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In this paper, the adaptive fuzzy control of switched stochastic nonlinear systems with set-time prescribed performance based on event-driven mechanism is studied. The creative part of this paper is that based on the set-time performance function, a modified event-triggered strategy that considers asynchronous switching to deteriorate system performance without strict assumptions is presented, which avoids Zeno behavior and saves communication resources. Then, by using backstepping recursive design technique, It $\hat {o}$ ’s differential lemma and mode-dependent average dwell time (MDADT) method, a novel adaptive performance control scheme is proposed, which can ensure that all the variables in the system are semiglobally uniformly ultimately bounded (SGUUB) in probability and the tracking error gets into prescribed boundary no later than an arbitrarily adjusted setting time. Finally, the proposed algorithm is applied to a RLC circuit and its practicability is verified via simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a scheme to design the reconfigurable filtering power divider with arbitrary operating channels based on external quality factor ($Q_{\mathbf {e}}$) control. By using an input feeding line, ${n}$ resonators, and $m$ output feeding lines, the $n^{\mathbf {th}}$ -order $m$ -way filtering power divider topology can be obtained with a simple configuration. A coupled-line output feeding structure loading with multiple PIN diodes is proposed to adjust the output $Q_{\mathbf {e}}$ values. Design theories for obtaining the desired $Q_{\mathbf {e}}$ values are provided. Then, the filtering power divider can be fully reconfigured in the states with one to $m$ operating channels. Good input matching can be achieved without using an additional reconfigurable impedance matching network in all these states, resulting in a size and loss reduction. For verification, a 2nd-order 4-way reconfigurable filtering power divider is designed, fabricated, and measured. As compared to the reported reconfigurable power dividers, the proposed design shows the merits of fully reconfigurable operating channels, favorable filtering responses, low insertion losses, high isolation, and a simple structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel static digital pre-distortion (DPD) method for a current-steering digital-to-analog converter (CS-DAC). The proposed method utilizes the knowledge of the current cell array architecture to calculate the static mismatch currents of the cells. The mismatch values are stored in memory and added to the original input code to generate the new pre-distorted input word. The converter corrects the static error with its own current cells without incorporating an additional calibration DAC (CALDAC) or programmable current sources. This results in a reduction in area, power and simulation run times because of the simpler circuit design. An Overflow-Cell-Selection (OCS) is introduced as a novel solution to further enhance the static linearity of the converter. It also can be implemented as a software solution for already existing DAC designs which do not have an integrated DPD and lab/measurement equipment (e.g., arbitrary wave generator (AWG)). This poses as a strong differentiation factor compared to other state-of-the-art static DPD methods. The evaluation of the proposed DPD is done via simulations in MATLAB and on- chip measurements with a 14-bit CS-DAC in 16 nm. Single tone measurements show a performance gain of the total harmonic distortion (THD) of 12 dB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a 1.5-GS/s 6-bit single-channel loop-unrolled successive approximation register (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) using speculative capacitive DAC (CDAC) switching control technique. The proposed SAR ADC achieves a high sampling rate by eliminating additional delays in typical loop-unrolled SAR ADCs related to settling time constraints in their CDACs. Specifically, the CDACs are duplicated and controlled in speculative ways so that the CDAC outputs passage to their next values before completing the regeneration operation of comparators, thereby improving timing constraints for successive approximations. The switching power overhead from the CDAC speculation is mitigated by introducing an energy-efficient CDAC control technique that produces desired voltage transients with minimal power overheads. The prototype of the proposed SAR ADC is fabricated in a 28-nm CMOS technology and occupies an active area of 0.0038-mm2. The design consumes 5.8 mW from a 1.2-V supply. The ADC achieves 1.5-GS/s sampling frequency with a 31-dB SNDR at a low input frequency and a 28.6 dB at the Nyquist frequency without applying any offset calibration techniques, achieving the highest sampling frequency among the 6-bit single-channel loop-unrolled SAR ADCs reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel constrained switching rule, called “time-triggered logical switching” (TTLS) is considered for switched logical dynamic systems (SLDSs). Compared with the general time-triggered switching, the activation mode of TTLS cannot be arbitrary and is pre-allocated according to the logic operation, which is more practical. The TTLS is described as an LDS, and according to the characteristics of LDS, the stability analysis of SLDSs with TTLS is converted into the stability analysis of SLDSs under the logical switching cycle sequences. Firstly, based on the equivalent algebraic form of SLDSs with TTLS, combining the Lyapunov theory of LDS with average dwell-time method, several sufficient conditions are put forward for ensuring the point stability of the considered SLDSs. Then, by defining the switching cycle invariant subset and constructing a new system, the set stability analysis of the original system is transformed into the point stability analysis of the new system, and further, the obtained results for the point stability analysis are applied to the set stability analysis. At last, the validity of obtained results is illustrated by simulation on gene and protein signaling activity patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High step-up converters are often used in photovoltaic applications due to low voltage of photovoltaic modules. In this paper, a study of several voltage step-up cells added on primary and secondary sides of an isolated dc-dc SEPIC (single ended primary inductor converter) is made, in order to increase its static gain and synthesize a family of converters. To perform this study and select the most appropriate resulting converter, theoretical and comparative analyzes are accomplished. They include a brief description of each converter, tables and curves with relevant information, such as voltage gain, voltage stresses and component count, and the identification of the use of coupled inductor or transformer based on the analysis of dc magnetizing current. Moreover, theoretical analysis and experimental results on a 50 kHz and 200 W prototype of selected isolated SEPIC with voltage doubler cell are presented to validate the proposed topology and concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a single-stage tri-path buck converter with reduced inductor current and self-balanced flying capacitor voltage. The proposed converter introduces capacitor paths to reduce the average inductor current and inductor current ripple, hence decreasing the conduction loss. Operating with two states per conversion cycle, it exhibits a relatively low voltage conversion ratio of ${D}$ /(1 $+\,\,2{D}$). Besides, it realizes a self-balanced flying capacitor voltage in the charge redistribution phase. Similar to the conventional buck converter, the proposed converter in continuous-current mode only has two complex poles. Therefore, we design a Type-III compensator to obtain a good transient response. Moreover, the circuit does not require extra supplies for gate drivers due to the reutilization of the flying capacitor voltages, eliminating additional circuit and power overheads. The proposed converter, validated in a 65-nm standard CMOS technology, regulates a 0.7 V – 1 V output voltage from a 3.3 V – 4 V input voltage, delivering a maximum output power of 270 mW. The peak efficiency is 84%, with a switching frequency up to 5 MHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robustness to electromagnetic interference (EMI) is one of the primary design aspects of state of the art automotive ICs like System Basis Chips (SBCs) which provide a wide range of analog, power regulation and digital functions on the same die. One of the primary sources of conducted EMI on the Local Interconnect Network (LIN) driver output is an integrated switching DC-DC regulator noise coupling through the parasitic substrate capacitance of the SBC. In this paper an adaptive active EMI cancellation technique to cancel the switching noise of the DC-DC regulator on the LIN driver output to ensure electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) is presented. The proposed active EMI cancellation circuit synthesizes a phase synchronized cancellation pulse which is then injected onto the LIN driver output using an on-chip tunable capacitor array to cancel the switching noise injected via substrate. The proposed EMI reduction technique can track and cancel substrate noise independent of process technology and device parasitics, input voltage, duty cycle and loading conditions of the DC-DC switching regulator. The EMI cancellation system is designed and fabricated on a 180nm Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) process with an integrated power stage of a DC-DC buck regulator at a switching frequency of 2MHz along with an automotive LIN driver. The EMI cancellation circuit occupies an area of 0.7 mm2, which is less than 3% of the overall area in a standard SBC and consumes 12.5 mW of power and achieves 25 dB reduction of conducted EMI in the LIN driver output’s power spectrum at the switching frequency and its harmonics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The search for a compatible application of memristor-CMOS logic gates has remained elusive, as the data density benefits are offset by slow switching speeds and resistive dissipation. Active microdisplays typically prioritize pixel density (and therefore resolution) over that of speed, where the most widely used refresh rates fall between 25–240 Hz. Therefore, memristor-CMOS logic is a promising fit for peripheral I/O logic in active matrix displays. In this paper, we design and implement a ternary 1–3 line decoder and a ternary 2–9 line decoder which are used to program a seven segment LED display. SPICE simulations are conducted in a 50-nm process, and the decoders are synthesized on an Altera Cyclone IV field-programmable gate array (FPGA) development board which implements a ternary memristor model designed in Quartus II. Our approach to logic synthesis demonstrates a potential way forward for simulating large-scale memristor-CMOS circuits without embedded RRAM for functional verification, and our SPICE results show an improvement in data density of a variety of decoders by a factor between 3.6-8.5. While the switching speed of memristors are one of several bottlenecks to using them in combinational logic, the comparatively slow refresh rates of typical microdisplays indicate this to be a tolerable trade-off, which promotes data density over speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Passively-integrated memristors are the most prospective candidates for designing high-speed, energy-efficient, and compact neuromorphic circuits. Despite all the promising properties, experimental demonstrations of passive memristive crossbars have been limited to circuits with few thousands of devices until now, which stems from the strict uniformity requirements on the IV characteristics of memristors. This paper expands upon this vital challenge and investigates how uniformity impacts the computing accuracy of analog memristive circuits, focusing on neuromorphic applications. Specifically, the paper explores the tradeoffs between computing accuracy, crossbar size, switching threshold variations, and target precision. All-embracing simulations of matrix multipliers and deep neural networks on CIFAR-10 and ImageNet datasets have been carried out to evaluate the role of uniformity on the accuracy of computing systems. Further, we study three post-fabrication methods that increase the accuracy of nonuniform 0T1R neuromorphic circuits: hardware-aware training, improved tuning algorithm, and switching threshold modification. The application of these techniques allows us to implement advanced deep neural networks with almost no accuracy drop, using current state-of-the-art analog 0T1R technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a full hardware implementation of a magnetic tunnel junction based stochastic tunable bitstream generator. It provides highly accurate control of the switching probability, while showing important robustness to process and temperature variations. We propose a new architecture of sensing scheme based on the pre-charged sense amplifier approach that uses an asynchronous digital module to control the internal signals of the sense amplifier with the purpose of improving the reliability against the timing hazards and reducing the power consumption by detecting the end of the reading to stop the required static currents. The circuit also features a digital feedback loop that analyzes the output bitstream and adapt the current in such a way that the bitstream encodes precisely the required probability. This circuit features an important bit generation rate at a low energy cost. Based on an exhaustive characterization of the circuit, we provide a behavioral description in Verilog, with timing and power files to be integrated as a standard cell in the digital design flow for application level evaluation of the performance. Thus, we also provide a design and evaluation flow from device to digital level of abstraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the fixed-time stabilization problem for a class of nonlinear systems via event-triggered control. The event-triggered mechanism can be applied to the nonlinear system with the coexistence of low-order and high-order nonlinearities. In order to deal with these low-order and high-order terms as well as achieve the objective of fixed-time stabilization, the initial value of the system is divided into two cases, and then the event-triggered controller is designed, respectively. By switching control theory, it is proved that the nonlinear system is globally fixed-time stable under the designed controller and the Zeno behavior can be excluded. Finally, two simulations show that the proposed technology is effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a reconfigurable Physically Unclonable Functions (PUF) based on the Spin-Orbit-Torque Magnetic Random-Access Memory (SOT-MRAM), which exploits thermal noise as the true dynamic entropy source. Therefore, the MRAM cells could be configured to random final states with stochastic switching mechanism. The proposed PUF is constructed and reconfigured by combining the small-capacity true random number generator (TRNG) and high-reliability secure hash algorithm (SHA-512), realizing the dynamic transformation between SOT-MRAM based last level cache and PUF (In-Cache-MPUF). Thanks to the full reconfigurability and the high endurance of SOT-MRAM, the proposed In-Cache-MPUF can achieve $10^{\textbf {14}}$ maximum PUF bits per cell, which has greatly motivated the implementations compared with the traditional weak PUFs utilizing the static entropy source of process variations. The Monte-Carlo simulation results using 40 nm technology and a compact MTJ model show that the proposed PUF has desirable randomness as the digitized bit streams passing all the NIST tests, achieving 50.0428% uniqueness as well as 49.9236% uniformity. It also shows comparable reliability to the state-of-the-art works: a maximum bit error rate of 0.14% and 0.12% at 100 °C and 0.9 V, respectively. In addition, the system level performance is tested and validated by gem5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers weakly and strongly input-to-state stability (ISS) of a discrete-time time-varying delayed system with synchronous impulses and switches. By employing the uniformly asymptotically stable function and mode-dependent dwell time conditions, ISS criteria are derived using the Krasovskii and Razumikhin techniques. The time differences of the Krasovskii functionals or the Razumikhin functions can be mode-dependent and time-varying, which release constraints of some existing results. As subsequent results, we apply the derived ISS criteria to the multi-agent systems (MASs). Finally, two examples considering the quasi-consensus of MASs are given to verify the established results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Varactors in RF CMOS processes often have significantly lower Q- factor ($Q_{VAR}$) than inductors and transformers at mm-wave frequencies. Direct connection of varactors to the outputs of an LC oscillator lowers overall tank Q, $Q_{T} < Q_{VAR}$ , and at the same time, increases the ratio of parasitic capacitance to total tank capacitance which limits frequency tuning range (FTR). Instead, magnetically coupling a varactor to the oscillator core using an asymmetric transformer, where the core is connected to the primary and varactor to the secondary, limits the drop in $Q_{T}$. The ratio of parasitic capacitance to total tank capacitance is also reduced. The varactor can also be operated in accumulation-mode, with a larger $Q_{VAR}$. Thus, both FTR and phase noise (PN), in comparison to traditional tanks in LC VCOs, are improved simultaneously. In this paper, two VCO prototypes are implemented in 65-nm CMOS. A 60 GHz self-mixing VCO with a VCO core operating at 20 GHz shows an FTR of 18.5%, a PN of −92.5 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset, and an FoM $_{T}$ of −187.1 dBc/Hz. A 25 GHz VCO shows an FTR of 29.9%, a PN of −107.9 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset, and an FoM $_{T}$ of −194.2 dBc/Hz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper adopts a quantization-dependent Lyapunov function to study the output feedback stabilization problem of a switched system subject to output event-triggered sampling and quantization. First, a new event-triggered mechanism related to quantization parameters is proposed, which can obtain a trade-off between the event-triggered frequency and quantization density on the premise of ensuring asymptotic stability of the switched system. Moreover, sufficient conditions are obtained to ensure asymptotic stability of the switched system by a quantization-dependent Lyapunov function. Lastly, through a numerical simulation and PWM-driven boost converter system, we demonstrate the availability of the proposed quantization-dependent Lyapunov function and event-triggered mechanism methods based on quantization parameters, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The series-paralleling technique of dc-dc converters is utilized in various domains of electrical engineering for improved power conversion. Previous studies have proposed and classified the control schemes for the series-paralleled converters. However, they have several restrictions and lack diversity. The purpose of this paper is to propose passivity-based control (PBC) for the diverse output series-parallel connection of dc-dc converters. It is proved that the output series-paralleled converters regulated by PBC are asymptotically stable. The output series-paralleled converters are numerically simulated to confirm the asymptotic stability. PBC is shown to maintain the stability of the output series-paralleled converters with diverse circuit topologies, parameters, and steady-states. The result of this paper theoretically supports the numerical and experimental considerations in the previous studies and justifies the further extension of the series-parallel connection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with global synchronization problem of multiple discrete-time Markovian jump memristor-based neural networks (DTMJMNNs) with mixed mode-dependent delays via a novel event-triggered impulsive coupling control (ETICC). The parameters of the multiple DTMJMNNs and the mixed time delays (both discrete and distributed delays) switch randomly according to a Markov chain. In the ETICC strategy, the controller does not work all the time, but only works at impulse instants determined by specific events. In particular, the coupling matrix can be non-Laplacian. By using the Lyapunov stability theory, linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), and the Kronecker product, some sufficient conditions for global synchronization of multiple DTMJMNNs under the event-triggered strategy are derived. Two examples are presented to test the validity of the theoretical analysis results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with nonlinear control of a single-phase half-bridge interleaved buck shunt active power filter (HBIB-SAPF) with a nonlinear load. The control objective for the system is twofold: performing power factor correction by compensating for harmonics and reactive current consumed by the nonlinear load from one hand and tightly regulating the HBIB converter DC capacitor voltage. Both objectives are accomplished using a two-loop nonlinear controller. The inner loop acts on the switching devices so that the active filter current tracks its reference with the aim of ensuring a unity power factor. This loop is tackled using backstepping technique and Lyapunov approach. The outer loop is responsible for regulating the DC capacitor voltage to its desired value, using a PI controller with a pre-filter. The stability analysis of the closed-loop system is formally performed by using the averaging theory. The validity of the designed nonlinear controller is checked by simulations in Matlab/SimpowerSystem showing its robustness and accuracy under various operating conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a gate driver for a GaN-based half-bridge structure operating in a buck converter with input voltage >40 V or a boost converter with output voltage >30 V. Two 500 pF on-chip capacitors are utilized to construct three-level gate drivers, providing a near- $V_{{\text {DD}}}$ negative voltage for gate of the rectifier switch to eliminate the induced pulse on the gate from the high dv / dt slew rate of $V_{\text {X}}$ when the main switch is turned on. The dead time controller tunes the delay of the gate signal of the rectifier switch by sensing the slope of $V_{\text {X}}$ , thus the near-optimal zero-voltage switching can be achieved with deviation < 3 ns. The GaN driver is implemented with a 0.18- $\mu \text{m}$ BCD process. The efficiencies can be improved by 8.33% and 6.87% at light load in a buck and a boost converter due to the dead-time control. The peak efficiencies of 20 V–12 V and 12 V–18 V conversions are 86.37% and 84.39%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ferroelectric field effect transistor (FeFET) memory has shown the potential to meet the requirements of the growing need for fast, dense, low-power, and non-volatile memories. In this paper, we propose a memory architecture named crossed-AND (C-AND), in which each storage cell consists of a single ferroelectric transistor. The write operation is performed using different write schemes and different absolute voltages, to account for the asymmetric switching voltages of the FeFET. It enables writing an entire wordline in two consecutive cycles and prevents current and power through the channel of the transistor. During the read operation, the current and power are mostly sensed at a single selected device in each column. The read scheme additionally enables reading an entire word without read errors, even along long bitlines. Our Simulations demonstrate that, in comparison to the previously proposed AND architecture, the C-AND architecture diminishes read errors, reduces write disturbs, enables the usage of longer bitlines, and saves up to 2.92X in memory cell area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the formation control problem for linear multi-agent systems under switching directed topologies. Based on absolute or relative outputs, we propose two distributed observer-based event-triggered control schemes. Both schemes can guarantee the boundedness of formation errors under sufficient conditions. The schemes can also avoid Zeno behaviors by giving an estimation for the lower bound of sampling intervals. Finally, simulations and experiments validate the proposed approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a discrete-time low-noise amplifier for miniaturized sensor nodes. Such amplifier achieves a noise efficiency factor of 1.01 and a power efficiency factor of 1.63, improving the noise efficiency of an analog front-end. The proposed preamplifier employs discrete-time parametric amplification by modulating the capacitance of a MOS varactor. The sampling noise is minimized by adopting a high oversampling ratio of the input voltage, leading to an input-referred noise of 520 nVrms in a 1 kHz bandwidth. Also, the power consumption is reduced by using a 34-phase stepwise charging technique. The multiphase soft-charging technique is implemented using multiple time-interleaved cells and allows to significantly reduce the current consumption without introducing any significant penalty in terms of additional noise or area occupation. A two-stage parametric amplifier is introduced to provide higher gain, and suppress the noise contribution of the following amplifier chain. The proposed two-stage complementary preamplifier is followed by a third continuous-time stage, that employs a current-reuse inverter-based architecture. The contribution to the total noise efficiency factor of such amplifier is attenuated by the gain of the previous two-stage parametric preamplifier. As a result, the third stage provides gain programmability, while degrading the NEF of the entire chain by less than 10%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a four-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM-4) receiver that incorporates a continuous time linear equalizer, a variable gain amplifier, a phase interpolator-based clock and data recovery, and a 4-tap direct decision feedback equalizer (DFE) for moderate channel loss applications in wireline communication. A dynamic current-mode logic comparator (DCMLC) is proposed and employed in the DFE. The DCMLC, which adopts dynamic logic, breaks the trade-off between the bandwidth and the clock to Q delay in the traditional current-mode logic comparator (CMLC). Compared with the traditional CMLC, the DCMLC reduces the clock to Q delay by 36%, which allows the implementation of a 4-tap direct DFE. Moreover, the first tap feedback signals are directly tapped from the output of the DCMLC, allowing the first tap feedback current to initiate 0.5UI before the decision clock. The PAM-4 receiver prototype is fabricated in a 65nm CMOS process. At a data rate of 56-Gbps, it can compensate for up to 20.17dB loss and achieve a bit error rate $< 1\text{E}$ -10 with a power efficiency of 4.75 pJ/bit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the finite-time sliding mode control issue is studied for a series of semi-Markov jump systems subject to actuator faults, where an asynchronous control method is adopted to overcome the non-synchronous phenomenon between the system mode and controller mode. Additionally, the event-triggered protocol, which determines whether the transmission of data should be performed according to the threshold condition, is introduced to alleviate the burden of data transmission in the communication channel. This paper aims to devise an asynchronous event-triggered sliding mode control law so as to guarantee the trajectories of the resulting closed-loop system can be forced onto the predefined sliding surface in a finite-time interval. Thence, by means of the mode-dependent Lyapunov functions and the finite-time theory, sufficient conditions are derived to assure that the closed-loop system is mean-square finite-time bounded in both reaching and sliding motion phases. Eventually, a numerical example and a tunnel diode circuit model are presented to illustrate the availability and practicability of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel class of quaternion-valued memristive neural networks (QVMNNs) that considers both the spatial factor and Markov jump phenomenon is proposed, the finite/fixed-time anti-synchronization (F/FTAS) of which is investigated. It is worth mentioning that the considered master and slave systems are assumed to jump along two inconsistent Markov chains, which is a first attempt at the issue of the anti-synchronization of Markovian systems and may be more realistic than most existing Markovian systems’ models. Then, a suitable feedback controller is designed, such that the error system can be finite/fixed-time stable. Moreover, by integrating algebraic inequality technologies and Lyapunov theory, a new F/FTAS theorem can be obtained for the proposed systems. Finally, this paper provides two examples, so that the rationality, superiority, and practical value of the main results can be illustrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the behavioral modeling of inductors used for Switch-Mode Power Supply (SMPS) design. A novel unified behavioral modeling for power inductors is herein proposed, which considers the DC current passing through the device and the equivalent applied voltage and switching frequency as model inputs, and the resulting peak-to-peak current ripple, total power loss and temperature as model outputs. The proposed behavioral modeling relies on simple analytical formulas, discovered from experimental measurements by using a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm. The resulting behavioral models allow to define the “Constrained Operating Area” of a power inductor, which describes the boundary area in the three-dimensional domain of switching frequency, DC current and equivalent voltage that can be applied to the component while maintaining its peak-to-peak current ripple, power loss and temperature within given limits. The experimental case studies presented in the paper eventually confirm the reliability of the proposed behavioral modeling approach and of the resulting models, in the assessment of the suitability of a given inductor and in the comparative evaluation among different inductors for a given SMPS application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents various techniques to achieve high efficiency for the bidirectional Cascaded-Buck-Boost converter. This converter has the features of low voltage across the switches and positive output voltage. The objective of this paper is to optimize the magnetics design to reduce the total losses in a low power non-isolated DC-DC circuit. A rigorous loss model with component nonlinearities is developed to determine the power loss distribution. It is validated by simulations and experiments. Based on the results of the power loss analysis and due to the low inductor profile and high efficiency target, nanocrystalline material will be the best candidate. Therefore, a new small volume low profile planar-nanocrystalline inductor is designed. Various deep de sign aspects for core and copper are discussed. The Finite-Element-Analysis (FEA) method is used to examine and visualize the inductor design. By implementing the planar-nanocrystalline inductor, a California Energy Commission (CEC) weighted efficiency of 99.05% for the buck mode and 98.98% for the boost mode are achieved with a peak efficiency of 99.24% and 99.21%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a multi-mode boost converter to achieve the high efficiency over a wide input voltage range for thermoelectric energy harvesting (TEH) applications. Under high, medium, and low input voltages, continuous conduction mode (CCM), critical conduction mode (CRM), and discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) are adopted to improve the conversion efficiency, respectively. Moreover, a constant peak current (CPC) control scheme is proposed to realize high efficiency under ultra-low input voltage. The proposed converter is implemented in a $0.18 \mu \text{m}$ standard CMOS process, which occupies a chip core area of about 1.0 mm $\times0.9$ mm. It achieves >60% efficiency in the range of TEG open-circuit voltage $V_{S}$ from 20 mV to 500 mV, and a peak efficiency of 91.4%. Moreover, after the startup is completed, an efficiency of 37.1% under the $V_{S}$ as low as 10 mV can be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the cyber-physical system stability is widely studied, scholars focus more on system stability with communication time delay. Therein, grid-connected inverters with the digital control system are regarded as one simplest and typical cyber-physical system. Meanwhile, the switching/sampling frequency of the inverter is always selected as low as possible from an efficiency viewpoint, resulting in unavoidable delay time. This delay time is apt to cause the system instability, which is more prone to severity under weak grid. To this end, this paper provides a minimum switching/sampling frequency for grid-connected inverters. Firstly, the system impedance model with equivalent delay time is constructed, which is based on padé approximate approach. This equivalent delay time consists of three parts, i.e., sampling delay time in cyber/physical level, calculation delay time in cyber level and pulsewidth modulation delay time in physical level, which reflects the cyber-physical interaction impact. Furthermore, the stability forbidden criterion is applied to make the switching/sampling frequency solving process become Hurwitz matrix identification problem through space mappings. Based on these space mappings, an adaptive step search approach is adopted to obtain the minimum switching/sampling frequency. Finally, the proposed approach can well evaluate the system stability under different frequencies through simulation and experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a buffer-embedded noise-shaping SAR ADC, whose input buffer separates the capacitive DAC (CDAC) and the sampling capacitor (CS) at the input and output of the input buffer. This compensates for the non-linearity of the input buffer and reduces the CS value, resulting in a significant power saving in the input buffer. This buffer-embedded architecture enables the effective implementation of the following passive loop filter and enhances energy efficiency. A bootstrapping switch in the feedback CDAC is coupled to the output of the buffer, thereby avoiding a signal dependency due to the parasitic capacitance of the switch. The buffer-embedded noise-shaping SAR ADC occupies 0.08mm2 in a 65 nm CMOS process and features a parasitic input capacitor of 0.2 pF. It achieves 73.8 dB SNDR, 77 dB DR and 87.3 dB SFDR in a 2 MHz bandwidth without any calibration. Including the power consumption of the input buffer, the ADC consumes only 2.1 mW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the state estimation for switched memristive neural networks with nonhomogeneous sojourn probabilities. Essentially different from most current literature, a novel switching law is developed to depict the dynamic behavior of switched memristive neural networks, in which the sojourn probabilities of each subsystem are assumed to be nonhomogeneous, and a higher-level deterministic switching signal is proposed to regulate proper feedback switching information by means of the average dwell time approach. Meanwhile, to alleviate the constraint network bandwidth resource efficiently, a dynamic event-triggered mechanism with a novel threshold parameter is proposed in determining if the current data should be released or not. By resorting to the Lyapunov functional technique and the stochastic analysis strategy, some sufficient conditions are addressed to ensure the stochastic stability of the augmented switched memristive neural networks. In the end, the effectiveness and superiority of the developed results are verified by a numerical example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a sliding mode dynamic output feedback controller design for Markovian jump systems under a communication network. For the inaccessible states and uncertain parts of Markovian jump systems, a novel integral-type sliding mode output feedback controller combined with system states and dynamic controller states is proposed. An event-triggered mechanism is introduced to reduce network bandwidth and resources requirements. The augmented dynamic system and complete control framework are presented together. The reachability of the novel integral-type sliding mode is proved. Then, based on delay-dependent Lyapunov functions, free-weighting matrices, and a singular value decomposition approach, a less conservative sufficient condition is proposed to ensure exponential stability with a weighted $\mathcal {L}_{2}$ - $\mathcal{ L}_{\infty}$ disturbance performance. Finally, a numerical and a DC-DC switched boost converter circuit simulations that verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed controller are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy harvesting techniques provide solutions for powering battery-free circuits or even for charging storage elements such as batteries or super capacitors. In this paper a self-starting switched-capacitor approach based on three-stage charge pump that is appropriate to thermoelectric and photo-voltaic energy harvesting, is carried out in a 28 nm ultra-thin buried oxide (UTBB) fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) CMOS technology. By taking advantage of the FD-SOI substrate characteristics, the forward-body-biasing (FBB) technique is applied in order to improve switch conductances. In addition, a sizing exploration of standard N-type and flipped-well P-type devices operating as switches is advanced, in order to provide optimum balance between their conductances. Extensive simulation results validate the proper operation of the charge pump at a minimum input voltage of 150 mV, and show a maximum efficiency peak of 63.3% at an input voltage of 350 mV and load a current of 500 nA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reduction of the nominal supply voltage of CMOS technologies with scaling comes with the decrease of the maximum tolerable voltage of the devices. This poses challenges in implementing circuit blocks that are compliant with standardized communication protocols or deal with off-chip signals in voltage domains larger than the nominal supply (e.g., 1.8 V, 3.3 V, 5 V). Design techniques such as cascoding, voltage shifting and adaptive biasing are effective at removing the need for customized voltage resistant input/output (I/O) devices since they prevent intolerable voltage drops. However, at the input of multiple-channel blocks, the design of switches of multiplexers results critical as the input and the output nodes can assume values beyond the signal range, causing harmful biasing configurations. This paper presents the architecture of a switch for input channel multiplexers able to handle signals up to twice the nominal supply voltage of the employed devices. Its effectiveness has been proved by implementing a 1.6V switch with the core MOS transistors of the 28nm CMOS technology with 0.96V nominal supply voltage. The comparison with a benchmark switch based on 1.8V I/O devices showed that both a larger area (slightly more than twice) and static current consumption ($40\mu \text{A}$) are required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) with non-volatility, and near-zero leakage power features are believed to be the most prominent candidates for CMOS substitution. Logic-in-memory reduces the memory wall challenge and takes advantage of these features, but still has the challenge of writing to a magnetic device with regard to power consumption and device failure. Considering these challenges, we propose new designs in the approximate computing approach for magnetic device-based primitives. This paper proposes several power- and/or delay-efficient configurable Logic-in-Memory for Imprecise Tolerant Applications (LIMITA) based on spin transfer torque (STT) and STT-assisted voltage control magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) magnetic devices. Image processing is one of the most widely used imprecise tolerant applications with a high computational volume. Therefore, we map LIMITA with several approximation boundaries in Sobel, Sharpening, and Smoothing algorithms. To evaluate LIMITA at circuit and application levels, we did extensive simulations in HSPICE and MATLAB, respectively. Compared to the state-of-the-art works, the exact design of LIMITA improves the number of transistors in the logic tree up to 66% with 12% power overhead due to its configurability feature. In addition, in comparison with approximate primitives, LIMITA- $\text{F}_{\mathrm {i}}$ improves delay, power consumption, and the number of transistors by $4.5\times$ , $71.5\times$ , and $2\times$ respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the emerging development of SiC MOSFET, the switching frequency of power converters has been pushed to the order of hundreds of kilohertz or even megahertz to improve power density. However, the state-of-the-art simulations for such high-frequency power electronics circuits are usually time-consuming, blocking the studies of long dynamics such as several seconds. What’s worse, adopting physical models to simulate the turn-on and turn-off transients leads to high stiffness and therefore convergence problems. In this paper, an event-driven approach is proposed to improve the solving speed and simulation stability of SiC based high-frequency converters. A time-scale hierarchical automaton is proposed to model the system, where piecewise analytical transient model for SiC MOSFET is established as the second layer in the automaton to simulate the switching transients with improved numerical stability. Simulation of the system is driven by discrete events in the automaton. A 3.3 kW 79.1 kHz wireless power transfer system for the wireless charging of electric vehicle is studied. Compared with ideal switch model in Simulink and physical switch model in LTspice, 60-fold and 400-fold increases in terms of simulation speed with same level of accuracy are achieved respectively. The simulated results are also attested to by experimental verifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to investigate the event-based extended dissipative state estimation problem for memristor-based Markovian neural networks in the presence of hybrid time-varying delays and sensor nonlinearity. To tackle the effect caused by information latching, sudden interference and environmental variation, the Markov jump model is employed to describe the memristor-based neural network. Besides, an event-triggered scheme is introduced to economize the cost of communication. Then some novel conditions are presented, which guarantee that the augmented error system is stochastically stable with an extended dissipative performance. The existence criterion of the desired mode-dependent estimator is also obtained in terms of linear matrix inequalities. Finally, simulation results are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the finite-time and fixed-time bipartite average tracking (BAT) problems in multi-agent systems (MASs) subject to bounded disturbances. A novel non-smooth protocol is first constructed on the basis of utilizing the finite-time control method, which can realize the finite-time BAT with structurally balanced graph. Then, the fixed-time BAT problem is dealt with nonlinear fixed-time algorithm, the setting time of which is obtained without depending on initial states. By employing Lyapunov stability theory, some sufficient criteria are obtained to achieve the finite-time and fixed-time BAT for MASs with disturbances. Numerical examples are finally developed for illustration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an improved finite time sliding mode controller scheme for a class of robotic manipulators with external disturbances. Since conventional sliding mode controllers have a discontinuous signum function, an important problem called chattering phenomenon can occur in them. The proposed scheme presents a new Lyapunov candidate functional containing an absolute function based on a fractional power of the switching surface such that the designed control law is continuous and smooth. The recommended control technique is designed using the Lyapunov stability theory and satisfies the presence of the sliding mode around designed switching surface in the finite time. The presented method eliminates the chattering problem produced by the switching controller and satisfies high precision action. Besides, the adaptive tuning controllers are designed to approximate the unknown bound of external disturbance. An extension of the proposed control technique based on the barrier function adaptive terminal sliding mode control is also suggested for better performance and robust tracking control of the nonlinear systems with external disturbances. Some simulation and experimental outcomes exhibit the efficacy of the planned technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Piecewise affine (PWA) systems are attractive models that can represent various hybrid systems with local affine subsystems and polyhedral regions due to their universal approximation properties. The identification problem of PWA systems amounts to estimating the number of subsystems, parameters of each subsystem, and the corresponding polyhedral partitions via state-input vectors. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to address the online identification problem of continuous-time PWA systems in state-space form. Specifically, an online active mode recognition algorithm and a generalized integral concurrent learning identifier are presented to acquire the number of subsystems, the switching sequence, and the parameter of each subsystem. In addition, we develop the optimization problem for the polyhedral partition estimation, which is solved by using the estimated switching sequence and subsystem parameters. The effectiveness of the proposed identification approach is demonstrated via simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ring-AllReduce framework is currently the most popular solution to deploy industry-level distributed machine learning tasks. However, only about half of the maximum bandwidth can be achieved in the optimal condition. In recent years, several in-network aggregation frameworks have been proposed to overcome the drawback, but limited hardware information have been disclosed. In this paper, we propose a scalable fully-pipelined architecture that handles tasks like forwarding, aggregation and retransmission with no bandwidth loss. The architecture is implemented on a Xilinx Ultrascale FPGA that connects to 8 working servers with 10 Gb/s network adapters, and it is able to scale to more complicated scenarios involving more workers. Compared with Ring-AllReduce, using AllReduce-Switch improves the efficient bandwidth of AllReduce communication with a ratio of $1.75\times $. In image training tasks, the proposed hardware architecture helps to achieve up to $1.67\times $ speedup to the training process. For computing-intensive models, the speedup from communication may be partially hidden by computing. In particular, for ResNet-50, AllReduce-Switch improves the training process with MPI and NCCL by $1.30\times $ and $1.04\times $ respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale millimeter-wave (mm-Wave) integrated phased array is the key technology to enable broadband 5G and satellite communications. This paper details the design considerations, challenges and trade-offs of mm-Wave integrated phased arrays based on bulk CMOS and multi-layer hybrid PCB technologies. Both technologies attain high yield and low cost for mass production. Important beamforming building blocks are addressed and compared in detail. Demonstrators of integrated phased arrays are presented from circuit to board levels. The 1024- and 4096-element integrated phased arrays achieve the EIRP of 72.5 and 84.0 dBm respectively. Finally, relevant phased-array transceivers and antennas from the recent literature are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates an ultra-broadband sampling technique based on charge sampling using an Integrate-and-Hold Circuit (IHC) and ultra-short integration times. The charge sampling technique is mathematically analyzed in detail and compared to conventional switched-capacitor sampling. The mathematical analysis allows to predict the sampler bandwidth as well as the degradation of sampling precision due to analog circuit impairments such as integrator gain error, integration capacitor leakage, hold-mode droop, thermal noise, and clock jitter. Furthermore, design, simulation, and measurement results of an ultra-broadband charge sampler IC in SiGe BiCMOS technology are presented. The charge sampler IC achieves a 1dB bandwidth of 70 GHz. A resolution of better than 5.9 effective number of bits (ENOB) is measured from 0 to 70 GHz at a sampling rate of 5 GS/s. The results suggest that charge sampling using an IHC is a viable concept for ultra-broadband sampling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the issue of open-switch faults of voltage source inverter (VSI) is studied, an adaptive fast voltage-based real-time open-switch fault location method is proposed. Firstly, for each switching period, the voltage deviation is calculated by the expected voltage and estimated actual voltage, they are obtained via the mixed logical dynamic model (MLDM) and measured currents, respectively. Then, the voltage deviation of each phase is employed as a fault variable. By this way, avoiding the use of additional hardware, and embedding easily in system. Furthermore, considering the impact of sampling error, parameter error, dead time, delay time, and transition time, the adaptive threshold is designed. Finally, simulations and experiments are executed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at a class of switched uncertain nonlinear strict-feedback systems under the action of average dwell time switching signal, this paper proposes a novel adaptive neural network output feedback tracking control based on the consideration of the full state constraints. The controller is proposed based on neural networks. One of the key characteristics of the system discussed is that the state variables cannot be measured and the system states need to be kept within the constraint ranges. For the sake of estimating the unmeasured states, the observer is constructed. In order to ensure all states which are within the time-varying boundary, the tangent barrier Lyapunov function (BLF-Tan) is selected in the design process. The boundedness of the closed-loop signals with average dwell time is guaranteed by the designed controllers and all the states limit in their constrained sets. It has been proved that the output tracking error converge to a small neighborhood of zero. In addition, the significance of the presented control strategy is verified and tested by a simulation example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies stability for a class of switched descriptor systems with state bumpless transfer performance and input bumpless transfer performance. Since the state jump is inevitable for switched descriptor systems when a switching occurs, to restrain the amplitude of the state jump induced by switchings, for the first time, the state bumpless transfer performance of switched descriptor systems is defined. Moreover, when switching occurs, to avoid the abrupt and large control input signals change damaging the system, we are the first to introduce the input bumpless transfer control scheme for switched descriptor systems. Furthermore, by using multiple Lyapunov functions, a sufficient condition is put forward to make sure the state bumpless transfer performance, input bumpless transfer performance and asymptotical stability for the closed-loop systems. Meanwhile, the switching rule and the state feedback controller are co-designed. In the end, a multiple inputs numerical example and an application on the DC motor model are used to exhibit the merit and validity of the presented control scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the theory of a novel memcomputing paradigm based upon a memristive version of standard Cellular Nonlinear Networks. The insertion of a nonvolatile memristor in the circuit of each cell endows the dynamic array with the capability to store and retrieve data into and from the resistance switching memories, obviating the current need for extra memory blocks. Choosing the parameters of each cell circuit so that the memristors may undergo solely sharp transitions between two states, each processing element may be approximately described at any time as one of two first-order systems. Under this assumption, the classical Dynamic Route Map may be employed to synthesise and analyse the data storage and retrieval genes. A new system-theoretic methodology, called Second-Order Dynamic Route Map, is also introduced for the first time in this paper. This technique allows to study the operating principles of arrays with second-order processing elements, as is the case, in the proposed network, if the set up of cell circuit parameters induces analogue memristive dynamics. This paper shows how the novel tool may be adopted to investigate the operating mechanisms of a cellular array with second-order cells, which compute the element-wise logical OR between two binary images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the problem of observer-based fault estimation (FE) for discrete-time nonlinear systems via a weighted switching approach. A pair of variable weights is introduced in an efficient but straight-forward way, and thus, the space spanned by the prescribed normalized fuzzy weighting function can be divided into a set of non-overlapping subspaces. A new fuzzy switching FE observer is proposed by designing exclusive FE observer gain matrices for each non-overlapping subspaces, and thus, less conservative off-line designed conditions for the proposed fuzzy switching FE observer are obtained than the previous results by adequately taking advantage of the characteristic information of each non-overlapping subspaces. More importantly, the process of on-line deciding the current subspace’s index at each sampled point is very straightway and some previous time-consuming online operation is avoided, i.e., it can be said that the on-line computational burden also is alleviated in this paper. Finally, the proposed theoretical result is applied to a tunnel diode circuit and the advantages over existing literature are validated by means of objective comparisons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, hybrid dynamical systems theory is applied to the analysis and control of switched converters with Pulse-Width Modulated (PWM) inputs. The system is described by a state-space model with continuous flows and discrete jumps, without averaged equations. The modulation effects are captured in full without using time-dependent signals, by enlarging the state vector to include the PWM waveform generation process. Furthermore, the sample-and-hold mechanism associated with the sampling frequency is also taken into account with this approach. A control law is proposed based on a Lyapunov function candidate. Furthermore, convergence sets and the steady state jitter, inherent to PWM-based controllers, are analyzed estimating limit sets for the augmented state. Consequently, output chattering can be bounded. By using hybrid dynamical system theory, the control designer gains a deeper understanding of the effect of modulation in the closed-loop dynamics, avoiding the problems associated with the use averaged models. Experimental results validate the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]