A 195.6dBc/Hz peak FoM P-N class-B oscillator with transformer-based tail filtering

A complementary p-n class-B oscillator with two magnetically coupled second harmonic tail resonators is presented. For the same oscillation amplitude (constrained by reliability considerations) and the same tank, the p-n oscillator achieves 3-4dB better Figure of Merit (FoM) than an n-only reference one. After frequency division by 2, the p-n oscillator has a measured phase noise that ranges from -150.8 to -151.5 dBc/Hz at 10MHz offset from the carrier when the frequency of oscillation is varied from 3.64 to 4.15GHz. With a power consumption of 6.3mW, a peak FoM of 195.6 dBc/Hz is achieved.This work was supported by the European Marie Curie Grant Agreement No 251399. Paulo Mendes research was partially supported by grant SFRH/BSAB/1245/2012.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Analysis and design of a 195.6 dBc/Hz peak FoM P-N class-B oscillator with transformer-based tail filtering

A complementary p-n class-B oscillator with two magnetically coupled second harmonic tail resonators is presented and compared to an N-only reference one. An in depth analysis of phase noise, based on direct derivation of the Impulse Sensitivity Function (ISF), provides design insights on the optimization of the tail resonators. In principle the complementary p-n oscillator has the same optimum Figure of Merit (FoM) of the N-only at half the voltage swing. At a supply voltage of 1.5 V, the maximum allowed oscillation amplitude of the N-only is constrained, by reliability considerations, to be smaller than the value that corresponds to the optimum FoM even when 1.8 V thick oxide transistors are used. For an oscillation amplitude that ensures reliable operation and the same tank, the p-n oscillator achieves a FoM 2 to 3 dB better than the N, only depending on the safety margin taken in the design. After frequency division by 2, the p-n oscillator has a measured phase noise that ranges from -150.8 to -151.5 dBc/Hz at 10 MHz offset from the carrier when the frequency of oscillation is varied from 7.35 to 8.4 GHz. With a power consumption of 6.3 mW, a peak FoM of 195.6 dBc/Hz is achieved.This work was supported by the European Marie Curie IAPP Grant Agreement N 251399.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Evaluating inputs for organic farming – a new system. Proposals of the ORGANIC INPUTS EVALUATION project

This volume contains proposals for criteria for evaluation of plant protection products, fertilisers and soil conditioners1 to be used in organic agriculture. These ideas were developed in the course of the European Union (EU) Concerted Action project ‘ORGANIC INPUTS EVALUATION’ (QLK5-CT-2002-02565). For more information on this project see the end of this volume or visit the project website www.organicinputs.org. The documents in this volume are proposals elaborated by the project consortium and external experts. They were discussed with a broader audience at a public conference held in Brussels on October 13, 2005, and have been amended accordingly. Our proposals also include a “criteria matrix”, which is in Microsoft Excel format, and therefore stands as a separate file. The criteria matrix is discussed in section 5, but we strongly recommend that you consult the original document. To illustrate the use of the matrix, we have further prepared two case studies, which are also separate Excel files. All of these files are contained on the CD, and can also be downloaded from the project website. Currently, Regulation 2092/91 is under revision. We hope that our ideas can be incorporated into the regulation during this revision! In addition, we strongly encourage national institutions to make use of our proposals at the national level

Caracterización de médanos parabólicos de la región pampeana oriental, centro oeste de la provincia de Buenos Aires (Argentina).

 La región pampeana, especialmente la provincia de Buenos Aires, se caracteriza por la presencia de paisajes eólicos que, si bien responden a eventos producidos en el Cuaternario Superior, en la actualidad son reactivados por la actividad agropecuaria. El objetivo de este trabajo se centra en la detección y delimitación de un campo de médanos parabólicos parcialmente reactivados, ubicados en el centro oeste de dicha provincia, que si bien han sido mencionados en la literatura, no han sido objeto de estudio detallado. Mediante la generación de un Modelo Digital de Elevaciones (MDE) a partir de imágenes SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) se ha detectado un campo con un total de 254 médanos parabólicos que ocupan 20.200 km2, ubicados entre los 120 y 90 msnm. Los mismos presentan una dirección general SW-NE, con anchos que varían entre 2 y 5 km y alturas entre 2 y 6 m. Aplicando la herramienta Distancia Vertical al Curso (Vertical Distance to Channel Network, VDCN) del Software SAGA GIS 2.1.2 y una clasificación automática no supervisada en ArcGIS 10.1, se lograron discriminar los médanos de la planicie circundante. A partir de muestras de sedimento de un médano testigo ubicado en la localidad de 30 de Agosto (Buenos Aires), se establecieron claras diferencias en la granulometría en distintos sectores del mismo. La ubicación de estos médanos es clave en la configuración del escurrimiento y, en consecuencia, este paisaje arenoso tiene un rol importante en la configuración del espacio del área de estudio ya que se forman lagunas intermedanales someras cuyo desarrollo depende de las precipitaciones locales

Evaluating inputs for organic farming - a new system

This CD contains criteria for the evaluation of plant protection products, fertilizers and soil conditioners to be used in organic agriculture. These ideas were developed in the course of the European Union Concerted Action project «ORGANIC INPUTS EVALUATION» (QLK5-CT-2002-02565). For more information visit the project website www.organicinputs.org. The editors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Commission of the European Communities, under Key Action 5 of the Fifth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (QLK5-CT-2002-02565 «ORGANIC INPUTS EVALUATION») and co-funding by the Swiss Federal Office for Education and Science (BBW 02.0113)

Decision support system for integrated management of mycotoxins in feed and food supply chains

Mycotoxins present a global food safety threat of our feed and food. Mycotoxins are toxic metabolites of certain fungi in agricultural products that are harmful to animal and human health. The presence of mycotoxins in these products depends on a variety of management and environmental factors in the field, during storage and/or processing of feed and food commodities. To date, information on mycotoxin management is available, but is not easy to access by supply chain actors. This study aimed to design, build and test a Decision Support System (DSS) that can help decision making on mycotoxin management by various actors along the feed and food supply chains. As part of this, available knowledge and data on mycotoxin prevention and control were collected and synthesised into easy to understand guidelines and tools for various groups of end-users. The DSS consists of four different modules: (a) static information module and (b) scenario analysis module, (c) dynamic module for forecasting mycotoxins, and (d) dynamic module for real-time monitoring of moulds/mycotoxins in grain silos. Intended end-users are all end-user groups for modules (a) and (b); growers and collectors for module (c) and; post-harvest storage managers for module (d). The DSS is user-friendly and accessible through PCs, tablets and smartphones (see https://mytoolbox-platform.com/). In various phases of the DSS development, the tool has been demonstrated to groups of end-users, and their suggestions have been taken into account, whenever possible. Also, a near final version has been tested with individual farmers on the easiness to use the system. In this way we aimed to maximise the DSS uptake by actors along the chain. Ultimately, this DSS will improve decision making on mycotoxin management; it will assist in reducing mycotoxin contamination in the key crops of Europe, thereby reducing economic losses and improving animal and human health

DON content in oat grains in Norway related to weather conditions at different growth stages

High concentrations of the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON), produced by Fusarium graminearum have occurred frequently in Norwegian oats recently. Early prediction of DON levels is important for farmers, authorities and the Cereal Industry. In this study, the main weather factors influencing myco-toxin accumulation were identified and two models to predict the risk of DON in oat grains in Norway were developed: (1) as a warning system for farmers to decide if and when to treat with fungicide, and (2) for authorities and industry to use at harvest to identify potential food safety problems. Oat grain samples from farmers’ fields were collected together with weather data (2004–2013)\ud A mathematical model was developed and used to esti-\ud mate phenology windows of growth stages in oats (til-\ud lering, flowering etc.). Weather summarisations were\ud then calculated within these windows, and the Spearman\ud rank correlation factor calculated between DON-\ud contamination in oats at harvest and the weather\ud summarisations for each phenological window. DON\ud contamination was most clearly associated with the\ud weather conditions around flowering and close to har-\ud vest. Warm, rainy and humid weather during and around\ud flowering increased the risk of DON accumulation in\ud oats, as did dry periods during germination/seedling\ud growth and tillering. Prior to harvest, warm and humid\ud weather conditions followed by cool and dry conditions\ud were associated with a decreased risk of DON accumu-\ud lation. A prediction model, including only pre-flowering\ud weather conditions, adequately forecasted risk of DON\ud contamination in oat, and can aid in decisions about\ud fungicide treatments

A 2GS/s 10-bit time-interleaved capacitive DAC for self-interference-cancellation application

This article presents a 2-GS/s time-interleaved (TI) 10-bit capacitive digital-to-analog converter (CDAC) for self-interference-cancellation (SIC) application. It is also capable of working as a non-TI & stand-alone CDAC with 1-GS/S clock frequency. By taking advantage low parasitic capacitance and equivalent parasitic capacitance at bottom and top plate of MIM capacitor, the split-capacitor technique is used without significant degradation in the linearity. The special architecture of the designed layout also relieves the local and radial oxide gradient error. The CDAC is designed in 28nm CMOS technology. If the CDAC works in stand-alone mode with 1-GS/s clock frequency, followed by an additional anti-aliasing filter and the baseband input frequency equals 10.74 MHz, the ENOB, SFDR and THD at the output of the filter is equal to11.3-bit,76 dB and 76dB, respectively

Second-Order Intermodulation Mechanisms in CMOS Downconverters

An in-depth analysis of the mechanisms responsible for second-order intermodulation distortion in CMOS active downconverters is proposed in this paper. The achievable second-order input intercept point (IIP2) has a fundamental limit due to nonlinearity and mismatches in the switching stage and improves with technology scaling. Second-order intermodulation products generated by the input transconductor or due to self-mixing usually contribute to determine the IIP2 even though they can, at least in principle, be eliminated. The parasitic capacitance loading the switching-stage common source plays a key role in the intermodulation mechanisms. Moreover, the paper shows that, besides direct conversion and low intermediate frequency (IF), even superheterodyne receivers can suffer from second-order intermodulation if the IF is not carefully chosen. The test vehicle to validate the proposed analysis is a highly linear 0.18-μm direct-conversion CMOS mixer, embedded in a fully integrated receiver, realized for Universal Mobile Telecommunications System applications

Antenna coupling and self-interference cancellation bandwidth in saw-less diversity receivers

Self-interference (SI) cancellation techniques are a promising solution to improve the dynamic range of SAW-less frequency-division duplexing (FDD) diversity receivers. The achievable isolation between transmitter and diversity receiver over the transmit signal bandwidth is limited by the strength and frequency selectivity of the coupling between main and diversity antennas. In this work we investigate these limitations under realistic conditions for long-term evolution (LTE) mobile terminals. A pair of planar inverted-F antennas (PIFAs) has been designed and tested in four different configurations. A broadband current-mode canceler model was applied to the measured data showing, in all cases, a 20dB cancellation bandwidth of 14MHz, mainly limited by the antennas y21 group delay, close to 2ns. © 2016 EuMA