The current issue of the IETE Journal of Research (Vol.66, No.5, Sep-Oct 2020) contains 14 articles. These articles present ongoing research and developments taking place in the broad areas of Electromagnetics, Microwave Engineering, Microelectronics, Biomedical Engineering, Signal Processing, and Power Engineering.
The paper on “Reconfigurable Microstrip Patch Antenna with Switchable Polarization,” presents the design of a reconfigurable microstrip patch antenna with switchable polarization. A microstrip patch antenna is useful for obtaining polarization diversity due to the properties of light weight, compactness and simple fabrication process and its applications are in Wi-Fi and WLAN systems. The results of simulation study including its performance at high RF input power are presented and compared with previously reported reconfigurable antennas as well as with measurements made on a fabricated antenna. From this comparative study, inferences have been drawn about the efficacy of the design.
The paper titled “Microwave Near-field Imaging of Biological Samples using a Microstrip Resonator Probe,” presents the design of a microwave near-field imaging device for non-destructive evaluation of biological samples. The proposed design is studied using reflectometry analysis for imaging on representative tissue material and the performance is discussed in detail. The reflectometry analysis could detect hidden glands with reasonable reflection strength of signal.
In the following paper on “Analytical Model of Gate to Channel Capacitance for Nanoscale MOSFETs,” the authors present an analytical model of gate to channel capacitance in nanoscale MOSFETs. The model takes into account quantum mechanical effects and other specific effects such as drain induced barrier lowering and short channel effects. It is used to evaluate parameters that are useful in the estimate of channel capacitance. The estimated channel capacitance is compared with prior results and models to draw inferences about the efficacy of the proposed model.
The next paper on “Normal Mode Helical Antenna on Small Circular Ground Plane,” presents a method for input impedance matching for a Normal Mode Helical Antenna with a circular ground plane without requiring any external impedance matching network. It has advantages of small size and ease of installation compared to conventional monopole antenna. The effects of varying the geometry of ground place, radius of wire on the input impedance and other parameters of the antenna are discussed. The paper also presents the effect of varying the ground plane shapes on the input impedance matching. The simulation study is augmented with measurements done on a fabricated antenna and comparisons between the two sets of performance parameters is presented and discussed.
The next paper titled “Development of 3DTV Emission Multiplexer and Reception-Signal Status Analyzer for ATSC 8-VSB & MDTV Hybrid 3DTV Services,” describes the development of a 3D television emission multiplexer and reception-signal status analyzer for ATSC 8-VSB and mobile digital TC service. The paper presents the design for efficient signal measurements. The results of lab tests and field tests in terrestrial broadcasting environment are presented and discussed.
The following paper on “Wind Speed Prediction Using Wavelet Decomposition Based on Lorenz Disturbance Model,” uses the Lorenz disturbance model for wind energy movement along with wavelet decomposition analysis to present a method for wind speed prediction using neural network. The prediction performance is compared with other numerical prediction methods and the comparative performance is discussed to draw inferences.
In “UWB Dual-Band Notched Conical Dielectric Resonator Antenna with improved Gain,” a design for dual band-notched UWB conical dielectric resonator antenna is presented. The design creates a wide impedance bandwidth of 1.7 GHz to 13.5 GHz with two notches to filter out WiMAX band and WLAN band. The paper describes the method used to improve far-field gain. The antenna simulation studies, and measurement results are presented and compared.
The paper “Realization of RFID-based DAS using RF Transceiver and Huffman Coding,” presents a design method for a programmable RFID data acquisition system that is implemented on embedded system architecture. The data communication uses lossless compression. The protocol and algorithm are described followed by its implementation in embedded system is explained along with the experiments performed.
In “Design Automation and Testing of MEDA-based Digital Microfluidic Biochips: A Brief Survey,” the authors present a survey of digital microfluidic biochips designed using microelectrode dot array architecture (MEDA). This approach for biochip design has the advantages of portability, scalability and reconfigurability and hence assumes current importance. The survey presents the different methods for fluidic level synthesis and the attendant problems related to malfunctioning microelectrodes, droplet classification and several others. The paper also gives possible directions of future work for MEDA based biochips.
The next paper on “CAD Layout Analysis for Defect Inspection in Semiconductor Fabrication,” describes a method for defect inspection using ultraviolet and deep ultraviolet light. An electron beam inspection method for detecting electrical connection failures is also presented. The paper presents a CAD layout analysis for both these inspections with the objective of increasing the detection of critical defects and reducing cycle time for inspection and defect characterization. The methods are compared with previous methods in terms of detection results.
The paper on “A Robust Two-axis Tilt Angle Sensor based on Air/Liquid Two-phase Dielectric Capacitive Sensing Structure,” presents the design of a two-axis tilt angle sensor using two-phase dielectric capacitive sensing method that measures both roll and pitch angles simultaneously. The design comprising of five electrodes surrounding a glass cylinder partially filled with dielectric liquid is studied in FEM simulation software and presented. The fabricated design’s performance is also given and compared with the expected performance from the simulation study in terms of linearity temperature range, sensitivity, resolution and other measures for roll and pitch angle detection. The results have also been compared with previously reported design performance and discussed.
The next paper titled “Imperialist Competitive Algorithm with Effective Assimilation Strategy: A Comparative Study on Numerical Benchmark Functions,” presents an optimization algorithm based on the imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) with new features of global exploration and good convergence. A key approach taken is to use “the most powerful imperialists” information for update. The optimization algorithm is compared with the baseline ICA and other algorithms with 28 benchmark functions from which inferences are presented and discussed in the paper.
In the paper on “An MCS with Iterative Multi-dimensional Hamming Product Codes,” the authors present two iterative hard-decision decoding schemes for multi-dimensional Hamming block product codes. These decoders respectively have the properties of double error correction in two-dimensional Extended Hamming Code and perturbation-based decoding for three dimensional Normal Hamming Code. Simulation studies are presented based on which a combined Modulation and Coding Scheme is derived. The utility of the MCS is discussed in parametric terms and its relevance for digital video broadcasting and satellite communications is highlighted.
In the next paper on “A LabVIEW-based Real-Time GUI for Switched Controlled Energy Harvesting Circuit for Low Voltage Application” the authors have provided a LabVIEW based GUI that works with a standalone off-grid wind turbine incorporated with energy harvesting circuit. A universal graphical user interface has been demonstrated for energy harvesting application. It has been shown that the same can be incorporated into wind turbine as well as for the solar panel. The main contribution reported by the authors is that the scheme is capable of harvesting energy even in low voltage output environment.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Shiban K Koul
Shiban K Koul is currently an Emeritus Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He served as Deputy Director (Strategy and Planning) at IIT Delhi from 2012-2016 and Mentor Deputy Director (Strategy & Planning, International Affairs) at IIT Jammu from 2018-2020. He also served as the Chairman of Astra Microwave Products Limited, Hyderabad from 2009-2019 and Dr R P Shenoy Astra Microwave Chair Professor at IIT Delhi from 2014-2019. His research interests include: RF MEMS, High Frequency Wireless Communication, Microwave Engineering, Microwave Passive and Active Circuits, Device Modeling, Millimeter wave IC Design and Reconfigurable Microwave Circuits including Antennas. Completed 38 major sponsored projects, 52 consultancy projects and 60 technology development projects. He has authored 478 Papers, 12 state-of-the art Books and 3 Book Chapters. He holds 12 patents and 6 copyrights. He is a Life Fellow of IEEE and Fellow of INAE and IETE. He is the Chief Editor of IETE Journal of Research, Associate Editor of the International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies, Cambridge University Press. He served as a Distinguished Microwave Lecturer of IEEE MTT-S for the period 2012–2014.
Recipient of numerous awards including IEEE MTT Society Distinguished Educator Award (2014); Teaching Excellence Award (2012) from IIT Delhi; Indian National Science Academy (INSA) Young Scientist Award (1986); Top Invention Award (1991) of the National Research Development Council for his contributions to the indigenous development of ferrite phase shifter technology; VASVIK Award (1994) for the development of Ka- band components and phase shifters; Ram Lal Wadhwa Gold Medal (1995) from the Institution of Electronics and Communication Engineers (IETE); Academic Excellence Award (1998) from Indian Government for his pioneering contributions to phase control modules for Rajendra Radar, Shri Om Prakash Bhasin Award (2009) in the field of Electronics and Information Technology, VASVIK Award (2012) for the contributions made to the area of Information, Communication Technology (ICT) and M N Saha Memorial Award (2013) from IETE.