Tool for fast mismatch analysis of analog circuits

A tool is presented that evaluates statistical deviations in performance characteristics of analog circuits, starting from statistical deviations in the technological parameters of MOS transistors. Performance is demonstrated via the analysis of a Miller OTA in two different configurations and a linearized CMOS transconductor. The CPU time is reduced by a factor of 25 to 90 with respect to conventional Monte Carlo simulation, while maintaining similar accuracy in the computations

An advanced symbolic analyzer for the automatic generation of analog circuit design equations

A tool for symbolic analysis of analog integrated circuits is presented featuring accurate simplification, pole/zero extraction, and tools for parametric AC circuit characterization. The program, called ASAP, uses signal flowgraph methods and has been written in C for portability. In its current version, ASAP is able to deal with the complexity levels arising in typical analog building blocks when described by device-level models. The ASAP inputs and outputs, the architecture, and the graphical interface are discussed

Benchmarking Particle Filter Algorithms for Efficient Velodyne-Based Vehicle Localization

Keeping a vehicle well-localized within a prebuilt-map is at the core of any autonomous vehicle navigation system. In this work, we show that both standard SIR sampling and rejection-based optimal sampling are suitable for efficient (10 to 20 ms) real-time pose tracking without feature detection that is using raw point clouds from a 3D LiDAR. Motivated by the large amount of information captured by these sensors, we perform a systematic statistical analysis of how many points are actually required to reach an optimal ratio between efficiency and positioning accuracy. Furthermore, initialization from adverse conditions, e.g., poor GPS signal in urban canyons, we also identify the optimal particle filter settings required to ensure convergence. Our findings include that a decimation factor between 100 and 200 on incoming point clouds provides a large savings in computational cost with a negligible loss in localization accuracy for a VLP-16 scanner. Furthermore, an initial density of ∼2 particles/m 2 is required to achieve 100% convergence success for large-scale (∼100,000 m 2 ), outdoor global localization without any additional hint from GPS or magnetic field sensors. All implementations have been released as open-source software

MARKET POWER AND WILLINGNESS TO PAY IN NETWORK INDUSTRIES: EVIDENCE FROM PAYMENT CARDS WITHIN MULTIPRODUCT BANKING

Theoretical contributions on network industries have been numerous. However, there is a lack of sufficient empirical evidence which would assist related policymaking. This is the case of payment cards markets. This paper employs a unique database to analyze changes in market power and consumers' willingness to pay resulting from the introduction of payment cards in a multiproduct banking technology. Our findings indicate that any rise in bank market power from payment cards is associated to a greater increase in consumers' willingness to pay. Any antitrust intervention which does not take into account such welfare effects could be misguided.Card payments, bank market power, willingness to pay, multiproduct technology, network industries.

Presentation

Since the two of us have been very interested in the language-thought relationship for a long time, we decided we should start working together somehow, and we proposed the idea of a special issue to Theoria. Our specific interest in this classic problem is try-ing to avoid a purely philosophical approach (i. e., the attempt to identify and solve some of the numerous problems by only using conceptual analysis). In addition to conceptual analysis, which is always needed in dealing with notions so difficult and elusive as language and thought, we wanted to look for approaches that were charac-terized by the explicit effort to take into special consideration some form of empirical evidence. With this goal in mind, we invited philosophers who have been working on the problem with an eye on empirical results, and scientists whose publications showed not only relevant results for the problem, but also philosophical interest. The stature of the authors who accepted to participate in the project is so remarkable that we must start by expressing our gratitude to all of them here

Diseño y Validación de un Instrumento para Evaluar el Perfil Competencial Innovador del Docente Universitario.

Existen escasas investigaciones que traten de definir, diseñar propuestas metodológicas y validar herramientas para el estudio del perfil competencial innovador del docente universitario. El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo preparar un cuestionario técnica y teóricamente sólido para evaluarlo, que incluyera las características técnicas necesarias para cualquier buen instrumento de medición, especialmente la validación del constructo. En este sentido, después de diseñar y desarrollar la validez de contenido a través de juicio de expertos, se aplicó a 1.404 profesores de universidades de Bolivia, España y México. Posteriormente se analizó su fiabilidad y la validez de constructo a través de Modelos de Ecuaciones Estructurales. Los resultados obtenidos permiten encontrar una fiabilidad excelente, tanto en el cuestionario total como en sus dimensiones (alfa de Cronbach=0,982) y un AFE (oblicua/Promax) de 9 factores consistentes, unipolares y robustos, con un 70,265% de varianza total explicada. Finalmente, el AFC dio un modelo de medición final bastante parsimonioso y altamente satisfactorio (CFI=0,910; RMSEA=0,053; Hoelter=305; PRATIO=0,937). En conclusión, se puede afirmar que se ha contribuido al campo de la ciencia con un cuestionario válido y fiable para medir el perfil competencial innovador del docente universitario.post-print1112 K

Sistema electrónico para cuantificar poblaciones de insectos voladores y evaluar atrayentes y repelentes

Número de publicación: ES2235575 A1 (01.07.2005) También publicado como: ES2235575 B1 (01.11.2006) Número de Solicitud: Consulta de Expedientes OEPM (C.E.O.) P200202622 (07.11.2002)Esta invención se refiere a un sistema electrónico que permite hacer una evaluación cuantitativa de la cantidad de insectos voladores que intentan atravesar una determina zona del espacio. La zona en donde se realiza el seguimiento de los insectos que intentan atravesarla es una superficie preferentemente plana, donde se ha situado una serie de electrodos conductores, conectados a una fuente de alto voltaje. La finalidad del sistema es proporcionar, un pulso eléctrico cada vez que sea electrocutado un insecto y este pulso eléctrico tiene unas características que permiten que pueda ser aprovechado y procesado por otros sistemas electrónicos, tales como contadores, autómatas programables, microcontroladores, o ser acoplado a los buses de entrada de un ordenador.Universidad de Almerí

Global design of analog cells using statistical optimization techniques

We present a methodology for automated sizing of analog cells using statistical optimization in a simulation based approach. This methodology enables us to design complex analog cells from scratch within reasonable CPU time. Three different specification types are covered: strong constraints on the electrical performance of the cells, weak constraints on this performance, and design objectives. A mathematical cost function is proposed and a bunch of heuristics is given to increase accuracy and reduce CPU time to minimize the cost function. A technique is also presented to yield designs with reduced variability in the performance parameters, under random variations of the transistor technological parameters. Several CMOS analog cells with complexity levels up to 48 transistors are designed for illustration. Measurements from fabricated prototypes demonstrate the suitability of the proposed methodology

Continuous-time cascaded ΣΔ modulators for VDSL: A comparative study

This paper describes new cascaded continuous-time ΣΔ modulators intended to cope with very high-rate digital subscriber line specifications, i.e 12-bit resolution within a 20-MHz signal bandwidth. These modulators have been synthesized using a new methodology that is based on the direct synthesis of the whole cascaded architecture in the continuous-time domain instead of using a discrete-to-continuous time transformation as has been done in previous approaches. This method allows to place the zeroes/poles of the loop-filter transfer function in an optimal way and to reduce the number of analog components, namely, transconductors and/or amplifiers, resistors, capacitors and digital-to-analog converters. This leads to more efficient topologies in terms of circuitry complexity, power consumption and robustness with respect to circuit non-idealities. A comparison study of the synthesized architectures is done considering their sensitivity to most critical circuit error mechanisms. Time-domain behavioral simulations are shown to validate the presented approach.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia TEC2004-01752/MI