Scanning the Issue

The current issue of the IETE Journal of Research (Vol.65, No.4, July-August 2019) contains 12 articles. These articles present ongoing research and developments taking place in the broad areas of Power Systems, Electromagnetics, Microelectronics, Signal Processing and Control Systems. This issue also includes review of the book “FMCW-Radar Design”.

The paper titled “A solution compatible with cost-reliability for multi-stage feeder routing problem with considering uncertainties,” presents a stochastic optimization solution for mid-term and long-term optimal feeder routing problem in the distribution network of a power system. It considers uncertainties in future load demand and market price and uses particle swarm optimization for the solution. The cost function incorporates feeder installation cost, power loses cost, cost of purchased active power and reliability costs and incorporates several constraints. Detailed simulation results are presented and the efficacy of the solution is discussed.

The next paper on “Actively floating lossy inductance simulators using voltage differencing buffered amplifiers,” presents two topologies comprising of a voltage differencing buffered amplifier as active building block and a resistor and capacitor for simulating floating lossy inductances. Their relevance is in the realization of analog circuits in IC technology. The non-ideal analysis is presented for the topologies. The performance is studied using second-order RLC low pass filter and parallel resonant circuit, and using PSPICE simulations and experiments.

In “An optimal multi-level backward feature subset selection for object recognition,” a method of multi-level backward feature subset selection for object recognition is presented. The selection problem is to remove less effective features in a classification problem. The task of accurate feature subset selection is important particularly in large datasets for obtaining good classification accuracies. The feature selection method is compared with other methods and its efficacy is discussed.

The next paper on “Demagnetization fault detection for five-phase IPMSM through integral terminal sliding mode flux-linkage observer,” presents a method to estimate rotor flux linkage using two integral terminal sliding mode observers in five-phase interior permanent magnet synchronous motors (IPMSM). Lyapunov stability analysis is done for the observers. The paper presents a sliding mode observer and a sliding mode controller to keep the speed during the fault for the five-phase IPMSM. Simulation studies are presented to support the design.

In “Design, simulation and manufacturing microstrip low-pass filter by wide stopband and changing fast situation from passing state to stopping,” the authors present a microstrip low pass filter to achieve wide stopband and flexibility during operation. The filter specifications are presented using simulations. The circuit is fabricated and results compared with previous structures in terms of dimensions, sharpness of response and stopband width, and inferences are drawn.

The next paper titled “Hardware efficient crypto-coder systems for wireless channels,” presents a hardware based crypto-coder system for handheld devices. The coder uses ROM based convolutional coder and modified authenticated lightweight encryption. The system performance is studied for AWGN channels. The hardware system is implemented in Xilinx Spartan FPGA and is compared with previous system design in terms of hardware efficiency and power consumption.

The paper titled “Implementation of a PSO based improved localization algorithm for wireless sensor networks,” presents a method for localizing a node in a wireless sensor network. This work deals with localization using a range free method that does not require exact computation measure of distance or time or orientation amongst the nodes in the network. A modification of the DV-Hop method is presented that uses a particle swarm optimization technique to address the positioning error. The performance of the method has been studied in simulations and analysis results of the study is presented and compared with the DV-Hop algorithm.

The paper titled “Influence of carrier-carrier interactions on the noise performance of millimeter-wave IMPATTs,” presents a study of the influence of inter-carrier scattering phenomena on the noise performance of double-drift region impact avalanche transit time diodes. An analytical model from the literature for the ionization rates is used in the simulation study that considers the effect of inter-carrier scattering inside the active region of the diodes, and the variations in noise spectral density of the diode at different frequencies is compared with previous model of ionization rates and inferences are drawn from the comparison.

The next paper on “Intuitionistic fuzzy similarity measure for generalized fuzzy numbers and its application in fingerprint matching,” presents a measure of similarity for generalized fuzzy numbers. The study of similarity in fuzzy numbers is useful in decision making tasks. The paper presents the properties of the given intuitionistic fuzzy similarity measure and evaluates the similarity measure on a fingerprint matching problem. The measure is compared with existing methods to determine similarity.

The next paper on “Multiplier cum divider using pulse width integrated and time division multipliers,” presents a method for obtaining a multiplier cum divider using pulse with integrated multiplier and a time division multiplier. A multiplier cum divider accepts three input DC voltages and produces an output that is the product of two of them divided by the third voltage. Its relevance lies in several analog signal processing circuits and instrumentation. The verification of the circuit is also presented.

In “Ontology-based modelling and information extracting of physical entities in semantic sensor networks,” semantic models of physical entities are used whose information is collected by sensor networks to give a method for extracting such semantic information from the entities whose data is collected. An ontology encompassing spatial and temporal aspects is presented for semantically modelling the physical entities in the real world. The semantic information is represented at a higher level than the sensor data to enable information storage and interactions at the higher level. The efficacy of the model is demonstrated through simulation experiment.

The next paper on “Root-power mean aggregation-based neuron in quaternionic domain,” presents the analysis of an artificial neuron based on root-power mean aggregation for quaternionic-valued signals. The neuron specifically caters for quaternionic-valued signals. The training is done with quaternionic- resilient propagation with error-dependent weight backtracking, that is useful in improving training speed and approximation accuracy. The performance of the neuron architecture is tested on benchmark problems.

The review of the book “FMCW-Radar Design” presents the description of 11 chapters and 3 appendices of the book including their salient features. The book serves the purpose as a design, text and reference book.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shiban K Koul

Shiban K Koul is Dr R P Shenoy Astra Microwave Chair Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He served as Deputy Director (Strategy and Planning) at IIT Delhi from 2012–2016. Currently, he is the Mentor Deputy Director (Strategy & Planning, International affairs) at IIT Jammu. He served as the Chairman of Astra Microwave Products Limited, Hyderabad from 2009-2019. 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 415 Papers, 9 state-of-the art books and 3 book Chapters. He holds 10 patents and 6 copyrights. He is a Fellow of IEEE, 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.

E-mail: [email protected]