Index to NASA Tech Briefs, 1975

This index contains abstracts and four indexes--subject, personal author, originating Center, and Tech Brief number--for 1975 Tech Briefs

Synthesis of Control Elements from Petri Net Models

Methods are presented for synthesizing delay-insensitive circuits whose behavior is specified by Petri net models of macromodular control elements. These control elements implement five natural functions used in asynchronous system design. Particular attention is paid to modules requiring mutual exclusion where metastability must be carefully controlled

A micropower centroiding vision processor

Published versio

Formale Verifikationsmethodiken für nichtlineare analoge Schaltungen

The objective of this thesis is to develop new methodologies for formal verification of nonlinear analog circuits. Therefore, new approaches to discrete modeling of analog circuits, specification of analog circuit properties and formal verification algorithms are introduced. Formal approaches to verification of analog circuits are not yet introduced into industrial design flows and still subject to research. Formal verification proves specification conformance for all possible input conditions and all possible internal states of a circuit. Automatically proving that a model of the circuit satisfies a declarative machine-readable property specification is referred to as model checking. Equivalence checking proves the equivalence of two circuit implementations. Starting from the state of the art in modeling analog circuits for simulation-based verification, discrete modeling of analog circuits for state space-based formal verification methodologies is motivated in this thesis. In order to improve the discrete modeling of analog circuits, a new trajectory-directed partitioning algorithm was developed in the scope of this thesis. This new approach determines the partitioning of the state space parallel or orthogonal to the trajectories of the state space dynamics. Therewith, a high accuracy of the successor relation is achieved in combination with a lower number of states necessary for a discrete model of equal accuracy compared to the state-of-the-art hyperbox-approach. The mapping of the partitioning to a discrete analog transition structure (DATS) enables the application of formal verification algorithms. By analyzing digital specification concepts and the existing approaches to analog property specification, the requirements for a new specification language for analog properties have been discussed in this thesis. On the one hand, it shall meet the requirements for formal specification of verification approaches applied to DATS models. On the other hand, the language syntax shall be oriented on natural language phrases. By synthesis of these requirements, the analog specification language (ASL) was developed in the scope of this thesis. The verification algorithms for model checking, that were developed in combination with ASL for application to DATS models generated with the new trajectory-directed approach, offer a significant enhancement compared to the state of the art. In order to prepare a transition of signal-based to state space-based verification methodologies, an approach to transfer transient simulation results from non-formal test bench simulation flows into a partial state space representation in form of a DATS has been developed in the scope of this thesis. As has been demonstrated by examples, the same ASL specification that was developed for formal model checking on complete discrete models could be evaluated without modifications on transient simulation waveforms. An approach to counterexample generation for the formal ASL model checking methodology offers to generate transition sequences from a defined starting state to a specification-violating state for inspection in transient simulation environments. Based on this counterexample generation, a new formal verification methodology using complete state space-covering input stimuli was developed. By conducting a transient simulation with these complete state space-covering input stimuli, the circuit adopts every state and transition that were visited during stimulus generation. An alternative formal verification methodology is given by retransferring the transient simulation responses to a DATS model and by applying the ASL verification algorithms in combination with an ASL property specification. Moreover, the complete state space-covering input stimuli can be applied to develop a formal equivalence checking methodology. Therewith, the equivalence of two implementations can be proven for every inner state of both systems by comparing the transient simulation responses to the complete-coverage stimuli of both circuits. In order to visually inspect the results of the newly introduced verification methodologies, an approach to dynamic state space visualization using multi-parallel particle simulation was developed. Due to the particles being randomly distributed over the complete state space and moving corresponding to the state space dynamics, another perspective to the system's behavior is provided that covers the state space and hence offers formal results. The prototypic implementations of the formal verification methodologies developed in the scope of this thesis have been applied to several example circuits. The acquired results for the new approaches to discrete modeling, specification and verification algorithms all demonstrate the capability of the new verification methodologies to be applied to complex circuit blocks and their properties.Gegenstand dieser Dissertation ist die Entwicklung neuer Methodiken zur formalen Verifikation nichtlinearer analoger elektronischer Schaltungen. Dazu werden im Rahmen dieser Arbeit entstandene neue Ansätze in den Bereichen verifikationsgerechte diskrete Modellierung analoger Schaltungen, Spezifikation analoger Schaltungseigenschaften und formale Verifikationsalgorithmen vorgestellt. Ausgehend vom Stand der Technik der Modellierung analoger Schaltungen für die simulationsbasierte Verifikation wird im Rahmen dieser Arbeit die diskrete Modellierung analoger Schaltungen für zustandsraumbasierte formale Verifikationsverfahren betrachtet. Dazu wurde ein neuer Ansatz zur diskreten Modellierung entwickelt, der die Aufteilungsstruktur anhand der Trajektorien der Vektorfelddynamik bestimmt. So wird eine hohe Genauigkeit der Nachfolgerrelation ermöglicht, woraus eine niedrigere Zahl an Zuständen für ein diskretes Modell gleicher Genauigkeit im Vergleich mit dem bisherigen Stand der Technik folgt. Die Abbildung der Trajektorien-gesteuerten Partitionierung auf eine diskrete analoge Transitionsstruktur (DATS) erlaubt die Anwendung von formalen Verifikationsalgorithmen. Die formale Spezifikation von Eigenschaften in ersten Ansätzen zum Model Checking analoger Schaltungen hat sich stark an den bestehenden temporallogischen Verfahren aus dem Bereich digitaler Hardware orientiert. Ausgehend von einer Analyse digitaler Spezifikationskonzepte und der bestehenden Ansätze für analoge Eigenschaften wurden Anforderungen an eine neue Spezifikationssprache in dieser Arbeit abgeleitet. Die aus diesen Anforderungen im Rahmen dieser Arbeit entwickelte analoge Spezifikationssprache "Analog Specification Language" (ASL) basiert auf einer natürlichsprachlichen Kapselung temporallogischer Operationen, die mit erweiterten Algorithmen zur Transitionspfadbestimmung, Durchführung von Berechnungen auf Zustandsparametern und Oszillationsbestimmung eine hohe Ausdrucksstärke analoger Eigenschaften mit einer anwenderfreundlichen Syntax kombinieren konnte. Die zusammen mit ASL entwickelten Model Checking-Verifikationsalgorithmen zur Auswertung von ASL-Spezifikationen auf einem mit dem Trajektorien-gesteuerten Diskretisierungsverfahren erzeugten DATS-Modell bilden eine wesentliche Erweiterung zum Stand der Technik. Um einen Übergang der Verifikation von signalbasierten zu zustandsraumbasierten Methodiken zu ermöglichen, wurde im Rahmen dieser Arbeit ein Ansatz entwickelt, der die Übertragung von transienten Simulationsergebnissen aus nicht-formalen Testbench-Simulationsumgebungen in eine partielle DATS-Zustandsraumdarstellung ermöglicht. Damit kann, wie anhand von Beispielen gezeigt werden konnte, die gleiche ASL-Spezifikation für Eigenschaften eines vollständigen diskreten Modells ohne Modifikation auch auf Simulationsergebnissen ausgewertet werden. Ein für das formale ASL-basierte Model Checking entwickelter Ansatz zur Erzeugung von Gegenbeispielen für als spezifikationsverletzend identifizierte Zustandsraumgebiete erlaubt es, Transitionsfolgen von einem definierten Startzustand zu einem spezifikationsverletzenden Zustand zu ermitteln. Auf Basis dieses Gegenbeispiel-Verfahrens wurde eine neue formale Eigenschaftsverifikationsmethodik mittels vollständig den Zustandsraum einer Schaltung abdeckenden Eingangsstimuli entwickelt. Die vollständig den Zustandsraum abdeckenden Eingangsstimuli bieten noch eine weitere Anwendungsmöglichkeit im Bereich des Äquivalenzvergleichs. Die im Rahmen dieser Arbeit entwickelte Methodik zum formalen Äquivalenzvergleich auf Basis der vollständig den Zustandsraum abdeckenden Eingangsstimuli ersetzt die anwenderdefinierten Eingangsstimuli durch die vollständig den Zustandsraum abdeckenden. So kann die Äquivalenz für jeden möglichen Zustand der zu vergleichenden Implementierungen anhand eines automatisierten Vergleichs der Simulationsergebnisse beider Implementierungen gezeigt werden. Um die Ergebnisse der neu eingeführten formalen Verifikationsmethodiken visuell zu untersuchen wurde ein Verfahren entwickelt, das den Zustandsraum und seine Dynamik mittels eines Partikel-Simulationsansatzes visualisiert. Da die Partikel über den gesamten Zustandsraum randomisiert verteilt werden und sich dann gemäß der Vektorfelddynamik fortbewegen, kann auch hier ein Einblick in das Systemverhalten gewonnen werden, der eine weitestgehend vollständige und somit formale Repräsentation des Zustandsraums bietet. Die prototypische Implementierung der im Rahmen dieser Arbeit entwickelten formalen Verifikationsmethodiken wurde auf zahlreiche Beispielschaltungen angewendet. Die Ergebnisse für die neuen Ansätze zur diskreten Modellierung, zur Spezifikation und zu Verifikationsalgorithmen analoger Schaltungen zeigen, dass die aus diesen Ansätzen erzeugten Verifikationsmethodiken erfolgreich auf komplexe Zustandsraumstrukturen angewendet werden können

Reliable time multiplexing by replacement

Electromechanical, magnetic switching circuit for redundant time division multiplex transmission - behavior and failure analysi

Techniques of Energy-Efficient VLSI Chip Design for High-Performance Computing

How to implement quality computing with the limited power budget is the key factor to move very large scale integration (VLSI) chip design forward. This work introduces various techniques of low power VLSI design used for state of art computing. From the viewpoint of power supply, conventional in-chip voltage regulators based on analog blocks bring the large overhead of both power and area to computational chips. Motivated by this, a digital based switchable pin method to dynamically regulate power at low circuit cost has been proposed to make computing to be executed with a stable voltage supply. For one of the widely used and time consuming arithmetic units, multiplier, its operation in logarithmic domain shows an advantageous performance compared to that in binary domain considering computation latency, power and area. However, the introduced conversion error reduces the reliability of the following computation (e.g. multiplication and division.). In this work, a fast calibration method suppressing the conversion error and its VLSI implementation are proposed. The proposed logarithmic converter can be supplied by dc power to achieve fast conversion and clocked power to reduce the power dissipated during conversion. Going out of traditional computation methods and widely used static logic, neuron-like cell is also studied in this work. Using multiple input floating gate (MIFG) metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) based logic, a 32-bit, 16-operation arithmetic logic unit (ALU) with zipped decoding and a feedback loop is designed. The proposed ALU can reduce the switching power and has a strong driven-in capability due to coupling capacitors compared to static logic based ALU. Besides, recent neural computations bring serious challenges to digital VLSI implementation due to overload matrix multiplications and non-linear functions. An analog VLSI design which is compatible to external digital environment is proposed for the network of long short-term memory (LSTM). The entire analog based network computes much faster and has higher energy efficiency than the digital one

Predicting Pancreas Cell Fate Decisions and Reprogramming with a Hierarchical Multi-Attractor Model

Cell fate reprogramming, such as the generation of insulin-producing β cells from other pancreas cells, can be achieved by external modulation of key transcription factors. However, the known gene regulatory interactions that form a complex network with multiple feedback loops make it increasingly difficult to design the cell reprogramming scheme because the linear regulatory pathways as schemes of causal influences upon cell lineages are inadequate for predicting the effect of transcriptional perturbation. However, sufficient information on regulatory networks is usually not available for detailed formal models. Here we demonstrate that by using the qualitatively described regulatory interactions as the basis for a coarse-grained dynamical ODE (ordinary differential equation) based model, it is possible to recapitulate the observed attractors of the exocrine and β, δ, α endocrine cells and to predict which gene perturbation can result in desired lineage reprogramming. Our model indicates that the constraints imposed by the incompletely elucidated regulatory network architecture suffice to build a predictive model for making informed decisions in choosing the set of transcription factors that need to be modulated for fate reprogramming

차량용 CIS Interface 를 위한 All-Digital Phase-Locked Loop 의 설계 및 분석

학위논문 (석사) -- 서울대학교 대학원 : 공과대학 전기·정보공학부, 2021. 2. 정덕균.This thesis presents design techniques for All-Digital Phase-Locked Loop (ADPLL) assisting the automotive CMOS image sensor (CIS) interface. To target Gear 3 of the automotive physical system, the proposed AD-PLL has a wide operation range, low RMS jitter, and high PVT tolerance characteristics. Detailed analysis of the loop dynamics and the noise analysis of AD-PLL are done by using Matlab and Verilog behavioral modeling simulation before an actual design. Based on that analysis, the optimal DLF gain configurations are yielded, and also, accurate output responses and performance are predictable. The design techniques to reduce the output RMS jitter are discussed thoroughly and utilized for actual implementation. The proposed AD-PLL is fabricated in the 40 nm CMOS process and occupies an effective area of 0.026 mm2. The PLL output clock pulses exhibit an RMS jitter of 827 fs at 2 GHz. The power dissipation is 5.8 mW at 2 GHz, where the overall supply voltage domain is 0.9 V excluding the buffer which is 1.1 V domain.본 논문에서는 자동차 CMOS 이미지 센서 (CIS) 인터페이스를 지원하 는 AD-PLL 을 제안한다. Automotive Physical 시스템의 Gear 3 를 지원하기 위해 제안된 AD-PLL 은 1.5 GHz 에서 3 GHz 의 동작 주파수를 가지며, 낮 은 RMS Jitter 및 PVT 변화에 대한 높은 둔감성을 갖는다. 설계에 앞서서 Matlab 및 Verilog Behavioral Simulation 을 통해 Loop system 의 역학에 대한 자세한 분석 및 AD-PLL 의 Noise 분석을 수행하였고, 이 분석을 기반으로 최적의 DLF gain 과 정확한 출력 응답 및 성능을 예측 할 수 있었다. 또한, 출력의 Phase Noise 와 RMS Jitter 를 줄이기 위한 설계 기법을 자세히 다루고 있으며 이를 실제 구현에 활용했다. 제안된 회로는 40 nm CMOS 공정으로 제작되었으며 Decoupling Cap 을 제외하고 0.026 mm2 의 유효 면적을 차지한다. 측정된 출력 Clock 신호의 RMS Jitter 값은 2 GHz 에서 827 fs 이며, 총 5.8 mW의 Power 를 소비한다. 이 때, 전체적인 공급 전압은 0.9 V 이며, Buffer 의 Power 만이 1.1 V 를 사용하 였다.ABSTRACT I CONTENTS II LIST OF FIGURES IV LIST OF TABLES VII CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 MOTIVATION 1 1.2 THESIS ORGANIZATION 3 CHAPTER 2 BACKGROUND ON ALL-DIGITAL PLL 4 2.1 OVERVIEW 4 2.2 BUILDING BLOCKS OF AD-PLL 7 2.2.1 TIME-TO-DIGITAL CONVERTER 7 2.2.2 DIGITALLY-CONTROLLED OSCILLATOR 10 2.2.3 DIGITAL LOOP FILTER 13 2.2.4 DELTA-SIGMA MODULATOR 16 2.3 PHASE NOISE ANALYSIS OF AD-PLL 20 2.3.1 BASIC ASSUMPTION OF LINEAR ANALYSIS 20 2.3.2 NOISE SOURCES OF AD-PLL 21 2.3.3 EFFECTS OF LOOP DELAY ON AD-PLL 24 2.3.4 PHASE NOISE ANALYSIS OF PROPOSED AD-PLL 26 CHAPTER 3 DESIGN OF ALL-DIGITAL PLL 28 3.1 DESIGN CONSIDERATION 28 3.2 OVERALL ARCHITECTURE 30 3.3 CIRCUIT IMPLEMENTATION 32 3.3.1 PFD-TDC 32 3.3.2 DCO 37 3.3.3 DIGITAL BLOCK 43 3.3.4 LEVEL SHIFTING BUFFER AND DIVIDER 45 CHAPTER 4 MEASUREMENT AND SIMULATION RESULTS 52 4.1 DIE PHOTOMICROGRAPH 52 4.2 MEASUREMENT SETUP 54 4.3 TRANSIENT ANALYSIS 57 4.4 PHASE NOISE AND SPUR PERFORMANCE 59 4.4.1 FREE-RUNNING DCO 59 4.4.2 PLL PERFORMANCE 61 4.5 PERFORMANCE SUMMARY 65 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION 67 BIBLIOGRAPHY 68 초 록 72Maste