Systematic design of wideband ΔΣ modulators for WiFi/WiMAX receivers

Modern multi-standard receivers in deep-submicron technologies pose significant design challenges on the analog baseband. Moving this analog filtering to the digital domain simplifies the design, yielding a process-scalable implementation. However, analog-to-digital converter (ADC) specifications now become more stringent and must be obtained by comprehending the standard and the system. Assuming a receiver NF of 5.96 dB and SNR degradation of 0.36 dB by the ADC, the proposed dual-mode WiFi/WiMAX receiver attains an input sensitivity of −74 dBm (20 MHz channel bandwidth). To accommodate the high dynamic range and the anti-alias rejection needed for the system, a Delta-Sigma (ΔΣ) ADC is proposed. Single-loop and Multi-Stage Noise-Shaping (MASH) architectures that achieve a SNR of 69 dB at a low oversampling ratio (OSR) of 8 for a conversion bandwidth of 40 MHz (108 Mbps, OFDM) are investigated at system level. Based on thermal noise, harmonic distortion, and power tradeoffs, a ΔΣ ADC design that meets the design specifications is presented.     

A reduced-complexity online state sequence and parameter estimatorfor superimposed convolutional coded signals

This paper develops a reduced-complexity online state sequence and parameter estimator for superimposed convolutional coded signals. Joint state sequence and parameter estimation is achieved by iteratively estimating the state sequence via a variable reduced-complexity Viterbi algorithm (VRCVA) and the model parameters via a recursive expectation maximization (EM) approach. The VRCVA is developed from a fixed reduced-complexity Viterbi algorithm (FRCVA). The FRCVA is a special case of the delayed decision-feedback sequence estimation (DDFSE) algorithm. The performance of online versions of the FRCVA, VRCVA, and the standard Viterbi algorithm (VA) are compared when they are used to estimate the state sequence as part of the reduced-complexity online state sequence and parameter estimator     

Making the case for applications of switched reluctance motor technology in automotive products

Switched reluctance machines (SRM) offer attractive attributes for automotive applications. These include robustness to harsh operational conditions, rugged structure, fault resilient performance, and a wide range of speed. The main debate over the adequacy of switched reluctance drives in automotive applications has often focused on efficiency and position sensorless control over the entire speed range, adaptation of control algorithms in the presence of parameter variations, and high levels of acoustic noise and vibration. The present paper demonstrates three key technologies developed over the past few years that have resulted in tangible improvements in the performance of SRM/generators (SRM/G) as related to the above areas of interest. This paper intends to illustrate the new possibilities and remaining challenges in applications of SRM in automotive industry. The proposed technologies have been validated by simulation and experimental results.     

On the radio capacity of TDMA and CDMA for broadband wireless packet communications

Studies of the capacity of cellular systems, stated in terms of the admissible number of remote users, have generally been limited to voice telephony. We address the problem of comparing the interference-limited performance of code-division multiple-access (CDMA) and time-division multiple-access (TDMA) systems in a packet-switched environment. The objective is to determine whether the capacity advantages claimed for circuit-switched CDMA still apply in a packet-switched environment, where the natural time diversity of bursty transmission may be a significant factor. Under a set of specific assumptions about the wireless environment (including path loss, shadow fading, multipath delay spread, cochannel interference, power control, and coding), we evaluate the number of users that can be admitted to the system while maintaining some desired quality-of-service (QoS) level. Four different classes of users with different characteristics and requirements are considered. The system capacity is found to depend significantly on the QoS objectives, which might be stated in terms of availability of some specified signal-to-interference level, packet-loss rate, or mean tolerable delay. The main finding is that strict requirements imposed on the radio access level tend to favor CDMA, whereas if some form of packet recovery is allowed at the higher layers (implying a relaxed set of requirements on the radio interface), then a somewhat higher capacity may be achieved by TDMA.     

Tuning radio resource in an overlay cognitive radio network for TCP: greed isn't good [Accepted from Open Call]

In this article we illustrate the performance of Transmission Control Protocol in an overlay cognitive radio network under dynamic spectrum access. We show that the performance of TCP in overlay CR networks that implement DSA to be quite different from its performance in conventional networks, which do not allow DSA. The key difference is that secondary users in an overlay CR network have to cope with a new type of loss called service interruption loss, due to the existence of primary users. We demonstrate on an NS2 simulation testbed the surprising result: Excessive radio resource usage leads to a decrease in aggregate TCP throughput. This behavior is in contrast to the behavior of TCP in conventional networks, where throughput increases monotonically with the available radio resource.     

Evolution and Impact of Wi-Fi Technology and Applications: A Historical Perspective

International Journal of Wireless Information Networks - The IEEE 802.11 standard for wireless local area networking (WLAN), commercially known as Wi-Fi, has become a necessity in our day-to-day...     

A detailed calculation of the auger lifetime in p-type HgCdTe

There has been recent experimental evidence that showed, in heavily doped p-type HgCdTe, the lifetime may be limited by the Auger 7 recombination mechanism. We have performed a detailed calculation of both the Auger 7 and Auger 1 lifetimes as a function of Cd composition (x), temperature (T), and doping (N_A). Compared with those done 20 years ago, the depth and breadth of these calculations result in a significant increase in the accuracy of the predictions. We present here the Auguer 7 lifetime for two different compositions, x=0.305 and x=0.226 over a range of temperature extending from 60 K to 300 K and for acceptor doping from 10¹⁵ cm⁻³ to 10¹⁸ cm⁻³. The calculated results for MWIR (x=0.305) are in reasonably good agreement with recent experiments performed on MWIR HgCdTe at 77 K over a range of doping. In addition, we calculated γ (≡ τ_A7 /τ_A1) with the same doping, composition (x ≈ 0.22), for a range of temperatures (40–80 K) and found γ=3–6.     

5-GHz 32-bit integer execution core in 130-nm dual-V/sub T/ CMOS

A 32-bit integer execution core containing a Han-Carlson arithmetic-logic unit (ALU), an 8-entry /spl times/ 2 ALU instruction scheduler loop and a 32-entry /spl times/ 32-bit register file is described. In a 130 nm six-metal, dual-V/sub T/ CMOS technology, the 2.3 mm/sup 2/ prototype contains 160 K transistors. Measurements demonstrate capability for 5-GHz single-cycle integer execution at 25/spl deg/C. The single-ended, leakage-tolerant dynamic scheme used in the ALU and scheduler enables up to 9-wide ORs with 23% critical path speed improvement and 40% active leakage power reduction when compared to a conventional Kogge-Stone implementation. On-chip body-bias circuits provide additional performance improvement or leakage tolerance. Stack node preconditioning improves ALU performance by 10%. At 5 GHz, ALU power is 95 mW at 0.95 V and the register file consumes 172 mW at 1.37 V. The ALU performance is scalable to 6.5 GHz at 1.1 V and to 10 GHz at 1.7 V, 25/spl deg/C.     

Nitroxide Radicals@US‐Tubes: New Spin Labels for Biomedical Applications

The encapsulation of nitroxide radicals within ultrashort (ca. 50 nm) single‐walled carbon nanotubes (US‐tubes) is achieved. Tempo‐ and Iodo‐Tempo@US‐tubes are characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Raman spectroscopy. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra display characteristic signals due to the detection of the spin probes within the US‐tubes. Longitudinal proton relaxivities (r₁) of both nitroxide@US‐tubes samples are 7 to 13 times greater than the free nitroxide radicals in solution, giving relaxivities comparable to the clinical contrast agent (CA) Magnevist. In addition, transverse proton relaxivities (r₂) show unprecedented proton relaxation enhancement in comparison to any other reported nitroxide radical‐based system or the clinically approved T₂ CA, Resovist, under the same conditions. T₂‐weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) phantom images show that the encapsulation of nitroxide radicals within the US‐tubes produces good contrast enhancement due to their high r₂ relaxivities. The nitroxide radicals@US‐tube agents are a new promising class of spin probes for MRI and electronic paramagnetic resonance imaging (EPRI) labeling, tracking, and diagnosis.     

Stochastic gradient algorithms for design of minimum error-rate linear dispersion codes in MIMO wireless systems

Linear dispersion (LD) codes are a good candidate for high-data-rate multiple-input multiple-ouput (MIMO) signaling. Traditionally LD codes were designed by maximizing the average mutual information, which cannot guarantee good error performance. This paper presents a new design scheme for LD codes that directly minimizes the block error rate (BLER) in MIMO channels with arbitrary fading statistics and various detection algorithms. For MIMO systems employing LD codes, the error rate does not admit an explicit form. Therefore, we cannot use deterministic optimization methods to design the minimum-error-rate LD codes. In this paper, we propose a simulation-based optimization methodology for the design of LD codes through stochastic approximation and simulation-based gradient estimation. The gradient estimation is done using the score function method originally developed in the discrete-event-system community. The proposed method can be applied to design the minimum-error-rate LD codes for a variety of detector structures including the maximum-likelihood (ML) detector and several suboptimal detectors. It can also design optimal codes under arbitrary fading channel statistics; in particular, it can take into account the knowledge of spatial fading correlation at the transmitter and receiver ends. Simulation results show that codes generated by the proposed new design paradigm generally outperform the codes designed based on algebraic number theory.