This book introduces a new level of abstraction that closes the gap between the textual specification of embedded systems and the executable model at the Electronic System Level (ESL). Readers will be enabled to operate at this new, Formal Specification Level (FSL), using models which not only allow significant verification tasks in this early stage of the design flow, but also can be extracted semi-automatically from the textual specification in an interactive manner. The authors explain how to use these verification tasks to check conceptual properties, e.g. whether requirements are in conflict, as well as dynamic behavior, in terms of execution traces.

This is an applications-oriented text that describes the basics of EM fields and gives solutions to crosstalk problems using relevant formulas, experiments and analysis.

System on Chip Interfaces for Low Power Design provides a top-down understanding of interfaces available to SoC developers, not only the underlying protocols and architecture of each, but also how they interact and the tradeoffs involved. The book offers a common context to help understand the variety of available interfaces and make sense of technology from different vendors aligned with multiple standards. With particular emphasis on power as a factor, the authors explain how each interface performs in various usage scenarios and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. Readers learn to make educated decisions on what interfaces to use when designing systems and gain insight for innovating new/custom interfaces for a subsystem and their potential impact.

This volume presents an integrated survey of the most recent research, engineering development and commercial application of amorphous and microcrystalline semiconductor optoelectronic devices. The emphasis throughout the book is on understanding the physical fundamentals with a view towards designing and implementing practical optoelectronic devices.

This book introduces a completely novel architecture that can relax the trade-off existing today between noise, power and area consumption in a very suitable solution for advanced wireless communication systems. Through the combination of charge-domain operation with incremental signaling, this architecture gives the best of both worlds, providing the reduced area and high portability of digital-intensive architectures with an improved out-of-band noise performance given by intrinsic noise filtering capabilities. Readers will be enabled to design higher performance radio front-ends that consume less power and area, especially with respect to the transmitter and power amplifier designs, considered by many the "battery killers" on most mobile devices.

This book discusses the development of promising technologies for compact antennas for high data-rate communications. It discusses and analyzes the design of compact ultra-wideband (UWB) and multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) antennas, providing essential know-how for designers, practicing engineers and scientists. These wireless communication technologies enable consumers to have convenient access to a wide range of services - anytime, anywhere. And the introduction of wireless mobile access points eliminates the limitations to communication imposed by geographical location. The Internet has allowed people to access and share information much more rapidly, but in order to achieve higher data rates with the limited available resources and imposed constraints, wireless communication technology needs to be pushed beyond the physical limits of the propagation channel. This book contributes to achieving this goal.

This book describes the design, fabrication and evaluation of a polymer-based neural interface for a cochlear electrode array, reviewed in terms of fabrication process, functionality, and reliability. Polymer-based devices have attracted attention in the neural prosthetic field due to their flexibility and compatibility with micro-fabrication process. A liquid crystal polymer (LCP) is an inert, highly water-resistant polymer suitable for the encapsulation of electronic components and as a substrate material for fabricating neural interfaces. The author has designed, fabricated, and evaluated an LCP-based cochlear electrode array for an improved polymer-based cochlear implant. The thesis deals with 3 key topics: atraumatic deep insertion, tripolar stimulation, and long-term reliability. Atraumatic insertion of the intracochlear electrode and resulting preservation of residual hearing have become essential in state-of-the-art cochlear implantation. A novel tapered design of an LCP-based cochlear electrode array is presented to meet such goals. For high-density and pitch-recognizable cochlear implant, channel interaction should be avoided. Local tripolar stimulation using multi-layered electrode sites are shown to achieve highly focused electrical stimulation. This thesis addresses another vital issue in the polymer-based neural implants: the long-term reliability issue. After suggesting a new method of forming mechanical interlocking to improve polymer-metal adhesion, the author performs accelerating aging tests to verify the method's efficacy. The aforementioned three topics have been thoroughly examined through various in vitro and in vivo studies. Verification foresees the development of LCP-based cochlear electrode array for an atraumatic deep insertion, advanced stimulation, and long-term clinical implant.

The explosion in the wireless industry, coupled with the higher frequencies in today's digital integrated circuits (IC) has made vital the need for accurate IC testing. This is the first book dedicated to the issues surrounding RFIC testing. This ground breaking work enables professionals to perform high-accuracy RF measurements of die and packages in the RF test lab. This timely volume defines the essential elements in an RF system, explains where errors can be found in such a system and shows how to mathematically remove them with calibration.

This book presents techniques necessary to predict cardiac arrhythmias, long before they occur, based on minimal ECG data. The authors describe the key information needed for automated ECG signal processing, including ECG signal pre-processing, feature extraction and classification. The adaptive and novel ECG processing techniques introduced in this book are highly effective and suitable for real-time implementation on ASICs.

This book discusses analysis, design and optimization techniques for streaming multiprocessor systems, while satisfying a given area, performance, and energy budget. The authors describe design flows for both application-specific and general purpose streaming systems. Coverage also includes the use of machine learning for thermal optimization at run-time, when an application is being executed. The design flow described in this book extends to thermal and energy optimization with multiple applications running sequentially and concurrently.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of both theoretical and pragmatic aspects of resource-allocation and scheduling in multiprocessor and multicore hard-real-time systems. The authors derive new, abstract models of real-time tasks that capture accurately the salient features of real application systems that are to be implemented on multiprocessor platforms, and identify rules for mapping application systems onto the most appropriate models. New run-time multiprocessor scheduling algorithms are presented, which are demonstrably better than those currently used, both in terms of run-time efficiency and tractability of off-line analysis. Readers will benefit from a new design and analysis framework for multiprocessor real-time systems, which will translate into a significantly enhanced ability to provide formally verified, safety-critical real-time systems at a significantly lower cost.

This book discusses the design and implementation of energy harvesting systems targeting wearable devices. The authors describe in detail the different energy harvesting sources that can be utilized for powering low-power devices in general, focusing on the best candidates for wearable applications. Coverage also includes state-of-the-art interface circuits, which can be used to accept energy from harvesters and deliver it to a device in the most efficient way. Finally, the authors present power management circuits for using multiple energy harvesting sources at the same time to power devices and to enhance efficiency of the system.

This book offers readers comprehensive coverage of security policy specification using new policy languages, implementation of security policies in Systems-on-Chip (SoC) designs - current industrial practice, as well as emerging approaches to architecting SoC security policies and security policy verification. The authors focus on a promising security architecture for implementing security policies, which satisfies the goals of flexibility, verification, and upgradability from the ground up, including a plug-and-play hardware block in which all policy implementations are enclosed. Using this architecture, they discuss the ramifications of designing SoC security policies, including effects on non-functional properties (power/performance), debug, validation, and upgrade. The authors also describe a systematic approach for "hardware patching", i.e., upgrading hardware implementations of security requirements safely, reliably, and securely in the field, meeting a critical need for diverse Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Provides comprehensive coverage of SoC security requirements, security policies, languages, and security architecture for current and emerging computing devices; Explodes myths and ambiguities in SoC security policy implementations, and provide a rigorous treatment of the subject; Demonstrates a rigorous, step-by-step approach to developing a diversity of SoC security policies; Introduces a rigorous, disciplined approach to "hardware patching", i.e., secure technique for updating hardware functionality of computing devices in-field; Includes discussion of current and emerging approaches for security policy verification.

In the past four years we have witnessed rapid development in technology and significant market penetration in many applications for LED systems. New processes and new materials have been introduced; new standards and new testing methods have been developed; new driver, control and sensing technologies have been integrated; and new and unknown failure modes have also been presented. In this book, Solid State Lighting Reliability Part 2, we invited the experts from industry and academia to present the latest developments and findings in the LED system reliability arena. Topics in this book cover the early failures and critical steps in LED manufacturing; advances in reliability testing and standards; quality of colour and colour stability; degradation of optical materials and the associated chromaticity maintenance; characterization of thermal interfaces; LED solder joint testing and prediction; common failure modes in LED drivers; root causes for lumen depreciation; corrosion sensitivity of LED packages; reliability management for automotive LEDs, and lightning effects on LEDs. This book is a continuation of Solid State Lighting Reliability: Components to Systems (published in 2013), which covers reliability aspects ranging from the LED to the total luminaire or system of luminaires. Together, these two books are a full set of reference books for Solid State Lighting reliability from the performance of the (sub-) components to the total system, regardless its complexity.

This work is motivated by the ongoing open question of how information in the outside world is represented and processed by the brain. Consequently, several novel methods are developed. A new mathematical formulation is proposed for the encoding and decoding of analog signals using integrate-and-fire neuron models. Based on this formulation, a novel algorithm, significantly faster than the state-of-the-art method, is proposed for reconstructing the input of the neuron. Two new identification methods are proposed for neural circuits comprising a filter in series with a spiking neuron model. These methods reduce the number of assumptions made by the state-of-the-art identification framework, allowing for a wider range of models of sensory processing circuits to be inferred directly from input-output observations. A third contribution is an algorithm that computes the spike time sequence generated by an integrate-and-fire neuron model in response to the output of a linear filter, given the input of the filter encoded with the same neuron model.

This book provides readers with guidelines for designing integrated multi-MHz-switching converters for input voltages/system supplies up to 50V or higher. Coverage includes converter theory, converter architectures, circuit design, efficiency, sizing of passives, technology aspects, etc. The author discusses new circuit designs, new architectures and new switching concepts, including dead-time control and soft-switching techniques that overcome current limitations of these converters. The discussion includes technology related issues and helps readers to choose the right technology for fast-switching converters. This book discusses benefits and drawbacks in terms of integration, size and cost, efficiency and complexity, and enables readers to make trade-offs in design, given different converter parameters. Describes a study for increasing switching frequencies up to 30 MHz at input voltages up to 50V or higher in the scaling of the size of switching converter passives; Analyzes various buck converter implementations and shows that a preference due to higher efficiency depends on the operating point, on the available switch technologies, and on the implementation of the high-side supply generation; Describes an efficiency model based on a four-phase model, which enables separation of loss causes and loss locations.

This book offers the first comprehensive view on integrated circuit and system design for the Internet of Things (IoT), and in particular for the tiny nodes at its edge. The authors provide a fresh perspective on how the IoT will evolve based on recent and foreseeable trends in the semiconductor industry, highlighting the key challenges, as well as the opportunities for circuit and system innovation to address them. This book describes what the IoT really means from the design point of view, and how the constraints imposed by applications translate into integrated circuit requirements and design guidelines. Chapter contributions equally come from industry and academia. After providing a system perspective on IoT nodes, this book focuses on state-of-the-art design techniques for IoT applications, encompassing the fundamental sub-systems encountered in Systems on Chip for IoT: ultra-low power digital architectures and circuits low- and zero-leakage memories (including emerging technologies) circuits for hardware security and authentication System on Chip design methodologies on-chip power management and energy harvesting ultra-low power analog interfaces and analog-digital conversion short-range radios miniaturized battery technologies packaging and assembly of IoT integrated systems (on silicon and non-silicon substrates). As a common thread, all chapters conclude with a prospective view on the foreseeable evolution of the related technologies for IoT. The concepts developed throughout the book are exemplified by two IoT node system demonstrations from industry. The unique balance between breadth and depth of this book: enables expert readers quickly to develop an understanding of the specific challenges and state-of-the-art solutions for IoT, as well as their evolution in the foreseeable future provides non-experts with a comprehensive introduction to integrated circuit design for IoT, and serves as an excellent starting point for further learning, thanks to the broad coverage of topics and selected references makes it very well suited for practicing engineers and scientists working in the hardware and chip design for IoT, and as textbook for senior undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students ( familiar with analog and digital circuits).

Formal Verification: An Essential Toolkit for Modern VLSI Design, Second Edition presents practical approaches for design and validation, with hands-on advice to help working engineers integrate these techniques into their work. Formal Verification (FV) enables a designer to directly analyze and mathematically explore the quality or other aspects of a Register Transfer Level (RTL) design without using simulations. This can reduce time spent validating designs and more quickly reach a final design for manufacturing. Building on a basic knowledge of SystemVerilog, this book demystifies FV and presents the practical applications that are bringing it into mainstream design and validation processes. New sections cover advanced techniques, and a new chapter, The Road To Formal Signoff, emphasizes techniques used when replacing simulation work with Formal Verification. After reading this book, readers will be prepared to introduce FV in their organization to effectively deploy FV techniques that increase design and validation productivity.

An indispensible guide to the uses of optical ICs, this practical volume examines the theory, fabrication techniques, and applications of the latest generation of optical devices. Focusing on the hybrid type of OIC, the book discusses passive waveguide devices, functional optical waveguide devices, micro-fabrication, optical waveguide theory, and current research problems.

Contains case studies conducted at six facilities to evaluate the technical, environmental and cost impacts associated with the implementation of technologies for reducing the volume and toxicity of printed circuit board metals-containing sludges and solvent wastes. Analyses of these data are the ba

This book introduces the basic fundamentals, models, emulators and analyses of mem-elements in the circuit theory with applications. The book starts reviewing the literature on mem-elements, models and their recent applications. It presents mathematical models, numerical results, circuit simulations, and experimental results for double-loop hysteresis behavior of mem-elements. The authors introduce a generalized memristor model in the fractional-order domain under different input and different designs for emulator-based mem-elements, with circuit and experimental results. The basic concept of memristive-based relaxation-oscillators in the circuit theory is also covered. The reader will moreover find in this book information on memristor-based multi-level digital circuits, memristor-based multi-level multiplier and memcapacitor-based oscillators and synaptic circuits.

This book provides a practical, hands-on approach to teach the foundation of 2.5D/3D heterogeneous design. Based on the author's extensive, industrial experience, this book enables integrated circuit design techniques that provide more memory to the logic chip, also allowing for mixing chips and intellectual property blocks from any vendor to build a more complex chip, more efficiently and cost effectively. Various practical examples and industrial projects are presented throughout the book, including questions and term projects at the end of each chapter. This book is a great resource for practicing engineers and can be used at universities to teach a course at the senior undergraduate and graduate level.

This book will guide Photovoltaics researchers in a new way of thinking about harvesting light energy from all wavelengths of the solar spectrum. It closes the gap between general solar cells books and photovoltaics journal articles, by focusing on the latest developments in our understanding of solid-state device physics. The material presented is experimental and based on II-VI thin-film materials, mainly CdTe-based solar cells. The authors describe the use of new device design, based on multilayer graded bandgap configuration, using CdTe-based solar cells. The authors also explain how the photo-generated currents can be enhanced using multi-step charge carrier production. The possibility of fabricating these devices using low-cost and scalable electroplating is demonstrated. The value of electroplating for large area electronic devices such as PV solar panels, display devices and nano-technology devices are also demonstrated. By enabling new understanding of the engineering of electroplated semiconductor materials and providing an overview of the semiconductor physics and technology, this practical book is ideal to guide researchers, engineers, and manufacturers on future solar cell device designs and fabrications. Discusses in detail the processes of growths, treatments, solar cell device fabrication and solid state physics, improving readers' understanding of fundamental solid state physics; Enables future improvements in CdTe-based device efficiency; Explains the significance of defects in deposited semiconductor materials and interfaces that affect the material properties and resulting device performance.