iM-SIMPLE: iMproved stable increased-throughput multi-hop link efficient routing protocol for Wireless Body Area Networks

Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) are envisaged to play crucial role in psychological, medical and non-medical applications. This paper presents iM-SIMPLE; a reliable, and power efficient routing protocol with high throughput for WBAN. We deploy sensor nodes on human body to measure the physiological parameters such as blood pressure, temperature, glucose, lactic acid, EMG, acceleration, pressure, and position. Data from sensors is forwarded to intermediate node, from where it is transmitted to sink. An end user can access the required information available at sink via internet. To minimize energy consumption of the network, we utilize multi-hop mode of communication. A cost function is introduced to select the forwarder; node with high residual energy and least distance to sink has minimum cost function value and is selected. Residual energy parameter balances the energy consumption among the sensor nodes, and least distance improves packet delivery to sink because of reduced less path loss. We formulate the minimum energy consumption and high throughput problems as an Integer Linear Program. In order to support mobility, we also consider two body postures. Simulation results confirm the performance advantage of iM-SIMPLE compared to contemporary schemes in terms of maximizing stability period and throughput of the network.     

Proposal and investigation of photonic data selector based on cross-phase modulation in a highly nonlinear fiber

It is proposed and demonstrated a design of 2-to-1 photonic data selector based on the cross-phase modulation in a highly nonlinear fiber. By using bidirectional configuration, this scheme has potentially advantages of cost effective and simple structure. The correct output logic function is obtained at 40 Gbit/s without using any additional input light beams. In addition, the output signals have a single spectrum component by reasonable selecting input signals wavelength, which is important for transmission and scalability. The dependences of performances on signal wavelength, pump power, the temporal relative position of pulses, as well as the OSNR and chirp of input signals are calculated and discussed respectively, showing impressive operation performance. This scheme could be a promising candidate for future ultrafast all-optical signal processing applications.     

A method for throughput enhancement in Wi-Fi backscatter communications using power-level modulation

An improved data rate technology from tag to reader in Wi-Fi backscatter systems is proposed. The proposed system applies a power-level modulation to the conventional backscatter communication system. This technology can improve the data rate dramatically. It also adopts the Euclidean distance evaluation during demodulation, which looks for the most similar signal to enhance the BER performance. We analyze the error performance of the proposed decoding method, and the numerical results are presented. The power level is formed ranging from 2-level to 8-level. The performance of the detecting algorithm is compared to the conventional system, which utilizes the received power of selected sub-carriers.     

Miniaturized active stepped impedance planar inverted-F antenna using common ground

This paper presents a compact active integrated antenna (AIA) comprising of class-A power amplifier (PA) and stepped impedance planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA). In the proposed design, a common ground is used for both PA and PIFA, resulting a compact antenna of size 0.14λ₀ × 0.11λ₀ × 0.01λ₀ (λ₀ is free space wavelength at 0.85 GHz). Moreover, it is demonstrated that by using the stepped impedance radiator the operating frequency of the active PIFA is shifted down from its natural resonant frequency of 1.36 GHz to 0.85 GHz, offering an extensive size reduction of 80%. This active integration increases the passive antenna gain through the effective loading of the antenna to the power amplifier. The measured result indicates that the active and passive antennas achieved the gain of 15.7 dB and 3.81 dBi, respectively after the integration. In addition, the maximum SAR value of antenna is found to be 0.64 W/kg.     

A quad-polarization and frequency reconfigurable square ring slot loaded microstrip patch antenna for WLAN applications

In this paper, a novel polarization and frequency reconfigurable microstrip patch antenna which can switch between vertical and horizontal linear polarizations, left hand and right hand circular polarizations at two WLAN frequencies is presented. The orthogonal linear polarizations are achieved by a square microstrip patch antenna fed by two ports on adjacent sides. By introducing corner truncated perturbation on opposite corners of right diagonal of a square patch, orthogonal circular polarizations are achieved. By controlling the bias voltage of two PIN diodes loaded at perturbed corners, a single structure can achieve quad polarization states. Furthermore, by superimposing a square ring slot into the corner truncated square patch and incorporating four PIN diodes into the square ring slot, quad polarization are achieved at dual frequencies. Simulated and measured results indicate that the antenna can achieve quad polarization at two WLAN bands (5.15–5.35 GHz) and (5.75–5.85 GHz). The proposed antenna is simple, has low profile and can be scaled easily for other frequencies.     

Magnetic field analysis of induction motor for optimal cooling duct design

It is important to understand the leakage flux distributions to get a better design of induction motors. Computer simulation using the finite element method (FEM) is an important tool for achieving this objective. This paper presents a method for calculating the steady-state leakage flux distributions in induction motors. FEM is used here to study the field behavior of an induction motor in terms of magnetic vector potential (MVP), which allows the easy determination of flux and flux density. Because of complexity of the domain, triangular elements, due to their flexibility to fit in any irregular geometry are used. With the help of MVP distribution obtained use of these elements have been made to study the effect of shape of the cooling duct on the rotor laminations of an induction motor. An optimum modified shape of ventilating hole is thus obtained without having any adverse effect on MVP and flux density.     

Bulk glass forming and thermal stability in Fe67.0Co9.5Nd3.0Dy0.5B20 alloy

Bulk glass forming ability (GFA) of a multicomponent alloy of Fe_67.0Co_9.5Nd_3.0Dy_0.5B₂₀ is studied by synthesizing it in shapes of thin ribbons, rods or cylinders, or pellets. The three samples are obtained with three different methods of melt spinning, copper mold casting, or mechanical attrition (of ribbons) followed by a hot compaction of derived alloy powder, respectively. A melt-spun ribbon of 50- to 100-μm thickness has a truly amorphous structure with two X-ray diffraction halos of wavevectors q₁=14.2 and q₃=33.0 nm⁻¹. A modified diffractogram consists of two halos q₁=14.5 and q₂=19.0 nm⁻¹ in the rods (3.0-mm diameter) while of three halos q₁=13.4, q₂=15.0 and q₃=24.0 nm⁻¹ in the pellets (5- to 10-mm diameter and 3- to 5-mm thickness). A small value of coercivity H_c of 7.1 kA/m in the rods or almost zero in the ribbons reveals soft magnetic behaviors characteristic of an amorphous structure of the alloy. An improved value of H_c=188.5 kA/m develops in the hot compressed pellets of the powder at ∼630 °C temperature. The pellets have some recrystallized α-Fe, Fe₃B and R₂Fe₁₄B (R=Nd or Dy) nanocrystallites in a bulk amorphous composite structure. The results are analyzed with thermal analysis and microstructures of the samples.     

A new family of CMOS inverter-based OTAs for biomedical and healthcare applications

This paper presents a new family of innovative operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) topologies based on CMOS inverter structures, with improved gain and energy-efficiency. This new family of OTA designs is suitable for biomedical and healthcare circuits and systems, due to the high energy-efficiency, improved gain and low level of noise contribution, when compared to the state-of-the-art in this field. In this paper, two fully-differential implementations are presented, a first one with a double CMOS branch biased by two pairs of voltage-combiners structures in both NMOS and PMOS configurations, and a second one with folded voltage-combiners specifically targeting low voltage applications, e.g., supplies below 1 V. The usage of voltage-combiners to bias the OTAs improves the gain and the gain-bandwidth product, therefore improving the energy-efficiency figure-of-merit. High values of figure-of-merit are achieved in both implementations, i.e., more than 1600 MHz × pF/mA and 2000 MHz × pF/mA, gain values above 53 dB and 50 dB under supply sources of 2 V and 0.7 V respectively. The folded voltage-combiners biased OTA is able to operate correctly under a voltage supply down to 0.7 V with proper DC biasing. The results are finally compared with state-of-the-art in this field and the potential of the circuits is fulfilled using a state-of-the-art layout-aware integrated-circuit optimization framework, AIDA, particularly relevant in order to overcome the device stacking problematic for lower voltages.