14,940 research outputs found
KAPow: A System Identification Approach to Online Per-Module Power Estimation in FPGA Designs
In a modern FPGA system-on-chip design, it is often insufficient to simply assess the total power consumption of the entire circuit by design-time estimation or runtime power rail measurement. Instead, to make better runtime decisions, it is desirable to understand the power consumed by each individual module in the system. In this work, we combine boardlevel power measurements with register-level activity counting to build an online model that produces a breakdown of power consumption within the design. Online model refinement avoids the need for a time-consuming characterisation stage and also allows the model to track long-term changes to operating conditions. Our flow is named KAPow, a (loose) acronym for ‘K’ounting Activity for Power estimation, which we show to be accurate, with per-module power estimates as close to ±5mW of true measurements, and to have low overheads. We also demonstrate an application example in which a permodule power breakdown can be used to determine an efficient mapping of tasks to modules and reduce system-wide power consumption by over 8%
Development of reliability methodology for systems engineering. Volume II - Application - Design reliability analysis of a 250 volt-ampere static inverter Final report
Design stage reliability analysis application to static inverte
Magnetorheological landing gear: 2. Validation using experimental data
Aircraft landing gears are subjected to a wide range of excitation conditions with conflicting damping requirements. A novel solution to this problem is to implement semi-active damping using magnetorheological (MR) fluids. In part 1 of this contribution, a methodology was developed that enables the geometry of a flow mode MR valve to be optimized within the constraints of an existing passive landing gear. The device was designed to be optimal in terms of its impact performance, which was demonstrated using numerical simulations of the complete landing gear system. To perform the simulations, assumptions were made regarding some of the parameters used in the MR shock strut model. In particular, the MR fluid's yield stress, viscosity, and bulk modulus properties were not known accurately. Therefore, the present contribution aims to validate these parameters experimentally, via the manufacture and testing of an MR shock strut. The gas exponent, which is used to model the shock strut's nonlinear stiffness, is also investigated. In general, it is shown that MR fluid property data at high shear rates are required in order to accurately predict performance prior to device manufacture. Furthermore, the study illustrates how fluid compressibility can have a significant influence on the device time constant, and hence on potential control strategies
A multisensing setup for the intelligent tire monitoring
The present paper offers the chance to experimentally measure, for the first time, the internal
tire strain by optical fiber sensors during the tire rolling in real operating conditions. The phenomena
that take place during the tire rolling are in fact far from being completely understood. Despite several
models available in the technical literature, there is not a correspondently large set of experimental
observations. The paper includes the detailed description of the new multi-sensing technology for an
ongoing vehicle measurement, which the research group has developed in the context of the project
OPTYRE. The experimental apparatus is mainly based on the use of optical fibers with embedded
Fiber Bragg Gratings sensors for the acquisition of the circumferential tire strain. Other sensors are
also installed on the tire, such as a phonic wheel, a uniaxial accelerometer, and a dynamic temperature
sensor. The acquired information is used as input variables in dedicated algorithms that allow the
identification of key parameters, such as the dynamic contact patch, instantaneous dissipation and
instantaneous grip. The OPTYRE project brings a contribution into the field of experimental grip
monitoring of wheeled vehicles, with implications both on passive and active safety characteristics of
cars and motorbikes
Probing context-dependent errors in quantum processors
Gates in error-prone quantum information processors are often modeled using
sets of one- and two-qubit process matrices, the standard model of quantum
errors. However, the results of quantum circuits on real processors often
depend on additional external "context" variables. Such contexts may include
the state of a spectator qubit, the time of data collection, or the temperature
of control electronics. In this article we demonstrate a suite of simple,
widely applicable, and statistically rigorous methods for detecting context
dependence in quantum circuit experiments. They can be used on any data that
comprise two or more "pools" of measurement results obtained by repeating the
same set of quantum circuits in different contexts. These tools may be
integrated seamlessly into standard quantum device characterization techniques,
like randomized benchmarking or tomography. We experimentally demonstrate these
methods by detecting and quantifying crosstalk and drift on the publicly
accessible 16-qubit ibmqx3.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, code and data available in source file
Single Event Effects in CMOS Image Sensors
In this work, 3T Active Pixel Sensors (APS) are exposed to heavy ions (N, Ar, Kr, Xe), and Single Event Effects (SEE) are studied. Devices were fully functional during exposure, no Single Event Latch-up (SEL) or Single Event Functional Interrupt (SEFI) happened. However Single Event Transient (SET) effects happened on frames: line disturbances, and half or full circular clusters of white pixels. The collection of charges in cluster was investigated with arrays of two pixel width (7 and 10 \textmu{}m), with bulk and epitaxial substrates. This paper shows technological and design parameters involved in the transient events. It also shows that STARDUST simulation software can predict cluster obtained for bulk substrate devices. However, the discrepancies in epitaxial layer devices are large - which shows the need for an improved model
Airborne forward pointing UV Rayleigh lidar for remote clear air turbulence (CAT) detection: system design and performance
A high-performance airborne UV Rayleigh lidar system was developed within the
European project DELICAT. With its forward-pointing architecture it aims at
demonstrating a novel detection scheme for clear air turbulence (CAT) for an
aeronautics safety application. Due to its occurrence in clear and clean air at
high altitudes (aviation cruise flight level), this type of turbulence evades
microwave radar techniques and in most cases coherent Doppler lidar techniques.
The present lidar detection technique relies on air density fluctuations
measurement and is thus independent of backscatter from hydrometeors and
aerosol particles. The subtle air density fluctuations caused by the turbulent
air flow demand exceptionally high stability of the setup and in particular of
the detection system. This paper describes an airborne test system for the
purpose of demonstrating this technology and turbulence detection method: a
high-power UV Rayleigh lidar system is installed on a research aircraft in a
forward-looking configuration for use in cruise flight altitudes. Flight test
measurements demonstrate this unique lidar system being able to resolve air
density fluctuations occurring in light-to-moderate CAT at 5 km or moderate CAT
at 10 km distance. A scaling of the determined stability and noise
characteristics shows that such performance is adequate for an application in
commercial air transport.Comment: 17 pages, 19 figures. Pre-publish to Applied Optics (OSA
Concepts and methods in optimization of integrated LC VCOs
Underlying physical mechanisms controlling the noise properties of oscillators are studied. This treatment shows the importance of inductance selection for oscillator noise optimization. A design strategy centered around an inductance selection scheme is executed using a practical graphical optimization method to optimize phase noise subject to design constraints such as power dissipation, tank amplitude, tuning range, startup condition, and diameters of spiral inductors. The optimization technique is demonstrated through a design example, leading to a 2.4-GHz fully integrated, LC voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) implemented using 0.35-μm MOS transistors. The measured phase-noise values are -121, -117, and -115 dBc/Hz at 600-kHz offset from 1.91, 2.03, and 2.60-GHz carriers, respectively. The VCO dissipates 4 mA from a 2.5-V supply voltage. The inversion mode MOSCAP tuning is used to achieve 26% of tuning range. Two figures of merit for performance comparison of various oscillators are introduced and used to compare this work to previously reported results
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