55 research outputs found
Thinning-free Polygonal Approximation of Thick Digital Curves Using Cellular Envelope
Since the inception of successful rasterization of curves and objects in the digital space, several algorithms have been proposed for approximating a given digital curve. All these algorithms, however, resort to thinning as preprocessing before approximating a digital curve with changing thickness. Described in this paper is a novel thinning-free algorithm for polygonal approximation of an arbitrarily thick digital curve, using the concept of "cellular envelope", which is newly introduced in this paper. The cellular envelope, defined as the smallest set of cells containing the given curve, and hence bounded by two tightest (inner and outer) isothetic polygons, is constructed using a combinatorial technique. This envelope, in turn, is analyzed to determine a polygonal approximation of the curve as a sequence of cells using certain attributes of digital straightness. Since a real-world curve=curve-shaped object with varying thickness, unexpected disconnectedness, noisy information, etc., is unsuitable for the existing algorithms on polygonal approximation, the curve is encapsulated by the cellular envelope to enable the polygonal approximation. Owing to the implicit Euclidean-free metrics and combinatorial properties prevailing in the cellular plane, implementation of the proposed algorithm involves primitive integer operations only, leading to fast execution of the algorithm. Experimental results that include output polygons for different values of the approximation parameter corresponding to several real-world digital curves, a couple of measures on the quality of approximation, comparative results related with two other well-referred algorithms, and CPU times, have been presented to demonstrate the elegance and efficacy of the proposed algorithm
On Finding a Defect-free Component in Nanoscale Crossbar Circuits
AbstractWe propose a technique for the analysis of manufacturing yield of nano-crossbar architectures for different values of defect percentage and crossbar-size. We provide an estimate of the minimum-size crossbar to be fabricated wherein a defect-free crossbar of a given size can always be found with a guaranteed yield. Our technique is based on logical merging of two defective rows (or two columns) that emulate a defect-free row (or column). Experimental results show that the proposed method provides higher defect-tolerance compared to that of previous techniques
A Framework for Automated Correctness Checking of Biochemical Protocol Realizations on Digital Microfluidic Biochips
Recent advances in digital microfluidic (DMF) technologies offer a promising
platform for a wide variety of biochemical applications, such as DNA analysis,
automated drug discovery, and toxicity monitoring. For on-chip implementation
of complex bioassays, automated synthesis tools have been developed to meet the
design challenges. Currently, the synthesis tools pass through a number of
complex design steps to realize a given biochemical protocol on a target DMF
architecture. Thus, design errors can arise during the synthesis steps. Before
deploying a DMF biochip on a safety critical system, it is necessary to ensure
that the desired biochemical protocol has been correctly implemented, i.e., the
synthesized output (actuation sequences for the biochip) is free from any
design or realization errors. We propose a symbolic constraint-based analysis
framework for checking the correctness of a synthesized biochemical protocol
with respect to the original design specification. The verification scheme
based on this framework can detect several post-synthesis fluidic violations
and realization errors in 2D-array based or pin-constrained biochips as well as
in cyberphysical systems. It further generates diagnostic feedback for error
localization. We present experimental results on the polymerase chain reaction
(PCR) and in-vitro multiplexed bioassays to demonstrate the proposed
verification approach
Testing Microfluidic Fully Programmable Valve Arrays (FPVAs)
Fully Programmable Valve Array (FPVA) has emerged as a new architecture for
the next-generation flow-based microfluidic biochips. This 2D-array consists of
regularly-arranged valves, which can be dynamically configured by users to
realize microfluidic devices of different shapes and sizes as well as
interconnections. Additionally, the regularity of the underlying structure
renders FPVAs easier to integrate on a tiny chip. However, these arrays may
suffer from various manufacturing defects such as blockage and leakage in
control and flow channels. Unfortunately, no efficient method is yet known for
testing such a general-purpose architecture. In this paper, we present a novel
formulation using the concept of flow paths and cut-sets, and describe an
ILP-based hierarchical strategy for generating compact test sets that can
detect multiple faults in FPVAs. Simulation results demonstrate the efficacy of
the proposed method in detecting manufacturing faults with only a small number
of test vectors.Comment: Design, Automation and Test in Europe (DATE), March 201
Diagnosis of Multiple Scan-Chain Faults in the Presence of System Logic Defects
We present a combined hardware-software based approach to scan-chain diagnosis, when the outcome of a test may be affected by system faults occurring in the logic outside of the scan chain. For the hardware component we adopt the double-tree scan (DTS) chain architecture, which has previously been shown to be effective in reducing power, volume, and application time of tests for stuck-at and delay faults. We develop a version of flush test which can resolve a multiple fault in a DTS chain to a small number of suspect candidates. Further resolution to a unique multiple fault is enabled by the software component comprising of fault simulation and analysis of the response of the circuit to test patterns produced by ATPG. Experimental results on benchmark circuits show that near-perfect scan-chain diagnosis for multiple faults is possible even when a large number of random system faults are injected in the circuit
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