of neurons. These emerging tools have revealed a tremendous potential for the advancement of knowledge in brain research and for the development of useful clinical applications. They can extract the relevant control signals directly from the brain enabling individuals with severe disabilities to communicate their intentions to other devices, like computers or various prostheses. Such microsystems are self-contained devices composed of a neural probe attached with an integrated circuit for extracting neural signals from multiple channels, and transferring the data outside the body. The greatest challenge facing development of such emerging devices into viable clinical systems involves addressing their small form factor and low-power consumption constraints, while providing superior resolution. In this paper, we survey the recent progress in the design and the implementation of multi-channel neural recording Microsystems, with particular emphasis on the design of recording and telemetry electronics. An overview of the numerous neural signal modalities is given and the existing microsystem topologies are covered. We present energy-efficient sensory circuits to retrieve weak signals from neural probes and we compare them. We cover data management and smart power scheduling approaches, and we review advances in low-power telemetry. Finally, we conclude by summarizing the remaining challenges and by highlighting the emerging trends in the field
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