Discovered in 1880, piezoelectric materials play a key role in an innovative market of several billions of dollars. Recent advances in applications derive from new materials and their development, as well as to new market requirements. With the exception of quartz, ferroelectric materials are used for they offer both high efficiency and sufficient versatility to meet adequately the multidimensional requirements for application. Consequently, strong emphasis is placed on tailoring materials and technology, whether one deals with single crystals, ceramics or plastic materials. Tailoring requires a basic understanding of both physical principles and technical possibilities and limitations. This report elucidates these developments by a broad spectrum of examples, comprising ultrasound in medicine and defence industry, frequency control, signal processing by SAW-devices, sensors, actuators, including novel valves for modern motor management. It delivers a mutual fertilization of technology push and market pull that should be of interest not only to materials scientists or engineers but also to managers who dedicate themselves to a sound future-oriented R&D policy.

Microdroplet technology has recently emerged to provide new and diverse applications via microfluidic functionality, especially in various areas of biology and chemistry. This book, then, gives an overview of the principle components and wide-ranging applications for state-of-the-art of droplet-basedmicrofluidics. Chapter authors are internationally-leading researchers from chemistry, biology, physics and engineering that present various key aspects of micrdroplet technology -- fundamental flow physics, methodology and components for flow control, applications in biology and chemistry, and a discussion of future perspectives. This book acts as a reference for academics, post-graduate students, and researcher wishing to deepen their understand of microfluidics and introduce optimal design and operation of new droplet-based microfluidic devices for more comprehensive analyte assessments."

Frequency and time control systems are key circuits found in almost every electronic device today. Mobile phones, GPS systems, PCs, the Internet, and networking equipment are among the many technologies relying on frequency and time control systems. This book is a comprehensive, cohesive reference offering an in-depth understanding of how these circuits are used in a broad and varied range of applications. Moreover, it shows RF system designers how to integrate high performance components onto a single chip. Engineers can also refer to the book's detailed information about performance issues and error correction to help overcome design challenges in the field. Substantial material is devoted to frequency techniques used in WiMAX and other upcoming wireless technologies. With more than 1,000 equations and 500 figures, the book contains computer program scripts to tackle every circuit engineering problem.A CD-ROM is included! It contains practical tools to aid in the design process such as Visio figures and Matlab code for nearly all the mathematical plots in the book.

PES College of Engineering is organizing an International Conference on Emerging Research in Electronics, Computer Science and Technology (ICERECT-12) in Mandya and merging the event with Golden Jubilee of the Institute. The Proceedings of the Conference presents high quality, peer reviewed articles from the field of Electronics, Computer Science and Technology. The book is a compilation of research papers from the cutting-edge technologies and it is targeted towards the scientific community actively involved in research activities.

* Covers all aspects of the data acquisition system from design and specification to programming, installation and configuration
* Gives both the novice and experienced user a solid understanding of interfacing the PC and standalone instruments to real-world signals from the laboratory to the industrial plant
* Provides a thorough grasp of PC data acquisition systems and the ability to design, specify, install and configure and program data acquisition systems quickly and effectively
This book focuses on data acquisition and control using the PC and standalone instruments. The PC has made a dramatic impact in the ease with which the technician, scientist and engineer today can set up their own test and measurement system at a remarkably low cost. And this book aims to show you how easy it is with plenty of carefully researched information. The popular IEEE 488 interface is also covered. All aspects of the data acquisition system are included from design and specification to programming, installation and configuration. This book gives both the novice and experienced user a solid grasp of the principles and practical implementation of interfacing the PC and standalone instruments to real-world signals from the laboratory to the industrial plant. Once you have read the book, you will have a thorough grasp of PC data acquisition systems and will be able to design, specify, install and configure and program data acquisition systems quickly and effectively.
* Covers all aspects of the data acquisition system from design and specification to programming, installation and configuration
* Gives both the novice and experienced user a solid understanding of interfacing the PC and standalone instruments to real-world signals from the laboratory to the industrial plant
* Provides a thorough grasp of PC data acquisition systems and the ability to design, specify, install and configure and program data acquisition systems quickly and effectively

This book provides electrical and electronic engineering undergraduate and graduate students and trainees with practical information on grounding-system parameters, and on different methods for measuring soil resistivity and ground resistance. It also presents some real-world studies, which enhance the learning experience. It discusses electromagnetic field theories to explain ground resistance modeling using different sizes of electrodes. Furthermore it includes CYME GRD software for simulation of soil resistivity and grounding grid design, and considers some fundamental concepts of power systems to clarify other topics related to the grounding system.

This book presents an in-depth discussion on molecular electronics in an easy-to-understand manner, aiming at chemists, computer scientists, surface scientists, physicists, and applied mathematicians. Lighter overviews are provided for the science-minded layperson and the high tech entrepreneur in this nanoscale science. The author has included a detailed synthetic chemistry treasure chest, protocols of self-assembling routes for bottom-up fabrication atop silicon platforms, representative currentvoltage and memory readouts from molecular devices, and overviews of present architectural and mathematical approaches to programming molecular computing machines. The investment and commercial insertion landscape is painted along with a "Who's Who" in the molecular electronics business space. Advice and forewarnings are provided in a practical yet witty manner for the aspiring academic corporate founder and the business CEO wannabe seeking to establish a high tech company while wading through the idiosyncratic morass of university personalities and university-owned intellectual property.

This book focuses linear estimation theory, which is essential for effective signal processing. The first section offers a comprehensive overview of key methods like reduced-rank signal processing and Krylov subspace methods of numerical mathematics. Also, the relationship between statistical signal processing and numerical mathematics is presented. In the second part, the theory is applied to iterative multiuser detection receivers (Turbo equalization) which are typically desired in wireless communications systems.

This book introduces readers to alternative approaches to designing efficient embedded systems using unconventional number systems. The authors describe various systems that can be used for designing efficient embedded and application-specific processors, such as Residue Number System, Logarithmic Number System, Redundant Binary Number System Double-Base Number System, Decimal Floating Point Number System and Continuous Valued Number System. Readers will learn the strategies and trade-offs of using unconventional number systems in application-specific processors and be able to apply and design appropriate arithmetic operations from these number systems to boost the performance of digital systems.

Intended for wire-bonding and flip-chip packaging professionals and for scientists and engineers working in the field of mechanical microsensors, this practical monograph introduces novel measurement technologies that allow for in situ and real-time examination of physical processes during the packaging process or during subsequent reliability tests. The measurement system presented here makes possible measurements at formerly inaccessible packaging interconnects. For the first time it becomes possible to describe the wire-bonding process window in terms of the physical forces at the contact zone instead of the applied machine settings. This is significant for a deeper understanding and future development of these packaging processes. Applications of the sensor in the field of wire bonding and flip-chip characterization are also illustrated. The reader will gain much insight into the important field of interconnection technology in semiconductor packaging.

This volume is a special Issue on "Dynamical Systems, Wave based computation and neuro inspired robots'^ based on a Course carried out at the CISM in Udine (Italy), the last week of September, 2003. From the topics treated within that Course, several new ideas were f- mulated, which led to a new kind of approach to locomotion and p- ception, grounded both on biologically inspired issues and on nonlinear dynamics. The Course was characterised by a high degree of multi disciplinarity. In fact, in order to conceive, design and build neuro inspired machines, it is necessary to deeply scan into different d- ciplines, including neuroscience. Artificial Intelligence, Biorobotics, Dynamical Systems theory and Electronics. New types of moving machines should be more closely related to the biological rules, not discarding the real implementation issues. The recipe has to include neurobiological paradigms as well as behavioral aspects from the one hand, new circuit paradigms, able of real time control of multi joint robots on the other hand. These new circuit paradigms are based on the theory of complex nonlinear dynamical systems, where aggregates of simple non linear units into ensembles of lattices, have the pr- erty that the solution set is much richer than that one shown by the single units. As a consequence, new solutions ^'emerge'\ which are often characterized by order and harmony.

Applied Time Series Analysis and Innovative Computing contains the applied time series analysis and innovative computing paradigms, with frontier application studies for the time series problems based on the recent works at the Oxford University Computing Laboratory, University of Oxford, the University of Hong Kong, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The monograph was drafted when the author was a post-doctoral fellow in Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University. It provides a systematic introduction to the use of innovative computing paradigms as an investigative tool for applications in time series analysis. Applied Time Series Analysis and Innovative Computing offers the state of art of tremendous advances in applied time series analysis and innovative computing paradigms and also serves as an excellent reference work for researchers and graduate students working on applied time series analysis and innovative computing paradigms.

The book is entirely dedicated to the exploration of time-domain electromagnetic fields in the presence of thin, high contrast sheets, with an emphasis on metasurfaces combining magnetic and dielectric properties. Since the number of problems that are amenable to exact solutions in terms of analytic functions is limited, the book's analysis is not restricted to analytical methods only, attention is paid to the development of computational and approximate techniques too. All the solution methodologies presented in the book heavily rely on the Cagniard-DeHoop technique. Regrettably, perhaps because of its origins in seismology, this powerful mathematical tool is still not fully appreciated in the electromagnetics and antenna community. It is hoped that this book will demonstrate the truly broad applicability of the Cagniard-DeHoop technique to achieving both analytical and numerical time-domain solutions. The book is for advanced researchers in computational electromagnetics and those looking for new approaches to modelling of metasurfaces. The book also includes a foreword from Professor Adrianus T. de Hoop, the originator of the Cagniard-DeHoop technique, who ingeniously simplified a joint transform initially put forward by the French geophysicist Cagniard.

As the complexity of modern embedded systems increases, it becomes less practical to design monolithic processing platforms. As a result, reconfigurable computing is being adopted widely for more flexible design. Reconfigurable Computers offer the spatial parallelism and fine-grained customizability of application-specific circuits with the postfabrication programmability of software. To make the most of this unique combination of performance and flexibility, designers need to be aware of both hardware and software issues. FPGA users must think not only about the gates needed to perform a computation but also about the software flow that supports the design process. The goal of this book is to help designers become comfortable with these issues, and thus be able to exploit the vast opportunities possible with reconfigurable logic.

CMOS Fractional-N Synthesizers fits in the quest for small and cheap cellular transceiver solutions. The book is conceived as a manual for the design of fully integrated DeltaSigma fractional-N frequency synthesizers in CMOS with a focus on achieving a high spectral purity, i.e. low-phase-noise and high spurious suppression. Fractional-N design is elaborated from specification derivation up to architectural and building block level and down to circuit level.

CMOS Fractional-N Synthesizers starts with a comprehensive introduction to general frequency synthesis. Different architectures and synthesizer building blocks are discussed with their relative importance on synthesizer specifications. The process of synthesizer specification derivation is illustrated with the DCS-1800 standard as a general test case.

The book tackles the design of fractional-N synthesizers in CMOS on circuit level as well as system level. The circuit level focuses on high-speed prescaler design up to 12 GHz in CMOS and on fully integrated, low-phase-noise LC-VCO design. High-Q inductor integration and simulation in CMOS is elaborated and flicker noise minimization techniques are presented, ranging from bias point choice to noise filtering techniques.

On a higher level, a systematic design strategy has been developed that trades off all noise contributions and fast dynamics for integrated capacitance (area). Moreover, a theoretical DeltaSigma phase noise analysis is presented, extended with a fast non-linear analysis method to accurately predict the influence of PLL non-linearities on the spectral purity of the DeltaSigma fractional-N frequency synthesizers.

CMOS Fractional-N Synthesizers covers thetotal design flow of monolithic CMOS fractional-N synthesizers with high spectral purity while providing insight in the most critical issues of monolithic fractional-N synthesis. All material is experimentally verified with several CMOS implementations, with ultimately a monolithic CMOS &Dgr;&Sgr;-controlled fractional-N synthesizer, which was part of a CMOS DCS-1800 transceiver front-end. The book is essential reading for analog and RF design engineers and researchers in the field and it is also suitable as text book for an advanced course on the subject.

This text describes the design and theory of continuous-time sigma-delta modulators for analogue-to-digital conversion in radio receivers. The book's main focus is on dynamic range, linearity and power efficiency aspects of sigma-delta modulators, which are very important requirements for use in battery operated receivers.

The book introduces an original and effective method for the analysis of peak-to-peak output current ripple amplitude in three-phase two-level inverters. It shows that the method can be extended to both multiphase inverters, with particular emphasis on five-phase and seven-phase inverters, and multilevel ones, with particular emphasis on three-level inverters, and provides, therefore, a comparison among different number of output phases and voltage levels. The work reported on here represents the first detailed analysis of the peak-to-peak output current ripple. It makes an important step toward future developments in the field of high-power generation, and in grid-connected and motor-load systems.

This book contains a collection of selected works stemming from the 2013 International Conference on Sensing Technology (ICST), which was held in Wellington, New Zealand. The purpose of the book is to distill the highlights of the conference, and therefore track the latest developments in sensing technologies. The book contents are broad, since sensors can be applied in many different areas. Therefore the book gives a broad overview of the latest developments, in addition to discussing the process through which researchers go through in order to develop sensors, or related systems, which will become more widespread in the future. The book is written for academic and industry professionals working in the field of sensing, instrumentation and related fields, and is positioned to give a snapshot of the current state of the art in sensing technology, particularly from the applied perspective.

There is a growing number of applications that require fast-rotating machines; motivation for this thesis comes from a project in which downsized spindles for micro-machining have been researched. The thesis focuses on analysis and design of high-speed PM machines and uses a practical design of a high-speed spindle drive as a test case. Phenomena, both mechanical and electromagnetic, that take precedence in high-speed permanent magnet machines are identified and systematized. The thesis identifies inherent speed limits of permanent magnet machines and correlates those limits with the basic parameters of the machines. The analytical expression of the limiting quantities does not only impose solid constraints on the machine design, but also creates the way for design optimization leading to the maximum mechanical and/or electromagnetic utilization of the machine. The models and electric-drive concepts developed in the thesis are evaluated in a practical setup.

This excellent reference proposes and develops new strategies, methodologies and tools for designing low-power and low-area CMOS pipelined A/D converters. The task is tackled by following a scientifically-consistent approach. The book may also be used as a text for advanced reading on the subject.