Scanning the Issue

The current issue of the IETE Journal of Research (Vol 67, No 6, Nov–Dec 2021) contains 21 articles. These articles present ongoing research and developments taking place in the broad areas of Microwave Engineering, Microelectronics, Signal Processing, Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Computer Science.

The paper “Design of L1/L2 GPS BPF Using Closed-Loop Rectangular Ring Resonator” presents the design of a dual-band bandpass filter to operate at the L1 and L2 GPS bands. The design is low profile that is printed on a common FR-3 substrate for GPS applications. The paper discusses features of the design such as a method of improving frequency selectivity of the filter. The results of a simulation study of the design are compared with the measurements made from a fabricated filter of the design and inferences are drawn from it.

The next paper on “A Novel Design of a Multiplier Using Reversible Ternary Gates,” gives the design of reversible ternary circuit design of a 2 × 2 multiplier for applications in a quantum computer. The use of ternary logic over binary logic provides a primary advantage of reducing circuit size. The authors use one-qutrit shift gates and two-qutrit primitive gates for the circuit design. Comparisons are presented in terms of number of constant inputs and total garbage output and the total quantum cost.

In the paper “Lattice-Based Coding to Enhance Error Performance of the Hidden Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum,” the authors present a method to enhance the physical layer security and error performance of a wireless communication system. This is done by using direct sequence spread spectrum with a lattice coding scheme with sphere decoding. The transmitter and receiver processing are studied analytically for secrecy capacity and error rate comparisons with alternative coding scheme is also reported.

The following paper “A Novel Classification and Synchronous Noise Removal During Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring,” addresses the problem of removing noise in fetal heart monitoring signal. An adaptive multiband filtering technique is proposed for this purpose. Its design is simulated for performance and realization parameters in terms of area, power, and delay for 90 nm technology.

The paper titled “Performance Evaluation of Discrete Wavelet Transform, and Wavelet Packet Decomposition for Automated Focal and Generalized Epileptic Seizure Detection,” studies the comparative performance of discrete wavelet transforms and wavelet packet decomposition on EEG signals for the automatic classification of epileptic seizures using support vector machines. The paper infers the best performing wavelet function from a list of seven commonly used wavelet functions.

The next paper “Fractional Order Fuzzy Dynamic Backstepping Sliding Mode Controller Design for Triaxial MEMS Gyroscope Based on High-gain and Disturbance Observers,” reports the design of a controller for MEMS triaxial gyroscope. It uses sliding mode and nonlinear backstepping approaches to compensate the system uncertainties. Fuzzy boundary layer and dynamic sliding surface are used to improve the control signal properties. The closed-loop control system is shown to be stable. The performance is compared with other sliding mode controllers in terms of the goodness of the control signal, system stability, rise time and tracking.

In “Investigation of Dielectric Strength of Transformer Oil Based on Hybrid TiO₂/Al₂O₃/MoS₂ Nanofluid Using Taguchi and Response Surface Methodology,” presents a study of the variation in dielectric strength of transformer oil when various nanoparticles are added in different volume percentages and combinations. The results of statistical analysis to infer the best combination of parameters is also presented.

The next paper on “Fabrication of Stress and Temperature Measurement Sensors and Possible Integration with Fabricated Biodegradable Drug Delivery Device,” gives the design of a flexible skin sensor for measuring conductance and temperature. It is useful for reservoir-based drug delivery system in a controlled manner at a target site. The fabrication and experimental performance of the sensor are described along with some comparative studies.

The following paper “Analysis and Design of a Dual-polarized Printed Monopole Antenna,” provides the design of a dual-polarized printed monopole antenna with low-return loss. The usefulness of the design that caters to channel capacity and polarization diversity requirements lies in MIMO wireless communications systems. The fabrication of the design is presented along with the measurement results and their comparisons with simulation results of the design comprising of the radiation pattern, beamwidth, and antenna gain.

The next paper titled “Noise Removal Through the Exploration of Subjective and Apparent Denoised Patches Using Discrete Wavelet Transform,” presents a method for noise removal in images. The algorithm uses a two-step process that includes graph-based optimization and discrete wavelet transform. The graph-based optimization step enhances the accuracy of patch matching in the external denoising. The denoising performance is compared with other methods objectively to bring out the efficacy of the proposed method.

The paper on “Search of Optimal s-to-z Mapping Function for IIR Filter Designing without Frequency Pre-warping,” is about designing digital filter from analog filter specifications. It presents a criterion for selecting the optimal s-to-z mapping function for designing IIR filters that precludes the need of frequency pre-warping. The issue of using bilinear transform that is prone to frequency warping is addressed by using higher order optimized s-to-z mapping functions. The filter response in the form of peak amplitude of the output waveform is compared between different design methods.

In “Blind Receiver with Joint Channel Shortening, CFO Compensation and Data Detection for 5G MIMO SPC System,” the authors report the study of a blind receiver processing for multiuser multi-input multi-output case that obviates the need of a pilot and reduces the length of cyclic prefix. These attributes are required for short packet communication in fifth-generation systems. The receiver processing comprising of four stages is discussed and detailed analysis is provided. The receiver performance is presented through several BER plots and inferences are drawn from comparison studies.

The next paper “Channel Dimension-Dependent Electrical Study for Performance Analysis of Low-dimensional n-MOSFET Device,” studies about the effect of channel dimension of a MOSFET on its performance for sensing applications. The effects of channel length and width on the electrical performance of n-MOSFET is analyzed and I–V characteristics are obtained. The performance is also corroborated with experimental results obtained from fabricated devices of different channel dimensions.

The next paper “Improved TOGI-Based Voltage and Frequency Control for PMSG Feeding Single-Phase Loads in Isolated Pico-Hydro Generation,” is on the topic of three-phase permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) for stand-alone pico-hydro generation feeding a single-phase load. The paper presents a control algorithm based on third-order generalized integrator for load balancing, reducing harmonics and compensating the reactive power in the context of a three-phase PMSG feeding a single-phase nonlinear load. A comparative analysis of important techniques is provided. The paper gives results of steady-state and dynamic performance using system simulation performance, as well as, experiments done on prototype system.

In “An Efficient Multiple Fault Detection Technique in Digital Microfluidic Biochips,” the authors address the problem of reliability of a Digital Microfluidic Biochip system that is useful for point-of-care diagnosis. It is observed that defective electrodes are the main reason for incorrect assay performances. The paper gives a fault detection method to identify multiple numbers of defective electrodes on a biochip array. A capacitive sensing circuit is used for this purpose. A study is done whose results evaluate the performance of the fault detection method.

The next paper on “A Novel Reciprocity Based Theory for Extraction of Scattered Field under Plane Wave Incidence from that of Near-field Illumination,” presents a method to compute the scattered field from a target that is illuminated by plane wave that is derived from the scattered field due to near-field illumination. The method is useful for doing experiments in an anechoic room where it is often difficult or infeasible to generate plane wave conditions directly due to the distances involved. The authors report that the scattered field under plane wave illumination condition obtained from the near field illumination data is found to be identical to the analytically obtained scattered field.

In the following paper titled “R-Peak Detection in ECG Signal Using Yule-Walker and Principal Component Analysis,” the authors give an algorithm to detect the R-peak in ECG signals that are relevant for the detection of Arrhythmias. Noise reduction is done using a digital bandpass filter and features are based on Auto-Regressive modelling. The paper reports the detection performance based on standard databases and the results are compared with other algorithms to bring out the efficacy of the overall algorithm.

The next paper on “Design of Optimal Linear Reduced-Order Observers for Suppressing Transient Estimation Error,” presents a method to design linear reduced-order observer that satisfy certain criteria, namely convergence characteristics and transient estimation error. The relevance of the method lies in achieving less expensive and more reliable state estimation using an observer instead of using sensor measurement. The paper gives examples to illustrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the optimization of state estimation.

The next paper “Analysis of Extended Pile Gate Trapezoidal Bulk FinFET,” gives the design analysis of specific bulk FinFET for device realization. FinFETs are some of the most promising devices at nanoscales. Simulation study of the performance is reported in the paper. The performance metrics such as drain induced barrier lowering, leakage current, transconductance generation factor and threshold voltage are presented.

The paper titled “Thieves and Police, a New Optimization Algorithm: Theory and Application in Probabilistic Power Flow,” presents a meta-heuristic optimization algorithm. The algorithm steps are described in terms of five phases with linked objectives. The algorithm performance is reported in terms of several measures that are also compared with other meta-heuristic optimization algorithms. The performance is also tested for optimization problems in power engineering area for micro-grid with renewable energy resources to show the efficacy of the algorithm for specific optimization tasks.

In “Big Data Retrieval Using Locality-Sensitive Hashing with Document-Based NoSQL Database,” the authors provide a method to retrieve data from a NoSQL database. Efficient retrieval of data from a large database is an increasingly relevant requirement in many application fields. The objective basis for hashing data is described for which the algorithm is focused. The paper gives the results of data retrieval on standard dataset using the proposed method and comparisons with non-indexed and global-indexed datasets are done from which inferences are drawn.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shiban K Koul

Shiban K Koul is currently an Emeritus Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and Mentor at IIT Jammu from 2018. Prior to this, he served as Deputy Director (Strategy and Planning) at IIT Delhi from 2012 to 2016. He also served as the Chairman of Astra Microwave Products Limited, Hyderabad from 2009 to 2019 and Dr R P Shenoy Astra Microwave Chair Professor at IIT Delhi from 2014 to 2019. His research interests include RF MEMS, high frequency wireless communication, microwave engineering, microwave passive and active circuits, device modelling, millimetre and sub-millimetre wave IC design, body area networks, flexible and wearable antennas, medical applications of sub-terahertz waves and reconfigurable microwave circuits including miniaturized antennas. He has successfully completed 38 major sponsored projects, 52 consultancy projects and 61 technology development projects. He has authored/co-authored 540 research papers, 16 state-of-the art books, 4 book chapters and 2 e-books. He holds 23 patents, 6 copyrights and one trademark. He has guided 26 PhD theses and more than 120 master’s thesis. Dr Koul 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. Email: [email protected]