Contributing to the Internet of Things

Part 1: IntroductionInternational audienceThe fast development of networked smart devices equipped with sensors and radio-frequency identification, connected to the Internet, is enabling the emergence of many new applications and the redesign of traditional systems towards more effective operation. Raising awareness among engineering PhD students for the potential of this new wave in their research work is a crucial element in their education. With this aim, the doctoral conference DoCEIS’13 focused on technological innovation for the Internet of Things, challenging the contributors to analyze in which ways their technical and scientific work could contribute to or benefit from this paradigm. The results of this initiative, which was reasonably successful, are briefly analyzed

A Switched-Capacitor Band-Pass Biquad Filter Using a Simple Quasi-unity Gain Amplifier

Part 19: Electronics: AmplifiersInternational audienceThis paper presents a switched-capacitor (SC) band-pass biquad using a simple quasi-unity gain amplifier. In sub-nanometer CMOS technologies the intrinsic gain of the transistors is low; this increases the difficulty of designing high gain amplifiers. The proposed SC filter is based on the Sallen-Key biquad and it requires only a simple low gain amplifier. A differential filter circuit, including a suitable amplifier based on a fully-differential voltage-combiner is presented and analyzed. The correct functionality of this circuit is validated through electrical simulations of a second-order band-pass filter. These simulations show that, for a clock frequency of 100 MHz, the frequency response of the circuit is similar to the corresponding prototype filter

Design of improved rail-to-rail low-distortion and low-stress switches in advanced CMOS technologies

This paper describes the efficient design of an improved and dedicated switched-capacitor (SC) circuit capable of linearizing CMOS switches to allow SC circuits to reach low distortion levels. The described circuit (SC linearization control circuit, SLC) has the advantage over conventional clock-bootstrapping circuits of exhibiting low-stress, since large gate voltages are avoided. This paper presents exhaustive corner simulation results of a SC sample-and-hold (S/H) circuit which employs the proposed and optimized circuits, together with the experimental evaluation of a complete 10-bit ADC utilizing the referred S/H circuit. These results show that the SLC circuits can reduce distortion and increase dynamic linearity above 12 bits for wide input signal bandwidths

Built-in self test of high speed analog-to-digital converters

Signals found in nature need to be converted to the digital domain through analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) to be processed by digital means [1]. For applications in communication and measurement [2], [3], high conversion rates are required. With advances of the complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, the conversion rates of CMOS ADCs are now well beyond the gigasamples per second (GS/s) range, but only moderate resolutions are required [4]. These ADCs need to be tested after fabrication and, if possible, during field operation. The test costs are a very significant fraction of their production cost [5]. This is mainly due to lengthy use of very expensive automated test equipment (ATE) to apply specific test stimuli to the devices under test (DUT) and to collect and analyze their responses.publishe

A Low-Voltage CMOS Buffer for RF Applications Based on a Fully-Differential Voltage-Combiner

Part 20: Electronics: RF ApplicationsInternational audienceThis paper presents a new CMOS buffer circuit topology for radio-frequency (RF) applications based on a fully-differential voltage-combiner circuit, capable of operating at low-voltage. The proposed circuit uses a combination of common-source (CS) and common-drain (CD) devices. The simulation results show good levels of linearity and bandwidth. To improve total harmonic distortion (THD) a source degeneration technique is used. The proposed circuit has been designed in a 130nm logic CMOS technology and it achieves a simulated gain of 1.54 dB, a bandwidth of 1.14 GHz for a total power dissipation of 13.34 mW, when driving an RF active probe (with 0.8 pF in parallel with 200 kΩ)

Surveillance and fall prevention in the elderly

Introduction: Falls in the elderly are one of the main causes of death that occur in this population group and there are multiple factors that can contribute to this, greatly affecting their autonomy and quality of life. Therefore, nursing interventions are essential to prevent this type of event. Objective: Evaluate the efficiency of external hip protectors on preventing falls in the elderly people. Methodology: Integrative Literature Review, using the PICO methodology, which included the formulation of an initial research question, research in scientific databases, analysis and interpretation of selected articles, as well as the synthesis and presentation of the results obtained. This review also considered the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) recommendation. The queries were performed under the “CINAHL Complete” database. Results: With the methodology applied, a final set of six studies were obtained, which do not sustain the efficiency of external hip protectors on the prevention of falls in the elderly. Conclusion: There is no scientific evidence that the external hip protectors are beneficial in reducing the number of falls in the elderly people. Focused interventions in many risk factors are more advantageous, comparatively to simple interventions. It is suggested the realization of more research studies relatively to this topic

All-Standard-Cell-Based Analog-to-Digital Architectures Well-Suited for Internet of Things Applications

SMART-E-PTDC/CTM-PAM/04012/2022, IDS-PAPER-PTDC/CTM-PAM/4241/2020 and PEST (CTS/UNINOVA)-UIDB/00066/2020. This work also received funding from the European Community’s H2020 program [Grant Agreement No. 716510 (ERC-2016-StG TREND) and 952169 (SYNERGY, H2020-WIDESPREAD-2020-5, CSA)]. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors.In this paper, the most suited analog-to-digital (A/D) converters (ADCs) for Internet of Things (IoT) applications are compared in terms of complexity, dynamic performance, and energy efficiency. Among them, an innovative hybrid topology, a digital–delta (Δ) modulator (ΔM) ADC employing noise shaping (NS), is proposed. To implement the active building blocks, several standard-cell-based synthesizable comparators and amplifiers are examined and compared in terms of their key performance parameters. The simulation results of a fully synthesizable Digital-ΔM with NS using passive and standard-cell-based circuitry show a peak of 72.5 dB in the signal-to-noise and distortion ratio (SNDR) for a 113 kHz input signal and 1 MHz bandwidth (BW). The estimated (Formula presented.) is close to 16.2 fJ/conv.-step.publishersversionpublishe

PROPOSIÇÕES SOBRE A FORMAÇÃO INICIAL DE PROFESSORES

O presente artigo objetiva firmar posição sobre a formação inicial de professores, dialogando com proposições para o campo. Para tanto, apoia-se, principalmente, no campo teórico dos Estudos Culturais e fundamenta suas articulações a partir do conceito de cultura – com base nos escritos de Stuart Hall, para quem a cultura é traduzida em produções de significados que nunca se estabelecem sem um campo de luta. Apoiados em seis proposições, transitamos entre a formação em seu formato institucionalizado, sobre suas políticas e a produção da identidade docente promovida por essa formação. São elas: (1) a discussão em relação a profissão docente ser invariavelmente política; (2) a atenção à história da formação docente como possibilidade de continuidade do que já foi produzido e conquistado; (3) a formação para além dos espaços da própria formação inicial de professores; (4) a necessidade do permanente questionamento sobre o papel docente e sua identidade como forma de atuação crítica; (5) a urgência da ocupação de espaços pelos docentes como forma de firmar posições; (6) e, por fim, a argumentação de que universidade e escola precisam ser dois lados da mesma moeda. O principal intento é demonstrar a plasticidade da cultura e, por meio da perspectiva da multiplicidade, produzir resistência às representações que detratam a profissão docente e, atualmente, por meio de um discurso poderoso, o ensino superior, principalmente de caráter público

Soft and transferable skills acquisition through organizing a doctoral conference

UIDB/00066/2020.This article presents a 10-year experience of soft and transferable skills acquisition through the involvement of PhD students in the organization of an international conference. Soft and transferable skills acquisition is currently perceived as a core component of doctoral studies. Examples include writing and communication, teamwork, time management, leadership, resource management, negotiation, problem solving, listening, planning, entrepreneurial spirit, mastering ethics awareness, etc. The need for such skills is due to the leading role that doctoral students are expected to play in society. As such, various organizations have issued recommendations for doctoral programs to include a formal component of soft skills training. In this article, an effective way of introducing soft and transferable skills acquisition in doctoral engineering education is introduced. Namely, a form of collaborative project-based learning is designed as a compulsory course. This includes a set of base lectures, a long period of parallel working groups focusing on the various aspects of organizing an international conference, running the actual conference, and performing a post-conference assessment. Results and lessons learned demonstrate the validity and effectiveness of the proposed approach.publishersversionpublishe