Low-Power Log-Domain CMOS Filter Bank for 2-D Sound Source Localization

This paper proposes the design of a novel current-mode front-end for the extraction of localization spectral cues from two audio signals, together with test results. The front-end consists of two parallel filter banks, envelope extraction and comparison circuitry, together with an AGC loop. The extracted cues are intended to be further processed in order to determine the source azimuth and elevation. A current-mode log-domain implementation using subthreshold MOS operation is used for micropower operation while still achieving a good bandwidth and linearity. A current-mode solution is also preferred because of the ease of implementation of certain mathematical operations. The front-end splits the input signals into different frequency bands and computes monaural and interaural spectral cues from the resulting signal envelopes for each band. The front-end has been optimized to operate at a supply voltage of 1.8 V and most blocks have been designed using a differential architecture. To our knowledge, this is the first log-domain implementation of a front-end for 2-D localization cues extraction. The design has been carried out using a standard double-poly double-metal 0.8 m CMOS process with V _T = 0.8 V. The bandpass filters which form the main core of the chip exhibit a measured dynamic range of 62 dB corresponding to 1.9% THD, while the total power dissipation is 890 W.     

Spectrum sharing under the asynchronous UPCS etiquette: The performance of collocated systems under heavy load

Recently the FCC opened three 10 MHz bands for unlicensed use. In order to operate in UPCS bands, devices must comply with rules known as the UPCS etiquette (United States Code of Federal Regulations, Title 47, Part 15(d)). In this paper we study channel sharing between two or more collocated systems under the asynchronous UPCS etiquette. In particular we show that under heavy load individual systems have a tendency to hold the channel for hundreds of milliseconds, thus blocking all traffic in other, competing systems. We have calculated the distribution of the blocking time for two versions (or interpretations) of the UPCS etiquette. The impact of the average blocking time on delay sensitive traffic is discussed and possible improvements achieved through a tradeoff between system capacity and average blocking time are investigated. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Magnetic and Temperature‐Sensitive Release Gels from Supramolecular Polymers

Supramolecular gels consisting of trivalent polyisobutylene and bivalent poly(ethylene oxide) are generated. Strong hydrogen bonding interactions, affixed to the end‐group moieties of the respective polymers (binding constant K_assn = 10⁵ M ^–1), serve as molecular glue, leading to the formation of weak gels. Two different gels were prepared: one, with a short telechelic poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) segment (gel A), and one with a longer PEG segment (number‐average molecular weight M_n = 2000 g mol^–1) (gel B). Both gels show a significant increase in viscosity upon mixing of the two polymeric components, with a lag time of several minutes, indicative of nucleation mechanisms as the formation principle. However, only gel A displays classical gel‐like behavior, with a loss modulus G′ larger than the storage modulus G″ after formation. Both gels display microphase‐separated behavior with a spacing between 4–5 nm as probed via small‐angle X‐ray scattering (SAXS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements. The incorporation of magnetic nanoparticles (Fe₂O₃; radius r = 3.5 nm) is successfully achieved, generating new magnetic gels with strongly thermoresponsive properties, displaying a strong temperature‐dependent release profile of included dye molecules. Magnetic measurements indicate a superparamagnetic behavior of the incorporated nanoparticles, prospecting the application as magneto‐sensitive delivery gels for pharmaceutical purposes.     

Efficient parasitic substrate modeling for monolithic mixed-A/D circuit design and verification

Parasitic analog-digital noise coupling has been identified as a key issue facing designers of mixed-signal integrated circuits. In particular, signal crosstalk through the common chip substrate has become increasingly problematic. This paper demonstrates a methodology for developing simulation, synthesis, and verification models to analyze the global electrical behavior of the non-ideal semiconductor substrate. First, a triangular discretization method is employed to generate RC equivalent-circuit substrate models which are far less complex than those formulated by conventional techniques. The networks are then accurately approximated for subsequent analysis by an efficient reduction algorithm which uses a well-conditioned Lanczos moment-matching process. Through congruence transformations, the network admittance matrices are transformed to reduced equivalents which are easily post-processed to derive passive, SPICE-compatible netlist representations of the reduced models. The pure-RC properties of the extracted substrate networks are fully exploited to formulate an efficient overall algorithm. For validation, the strategy has been successfully applied to several mixed-signal circuit examples.     

SPETA: Social pervasive e-Tourism advisor

Tourism is one of the major sources of income for many countries. Therefore, providing efficient, real-time service for tourists is a crucial competitive asset which needs to be enhanced using major technological advances. The current research has the objective of integrating technological innovation into an information system, in order to build a better user experience for the tourist. The principal strength of the approach is the fusion of context-aware pervasive systems, GIS systems, social networks and semantics. This paper presents the SPETA system, which uses knowledge of the user’s current location, preferences, as well as a history of past locations, in order to provide the type of recommender services that tourists expect from a real tour guide.     

Deconvoluting Energy Transport Mechanisms in Metal Halide Perovskites Using CsPbBr3 Nanowires as a Model System

Understanding energy transport in metal halide perovskites is essential to effectively guide further optimization of materials and device designs. However, difficulties to disentangle charge carrier diffusion, photon recycling, and photon transport have led to contradicting reports and uncertainty regarding which mechanism dominates. In this study, monocrystalline CsPbBr₃ nanowires serve as 1D model systems to help unravel the respective contribution of energy transport processes in metal-halide perovskites. Spatially, temporally, and spectrally resolved photoluminescence (PL) microscopy reveals characteristic signatures of each transport mechanism from which a robust model describing the PL signal accounting for carrier diffusion, photon propagation, and photon recycling is developed. For the investigated CsPbBr₃ nanowires, an ambipolar carrier mobility of μ = 35 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ is determined, and is found that charge carrier diffusion dominates the energy transport process over photon recycling. Moreover, the general applicability of the developed model is demonstrated on different perovskite compounds by applying it to data provided in previous related reports, from which clarity is gained as to why conflicting reports exist. These findings, therefore, serve as a useful tool to assist future studies aimed at characterizing energy transport mechanisms in semiconductor nanowires using PL.     

Comparative study of gigahertz CMOS LC quadrature voltage-controlled oscillators with relevance to phase noise

This review paper presents a comparative study of published integrated submicron CMOS quadrature voltage-controlled oscillator designs, based on LC resonator tanks operating at gigahertz frequencies. Although special reference to phase noise reduction is made, the comparison also concerns issues such as power consumption, tuning range and the phase accuracy of the quadrature signals. The effect of supply voltage reduction on the choice of the oscillator topology is also included in the discussion.     

Universal Interface between Functional Oxides and Silicon

Integration of crystalline oxides with silicon provides a versatile platform to extend and advance silicon technology. The interface between oxide and Si controls the structure and functional properties of the resulting material. In particular, the formation of a submonolayer metal phase on silicon is the standard approach to stabilize the epitaxial growth of oxides. However, fundamental questions—a) whether the interface transforms in the process of the synthesis; and b) if it is possible to control the interface and its electronic structure by varying the submonolayer template—remain unanswered. The present study employs MBE synthesis of EuO and SrO on Si(001) to demonstrate that the structure of the oxide/Si interface does not depend on the type of the template, its symmetry, and stoichiometry. Chemical transformations of the templates converging into the same 2D product are detected in situ by electron diffraction. Then, the common interfacial structure of 1D periodicity is visualized by high-resolution electron microscopy. The study provides insights into the process of oxide integration with silicon but also sets the limits in designing oxide/Si interfaces.     

A Parallel Hill Climbing Algorithm for Pushing Dependent Data in Clients–Providers–Servers Systems

The up-link bandwidth in satellite networks and in advanced traffic wireless information system is very limited. A server broadcasts data files provided by different independent providers and accessed by many clients in a round-robin manner. The clients who access these files may have different patterns of access. Some clients may wish to access several files in any order (AND), some wish to access one out of several files (OR), and some clients may access a second file only after accessing another file (IMPLY). The goal of the server is to order the files in a way that minimizes the access time of the clients given some a priori knowledge of their access patterns. An appropriate clients–servers model was recently proposed by Bay-Noy, Naor and Schieber. They formulated three separate problems and proposed an algorithm that evaluates certain number of random permutations and chooses the one whose access time is minimized. In this paper, we formulate a combined AOI (AND-OR-IMPLY) problem, and propose to apply a parallel hill climbing algorithm (to each of the four problems), which begins from certain number of random permutations, and then applies hill climbing technique on each of them until there is no more improvement. The evaluation time of neighboring permutations generated in hill climbing process is optimized, so that it requires O(n) time per permutation instead of O(n ²) time required for evaluating access time of a random permutation, where n is the number of files the server broadcasts. Experiments indicate that the parallel hill climbing algorithm is O(n) times faster that random permutations method, both in terms of time needed to evaluate the same number of permutations, and time needed to provide a high quality solution. Thus the improvement is significant for broadcasting large number of files.