2013 Events

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The talk will start by covering the NXP positioning, strategy, key figures and application areas. Then, a focus on RF will follow by describing the technology strategy and its challenges. RF BiCMOS and RF CMOS technologies will be discussed with particular emphasis on advanced CMOS nodes to be used in RF. Product examples with associated challenges will be presented. Finally, technical topics for innovation will end the presentation.

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Part 1 of this lecture covers introduction to VLSI architectures for Communications and Signal Processing Systems. Various topics include pipelining and parallel processing, retiming, unfolding, folding, systolic architecture design and algorithmic transformations. The emphasis is how to design high-speed, low-area, and low-power VLSI systems for a broad range of DSP and communication applications.
Part 2 of this lecture covers speaker’s research. Low-Density Parity-Check codes now have been firmly established as coding technique for communication and storage channels. This talk gives an overview of the speaker’s research and contributions in the development of low complexity iterative LDPC solutions for Turbo Equalization for magnetic recording storage channels. Complexity is reduced by developing new or modified algorithms and new hardware architectures viz. system level hardware architecture, statistical buffer management and queuing, local-global inter-leaver, LDPC decoder and error floor mitigation schemes.

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Wireless communications signals have evolved greatly over the past century, from the use of Morse Code to very complicated digital modulation schemes used in wideband CDMA (WCDMA) and 3GPP Long-term evolution (LTE). This progression challenges the design of transmitters to be simultaneously energy efficient, low distortion, and spectrally clean. The increasing peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) characteristic of these signals is a particular problem. Because it is important to understand why this is happening this presentation begins with a discussion of the physical implications of Shannon’s Capacity Limit combined with the Fourier Transform.
‘backwards’ design perspective is then presented, where we begin design from a maximally energy efficient circuit (a switch) and then make it generate the required signals, instead of the conventional approach of beginning with linear circuitry and then finding ways to improve its energy efficiency. This directly leads to the design and implementation of polar-modulation to improve both the energy efficiency of the power amplifier and effective linearity of the transmitter. Design of intentionally compressed circuitry is very different from conventional linear amplifier techniques, and these new design techniques will be discussed.

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Since the mid-1990s, designers have been developing sophisticated methods for managing power integrity in packages and printed circuit boards which has had a direct impact on the signal integrity of systems. These have included items such as developing design parameters such as target impedance, developing repeatable frequency domain characterization methods, pushing the EDA vendors to improve the capability of the design tools, developing new devices such as EBGs to improve isolation, developing embedded capacitance layers to name a few. However, the designers are continuing to face challenges where the noise on the power distribution is beginning to over shadow the signals in fast switching environments arising in high speed computing systems. These challenges are often times opportunities for university research that can lead to interesting and often times innovative solutions. This talk will cover a review of the past developments in this area and will focus on the present challenges and potential solutions in the area of power delivery.

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Ferromagnetic hysteresis is a widely misunderstood phenomenon that is important in numerous magnetics-based applications, such as hard disk drives, electric vehicles, wind-turbine generators, linear actuators, transformers, and many others. Efforts to represent hysteresis have led to an extraordinarily diverse range (> 40) of mathematical, empirical, and phenomenological models, many of which are only slightly related to the actual physics. The first talk describes the results of an ongoing effort to develop a solidly physics-based theory that provides quantative agreement with experimental data, while being simple enough to be used as a basis for design software, including FEM methods. Unlike previous models, the theory naturally accounts for the existence of hysteresis, as well as the effects of temperature variations, without invoking any arbitrary modifications. Additionally, it provides an unambiguous definition of the Curie temperature. The second talk will demonstrate how the theory can model major loops, symmetrical and asymmetrical minor loops, and demagnetization spirals of high order. Additionally, it will be shown how it predicts the remarkable experimental fact that there is a close connection between the vertices of a symmetric high-order demagnetization spiral and the measured initial-magnetization curve. The theory is valid for numerous materials ranging from extremely soft to very hard permanent magnets, with coercivities ranging over more than 6 orders of magnitude.

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Ferromagnetic hysteresis is a widely misunderstood phenomenon that is important in numerous magnetics-based applications, such as hard disk drives, electric vehicles, wind-turbine generators, linear actuators, transformers, and many others. Efforts to represent hysteresis have led to an extraordinarily diverse range (> 40) of mathematical, empirical, and phenomenological models, many of which are only slightly related to the actual physics. The first talk describes the results of an ongoing effort to develop a solidly physics-based theory that provides quantative agreement with experimental data, while being simple enough to be used as a basis for design software, including FEM methods. Unlike previous models, the theory naturally accounts for the existence of hysteresis, as well as the effects of temperature variations, without invoking any arbitrary modifications. Additionally, it provides an unambiguous definition of the Curie temperature. The second talk will demonstrate how the theory can model major loops, symmetrical and asymmetrical minor loops, and demagnetization spirals of high order. Additionally, it will be shown how it predicts the remarkable experimental fact that there is a close connection between the vertices of a symmetric high-order demagnetization spiral and the measured initial-magnetization curve. The theory is valid for numerous materials ranging from extremely soft to very hard permanent magnets, with coercivities ranging over more than 6 orders of magnitude.

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The IEEE Ottawa Antennas and Propagation Society and Microwave Theory & Techniques Society (AP/MTT) Joint Chapter, Electron Devices Society, Circuits and Systems Society, and Solid-State Circuits Society (EDS/CAS/SSCS) Joint Chapter, Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology (CPMT) Chapter, IEEE Ottawa Section (OS), and Department of Electronics at Carleton University (DoE Carleton) are inviting all interested IEEE members and other engineers, technologists, and students to the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) Speakers Bureau Talk.