Digital Detection of Oxide Breakdown and Life-Time Extension in Submicron CMOS Technology

An approach is introduced to extend the lifetime of high-voltage analog circuits in CMOS technologies based on redundancy, like that known for DRAMS. A large power transistor is segmented into N smaller ones in parallel. If a sub-transistor is broken, it is removed automatically from the compound transistor. The principleis demonstrated in an RF CMOS Power Amplifier (PA) in standard 1.2V 90nm CMOS

A Radiation hard bandgap reference circuit in a standard 0.13um CMOS Technology

With ongoing CMOS evolution, the gate-oxide thickness steadily decreases, resulting in an increased radiation tolerance of MOS transistors. Combined with special layout techniques, this yields circuits with a high inherent robustness against X-rays and other ionizing radiation. In bandgap voltage references, the dominant radiation-susceptibility is then no longer associated with the MOS transistors, but is dominated by the diodes. This paper gives an analysis of radiation effects in both MOSdevices and diodes and presents a solution to realize a radiation-hard voltage reference circuit in a standard CMOS technology. A demonstrator circuit was implemented in a standard 0.13 m CMOS technology. Measurements show correct operation with supply voltages in the range from 1.4 V down to 0.85 V, a reference voltage of 405 mV 7.5 mV ( = 6mVchip-to-chip statistical spread), and a reference voltage shift of only 1.5 mV (around 0.8%) under irradiation up to 44 Mrad (Si)

Dependability investigation of wireless short range embedded systems: hardware platform oriented approach

A new direction in short-range wireless applications has appeared in the form of high-speed data communication devices for distances of hundreds meters. Behind these embedded applications, a complex heterogeneous architecture is built. Moreover, these short range communications are introduced into critical applications, where the dependability/reliability is mandatory. Thus, dependability concerns around reliability evaluation become a major challenge in these systems, and pose several questions to answer. Obviously, in such systems, the attribute reliability has to be investigated for various components and at different abstraction levels. In this paper, we discuss the investigation of dependability in wireless short range systems. We present a hardware platform for wireless system dependability analysis as an alternative for the time consuming simulation techniques. The platform is built using several instances of one of the commercial FPGA platforms available on the market place. We describe the different steps of building the wireless hardware platform for short range systems dependability analysis. Then, we show how this HW platform based dependability investigation framework can be a very interactive approach. Based on this platform we introduce a new methodology and a flow to investigate the different parts of system dependability at different abstraction levels. The benefits to use the proposed framework are three fold: first, it takes care of the whole system (HW/SW -digital part, mixed RF part, and wireless part); Second, the hardware platform enables to explore the application’s reliability under real environmental conditions taking into account the effect of the environment threats on the system; And last, the wireless platform built for dependability investigation present a fast investigation approach in comparison with the time consuming co-simulation technique

RF Circuit linearity optimization using a general weak nonlinearity model

This paper focuses on optimizing the linearity in known RF circuits, by exploring the circuit design space that is usually available in today’s deep submicron CMOS technologies. Instead of using brute force numerical optimizers we apply a generalized weak nonlinearity model that only involves AC transfer functions to derive simple equations for obtaining design insights. The generalized weak nonlinearity model is applied to three known RF circuits: a cascode common source amplifier, a common gate LNA and a CMOS attenuator. It is shown that in deep submicron CMOS technologies the cascode transistor in both the common source amplifier and in the common gate amplifier significantly contributes IM3 distortion. Some design insights are presented for reducing the cascode transistor related distortion, among which moderate inversion biasing that improves IIP3 by 10 dB up to 5 GHz in a 90 nm CMOS process. For the attenuator, a wideband IM3 cancellation technique is introduced and demonstrated using simulations

PREhabilitation of CAndidates for REnal Transplantation (PreCareTx) study:protocol for a hybrid type I, mixed method, randomised controlled trial

INTRODUCTION: Kidney transplant candidates (KTCs) need to be in optimal physical and psychological condition prior to surgery. However, KTCs often experience compromised functional capacity which can be characterised as frailty. Prehabilitation, the enhancement of a person's functional capacity, may be an effective intervention to improve the health status of KTCs. The PREhabilitation of CAndidates for REnal Transplantation (PreCareTx) study aims to examine the effectiveness of a multimodal prehabilitation programme on the health status of KTCs, and to explore the potential of implementation of prehabilitation in daily clinical practice.METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This study uses a single centre, effectiveness-implementation hybrid type I study design, comprised of a randomised controlled trial and a mixed-methods study. Adult patients who are currently on the transplant waiting list or are waitlisted during the study period, at a university medical centre in The Netherlands, will be randomly assigned to either prehabilitation (n=64) or care as usual (n=64) groups. The prehabilitation group will undergo a 12-week home-based, tailored prehabilitation programme consisting of physical and/or nutritional and/or psychosocial interventions depending on the participant's deficits. This programme will be followed by a 12-week maintenance programme in order to enhance the incorporation of the interventions into daily life. The primary endpoint of this study is a change in frailty status as a proxy for health status. Secondary endpoints include changes in physical fitness, nutritional status, psychological well-being, quality of life and clinical outcomes. Tertiary endpoints include the safety, feasibility and acceptability of the prehabilitation programme, and the barriers and facilitators for further implementation.ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Medical ethical approval was granted by the Medical Ethics Committee Groningen, Netherlands (M22.421). Written informed consent will be obtained from all participants. The results will be disseminated at international conferences and in peer-reviewed journals.TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT05489432.</p

Nonnegative rank-preserving operators

AbstractAnalogues of characterizations of rank-preserving operators on field-valued matrices are determined for matrices witheentries in certain structures S contained in the nonnegative reals. For example, if S is the set of nonnegative members of a real unique factorization domain (e.g. the nonnegative reals or the nonnegative integers), M is the set of m×n matrices with entries in S, and min(m,n)⩾4, then a “linear” operator on M preserves the “rank” of each matrix in M if and only if it preserves the ranks of those matrices in M of ranks 1, 2, and 4. Notions of rank and linearity are defined analogously to the field-valued concepts. Other characterizations of rank-preserving operators for matrices over these and other structures S are also given

Rationale and design of TransplantLines:a prospective cohort study and biobank of solid organ transplant recipients

Introduction In the past decades, short-term results after solid organ transplantation have markedly improved. Disappointingly, this has not been accompanied by parallel improvements in long-term outcomes after transplantation. To improve graft and recipient outcomes, identification of potentially modifiable risk factors and development of biomarkers are required. We provide the rationale and design of a large prospective cohort study of solid organ transplant recipients (TransplantLines). Methods and analysis TransplantLines is designed as a single-centre, prospective cohort study and biobank including all different types of solid organ transplant recipients as well as living organ donors. Data will be collected from transplant candidates before transplantation, during transplantation, at 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years and 5 years, and subsequently every 5 years after transplantation. Data from living organ donors will be collected before donation, during donation, at 3 months, 1 year and 5 years after donation, and subsequently every 5 years. The primary outcomes are mortality and graft failure. The secondary outcomes will be cause-specific mortality, cause-specific graft failure and rejection. The tertiary outcomes will be other health problems, including diabetes, obesity, hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia and cardiovascular disease, and disturbances that relate to quality of life, that is, physical and psychological functioning, including quality of sleep, and neurological problems such as tremor and polyneuropathy. Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval has been obtained from the relevant local ethics committee. The TransplantLines cohort study is designed to deliver pioneering insights into transplantation and donation outcomes. The study design allows comprehensive data collection on perioperative care, nutrition, social and psychological functioning, and biochemical parameters. This may provide a rationale for future intervention strategies to more individualised, patient-centred transplant care and individualisation of treatment

Endobronchial ultrasound for T4 staging in patients with resectable NSCLC

Background: In lung cancer patients, accurate assessment of mediastinal and vascular tumor invasion (stage T4) is crucial for optimal treatment allocation and to prevent unnecessary thoracotomies. We assessed the diagnostic accuracy of linear endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) for T4-status in patients with centrally located lung cancer.Methods: This is a retrospective study among consecutive patients who underwent EBUS for diagnosis and staging of lung cancer in four hospitals in The Netherlands (Amsterdam, Leiden), Italy (Bologna) and Poland (Zakopane) between 04-2012 and 04-2019. Patients were included if the primary tumor was detected by EBUS and subsequent surgical-pathological staging was performed, which served as the reference standard. T4-status was extracted from EBUS and pathology reports. Chest CT's were re-reviewed for T4-status.Results: 104 patients with lung cancer in whom EBUS detected the primary tumour, and who underwent subsequent surgical-pathological staging were included. 36 patients (35 %) had T4-status, based on vascular (n = 17), mediastinal (n = 15), both vascular and mediastinal (n = 3), or oesophageal invasion (n = 1). For EBUS, sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV for T4-status were (n = 104): 63.9 % (95 %CI 46.2-79.2 %), 92.6 % (83.7-97.6 %), 82.1 % (65.6-91.7 %), and 82.9 % (75.7-88.2 %), respectively. For chest CT (n = 72): 61.5 % (95 %CI 40.6-79.8 %), 37.0 % (23.2-52.5 %), 35.6 % (27.5-44.6 %), and 63.0 % (47.9-75.9 %), respectively. When combining CT and EBUS with concordant T4 status (n = 33): 90.9 % (95 %CI 58.7-99.8 %), 77.3 % (54.6-92.20 %), 66.7 % (47.5-81.6 %), and 94.4 % (721-99.1%), respectively.Conclusion: Both EBUS and CT alone are inaccurate for assessing T4-status as standalone test. However, combining a negative EBUS with a negative CT may rule out T4-status with high certainty.Imaging- and therapeutic targets in neoplastic and musculoskeletal inflammatory diseas