This paper proposes a neural stimulator silicon chip design with an improved charge balancing technology. The proposed neural stimulation integrated circuit (IC) uses two charge balancing modules including synchronous charge detection module and short-time pulse insertion module. The synchronous charge detection module is designed based on a current splitter with ultra-small output current and an integrator circuit for neural stimulation pulse width control, which greatly reduces the residual charge remained on the electrode-tissue interface. The short-time pulse insertion module is designed based on the electrode voltage detection and compensation current control, which further reduces the accumulated residual charge and keeps the electrode voltage within a safety range of ±25 mV during multiple stimulation cycles. Finally, this neural stimulator is implemented in TSMC 0.18-μm CMOS process technology, and the chip function is tested and verified in both experiments with the electrode-tissue RC model and the PBS saline solution environment. The measurement result shows the neural stimulator chip achieves improved charge balancing with the residual charge smaller than 0.95 nC, which is the lowest compared to the traditional neural stimulator chips.
{"title":"A Charge Balanced Neural Stimulator Silicon Chip for Human-Machine Interface","authors":"Xu Liu, Juzhe Li, Wei Mao, Zhuangguang Chen, Zhijie Chen, Peiyuan Wan, Hao Yu","doi":"10.3389/felec.2021.773812","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/felec.2021.773812","url":null,"abstract":"This paper proposes a neural stimulator silicon chip design with an improved charge balancing technology. The proposed neural stimulation integrated circuit (IC) uses two charge balancing modules including synchronous charge detection module and short-time pulse insertion module. The synchronous charge detection module is designed based on a current splitter with ultra-small output current and an integrator circuit for neural stimulation pulse width control, which greatly reduces the residual charge remained on the electrode-tissue interface. The short-time pulse insertion module is designed based on the electrode voltage detection and compensation current control, which further reduces the accumulated residual charge and keeps the electrode voltage within a safety range of ±25 mV during multiple stimulation cycles. Finally, this neural stimulator is implemented in TSMC 0.18-μm CMOS process technology, and the chip function is tested and verified in both experiments with the electrode-tissue RC model and the PBS saline solution environment. The measurement result shows the neural stimulator chip achieves improved charge balancing with the residual charge smaller than 0.95 nC, which is the lowest compared to the traditional neural stimulator chips.","PeriodicalId":73081,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in electronics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47747580","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-11DOI: 10.3389/felec.2021.758603
V. Trifiletti, Ceyla Asker, G. Tseberlidis, S. Riva, K. Zhao, Weidong Tang, S. Binetti, O. Fenwick
In recent decades, many technological advances have been enabled by nanoscale phenomena, giving rise to the field of nanotechnology. In particular, unique optical and electronic phenomena occur on length scales less than 10 nanometres, which enable novel applications. Halide perovskites have been the focus of intense research on their optoelectronic properties and have demonstrated impressive performance in photovoltaic devices and later in other optoelectronic technologies, such as lasers and light-emitting diodes. The most studied crystalline form is the three-dimensional one, but, recently, the exploration of the low-dimensional derivatives has enabled new sub-classes of halide perovskite materials to emerge with distinct properties. In these materials, low-dimensional metal halide structures responsible for the electronic properties are separated and partially insulated from one another by the (typically organic) cations. Confinement occurs on a crystal lattice level, enabling bulk or thin-film materials that retain a degree of low-dimensional character. In particular, quasi-zero dimensional perovskite derivatives are proving to have distinct electronic, absorption, and photoluminescence properties. They are being explored for various technologies beyond photovoltaics (e.g. thermoelectrics, lasing, photodetectors, memristors, capacitors, LEDs). This review brings together the recent literature on these zero-dimensional materials in an interdisciplinary way that can spur applications for these compounds. The synthesis methods, the electrical, optical, and chemical properties, the advances in applications, and the challenges that need to be overcome as candidates for future electronic devices have been covered.
{"title":"Quasi-Zero Dimensional Halide Perovskite Derivates: Synthesis, Status, and Opportunity","authors":"V. Trifiletti, Ceyla Asker, G. Tseberlidis, S. Riva, K. Zhao, Weidong Tang, S. Binetti, O. Fenwick","doi":"10.3389/felec.2021.758603","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/felec.2021.758603","url":null,"abstract":"In recent decades, many technological advances have been enabled by nanoscale phenomena, giving rise to the field of nanotechnology. In particular, unique optical and electronic phenomena occur on length scales less than 10 nanometres, which enable novel applications. Halide perovskites have been the focus of intense research on their optoelectronic properties and have demonstrated impressive performance in photovoltaic devices and later in other optoelectronic technologies, such as lasers and light-emitting diodes. The most studied crystalline form is the three-dimensional one, but, recently, the exploration of the low-dimensional derivatives has enabled new sub-classes of halide perovskite materials to emerge with distinct properties. In these materials, low-dimensional metal halide structures responsible for the electronic properties are separated and partially insulated from one another by the (typically organic) cations. Confinement occurs on a crystal lattice level, enabling bulk or thin-film materials that retain a degree of low-dimensional character. In particular, quasi-zero dimensional perovskite derivatives are proving to have distinct electronic, absorption, and photoluminescence properties. They are being explored for various technologies beyond photovoltaics (e.g. thermoelectrics, lasing, photodetectors, memristors, capacitors, LEDs). This review brings together the recent literature on these zero-dimensional materials in an interdisciplinary way that can spur applications for these compounds. The synthesis methods, the electrical, optical, and chemical properties, the advances in applications, and the challenges that need to be overcome as candidates for future electronic devices have been covered.","PeriodicalId":73081,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in electronics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46936036","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-24DOI: 10.3389/felec.2021.726171
E. Smecca, A. Jena, I. Deretzis, S. Valastro, S. Sanzaro, G. Mannino, C. Bongiorno, A. La Magna, T. Miyasaka, A. Alberti
Hybrid perovskites are one of the most popular materials nowadays due to their very exclusive properties. To mitigate costs, complexity, and environmental impact, in this work, we have prepared methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3) films by a two-step Low-Vacuum Proximity-Space-Effusion (LV-PSE). The LV-PSE method exploits the low vacuum and the short diffusion path from the precursor source to have high thermal energy and partial pressure of the sublimated species close to the substrate. To this aim, the substrate is located at a medium distance (∼2 cm) from the melting pots in a low-vacuum chamber at ∼4 × 10−2 mbar. In the first step, a PbI2 film is deposited on a substrate; in the second step, the conversion into MAPbI3 occurs via an adsorption-incorporation-migration mechanism through the evaporation of methylammonium iodide (MAI) reagents. To exploit the potential of the conversion reaction, 190 nm MAPbI3 layers are deposited on TiO2 substrates. The layers were characterized in terms of crystal structure by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses, which showed the exclusive presence of MAPbI3 confirming the complete conversion of the PbI2 film. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analyses revealed a flat uniform pinhole-free coverage of the substrates and good conformational coverage of the TiO2 underlayer. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) analyses addressed the formation of the tetragonal phase and the absence of the amorphous phase in the film. Spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) analyses were used to explore the optical properties and the stability of the MAPbI3 layer at different temperatures and ambient conditions. As proof of concept, solar cell architectures were prepared using TiO2 as Electron Transporting Layer (ETL), Spiro-OMeTAD as Hole Transporting Layer (HTL), and Au as a contact to exploit the new up-scalable and clean deposition method. Using just ∼190 nm thick layers, the best efficiency reached with this architecture was 6.30%.
{"title":"MAPbI3 Deposition by LV-PSE on TiO2 for Photovoltaic Application","authors":"E. Smecca, A. Jena, I. Deretzis, S. Valastro, S. Sanzaro, G. Mannino, C. Bongiorno, A. La Magna, T. Miyasaka, A. Alberti","doi":"10.3389/felec.2021.726171","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/felec.2021.726171","url":null,"abstract":"Hybrid perovskites are one of the most popular materials nowadays due to their very exclusive properties. To mitigate costs, complexity, and environmental impact, in this work, we have prepared methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3) films by a two-step Low-Vacuum Proximity-Space-Effusion (LV-PSE). The LV-PSE method exploits the low vacuum and the short diffusion path from the precursor source to have high thermal energy and partial pressure of the sublimated species close to the substrate. To this aim, the substrate is located at a medium distance (∼2 cm) from the melting pots in a low-vacuum chamber at ∼4 × 10−2 mbar. In the first step, a PbI2 film is deposited on a substrate; in the second step, the conversion into MAPbI3 occurs via an adsorption-incorporation-migration mechanism through the evaporation of methylammonium iodide (MAI) reagents. To exploit the potential of the conversion reaction, 190 nm MAPbI3 layers are deposited on TiO2 substrates. The layers were characterized in terms of crystal structure by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses, which showed the exclusive presence of MAPbI3 confirming the complete conversion of the PbI2 film. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analyses revealed a flat uniform pinhole-free coverage of the substrates and good conformational coverage of the TiO2 underlayer. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) analyses addressed the formation of the tetragonal phase and the absence of the amorphous phase in the film. Spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) analyses were used to explore the optical properties and the stability of the MAPbI3 layer at different temperatures and ambient conditions. As proof of concept, solar cell architectures were prepared using TiO2 as Electron Transporting Layer (ETL), Spiro-OMeTAD as Hole Transporting Layer (HTL), and Au as a contact to exploit the new up-scalable and clean deposition method. Using just ∼190 nm thick layers, the best efficiency reached with this architecture was 6.30%.","PeriodicalId":73081,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in electronics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46960547","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-21DOI: 10.3389/felec.2021.753145
Lee Bar-on, U. Garlando, M. Sophocleous, Aakash Jog, Paolo Motto Ros, Nir Sade, A. Avni, Y. Shacham-Diamand, D. Demarchi
Electrical impedance spectroscopy has been suggested as a sensing method for plants. Here, a theoretical approach for electrical conduction via the plant stem is presented and validated, linking its living electrical characteristics to its internal structure. An electrical model for the alternating current conduction and the associated impedance in a live plant stem is presented. The model accounts for biological and geometrical attributes. It uses the electrically prevalent coupled transmission line model approach for a simplified description of the complicated vessel structure. It considers the electrode coupling to the plant stem (either Galvanic or Faradic), and accounts for the different interactions of the setup. Then the model is simplified using the lumped element approach. The model is then validated using a four-point probe impedance spectroscopy method, where the probes are galvanically coupled to the stem of Nicotiana tabacum plants. The electrical impedance data was collected continuously and the results exhibit an excellent fitting to the theoretical model, with a fitting error of less than 1.5% for data collected on various days and plants. A parametric evaluation of the fitting corresponds to the proposed physically based model, therefore providing a baseline for future plant sensor design.
{"title":"Electrical Modelling of In-Vivo Impedance Spectroscopy of Nicotiana tabacum Plants","authors":"Lee Bar-on, U. Garlando, M. Sophocleous, Aakash Jog, Paolo Motto Ros, Nir Sade, A. Avni, Y. Shacham-Diamand, D. Demarchi","doi":"10.3389/felec.2021.753145","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/felec.2021.753145","url":null,"abstract":"Electrical impedance spectroscopy has been suggested as a sensing method for plants. Here, a theoretical approach for electrical conduction via the plant stem is presented and validated, linking its living electrical characteristics to its internal structure. An electrical model for the alternating current conduction and the associated impedance in a live plant stem is presented. The model accounts for biological and geometrical attributes. It uses the electrically prevalent coupled transmission line model approach for a simplified description of the complicated vessel structure. It considers the electrode coupling to the plant stem (either Galvanic or Faradic), and accounts for the different interactions of the setup. Then the model is simplified using the lumped element approach. The model is then validated using a four-point probe impedance spectroscopy method, where the probes are galvanically coupled to the stem of Nicotiana tabacum plants. The electrical impedance data was collected continuously and the results exhibit an excellent fitting to the theoretical model, with a fitting error of less than 1.5% for data collected on various days and plants. A parametric evaluation of the fitting corresponds to the proposed physically based model, therefore providing a baseline for future plant sensor design.","PeriodicalId":73081,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in electronics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45614418","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-14DOI: 10.3389/felec.2021.716448
Federico Prystupczuk, Valentín Rigoni, A. Nouri, Ramy E. Ali, A. Keane, T. O’Donnell
The Hybrid Power Electronic Transformer (HPET) has been proposed as an efficient and economical solution to some of the problems caused by Distributed Energy Resources and new types of loads in existing AC distribution systems. Despite this, the HPET has some limitations on the control it can exert due to its fractionally-rated Power Electronic Converter. Various HPET topologies with different capabilities have been proposed, being necessary to investigate the system benefits that they might provide in possible future scenarios. Adequate HPET models are needed in order to conduct such system-level studies, which are still not covered in the current literature. Consequently, this article presents a methodology to develop power flow models of HPET that facilitate the quantification of controllability requirements for voltage, active power and reactive power. A particular HPET topology composed of a three-phase three-winding Low-Frequency Transformer coupled with a Back-to-Back converter is modeled as an example. The losses in the Back-to-Back converter are represented through efficiency curves that are assigned individually to the two modules. The model performance is illustrated through various power flow simulations that independently quantify voltage regulation and reactive power compensation capabilities for different power ratings of the Power Electronic Converter. In addition, a set of daily simulations were conducted with the HPET supplying a real distribution network modeled in OpenDSS. The results show the HPET losses to be around 1.3 times higher than the conventional transformer losses over the course of the day. The proposed methodology offers enough flexibility to investigate different HPET features, such as power ratings of the Power Electronic Converter, losses, and various strategies for the controlled variables. The contribution of this work is to provide a useful tool that can not only assess and quantify some of the system-level benefits that the HPET can provide, but also allow a network-tailored design of HPETs. The presented model along with the simulation platform were made publicly available.
{"title":"Hybrid Power Electronic Transformer Model for System-Level Benefits Quantification in Energy Distribution Systems","authors":"Federico Prystupczuk, Valentín Rigoni, A. Nouri, Ramy E. Ali, A. Keane, T. O’Donnell","doi":"10.3389/felec.2021.716448","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/felec.2021.716448","url":null,"abstract":"The Hybrid Power Electronic Transformer (HPET) has been proposed as an efficient and economical solution to some of the problems caused by Distributed Energy Resources and new types of loads in existing AC distribution systems. Despite this, the HPET has some limitations on the control it can exert due to its fractionally-rated Power Electronic Converter. Various HPET topologies with different capabilities have been proposed, being necessary to investigate the system benefits that they might provide in possible future scenarios. Adequate HPET models are needed in order to conduct such system-level studies, which are still not covered in the current literature. Consequently, this article presents a methodology to develop power flow models of HPET that facilitate the quantification of controllability requirements for voltage, active power and reactive power. A particular HPET topology composed of a three-phase three-winding Low-Frequency Transformer coupled with a Back-to-Back converter is modeled as an example. The losses in the Back-to-Back converter are represented through efficiency curves that are assigned individually to the two modules. The model performance is illustrated through various power flow simulations that independently quantify voltage regulation and reactive power compensation capabilities for different power ratings of the Power Electronic Converter. In addition, a set of daily simulations were conducted with the HPET supplying a real distribution network modeled in OpenDSS. The results show the HPET losses to be around 1.3 times higher than the conventional transformer losses over the course of the day. The proposed methodology offers enough flexibility to investigate different HPET features, such as power ratings of the Power Electronic Converter, losses, and various strategies for the controlled variables. The contribution of this work is to provide a useful tool that can not only assess and quantify some of the system-level benefits that the HPET can provide, but also allow a network-tailored design of HPETs. The presented model along with the simulation platform were made publicly available.","PeriodicalId":73081,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in electronics","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89154373","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-09DOI: 10.3389/felec.2021.711103
Olga Kanz, K. Bittkau, K. Ding, U. Rau, A. Reinders
This work presents a review of life-cycle assessment (LCA) studies of hydrogen electrolysis using power from photovoltaic (PV) systems. The paper discusses the assumptions, strengths and weaknesses of 13 LCA studies and identifies the causes of the environmental impact. Differences in assumptions of system boundaries, system sizes, evaluation methods, and functional units make it challenging to directly compare the Global Warming Potential (GWP) resulting from different studies. To simplify this process, 13 selected LCA studies on PV-powered hydrogen production have been harmonized following a consistent framework described by this paper. The harmonized GWP values vary from 0.7 to 6.6 kg CO2-eq/kg H2 which can be considered a wide range. The maximum absolute difference between the original and harmonized GWP results of a study is 1.5 kg CO2-eq/kg H2. Yet even the highest GWP of this study is over four times lower than the GWP of grid-powered electrolysis in Germany. Due to the lack of transparency of most LCAs included in this review, full identification of the sources of discrepancies (methods applied, assumed production conditions) is not possible. Overall it can be concluded that the environmental impact of the electrolytic hydrogen production process is mainly caused by the GWP of the electricity supply. For future environmental impact studies on hydrogen production systems, it is highly recommended to 1) divide the whole system into well-defined subsystems using compression as the final stage of the LCA and 2) to provide energy inputs/GWP results for the different subsystems.
本文综述了利用光伏发电系统进行氢电解的生命周期评估(LCA)研究。本文讨论了13项LCA研究的假设、优势和不足,并确定了环境影响的原因。由于对系统边界、系统规模、评估方法和功能单元的假设存在差异,直接比较不同研究得出的全球变暖潜势(GWP)具有挑战性。为了简化这一过程,根据本文描述的一致框架,对13项选定的LCA研究进行了协调。统一的GWP值在0.7 ~ 6.6 kg co2当量/kg H2之间变化,可以认为是一个很宽的范围。一项研究的原始和协调GWP结果之间的最大绝对差为1.5 kg CO2-eq/kg H2。然而,即使是这项研究中最高的全球变暖潜能值也比德国电网电解的全球变暖潜能值低四倍多。由于本次评审中包含的大多数lca缺乏透明度,因此不可能完全确定差异的来源(应用的方法,假设的生产条件)。综上所述,电解制氢过程的环境影响主要由供电的GWP引起。对于未来对制氢系统的环境影响研究,强烈建议:1)将整个系统划分为定义良好的子系统,使用压缩作为LCA的最后阶段;2)为不同子系统提供能量输入/GWP结果。
{"title":"Review and Harmonization of the Life-Cycle Global Warming Impact of PV-Powered Hydrogen Production by Electrolysis","authors":"Olga Kanz, K. Bittkau, K. Ding, U. Rau, A. Reinders","doi":"10.3389/felec.2021.711103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/felec.2021.711103","url":null,"abstract":"This work presents a review of life-cycle assessment (LCA) studies of hydrogen electrolysis using power from photovoltaic (PV) systems. The paper discusses the assumptions, strengths and weaknesses of 13 LCA studies and identifies the causes of the environmental impact. Differences in assumptions of system boundaries, system sizes, evaluation methods, and functional units make it challenging to directly compare the Global Warming Potential (GWP) resulting from different studies. To simplify this process, 13 selected LCA studies on PV-powered hydrogen production have been harmonized following a consistent framework described by this paper. The harmonized GWP values vary from 0.7 to 6.6 kg CO2-eq/kg H2 which can be considered a wide range. The maximum absolute difference between the original and harmonized GWP results of a study is 1.5 kg CO2-eq/kg H2. Yet even the highest GWP of this study is over four times lower than the GWP of grid-powered electrolysis in Germany. Due to the lack of transparency of most LCAs included in this review, full identification of the sources of discrepancies (methods applied, assumed production conditions) is not possible. Overall it can be concluded that the environmental impact of the electrolytic hydrogen production process is mainly caused by the GWP of the electricity supply. For future environmental impact studies on hydrogen production systems, it is highly recommended to 1) divide the whole system into well-defined subsystems using compression as the final stage of the LCA and 2) to provide energy inputs/GWP results for the different subsystems.","PeriodicalId":73081,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in electronics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48656265","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-03DOI: 10.3389/felec.2021.725008
H. Taheri, Michael U. Ocheje, P. B. J. St. Onge, S. Rondeau‐Gagné, M. Mirhassani
Organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) are at the forefront of next generation electronics. This class of devices is particularly promising due to the possibility of fabrication on mechanically compliant and conformable substrates, and potential manufacturing at large scale through solution deposition techniques. However, their integration in circuits, especially using stretchable materials, is still challenging. In this work, the design and implementation of a novel structure for an integrated CMOS readout circuitry is presented and its fundamentals of operation are provided. Critical for sensing applications, the readout circuitry described is highly linear. Moreover, as several sources of mismatch and error are present in CMOS and OFET devices, a calibration technique is used to cancel out all the mismatches, thus delivering a reliable output. The readout circuit is verified in TSMC 0.18 μm CMOS technology. The maximum total power consumption in the proposed readout circuit is less than 571 μW, while fully loaded calibration circuit consumes a power less than 153 μW, making it suitable for sensors applications. Based on previously reported high mobility and stretchable semiconducting polymers, this new design and readout circuitry is an important step toward a broader utilization of OFETs and the design of stretchable sensors.
{"title":"Computational Design of an Integrated CMOS Readout Circuit for Sensing With Organic Field-Effect Transistors","authors":"H. Taheri, Michael U. Ocheje, P. B. J. St. Onge, S. Rondeau‐Gagné, M. Mirhassani","doi":"10.3389/felec.2021.725008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/felec.2021.725008","url":null,"abstract":"Organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) are at the forefront of next generation electronics. This class of devices is particularly promising due to the possibility of fabrication on mechanically compliant and conformable substrates, and potential manufacturing at large scale through solution deposition techniques. However, their integration in circuits, especially using stretchable materials, is still challenging. In this work, the design and implementation of a novel structure for an integrated CMOS readout circuitry is presented and its fundamentals of operation are provided. Critical for sensing applications, the readout circuitry described is highly linear. Moreover, as several sources of mismatch and error are present in CMOS and OFET devices, a calibration technique is used to cancel out all the mismatches, thus delivering a reliable output. The readout circuit is verified in TSMC 0.18 μm CMOS technology. The maximum total power consumption in the proposed readout circuit is less than 571 μW, while fully loaded calibration circuit consumes a power less than 153 μW, making it suitable for sensors applications. Based on previously reported high mobility and stretchable semiconducting polymers, this new design and readout circuitry is an important step toward a broader utilization of OFETs and the design of stretchable sensors.","PeriodicalId":73081,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in electronics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48540218","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-20DOI: 10.3389/felec.2021.712785
Sayantan Mazumdar, Ying Zhao, Xiaodang Zhang
Inorganic–organic metal halide perovskite light harvester-based perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have come to the limelight of solar cell research due to their rapid growth in efficiency. At present, stability and reliability are challenging aspects concerning the Si-based or thin film-based commercial devices. Commercialization of perovskite solar cells remains elusive due to the lack of stability of these devices under real operational conditions, especially for longer duration use. A large number of researchers have been engaged in an ardent effort to improve the stability of perovskite solar cells. Understanding the degradation mechanisms has been the primary importance before exploring the remedies for degradation. In this review, a methodical understanding of various degradation mechanisms of perovskites and perovskite solar cells is presented followed by a discussion on different steps taken to overcome the stability issues. Recent insights on degradation mechanisms are discussed. Various approaches of stability enhancement are reviewed with an emphasis on reports that complied with the operational standard for practical application in a commercial solar module. The operational stability standard enacted by the International Electrotechnical Commission is especially discussed with reports that met the requirements or showed excellent results, which is the most important criterion to evaluate a device’s actual prospect to be utilized for practical applications in commercial solar modules. An overall understanding of degradation pathways in perovskites and perovskite solar cells and steps taken to overcome those with references including state-of-the-art devices with promising operational stability can be gained from this review.
{"title":"Stability of Perovskite Solar Cells: Degradation Mechanisms and Remedies","authors":"Sayantan Mazumdar, Ying Zhao, Xiaodang Zhang","doi":"10.3389/felec.2021.712785","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/felec.2021.712785","url":null,"abstract":"Inorganic–organic metal halide perovskite light harvester-based perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have come to the limelight of solar cell research due to their rapid growth in efficiency. At present, stability and reliability are challenging aspects concerning the Si-based or thin film-based commercial devices. Commercialization of perovskite solar cells remains elusive due to the lack of stability of these devices under real operational conditions, especially for longer duration use. A large number of researchers have been engaged in an ardent effort to improve the stability of perovskite solar cells. Understanding the degradation mechanisms has been the primary importance before exploring the remedies for degradation. In this review, a methodical understanding of various degradation mechanisms of perovskites and perovskite solar cells is presented followed by a discussion on different steps taken to overcome the stability issues. Recent insights on degradation mechanisms are discussed. Various approaches of stability enhancement are reviewed with an emphasis on reports that complied with the operational standard for practical application in a commercial solar module. The operational stability standard enacted by the International Electrotechnical Commission is especially discussed with reports that met the requirements or showed excellent results, which is the most important criterion to evaluate a device’s actual prospect to be utilized for practical applications in commercial solar modules. An overall understanding of degradation pathways in perovskites and perovskite solar cells and steps taken to overcome those with references including state-of-the-art devices with promising operational stability can be gained from this review.","PeriodicalId":73081,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in electronics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44828964","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-13DOI: 10.3389/felec.2021.727994
Timothy Sands
Robot systems like automated shipping swinging robots, wire transducer sensors and even computer indigenous time sensors (amongst others) often use oscillating circuits such as the famous van der Pol system, while this manuscript investigates protection of such sensor circuitry to spurious voltage spikes accompanying an electromagnetic pulse. These spurious voltages can lead to uncontrolled robot motion and even debilitation. A very brief discussion of electromagnetic pulses yields design parameters to evaluate circuit responses to realistic disturbing pulses. Recent research in nonlinear-adaptive methods to protect circuits are described to highlight the proposed novelty: utilization of feedback rules as adaptive mechanisms to modify the otherwise nonlinear feedforwards systems improving the results in recent literature. Feedback is iterated to select adaption parameters that simultaneously produce favorable circuit performance in addition to effective parameter identification inherent in the adaption (to provide meaningful parameter estimates to unspecified future applications). Spurious voltages were rapidly rejected with a mere 0.3% trajectory deviation, stabilizing quickly with a final (steady state) deviation of 0.01%. The demonstrated abilities to reject the deleterious spurious effects are compared to nominal figures of merit for timing accuracy of various computer systems to conclude the proposed methods are effective for some applications, but insufficient for others.
{"title":"Countering the Deleterious Effects of Electromagnetic Pulse","authors":"Timothy Sands","doi":"10.3389/felec.2021.727994","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/felec.2021.727994","url":null,"abstract":"Robot systems like automated shipping swinging robots, wire transducer sensors and even computer indigenous time sensors (amongst others) often use oscillating circuits such as the famous van der Pol system, while this manuscript investigates protection of such sensor circuitry to spurious voltage spikes accompanying an electromagnetic pulse. These spurious voltages can lead to uncontrolled robot motion and even debilitation. A very brief discussion of electromagnetic pulses yields design parameters to evaluate circuit responses to realistic disturbing pulses. Recent research in nonlinear-adaptive methods to protect circuits are described to highlight the proposed novelty: utilization of feedback rules as adaptive mechanisms to modify the otherwise nonlinear feedforwards systems improving the results in recent literature. Feedback is iterated to select adaption parameters that simultaneously produce favorable circuit performance in addition to effective parameter identification inherent in the adaption (to provide meaningful parameter estimates to unspecified future applications). Spurious voltages were rapidly rejected with a mere 0.3% trajectory deviation, stabilizing quickly with a final (steady state) deviation of 0.01%. The demonstrated abilities to reject the deleterious spurious effects are compared to nominal figures of merit for timing accuracy of various computer systems to conclude the proposed methods are effective for some applications, but insufficient for others.","PeriodicalId":73081,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in electronics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46624241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-01DOI: 10.3389/felec.2021.670077
Tian‐Hua Liu, Yu-Wei Wang
Fault tolerant drive systems have played an increasing role for electric vehicles in order to improve reliability, availability, and to reduce maintenance. For safety reason, a fault-tolerant drive system, which includes some redundant devices and a traditional motor drive system, has been developed. This fault-tolerant system executes real-time fault detection, diagnosis, isolation, and control to make the fault-tolerant drive system operate normally even though some faults have happened. In this paper, an AC/DC converter faults, which includes a single-phase full-bridge rectifier diode fault, a three-phase full-bridge rectifier diode fault, and a DC-link capacitor fault are investigated. The fault-tolerant processes include fault detection, diagnosis, isolation, and control to improve the reliability of the drive system and reduce the disturbances during faulty interval. A digital signal processor, manufactured by Texas Instruments, type TMS320F2808, is used as a control center to achieve the fault tolerant processes. Experimental results validate theoretical analysis to demonstrate the correctness and feasibility of the proposed methods. The proposed method can be easily implemented in industrial products due to its simplicity.
{"title":"Implementation of a Fault-Tolerant AC/DC Converter for Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor Drive Systems","authors":"Tian‐Hua Liu, Yu-Wei Wang","doi":"10.3389/felec.2021.670077","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/felec.2021.670077","url":null,"abstract":"Fault tolerant drive systems have played an increasing role for electric vehicles in order to improve reliability, availability, and to reduce maintenance. For safety reason, a fault-tolerant drive system, which includes some redundant devices and a traditional motor drive system, has been developed. This fault-tolerant system executes real-time fault detection, diagnosis, isolation, and control to make the fault-tolerant drive system operate normally even though some faults have happened. In this paper, an AC/DC converter faults, which includes a single-phase full-bridge rectifier diode fault, a three-phase full-bridge rectifier diode fault, and a DC-link capacitor fault are investigated. The fault-tolerant processes include fault detection, diagnosis, isolation, and control to improve the reliability of the drive system and reduce the disturbances during faulty interval. A digital signal processor, manufactured by Texas Instruments, type TMS320F2808, is used as a control center to achieve the fault tolerant processes. Experimental results validate theoretical analysis to demonstrate the correctness and feasibility of the proposed methods. The proposed method can be easily implemented in industrial products due to its simplicity.","PeriodicalId":73081,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in electronics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44649293","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}