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In this study, an optimization procedure was proposed for the magnetic component of an integrated transformer applied in a center-tap phase-shifted full-bridge converter. To accommodate high power&ndash, density 0demand, a transformer and an output inductor were integrated into a magnetic component to reduce the volume of the magnetic material and the primary and secondary windings of the transformer were wound on the magnetic legs to reduce conduction loss attributable to the alternating-current resistor. With a focus on the integrated transformer applied in a phase-shifted full-bridge converter, circuit operation in each time interval was analyzed, and a design procedure was established for the integrated magnetic component. In addition, the manner in which output inductance was affected by the mutual inductance between the transformer and the output inductor in the integrated transformer during various operation intervals was discussed and, to minimize circuit loss, a design optimization procedure for the magnetic core was proposed. Finally, the integrated transformer was applied in a phase-shifted full-bridge converter to achieve an input voltage of 400 V, an output voltage of 12 V, output power of 1.7 kW, an output frequency of 80 kHz, and a maximum conversion efficiency of 96.7%.

In this article, we present a new photocurrent sensory circuit with a three-transistor background light cancellation. We describe our innovative photocurrent sensor-based blood pressure measuring device using a resistor-based current-to-voltage converter with a background light cancellation (BLC) loop. The photocurrent sensor is implemented using 0.35 μm standard CMOS technology and has zero average power consumption. The post-layout simulation for the photocurrent sensor shows a 1.3 MΩ transimpedance gain, a referred input noise current of 11 pA, and can reject a DC photocurrent up to 200 μA. This high DC rejection has been achieved due to the newly proposed multi-transistor BLC loop integrated with the sensor.

The well-known circuit for the generation of lightning impulse voltage (LIV) on low-inductance loads was introduced by Glaninger in 1975, and the circuit component selection was proposed by Feser. However, the circuit and the approach for the component selection have some difficulties for which further adjustment is required for obtaining the waveform parameters according to the standard requirement. In this paper, an extended Glaninger’s circuit with an additional series resistor is proposed. Furthermore, a systematic design and circuit analysis of LIV generation for low-inductance loads are developed. With the help of a circuit simulator, the circuit analysis for the component selection is described. The validity of the proposed circuit was confirmed by some experimental results in comparison with the simulated ones. The proposed circuit and component selection provide not only the generation waveform according to the standard requirement but also other promising performances in terms of the wide inductance load range from 400 μH to 4 mH, a voltage efficiency of over 80%, an overshoot voltage of below 5%, an undershoot voltage of below 40%, and a maximum charging capacitance of 10 μF. From the simulated and experimental results, the proposed circuit and component selection approach is very useful for the LIV tests on low-inductance loads instead of using the conventional approach based on trial and error.

This work presents a process design kit (PDK) for a 0.15 μm GaAs pHEMT process for low-noise MMIC applications developed for AWR Microwave Office (MWO). A complete set of basic elements is proposed, such as TaN thin film resistors and mesa-resistors, capacitors, inductors, and transistors. The developed PDK can be used in technology transfer or education.

This research paper discusses issues regarding the impact of temperature on the tripping thresholds of intrusion detection system detection circuits. The objective of conducted studies was the verification of a hypothesis assuming that the variability of an intrusion detection system’s (considered as a whole) operating environment temperature can impact the electrical parameters of its detection circuits significantly enough so that it enables a change in the interpretation of the state observed within a given circuit fragment from the state of “no circuit violation” to “circuit violation”. The research covered an intrusion detection system placed in a climatic chamber with adjusted temperature (−25.1 ÷ +60.0 [°C]). The analysis of the obtained results enabled determining the relationships that allow selecting detection circuit resistor values. It is important since it increases the safety level of protected facilities through proper resistor selection, thus, correct interpretation of a detection circuit state.

Gas sensor based on the Ultraviolet and Ozone (UVO) treated Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) Graphene Oxide (GO) and the Ion Sensitive GO-Si based metal-semiconductor junction resistor was designed and realized. Under different gate voltages, the response characteristics of the sensor to ammonia concentration, as well as the selectivity and stability of the sensor were studied. The test results show that the comprehensive performance of the gas sensor is the best when the UVO processing time is 1 min and the applied gate voltage is −9 V. The proposed Ion Sensitive GO-Si based metal-semiconductor junction resistor Gas Sensor can detect 250 ppb ammonia with a sensitivity of 4%. The detection limit of the sensor is 50 ppb. Using acetone and ethanol as contrast gases, the sensor shows better selectivity for ammonia. The sensitivity retention rate of the sensor after 10 days is higher than 70%, which indicates that the sensor has a good retention performance.

In this paper, we studied the space charge phenomena of a solid polymer under thermal and electrical stresses with different frequencies and waveforms. By analyzing the parameter selection method of a protection capacitor and resistor, the newly built pulsed electro-acoustic (PEA) system can be used for special electrical stresses under 500 Hz, based on which the charge phenomena are studied in detail under positive and negative DC and half-wave sine and rectangular wave voltages. Experimental results show that the charge accumulated in the polyimide polymer under DC conditions mainly comes from the grounded electrode side, and the amount of charge accumulated with electric field distortion becomes larger in a high-temperature environment. At room temperature, positive charges tend to accumulate in low-frequency conditions under positive rectangular wave voltages, while they easily appear under high-frequency situations of negative ones. In contrast, the maximum electric field distortion and charge accumulation under both half-wave sine voltages occur at 10 Hz. When the measurement temperature increases, the accumulated positive charge decreases, with a more negative charge appearing under rectangular wave voltages, while a more positive charge accumulates at different frequencies of half-wave sine voltages. Therefore, our study of the charge characteristics under different voltage and temperature conditions can provide a reference for applications in the corresponding environments.

An odor sensing system with chemosensitive resistors was used to identify the gases generated from overheated cables to prevent fire. Three different electric cables for a distribution cabinet were used. The cables had an insulation layer made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE). The heat resistance of the cables was tested by differential thermal and thermogravimetric analyses. The thermal decomposition products of the cables were investigated by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). For the odor sensing system, two types of 16-channel array were used to detect the generated gases. One contains high-polarity GC stationary phase materials and the other contains GC stationary phase materials of high to low polarity. The system could distinguish among three cable samples at 270 °C with an accuracy of about 75% through both arrays trained with machine learning. Furthermore, the system could achieve a recall rate of 90% and a precision rate of 70% when the abnormal temperature was set above the cables’ allowable conductor temperature at 130 °C. The odor sensing system could effectively detect the abnormal heating of the cables before the occurrence of fire. Therefore, it is helpful for fire prediction and detection systems in factories and substations.

In this study, we propose an improved macro-model of an N-type feedback field-effect transistor (NFBFET) and compare it with a previous macro-model for circuit simulation. The macro-model of the NFBFET is configured into two parts. One is a charge integrator circuit and the other is a current generator circuit. The charge integrator circuit consisted of one N-type metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (NMOSFET), one capacitor, and one resistor. This circuit implements the charging characteristics of NFBFET, which occur in the channel region. For the previous model, the current generator circuit consisted of one ideal switch and one resistor. The previous current generator circuit could implement IDS-VGS characteristics but could not accurately implement IDS-VDS characteristics. To solve this problem, we connected a physics-based diode model with an ideal switch in series to the current generator circuit. The parameters of the NMOSFET and diode used in this proposed model were fitted from TCAD data of the NFBFET, divided into two parts. The proposed model implements not only the IDS-VGS characteristics but also the IDS-VDS characteristics. A hybrid inverter and an integrate and fire (I&amp, F) circuit for a spiking neural network, which consisted of NMOSFETs and an NFBFET, were simulated using the circuit simulator to verify a validation of the proposed NFBFET macro-model.

In this paper, a novel analytical design technique is presented to implement a coupled-line wideband Wilkinson power divider (WPD). The configuration of the WPD is comprised of three distinct coupled-line and three isolation resistors. A comprehensive theoretical analysis is conducted to arrive at a set of completely new and rigorous design equations utilizing the dual-band behavior of commensurate transmission lines. Further, the corresponding S-parameters equations are also derived, which determine the wideband capability of the proposed WPD. To validate the proposed design concept, a prototype working at the resonance frequencies of 0.9 GHz and 1.8 GHz is designed and fabricated using 60 mils thick Rogers’ RO4003C substrate. The measured result of the fabricated prototype exhibits an excellent input return loss &gt, 16.4 dB, output return loss &gt, 15 dB, insertion loss &lt, 3.30 dB and a remarkable isolation &gt, 22 dB within the band and with a 15 dB and 10 dB references provide a fractional bandwidth of 110% and 141%, respectively.

We fabricated Cu-doped TiNxOy thin film resistors by using atomic layer deposition, optical lithography, dry etching, Ti/Cu/Ti/Au e-beam evaporation and lift-off processes. The results of the measurements of the resistance temperature dependence, non-linearity, S-parameters at 0.01–26 GHz and details of the breakdown mechanism under high-voltage stress are reported. The devices’ sheet resistance is 220 ± 8 Ω/□ (480 ± 20 µΩ*cm), intrinsic resistance temperature coefficient (TCR) is ~400 ppm/°C in the T-range of 10–300 K, and S-parameters versus frequency are flat up to 2 GHz with maximum variation of 10% at 26 GHz. The resistors can sustain power and current densities up to ~5 kW*cm−2 and ~2 MA*cm−2, above which they switch to high-resistance state with the sheet resistance equal to ~200 kΩ/□ (~0.4 Ω*cm) caused by nitrogen and copper desorption from TiNxOy film. The Cu/Ti/TiNxOy contact is prone to ageing due to gradual titanium oxidation while the TiNxOy resistor body is stable. The resistors have strong potential for applications in high-frequency integrated and hybrid circuits that require small-footprint, medium-range resistors of 0.05–10 kΩ, with small TCR and high-power handling capability.

This paper focuses on a differential voltage measurement in low-voltage automotive devices whose subunits are separated with a low-side safety switch. In contrast to conventional applications with high-side switches, a common-mode voltage (CMV) with negative polarity exists at the input of the signal conditioning circuitry. To overcome the shortage of dedicated integrated circuits capable of withstanding negative CMV, the paper investigates single- and two-stage differential circuits with single-supplied operational amplifiers to find a cost-optimized counterpart. In addition, the proposed procedure tunes the circuit parameters in such a manner to obtain the largest possible full-scale range at the output. Though, such optimization results in very uncommon values for gain and reference voltages. This issue is additionally evaluated for reference voltages that are either cost-effective or more easily accessible to increase the circuit feasibility. Since the impact of resistances on circuits’ behaviour could be diminished to a great extent using high-precision and matched pair resistors, the sensitivity analysis was investigated only for a reference voltage change. Furthermore, a reversed termination of measured voltages results in a simplified reference voltage selection without hindering circuits’ performance, proven by simulation and experimental results.

This paper presents isomorphic circuits of voltage-mode (VM) non-inverting bandpass filters (NBPFs) and VM quadrature sinusoidal oscillators (QSOs) with independent amplitude control functionality. The proposed VM NBPFs and VM QSOs exhibit low-output impedance and independent amplitude control, which are important for easily cascading the VM operation and independent control of the amplitude gain. The proposed isomorphic circuits employ three LT1228 commercial integrated circuits (ICs), two grounded capacitors, two grounded resistors and one floating resistor. The use of grounded capacitors is beneficial for the implementation of the IC. Both NBPFs have a high-input impedance and have a wide range of independent amplitude tunable passband gain without affecting the quality factor (Q) and center frequency (fo). The Q and fo parameters of the proposed NBPFs are orthogonal tunability. By feeding back each input signal to the output response of the NBPF, two VM fully uncoupled QSOs are also proposed. The proposed VM fully uncoupled QSOs have two quadrature sinusoidal waveforms with two low-output impedances and one independent amplitude tunable sinusoidal waveform. The frequency of oscillation (FO) and the condition of oscillation (CO) are fully uncoupled and controlled electronically. The performances of the proposed isomorphic circuits have been tested with a ±5 volt power supply and are demonstrated by experimental measurements which confirm the theoretical assumptions.

The aim of this paper is to prove that, through a canonic approach, sinusoidal oscillators based on second-generation voltage conveyor (VCII) can be implemented. The investigation demonstrates the feasibility of the design results in a pair of new canonic oscillators based on negative type VCII (VCII−). Interestingly, the same analysis shows that no canonic oscillator configuration can be achieved using positive type VCII (VCII+), since a single VCII+ does not present the correct port conditions to implement such a device. From this analysis, it comes about that, for 5-node networks, the two presented oscillator configurations are the only possible ones and make use of two resistors, two capacitors and a single VCII−. Notably, the produced sinusoidal output signal is easily available through the low output impedance Z port of VCII, removing the need for additional voltage buffer for practical use, which is one of the main limitations of the current mode (CM) approach. The presented theory is substantiated by both LTSpice simulations and measurement results using the commercially available AD844 from Analog Devices, the latter being in a close agreement with the theory. Moreover, low values of THD are given for a wide frequency range.

Sharp GP2Y1010 dust sensors are increasingly being used within distributed sensing networks and for personal monitoring of exposure to particulate matter (PM) pollution. These dust sensors offer an easy-to-use solution at an excellent price point, however, the sensors are known to offer limited dynamic range and poor limits of detection (L.O.D.), often &gt, 15 μg m−3. The latter figure of merit precludes the use of this inexpensive line of dust sensors for monitoring PM2.5 levels in environments within which particulate pollution levels are low. This manuscript presents a description of the fabrication and circuit used in the Sharp GP2Y1010 dust sensor and reports several effective strategies to minimize noise and maximize limits of detection for PM. It was found that measurement noise is primarily introduced within the photodiode detection circuitry, and that electromagnetic interference can influence dust sensor signals dramatically. Through optimization of the external capacitor and resistor used in the LED drive circuit—and the inter-pulse delay, electromagnetic shielding, and data acquisition strategy—noise was reduced approximately tenfold, leading to a projected noise equivalent limit of detection of 3.1 μg m−3. Strategies developed within this manuscript will allow improved limits of detection for these inexpensive sensors, and further enable research toward unraveling the spatial and temporal distribution of PM within buildings and urban centers—as well as an improved understanding of effect of PM on human health.

For mixed-signal systems, identifying the analog and digital circuit blocks in the transistor-level netlist has many benefits for system analysis and verification. However, existing approaches still have difficulty handling large mixed-signal designs with millions of transistors, especially when multiple analog structure patterns are included. In this paper, we propose an efficient structure recognition methodology to support analyzing highly complex designs with various circuit structures and different devices. In order to tackle the complexity of real cases, a hierarchical partition-based analysis methodology and an encoding-based fast screening technique are proposed in this work. To correctly ascertain the boundary of analog and digital structures, we propose an enhanced direct current connection (DCC) partition method and combine it with the analog structure analysis flow. The non-transistor devices, such as resistors and capacitors, are also included in our recognition flow to improve the recognition capability and accuracy. As demonstrated with two industrial cases, the behavioral models generated from the structure recognition results do help to improve the efficiency of the AMS system verification.

This research was funded by the Japanese KAKENHI through Grant Number JP18k04275 and Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport (MECD), through Project TEC2017-89955-P and Grant Numbers: FPU16/01451 and FPU16/04043., In 1971, Prof. L. Chua theoretically introduced a new circuit element, which exhibited a different behavior from that displayed by any of the three known passive elements: the resistor, the capacitor or the inductor. This element was called memristor, since its behavior corresponded to a resistor with memory. Four decades later, the concept of mem-elements was extended to the other two circuit elements by the definition of the constitutive equations of both memcapacitors and meminductors. Since then, the non-linear and non-volatile properties of these devices have attracted the interest of many researches trying to develop a wide range of applications. However, the lack of solid-state implementations of memcapacitors and meminductors make it necessary to rely on circuit emulators for the use and investigation of these elements in practical implementations. On this basis, this review gathers the current main alternatives presented in the literature for the emulation of both memcapacitors and meminductors. Different circuit emulators have been thoroughly analyzed and compared in detail, providing a wide range of approaches that could be considered for the implementation of these devices in future designs., Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT) Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) JP18k04275, Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport (MECD) TEC2017-89955-P FPU16/01451 FPU16/04043

This study presents a noncontact electrocardiogram (ECG) measurement system to replace conventional ECG electrode pads during ECG measurement. The proposed noncontact electrode design comprises a surface guard ring, the optimal input resistance, a ground guard ring, and an optimal voltage divider feedback. The surface and ground guard rings are used to reduce environmental noise. The optimal input resistor mitigates distortion caused by the input bias current, and the optimal voltage divider feedback increases the gain. Simulated gain analysis was subsequently performed to determine the most suitable parameters for the design, and the system was combined with a capacitive driven right leg circuit to reduce common-mode interference. The present study simulated actual environments in which interference is present in capacitive ECG signal measurement. Both in the case of environmental interference and motion artifact interference, relative to capacitive ECG electrodes, the proposed electrodes measured ECG signals with greater stability. In terms of R–R intervals, the measured ECG signals exhibited a 98.6% similarity to ECGs measured using contact ECG systems. The proposed noncontact ECG measurement system based on capacitive sensing is applicable for use in everyday life.

In this work, resistive switching and synaptic behaviors of a TiO2/Al2O3 bilayer device were studied. The deposition of Pt/Ti/TiO2/Al2O3/TiN stack was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy X-ray dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The initial state before the forming process followed Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunneling. A strong electric field was applied to Al2O3 with a large energy bandgap for FN tunneling, which was confirmed by the I-V fitting process. Bipolar resistive switching was conducted by the set process in a positive bias and the reset process in a negative bias. High-resistance state (HRS) followed the trap-assisted tunneling (TAT) model while low-resistance state (LRS) followed the Ohmic conduction model. Set and reset operations were verified by pulse. Moreover, potentiation and depression in the biological synapse were verified by repetitive set pulses and reset pulses. Finally, the device showed good pattern recognition accuracy (~88.8%) for a Modified National Institute of Standards and Technology (MNIST) handwritten digit database in a single layer neural network including the conductance update of the device.

This paper presents a triple-band low-noise amplifier (LNA) fabricated using a 0.18 μm Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) process. The LNA uses a double-peak load network with a switched component to accomplish the triple-band operation. Moreover, noise reduction using a substrate resistor to ameliorate the noise performance is presented. Noise reduction of 1.5 dB can be achieved at 2.5 GHz without additional dc power and extra manufacturing costs. An input matching technique is realized simultaneously using a gyrator-based feedback topology. The triple-band LNA can be realized by using a dual-band input network with a switched matching mechanism. The target frequencies of the triple-band LNA are 2.3–2.7 GHz, 3.4–3.8 GHz, and 5.1–5.9 GHz, covering the operating frequency bands of time-division long-term evolution (TD-LTE), mid-band Fifth-generation (5G), LTE-unlicensed (LTE-U) band, and Wireless LAN (WLAN) technology. The measured power gains and noise figures at 2.5, 3.5, and 5.2 GHz are 12.3, 15.3, and 13.1 dB and 2.3, 2.2, and 2.6 dB, respectively.

This paper proposes a high-input impedance voltage-mode (VM) multifunction biquad filter which employs three current-feedback amplifiers (CFAs), three resistors, and two grounded capacitors. The proposed VM multifunction biquad filter has single-input and triple-output and can realize non-inverting low-pass (NLP), inverting band-pass (IBP), and non-inverting band-stop (NBS) voltage responses at the same time without increasing component selection. The proposed VM multifunction biquad filter enjoys the orthogonal tunability of angular frequency and quality factor and also provides the advantage of using only two grounded capacitors, high-input impedance and low active/passive sensitivity. The performance of the proposed VM multifunction biquad filter is verified through its hardware implementation and OrCAD PSpice simulation based on AD844-type CFAs. The circuit analysis, sensitivity analysis, and NLP, IBP, and NBS voltage responses are also shown in this paper. The paper presents a method to effectively reduce the active and passive components, maintain good circuit performance, and reduce circuit costs.

Recent technological developments in modular multilevel converter-based high-voltage direct current (MMC-HVDC) transmission systems have shown significant advantages over the traditional HVDC and two-level voltage source converter (VSC) transmission systems. However, there are a lack of studies on the protection methods for MMC-HVDC overhead lines where the protection method should be able to provide a fast and accurate response and be able to identify lightning strikes. In this paper, a wavelet entropy-based protection method is proposed. Due to the capability of revealing time–frequency distribution features, the proposed protection method combines wavelet and entropy to identify the time–frequency characteristics of different faults. Simulation results show that the proposed method can accurately and quickly determine the types of faults or disturbances with appropriate noise tolerance. In addition, the impact of the ground resistor and fault distance on the performance of the proposed method is studied.

A real-time sensor for the detection of amyl butyrate (AB) utilising human olfactory receptor 2AG1 (OR2AG1), a G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) consisting of seven transmembrane domains, immobilized onto a graphene resistor is demonstrated. Using CVD graphene as the sensor platform, allows greater potential for more sensitive detection than similar sensors based on carbon nanotubes, gold or graphene oxide platforms. A specific graphene resistor sensor was fabricated and modified via non-covalent π–π stacking of 1,5 diaminonaphthalene (DAN) onto the graphene channel, and subsequent anchoring of the OR2AG1 receptor to the DAN molecule using glutaraldehyde coupling. Binding between the target odorant, amyl butyrate, and the OR2AG1 receptor protein generated a change in resistance of the graphene resistor sensor. The functionalized graphene resistor sensors exhibited a linear sensor response between 0.1–500 pM and high selectively towards amyl butyrate, with a sensitivity as low as 500 fM, whilst control measurements using non-specific esters, produced a negligible sensor response. The approach described here provides an alternative sensing platform that can be used in bioelectronic nose applications.

In this study, a new monitoring method was developed, titled infrared thermal imaging technology, which can effectively evaluate the thermal effect of the charge-discharge test in the vanadium/iodine redox flow battery (V/I RFB). The results show that the all-vanadium redox flow battery (all-V RFB) has a greater molar reaction Gibbs free energy change than that of the V/I RFB, representing a large thermal effect of the all-V RFB than the V/I RFB. The charge-discharge parameters, flow rate and current density, are important factors for inducing the thermal effect, because of the concentration polarization and the ohmic resistor. The new membrane (HS-SO3H) shows a high ion exchange capacity and a good ions crossover inhibitory for the V/I RFB system, and has a high coulomb efficiency that reaches 96%. The voltage efficiency was enhanced from 61% to 86% using the C-TiO2-Pd composite electrode as a cathode with the serpentine-type flow field for the V/I RFB. By adopting the high-resolution images of an infrared thermal imaging technology with the function of the temperature profile data, it is useful to evaluate the key components&rsquo, performance of the V/I RFB, and is a favorable candidate in the developing of the redox flow battery system.

Wireless power transmission (WPT) using an inductively coupled link is one of the most popular approaches to deliver power wirelessly to biomedical implants. As the electromagnetic wave travels through the tissue, it is attenuated and absorbed by the tissue, resulting in much weaker electromagnetic coupling than in the air. As a result, the received input power on the implant is very weak, and so is the input voltage at the rectifier, which is the first block that receives the power on the implant. With such a small voltage amplitude, the rectifier inevitably has a very poor power conversion efficiency (PCE), leading to a poor power transfer efficiency (PTE) of the overall WPT system. To address this challenge, we propose a new system-level WPT method based on duty cycling of the power transmission for millimeter-scale implants. In the proposed method, the power transmitter (TX) transmits the wave with a duty cycle. It transmits only during a short period of time and pauses for a while instead of transmitting the wave continuously. In doing so, the TX power during the active period can be increased while preserving the average TX power and the specific absorption rate (SAR). Then, the incoming voltage becomes significantly larger at the rectifier, so the rectifier can rectify the input with a higher PCE, leading to improved PTE. To investigate the design challenges and applicability of the proposed duty-cycled WPT method, a case for powering a 1&times, 1-mm2-sized neural implant through the skull is constructed. The implant, a TX, and the associated environment are modeled in High-Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS), and the circuit simulations are conducted in Cadence with circuit components in a 180-nm CMOS process. At a load resistor of 100 k&Omega, an output capacitor of 4 nF, and a carrier frequency of 144 MHz, the rectifier&rsquo, s DC output voltage and PCE are increased by 300% (from 1.5 V to 6 V) and by 50% (from 14% to 64%), respectively, when the duty cycle ratio of the proposed duty-cycled power transmission is varied from 100% to 5%.

Low and stable contact resistance of metal electrode materials is mainly demanded for reliable and long lifetime electrical engineering. A novel test rig is developed in order to realize the high-throughput measurement of the contact resistance with the adjustable mechanical load force and load current. The contact potential drop is extracted accurately based on the proposed periodical current chopping (PCC) method in addition to the sliding window average filtering algorithm. The instrument is calibrated by standard resistors of 1 m&Omega, 10 m&Omega, and 100 m&Omega, with the accuracy of 0.01% and the associated measurement uncertainty is evaluated systematically. Furthermore, the contact resistance between standard indenter and rivet specimen is measured by the commercial DMM-based instruments and our designed test rig for comparison. The variations in relative expanded uncertainty of the measured contact resistance as a function of various mechanical load force and load current are presented.

The unique electronic properties of semiconductor nanowires, in particular silicon nanowires (SiNWs), are attractive for the label-free, real-time, and sensitive detection of various gases. Therefore, over the past two decades, extensive efforts have been made to study the gas sensing function of NWs. This review article presents the recent developments related to the applications of SiNWs for gas sensing. The content begins with the two basic synthesis approaches (top-down and bottom-up) whereby the advantages and disadvantages of each approach have been discussed. Afterwards, the basic sensing mechanism of SiNWs for both resistor and field effect transistor designs have been briefly described whereby the sensitivity and selectivity to gases after different functionalization methods have been further presented. In the final words, the challenges and future opportunities of SiNWs for gas sensing have been discussed.

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This paper presents a detailed study on technical points of design, control, stability analysis, and hardware development of a direct matrix converter with power flow control for microgrid applications. The converter is used as an interface between a microgrid AC bus and a variable-frequency load, e.g., an induction machine. The main steps of the converter design include the design of input filter, stabilization, commutation, and protection techniques. Practical guidelines are provided for the direct conversion and transmission of modulation and control procedures to the logic processing devices. Through a detailed study of stabilization technique using damping resistors, the stability region of the converter is determined by using the linearized state-space equations. A prototype direct matrix converter has been developed by the proposed design procedures, and experimentally tested for a variable frequency load.

An accurate state of charge (SOC) estimation of the battery is one of the most important techniques in battery-based power systems, such as electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage systems (ESSs). The Kalman filter is a preferred algorithm in estimating the SOC of the battery due to the capability of including the time-varying coefficients in the model and its superior performance in the SOC estimation. However, since its performance highly depends on the measurement noise (MN) and process noise (PN) values, it is difficult to obtain highly accurate estimation results with the battery having a flat plateau OCV (open-circuit voltage) area in the SOC-OCV curve, such as the Lithium iron phosphate battery. In this paper, a new integrated estimation method is proposed by combining an unscented Kalman filter and a particle filter (UKF-PF) to estimate the SOC of the Lithium iron phosphate battery. The equivalent circuit of the battery used is composed of a series resistor and two R-C parallel circuits. Then, it is modeled by a second-order autoregressive exogenous (ARX) model, and the parameters are identified by using the recursive least square (RLS) identification method. The validity of the proposed algorithm is verified by comparing the experimental results obtained with the proposed method and the conventional methods.

The objective of this work is to present the first analytical and experimental results obtained with a 3D heat flux sensor for planetary regolith. The proposed structure, a sphere divided in four sectors, is sensible to heat flow magnitude and angle. Each sector includes a platinum resistor that is used both to sense its temperature and provide heating power. By operating the sectors at constant temperature, the sensor gives a response that is proportional to the heat flux vector in the regolith. The response of the sensor is therefore independent of the thermal conductivity of the regolith. A complete analytical solution of the response of the sensor is presented. The sensor may be used to provide information on the instantaneous local thermal environment surrounding a lander in planetary exploration or in small bodies like asteroids. To the best knowledge of the authors, this is the first sensor capable of measuring local 3D heat flux This work was supported in part by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competividad under Projects RTI2018-098728-B-C31 and RTI2018-098728-B-C33

Assuming that the 0.6-&mu, m silicon-on-insulator (SOI) complementary metal&ndash, oxide&ndash, semiconductor (CMOS) technology, different Si-based temperature sensors such as metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) (n-channel and p-channel), pn-junction diode (with p-body doping and without doping), and resistors (n+ or p+ single crystalline Si and n+ polycrystalline Si) were designed and characterized for its possible use in 1-THz antenna-coupled bolometers. The use of a half-wave dipole antenna connected to the heater end was assumed, which limited the integrated temperature sensor/heater area to be 15 &times, 15 &micro, m. Our main focus was to evaluate the performances of the temperature sensor/heater part, and the optical coupling between the incident light and heater via an antenna was not included in the evaluation. The electrothermal feedback (ETF) effect due to the bias current was considered in the performance estimation. A comparative analysis of various SOI bolometers revealed the largest responsivity (Rv) of 5.16 kV/W for the n-channel MOSFET bolometer although the negative ETF in MOSFET reduced the Rv. The noise measurement of the n-channel MOSFET showed the NEP of 245 pW/Hz1/2, which was more than one order of magnitude smaller than that of the n+ polycrystalline Si resistive bolometer (6.59 nW/Hz1/2). The present result suggests that the n-channel MOSFET can be a promising detector for THz applications.

Nowadays, research on electric vehicles is increasing because they have the potential to decrease greenhouse-gas emissions dramatically in the transport sector. For these types of vehicles, the battery is one of the main components. The traction system needs a cell series connection to fulfill the energy requirements. Nevertheless, batteries differ from each other due to a normal dispersion in their capacity, internal resistance, and self-discharge rate. This paper presents a novel battery equalizer circuit using an RC-based topology to equalize two adjacent cells of a battery pack. It has the advantage of merging a resistor-based equalizer, a capacitor-based equalizer, and an RC-based equalizer in one circuit. In this way, it is possible to limit the current stress in the components of the circuit. The proposed method increases the equalization time by 35% for a threshold current of 4 A. However, it is possible design the system for another threshold current. Finally, the complexity of the controller is not compromised in the proposed architecture. The operation, analysis, and design of the architecture are presented and compared to the classic schemes. The theoretical analysis is validated through simulation results.

The authors would like to acknowledge to the staff of the Hospital Universitario Clínico San Cecilio, Granada, Spain, for their support and use of the facilities. We also thank the reviewers for their useful and constructive comments and suggestions which have improved this paper., Safe quality control of radiotherapy treatments lies in reliable dosimetric sensors. Currently, ionization chambers and solid-state diodes along with electrometers as readout systems are accomplishing this task. In this work, we present a well-known and low-cost semiconductor sensor, the light-dependent resistor (LDR), as an alternative to the existing sensing devices for dosimetry. To demonstrate this, a complete characterization of the response to radiation of commercial LDRs has been conducted in terms of sensitivity, reproducibility and thermal correction under different bias voltages. Irradiation sessions have been applied under the common conditions in radiotherapy treatments using a hospital linear accelerator. Moreover, the same electrometer used for the ionization chamber has also been successfully used for LDRs. In comparison with the sensitivity achieved for the ionization chamber (0.2 nC/cGy at 400 V bias voltage), higher sensitivities have been measured for the proposed LDRs, ranging from 0.24 to 1.04 nC/cGy at bias voltages from 30 to 150 V, with a reproducibility uncertainty among samples of around 10%. In addition, LDR temperature dependence has been properly modeled using the simple thermistor model so that an easy thermal drift correction of dose measurements can be applied. Therefore, experimental results show that LDRs can be a reliable alternative to dosimetric sensors with the advantages of low size, affordable cost and the fact that it could be adopted with minimal changes in routine dosimetry quality control since the same readout system is fully compatible., Junta de Andalucía B-TIC-468-UGR18 PI-0505-2017, European Union (EU)

With recent advancements in the electrical industry, the demand for high capacity and high energy density batteries has increased, subsequently increasing the demand for fast and reliable battery charging. A battery is an assembly of a plurality of cells, in which maintaining a balance between neighboring cells is crucial for stable charging. To this end, various methods have been applied to battery management systems. Representative methods for maintaining the balance in battery cells include a passive method of adjusting the balance using a resistor and an active method involving the exchange of energy between the cells. However, these methods are limited in terms of efficiency, lifespan, and charging time. Therefore, in this study, we propose a new charging method at the battery cell level and demonstrate its effectiveness through experiments.

A drastically growing requirement of electronic packages with an increasing level of complexity poses newer challenges for the competitive manufacturing industry. Coupled with harsher operating conditions, these challenges affirm the need for encapsulated board-level (2nd level) packages. To reduce thermo-mechanical loads induced on the electronic components during operating cycles, a conformal type of encapsulation is gaining preference over conventional glob-tops or resin casting types. The availability of technology, the ease of automation, and the uncomplicated storage of raw material intensifies the implementation of thermoset injection molding for the encapsulation process of board-level packages. Reliability case studies of such encapsulated electronic components as a part of board-level packages become, thereupon, necessary. This paper presents the reliability study of exemplary electronic components, surface-mounted on printed circuit boards (PCBs), encapsulated by the means of thermoset injection molding, and subjected to cyclic thermal loading. The characteristic lifetime of the electronic components is statistically calculated after assessing the probability plots and presented consequently. A few points of conclusion are summarized, and the future scope is discussed at the end.

This paper presents the design and testing of a low-noise programmable voltage source. Such a piece of instrumentation is often required as part of the measurement setup needed to test electronic devices without introducing noise from the power supply (such as photodetectors, resistors or transistors). Although its construction is based on known configurations, here the discussion is focused on the characterization and the minimization of the output noise, especially at very low frequencies. The design relies on a digital-to-analog converter, proper lowpass filters, and a low-noise Junction Field-Effect Transistors (JFET) based voltage follower. Because of the very low level of output noise, in some cases we had to resort to cross-correlation in order to reduce the background noise of the amplifiers used for the characterization of the programmable source. Indeed, when two paralleled IF9030 JFETs are used in the voltage follower, the output noise can be as low as 3 nV/&radic, Hz, 0.6 nV/&radic, Hz and 0.4 nV/&radic, Hz at 1 Hz, 10 Hz and 100 Hz, respectively. The output voltage drift was also characterized and a stability of &plusmn, 25 &micro, V over 3 h was obtained. In order to better appreciate the performance of the low-noise voltage source that we have designed, its noise performances were compared with those of a set-up based on one of the best low-noise solid-state voltage regulators available on the market. Actual measurements of the current noise in a type-II superlattice photodetector are reported in which the programmable source was used to provide the voltage bias to the device.

In the semi-aviation frequency-domain electromagnetic measurement, the induction air-core coil and the differential pre-amplifier circuit introduce noise, which affects the sensor and results in receiving weak signals and improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the system. In response to this problem, by analyzing the physical structure of the air-core coil sensor and the mechanism of the amplification circuit, combined with the simulation and experimental tests of voltage noise, current noise, resistance noise and other noise components, analyzed that the thermal noise is the main component of the sensor noise in the system frequency band, but directly removing the matching resistor increases the instability of the circuit, causes the coil to work in an underdamped state, and generates a time domain oscillation at the resonant frequency, source impedance analysis and analysis of differential pre-amplifier circuit in the frequency-domain detection method, abandoning the matching resistance scheme and magnetic flux negative feedback scheme. The matching capacitor is added to make the receiver detect the frequency range in the 1&ndash, 10 kHz range. In normal operation, the noise level reaches 10 nV level, which not only increases the stability of the circuit, but also reduces the noise of the sensor. It has far-reaching significance for the detection of weak frequency signals.

Based on the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards, the electronic devices in the industrial class (e.g., integrated circuits (ICs) or batteries) can only operate at the ambient temperature between -40°C and 85°C. For the human-involved regions in Alaska, Northern Canada, and Antarctica, extreme cold condition as low as -55°C might affect sensing electronic devices utilized in the scientific or industrial applications. In this paper, we propose a design and optimization methodology for the self-heating portable enclosures, which can warm up the inner space from -55°C for encasing the low-cost industrial-class electronic devices instead of expensive military-class ones to work reliably within their allowed operating temperature limit. By considering various factors (including hardness, thermal conductivity, cost, and lifetime), we determine to mainly use polycarbonate as the manufacturing material of the enclosure. Among the other options, ceramic thermal resistors are selected as the heating elements inside the enclosure. The placement of the thermal resistors is studied with the aid of thermal modelling for the single heating device by using the curve fitting technique to achieve uniform temperature distribution within the enclosure. To maintain the inner temperature above -40°C but with the least power consumption from the thermal resistors, we have developed a control system based on the fuzzy logic controller (FLC). For validation, we have first utilized COMSOL Multiphysics software and then prototyped one enclosure along with the control system. Our experimental measurement exhibits its efficacy compared to the other design options.

In this paper, the design, simulations, and experimental results related to new analog circuits for voltage controlled synthetic inductors (VCSI) are presented. The new circuits based on a generalized impedance converter (GIC) are proposed for adaptive resonant piezoelectric shunt damping. The VCSIs are implemented using (1) an analog multiplier and (2) an operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) as voltage-controlled resistor. The simulation and experimental results for the new proposed VCSIs are presented and a comparative analysis follows. The proposed VCSIs work in a stable manner in parallel with negative impedance converters (NIC) to enhance structural damping in resonant piezoelectric resistive-inductive shunt applications. The behavior of the synthetic inductor is identical to a real inductor only in a specific frequency range and this situation can explain the reported spreading performance in the literature for resonant piezoelectric shunt damping. The simulation results are validated by a group of experimental investigations that confirm the improved stability and linearity of the new circuits proposed as VCSIs. Experimental results show that the VCSI based on an analog multiplier have an enhanced linearity in comparison with the OTA version in a limited voltage control range.

State of charge (SOC) plays a significant role in the battery management system (BMS), since it can contribute to the establishment of energy management for electric vehicles. Unfortunately, SOC cannot be measured directly. Various single Kalman filters, however, are capable of estimating SOC. Under different working conditions, the SOC estimation error will increase because the battery parameters cannot be estimated in real time. In order to obtain a more accurate and applicable SOC estimation than that of a single Kalman filter under different driving conditions and temperatures, a second-order resistor capacitor (RC) equivalent circuit model (ECM) of a battery was established in this paper. Thereafter, a dual filter, i.e., an unscented Kalman filter&ndash, extended Kalman filter (UKF&ndash, EKF) was developed. With the EKF updating battery parameters and the UKF estimating the SOC, UKF&ndash, EKF has the ability to identify parameters and predict the SOC of the battery simultaneously. The dual filter was verified under two different driving conditions and three different temperatures, and the results showed that the dual filter has an improvement on SOC estimation.

The main objective of this work was to find the most efficient method to interpolate metal oxide gas sensor used in a pulsed-temperature operating mode. This pulsed thermal profile is obtained by applying 6 power steps of 2 s each on the heater resistor. The experimental values of the sensing layer resistance, with a sampling time of 4 ms, were interpolated by using two different static methods: a polynomial modelling and a neural network modelling, and one dynamic method: the diffusive representation. Then, the results have been compared in terms of precision and number of useful output data, as minimum as possible for high performance and rapid data treatment which is great of interest in embedded systems. The best results are obtained with the diffusive representation, it allows converting 500 measurements into 11 output coefficients.

Respiratory rate is a critical vital sign that indicates health condition, sleep quality, and exercise intensity. This paper presents a non-invasive, ultra-low-power, and cost-effective wireless wearable sensor, which is installed on an off-the-shelf KN95 mask to facilitate respiration monitoring. The sensing principle is based on the periodic airflow temperature variations caused by exhaled hot air and inhaled cool air in respiratory cycles. By measuring the periodic temperature variations at the exhalation valve of mask, the respiratory parameters can be accurately and reliably detected, regardless of body movements and breathing pathways through nose or mouth. Specifically, we propose a voltage divider with controllable resistors and corresponding selection criteria to improve the sensitivity of temperature measurement, a peak detection algorithm with spline interpolation to increase sampling period without reducing the detection accuracy, and effective low-power optimization measures to prolong the battery life. The experimental results have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed sensor, showing a small mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.449 bpm and a very low power consumption of 131.4 μW. As a high accuracy, low cost, low power, and reusable miniature wearing device for convenient respiration monitoring in daily life, the proposed sensor holds promise in real-world feasibility.