8,618 research outputs found
Seven strategies for tolerating highly defective fabrication
In this article we present an architecture that supports fine-grained sparing and resource matching. The base logic structure is a set of interconnected PLAs. The PLAs and their interconnections consist of large arrays of interchangeable nanowires, which serve as programmable product and sum terms and as programmable interconnect links. Each nanowire can have several defective programmable junctions. We can test nanowires for functionality and use only the subset that provides appropriate conductivity and electrical characteristics. We then perform a matching between nanowire junction programmability and application logic needs to use almost all the nanowires even though most of them have defective junctions. We employ seven high-level strategies to achieve this level of defect tolerance
Nature-Inspired Interconnects for Self-Assembled Large-Scale Network-on-Chip Designs
Future nano-scale electronics built up from an Avogadro number of components
needs efficient, highly scalable, and robust means of communication in order to
be competitive with traditional silicon approaches. In recent years, the
Networks-on-Chip (NoC) paradigm emerged as a promising solution to interconnect
challenges in silicon-based electronics. Current NoC architectures are either
highly regular or fully customized, both of which represent implausible
assumptions for emerging bottom-up self-assembled molecular electronics that
are generally assumed to have a high degree of irregularity and imperfection.
Here, we pragmatically and experimentally investigate important design
trade-offs and properties of an irregular, abstract, yet physically plausible
3D small-world interconnect fabric that is inspired by modern network-on-chip
paradigms. We vary the framework's key parameters, such as the connectivity,
the number of switch nodes, the distribution of long- versus short-range
connections, and measure the network's relevant communication characteristics.
We further explore the robustness against link failures and the ability and
efficiency to solve a simple toy problem, the synchronization task. The results
confirm that (1) computation in irregular assemblies is a promising and
disruptive computing paradigm for self-assembled nano-scale electronics and (2)
that 3D small-world interconnect fabrics with a power-law decaying distribution
of shortcut lengths are physically plausible and have major advantages over
local 2D and 3D regular topologies
Fault-tolerant sub-lithographic design with rollback recovery
Shrinking feature sizes and energy levels coupled with high clock rates and decreasing node capacitance lead us into a regime where transient errors in logic cannot be ignored. Consequently, several recent studies have focused on feed-forward spatial redundancy techniques to combat these high transient fault rates. To complement these studies, we analyze fine-grained rollback techniques and show that they can offer lower spatial redundancy factors with no significant impact on system performance for fault rates up to one fault per device per ten million cycles of operation (Pf = 10^-7) in systems with 10^12 susceptible devices. Further, we concretely demonstrate these claims on nanowire-based programmable logic arrays. Despite expensive rollback buffers and general-purpose, conservative analysis, we show the area overhead factor of our technique is roughly an order of magnitude lower than a gate level feed-forward redundancy scheme
Field Effect Transistor Nanosensor for Breast Cancer Diagnostics
Silicon nanochannel field effect transistor (FET) biosensors are one of the most promising technologies in the development of highly sensitive and label-free analyte detection for cancer diagnostics. With their exceptional electrical properties and small dimensions, silicon nanochannels are ideally suited for extraordinarily high sensitivity. In fact, the high surface-to-volume ratios of these systems make single molecule detection possible. Further, FET biosensors offer the benefits of high speed, low cost, and high yield manufacturing, without sacrificing the sensitivity typical for traditional optical methods in diagnostics. Top down manufacturing methods leverage advantages in Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technologies, making richly multiplexed sensor arrays a reality. Here, we discuss the fabrication and use of silicon nanochannel FET devices as biosensors for breast cancer diagnosis and monitoring
The Boston University Photonics Center annual report 2014-2015
This repository item contains an annual report that summarizes activities of the Boston University Photonics Center in the 2014-2015 academic year. The report provides quantitative and descriptive information regarding photonics programs in education, interdisciplinary research, business innovation, and technology development. The Boston University Photonics Center (BUPC) is an interdisciplinary hub for education, research, scholarship, innovation, and technology development associated with practical uses of light.This has been a good year for the Photonics Center. In the following pages, you will see that the center’s faculty received prodigious honors and awards, generated more than 100 notable scholarly publications in the leading journals in our field, and attracted $18.6M in new research grants/contracts. Faculty and staff also expanded their efforts in education and training, and were awarded two new National Science Foundation– sponsored sites for Research Experiences for Undergraduates and for Teachers. As a community, we hosted a compelling series of distinguished invited speakers, and emphasized the theme of Advanced Materials by Design for the 21st Century at our annual symposium. We continued to support the National Photonics Initiative, and are a part of a New York–based consortium that won the competition for a new photonics- themed node in the National Network of Manufacturing Institutes. Highlights of our research achievements for the year include an ambitious new DoD-sponsored grant for Multi-Scale Multi-Disciplinary Modeling of Electronic Materials led by Professor Enrico Bellotti, continued support of our NIH-sponsored Center for Innovation in Point of Care Technologies for the Future of Cancer Care led by Professor Catherine Klapperich, a new award for Personalized Chemotherapy Through Rapid Monitoring with Wearable Optics led by Assistant Professor Darren Roblyer, and a new award from DARPA to conduct research on Calligraphy to Build Tunable Optical Metamaterials led by Professor Dave Bishop. We were also honored to receive an award from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center to develop a biophotonics laboratory in our Business Innovation Center
Plasmon-enhanced generation of non-classical light
Strong light-matter interactions enabled by surface plasmons have given rise
to a wide range of photonic, optoelectronic and chemical functionalities. In
recent years, the interest in this research area has focused on the quantum
regime, aiming to developing ultra-compact nanoscale instruments operating at
the single (few) photon(s) level. In this perspective, we provide a general
overview of recent experimental and theoretical advances as well as near-future
challenges towards the design and implementation of plasmon-empowered quantum
optical and photo-emitting devices based on the building blocks of
nanophotonics technology: metallo-dielectric nanostructures and microscopic
light sources
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