High-performance Modules Research Articles

A high performance and low cost thin IGBT module for automotive applications

A high performance and low cost thin IGBT module for automotive applications

A low power circuit design of BLE baseband transmission data processing module

With the quickly development of the Internet of Things technology, Bluetooth (BLE) protocol has been increasingly adopted in consumer communication applications, industry communication utilization, and even positioning requirement, due to its advantages such as low power consumption, low cost, and low complexity. Especially the outstanding low power capability compared with other short-range communication protocol, many power limited AIoT (Artificial Intelligence IoT) devices select BLE as basic component. So, the low power, high performance, and small area BLE module become the key point of successful of whole AIoT system. In BLE system, the baseband data processing is the foundation. A good hardware circuit design of BLE baseband can improve BLE module performance and decrease power simultaneously. This paper analyzes the baseband data processing function of BLE in detail, and designs the baseband transmission data processing RTL circuit IP using Verilog HDL Hardware description language based on BLE protocol. The IP includes CRC verification module, whitening module and coding mapping function module. The RTL design is simulated and evaluated in workstation server with Synopsys VCS tool. The simulation results show that this design can achieve the Low-power BLE Bluetooth baseband function.

Employing a hybrid model based on texture-biased convolutional neural networks and edge-biased vision transformers for anomaly detection of signal bonds

The railway system of Japan plays a vital role in the national transportation network. A key issue in public transport safety is anomaly detection in railways. Lately, developing robust algorithms and methods for anomaly detection has become the premier task in this field. Recently introduced approaches based on convolutional neural networks, generative adversarial networks, and vision transformers (ViTs) have remarkably improved the research in anomaly detection. Our work proposes a high-performance module for the anomaly detection of signal bonds. First, we present an overview of the proposed module; then, the object detection model and the proposed hybrid classification model based on texture-biased convolutional neural networks and edge-biased ViTs are introduced. Finally, the proposed anomaly detection module is evaluated for accuracy using the dataset from the East Japan Railway Company and the receiver operating characteristic curve. The results show that our proposed module achieves a better performance on real-life data than the two methods that were combined to generate it, raising hope toward possible usage in other areas as well.

Molecule stapling-assisted fabrication of high-quality CsPbI2Br films for efficient and stable photovoltaic modules

Perfluorodioate ions effectively regulate/stabilize the high-quality CsPbI2Br films to inhibit moisture invasion and halide segregation, producing a high-performance module with an efficiency of 12.35% (total area of 16 cm2) with excellent stability.

STSM: Spatio-Temporal Shift Module for Efficient Action Recognition

The modeling, computational complexity, and accuracy of spatio-temporal models are the three major foci in the field of video action recognition. The traditional 2D convolution has low computational complexity, but it cannot capture the temporal relationships. Although the 3D convolution can obtain good performance, it is with both high computational complexity and a large number of parameters. In this paper, we propose a plug-and-play Spatio-Temporal Shift Module (STSM), which is a both effective and high-performance module. STSM can be easily inserted into other networks to increase or enhance the ability of the network to learn spatio-temporal features, effectively improving performance without increasing the number of parameters and computational complexity. In particular, when 2D CNNs and STSM are integrated, the new network may learn spatio-temporal features and outperform networks based on 3D convolutions. We revisit the shift operation from the perspective of matrix algebra, i.e., the spatio-temporal shift operation is a convolution operation with a sparse convolution kernel. Furthermore, we extensively evaluate the proposed module on Kinetics-400 and Something-Something V2 datasets. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed STSM, and the proposed action recognition networks may also achieve state-of-the-art results on the two action recognition benchmarks.

Geometrical Optimization and Thermal-Stability Characterization of Te-Free Thermoelectric Modules Based on MgAgSb/Mg3 (Bi,Sb)2.

Solid-state thermoelectric (TE) technology is a promising approach to harvest low-grade waste heat (<573 K) and converts it to useful electricity in industrial and civilian settings. After decades of efforts in improving the figure-of-merit (zT) of TE materials, the development of advanced modules has started springing up in recent years. Although high-performance modules have been largely reported based on the successful material improvement, it remains less investigated how and whether the module-level designs can further increase the conversion efficiency. Herein, following the recent demonstration of a tellurium (Te)-free TE generator, an increase is demonstrated in the efficiency by reducing both the electrical and thermal energy losses through simply optimizing geometric factors of filling factor and leg-pair numbers. These module-level optimizations enable a record conversion efficiency of 8.2% under a ∆T≈ 260 K, thus fulfilling 90% of the theoretical efficiency of the materials and solidly exceeding the Bi2 Te3 modules. Furthermore, module robustness against > 10 160thermal cycles while preserving a relative efficiency of 95% is demonstrated. These findings highlight the importance of the optimization strategy at the module level and demonstrate the feasibility of using Te-free thermoelectric compounds to harvest the omnipresent low-grade heat.

Computing-in-Memory with Thin-Film-Transistors: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract Thin-film transistor (TFT) has attracted enormous interests recently for its great potential in a wide range of edge computing applications, benefitting from its large-area low-cost flexible fabrications, and well integration with sensors and displays. With the support of in-situ processing of sensor data, TFT-based edge systems show their advantages in large-scale dense sensing with real-time energy-efficient processing and interaction, and more excitingly, it provides the opportunity of eliminating the massive data transfer to the cloud servers. However, the design of high-performance processing modules based on TFT is difficult, due to large device variation, poor stability, and low mobility. Computing-in-memory (CiM), which has been proposed recently as a high-efficiency high-parallelism computing approach, is expected to improve the capacity of TFT-based edge computing systems. In this survey, various recent works on TFT-based CiM have been summarized, showing the superiority to conventional processing flow by efficient in-memory analog computation with mitigation of data transfer, and reduced ADC usage for sensor data. With both opportunities and challenges, the design space and trend of TFT-based CiM to be explored are then described. Finally, further development and co-optimization from device to system are discussed for flourishing of the next-generation intelligent TFT-based edge system.

High-performance finger module for robot hands with pneumatic cylinder and parallel link mechanism

A robot hand is required to generate a large grasping force. Furthermore, it is required that one finger should possess multiple degrees of freedom and the fingertips should be positioned freely to grasp and manipulate objects of various sizes and shapes. A function to adjust the stiffness is also required to control the force and realize stable grasping. The development of a hand equipped with these functions at a high level is a technical problem. We propose a multi-degree-of-freedom finger module that uses pneumatic cylinders and a parallel link mechanism. The proposed finger module has positioning controllability, force controllability, and adjustable stiffness while maintaining high grasping force-to-weight ratio. In addition, the proposed finger module was able to estimate the external force acting on the fingertip from the differential pressure and a kinematics model. By using the estimated external force for control, adjustable stiffness was realized without using a force sensor. We experimentally confirmed that the proposed finger module was able to satisfy various target specifications. In addition, it was able to realize multiple functions of a hand using a compact mechanism.

DEVELOPMENT OF JACKET PATTERNS FOR TEENAGERS USING OPTITEX FLATTENING MODULE

Adolescence is a period of transition from childhood to adulthood, defined by major changes in physical, behavioural and social plan. The interest of teenagers for computer technology is in a perpetual growing and shopping online is one of their favourite activities. The garment industry is extremely competitive in terms of virtual simulation, consisting of 3D virtual bodies, virtual garments and virtual try-on systems. The paper presents the advanced method of designing 2D patterns, started from the 3D surfaces, obtained by real scanning of several teenager bodies. The development of a jacket model for girls, by using Optitex software with its high-performance modules 3D Flattening, 3D Simulations and PDS, based on the anthropometric standard for children, SR 13546: 2012, will be presented. These modules enable the designer to preview the shape of the product and its fitting to the body dimensions, which offer the possibility of developing to an infinite number of clothing collections just by changing the characteristics of the material, various seams, accessories or colours.

Research Insights and Challenges of Secondary School Energy Education: A Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Case Study

The research achievements of a university chemistry lab regarding dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were transformed into a high school hands-on course by simplifying the experimental steps and equipment. Our research methodology was action research. We verified the DSSC course step by step. First, 10 members of a high school science study club helped to revise the course over a school semester. A questionnaire survey revealed that all students agreed that the course increased their understanding of DSSCs and solar cells. Second, 35 students were enrolled in a 10th-grade elective energy course to study the revised DSSC topics for 3 weeks. A five-point Likert scale was used to collect students’ feedback, and students reported looking forward to making their own high-performance DSSC modules (4.60) and stated that being able to make their own solar cell was a great accomplishment (4.49). Third, the course was implemented at a junior high school science camp, and the 37 participating students were all able to complete the hands-on experiment. In the questionnaire survey, the students expressed that they enjoyed learning about scientific principles through a hands-on approach (4.59). Fourth, most of the 12 schoolteachers who voluntarily participated in the DSSC workshop agreed that integrating DSSC activity into school courses would be conducive to multidisciplinary learning. This course could facilitate participants’ self-evaluations in science knowledge, experimental skills, learning motivations, and positive attitudes toward sustainability.

Tinker-HP: Accelerating Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Large Complex Systems with Advanced Point Dipole Polarizable Force Fields Using GPUs and Multi-GPU Systems.

We present the extension of the Tinker-HP package (Lagardère, Chem. Sci.2018, 9, 956−97229732110) to the use of Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) cards to accelerate molecular dynamics simulations using polarizable many-body force fields. The new high-performance module allows for an efficient use of single- and multiple-GPU architectures ranging from research laboratories to modern supercomputer centers. After detailing an analysis of our general scalable strategy that relies on OpenACC and CUDA, we discuss the various capabilities of the package. Among them, the multiprecision possibilities of the code are discussed. If an efficient double precision implementation is provided to preserve the possibility of fast reference computations, we show that a lower precision arithmetic is preferred providing a similar accuracy for molecular dynamics while exhibiting superior performances. As Tinker-HP is mainly dedicated to accelerate simulations using new generation point dipole polarizable force field, we focus our study on the implementation of the AMOEBA model. Testing various NVIDIA platforms including 2080Ti, 3090, V100, and A100 cards, we provide illustrative benchmarks of the code for single- and multicards simulations on large biosystems encompassing up to millions of atoms. The new code strongly reduces time to solution and offers the best performances to date obtained using the AMOEBA polarizable force field. Perspectives toward the strong-scaling performance of our multinode massive parallelization strategy, unsupervised adaptive sampling and large scale applicability of the Tinker-HP code in biophysics are discussed. The present software has been released in phase advance on GitHub in link with the High Performance Computing community COVID-19 research efforts and is free for Academics (see https://github.com/TinkerTools/tinker-hp).

Analysis and Optimal Design of a Novel Actuator System for a Camera Module

Owing to the fourth industrial revolution and the recent trend for compact, high-performance, and multifunctional electrical devices, the demand for a small and high-performance camera module has dramatically increased. To address this, in this study, a novel, miniaturized, high-performance, low-cost multifunctional camera module with optical image stabilization (OIS) via a novel two-axis motional actuator with 1-Stage is proposed. To date, a systematic analysis and optimal design method for the actuators of camera modules has not been proposed yet. Accurate and rapid analysis and optimal design methods are proposed herein. Based on the proposed methods, it is possible to reduce the time and cost for the development of actuators for camera modules. The usefulness of the proposed actuator system for small, high performance, and multifunctional camera modules, and the proposed analysis and optimal design method were verified experimentally in this study.

Depth of Interaction Measurements Based on Rectangular Light Sharing Window Technology and Nine-Crystals-to-One-SiPM Coupling Method

Depth of interaction (DOI) decoding capability shows great application potential for positron emission tomography (PET), especially for high-resolution small-animal PET or long axial field of view PET systems. On the basis of GATE optical simulation results, we presented a novel $9\times 9$ lutetium–yttrium oxyorthosilicate array with 10-mm rectangular light-sharing windows (RLSWs) and assembly the detector with nine crystals coupled to one silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) method; this caused DOI-related position shifts in the crystal decoding spots of the flood map. Homogeneous radiation was used to establish transfer functions to convert spot shifts into DOI measurements. The conventional collimated radiation experiments were used to assess the accuracy of the DOI measurements. Flood map results show that 81 segmented crystals can be clearly resolved, including 16 crystals adjacent to two RLSW windows (M-type), 40 crystals adjacent to one RLSW window (E-type), and 25 crystals not adjacent to any RLSW window (C-type). The mean absolute error of all DOI-capable crystals, M-type crystals, and E-type crystals are 2.15 ± 0.61, 1.95 ± 0.50, and 2.23 ± 0.63 mm, respectively. The novel nine-crystals-to-one-SiPM coupling technology is a low cost approach for constructing high-performance DOI detector modules. Detectors using nine-crystals-to-one-SiPM coupling technology are good candidates for high-resolution preclinical PET and for total-body PET.

CONTROLE DE UM ROBODECK USANDO DISPOSITIVOS MÓVEIS

This work presents the control of a robodeck, using applicationsfor mobile devices powered by visual components aswell as using voice commands. The applications were developedusing the APP Inventor tool. In order to convert theapplication commands into messages recognizable by Robodeck,a mediation system developed with the OCTAVEtool was used, which receives the commands from the mobiledevice via the bluetooth interface and sends them toRobodeck for execution. A modication was made to therobot's original structure, so that the card performing thefunction of High Performance Module (MAP), was replacedby a Raspberry PI 3, where the Raspbian operating systemwas installed and the MAP was compiled into this operatingsystem. The developed applications can be installed on anymobile device with the Android system. Tests with the applicationsand the system showed an adequate performanceof them in relation to the movement of the robot. Quantitativeevaluations were carried out to measure the degree ofquality obtained with the developed interfaces.

High-Performance SIP Half-Bridge IPM Based on 35mΩ/1200V SiC Stack-Cascode

A SiC-based high-performance Intelligent Power Modules (IPM) was developed. It is a System In Package (SIP) module that consist of a half-bridge with driver. In the developed SIP IPM, the internal half-bridge is made up of UnitedSiC 35mΩ/1200V Stack-Cascode switches (UF3SC120035Z) which have low on-resistance, low gate charge, simple gate drive of VGS=0 or-5V to VGS=12V, excellent integral body diode and very low switching losses. The module operates with control voltage of 12-15V for both the low and high side switches, and a logic level input that can be 3.3V, 5V or 12V. We believe that this module will enable extremely efficient switching up to 250-400kHz, depending on topology, offering several hundred kHz even in hard-switched applications.

Improved Methodology for Parasitic Characterization of High-Performance Power Modules

The accelerating commercialization of wide bandgap technology has led to increased demand for accurate characterization of parasitic impedances within packaging structures such as multichip power modules. However, the accuracy of known methods is not sufficient to characterize high-performance modules which have extremely low parasitics, with impedance values near the measurement floor of common instrumentation. To address this characterization gap, this article introduces a custom measurement methodology that utilizes a general-purpose instrument and fixture but reduces systematic and stochastic error to an acceptable level through an emphasis on rigorous calibration and measurement consistency. Additionally, fixture compensation is performed via post-processing in MATLAB to improve measurement fidelity via statistical techniques. The proposed methodology is validated with a series of known test samples in the impedance range of interest. Finally, the methodology is used to perform parasitic characterization of a high-performance power module with commutation loop inductance previously reported to be less than 1.6 nH.

Realizing record high performance in n-type Bi2Te3-based thermoelectric materials

High performance BiTeSe alloys and modules with a conversion efficiency of 6.6% are achieved through potential wells and multi-scale structures.

Symmetric dual gate insulator‐based FinFET module and design window for reliable circuits

High-k spacer and gate insulator materials have been exhaustively studied nowadays for the enhancement of electrostatic control and reduction of short-channel effects in scaled devices. The work presents a high-performance and charge trap tolerant FinFET module at 10 nm gate length. Dual layer gate insulator (inner low-k and outer high-k) introduces to reduce charge trapping from the channel and outside into the gate oxide. It reduces the gate leakage current by 51.6% compared to conventional FinFET. Further, they demonstrate single charge trapping (SCT) induce effects and proposed optimised high-k spacer width of the SCT tolerant design. SCT analysis is presented in different high-k spacer materials and back-gate voltages. Process variation sources such as line edge roughness and line width roughness are also analysed for the circuit design.

Continuous adjustment of threshold voltage in carbon nanotube field-effect transistors through gate engineering

In this letter, we report a gate engineering method to adjust threshold voltage of carbon nanotube (CNT) based field-effect transistors (FETs) continuously in a wide range, which makes the application of CNT FETs especially in digital integrated circuits (ICs) easier. Top-gated FETs are fabricated using solution-processed CNT network films with stacking Pd and Sc films as gate electrodes. By decreasing the thickness of the lower layer metal (Pd) from 20 nm to zero, the effective work function of the gate decreases, thus tuning the threshold voltage (Vt) of CNT FETs from −1.0 V to 0.2 V. The continuous adjustment of threshold voltage through gate engineering lays a solid foundation for multi-threshold technology in CNT based ICs, which then can simultaneously provide high performance and low power circuit modules on one chip.

High thermoelectric performance in Bi0.46Sb1.54Te3 nanostructured with ZnTe

High performance BiSbTe alloy and modules with a conversion efficiency of 5% are achieved through integrating Zn induced defect complexity with nanostructuring.