Scanning the Issue

The current issue of the IETE Journal of Research (Vol 68, No 1, Jan-Feb 2022) contains 72 articles. These articles present ongoing research and developments taking place in the broad areas of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Electromagnetics, Microelectronics, Computer Science, Information Technology, Biomedical Engineering and Signal Processing.

The paper “Fast and Efficient Filter using Wavelet Threshold for Removal of Gaussian Noise from MRI/CT Scanned Medical Images/Color Video Sequence” the authors present a method for optimum de-noising using wavelet threshold to remove adaptive white Gaussian noise from degraded medical images or color video sequence. The performance of the de-noising method is compared with various de-noising techniques such as Bayesian least squares-Gaussian scale mixtures, etc. and inferences are drawn from the comparative study.

The paper on “A Pipelined Turbo Receiver for MU-MIMO Communication Systems” presents a joint design process for the multiuser detection, turbo equalization and channel estimation to enhance the capacity of multi-user multiple-input-multiple-output communications. The design takes into consideration the issues such as practical realization in VLSI architecture, latency, and increased system throughput. The paper presents results of channel response estimation accuracy and multiuser detection.

The next paper on “Triple Band Microstrip Patch Antenna useful for Wi-Fi and WiMAX” presents the design of a compact Microstrip Patch Antenna for Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz), WiMAX (5.8 GHz) and X band (9-10 GHz) applications. The design uses a partial ground plane with symmetrical parasitical elements, an extended microstrip line and a I-shaped patch having rectangular slot. The paper presents the performance parameters for drawing inferences.

In “A Survey on Matrix Converter fed Direct Torque Control Techniques for AC Machines,” the authors present a review of different control techniques for the implementation of Matrix Converters for Direct Torque Control Techniques for AC Machines. Various methods such as subdivision of MC Voltage Vector method, Space Vector Modulation based method, Model Predictive Torque Control method and others are presented. The paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each matrix converter fed direct torque control method by analyzing the experimental reported results.

The next paper titled “Sliding Window Based Support Vector Machine System for Classification of Breast Cancer Using Histopathological Microscopic Images” is about automatic classification of breast cancer type where local binary pattern based features are used with a proposed sliding window technique. An SVM classifier is used to classify each image into benign and malignant for which results are presented and discussed.

In “A Low-Cost Compact Low-Pass Filtering Power Divider Based on Elliptic Function with Wide Attenuation Band,” the authors present the design of a microstrip filtering power divider with low pass and wideband harmonic suppression characteristics. The key design features are explained. The performance of the design in simulation study and in measurements from fabricated device are compared to draw inferences.

The following paper on “Design and Experimental Evaluation of a Proximity Coupled Transparent Patch Antenna for WLAN” gives the design of a compact, low profile transparent micro-strip patch antenna for 4.9 GHz operation. It is developed on a soda lime glass substrate with fluorine doped tin oxide conductive layers. Theoretical analysis is presented along with performance studies of fabricated antenna.

The next paper “Classification of Complete Myocardial Infarction using Rule-Based Rough Set-Methods and Rough set Explorer System” presents a diagnosis system for the detection and classification of five types of myocardial infarction disease from multi-lead ECG signal recordings. The robustness of the classifier is presented using cross-validation experiments and the performance comparisons with other existing methods are discussed in the paper.

The next paper titled “Dynamic Simulation Research of Hydro-Mechanical CVT” presents the study of the aspects of dynamic characteristics of hydro-mechanical continuously variable transmission (CVT) with comparisons between theoretical analysis results and simulation studies. Conclusions are drawn from the study for using it as reference for structure optimization requirements.

The following paper on “Study of Resistive SFCL and UPFC for Transient Behavior Enhancement of Multi-Machine Power System,” presents the study of combined utilization of resistive-type superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) as well as a unified power flow controller (UPFC) for the purpose of improving the transient stability of a multi-machine power system. The paper presents related modelling and control study. The simulation study leads to several insights and conclusions for using SFCL and UPFC in combined form.

The paper on “Novel Soft-Start Technique for Grid Integration of LCL-filtered Inverters” presents a technique to limit the inrush current in power electronic converters while simultaneously reducing the synchronization time. The paper presents the analysis of the design to achieve this and is supported through simulation studies and experiment results.

In “A Microstrip Coupled Cylindrical Dielectric Resonator as a Displacement Sensor,” the numerical and experimental studies of the use of a cylindrical dielectric resonator (DR) as a displacement sensor in the millimetre spectrum range are presented. The authors demonstrate through numerical studies that the sensitivity and the linearity of the displacement sensing depend significantly on the dielectric constant of the DR. Experiment results are presented to support the analysis and numerical studies.

The paper titled “Effect of Microelectrode Recording in Accurate Targeting STN with High Frequency DBS in Parkinson Disease” investigates the hypothesis whether deep brain stimulation (DBS) and innocuous microelectrodes saves sub-thalamic nuclei (STN) neurons and restores motor function. A Principal-component (PC) based tracking method to quantify the efficacy of DBS is used. Analysis studies on patient data are given for drawing inferences.

The paper on “Backstepping Linear Quadratic Gaussian Controller Design for Balancing an Inverted Pendulum” presents a Backstepping Linear Quadratic Gaussian Controller (BLQGC) based on the Lyapunov function to control the cart position and angular displacement of an inverted pendulum. The demonstration of enhanced control performance of BLQGC is done by comparative analysis with optimal PID control, Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) control, and other robust control techniques from existing literature.

The next paper on “A Holistic Experimental Static Bias Point Identification Method for Low Power Wireless RF Amplifier” presents an experimental study to identify the optimum static gate bias for RF power amplifier operating at 1900 MHz band. The amplifier is designed for low complexity, high efficiency, and low power base stations with less than 1W at output load. The paper reports the measured results and presents discussion on the optimum gate bias condition achieved.

In “Integer Codes Correcting Burst Asymmetric Errors within a Byte,” the authors present two types of integer codes that are redundancy efficient, for the purpose of correcting burst asymmetric errors within a byte. It is reported that for data lengths of up to 4096 bits, the codes use up to two check-bits less than competing burst asymmetric error correcting codes. The paper also discusses other advantages of the codes.

The following paper titled “Optimal Resource Utilization in a Multi-Microgrid Network for Tamil Nadu State in India” presents an approach towards energy management system that caters to various situations that may arise in a grid-connected multi-microgrid network during the scheduling of power exchange. A multi-agent control system is described and implemented to facilitate information exchange in a multi-microgrid network for a deregulated market framework. Results are presented to justify the feasibility of grid connected multi-microgrid network with Micro Grid Central Controller (MGCG) decisions. Discussion related to practical deployment in test microgrids is also presented.

The paper titled “Adaptive type-2 Fuzzy Control for Regulation of Glucose Level in Type 1 Diabetes” presents an adaptive fuzzy controller to regulate the glucose level in type-1 diabetic patients. The basis is to estimate the dynamics of the glucose-insulin by type-2 fuzzy systems and adjust the parameters based on the adaptation laws obtained from the Lyapunov stability analysis. The performance of the control scheme is presented and compared with other techniques to draw inferences.

In “Fuzzy Static Output Feedback Control for Discrete-time Nonlinear Time-varying Delay Systems in a Network Environment” the authors present the study of the problem of fuzzy output control of discrete-time nonlinear systems with immeasurable state variables, time-varying delay and data packet dropout. The existence condition of fuzzy static output feedback controller is shown. The paper presents the study with simulation example from which inferences about the efficacy of the method are made.

The next paper on “Compact Single Feed Dual Band Microstrip Patch Antenna with Adjustable Dual Circular Polarization” presents the design of a dual-band, half E-shaped microstrip patch antenna (HEMSPA) with dual sense polarization that covers two different frequency bands and radiates with left hand circular polarization (LHCP) and right hand circular polarization (RHCP) at lower and upper frequency bands, respectively. The results of simulation study and measurements from experiments are used to draw inferences regarding its suitability for wireless communication system applications.

The paper titled “Design of Asymmetrical Antenna Using Slotted Mirror Image Ground Aperture Coupling for Multiband Application” presents the design of a broadband aperture coupled asymmetrical fractal tree shaped microstrip antenna with mirror image ground for coupling. It is reported that the design leads to an increase in the bandwidth of the antennas. The design is proposed for multiband applications and covers the 2.5-2.69 GHz and UWB band of 3.1-10.6 GHz. The simulation study of the design is compared with measurements with the fabricated antenna.

In the paper on “Capacitive coupled Frequency Independent Dielectric Resonator Antenna Array for X-band Applications,” the authors present the design of a capacitive coupled Dielectric Resonator Antenna (DRA) array based on log periodic technique and report its experimental study for X -band applications. The array design is realized and measurements of the fabricated antenna array are presented.

The following paper on “A Novel Differential Voltage Current Conveyor (DVCC) based Instrumentation Amplifier” presents the design of an instrumentation amplifier (IA) that exhibits all modes including voltage, current, transadmittance and transimpedance modes. The design provides high bandwidth range for differential gain and common mode rejection ratio. The simulation study using PSPICE and experimental validation with off-the-shelf components is reported in the paper.

The paper on “Phase Locked Loop System with SIW based Bandpass Filter for D-band Microwave Interferometer” presents the design of a low phase-noise stable signal generator for a D-band microwave interferometer application used in the fusion plasma diagnostics. PLL frequencies of 2.3 GHz and 2.333 GHz are upconverted to 6.9 GHz and 7 GHz. The design of the overall system is studied in simulation and realized in hardware. The performance from simulations and measurements are reported to draw inferences.

The next paper titled “Pulmonary Nodule Detection in CT Images using Optimal Multilevel Thresholds and Rule-based Filtering” presents a method for the early detection of lung nodules in computed tomography images that can assist radiologists in locating the suspected nodules. The algorithm is studied for its performance that is compared with other methods from the literature.

In the paper “Maximum Exact Matches for High Throughput Genome Subsequence Assembly,” the authors present a method that utilizes the MapReduce program while finding and mapping between genome sub-sequences using parallel suffix and prefix index structure. The technique aligns fragments according to the reference genome. Fragment sub-sequences are matched with the genome to identify the probable matching locations that are then analyzed for complete matches. The performance of the method is presented and discussed in the paper.

The next paper on “LDPC Codes and Digital Forensics - A Perspective Approach” presents the problem of statistical inferencing in digital forensics domain and relates it to techniques from communications such as low density parity check codes, continuous wavelet transform etc. The paper supports the theoretical basis with respect to camera verification and copy-move forgery detection in case of digital image forensics.

The following paper on “Computational Investigation of Quantum Transport to design Single-Strand DNA Logic Gate using Silicon Carbide Nanotube Electrode” presents the study of quantum scattering transmission property of single strand DNA based logic device using Silicon Carbide nanotube as electrodes at room temperature. The single strand DNA nano logic circuit exhibits high tunneling current in forward and reverse bias conditions. The potential utility of the model for bio-inspired logic circuits is discussed in the paper.

The paper titled “Assessment of Scale Invariance Changes in Heart Rate Signal during Postural Shift” presents a study of heart rate signal to assess the presence of scale-invariance property to classify the scaling factor changes during postural shift from supine to standing. It is reported that the scaling factor is invariant with respect to scale size. The potential of this work is discussed in terms of obtaining information about heart instability in the paper.

In the paper on “A Complete Detection and Mitigation Framework to Protect a Network from DDoS Attacks,” a framework for the detection and mitigation of different types of commonly seen deadly DDoS attacks is presented. It assumes bi-directional traffic information at an edge router. The paper presents experiments to demonstrate the system and also discusses a packet marking scheme to defend against spoofing based DDoS attacks.

The next paper “Performance Analysis of a Selection Combining System that uses Minimal Interference Algorithm” presents an algorithm to select a lowest interference branch in selection combining communications receiver. The paper gives closed-form expressions for the joint PDF of desired signal and interference at the output and PDF of instantaneous signal-to-interference ratio at the output. The system performance parameters are provided and compared with previous algorithm for the analysed system.

The paper on “Design of Flow Transmitter using a Capacitive type Sensor” presents the design of a capacitive type rotameter sensor that is used to indicate flow rate. The change in capacitance is used to measure the flow rate. The paper gives the analysis of performance of the sensor.

The paper on “Review of Set Theoretic Approaches to Magnetic Resonance Brain Image Segmentation” presents a review of the various set theoretic approaches to the complex problem of magnetic resonance brain image segmentation that addresses issues of artifacts and noise. These include k-means, fuzzy c-means, rough c-means, intuitionistic fuzzy c-means and hybrid clustering algorithms to extract the brain tissues from MR brain images. The various methods are categorized and presented in the paper.

In the paper “Super-Resolution Time Domain Reflectometry Method for Microwave Imaging System Applications,” the authors present a method for accurately modelling microstrip discontinuities based on pulse shaping modulation. An alternative excitation signal is studied to address the challenges faced in conventional reflectometry based on Gaussian pulse excitation. The paper presents a simulation study to infer the potential of the method.

The next paper titled “An Automated Algorithm to Extract Time Plane Features from the PPG Signal and its Derivatives for Personal Health Monitoring Application” presents an algorithm for the accurate detection of characteristic points from the Photoplethysmogram (PPG) signal and its derivatives that is commonly used in health monitoring devices for the automatic assessment of cardiovascular parameters. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated on standard database and compared with existing methods to bring out the efficacy of the proposed algorithm.

The following paper on “Multi-Band Dual Polarized Variations of Modified Circular Microstrip Antennas” presents a study that provides an insight into the functioning of a multi-band dual polarized antenna with reference to a variation of slot cut circular microstrip antenna. The functioning of multi-band antenna in terms of patch modes is explained and it will serve as a tutorial for analyzing similar multi-band dual polarized configurations.

The paper titled “A Container-based Technique to Improve Virtual Machine Migration in Cloud Computing” presents an experimental setup and method to implement and evaluate the performance of a container-based migration technique for cloud computing. The performance is compared with pre-copy Virtual Machine migration scheme. A wide variety of benchmarks are executed such as web server, CPU-intensive, disk I/O and database for testing general applicability.

The next paper on “Robust L₂ - L_∞ Controller Design of a Class of Uncertain Stochastic Systems with Wiener Process Disturbances” presents a study of the optimal L₂ - L_∞ controller design problem of a class of uncertain stochastic systems with Wiener process disturbances. Simulation results are given to demonstrate the validity of the proposed approach.

In “Coherent Linear Detection of Slow Fluctuating Radar Targets in a K-Distributed Clutter,” the authors give a method for detecting radar targets in sea clutter by solving the composite hypothesis testing problem for the quasi-optimum detector. The paper provides a practical method for the implementation of a detector to reduce mathematical computations. It provides simulation studies to demonstrate the performance of the proposed model and draw inferences.

The next paper on “On Secure QoS-based NOMA Networks with Multiple Antennas and Eavesdroppers over Nakagami-m Fading” presents the study of physical layer security of a downlink multi-input single-output (MISO) non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) system. The transmit antenna selection (TAS) scheme, users' quality of service (QoS) requirements, Nakagami-m fading channel, and user selection solution are considered for secure NOMA transmission. The paper presents closed -form expressions of secrecy outage probability for selected LUs and overall system. The theoretical results are compared with by Monte-Carlo simulations. Finally, the paper also compares the proposed communication protocol with the conventional protocol in terms of secrecy performance.

The paper on “An Efficient Scheduling for Fast Calibration of Digital Beamforming Active Phased Array Radar” presents the design of a 40-channel digital beamforming transceiver with wave-guide slot array antenna used in S-Band phased array radar. Each slot array antenna uses a Transmit and Receive Module (TRM), RF to IF downconverter, high-speed Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) for calibration, and Digital Beamformer. The performance of the scheduler for fast calibration is presented in the paper.

The next paper titled “An Intelligent and Power Efficient Biomedical Sensor Node for Wireless Cardiovascular Health Monitoring” presents the work on development of a biomedical sensor node (BSN) for short range monitoring of static cardiovascular patients. It describes the development of a hybrid routing algorithm to address the condition of intermediate node(s) failure condition and a method for reliable packet delivery ratio and efficient use of the BSN’s battery power. The paper presents a simulation study of performance of the developed system and its comparison with other wireless sensor networks for biomedical health monitoring.

The paper “A Machine Learning Approach for Quantifying the Design Error Propagation in Safety Critical Software System” presents a method to analyze error propagation in safety critical software systems. The migration of design defects is quantified from beginning to multiple states through Hidden Markov Model process that supports the behavior of the errors during interaction with the subsystems. The approach is expected to improve the analysis of error propagation.

In the paper on “A Training-free Approach for Generic Object Detection” the authors present a method for generic object detection using single query image to find and locate visually similar objects from target images. The method uses predefined landmark points from the query image that improves performance of detection. The paper also discusses some methods for selection of useful descriptors from the set of all descriptors of the test image to reduce computational expense during feature matching. The proposed method is tested on standard database to study the detection performance.

The following paper titled “An Isolation Enhanced, Printed, Low-profile UWB-MIMO Antenna with Unique Dual Band-notching features for WLAN and WiMAX” presents the design of a low-profile, printed, Ultra-Wideband (UWB), Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) antenna with dual band-notching feature to selectively eliminate interferences from the WLAN and WiMAX bands. The paper presents simulation and measured results to infer the efficacy of the design for communications applications.

The next paper on “Directivity Enhancement of a Circular Microstrip Antenna with Shorting Post” presents a technique of loading shorting posts on the patch to enhance the directivity of a circular microstrip antenna (CMSA). A systematic analysis of performance of CMSA at a lower order mode, fundamental mode and higher order mode frequencies with loading of shorting posts is presented. It is shown that bandwidth enhancement compared to that of a conventional CMSA is obtained. The paper presents simulated results which are compared with experimentally measured results for conventional and shorted CSMA and inferences are presented from the study.

In the paper on “Segmenting Brain Tumor Regions with Fuzzy Integrated Active Contours,” the authors present a segmentation algorithm for identifying brain tumor regions using the fuzzy integrated active contour model. The paper presents results of detection performance on standard database to infer the efficacy of the algorithm.

In “Multilinear Principal Component Analysis with SVM for Disease Diagnosis on Big Data,” the authors present a rule mining technique to address the problem of mining vast amount of medical data. The presented algorithm in conjunction with SVM classifier is compared with other conventional methods such as Principal Component Analysis, Independent Component Analysis paired with NN or SVM classifiers to bring out the efficacy of the proposed algorithm.

The following paper on “Heat Transfer of Gas Flow through Microchannels using Extended Navier Stokes Equations” presents the modelling of temperature profile of hydrodynamically fully developed, laminar, non-isothermal and incompressible gas flow through rectangular micro channels using Extended Navier Stoke’s Equation. A semi-analytic solution is given, and results are compared with measurement data to infer about the efficacy of the model.

The paper titled “Fabrication of a WO₃ Conductometric Activated Thin Film Sensor for Resistance-to-frequency Conversion-based Sensing Application,” presents the design of an ethanol detection system that has been realized along with a signal conditioning circuit where a timing resistance of a 555 timer is derived from a WO₃ based thin film sensor. The design is economical, and the accuracy is studied and presented in the paper.

The next paper “An Area Efficient Sub-threshold Voltage Level Shifter Using Modified Wilson Current Mirror for Low Power Applications,” presents a technique for implementing low-power area efficient sub-threshold voltage level shifter circuit consisting of 9 transistors and operating till 100 MHz input frequency. The paper gives CAD tool-based simulation study of the design for TSMC 180nm technology and its comparison with other state-of-the-art designs. Inferences of specifications are drawn from the comparison study.

In the paper on “Performance Analysis of ANN Based three-phase four-wire Shunt Active Power Filter for Harmonic Mitigation under Distorted Supply Voltage Conditions,” the authors present the design and implementation aspects of three phase four wire shunt active power filter (SAPF). An artificial neural network controller is used to regulate DC link voltage and allows the controller to handle high nonlinearity and uncertainty in a non-linear system. The paper presents simulation study of the design and measurement results to draw inferences about the efficacy of the design.

The following paper titled “Hybrid Feedback-Feedforward Fuzzy Control of PEM Fuel Cell Air Feed System with Electromagnetic Field Optimization,” addresses the problem of optimal air feed control of a PEM fuel cell system to adjust the oxygen excess ratio at required reference value. A controller design is given that combines fuzzy feedback and fuzzy feedforward to eliminate the effect of the disturbance. An evolutionary optimization algorithm based on electromagnetic field optimization is used in simulation study. The paper presents the performance including transient response and regulation of the oxygen excess ratio.

The paper on “Extraction and Analysis of Gate Leakage Current Mechanism in Silicon Carbide (SiC) MIS Capacitors” addresses the problem of charge retention time and high-temperature operation of Silicon Carbide (SiC) flash memory devices. Conduction mechanisms contributing to gate leakage current in SiC MIS capacitors with different gate dielectric are extracted for the entire range of the gate electric field. The sequence of mechanisms contributing to gate leakage current from low electric field to high electric field are reported for various conditions and inferences are drawn in the paper.

The following paper titled “Dielectric Free Wide Scan UWB Low Cross-Pol Metallic Vivaldi Antenna for Active Phased Array Radars” presents the design of an ultra-wideband (UWB), wide beamwidth (HPBW), low cross polarized (x-pol) metallic Vivaldi antenna structure with slotline-to-coax-balun feed. FEM analysis study is presented along with measured parameters from a realization to draw inferences about the efficacy of the design.

The paper on “An Improved Method for Automated Identification of Hard Exudates in Diabetic Retinopathy Disease” presents a mathematical morphology-based image processing technique to identify Hard Exudates in retinal images. The efficacy of the method is demonstrated for noisy and low contrast retinal images. The study on hospital images is presented for detection performance and comments are made on the efficacy for screening applications.

In “A Dual-Band High Efficiency Class-F GaN HEMT Power Amplifier For Wireless Communication,” the authors present the design of a class-F high-efficiency GaN power amplifier (PA) for concurrent dual-band operation at 1.84 GHz and 3.5 GHz frequencies. A dual-band bandpass filter with 4-sections stepped impedance resonators (SIRs) rejects the second and third harmonics in the dual-band and helps improve efficiency of the PA.

The following paper titled “Bi-dimensional Empirical Mode Decomposition based Contrast Enhancement Technique for UAV Thermal Images” presents a contrast enhancement technique for low contrast thermal images recorded by UAVs based on bi-dimensional empirical mode decomposition (BEMD). The authors compare the performance of the technique using quantitative and visual quality measures with standard histogram equalization, dynamic range partitioning and wavelet-based enhancement methods to draw inferences about the usefulness of the technique.

The paper on “Genetic Syndrome Identification: An Image Processing Approach” presents a study of image-based screening for dysmorphic children which uses basic concept of symmetry and geometry of human face. Frontal face images are used to facilitate syndrome identification. Performance of different classifier architectures are reported in the study and compared in terms of classification accuracy.

The next paper titled “Empirical Drain Current Model of Graphene FET for Application as a Circuit Simulation Tool,” presents an empirical model of dual gate graphene field effect transistor (GFET). Mathematical expressions for different variables are presented. The simulation of the model is compared with experimental data. The model has been implemented in Verilog-A and verified for a voltage amplifier in SPICE and inferences of the model are made from the study.

The following paper on “Optimization of Dual-K Gate Dielectric and Dual Gate Heterojunction SOI FinFET at 14nm Gate Length” presents a method that combines Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Genetic Algorithm (GA) to optimize the structure of 14nm Dual Gate Material Dual Gate Dielectric Material Heterojunction Silicon On Insulator (SOI) FinFET. A suitable training dataset has been created for training the ANN. Based on the study, the authors obtain only small difference in the ANN-GA optimized parameters and TCAD simulated performance parameters.

In “Quantitative Analysis of MEMS Piezoresistive Pressure Sensors Based on Wide Band gap Materials,” the authors report FEM simulation study to assess the response of pressure sensors using wide band gap materials such as silicon carbide and diamond that are considered more suitable to silicon for high operating temperatures. The authors compare sensor response with that obtained for a single crystal or polycrystalline piezo resistor-based silicon pressure sensor. Several conclusions are inferred from the study and reported in the paper.

The following paper “Optimized Design of Mini-grid System for Hilly Region” presents an optimized mini-grid structure for the interconnection of 9 micro/mini hydro power plants (MHPs) and load sub-stations in the hilly regions of India. A genetic algorithm (GA) based optimization scheme is used for the task and simulation study-based performance is reported.

The next paper titled “Influence of the Flexure Position and a Thick Gold Film on the Performance of Beam-Mass Structures” presents the design of a miniaturized piezoresistive accelerometer with high magnitude of prime-axis signal and a very low cross-axis signal. The design is fabricated, and experimental results are reported and compared with those of other structures.

The following paper on “Temperature-dependent Electrical Characterization of Single and Dual-gate Flexible Carbon Nanotube Thin Film Transistors,” presents the electrical characteristics of fabricated carbon nanotube thin film transistors (CNTTFTs). Several observations comparing dual-gate and single-gate flexible CNTTFTs are made from measurements and inferences are drawn from the characterization studies.

In the paper “Fin Angle Variation Oriented Threshold Voltage Model for a FDSOI FinFET,” authors present a quantitative understanding of mismatch in FinFET architecture and how it can be improved by including quantum mechanical effects that contribute to threshold voltage mismatch. The paper presents an optimized threshold voltage equation including the effects of quantum mechanism and channel reduction. Simulation study is reported to support the analytical work.

In the next paper on “Performance and Power Optimization for Intercalation Doped MLGNR Interconnects,” the authors present a method for the optimization of thickness of AsF₅ intercalation doped, Multilayer Graphene Nanoribbon (MLGNR) interconnects by minimizing various performance and power metrics such as crosstalk induced signal transmission delay, noise parameters, Noise-delay product, Energy-delay product, Power-delay product and Noise bandwidth ratio. The paper presents simulation study and infer that global level MLGNR interconnects can be suitably scaled whereas, intermediate level interconnects have adverse effects on scaling.

The following paper titled “Fractional Wavelet Transform based PAPR Reduction Schemes in Multicarrier Modulation System” presents a method to improve the performance of multicarrier transmission system with reduction of peak to average power ratio (PAPR). It is done by reconstructing the Fourier based OFDM block with fractional wavelet transform (FrWT). The reduction of PAPR is compared with other methods and overall performance of FrWT-OFDM is analyzed and compared with BER plots in the paper.

The next paper on “Tsalli’s Entropy-based Segmentation Method for Accurate Pigmented Skin Lesion Identification” is about segmentation of diseased regions. The authors present entropy-based methods for this purpose and also present the study of performance state-of-the-art segmentation techniques. Comparisons are made and inferences are drawn regarding the efficacy of segmentation algorithms from the various methods.

In “Sliding Mode Controller Design Using Fuzzy Sliding Surface for Flexible Joint Manipulator” authors consider sliding mode control that is used to overcome nonlinear and parametric uncertainties of flexible joint robot manipulators. The paper presents the design of a robust controller for flexible joint manipulator using time-varying sliding surface. The efficacy of the control algorithm in the presence of disturbances is studied and reported in the paper. Other inferences regarding sliding mode control use are also reported in the paper.

The paper on “Optimal Synthesis of Concentric Circular Antenna Arrays Using Political Optimizer” presents the study of a socio-inspired meta-heuristic method, namely the Political Optimizer (PO) to improve radiation properties of concentric circular antenna arrays (CCAAs) in the far field. The results may be useful for wireless communications of smart grids and in IoT. The inter-element spacing, and shading coefficients of array elements obtained by the optimization method are compared with those designed using other optimization methods and conclusions are drawn from the comparative study.

In the paper on “Adaptive Moth Flame Optimization-based Load Shifting Technique for Demand side Management in Smart Grid”, the authors have presented implementation of demand-side management (DSM) techniques in smart grid systems. The study emphasizes the modeling of DSM utilizing a day-ahead load shifting approach as a minimization problem. The DSM is modeled as an optimization problem whose solution is attained through a nature-based adaptive moth flame (AMF) technique. The formulated work has been tested on three demand zones: residential, commercial, and industrial, with diverse controllable loads. A comparison of solutions based on reduced peak demand and operational costs is undertaken with the proposed AMF optimization algorithm. Finally, it is shown that the DSM technique based on the AMF technique exhibits better savings than the multi-agent and evolutionary approach in the residential and commercial sectors. It has also been mentioned that the particle swarm technique proves a better alternative than the proposed technique in achieving cost savings.

Editor-in-Chief

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 2018-2021. 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 modelling, millimetre and sub-millimetre wave IC design, body area networks, flexible and wearable electronics, medical applications of sub-terahertz waves and reconfigurable microwave circuits including miniaturized antennas. Successfully completed 38 major sponsored projects, 52 consultancy projects and 61 technology development projects. He has authored/co-authored 546 research papers, 18 state-of-the art books, 4 book chapters and 2 e-books. He holds 25 patents, 6 copyrights and one Trademark. He has guided 26 PhD theses and more than 120 master’s thesis. 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. Email: [email protected]