05 Fakultät Informatik, Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://elib.uni-stuttgart.de/handle/11682/6
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Item Open Access Molekularstrahlepitaxie und Charakterisierung unverspannter Silizium-Germanium-Zinn-Legierungen auf virtuellem Germanium-Substrat(2022) Schwarz, Daniel; Schulze, Jörg (Prof. Dr. habil.)Item Open Access Ultra-low-noise readout circuits for magnetoresistive sensors(2023) Mohamed, Ayman; Anders, Jens (Prof. Dr.-Ing.)The continuous search for highly sensitive, agile and cost-effective sensors for magnetic biosensing applications has been met with high performance magnetoresistive (MR) sensors. While the MR effect has been discovered 150 years ago, there is a growing trend of improving the sensitivity of MR sensors while keeping their noise performance as low as possible. However, such improvements have to be complemented with high performance frontends that can effectively amplify the minute MR sensor's signals while keeping the system's noise floor unaltered. More importantly, the designed frontends have to be equipped with offset compensation peripheral circuits that can efficiently handle the large spread of the base resistance in MR sensors with high MR ratios such as in tunnel magnetoresistive (TMR) sensors. In this thesis, we developed multiple frontend electronics that successfully interfaced MR sensors while, simultaneously, achieving competitive noise performance compared to state-of-the-art (SoA) designs tailored for MR sensor readout. The first variant of chips are specically designed for high performance and high linearity designs thanks to a novel implementation of an ultra-low-noise current bias achieving SoA current noise floor of 2.2 pA/sqrt(Hz) and chopped voltage-mode amplification stages resulting in a total voltage noise floor of 8 nV/sqrt(Hz), including a TMR sensor and a reference resistor with base resistance of 1 kOhm. In order to integrate an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) without substantial additional power and/or area, we show in this work a continuous-time current-mode Sigma-Delta modulator (CT C-SDM) that can directly interface MR sensors without additional amplifiers. Our proposed design does not only show a competitive noise floor of 8.1 pA/sqrt(Hz), but also features a novel DC servo loop (DSL) around the modulator that maximizes the useful dynamic range (DR) of the modulator while successfully rejecting the undesired DC offsets of MR sensors. Both design variants shown in this thesis, pave the way to designing high performance point-of-care (PoC) systems for in-vitro diagnostics while keeping their costs low compared to alternative bulky and expensive systems.Item Open Access Low-complexity adaptive digital equalizers for electronic dispersion compensation in optical fiber links(2022) Efinger, Daniel; Speidel, Joachim (Prof. Dr.-Ing.)This thesis addresses electronic equalization of intersymbol interference caused by chromatic and polarization mode dispersion in intensity-modulated optical communication links with direct detection. The simple and cost-efficient system setup is, even at high bit rates of 40 Gbit/s and beyond, of interest for short-haul optical links in metropolitan, aggregation or local area networks. Therefore, this thesis investigates preferably simple and low-complexity equalizer structures, which are able to compensate well for the nonlinear characteristics and influences of the intensity-modulated optical communication link with direct detection. Starting with system modeling and the introduction to different equalization methods, we identify low-complexity feed-forward and decision-feedback equalizers in the first part of this thesis. We further put their chromatic and polarization mode dispersion compensation performance to the broader context by comparison to maximum likelihood sequence estimation. Finally, we come to the investigation of adaptation algorithms for equalizer coefficient adjustment, which accounts for the time-variant nature of polarization mode dispersion, while still targeting preferably simple and efficient realization.Item Open Access Spectrally efficient transmitter diversity scheme for optical satellite feeder links(2024) Mustafa, Ahmad; Ten Brink, Stephan (Prof. Dr.-Ing.)There is an ever-growing demand for increasing the data traffic in the order of Tb/s to the geostationary (GEO) satellites. It will help connect numerous users on the ground who do not have access to internet service. This high throughput can be achieved using multiple laser beams in the uplink and combining them with the dense wavelength division multiplexing technique. However, optical signals propagating through the turbulent atmosphere to GEO satellites suffer from the intensity and phase fluctuations. Additionally, atmospherically induced beam wander leads to pointing errors at the satellite resulting in deep fades, hence loss of signal power which can fall below the receiver sensitivity making the communication impossible. The problem of photon scarcity can be tackled by using advanced power-efficient coherent modulation formats which are highly sensitive, but they come at the expense of increased system complexity. Therefore, in this thesis, only an intensity modulation and direct detection scheme called non-return-to-zero on-off keying is considered, which is relatively easier to implement in free-space optical communications. To mitigate the atmospheric fades, a transmitter diversity technique called MISO is considered for GEO feeder links for reliable signal reception at the satellite. It requires multiple laser beams to propagate through uncorrelated channels, which can be achieved by having a physical separation between the transmitting telescopes greater than the atmospheric coherence length. This thesis is divided into two main parts: The first part includes the quantitative analysis of the MISO scheme with no spectral overlapping between the neighboring signals. Here, the fading consists of log-normal scintillation and residual beam pointing jitter. The bit error rate (BER) for the single-input single-output and MISO systems is obtained using the fading statistics of the atmosphere and considering the receiver model of a commercially available 10Gb/s photoreceiver with an avalanche photodiode. For the given atmospheric conditions and residual beam pointing jitter, the transmit power of each beam is optimized to minimize the overall power scintillation index and maximize the BER gain. The second part of the thesis aims at increasing the spectral efficiency of the transmission system where SSB signals are generated using optical filters to achieve the desired BER performance. A laboratory experiment with a 32Gb/s system is performed in a back-to-backup setup to optimize the SSB signals using a passive filtering technique. Here, the filter bandwidth and the center frequency from the carrier are optimized to get the error-free performance. Finally, simulations are performed where the optimized upper sideband and lower sideband from the respective double-sideband signals are obtained, and then they are propagated through the atmospheric channel, which consists of log-normal scintillation effects and phase piston. The carrier separation between the two signals is selected such to emulate constructive and destructive interference due to the slowly varying phase piston. A diversity gain of 2.3dB is achieved, which shows the efficacy of using transmitter diversity in a GEO uplink channel.Item Open Access Novel characterization techniques for the study of the dynamic behavior of silicon carbide power MOSFETs(2022) Salcines, Cristino; Kallfass, Ingmar (Prof. Dr.-Ing.)This dissertation provides insight into the dynamic behavior of SiC power MOSFETs from their inherent static IV and CV characteristics. While conventional dynamic measurements extracted from a DPT or a similar dynamic test-bench yield accurate quantitative data, the static IV and CV characteristics of a power semiconductor device offer more qualitative information to delve into the root mechanisms responsible for its dynamic behavior. Conventional characterization techniques are limited to power levels way below those which the power device withstands in the application. As a result, the static IV and CV characteristics attained by available measurement solutions are reduced to a limited scope of bias conditions insufficient to infer information about the dynamic behavior of the power device. This work tackles this gap and proposes novel measurement techniques that enable the characterization of the static IV and CV characteristics of SiC power MOSFETs at the full range of bias conditions the power device goes through in the application. Iso-thermal IV characteristics of a commercially available SiC power MOSFET are measured up to 40 kW power (instantaneous 50 A and 800 V) at junction temperatures ranging from 25°C to 175 °C. The CV characteristics are mapped at drain-source and gate-source bias combinations of VDS = 0 - 40 V and VGS = 0 - 20 V, respectively, at junction temperatures ranging from 25°C to 150 °C. The results of these measurements reveal unique insights into the electrical characteristics of SiC power MOSFETs which impact their performance in the application and explain unclear phenomena observed in their dynamic behavior. On the one hand, the intrinsic capacitances of the SiC power MOSFET extend their non-linearity, function of both VGS and VDS, to the saturation region of the power device. Moreover, they are also affected by the junction temperature of the power device. The impact of these in the voltage commutation speed of the device under different switching conditions is thoroughly analyzed in the thesis. On the other hand, the IV characteristics of the SiC power MOSFET reveal the existence of short channel effects that drastically affect the transconductance of the power device in its high voltage saturation region. Furthermore, the measurements show a positive temperature coefficient of the drain current in the high voltage saturation region of the SiC power device, attributed to the density of trap energy states in the SiC/SiO2 interface. These effects effectively lower the plateau voltage of the device and lead to faster current commutation speeds in the application than those expected from the datasheet values. The insights revealed by the proposed characterization techniques are intended to help fine-tune semiconductor technology processes and improve the accuracy of simulation models to achieve a higher grade of optimization in the design of future SiC-based energy conversion circuits.Item Open Access Design of frequency-converting monolithic integrated circuits for millimeter-wave applications(2022) Grötsch, Christopher; Kallfass, Ingmar (Prof. Dr.-Ing.)This thesis focuses on how to efficiently utilize the low terahertz spectrum in the frequency range from 220 to 325 GHz, also called H-band. This work presents an introduction on several techniques necessary for designing frequency-converting monolithic millimeter-wave integrated circuits for this frequency range. Six different frequency-converter MMICs in a 35 nm gate-length InGaAs mHEMT technology are presented: a nonlinear resistance up- and down-converter, a dual-gate up and down-converter, a gate-pumped transconductance up-converter and a half Gilbert cell up-converter. Each design is explained in detail, their advantages and their disadvantages are evaluated. Three examples will be given where a selection of the frequency-converter architectures are integrated with other functional stages like frequency multipliers and amplifiers to form a millimeter-wave transceiver: a highly linear FMCW radar receiver with a 50 GHz bandwidth, a heterodyne communication receiver facilitating multi-channel transmissions with carrier aggregation at W-band and a homodyne communication receiver with an integrated antenna for low-cost assembly on a PCB. Thereby, this thesis provides insight into the design considerations of terahertz frequency converters, the trade-off of different circuit architectures and topologies for certain applications, the obstacles that can occur during their development and approaches to overcome them.Item Open Access Untersuchung von Parallelschaltungen unterschiedlich gealterter Zellmodule(2024) Kreher, Tina; Birke, Kai Peter (Prof. Dr.-Ing.)In dieser Arbeit wird das Thema „Untersuchung von Parallelschaltungen unterschiedlich gealterter Zellmodule“ im Rahmen von drei Themengebieten betrachtet. Es handelt sich dabei um Untersuchungen an parallelgeschalteten Lithium-Ionen-Zellen oder darauf basierenden Batteriesystemen. Der erste Teil untersucht das Potential die Messzeit zur Messdatenerhebung für die Parametrierung eines Ersatzschaltbildes zu reduzieren. Dafür werden verschiedene Charakterisierungsmethoden angewandt und die daraus erstellten Modelle hinsichtlich Genauigkeit und zeitlichem Messaufwand verglichen. Es zeigt sich, dass durch eine geschickte Wahl der Vorgehensweise die benötigte Messzeit und die damit verbundenen Kosten um bis zu 76 % reduziert werden können, ohne einen nennenswerten Nachteil auf die Modellgenauigkeit zu erhalten. Im zweiten Teil der Arbeit finden kalendarische und zyklische Alterungstests statt. Anhand der gewonnenen Daten werden Stressfaktoren der Zellalterung identifiziert und quantifiziert. Die Ergebnisse führen starke Alterung auf hohe Temperaturen und Ladezustände sowie große Zyklentiefen zurück. Des Weiteren wird ein Alterungsmodell erstellt, mit welchem die Alterung von Ersatzschaltbildparametern nachgebildet werden kann. Die eigentlichen Untersuchungen zu Parallelschaltungen finden im dritten Teil statt und bauen auf den Ergebnissen aus den ersten beiden Teilen auf. Zunächst wird ein Simulationsmodell aufgebaut und validiert, welches ein Parallelschaltungssystem aus zwei Lithium-Ionen-Zellen darstellt. Im nächsten Schritt erfolgt die Betrachtung einer ungesteuerten Parallelschaltung aus Zellen unterschiedlichen Alterungszustands, bei welcher mit einer inhomogenen Zellstromaufteilung zu rechnen ist. Dabei ist mit zunehmender Alterungsdifferenz der Zellen eine Lastverschiebung hin zur neueren Zelle festzustellen. Bezogen auf die Alterung zeigt sich eine bis zu 1,24-fach stärkere Kapazitätsabnahme und ein 1,33-facher Innenwiderstandsanstieg der neueren Zelle im Vergleich zu einem System mit gleichen Zellzuständen und homogener Stromaufteilung. Als nächstes findet die Ausarbeitung einer Betriebsstrategie für eine gesteuerte Parallelschaltung anhand eines möglichen Anwendungsfalls statt. Dafür wird implementiert, dass ein Parallelbetrieb beider Zellen, wie auch das gezielte Zu- und Wegschalten von einzelnen Strängen im System zulässig ist. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass so ein sicherer Betrieb von Parallelschaltungen bestehend aus unterschiedlich stark gealterten Zellen möglich ist. Die auf Zellebene gewonnenen Ergebnisse zu Parallelschaltungen werden im Rahmen eines Forschungsprojekt auf eine Fahrzeuganwendung mit zwei autarken Batterien unterschiedlichen Alterungszustandes übertragen. Zusammen mit dem Projektpartner erfolgt der Aufbau eines Prototyps, bei welchem der Parallelbetrieb und das gezielte An- und Abkoppeln der Batterien an das Hochvoltsystem möglich ist. Dieser Aufbau dient als Machbarkeitsnachweis für den Parallelbetrieb von Lithium-Ionen-Zellen und Batterien mit unterschiedlichen Alterungszuständen.Item Open Access Parallel-Analog/Digital-Umsetzer für Gigabaud-Applikationen(2021) Du, Xuan-Quang; Berroth, Manfred (Prof. Dr.-Ing.)Communication systems with digital signal processors (DSPs) rely on data converters as interface blocks between the analog and the digital domain. The channel data rates in these systems can be increased by choosing a higher symbol rate and/or a more complex modulation format. Both approaches motivate the design of data converters with high sample rates and/or high effective bit resolution. As the improvement of the converter linearity in terms of power efficiency is more difficult to realize, especially at high operation frequencies, current research on ultrahigh data-rate mm-wave communication systems (e.g., 100 Gbit/s wireless communication) focuses on increasing the symbol rate while keeping the modulation format simple (e.g., quadrature phase shift keying). These systems require data converters with nominal bit resolutions of around 4-8 bit and sample rates of more than 25 GS/s. In order to satisfy the future needs for high-speed data converters, new circuit topologies need to be investigated. This work presents the design of a 35.84-GS/s 4-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) from its idea to its first silicon implementation. The ADC is based on a single-core flash architecture that makes use of a special traveling-wave signal distribution. Contrary to classical approaches with a power-hungry and area-consuming front-end track-and-hold (T/H), no analog preprocessing is needed. The analog input and the clock signal are rather directly distributed over a pair of delay-matched transmission lines from one comparator to the next adjacent one. Due the spatial location of these components, both signals do not arrive at the same time at every comparator, but as they travel synchronously along the transmission lines, each comparator will always see the same input value at each sampling event. This work gives detailed insight into critical design aspects of this approach and new mathematical models to predict the impact of data-to-clock time skews onto the converter linearity. Furthermore, essential building components (e.g., linear amplifiers, encoder, etc.) and a real-time digital communication interface for multi-gigabit/s data transmission to external devices are presented. The ADC is implemented in a 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS technology from IHP (SG13G2) and exhibits a die area of 1.3 mm^2. For experimental tests, the ADC is wire-bonded on a specially designed radio frequency (RF) printed circuit board. At a sampling rate of 35.84 GS/s, the peak spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) is 35.4 dBc and the peak signal-to-noise-and-distortion ratio (SNDR) is 24.6 dB (3.8 bit). The effective resolution bandwidth (ERBW) is 14.52 GHz and covers almost the complete first Nyquist frequency band. Up to input frequencies of 20 GHz, a SFDR of more than 26.7 dBc and a SNDR of more than 19.8 dB (3 bit) is achieved. Even at a sample rate of 40.32 GS/s, full Nyquist performance can be demonstrated (SNDR = 18.4 dB @20 GHz). The presented ADC improves the sample rate of current state-of-the-art single-core ADCs by 61% from 25 GS/s to 40 GS/s, making it not only the smallest, but also the fastest reported single-core implementation up to date.Item Open Access A comparison of system architectures for wireless links in the terahertz band(2022) Dan, Iulia; Kallfass, Ingmar (Prof. Dr.-Ing.)This thesis shows an in-depth analysis of two system architecures used for future terahertz communication systems. For each architecture wireless data transmissions are carried out based on analog frontend devices that use that particular architecuture. The performance of the links is compared and the structure of the wireless links is described in detail and analyzed.Item Open Access Driver alertness monitoring using steering, lane keeping and eye tracking data under real driving conditions(2020) Friedrichs, Fabian; Yang, Bin (Prof. Dr.-Ing.)Since humans operate trains, vehicles, aircrafts and industrial machinery, fatigue has always been one of the major causes of accidents. Experts assert that sleepiness is among the major causes of severe road accidents. In-vehicle fatigue detection has been a research topic since the early 80’s. Most approaches are based on driving simulator studies, but do not properly work under real driving conditions. The Mercedes-Benz ATTENTION ASSIST is the first highly sophisticated series equipment driver assistance system on the market that detects early signs of fatigue. Seven years of research and development with an unparalleled demand of resources were necessary for its series introduction in 2009 for passenger cars and 2012 for busses. The system analyzes the driving behavior and issues a warning to sleepy drivers. Essentially, this system extracts a single measure (so-called feature), the steering event rate by detecting a characteristic pattern in the steering wheel angle signal. This pattern is principally described by a steering pause followed by a sudden correction. Various challenges had to be tackled for the series-production readiness, such as handling individual driving styles and external influences from the road, traffic and weather. Fuzzy logic, driving style detection, road condition detection, change of driver detection, fixed-point parameter optimization and sensor surveillance were some of the side results from this thesis that were essential for the system’s maturity. Simply issuing warnings to sleepy drivers is faintly "experiencable" nor transparent. Thus, the next version 2.0 of the system was the introduction of the more vivid ATTENTION LEVEL, which is a permanently available bargraph monitoring the current driving performance. The algorithm is another result of this thesis and was introduced 2013 in the new S-Class. Fatigue is very difficult to grasp since a ground truth reference does not exist. Thus, the presented findings about camera-based driver monitoring are included as fatigue reference for algorithm training. Concurrently, the presented results build the basis for eye-monitoring cameras of the future generation of such systems. The driver monitoring camera will also play a key role in "automated driving" since it is necessary to know if the driver looks to the road while the vehicle is driving and if he is alert enough to take back control over the vehicle in complex situations. All these improvements represent major steps towards the paradigm of crash free driving. In order to develop and improve the ATTENTION ASSIST, the central goal of the present work was the development of pattern detection and classification algorithms to detect fatigue from driving sensors. One major approach to achieve a sufficiently high detection rate while maintaining the false alarm rate at a minimum was the incorporation of further patterns with sleepiness-associative ability. Features reported in literature were assessed as well as improved extraction techniques. Various new features were proposed for their applicability under real-road conditions. The mentioned steering pattern detection is the most important feature and was further optimized. Essential series sensor signals, available in most today’s vehicles were considered, such as steering wheel angle, lateral and longitudinal acceleration, yaw rate, wheel rotation rate, acceleration pedal, wheel suspension level, and vehicle operation. Another focus was on the lateral control using camera-based lane data. Under real driving conditions, the effects of sleepiness on the driving performance are very small and severely obscured by external influences such as road condition, curvature, cross-wind, vehicle speed, traffic, steering parameters etc. Furthermore, drivers also have very different individual driving styles. Short-term distraction from vehicle operation also has a big impact on the driving behavior. Proposals are given on how to incorporate such factors. Since lane features require an optional tracking camera, a proposal is made on how to estimate some lane deviation features from only inertial sensory by means of an extended Kalman filter. Every feature is related to a number of parameters and implementation details. A highly accelerated method for parameter optimization of the large amount of data is presented and applied to the most promising features. The alpha-spindle rate from the Electroencephalogram (EEG) and Electrooculogram (EOG) were assessed for their performance under real driving conditions. In contrast to the majority of results in literature, EEG was not observed to contribute any useful information to the fatigue reference (except for two drives with microsleeps). Generally, the subjective self-assessments according to the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale and a three level warning acceptance question were consequently used. Various correlation measures and statistical test were used to assess the correlation of features with the reference. This thesis is based on a database with over 27,000 drives that accumulate to over 1.5 mio km of real-road drives. In addition, various supervised real-road driving studies were conducted that involve advanced fatigue levels. The fusion of features is performed by different classifiers like Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Support Vector Machines (SVM). Fair classification results are achieved with ANN and SVM using cross-validation. A selection of the most potential and independent features is given based on automatic SFFS feature selection. Classical machine learning methods are used in order to yield maximal system transparency and since the algorithms are targeted to run in present control units. The potential of using end-to-end deep learning algorithms is discussed. Whereas its application to CAN-signals is problematic, there is a high potential for driver-camera based approaches. Finally, features were implemented in a real-time demonstrator using an own CAN-interface framework. While various findings are already rolled out in ATTENTION ASSIST 1.0, 2.0 and ATTENTION LEVEL, it was shown that further improvements are possible by incorporating a selection of steering- and lane-based features and sophisticated classifiers. The problem can only be solved on a system level considering all topics discussed in this thesis. After decades of research, it must be recognized that the limitations of indirect methods have been reached. Especially in view of emerging automated driving, direct methods like eye-tracking must be considered and have shown the greatest potential.