Search for: All records

Abstract: As the ever increasing demands for performance of integrated circuit (IC) chip continue to increase, while technology scaling driven by Moore’s Law is becoming extremely challenging if not impractical or impossible, heterogeneous integration (HI) emerges as an attractive pathway to further enhance performance of Si-based CMOS chips. The underlying basis for using HI tech-nologies and structures is that IC performance goes well beyond classic logic functions; rather, functionalities and complexity of smart chips span across the full information chain, including signal sensing, conditioning, processing, storage, computing, communication, control and actua-tion, which are required to facilitate comprehensive human-world interactions. Therefore, HI technologies can bring in more function diversifications to make system chips smarter within ac-ceptable design constraints including costs. Over the past two decades or so, a large number of HI technologies have been explored to increase heterogeneities in materials, technologies, devices, circuits and system architectures, making it practically impossible to provide one single compre-hensive review of everything in the field in one paper. This article chooses to offer a topical over-view of selected HI structures that have been validated in CMOS platform, including a stacked-via vertical magnetic-cored inductor structure in CMOS, a metal wall structure in the backend of line (BEOL) of CMOS to suppress global flying noises, an above-IC graphene NEMS switch and a nano crossbar array electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection structure, and graphene ESD interconnects 

We present a simulation-powered dynamic building activities management system, intended to help coordinate distributed decision-making activities in sensor-equipped complex buildings, such as healthcare facilities. It provides overall “awareness” of the current state of the facility and analyzes the impact of simulated alternative future actions of each actor in every space, simultaneously. These analytics are evaluated according to Key Performance Indicators (KPI), resulting in a recommendation for enacting the most desirable outcome. A preliminary simulation study based on St. Bernardine Medical Center (SBMC) Cardiac Catheterization Lab (CCL) is presented. 

Future healthcare systems require smart hospitals with system-wide wireless communications and positioning functions, which cannot be facilitated by existing radio-frequency (RF) wireless technologies. In this paper, we present integrated design of a novel low-complexity received signal strength (RSS) based hybrid visible light communication (VLC) and indoor positioning (VLP) system. This VLC/VLP tracking system consist of host optical transceivers embedded in existing light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs and user-end optical tags, which interface with the existing 120AVC power wiring in a building. The new hybrid VLC/PLC tracking system was validated by simulation and experimentation. This LED VLC tracking system will enable smart hospital operations to modernize next-generation intelligent healthcare systems 

CDM ESD protection is a major ESD protection design challenge for advanced ICs, often suffering from random design failures. It was recently reported that the traditional pad-based CDM ESD protection method is fundamentally faulty, contributing to design uncertainties in CDM ESD testing and field failures. This paper reports a novel internally distributed CDM ESD protection method to overcome this major design challenge, which was validated using an internal-CDM-protected oscillator IC implemented in a foundry 45nm SOI CMOS technology. ESD protection is required for all systems. 

We present a simulation-powered dynamic building activities management system, intended to help coordinate distributed decision-making activities in sensor-equipped complex buildings, such as healthcare facilities. It provides overall “awareness” of the current state of the facility and analyzes the impact of simulated alternative future actions of each actor in every space, simultaneously. These analytics are evaluated according to Key Performance Indicators (KPI), resulting in a recommendation for enacting the most desirable outcome. A preliminary simulation study based on St. Bernardine Medical Center (SBMC) Cardiac Catheterization Lab (CCL) is presented. 

“Smart” buildings that can sense and detect people’s presence have been in use for the past few decades, mostly using technologies that trigger reactive responses such as turning on/off heating/ventilating, lighting, security, etc. We argue that to be considered truly smart, buildings must become “aware” about the locations and activities of their inhabitants so they can proactively engage with the occupants and inform their decision making with respect to which actions to execute, by whom and where. To help assess the potential impact of “aware” buildings on their occupants, we are developing a multi-agent simulation-powered building management system that can sense human and building assets, extrapolate patterns of utilization, simulate what-if scenarios and suggest changes to user activities and resource allocation to maximize specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The system is able to evaluate the implications of potential conflict resolution strategies and account for individual and collaborative activities of different types of users in semantically rich environments. Sensing in our case is based on Visible Light Communication (VLC) technology, embedded in a building’s LED lighting system. It can detect the actors, where they are located and what they do. To understand what happens in each space at any given time the information derived from the VLC system is combined with models of users’ activity schedules, profiles, and space affordances. We demonstrate our approach by hypothetically applying it to a Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory (CCL). The CCL is high-intensity hospital unit, second only to the Emergency Department in terms of the urgency of the cases it must handle. An aware building will help both patients and staff to allocate their (always scarce) resources more efficiently, saving time and alleviating stress. 

Throughout history, buildings have been considered passive containers in which occupants’ activities take place. New sensing technologies enable buildings to detect people presence and behavior. At present, this information is mostly used to trigger reactive responses, such as heating and cooling operations. We argue that truly smart environments can leverage sensed information to proactively engage with the occupants and inform decision making processes with respect to which activities to execute, by whom and where. Such ability will transform buildings from passive to active partners in the daily lives of their inhabitants. It stems from the omniscience of sensor-equipped buildings that will “know” all that is happening everywhere within (and around) them at any given moment and can predict, through simulation, the expected consequences of alternative operational decisions. Such ability is mostly relevant for hospitals and other complex buildings, where actions taken in one part of the building may affect activities in other parts of the building. We are developing a simulation-powered building management system that resolves space, actor and activity-based conflicts while harnessing data collected via visible light communication. We demonstrate this approach in a case study in the catheterization lab of a major hospital. 

This paper reviews recent developments of Light Emitting Diode (LED) based Visible Light Communication (VLC) technologies and related cyber-physical systems-on-chip (CPSoC) for smart city applications. Critical aspects of LED VLC cyber-physical systems are discussed. Designs of LEDbased VLC CPSoC Integrated Circuits (IC) are depicted. LED VLC technology, as a viable internet of things (IoT) solution, has the potential for various applications for smart cities including smart hospitals, smart homes, smart communities and smart traffics in near future.