Facilitate System Integration Research Articles

Triple-Entry Accounting and System Integration

Triple Entry Accounting (TEA) provides an opportunity for fundamental change in accounting. TEA is a foundational development of Blockchain technology, which is considered a pillar of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Nevertheless, in order to augment its impact, TEA should be integrated with other systems. This paper aims to examine the relationship of TEA with system integration (SI) and how it can affect integration. This study reviews the SI literature in the context of accounting, examines how the literature on TEA has evolved over the years, and finally contributes to the analysis of how TEA is related to integration. A key theme is the connection of accounting controls and system integration. The methodology of the four design principles of control in system integration is adopted. Transparency is the main perspective of these principles. It was found that TEA promotes transparency, reduces the risk of fraud, and facilitates system integration.

Acousto-Pi: An Opto-Acoustofluidic System Using Surface Acoustic Waves Controlled With Open-Source Electronics for Integrated In-Field Diagnostics.

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices are increasingly applied in life sciences, biology, and point-of-care applications due to their combined acoustofluidic sensing and actuating properties. Despite the advances in this field, there remain significant gaps in interfacing hardware and control strategies to facilitate system integration with high performance and low cost. In this work, we present a versatile and digitally controlled acoustofluidic platform by demonstrating key functions for biological assays such as droplet transportation and mixing using a closed-loop feedback control with image recognition. Moreover, we integrate optical detection by demonstrating in situ fluorescence sensing capabilities with a standard camera and digital filters, bypassing the need for expensive and complex optical setups. The Acousto-Pi setup is based on open-source Raspberry Pi hardware and 3-D printed housing, and the SAW devices are fabricated with piezoelectric thin films on a metallic substrate. The platform enables the control of droplet position and speed for sample processing (mixing and dilution of samples), as well as the control of temperature based on acousto-heating, offering embedded processing capability. It can be operated remotely while recording the measurements in cloud databases toward integrated in-field diagnostic applications such as disease outbreak control, mass healthcare screening, and food safety.

Effect of Pressurization on Solid Oxide Cell Oxygen Electrodes: the Role of PrOx Nanoparticle Infiltration

Pressurization of solid oxide cells improves performance by reducing electrode polarization resistance (R P ) and facilitates system integration with balance of plant components such as pressurized storage tanks. However, there are few reports on pressurization effects for electrodes designed for low-temperature operation and utilizing infiltrated catalysts. Here we report an electrochemical impedance spectroscopy study of high performing oxygen electrode materials, SrTi0.3Fe0.63Co0.07O3-∂ (STFC) and PrOx infiltrated STFC, for oxygen partial pressures () from 0.1 to 8 atm and temperatures from 550 to 650 °C. decreases more with pressurization for STFC:PrOx, fitting well to with an exponent n∼0.3, compared to n∼0.25 for STFC. The combination of PrOx infiltration and pressurization yields a substantial R P decrease, e.g., at 600 °C by ∼7 times from 0.36 Ω cm2 at = 0.2 atm for STFC to 0.055 Ω cm2 at = 4 atm for STFC:PrOx. A transmission-line-based circuit model impedance fit reveals that the significant oxygen surface reaction (Rsurf) resistance contribution decreases substantially with PrOx infiltration; and its dependence become more pronounced, with n increasing from ∼0.25 to ∼0.5. Rsurf for STFC:PrOx decreases so much at elevated that the electrode/electrolyte interface resistance dominates.

Enhancing fuel transport in air-breathing microfluidic fuel cells by immersed fuel micro-jet

Air-breathing microfluidic fuel cells with flow-over planar anodes can facilitate system integration but suffer from the fuel concentration boundary layer over the anode, which significantly hinders the fuel transport and limit cell performance. A novel approach is proposed to actively replenish the fuel concentration boundary layer by immersed fuel micro-jet, where part of the fresh fuel is jetted perpendicular to the anode, enabling targeted fuel transfer enhancement. The immersed fuel micro-jet is visualized by fluorescence microscopy, and the micro-jet can reach and flow along the anode at optimal condition. The same cell architecture is tested in both the flow-over and micro-jet modes. The electrochemical measurement and preliminary modelling results indicate that the fuel transfer limitation can be largely mitigated by fuel micro-jet, and the cell performance is enhanced accordingly. The micro-jet located at the middle of flow channel can balance the trade-off between replenishment and benefitted anode area. The effect of total fuel flow rate and micro-jet/lateral flow rate ratio on the fuel transport and cell performance are also discussed in detail. As compared with the flow-over mode, the maximum performance improvement of 40.9% is achieved by the immersed fuel micro-jet, and the optimal power density reaches 119.3 mW cm−3.

Effect of geometrical configurations on alkaline air-breathing membraneless microfluidic fuel cells with cylinder anodes

Membraneless microfluidic fuel cells (MMFCs) outperform traditional membrane-based micro-fuel cells in membraneless architecture and high surface-to-volume ratio and facile integration, but still need substantial improvement in performance. The fundamental challenges are dictated by multiphysics regarding cell configurations: the interaction of fluid flow, mass transport and electrochemical reactions. We present a numerical research that investigates the effect of geometrical configurations (rod arrangement, cell length, rod diameter and spacer configuration) on the fuel transport and performance of an alkaline MMFC with cylinder anodes. Modeling results suggest that the staggered rod arrangement outperforms the in-line case by 10.1% at 50 μL min–1. Cell power output and power density vary nearly linearly with the cell length. In the case with 0.7 mm anodes and 0.3 mm spacers, the increased flow resistance at anode region drives the fuel to intrude into the spacer zone, leading to fuel transport limitation at downstream. The feasibility of non-spacer configuration is demonstrated, and the power density is 93.7% higher than the baseline due to reduced cell volume and enhanced fuel transport. In addition, horizontal extension of the anode array is found to be more favorable for scale-up, the maximum power density of 181.9 mW cm–3 is predicted. This study provides insight into the fundamental, and offers guidance to improve the cell design for promoting performance and facilitating system integration.

An Improved Submodule Differential Power Processing-Based PV System With Flexible Multi-MPPT Control

With inhomogeneous irradiance on photovoltaic (PV) units significantly deteriorating the effectiveness of solar energy harvest, distributed maximum power point tracking (DMPPT) concept is considered as an effective solution against resultant mismatch. A comparative analysis of full power processing and differential power processing structures, as two main branches of DMPPT solution, is provided first. Advantages and disadvantages of widely used structures are analyzed and compared from different aspects. To harvest more power and realize better utilization of PV units, this paper presents a submodule level differential power processing PV system with a flexible double stage time-sharing maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control strategy. The proposal can achieve the accurate maximum power points (MPPs) of all PV submodules regardless of mismatch cases with only one adaptive MPPT controller, facilitating system integration and largely reducing system cost and conversion loss. The efficacy of the scheme is analyzed using Simulink and validated by experimental results.

Facilitating Preemptive Hardware System Design Using Partial Reconfiguration Techniques

In FPGA-based control system design, partial reconfiguration is especially well suited to implement preemptive systems. In real-time systems, the deadline for critical task can compel the preemption of noncritical one. Besides, an asynchronous event can demand immediate attention and, then, force launching a reconfiguration process for high-priority task implementation. If the asynchronous event is previously scheduled, an explicit activation of the reconfiguration process is performed. If the event cannot be previously programmed, such as in dynamically scheduled systems, an implicit activation to the reconfiguration process is demanded. This paper provides a hardware-based approach to explicit and implicit activation of the partial reconfiguration process in dynamically reconfigurable SoCs and includes all the necessary tasks to cope with this issue. Furthermore, the reconfiguration service introduced in this work allows remote invocation of the reconfiguration process and then the remote integration of off-chip components. A model that offers component location transparency is also presented to enhance and facilitate system integration.

IMA: An Integrated Monitoring Architecture With Sensor Networks

The integrated monitoring has become an important approach for investigation, detection, and policy decision in many fields. Unfortunately, current monitoring systems are commonly developed by different organizations using specific technologies and platforms, bringing a lot of difficulties for the seamless integration and unified access. To address the aforementioned problem, a novel integrated monitoring architecture based on Web services is proposed, which offers a universal client for accessing different monitoring systems and then facilitates system integration under the heterogeneous environment. By analyzing the characters of sensor-network-based monitoring applications, this paper presents the whole architecture design which consists of the standardized Web services, management subsystem, configuration subsystem, local monitoring subsystem, and integration monitoring subsystem. Through the integration architecture, the distributed isomerous monitoring systems can be accessed in a unified user interface if owning the corresponding ranking. In order to validate the proposed architecture, three different monitoring systems are constructed and integrated. The results show that the seamless system integration is achieved and the supervisory efficiency is improved remarkably.

A $W$-Band Micromachined 3-D Cavity-Backed Patch Antenna Array With Integrated Diode Detector

A 2 × 2 array of <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">W</i> -band air-dielectric cavity-backed patch antennas is presented. The array and its components are fabricated using a sequential surface micromachining technique known as the Polystrata process. Each antenna has a simulated 4.1% 10-dB return-loss bandwidth of about 94.5 GHz, a radiation efficiency of 95%, and a gain of 8.3 dB at broadside with a 76° 3-dB beamwidth. The simulated gain of the entire array is 13 dB. To facilitate system integration and measurement, several methods of interface are explored, including ground-signal-ground probing, direct transition to WR-10 waveguide, and hybridly integrated detector diodes. A measured return loss of 32 dB at 94 GHz with a 10-dB bandwidth of 3.25 GHz is measured for a single antenna, and 18 dB with a 10-dB bandwidth of 4.6 GHz is measured for an array. Measured <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">E</i> - and <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">H</i> -plane 3-dB beamwidths of 25° are reported. Antenna pattern measurements show good correlation with simulated results. The measured broadside gain for the antenna array is 13.5 dB at 94 GHz.

An e-contracting reference architecture

Business-to-business e-contracting aims at automating the contracting process between companies. It improves the efficiency of the contracting process and enables the introduction of new business models that can be supported by companies. For the development of an e-contracting system, an architecture is required that describes the system components and the communication channels between them. This paper presents a reference architecture for the development of e-contracting systems. The architecture is designed on the basis of a requirement analysis of e-contracting systems. Established architectural principles are used in its design. The architecture can serve as a foundation in the analysis and design of concrete architectures of e-contracting systems. Furthermore, it can be used as a standardization model that facilitates system integration and communication of ideas. Its value for both software architects and business professionals makes it an important tool in the analysis and implementation of e-contracting systems.

A service-oriented integration framework for semiconductor manufacturing systems

Currently, manufacturing enterprise integration is mainly conducted using proprietary approaches, which are expensive and time-consuming, resulting in the integrated manufacturing systems with a little business agility. Well-defined and consistent frameworks for integrating a variety of disparate and heterogeneous applications on the shop floor to enable essential business agility to meet the needs of next generation manufacturing are in great demand. This paper presents a service-oriented integration framework for facilitating system integration in an automated semiconductor manufacturing environment. By taking advantage of the advances of open computing service architecture and networked computing technologies, the proposed integration framework aims to provide an integrated automated Semiconductor Manufacturing System (SMS) increased productivity, efficiency and business agility. In the framework, manufacturing processes defined as production services in a Virtual Production Line (VPL) can be dynamically added, adjusted or removed. Moreover, production services can be remotely controlled, monitored and inspected in a timely manner. The results of this research arose out of the successful implementation of enterprise-wide manufacturing process control and recipe management in a small-scale back-end SMS.

Electronic Detection of DNA Hybridization: Toward CMOS Microarrays

Low-cost mass fabrication methods and label-free capacitive biosensors are needed for many applications. This article presents a electronic microarrays, with single-chip implementations in CMOS technology. Although biochemical operations in CMOS-based arrays are almost the same as in optical devices, the simple readout of integrated CMOS sensors greatly facilitates system integration. These chips can perform a significant amount of sensor data processing and produce digital output signals in standardized form. They can be easily connected to simple, inexpensive, handheld or even wearable readers. However, these devices are in their infancy. Only a small subset of them are at the level of complete single-die integration of sensors, transducers, and data-conditioning circuits. Our purpose in this article is to outline the main technology, design, and implementation challenges involved in developing these highly integrated research prototypes.

Optimal Power Management for a Hydraulic Hybrid Delivery Truck

Hydraulic hybrid propulsion and energy storage components demonstrate characteristics that are very different from their electric counterparts, thus requiring unique control strategies. This paper presents a methodology for developing a power management strategy tailored specifically to a parallel Hydraulic Hybrid Vehicle (HHV) configured for a medium-size delivery truck. The Hydraulic Hybrid Vehicle is modelled in the MATLAB/SIMULINK environment to facilitate system integration and control studies. A Dynamic Programming (DP) algorithm is used to obtain optimal control actions for gear shifting and power splitting between the engine and the hydraulic motor over a representative urban driving schedule. Features of optimal control signal trajectories are then studied to derive implementable rules. System behaviour demonstrates that the new control strategy takes advantage of high power density and efficiency characteristics of hydraulic components, and minimizes disadvantages of low energy density, to achieve enhanced overall efficiency. Simulation results indicate that the potential for fuel economy improvement of delivery trucks with hydraulic hybrid propulsion can be as high as 47%. (A)

A 2.5-mW SOS CMOS Optical Receiver for Chip-to-Chip Interconnect

This paper reports on the design of a differential optical receiver in silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS). The low-power characteristics (2.5 mW) and small footprint make it a good candidate for two-dimensional optoelectronic interchip interconnects where the transparency of the substrate facilitates system integration and packaging. A differential transimpedance amplifier (TIA) with positive feedback at the front end extends the bandwidth of traditional differential TIAs when the capacitance of the photodetector is smaller than the capacitance of the gates in the differential pair. The full receiver tested in the 0.5-/spl mu/m ultrathin silicon (UTSi) SOS-CMOS Peregrine process consumes 2.5 mW when operated at or near gigabit rates, with bit-error rates of better than 10/sup -12/ taken at 750 Mb/s.

Charge-based chemical sensors: a neuromorphic approach with chemoreceptive neuron MOS (C/sub V/MOS) transistors

A novel chemoreceptive neuron MOS (C/spl nu/MOS) transistor with an extended floating-gate structure has been designed with several individual features that significantly facilitate system integration of chemical sensing. We have fabricated C/spl nu/MOS transistors with generic molecular receptive areas and have characterized them with various fluids. We use an insulating polymer layer to provide physical and electrical isolation for sample fluid delivery. Experimental results from these devices have demonstrated both high sensitivity via current differentiation and large dynamic range from threshold voltage shifts in sensing both polar and electrolytic liquids. We have established electrochemical models for both steady-state and transient analyses. Our preliminary measurement results have confirmed the basic design and operations of these devices, which show potential for developing silicon olfactory and gustatory units that are fully compatible with current CMOS technology.

PC-based ultrasound imaging system with microminiaturized electronics

Indications for and applications of diagnostic ultrasound have expanded dramatically over the past two decades. Although new ultrasound imaging techniques have been developed and brought to clinical practice, to date, ultrasound machines have employed proprietary, closed system architectures. This approach can slow innovation and increase product costs, both undesirable, given the need for health-care cost containment even as demand for ultrasound imaging continues to expand. In contrast, the Terason family of ultrasound systems features an open, PC-based architecture that allows Terason to leverage the rapid development cycles and economies of the PC industry with respect to display, storage, and transmission of ultrasound data. The Terason approach replaces some “traditional” hardware using software running on commercially available PCs, which reduces cost and increases flexibility. This is in conjunction with Terason’s patented CDP integrated circuit technology, which allows production of an ultrasound system that provides a full range of high-quality fully digital imaging (including B-mode, color flow, and spectral Doppler) at substantially lower cost, size, and power consumption than traditional approaches. Further, Terason’s PC-based approach allows for integration of third-party medical solutions, such as 3D rendering, data analysis, and report-generating software and provides reliable options for both data storage and transmission, facilitating telemedicine applications. Additionally, the open architecture supports external communication with other applications running on the same host computer. This facilitates system integration with other medical applications where real-time noninvasive imaging is desired, including radiation therapy planning and treatment, minimally invasive and robotic surgery techniques, and catheter introduction for diagnostic and therapeutic angiography. Terason’s open, PC-based system architecture in combination with CDP integrated-circuit technology provides significant cost, size, and portability advantages as compared with “traditional” ultrasound systems without compromising features or performance.

Development of panel loudspeaker system: design, evaluation and enhancement.

Panel speakers are investigated in terms of structural vibration and acoustic radiation. A panel speaker primarily consists of a panel and an inertia exciter. Contrary to conventional speakers, flexural resonance is encouraged such that the panel vibrates as randomly as possible. Simulation tools are developed to facilitate system integration of panel speakers. In particular, electro-mechanical analogy, finite element analysis, and fast Fourier transform are employed to predict panel vibration and the acoustic radiation. Design procedures are also summarized. In order to compare the panel speakers with the conventional speakers, experimental investigations were undertaken to evaluate frequency response, directional response, sensitivity, efficiency, and harmonic distortion of both speakers. The results revealed that the panel speakers suffered from a problem of sensitivity and efficiency. To alleviate the problem, a woofer using electronic compensation based on H2 model matching principle is utilized to supplement the bass response. As indicated in the result, significant improvement over the panel speaker alone was achieved by using the combined panel-woofer system.

An artifact modeling approach for developing integrated engineering systems

Engineering problem solving can be viewed as a transformation process in which the initial description of an engineering system (artifact) transforms to its final description. This paper presents a single yet powerful approach for modeling engineering artifacts. The approach involves using (1) a symbolic language for representing engineering artifacts in terms of objects and relations and (2) a mechanical strategy for manipulating engineering artifacts. The approach provides a common platform for modeling different phases of the engineering problem solving process, thus facilitating system integration.