Signal Processing for Biometric Systems [DSP Forum]

This IEEE signal processing magazine (SPM) forum discuses signal processing applications, technologies, requirements, and standardization of biometric systems. The forum members bring their expert insights into issues such as biometric security, privacy, and multibiometric and fusion techniques. The invited forum members are Prof. Anil K. Jain of Michigan State University, Prof. Rama Chellappa of the University of Maryland, Dr. Stark C. Draper of theUniversity of Wisconsin in Madison, Prof. Nasir Memon of Polytechnic University, and Dr. P. Jonathon Phillips of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The moderator of the forum is Dr. Anthony Vetro of Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs, and associate editor of SPM.     

Estimating changes in traffic intensity for M/M/1 queueing systems

In this paper, the principle of maximum likelihood is used to estimate change point of traffic intensity for the M/M/1 queueing model. The procedure is illustrated with a simulated example for each possible change in traffic intensity.     

A fuzzy logic based buffer management scheme with traffic differentiation support for delay tolerant networks

Delay tolerant networks (DTNs) are an emerging class of wireless networks which enable data delivery even in the absence of end-to-end connectivity. Under these circumstances, message replication may be applied to increase the delivery ratio. The requirement of long term storage and message replication puts a burden on network resources such as buffer and bandwidth. Buffer management is an important issue which greatly affects the performance of routing protocols in DTNs. Two main issues in buffer management are drop decision when buffer overflow occurs and scheduling decision when a transmission opportunity arises. The objective of this paper is to propose an enhancement to the Custom Service Time Scheduling traffic differentiation scheme by integrating it with a fuzzy based buffer ranking mechanism based on three message properties, namely, number of replicas, message size and remaining time-to-live. It uses fuzzy logic to determine outgoing message order and to decide which messages should be discarded within each traffic class queue. Results of simulation study show that the proposed fuzzy logic-based traffic differentiation scheme achieves improved delivery performance over existing traffic differentiation scheme for DTNs.     

Waveguide Cross Section and Background Magnetic Field Tapers for Broadbanding a Gyro-TWT

The gyro-TWT in a cylindrical waveguide of linearly-tapered cross section was analyzed for the gain-frequency response, using the Pierce-type gain equation. The taper in the waveguide cross section was adjusted for wide device bandwidths, either by changing the taper angle, while keeping the interaction length to be constant, or by changing the interaction length, while keeping the initial and final radii of the waveguide constant. Tapering led to the prediction of wide bandwidths, though at the cost of gain, as compared to a non-tapered device. The range of the DC background magnetic flux density relative to its grazing-point value was identified as a crucial parameter for large gains, with appreciable bandwidths, and minimum mode mixing in a tapered device, the latter in general facing more mode competition than a non-tapered device.     

Self-Aligned SiGe MOS-Gate FET with Modulation-Doped Quantum Wire Channel for Millimeter Wave Application

This paper describes a self-aligned SiGe MOS-gate field-effect transistor (FET) having a modulation-doped (MOD) quantum wire channel. An analytical model based on modified charge control equations accounting for the quantum wire channel, is presented predicting the transport characteristics of the MOS-gate MODFET structure. In particular, transport characteristics of devices having strained SiGe layers, realized on Si or Ge substrates, are computed. The transconductance g_m and unity-current gain cutoff frequency (f_T) are also computed as a function of the gate voltage V_G. The calculated values of f_T suggest the operation of one-dimensional SiGe MODFETs to be around 200 GHz range at 77°K, and 120 GHz at 300°K.     

Enhanced photoluminescence from free-standing microstructures fabricated on MBE grown PbSe–PbSrSe MQW structure

Fabrication of microrods from multi-quantum well (MQW) PbSe–PbSrSe structure grown in molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) followed by its morphological as well as optical characterizations are described. Pulsed PL intensity is increased by 64 times per unit surface area from a free-standing MQW microrod mounted on copper heat sink compared with the bulk sample. Enhancement in side emission power due to the higher optical confinement effect during pulsed photoluminescence (PL) from MQW semiconductor microtube inserted in hollow quartz optical fiber signifies that these microstructures are robust in nature and crucial contenders for portable mid-infrared optoelectronic devices to be used in the field of industrial trace-gas sensing.     

Adaptively Grouped Multilevel Space-Time Trellis Codes

Grouped multilevel space-time trellis codes (GMLSTTCs) utilize multilevel coding (MLC), antenna grouping and space time trellis codes (STTCs) for simultaneously providing coding gain, diversity improvement and increased spectral efficiency. The performance of GMLSTTCs is limited due to predefining of the antenna groups. It has been shown that when perfect or partial channel state information is available at the transmitter, the performance and capacity of space-time coded system can be further improved. In this paper, we present a new code designed by combining MLC, STTCs, antenna grouping and channel state information at transmitter, henceforth referred to as adaptively grouped multilevel space time trellis codes (AGMLSTTCs). AGMLSTTCs use a single full-diversity STTC at initial some levels and multiple STTCs at some later levels. The single full diversity STTC at each initial level spans all transmit antennas and the STTC at each later level spans a group of transmit antennas. The channel state information at the transmitter is used to adaptively group the transmit antennas for the later levels. Instantaneous channel power gain is calculated between each transmit antenna and all the receive antennas. A subset of transmit antennas having maximum channel power gain is selected to form a group. The simulation results show that AGMLSTTCs enable to transmit more than one data symbol per time slot with improved error performance over GMLSTTCs with predefined transmit antenna grouping.     

A 100-MHz macropipelined VAX microprocessor

A macropipelined CISC microprocessor was implemented in a 0.75-μm CMOS 3.3-V technology. The 1.3-million-transistor custom chip measures 1.62×1.46 cm² and dissipates 16.3 W. The 100-MHz parts were benchmarked at 50 SPEC marks. The on-chip clocking system and several high-performance logic and circuit techniques are described. Macroinstruction handling, micropipeline management, and control store structures highlight the design architecture. The hierarchical array organization and fast tag comparison technique of the primary cache are discussed. Power estimation procedures are outlined, and the results are compared to measurements. Physical design and verification methods, and CAD tools are also described. After extensive functional verification efforts are described, chip and system test results are presented     

Interference suppression by biased nonlinearities

It is shown that, when the input signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) is small, a biased nonlinearity that has a dead zone below some threshold value can provide a large enhancement in output SIR and signal-to-interference-plus-intermodulation ratio (SIIMR) if the threshold is set equal or close to the amplitude of the strong interference. In the absence of noise, the output SIR and SIIMIR are virtually independent of the input SIR, however low the latter may be. It Is shown that, for a dead-zone limiter, the output SIIMR in this case is -4.93 dB regardless of the input SIR. Under strong interference, any noise present in the input reduces the SIR and SIIMR improvement, but a biased nonlinearity can still provide an output SIR and SIIMR superior to the input SIR, i.e. an output SIIMR 6.35 dB below the input signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) instead of 6.02 dB below the input SIR as is the case with hard limiting     

Indium Gallium Arsenide Quantum Dot Gate Field-Effect Transistor Using II–VI Tunnel Insulators Showing Three-State Behavior

This paper presents an indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) quantum dot gate field-effect transistor (QDG-FET) that exhibits an intermediate “i” state in addition to the conventional ON and OFF states. The QDG-FET utilized a II–VI gate insulator stack consisting of lattice-matched ZnSe/ZnS/ZnMgS/ZnS/ZnSe for its high-κ and wide-bandgap properties. Germanium oxide (GeO _x )-cladded germanium quantum dots were self-assembled over the gate insulator stack, and they allow for the three-state behavior of the device. Electrical characteristics of the fabricated device are also presented.