latest trendy: November 2007

All Projects: 137 found

ITWF: Collaboration Through Agile Software Development Practices: A Means for Improvement in Quality & Retention of IT Worker
Laurie A. Williams, Mladen A. Vouk, Jason A. Osborne, Winser E. Alexander, Sarah B. Berenson
07/15/03 - 06/30/08

We propose to conduct a meeting of the principal investigators (PIs) and Co-PIs of the Information Technology Workforce program (ITWF). There are about 50 projects funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the fiscal years 2000-2004 that are still current. One person, preferably the PI, from each of the 50 projects will be invited to attend the meeting. It is estimated that 70 PIs will attend the conference and will receive support for airfare, hotel, meals, and conference registration. In addition, two NSF representatives, 2 speakers, and 10-12 additional participants such as students helping with the conference and local PIs would also attend the meeting/meals.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Load Modeling and State Estimation Methods for Power Distribution Systems
Mesut E. Baran
08/08/07 - 08/07/08

Effective management of distribution systems requires analysis tools that can estimate the state of the system (the operating condition). This project aims at development of two new analysis tools for this purpose. The main tool is the state estimator that will use the historical data and the real-time data to estimate the state of the system which is the voltages at all the nodes of a distribution feeder. The second tool will be a load estimator which will characterize the loads based on limited customer load data to be obtained from automated meter readers.

This project is sponsored by EnerNex Corporation.

CAREER: Low Dimension Column III-Nitride (III-N) Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) Structures for Terahertz and Gigascale Electronics
Douglas W. Barlage
04/01/06 - 03/31/08

CAREER: Low Dimension Column III-Nitride (III-N) Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) Structures for Terahertz and Gigascale Electronics This proposal is designed to study a recently identified compatible oxide on the column III-Nitride (III-N) material system and to use this material system to address the scientific challenge of electronic devices suitable for gigascale integration as well as terahertz performance. The fully successful research program will provide the required materials elements and techniques to demonstrate a suite of novel devices for gigascale integration. Complimentary work towards the demonstration of systems requiring terahertz and sub millimeter-wave functional performance will enable multiple levels of scientific research including unachieved biological and medical diagnostic equipment. The first research objective of this program proposal is to fully take advantage of a recent discovery of an oxide with the properties of an unpinned interface on the III-N semiconductor material system and produce a first of its kind Gallium Nitride (GaN) Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET). The demonstrated capability will allow scaling to sub 10nm dimensions of a GaN transistor capable of cut-off frequencies in excess of 1THz. The second research effort will focus on providing heterogeneous materials in the MOSFET source-drain region. Simulations indicate that this will enable the demonstration of a GaN transistor capable of low voltage operation. The successful experimental confirmation will demonstrate that GaN is capable of nMOS and pMOS performance and this known high voltage material will be suitable for the lowest power classical charge controlled device suitable for giga-scale levels of integration. Technical Merit: Beyond demonstration of the elements for the ultimate low power device for gigascale integration, this proposal will aid the PI?s efforts in leveraging Gallium Nitride technology for mm-wave and THz electronics sources and sensors. The proposed device will fully take advantage of the techniques and novel device architectures developed in the silicon industry such as metal gate and high?K with raised source-drain on fully depleted silicon on insulator, and apply it the emerging III-N material systems to create a non-silicon CMOS technology with benchmark setting performance. The wide band-gap of GaN makes it especially suited for scaling to small dimensions because of the large energy barrier it provides between the source and drain. Recently demonstrated selective source-drain re-growth enable the full potential of GaN for MOSFET applications. The anticipated final limit of this approach will reach gate lengths of 3nm with cutoff frequencies that approach 2THz. The secondary, but perhaps more compelling result of a successful research program is the production of a low to moderate cost enabling electronics technology using III-N MOSFETs for use in mm-wave and THz applications for affordable biomedical sensor systems, communications systems and homeland security systems. Broader Impacts: Several of the opportunities that will be explored as a result of this proposal are outlined as part of an existing comprehensive, synergistic research and education program in high frequency electronic devices. To bring these concepts to the general public a program suitable for middle school students tentatively titled RECS (Robust Electronic Communication Systems) will bring key concepts involving experimental design and wireless communication systems to the middle school and high school level. Existing relationships with the 4-H extension service will be utilized to bring electronic devices to the attention of disadvantage middle school and high school students and further the existing efforts to bring diversity to the graduate education program. 4-H is chosen because it has been most successful in largely under funded urban and rural areas. Internet based distribution networks will be used for maximum distribution of this education module to a national audie

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Dilute Magnetic Semiconductor Devices Based on Fermi Level Engineering
Nadia A. El-Masry, Salah M. Bedair
10/01/07 - 02/29/08

For the past forty years, device processing has relied upon electric charge as state variables. Spin states and controlled magnetic properties can offer an alternative that will lead to memory, logic and novel opto-electronic devices. Dilute Magnetic Semiconductors (DMS), as a source of aligned spin states, can be part of several functional electric device structures allowing controlled magnetic and electronic properties in a single device structure. Recently several spin electronic devices have been demonstrated using GaMnAs with cryogenic operating temperature thus limiting their potential applications. However, in spite of the intense efforts world wide, room temperature operation seems to be fading away. The proposed activities will demonstrate prototype optoelectronic devices operating at room temperature based on GaMnN material system.

This project is sponsored by Army Research Office.

Strain and Quantum Dots Manipulation in Nitride Compounds for Opto-Electronic Devices
Salah M. Bedair, Nadia A. El-Masry
10/01/04 - 09/30/07

Recently, the magnetic properties of Dilute magnetic Semiconductors (DMS), mainly GaMnAs and InMnAs were controlled by an electric field at cryogenic temperatures. The goal of the proposed research is to develop methods for the electrical control of ferromagnetism in DMS at room temperature, mainly GaMnN thin films.

This project is sponsored by US Army.

STATCOM Controller Design and System Performance as a FACTS Device
Subhashish Bhattacharya
07/01/07 - 12/31/07

This project addresses all aspects of STATCOM control and evaluates its performance under various power system conditions. Reliable and satisfactory operation of STATCOM under system faults is imperative and when its reactive power support is required the most. The STATCOM controller design and its system level performance evaluation by simulation and hardware model will be verified. Converter aspects will also be investigated.

This project is sponsored by Hyosung Corporation.

Carbon Nanostructures and Wide Bandgap Semiconductors for Vacuum Thermionic Energy Conversion
Robert J. Nemanich, Griff L. Bilbro, Robert F. Davis, Zlatko Sitar
05/21/03 - 11/30/07

Thermionic energy conversion is typically achieved through the combination of a hot electron emitter (cathode) with a somewhat cooler collector (anode). The NCSU program in this option period of the TEC MURI will involve two projects. The first project will work towards the development of thermionic energy conversion based on thermionic emission from low work function n-type diamond semiconductor emitters. The second project will focus on the development and optimization of a high-growth rate process for growth of large area HOD films on Si, thermal, structural, and electrical characterization of these films, and fabrication of free-standing substrates for TEC applications.

This project is sponsored by University of California - San Cruz.

Architectures and Applications for Three-Dimensional Chip Multiprocessors
Gregory T. Byrd, William R. Davis
05/15/07 - 04/30/10

This project will investigate multi-core architectures, advanced design tools, and highly-parallel applications to exploit three-dimensional integrated circuits (3D ICs) for significantly higher performance and reduced power, compared to traditional two-dimensional multi-core chips. The use of emerging 3D IC technology has primarily focused on shrinking existing designs, achieving shorter wire delays and lower power dissipation without scaling transistor size. This work concentrates on the next-higher level of abstraction: the best mechanisms to integrate multiple processing cores into a power-ful parallel computing engine. The work will perform detailed tradeoff analyses of architectural alter-natives, especially with respect to memory hierarchy and interconnection networks, in order to discover approaches that fully exploit the benefits of 3D integration. This analysis will be performed at both the architectural level and the physical design level, and tools will be developed to allow information and constraints to smoothly flow between levels, enabling new opportunities for collaboration between architects and chip designers. The studies will be driven by highly-parallel applications that require high performance within strict power and thermal constraints, such as video compression and signal processing in embedded environments. The goal is to find the killer apps that will fully exploit highly-connected 3D chip multiprocessors.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

IPA Agreement with Asian Office of Aerospace Research & Development
Jim C Chang
01/31/06 - 01/30/10

IPA Extension for Jim Chang

This project is sponsored by US Air Force.

A Joint Exploratory Study on the Applicability of Networked Control Systems For Critical Multi-variable Systems
Mo-Yuen Chow
08/15/06 - 07/31/08

The advent of low latency computer networking technology has opened a new area in modern process control viz. NCS (Networked Control Systems). The feedback control systems where the control loops are closed through a real-time network are called Networked Control Systems. Low latency communication in modern process control, where networked computers can be used as a replacement for conventional hardwired control, provides a means of improving the reliability and flexibility of process control systems and at the same time reducing the wiring requirement of a plant substantially. This project proposal proposes an exploratory study, which is the intellectual merit of this project, on the applicability of NCS (Networked Control Systems) for process plants like thermal and nuclear power plants and/or chemical reactors. The research group from the North Carolina State University, headed by Prof. Mo-Yuen Chow and the research team from Jadavpur University headed by Dr. Amitava Gupta, shall interact within the scope of this exploratory study with one doctoral student from each side to study the applicability of Networked Control Systems to complex industrial processes. The results of this exploratory study shall identify re-usable technology modules that can be used in the ongoing projects of both the collaborators and pave the way for a future joint R&D project. There would be 2 visits in all -- one from the American side and one from the Indian side. The visits shall involve doctoral students Rachana Gupta (U.S. side) and Monotosh Das (Indian side) and their respective supervisors Prof. Mo-Yuen Chow (U.S. PI) and Dr. Amitava Gupta (Indian PI). The funds requested from NSF will be used to support the airfares for the PI and Rachana Gupta to visit Dr. Amitava Gupta at Jadavpur University, and to support the room and boards for a two-week visit of Dr. Amitava Gupta and Monotosh Das to North Carolina State University. The duration of the proposed project is one year. Most of the work reported in the NCS literature is based on simulation results e.g. TE Benchmark suite and a test on a practical system would be very useful. This project will provide a unique opportunity to test the NCS technology developed in a practical test case ? on the Networked Control Scheme for a 500 MWE Nuclear Power Plant that has the capability of online tuning. (This kind of opportunities are highly unlikely in US.) The scheme would be tested on a simulation environment in collaboration with the Nuclear Power Corporation, Mumbai in order to assess the ability to cope up with different transients. The actual experimentation can provide valuable experimental feedback information to help the PI to advance the NCS technologies, and to bring the technologies one step closer to actual engineering applications, which will substantially benefit the US society. The broader impacts of this project are far reaching to many different industries such as the power sector, manufacturing sector, transportation sector, and education sector. For example: provide a benchmark demonstration for the next generation high dimension process control using NCS to achieve a more effective, more flexible, more economical, more reliable, and safer operations for industries to follow suit.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Biologically Inspired Intelligent Fault Diagnosis for Power Distribution Systems
Mo-Yuen Chow
05/15/03 - 12/31/07

The REU student is expected to: 1. Involve in group research meetings related to the NSF ECS-0245383 project; 2 Assist the Graduate Research Assistant of this project to prepare and produce simulation study on the data mining on the outage database of the power distribution systems; 3. Assist to develop and update the Web of this NSF project for public information disse

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Center of Excellence in the Area of Human and Robotic Structures Technologies for Lunar and Planetary Exploration
Fred R. DeJarnette, Robert T. Nagel, Harvey T. Banks, Ashok Gopalarathnam, Vinod K. Saxena, Gregory D. Buckner, Mohammad Noori, Fuh G. Yuan, Jack R. Edwards, Mo-Yuen Chow
10/01/02 - 09/25/12

No abstract currently available.

This project is sponsored by National Institute of Aerospace.

Intelligent Human-Machine Interface & Control for Highly Automated Chemical Screening Processes
David B. Kaber, Robert A. St. Amant, Mo-Yuen Chow
10/01/04 - 09/30/08

High-throughput testing or screening of chemical agents for toxicity to humans is a rapidly developing international, biotechnology industry. Advanced robots have replaced human operators and direct, manual control of screening processes to promote safe, quick and accurate assessment of chemical hazards and toxics. Although the industry is developing, because of the complexity of such processes and the integrated automation, access to advanced screening systems is limited for new companies and developing countries. In the screening process, the role of the human operator has changed to that of supervisory controller of multiple master robots manning multiple process lines and performing simultaneous experiments. The operator?s task now includes monitoring robot system states, detecting errors, and intervening in process control for failure mode recovery. Operators are under high workload and time stress to properly sequence experiments and to make changes if experiments do not progress as planned. The information requirements for effective performance have expanded dramatically; task workload is now primarily cognitive versus physical; and there is a need to achieve/maintain high levels of situation awareness in dangerous chemical operations. All these changes have had a major affect on operator stress and work health. The goal of this research is to develop intelligent and adaptive automation and interface technologies to support safe and effective distributed operator, network-based management of high time stress and risky chemical hazard screening processes. This is to involve creating advanced control system interfaces that integrate and display process output data adapted to operator concurrent performance needs and functional states. It will also involve creating protocols for long-distance, remote operation of automated screening processes under varying network communication conditions in order to provide access to ?start-up? companies and developing nations with critical screening needs (e.g., anti-terrorism work). The main outcome of the work will be a prototype of the intelligent, adaptive interface with content defined based on cognitive model predictions of operator performance (during various phases of chemical screening). The overall process control system will incorporate unique local control (software) agents to monitor robot system states and manage emergency conditions, as well as software to monitor remote operator functional states. Models of this data will be developed and input into the cognitive model to facilitate effective dynamic interface configuration and remote process control as well as operator workload management. The intellectual merits of this work will include: cognitive task analysis of human interaction with life sciences automation; cognitive modeling of screening process operator performance in multiple robot control; network-based, remote control of screening processes and experimental data analysis under varying communication conditions; and neural-network based classification of operator functional states in screening control (in hard real-time) and prediction of information requirements for effective performance. The main broader impact of the research is the enhancement of safety and effectiveness of high-throughput, chemical agent screening. The research will also provide specialized training for graduate students through faculty development of new course modules, related to the project, integrated in existing computer science, electrical engineering, and industrial engineering curriculums.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Small World Stratification For Power System Fault Diagnosis With Causality
Mo-Yuen Chow, Simon M. Hsiang
09/01/07 - 08/31/10

Small World Stratification for Power System Fault Diagnosis with Causality The objective of this project is to investigate and develop a fault diagnosis with causality methodology for power distribution systems using Small World (SW) strategy and Hierarchical Clustering (HC) technology to substantially improve fault diagnosis accuracy and reasoning. Causality is essential in fault diagnosis, yet it has not been well studied, especially with complex systems. Consider an anecdote of causality (or lack of causality) that ignorant people might think upon hearing a rooster crow, that the sun is rising, where the causal observation is established without sufficient knowledge of local dynamics (i.e., circadian rhythm) and/or global dynamics (i.e., the solar system). Historically, many pandemic, engineering, and socioeconomic disasters were due to erroneous causality. In contrast, identifying proper causality can trigger a major paradigm shift and technological development. For example, in medieval times, people believed that the sun revolved around the earth. After people correctly accepted the causality that the earth revolves around the sun due to gravity, the rebirth of classical learning brought about the renaissance of Europe, just as the development of Newtonian physics set off the industrial revolution. In general, diagnostic causality is easier to identify for a simple system (e.g., the analogy of the sun and the rooster) with humanity?s knowledge and heuristics; while the causality is much more difficult to identify for a complex system (e.g., the analogy of the sun and the earth) even with substantial domain expertise with the complex system. Typical complex systems are large-scale, nonlinear, time-varying, and geographically dispersed with a wide range of dynamic operating conditions with both global and local network features. These systems (e.g., power distribution systems) often face harsh outdoor environments making them distinctly vulnerable to many different kinds of natural disturbances, which can be difficult to analyze and model. Faults are unavoidable and will happen in these systems. It is important to diagnose the faults with proper causality and restore the systems in a timely manner to maintain their vitality. Wrong fault diagnosis with wrong causality will affect subsequent fault management steps, including fault prognosis and fault mitigation, and the consequences can be enormous (e.g., the analogy of the sun and the earth). The project will use power distribution (a typical complex system) as a testbed to facilitate our discussion and to illustrate the effectiveness on the investigation of using Small World (SW) strategy and Hierarchical Clustering (HC) technology for fault diagnosis with causality on complex systems. The intellectual merits of this project are: (1) The proposed work can provide effective and efficient use of available information to give accurate power distribution fault diagnosis and to discover proper fault causality knowledge, which can substantially enhance the subsequent power distribution fault prognosis and mitigation control. (2) The proposed work will provide a general framework from which to evaluate cases with similar symptoms, geographical settings and topological connectivity for the fault diagnosis and will give the context for causality. Not only can the framework be applied to power distribution networks, but it can also be applied to a wide variety of areas, such as power transmission systems, transportation systems, manufacturing systems, healthcare systems, energy systems, homeland security, etc., to encourage breakthrough opportunities and advancements in fault diagnosis technologies and performance improvements. The broader impacts: There are extensive components of integrating research into education in this project, ranging from graduate and undergraduate, to high school students. Various means, including graduate and undergraduate research assistantships, senior design projects, and collaborating with the NCSU ECE K-12

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Time and Data Sensitive Wireless Networked Control Systems
Wenye Wang, Mo-Yuen Chow
09/01/05 - 08/31/08

This is a request for supplemental funding to support extensive stay at an international institute by the PI and her graduate student to gain international research experience and perspective, and to enable closer research interaction between North Carolina State University and Wireless Research Institute at Shanghai Jiaotong University, China

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Advanced Memory Performance Inferencing Technologies
Thomas M. Conte
07/01/05 - 12/31/07

The increasing speed difference between the memory system and the processor is making the memory system performance a limiting factor in overall system performance. Both high performance computing users (e.g., National laboratories) and commercial computing users (e.g., transaction processing) either have or will hit the ?memory wall.? This project seeks to develop tools to allow users to identify and to resolve performance problems due to limitations by memory system. The tools will use performance monitoring hardware to collect memory system performance information to allow code to run at normal speed (e.g. PEBS to get addresses of cache misses). A second goal of this project is to develop enhancements (to GCC) to allow performance data to be mapped back to source code data structures and to locations in the program. This project will also use the collected information to improve dynamic memory allocation, for example, to allocate to avoid cache and TLB conflicts.

This project is sponsored by Red Hat, Inc..

Confidence in Computer Architecture Modeling and Simulation
Thomas M. Conte
09/15/05 - 08/31/08

Over the last decade, there has been an explosion in research into fast simulation of computer architectures. Coupled with this is also research into approximate models of architectures. The majority of this work is either implicitly based on basic statisitical sampling or on stochastic methods. Unfortunately, the explicit connections to random processes and statistics remains to be made. What has resulted is a collection of simulation and modeling techniques that are fast, but of unknown quality. Most of the studies that introduce the new techniques present some empirical evidence that the reduced models are relatively accurate to some more detailed simulation. Knowing that the instruction level parallelism in a program is 3.0 is meaningless if the error is plus or minus 1.5 instructions per second. In natural sciences and many branches of engineering, statistical sampling theory is used to predict the confidence in the simuation methods. It is time to enhance the science used in computer architecture with sampling theory. When possible, this project will adapt sampling theory to predict confidence in reduced models. Architecture presents a unique situation for sampling theory, and new statistical techniques will be developed as needed in this project to rise to the occasion. The principal investigator will extend his students' and his path breaking work a decade ago to the current computer architecture challenges. When appropriate, new techniques will be developed as needed.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Membership in the Center for Efficient, Secure, and Reliable Computing (CEAR), Affiliate Member
Thomas M. Conte
09/01/04 - 08/31/08

The Center for Efficient, Scalable and Reliable Computing researches, designs, and builds computer systems that are Efficient, Scalable and Reliable. Increasingly, these are the key requirements for a wide range of computing systems --- from ASICs to cell phones to corporate servers: efficient in their use of energy, space, and memory; scalable in performance and cost; and reliable in the face of high transaction rates and adverse environments. We address these challenges through research in VLSI design, processor architecture, compilers, operating systems, memory systems, system architecture, and application software. This proposal is for Center membership of one of our industrial partners.

This project is sponsored by Red Hat, Inc..

Techniques for Benchmark Characterization of the EEMBC Benchmark Set
Thomas M. Conte
05/01/06 - 04/30/08

Benchmarking is as much a science as an art, and at times involves a leap of faith for the benchmark consumers. This project focuses on adding science to the art to reduce the need for blind faith via Benchmark Characterization (BC). The key ideas for this process were first published in 1991 by Conte and Hwu, see [1]. Benchmark characterization is the process of finding a set of unique characteristics to classify benchmarks. These characteristics must have two properties: (1) they should be predictive of performance on a wide variety of platforms, and (2) they should allow benchmark consumers to find good proxies for their own applications in the benchmark set. The first goal requires finding just the right characteristics so that the required hardware capacities of the benchmarks are known. The second goal can be satisfied by providing a tool set to consumers so that they may characterize their own applications, and then match those characteristics against the published characteristics of each benchmark. This project will develop a set of benchmark characteristics that meet the two goals of BC. These characteristics will be iterated on and gain approval from members of EEMBC. Once this is completed, this project will characterize the existing EEMBC benchmarks. This project will also develop a tool set so that consumers of EEMBC benchmarks (and for future benchmarks) may characterize their own applications and find good proxies from among the EEMBC benchmarks. In order to present the characteristics, we will develop a generalized processor model.

This project is sponsored by EEMBC.

Techniques for Improving Compiled Code for Embedded Superscalar Processor Pipelines
Thomas M. Conte
02/01/06 - 08/31/07

This project will extend an existing compiler infrastructure for code generation to enhance the parallelism present in embedded code. The focus will be on creating a code generator that is parametric, so that the pipeline can be described separately from the compiler, and presented to the compiler as a database. This will allow proprietary pipeline details to remain trade secrets. It will also permit the compiler to be used in future processor designs to pose "++ " what if" questions regarding pipeline structure.

This project is sponsored by Qualcomm.

Workload Characterization of Multithreaded, Multiprocessor and Clustered Applications
Thomas M. Conte
08/01/07 - 07/31/08

Workload characterization is an integral part of the process of designing and optimizing computer systems. Being able to accurately predict the performance and power of a given system configuration has also become a fundamental decision support technology for provisioning computing and storage resources in a datacenter setting. Simulation technology has not yet scaled to the new challenges posed by the complexity and variability of modern computing systems and workloads. For this reason, HP Labs has invested on execution-driven simulation as a more accurate tool to predict system performance or power. However, even the most advanced execution-based approaches are at least 1-2 orders of magnitude slower than what is needed to simulate full workloads of interesting applications. Hence, it becomes very important to be able to simplify the problem by only simulating the relevant parts of an application. The technology that is responsible for selecting representative parts of an application is commonly referred to as sampling. This project will investigate and develop multithreaded sampling techniques for accelerating simulation approaches.

This project is sponsored by Hewlett-Packard Co..

Exploiting Multiple Antennas in Multiuser Wireless Networks
Huaiyu Dai, Brian L. Hughes
07/01/05 - 06/30/08

This proposal requests supplemental funds to support an undergraduate student, Mr. Alan Graham, to conduct research directly related to the objectives of this NSF-sponsored project. Mr. Graham is an African-American student, who is currently a senior at North Carolina State University pursuing a double major in electrical engineering and computer engineering. Mr. Graham is one of the top students in the senior class and has a very strong record of performance (GPA 4.0) in some of the most demanding courses in mathematics and engineering at NCSU. Mr. Graham began work in February 2007 on a project to investigate interference cancellation in wireless communication systems using a new kind of multiple-antenna system, called a vector antenna. Thus far, most work on interference cancellation has focused on arrays of scalar sensors, each of which measures only one component of the electric or magnetic field. More recently, some studies have considered the use of dual-polarized sensors that measure two components of the electric or magnetic field. However, since the electromagnetic (EM) signal detected at the receiver consists of 6 field components (3 electric and 3 magnetic), most of the information contained in the signal is currently neglected. In principle, an array of vector antennas that can detect or excite all 6 components of the EM field might boost wireless capacity by a factor of 3 over comparable dual-polarized arrays, and by a factor of 6 over comparable scalar-sensor arrays. The use of vector-sensor receivers to estimate the direction of electromagnetic sources in line-of-sight propagation has been extensively investigated; however, the possibility of using these antennas for wireless communication in multipath propagation environments, particularly at the transmitter, has received little attention and is poorly understood.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

WN:Collaboration of Networked Nodes through Belief Propagation: Where Computing Meets Communications
Huaiyu Dai
09/01/07 - 08/31/08

Intellectual Merit: Wireless sensor network is taking an increasingly important role in our life, for which collaboration among sensor nodes is crucial for its success. In anticipated applications, a centralized solution is either not available or infeasible due to resource constraint and application demand. Therefore, cooperative schemes that are distributed, self-organized, scalable, and energy-efficient, are much desired for sensor networks. This project proposes to employ belief propagation (BP) in wireless sensor networks, to provide a systematic and yet flexible framework to facilitate in-network cooperative processing. Belief propagation is a computing algorithm operating on graphical models, while in sensor networks there is a communication graph reflecting connectivity topology. We are interested in the scenario when the computing graph meets the communication graph. On the one hand, belief propagation facilitates distributed computing and inference in sensor networks. On the other hand, the application of belief propagation in wireless sensor networks is subject to severe communication constraints. On addressing this interaction, the fact that sensor networks are application driven brings a new angle into research. Our proposed research comprises the following three main thrusts. 1) Convergence and correctness of the BP algorithm on general graphs, a challenging problem of high impact on its own, will be studied in the context of specific applications. The connection between BP fixed points and stationary points of some constrained minimization problems will also be pursued, and protocol designs will be jointly considered with theoretical study. 2) The influence of communication constraints will be explored with respect to message representation, message error and message scheduling, culminating in a comprehensive study on the tradeoffs among energy efficiency, accuracy, computational complexity, and delay. 3) The synergy of generalized belief propagation (GBP) with sensor networks, an almost brand-new area, will be explored. We will particularly study efficient methods of region partitioning for GBP, which is still more an art than a science. We also propose to study hybrid structures which can combine the advantages of in-network processing and data fusion. Broader Impacts: Though this proposal targets wireless sensor networks, the proposed framework and fundamental research apply largely to general ad hoc networks as well. They can even be extended to virtual scenarios where a set of ?sensors? distributed over the Internet cooperate on a joint task through information exchange. If we think of wireless networks as a new kind of computer systems, belief propagation can serve as an effective programming language for them. The proposed work lies in the interface of networking, communications, and computing, heavily replying on the knowledge in information theory, communication theory, Bayesian inference, graph theory and models, and communication/computation/information complexity. It has the potential to advance the theory and practice of these areas, and contribute to the evolvement of next generation wireless networks. The PI will seek to incorporate material inspired by this work (at an appropriate level) into the undergraduate and graduate curricula at North Carolina State University. Various channels will be utilized to disseminate research findings to industry and the broader public.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

CAREER: Design Methodologies for Three-Dimensional Integrated Circuits
William R. Davis
04/15/07 - 03/31/08

The goal of this 5-year project is to develop the fundamental design methodologies needed to make three-dimensional integrated circuits (3D ICs) a scientifically viable alternative to continued scaling of transistor gate lengths. A fully successful program will provide the models and methods needed to optimize, verify, and experimentally demonstrate high-performance and low-power 3D ICs. The first objective is to research the high-level abstractions needed to optimize energy and delay through memory structure, clock-tree topology, and floorplanning constraints. The second objective is to research methods for thermal verification of 3D ICs with analyses of the prediction error of current methods and new mathematic formulations to overcome the fundamental limitations of simulating heat-flow in 3D IC systems. The third objective is to experiment with these optimization and verification techniques in search of new computing applications with latency and power that cannot be achieved with traditional IC technology. Successful experimental confirmation of these methodologies will consist of fabricated 3D ICs that achieve half of the computational latency and power dissipation of traditional ICs with comparable transistor feature sizes.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

CAREER: Software Thead Integration for Low-Through High-End Embedded Systems
Alexander G. Dean
02/01/02 - 01/31/08

Software thread integration is a compiler technique enhances fine-grain concurrency of generic processors and increases a thread’s instruction-level parallelism. The research simplifies the process of adding extremely fine-grain concurrency real-time tasks (primarily network support) to embedded systems while reducing development and unit costs, component count and overall device size and weight. The research also makes existing and future high-performance processors execute programs faster by using existing instruction-level parallelism resources more efficiently. This enables more sophisticated applications and improves execution performance and power consumption.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

CSR--EHS Rapid Efficient Implementation of Communication Protocols for Embedded Systems
Alexander G. Dean, Mihail L. Sichitiu, Thomas G. Wolcott
08/15/05 - 07/31/08

We propose to develop new methods and a framework to allow users to quickly implement efficient software-based controllers for customized network communication protocols. The wide variety of embedded systems communication requirements leads to numerous different embedded networking protocols -- a single generic solution would lead to excessive inefficiency in performance, cost, power, reliability, code size, and other areas. Automobiles, trucks, trains, elevators, aircraft, ships, security systems, factories, office building, sensor networks, and military vehicles all have varying communications requirements, leading to a variety of communication protocols. Networking protocol implementations using only traditional software methods for scheduling and context switching are often inadequate due to high timing overhead and variability. A dedicated hardware implementation requires the design of an integrated circuit, discrete logic or the use of programmable logic such as FPGA, and it often lacks the flexibility of a software solution. We proposed to develop methods, a toolbox and an associated communication framework to allow users to quickly implement software-based controllers for customized network communication protocols. More specifically, we will provide a complete networking stack featuring several options at each layer in the stack. Users will select specific protocol characteristics, and the tools of the framework will generate (and compile) the code that implements the specific protocol options for the desired application. C17A major component of the proposed work is evaluating the performance of the customized network stack. In the first phase, corresponding to different choices of the end user, the tool will provide an estimation of the performance of the proposed protocol stack: efficiency, delay, throughput, power consumption, expected error rates, etc. Since many performance parameters depend on the particular deployment scenario, we will also design an emulator that will enable an exact evaluation of the performance of the embedded system in the targeted environment. The goal of the performance evaluation component is to allow the designer to make the correct decisions will be made at the early stages in the product development. C2The proposed tool does not specifically target any class of embedded systems; however, we recognize that a solution with less resources will typically be preferrable not only due to monetary cost, but also size, energy and thermal constraints and hence we will seek efficient solutions whenever possible. Therefore, we will use software thread integration to provide efficient concurrency. Our work will allow practitioners to implement optimized protocols, by providing the design and analysis tools that bridge the gap between network and CPU simulation. More importantly, we foresee that a large percentage of the users of our system will be non-specialists. We will specifically provide custom-fit protocols that are needed in many non-communication engineering fields, such that a communication system will be much easier to design and debug. While the proposed tool will be very general and target a broad range of hardware (microcontrollers and transceiver), we will use two sample applications from two such unrelated field as a reality check mechanism. Specifically, we will consider ultrasonic biotelemetry, a powerful new research tool for analyses of movement, habitat utilization, physiological function and behavior of marine organisms as one of such applications of networking in unrelated fields. Furthermore, a structural health monitoring of reinforced bridges using wireless sensor networks will be a second application that we will consider when designing the general purpose networking protocol toolbox. We believe that many non-specialists in unrelated fields, but in need of communication protocols will benefit directly from the results of this project.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

CSR-EHS: Integrated Memory Allocation and Scheduling for Real-Time Embedded Systems
Alexander G. Dean, Eric Rotenberg
08/01/07 - 07/31/09

Real-time embedded systems execute multiple tasks within fixed time-constraints, i.e., deadlines. A large body of work has been developed for formally constructing real-time schedules in which all tasks satisfy their deadline constraints. Traditionally, real-time scheduling abstracts the processor in a gross way, without underlying details. This overly abstract framework is no longer sufficient given the complexity of memory hierarchies in contemporary embedded systems. There are at least two problems. First, there is little support to real-time system designers for transparently managing the memory hiearchy given real-time constraints. Second, by ignoring the memory hierarchy, there is lost opportunity for jointly allocating memory to tasks and scheduling the tasks. Conventional scheduling algorithms may not yield the best performance or power, compared to our new scheduling algorithms influenced by memory constraints.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

On Demand Testbed: Monitoring For Capacity Planning and Performance Optimization
Mihail Devetsikiotis, Ioannis Viniotis
07/01/06 - 06/30/08

We propose to study, analyze and improve the algorithms such as the ones used by the VCL in order to allocate resources to incoming requests, based on past historical data, monitoring of the system (resource) "state" and predictive scheduling. An additional area of crucial interest is the scalability of the design and resources layout in order to allow expansion of the VCL operation across larger geographical areas and large number of locations and campuses.

This project is sponsored by NCSU Center for Advanced Computing & Communication.

Performance and Testing of SIP Over Wireless Mesh Networks
Mihail Devetsikiotis, Mihail L. Sichitiu
01/01/07 - 12/31/07

There seems to be agreement that the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) will be at the core of the future Internet IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). Wireless mesh networks(WMNs) are a relatively new technology offering broadband mobile data communications at a fraction of the cost of conventional technologies. The main challenge we tackle in this project is evaluating and testing the performance of SIP in a WMN environment.

This project is sponsored by Nortel Networks.

Adaptive Transmission and Channel Modeling for Frequency Hopping Communications
Alexandra Duel-Hallen, Hans D. Hallen
06/20/05 - 12/19/07

The objective of the proposed research is to explore adaptive signaling, reception and channel modeling issues for slow frequency hopping (SFH) communications. The SFH systems suffer from performance degradation due to severe time-varying channel impairments, including long- and short-term fading and interference. To improve the bit rate, it is desirable to jointly adapt the transmitted and the received signal to these variations. In practice, such adaptation requires accurate channel estimation and prediction. Moreover, channel modeling that provides insights into the nature of channel impairments is required in the design and validation of adaptive methods. While the PIs have recently demonstrated that reliable adaptive modulation aided by long-range channel prediction (LRP) is feasible for SFH systems with coherent detection, greater gains are desirable for realistic SFH channels. It is proposed to develop more reliable prediction methods to achieve higher spectral efficiency, and to combine the proposed adaptive techniques with mitigation of partial band interference. The proposed algorithms will be validated using the enhanced physical model designed for practical peer-to-peer SFH communications. The proposed research is an interdisciplinary effort in communication theory, physics, and signal processing that encompasses novel physical models, channel prediction and tracking methods, and adaptive signaling algorithms. The interdisciplinary nature of proposed research benefits graduate students involved in the project. The infrastructure for research and education is enriched by incorporating the methods investigated in this research in senior and class projects and by integrating with wireless communications activities at NC State. Validation using measured data and experimental verification of proposed techniques is envisioned using the resources of the Wireless Communications Laboratory and enhanced by collaborations with industry and government labs. The overall objective is to improve efficiency and robustness of mobile radio systems.

This project is sponsored by US Army.

ITR: Adaptive Signaling and MIMO Precoding for Rapidly Time Varying Fading Channels
Alexandra Duel-Hallen
07/15/03 - 12/31/07

This project investigates feasibility of transmitter optimization for rapidly time varying fading channels encountered in wideband mobile radio communication systems. Adaptive transmission combined with long range fading prediction for frequency selective fading channels with antenna arrays is investigated. These methods are utilized in adaptive modulation and coding techniques for multicarrier and multiple antenna systems and in novel precoding methods and joint transmitter/receiver optimization techniques for Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) wideband mobile radio systems. This research contributes to the development and realization of adaptive transmission and precoding methods that are essential in reliable high rate wireless communication.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Collaborative Research: Advanced Small Satellite Technologies Research and Education Center (AS2TREC)
William W. Edmonson
08/01/07 - 07/31/08

The overall objective of this center is a transformation of the space industry from Risk Aversion to Risk Tolerant through on-orbit demonstrations of satellite technologies using primarily, pico and nano-class satellite platforms, although larger mini and micro satellites will be considered. Spacecraft are inherently multidisciplinary systems, and so the center will (i) perform multidisciplinary research in the areas of spacecraft subsystems and (ii) validate the technological advancements resulting from the research through on-orbit flight tests. This letter of intent describes the foundation for a new I/UCRC, with the University of Florida (UF) and North Carolina State University (NCSU) as the center sites, tentatively known as the Advanced Small Satellite Technologies Education and Research Center (AS2TREC). Small satellites are becoming increasing viable solution for mitigating the exorbitant cost and long acquisition times inherent to the current modus operandi of the space industry. The focus of the center is to research, develop, and test on-orbit advanced concepts for transitioning small satellites into a mature technology. In conjunction with the research focus will be an emphasis on educating the next generation of ?rocket scientists,? through the end-to-end hands-on experience that small satellite projects bring about in a K-12 setting. With the creation of the proposed center, numerous and durable partnerships will be forged among industry, government, and academia through common interests from small satellite-based space and earth science to applications of national security. The research focus of the proposed center directly addresses current initiatives in a variety of commercial and governmental institutions: Boeing, Lockheed--Martin, Harris Corporation, Microcosm, United Applied Technologies, Aerospace Corp., Honeywell, Northrop Grumman, DARPA, NASA, NRL, and AFRL. There is a strong interest for participation in the proposed AS2TREC center from several of these organizations based on preliminary discussions.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Flexible Hardware Design Methodology
William W. Edmonson
07/01/07 - 06/30/08

Our proposed research is to determine the flexible architecture and methodology that minimizes system design cost with a just-enough-flexibility strategy. Just-enough-flexibility is a key requirement for defining the correct architecture that combines: the running of multiple applications along with its future versions; multiple applications with required performance and quality level; and known constraints of area, cost and power consumption.

This project is sponsored by NCSU Faculty Research & Professional Development Fund.

Liquid Crystal Polarization Gratings for Photonics Applications
Michael James Escuti
09/01/06 - 08/31/08

This request is to support a talented, first-year, female, PhD student (US citizen) to conduct research that contributes to and compliments the currently funded ECCS NSF grant. This student, Ms. Elena Nicolescu, has been financially supported during (this) her first year in the PhD program by a Teaching-Assistantship offered by the ECE department. This Graduate Research Supplement will enable her to invest fully into PhD research, empower her to expand her minority outreach activities, and provide the support for broader professional training.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Modular Laboratory Experiments on Organic Electronics and Liquid Crystal Displays for Undergraduates
Michael James Escuti
01/01/07 - 01/31/09

SUMMARY: The overall goal of this proposal is the development of a series of laboratory experiments for advanced undergraduate electrical engineering students that give hands-on experience with organic electronic materials and liquid crystal display technology. Inherently modular laboratory experiments are proposed for the fabrication and characterization of four devices: a single-pixel liquid crystal display (LCD), a polymer light-emitting-diode (pLED), a polymer field-effect-transistor (pFET), and an organic photo-voltaics (OPV). We will also design a comprehensive lab manual and identify a low-cost "kit" of materials and equipment necessary for its implementation, in such as way as to be inherently transferable to other universities. "Soft" organic materials are at the forefront of much current research and are the core technology of an increasing number of consumer products available now or in the near future (e.g. displays, lighting, flexible electronics, renewable energy devices). We maintain that soft electronic and photonic devices are some of the most compelling and accessible topics for undergraduates and their fabrication is comparably much simpler than the more traditional solid-state devices. We therefore aim to open this window of opportunity by creating coherent instructional materials that offer the hands-on experience of building and characterizing electronic and photonic devices (with minimal investment). Two independent experts will evaluate the effectiveness of the experiments, along with feedback from student participants. While being initially developed for the PI?s new electrical engineering course at North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC), the complete lab kits will be disseminated in the second year to North Carolina Agricultural & Technology State University (Greensboro, NC). INTELLECTUAL MERIT: The proposed advanced-level undergraduate lab experiments will highlight the operation of four devices (LCD, pLED, pFET, and OPV) by guiding each participant through their actual fabrication and characterization. The hands-on focus will afford an effective reinforcement to the basic concepts of electron and photon transport and emission relevant to all engineers, physicists, and material scientists. Our conceptual approach will be to build on the foundation of traditional education in solid-state semiconductors and address the differences in physical properties, fabrication processes, and device limitations/advantages. The fabrication and characterization rigs will be designed as simple as possible using spin-coating and/or dip-coating techniques. BROADER IMPACT: The proposed experiments compliment traditional engineering curricula by providing flexible modules on organic electronics and liquid crystal displays for an independent course or for piecemeal augmentation for existing courses. Designed from the start to facilitate dissemination (in anticipation of a Phase 2 proposal), as part of this project we will transfer the modules to North Carolina Agricultural & Technology State University (the largest historically black college in NC) in cooperation with Professor Shanthi Iyer to augment their curriculum in organic electronics. The PI will also continue his partnership with the NCSU Science House, and will mentor minority students (9th-12th grades) in the Photonics Leaders and Xplorers programs and lead >40 students/summer in one or more of the proposed lab modules. Support is also requested for a dedicated graduate student to assist in the execution of the project at all levels. Our fundamental hope is that this laboratory will inspire more of our undergraduate students onto graduate-level research after they complete their Bachelor?s degree and even increase the pass-rate on the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam at NCSU by broadly reinforcing many of the core solid-state concepts within electrical engineering.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Career: A Stochastic Approach to the Design of Communication Networks: An Alternative to Fluid Modeling
Do Young Eun
03/01/06 - 02/29/08

The current Internet is the most complicated man-made system in which an enormous degree of largeness coexists with heterogeneity. As the size of the network and the number of concurrent end-users increases, the number of possible states for all users in the network also grows at an exponential rate. The sheer dimension of a space over which those interactions take place severely limits our ability to describe and analyze such a large network. For a large network with many users, the so-called ``fluid'' modeling or ``mean-field'' approach has proven extremely successful and versatile. From a microscopic point of view, each user or flow in a network is subject to network protocols or probabilistic laws that specify how it should evolve depending on the current status of all users. When the network consists of an extremely large number of such users interacting with each other, however, it is impossible to obtain a complete, probabilistic description of the network status because there are so many probabilistic equations to solve. Instead of enumerating all possible interactions among users and the corresponding transitions to their next states, the mean-field approach, relying on probabilistic limit theories such as the law of large numbers, allows us to describe the average macroscopic behavior of network dynamics in terms of a set of relatively simple and deterministic difference/differential equations. As the fluid or mean-field approach offers intuitive and manageable solutions to describing large network dynamics, it has been the de facto technique for almost every aspect of current networking problems including congestion control, stability analysis, optimization-based techniques, as well as wireless multi-hop communications network. However, this mean-field type of approach has fundamental limitations; it is valid only when the system is scaled as required by the underlying theory. For other type of scaling the systems, the mean-field approach may break down and often wrongfully predict even the first-order system dynamics. Unfortunately, however, there hardly exists any result or even attempt to address these limitations and problems associated with the mean-field approach, and this confines our choice of network design to a very small subset of what can actually be chosen. Our goal in this project is to understand the fundamental limitations of the fluid or mean-field approach to many network problems, and as a remedy, to develop a stochastic approach to the analysis and design of large networks. By judiciously applying appropriate limit theory with key randomness inherent in the network dynamics still intact, we will provide new guidelines on large network design and achieve far better resource utilization, all of which are impossible to obtain via the traditional fluid or mean-field approach.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Computer Aided Design For Digital Trust
Paul D. Franzon
02/01/07 - 12/31/08

NCSU will support Irvine Sensors in the development of CAD strategies to ensure that chip sets that can be secured from reverse engineering and tampering attacks

This project is sponsored by Irvine Sensors Corporation.

Development and Use of Sensors in Validating Aseptic Processing of Multiphase Foods
K. P. Sandeep, Paul D. Franzon, Josip Simunovic
09/01/06 - 08/31/09

The overall objective of the current study is to develop a sensor that can be used to determine the location and internal temperature of food particles as they flow through the heating, holding, and cooling sections of an aseptic processing system. The sensor will then be implanted in the cavity of a "conservatively" designed carrier particle (conservative from a heat transfer and flow standpoint) such that the thermal treatment received by this particle will always be less than that received be every other particle in the real food product. Thus, if this carrier particle receives adequate heat treatment (pre-determined F0 value), then the entire food product would be rendered commercially sterile. The need for this study arises from the recommendations of a workshop sponsored by the Center for Advanced Processing and Packaging Studies (CAPPS) and the National Center for Food Safety and Technology (NCFST) which was also attended by FDA and industry personnel. Tetra Pak made use of the results of this workshop to successfully "file" an aseptic process for multiphase foods with the FDA. However, this product-process combination was not commercialized. Several food processors have been trying to develop a similar process for their food products and one of the main problem is the lack of a reliable tool to validate their process and at the same time ensure a high product quality. The sensor system to be developed in this study will serve as that tool.

This project is sponsored by US Dept. of Agriculture.

Development of a Micro-Electro-Mechanical-System-Based (MEMS) Temperature Sensor to Determine Internal Temperatures Within Multiphase Food Products
K. P. Sandeep, Paul D. Franzon, Josip Simunovic
05/01/06 - 12/31/07

Researchers have been attempting to address the growing need in the food industry to monitor temperatures at various locations within food products (under batch and continuous flow conditions) to facilitate filing of a process with the FDA, to improve product quality, and enhance food safety measures. In aseptic processing of particulate foods, the temperature at the critical point (slowest heating point in the system) is of particular interest. Several techniques (described below) exist to determine internal temperatures of particulates. However, none of these techniques meet the needs of the food industry. Thus, the current study will focus on developing a sensor to measure internal temperatures of particulates and tailoring it to meet the needs of the food industry.

This project is sponsored by Ohio State University Research Foundation.

DNA-Nanotube Assemblies for Molecular Electronics: DNA Directed Circuit Assembly
Paul D. Franzon
09/15/03 - 08/31/07

In collaboration with Duke University, determine circuit interconnect strategies using DNA scaffolds.

This project is sponsored by Duke University.

Micromachined Braille Reader
Paul D. Franzon
10/01/07 - 09/30/08

An integrated, low-cost Braille reader will be developed using micromachining techniques and polymer actuator technologies.

This project is sponsored by US Dept. of Education.

Multimode Interconnect
Paul D. Franzon
11/01/06 - 10/31/08

With higher core clock speeds, and the trend to multi-core, the demands on chip I/O are increasing rapidly. The key question is how to increase both the density and speed of chip I/O without increasing packaging costs. At high speeds, crosstalk issues typically dictate inter-pair spacings of four times the wire width in PCBs, and rich use of power and ground shields in connectors. In this research, we will investigate coding and circuit techniques that enable a group of signals to travel down a wire bundle, and potentially connectors and cable assemblies, without crosstalk. This will enable wires to be spaced at minimum manufacturable spacings permitting an overall increase in wire density of a factor of two or more.

This project is sponsored by Semiconductor Research Corp..

System Packaging With AC Coupled Interconnect
Paul D. Franzon
11/01/06 - 02/28/08

NCSU will design and implement a 3D Synthetic Aperture Radar Module.

This project is sponsored by Irvine Sensors Corporation.

System Technologies for AC Coupled Interconnect for Low Power SpaceBorne Electronics
Paul D. Franzon, Angus I. Kingon, John Michael Wilson
09/25/06 - 06/30/08

ACCI promises high-density, low-power chip I/O, sockets and connectors. In year 05-06, we demonstrated the robustness of ACCI for capacitive and inductive connections. We also had extensive engagements with several technology transfer partners. The intent this year is to produce a complete transferable technology, including demonstration of issues related to laminate packaging, demonstration of a socket system and a connector system. In addition, we will complete the design and deliver a board for a planned test in near earth orbit.

This project is sponsored by US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).

Test Devices for Molecular Electronics Applications
Paul D. Franzon
05/11/06 - 11/10/07

Molecular electronics holds the promise of outscaling CMOS technology. However, the organic-inorganic interface is difficult to build. In this research, NCSU will determine approaches to building the inorganic portion of the system to permit fundamental studies in this interface.

This project is sponsored by Virginia, University of.

Ultra High Density Computer Interconnect
Paul D. Franzon
09/01/02 - 08/31/08

We are determining new approaches to interconnect large systems at the system level. These approaches promise high density, low power and low cost.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Use of RFID Tags in Determining the Time-Temperature History Within a Product During Processing, Transportation, and Storage
K. P. Sandeep, Paul D. Franzon, Josip Simunovic
11/01/06 - 12/31/07

Improving food quality, enhancing food safety, and aiding process filing with the FDA are three important areas of interest to the food industry. Accurate determination of the time-temperature history at the critical point in a system (slowest heating point) is necessary to accomplish this. An RFID system has the potential to not only transmit a signal and indicate its location (as in supply chain management), but also be used in conjunction with other sensors to transmit additional information such as pressure, speed, weight, and temperature. We would like to make use of the RFID technology to capture and transmit internal temperatures of food particulates while they are being pumped through the heating, holding, and cooling sections of a continuous flow food processing system. To accomplish this, we will incorporate a temperature sensor and the RFID tag(s) within a conservatively designed carrier particle and link the two sensors so that there is a change in signal depending on the temperature. This would result in improved product quality, safety, and process documentation. We would also like to determine the temperature history within food packages during transportation and storage so as to get an idea of product deterioration during that time and hence modify transportation and storage conditions appropriately to improve product quality of refrigerated and frozen foods.

This project is sponsored by Ohio State University Research Foundation.

Advanced RF Transmitter Design for Deep Submicron CMOS
Kevin Gard
06/01/04 - 11/30/07

The migration from SiGe HBT bipolar to CMOS based architectures requires a fundamental re-design of the radio architecture and innovative circuit designs. CMOS scaling from 130nm to 90nm and eventually to 45nm present new challenges for circuit design such as shrinking supply voltages and increased gate leakage. It is desirable to overcome these limitations by developing novel circuit designs which perform the same functions with comparable performance and yield as SiGe designs. This project will develop and design a linear radio transmitter integrated circuit with high performance and yield utilizing a state of the art CMOS technology.

This project is sponsored by Semiconductor Research Corp..

Expertiza: Reusable Learning Objects Through Active/Collaborative Learning and Peer Review
Edward F. Gehringer
01/01/06 - 12/31/07

Peer review is an active-learning technique that gives students the opportunity to interact with, and learn from, each other. Instructors are increasingly employing Web-based systems to manage the process. This opens wide new vistas for creating learning objects to enhance the educational experience. Instead of all students doing the same assignment, our Expertiza software allows each student or team to select from a list of tasks that will help enhance the course. Students submit their work, the work is peer-reviewed, and then the best work is chosen to be shared with the rest of the class. One task might be to devise an example that explains a difficult concept; another might be to improve a visualization of a topic covered in lecture; a third might be to write questions for a "mastery" quiz on a particular lecture. Successive classes can improve and extend the resources created in this way. Not only are these objects produced through active learning, but they offer active-learning experiences to those who use them later, to those who, for example, take the mastery quizzes or interact with the simulations produced through this process. Moreover, the learning objects produced with Expertiza can easily be published to a Web database accessible to other instructors for use in their classes. The Expertiza process has many concomitant benefits. It offers a way to produce high-quality educational materials with less investment of faculty time. It allows distance-education students to participate fully in active-learning exercises. It diminishes the opportunity for plagiarism because students don't all do the same assignment, and they build on the work of previous classes rather than duplicate it. It overcomes the handicap of teaching large classes, because large classes can produce many more resources. The proposed work is to deploy Expertiza in ten to twenty classes and measure the benefits. These range from ways of applying Expertiza in diverse subject fields, to comparisons of student performance in first-time Expertiza courses with later semesters in which students are using Expertiza-developed material from earlier semesters.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Analytical Monitoring of Pharmaceutical Compliance
Maysam Ghovanloo
01/01/06 - 12/31/07

Three solutions have been proposed for analytical monitoring of pharmaceutical compliance (AMPC). All solutions are non-invasive and unobtrusive to the patient. The first solution is based on a "magnetic pill" and static magnetic sensors. The second solution is based on an "oscillatory capsule"and sensitive radio frequency (RF) receivers. The third solution is based on a battery-powered active transmitter operating in the industrialscientific-medical (ISM) band and an ISM-band receiver. Each system is divided into three major comments: tracer device, detection device, and data delivery device. The tracer is small enough to be added to the pharmaceuticals after manufacturing. It will be coated with biocompatible polymers and will easily pass through the digestive system with no interactions. The detection device (reader) is patient wearable and provides a large enough reading distance for detecting the "dose ingestion event", followed by wireless transmission of the event to the data delivery device. The data delivery device is also patient wearable and takes advantage of the available PDA technology.

This project is sponsored by Dow Chemical Co..

Tongue Drive: A Tongue Operated Magnetic Sensor Based Assistive Technology for People with Severe Disabilities
Maysam Ghovanloo
08/01/07 - 07/31/08

The main purpose of the proposed research activity is to develop a new assistive technology to ?enable? a large group of individuals severely paralyzed as a result of various causes from spinal cord injuries to brainstem stroke, cerebral palsy, and other neuromuscular disorders, to convey their intentions to their environment through accessing a portable computer or personal digital assistant (PC/PDA). These individuals generally find it extremely difficult to carry out everyday tasks without continuous help. It is not hard to imagine that once a paralyzed individual is ?enabled? to effectively access a computer, he/she would be able to do almost anything that an able-bodied individual can do. The tongue is considered an excellent appendage in severely disabled for operating an assistive device. Tongue and mouth occupy an amount of sensory and motor cortex in the human brain that rivals that of the fingers and the hand. Therefore, they are inherently capable of sophisticated motor control and manipulation tasks with many degrees of freedom. Tongue is connected to the brain by the hypoglossal nerve, which generally escapes severe damage in spinal cord injuries. The tongue muscle is similar to the heart muscle in that it does not fatigue easily. Further, the tongue is not influenced by the position of the rest of the body, which can be adjusted for maximum user comfort. These advantages in addition to accessibility of the tongue movements without penetrating the skin point out to the fact that tongue can be employed as an excellent intermediate connection to the brain to establish a noninvasive brain-computer interface. We intend to do this by developing of a new device called the ?Tongue Drive System? (TDS). TDS consists of an array of magnetic sensors located inside the mouth, attached to the outer surface of the teeth on an orthodontic brace or outside of the mouth near the user?s cheeks, mounted on a headset similar to head-worn microphones. The sensor array measures the magnetic field of a small permanent magnetic tracer, the size of a grain of rice, which is attached to the tongue by means of tissue adhesives, implantation, piercing, or clipping. The sensor signals are transmitted wirelessly to the external PC/PDA. The received sensor array data is processed to determine the coordinates, orientation, and relative motion of the magnet with respect to the array of sensors in real time. This information is then used to control the movements of a cursor on the PC/PDA screen and to perform all other functions that an able-bodied individual can do with a mouse computer input device. The PC/PDA will have a WiFi or Bluetooth connection to a number of other devices, including a desktop computer and powered wheelchair, in the user?s environment. Broader impacts: We intend to help the most severely disabled individuals, particularly quadriplegics, to live active, self-supportive, satisfying, and productive lives, equal to other members of the society. Paralysis is considered to be one of the most expensive types of disabilities. Solutions such as the TDS could help reduce healthcare and assisted-living costs, increase the employability of people with disabilities, and allow users to participate more fully in the society, while relieving their family members or dedicated caregivers. Educational plan: The PI?s educational objective is to stimulate the interests of undergraduate and graduate students by taking advantage of the ?multidisciplinary? nature of the proposed research. Undergraduates will be involved in the proposed research through senior design course and undergraduate award program by participating in development of the PC/PDA graphical user interface. The PI will also advice two graduate students who will be directly involved in the proposed research by developing the TDS hardware and sensor signal processing algorithms.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Electrical Inert Crack Monitoring Gauge
Jerome J. Cuomo, Roger C. Sanwald, Edward Grant
06/01/07 - 03/31/08

NCSU to fabricate the integration design and produce a test prototype. Complete reliability tests and develop installation parameters and processes. Develop and fabricate a configuaration suitable for presentation to offer to prospective clients.

This project is sponsored by DRS Technical Services, Inc..

Innovative Tools and Techniques for Robotic Heart Surgery
Gregory D. Buckner, Denis R. Cormier, Edward Grant, Bryan W. Laffitte
08/16/04 - 07/31/08

Today?s surgical robots employ generalized end effectors that directly extend the motions, capabilities, and limitations of a surgeon?s own hands. These robots give surgeons the ability to work on very small scales, with great precision, and through smaller incisions. They provide direct visualization through the use of magnified 3-D images and greater accuracy through motion scaling and active filtering of hand tremors. In the specific field of cardiac surgery, minimally invasive robot-assisted (MIRA) procedures show improvements in patient satisfaction and key outcome parameters including decreases in overall hospital stays. Unfortunately, these gains have been offset by significantly increased operative times, resulting in increased overall healthcare costs. Based on East Carolinas University?s experience in MIRA mitral valve repairs, patient bypass times are currently increased approximately 60% (2.6 hours with MIRA vs. 1.5 hours using conventional procedures). It is evident that specific technological advancements could significantly decrease MIRA mitral valve repair times. Surgeons and researchers working in this field expect that costs will dramatically decrease as surgeons and medical device manufacturers collaboratively develop robotic tools and technologies specifically suited for MIRA cardiac procedures. Additionally, these procedures could be made less invasive with ?totally-endoscopic? technologies. Accordingly, the specific aims of this multidisciplinary research program focus on developing technologies that facilitate and extend the capabilities of MIRA cardiac surgery. These include: (1) Devices for rapid and secure fixation of suture materials and prosthetic devices: specifically instruments and cartridges that provide "push-button" fixation for specific procedures (e.g. atrial closure and leaflet repair) using both existing suture materials and advanced clips and staples. (2) Endoscopic retractors to improve visualization of essential cardiac structures: endoscopically-deployable retractors that utilize the superelastic properties of Nitinol to facilitate totally closed surgical procedures. (3) Systems to aid the surgeon in incision planning, robotic navigation, and operative training: technology that can be used to measure and register critical anatomical landmarks with pre-operative and intra-operative spatial data to identify optimal port placement and robot instrument trajectories.

This project is sponsored by National Institutes of Health.

MRI: Development of a Quantum Engineering Laboratory
Alexej I. Smirnov, William C. Holton, Ki Wook Kim, Veena Misra
09/01/04 - 08/31/08

No abstract currently available.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Silicon Based Nanoscale Quantum Devices
William C. Holton, Veena Misra, Alexej I. Smirnov
08/01/03 - 07/31/07

This proposal describes the progress made in our present NSF grant and proposes to continue our research to further investigate the properties of electrons trapped within quantum dots. We will fabricate additional devices, deriving the electrons from a two dimensional electron gas formed at the interface of Si/C heterostructures, and conduct low temperature electrical and magnetic- resonance measurements with our Quantum Engineering Laboratory. In addition to ESR array measurements, we will use on chip interconnect structures with a suitably interconnected quantum dot arrays to make low temperature dynamic measurements to determine the spin properties.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

10 MVA ETO-based STATCOM
Alex Q. Huang
09/15/06 - 12/31/07

The objectives of this Supplemental proposal is to obtain additional funding from EPRI so that NCSU can complete the development of a digital controller for a proposed ETO STATCOM. The proposed ETO STATCOM will be installed at a BPA wind farm to regulate the voltage.

This project is sponsored by Electric Power Research Institute.

Buck Boost Switching Converter for Dynamic Power Supply of a Radio Frequency Power Amplifier
Alex Q. Huang
11/15/05 - 03/31/08

Through this project, we will investigate how to implement delta sigma modulated dc-dc converter for dynamic supply radio frequency power amplifier for polar modulation.

This project is sponsored by RF Micro Devices.

Consortium of Advanced Power Electronics and Energy Storage-CAPES (within SPEC) Pool Agreement
Alex Q. Huang
07/01/06 - 12/31/10

No abstract currently available.

This project is sponsored by NCSU Semiconductor Power Electronics Center (SPEC).

Design Optimization of Silicon Carbide Bipolar Junction Transistor
Alex Q. Huang
06/02/05 - 03/29/08

NCSU will study the class E amplifier based on SiC BJT and SiC MOSFET. This study will be based on finite element simulations as well as based on SPICE simulation using models extracted by NCSU. Power added efficiency will be analyzed. NCSU will continue the study of BJT degradation issues through testing, simulation and discussion with Cree. NCSU will study how to use SiC BJT or MOSFET to do power conversion at very high frequency (>100 MHz) using resonant topology.

This project is sponsored by CREE Research, Inc..

Development of a 69 kV Class Solid State Current Limiter (SSCL)
Alex Q. Huang
12/01/06 - 11/30/08

The objective of this project is to develop a Solid State Current Limiter (SSCL) to limit fault current issues and to take advantage of above benefits. The SSCL interrupts or limits fault current from new generation or transmission, reduces switching surges, and offers an environmentally benign alternative to circuit breakers. Silicon Power Corp. (SPCO), together with NCSU, has recently proposed to EPRI and DOE to develop, build and deliver a 69 kV/3000A transmission level SSCL that is extremely reliable as well as compact enough to be applied in urban transmission. Additionally, it must be maintainable by traditional utility personnel, and priced at a cost-effective level. NCSU?s objective in this project is to assist SPCO, in the selection of power devices, design of AC switch assembly, and the design of SSCL, as well as the SSCL control system.

This project is sponsored by Silicon Power Corporation.

Development of a Scalable, Transportable Energy Storage System for Effective Integration of Renewable Energy Sources
Alex Q. Huang, Mesut E. Baran, Subhashish Bhattacharya
04/17/07 - 01/31/08

The objective of this project is to develop a scalable, transportable energy storage devices based on the emerging ETO Light Converter technology. Not only we will be able to demonstrate the performance advancement offered by the ETO Light Converter, but also demonstrate the reduced cost and improved reliability. The delivered energy storage device will solve practical problem at the identified wind farm location. The delivered unit can also be relocated to other BPA renewable energy locations to address the intermittent power issue such as those found in an ocean wave park. The rating of the unit can be scaled to higher level for future applications.

This project is sponsored by Bonneville Power Administration.

High Voltage SiC MOSFET/IGBT Development and Their Applications
Alex Q. Huang
11/21/05 - 11/30/07

Under the current program, a SPICE model for 10 kV class MOSFET/PIN Diode/JBS diode are developed. Because improvements of devices are made on a daily basis, there is a need to calibrate the device model more accurately with the up to date device performance parameters. Additionally, there is a need to improve the model to include thermal impedance of the power module. For this reason, SPEC proposes to continue the effort of device model development, with more emphasis on MOSFET and JBS diode model. The model will be used by Cree, Powerex to conduct circuit simulation, hence facilitating better module design. Power module developed by Cree and Powerex will be tested at SPEC with emphasis on 1) dynamic performance, 2) long term performance. For this reason, the test will focues on testing the power module at rated current and voltage level in realistic power converter setting. Single module will be tested in DC/DC converters, and phase leg module will be tested in single phase DC/AC converters and three-phase DC/AC converters. Module performance in terms of long term thermal handling capability will be obtained. The capability of switching at 20 kHz will be demonstrated.

This project is sponsored by CREE Research, Inc..

High Voltage Silicon Carbide Emitter Turn-off Thyristor
Alex Q. Huang
07/01/07 - 03/19/08

Task 1: SiC thyristor device simulation and optimization In this task, large amount of device simulations will be conducted to obtain the final design of the proposed 10 kV thyristor device that include 1) horizontal cell dimensions; 2) vertical cell dimensions; 3) doping concentrations; 4) junction termination design that minimize the consumption of SiC area; 5) accurate losses at room and elevated temperatures; 6) predicted power density vs. frequency capability. Task 2: SiC thyristor Process Design and Simulation A detailed step-by-step manufacture process will be designed. It will be verified through two-dimension or three-dimensional process simulations. Discussion with Cree and Solitronics will be conducted on this process so that only achievable and practical process will be proposed and used. Task 3: Layout design of SiC thyristor A layout, that includes small and large thyristor devices will be design for future fabrication.

This project is sponsored by Solitronics, LLC.

Membership in Consortium for Advanced Power Electronics and Energy Storage (CAPES), Principal Member
Alex Q. Huang
07/01/06 - 12/31/08

The Consortium for Advanced Power Electronics and Energy Storage (CAPES) is a government, utility company, equipment maker, university and national lab based consortium to leverage resources and expertise to develop and demonstrate key power electronics and energy storage technologies for transmission and distribution grids.

This project is sponsored by ABB, Inc.

Membership in Consortium For Advanced Power Electronics and Energy Storage (CAPES), Principal Member In-kind
Alex Q. Huang
01/01/07 - 12/31/08

The Consortium for Advanced Power Electronics and Energy Storage (CAPES) is a government, utility company, equipment maker, university and national lab based consortium to leverage resources and expertise to develop and demonstrate key power electronics and energy storage technologies for transmission and distribution grids.

This project is sponsored by Progress Energy Carolinas.

Membership in Power Management Consortium (PMC), Associate Member
Alex Q. Huang
01/01/06 - 12/31/08

The Power Management Consortium is established as an industry and government sponsored consortium to conduct pre-competitive research in the areas of power management for future generations of microprocessors and battery powered portable systems. PMC research will explore novel power management solutions through architecture and topology modeling and hardware demonstration as well as delivering analog and mixed signal Integrated Circuit implementations to the proposed power management technologies.

This project is sponsored by Intel Corp..

Membership in Power Management Consortium (PMC), Associate Member
Alex Q. Huang
09/01/05 - 12/31/08

The Power Management Consortium is established as an industry and government sponsored consortium to conduct pre-competitive research in the areas of power management for future generations of microprocessors and battery powered portable systems. PMC research will explore novel power management solutions through architecture and topology modeling and hardware demonstration as well as delivering analog and mixed signal Integrated Circuit implementations to the proposed power management technologies.

This project is sponsored by Fairchild Semiconductor.

Membership in Power Management Consortium (PMC), Associate Member
Alex Q. Huang
10/01/05 - 12/31/08

The Power Management Consortium is established as an industry and government sponsored consortium to conduct pre-competitive research in the areas of power management for future generations of microprocessors and battery powered portable systems. PMC research will explore novel power management solutions through architecture and topology modeling and hardware demonstration as well as delivering analog and mixed signal Integrated Circuit implementations to the proposed power management technologies.

This project is sponsored by International Rectifier.

Membership in Power Management Consortium (PMC), Associate Member
Alex Q. Huang
01/01/06 - 12/31/08

The Power Management Consortium is established as an industry and government sponsored consortium to conduct pre-competitive research in the areas of power management for future generations of microprocessors and battery powered portable systems. PMC research will explore novel power management solutions through architecture and topology modeling and hardware demonstration as well as delivering analog and mixed signal Integrated Circuit implementations to the proposed power management technologies.

This project is sponsored by Volterra Semiconductor.

Next Generation Power Electronics Devices for Energy Storage Systems
Alex Q. Huang
05/01/06 - 09/15/07

In 2006-2007, a new VSC converter based on Gen-4 ETO and advanced heatpipe cooling system will be developed and demonstrated. This will show significantly improved power density and reliability. As a major advancement of technology development, we will also concentrate on the development of a SiC ETO devices (Gen-6 ETO). This work will be partially supported by Cree since NCSU is currently involved with Cree in two government supported programs (SiC BJT development and SiC IGBT development). SiC ETO will be a futuristic devices for utility and energy storage applications, which can potentially push the voltage rating up to 15 kV or higher, and a frequency rating higher than 10 kHz.

This project is sponsored by University of Missouri-Rolla.

Power Management Consortium-PMC (within SPEC) Pool Agreement
Alex Q. Huang
09/01/05 - 12/31/10

No abstract currently available.

This project is sponsored by NCSU Semiconductor Power Electronics Center (SPEC).

Communications Theory Perspectives on the Design of Compact Multi-Antenna Wireless Transceivers
Brian L. Hughes, Gianluca Lazzi
09/15/07 - 08/31/10

Recent research on multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications has shown that deploying arrays at the transmitter and receiver can dramatically improve the capacity of wireless multipath channels. Since the physical size of a transceiver is often limited, increasing the number of array elements often requires closer inter-element spacing and leads to signal correlation and mutual coupling. Coupling can profoundly impact the received power, diversity and system capacity. Moreover, this impact depends essentially on aspects of the transceiver design, such as antenna matching and the dominant sources of noise. Intellectual Merit: This project seeks to develop a systems-level perspective on the design of compact array transceivers for wireless communications. The aim is to understand how antennas, matching networks, amplifiers and communications algorithms interact to determine overall performance, and to jointly optimize the design of these interacting subsystems. Three issues are addressed: (1) channel models which incorporate diverse noise sources, transceiver design and interference from other users for both narrowband and broadband channels; (2) the impact of different noise sources and propagation environments on the fundamental performance limits of coupled MIMO systems, as well as on performance of specific diversity and multiplexing techniques; (3) information-theoretic design criteria to jointly optimize the array, matching, amplifiers and communications algorithms. Broader Impacts: This multi-disciplinary project combines theoretical studies with experiments using an antenna testbed. The mix of theory and hardware demonstrations will provide opportunities for student participation at all levels. This work has the potential to significantly advance science and engineering by providing a more unified view of the RF front end and by developing new models, communications algorithms and matching techniques which may significantly improve wireless performance.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

NIRT: Reduced Degree of Freedom Predictive Methods for Control and Design of Interfaces in Nanofeatured Systems
Donald W. Brenner, Marco Buongiorno-Nard, Ron O. Scattergood, Mohammed A. Zikry, Gerald Iafrate
07/01/03 - 06/30/08

This research studies the quantum-mechanical behavior of nanocomponents embedded in a dissipative environment. An interacting harmonic oscillator and angular momentum oscillator are utilized to simulate the interaction of an electromagnetic field mode with an atom in an embedded micro or nano cavity to provide atomic transitions in absorption and emission; as the cavity boundaries are influenced by a surrounding environment, the cavity modes are perturbed thus influencing the transition characteristics. The objectives are to study the nanocomponent-environment interaction, and to provide adequate modeling capability for elucidating the robustness of the nanocomponent quantum characteristics due to the interaction with the environment.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Non-Equilibrium Phonon Processes and Degradation in Gigahertz Nanoscale Mechanical Resonators
Gerald Iafrate, Andrey A Kiselev
10/01/07 - 06/30/08

The goal of this study is to identify and further quantify the loss and degradation mechanisms relevant to frequency control resonator performance as the resonator dimensions reduce to the nanodimensional spatial scale. The Department of the Army interest in scaling such devices into the nanodimensional region arises from the technical objective that such resonators can be made to operate at frequencies into the low GHz spectral region thus providing a low cost, integratable NEMS solid state device option for ultrafast frequency control electronic applications relevant to jam resistant secure communications. The key questions that arise regarding NEMS resonator performance are the fundamental physical limitations in quality factor Q and noise figure as the resonator is reduced to nanodimensions in order to achieve the higher frequencies of device operation. Such high frequency physical limitations may also present barriers in other NEMS smart actuator and sensor electronic device applications. Inherent in the nanoscale domain is the dynamics of non-equilibrium phonon processes which play a central role in orchestrating loss mechanisms in general and in trade off of surface to volume effects as the resonator scales down. In this study, use is made of the Euler-Bernoulli-Boltzmann approach to capture the essence of the dominant physical considerations.

This project is sponsored by Army Research Office.

CACC Membership Pool Agreement
Dennis H. Kekas
07/01/06 - 06/30/10

No abstract currently available.

This project is sponsored by NCSU Center for Advanced Computing & Communication.

Membership in CACC
Dennis H. Kekas, Mladen A. Vouk
07/01/00 - 06/30/09

Cisco Systems is extending membershtip in CACC through June 30, 2009.

This project is sponsored by Cisco Systems, Inc..

Membership in CACC
Dennis H. Kekas, Mladen A. Vouk
07/01/00 - 06/30/09

The Center for Advanced Computing and Communication (CACC) is a membership-based industry/university cooperative research center co-located at North Carolina State University and Duke University. Expertise in the center is focused in the areas of information security, business intelligence, software engineering, extreme programming, networking, wireless technologies, autonomic computing, power visualization, business analytics, sensor-based systems, and display technologies. The CACC research goal is to create concepts, methods and tools for use in the analysis, design and implementation of advanced computer and communication systems.

This project is sponsored by Ericsson, Inc..

Membership in CACC
Dennis H. Kekas, Mladen A. Vouk
07/01/04 - 06/30/10

The Center for Advanced Computing and Communication (CACC) is a membership-based industry/university cooperative research center at North Carolina State University. Expertise in the center is focused in the areas of information security, business intelligence, software engineering, extreme programming, networking, wireless technologies, autonomic computing, power visualization, business analytics, sensor-based systems, and display technologies. The CACC research goal is to create concepts, methods and tools for use in the analysis, design and implementation of advanced computer and communication systems. Our mission is to carry out basic and applied research on fundamental problems with both industrial and academic relevance, to transfer these results to our members, and to provide our students with a unique and challenging educational opportunity.

This project is sponsored by Tekelec.

Membership in CACC, Affiliate Member
Dennis H. Kekas
07/01/05 - 06/30/08

The Center for Advanced Computing and Communication (CACC) is a membership-based industry/university cooperative research center co-located at North Carolina State University and Duke University. North Carolina State University was selected by the National Science Foundation in 1981 as a site for an industry/university cooperative research center in communications and signal processing. The center was named the Center for Communications and Signal Processing until 1994 when a second center site at Duke University was added. Expertise in the center is focused in the areas of information security, business intelligence, software engineering, extreme programming, networking, wireless technologies, autonomic computing, power visualization, business analytics, sensor-based systems, and display technologies. The CACC research goal is to create concepts, methods and tools for use in the analysis, design and implementation of advanced computer and communication systems. Our mission is to carry out basic and applied research on fundamental problems with both industrial and academic relevance, to transfer these results to our members, and to provide our students with a unique and challenging educational opportunity.

This project is sponsored by Qimonda North America Corp..

NSF Partnership in the Center for Advanced Computing and Communication
Dennis H. Kekas, Mladen A. Vouk, Laurie A. Williams
09/15/99 - 12/31/08

The purpose of this budget is to MIPR funds through NSF to CACC. Funds requested are those to be paid by National Security Agency (NSA) for membership 07/08 and continuing support of NSA CACC enhancement project 522836.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Request for Support for the International Conference on Information and Communications Security (ICICS 2006)
Dennis H. Kekas
09/15/06 - 08/31/07

The International Conference on Information and Communications Security will be held in December 2006 in the Research Triangle of North Carolina. This is a well-established security conference being held for the first time in North America. Support from NSF is sought to broaden participation, particularly of students, provide improved access for researchers to the latest research results, and to promote the development and dissemination of solutions to some of the nation's pressing security needs in the computing and communications areas.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Workshop on STEM Education K-12
Dennis H. Kekas
07/15/07 - 06/30/08

NCSU Center for Advanced Computing and Communication (CACC) plans to host a workshop July 31 - August 2, 2007 at the Friday Institute on Centennial Campus. The goal of this workshop is to bring together select individuals from industry, government, and academia to develop a national series of workshops to address the problem of stimulating interest in K-12 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Carrier Spin Dynamics and Device Applications in Carbon Nanotube
Ki Wook Kim, Marco Buongiorno-Nard
09/01/06 - 08/31/09

The objective of this research is to explore spin dependent properties of the carriers in carbon nanotubes and their potential device applications. The approach is based on the theory and numerical (ab initio) modeling of carrier spin relaxation and transport dynamics in carbon nanotubes. Specific concepts/structures leading to a novel class of spintronic nano-devices will also be pursued beyond the current scaling limit. Intellectual merit: This research effort will provide (1) theoretical understanding of the mechanisms of carrier spin dynamics in carbon nanotubes; (2) design of novel device architectures that exploit the unique spin transport properties; (3) a coherent hierarchy of spin device simulation methods that can be scaled to large-scale processes. Overall, the key outcome will be a fundamental description of the feasibility of advanced spintronic devices based on carrier spin dynamics in carbon nanotubes. Broader impact: Through an interdisciplinary training effort, a new generation of scientists and engineers will be produced with expertise that is not limited to a single discipline, but rather who are trained to attack complicated problems with a broad outlook using methods that transcend traditional barriers between science and engineering disciplines. It will be built on the strong outreach and public education record of the principal investigators that includes live and web-based tutorials on nanotechnology, working with high school students and their teachers in summer programs, and participation in national committees on public implications of nanotechnology. If successful, pursued nano-devices could also offer significant technological and economical benefits.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

MARCO Center on Functinal Engineered Nano Architectonics (FENA)
Ki Wook Kim
09/01/03 - 11/30/07

The magnetism in semiconductors is the basis for the emerging field of semiconductor-based spin-polarized electronics, or spintronics. It enables information representation to be based on angular spin momentum, rather than electron charge. The advantages of employing spin as a state variable include reduced power dissipation and increased information capacity. Substantial progress has been made recently in the materials development with the advent of a number of magnetic semiconductors doped with transition metals that are ferromagnetic at or above room temperature (e.g., the nitrides, Ge, and some II-VI?s). The advantages of the semiconductor-based systems over the metallic counterparts include the controllability of the ferromagnetism (via bias and/or doping) along with the potential compatibility with CMOS-based processing technology. Hence, it offers unique opportunities for quantum manipulation of both charge and spin in nanoscale systems. The purpose of our investigation is to theoretically explore nanoscale magnetic semiconductor materials and structures for information processing and storage applications (i.e., memory and logic devices) beyond the ITRS roadmap.

This project is sponsored by University of California.

Novel Non-Volatile Memory Devices Based on Magnetic Semiconductor Nanostructures for Terabit Integration
Ki Wook Kim
07/01/06 - 12/31/07

The proposed research will explore novel spin memory devices that utilize carrier spin-dependent interactions in magnetic semiconductor nanostructures. It is aimed at demonstrating the viability of non-volatile memory concepts that can be highly scalable, can have extremely low power dissipation, and can be readily merged with the CMOS platform. The primary focus of the effort will be on the device concepts utilizing electrical control of the magnetism, which is one of the main advantages of the magnetic semiconductor nanostructures over the metallic counterparts. Specifically, we will examine the phenomena based on the electrically induced paramagnetic?{ferromagnetic phase transition and magnetization reversal. A theoretical investigation will be pursued to develop the physical understanding of the related phenomena, followed by the device modeling for optimum structure design.

This project is sponsored by Army Research Office.

A Test Bed for Range Imaging and 3D Object Measurement and Exploitation
Hamid Krim
06/01/06 - 08/31/07

We propose a test bed which jointly exploits the range measurement capabilities of Laser Scanners together with those of Structured Light Imaging to characterize and model 3D targets and construct a comprehensive database. This will not only help us understand and quantify the effects of data drop outs but the influence of noise induced by ambient lighting as well as motion. This will be an experimental test bed which will be key in analyzing, testing and stressing numerous existing algorithms and those we have recently developed in the course of an AFOSR funded research. It will also help in educating students about 3D imaging and the pitfalls of real world data measurement as well as integrate more theoretical material taught in academic classes.

This project is sponsored by US Air Force-Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR).

Bio-inspired Invariants: Target Representation and Classification towards Scene Understanding
Hamid Krim
05/15/06 - 09/30/09

Fully automatic understanding and interpretation of a scene have long eluded researchers. Scene understanding often invokes tasks which are hierarchical in nature. The problem of scene understanding is broad in scope and open, and the cognition step, as one of its key components remains one of its major limitations. At the center of cognition, lies understanding brain functionality which by its high complexity remains a hot topic of research to address the slow progress in machine-based image understanding. The robustness and resilience of biological systems(e.g. one may recognize an object despite some occlusion and/or additive noise) have, however, have increasingly attracted more researchers as a rich source of inspiration, which has led to investigations of smaller and potentially simpler biological entities. The goal in this proposed effort is to exploit biologically inspired invariants in objects to develop a methodology to efficiently and accurately represent 2/3D objects as weighted-graphs for classification and recognition problems as is crucially important in scene understanding applications. This builds on measured data from a recently funded laboratory which in effect allows easy validation but controlled experiments for quick verification.

This project is sponsored by US Navy-Office Of Naval Research.

Graphs and Homology in 3D Object Classification
Hamid Krim
01/15/07 - 11/30/07

To complement our current effort on 3D target modeling and classification, we propose to focus on two main tasks: - Explore well suited features in target imagery to be integrated in an existing Tracking Algorithm, - Develop a hierarchical set of features which remain as invariant as possible to the Euclidean Group of transformation. The invariance seeks to preserve ?tracking lock? while the hierarchical property is for layered registration to adapt to dynamic environments requiring different levels of precision and hence difficulty in acquiring registration.

This project is sponsored by US Air Force-Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR).

Information Systems and Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series
Hamid Krim
01/01/06 - 12/31/08

Fundamental problems in the increasingly interdisciplinary areas of research have never been as challenging and exciting. On the other hand, the potential for breakthroughs has never been as promising. The joint research activity in biotechnology, nano-technology and information systems is but one illustration of fruitful interaction and potential avenue for a successful collaborative effort. To address the fast pace of research and seek adapted and more efficient means of communication among researchers, a forum of discussion where free flow and exchange of ideas are encouraged is one such possibility . To that end, a combination of frequent Web and personal meetings/interaction is a way of ensuring a timely flow and exchange of new information among them, For a technologically driven area like the RTP area, and an environment that thrives on leading edge research, the PI proposes a new injection of learning and research update by holding an interdisciplinary Systems Research Seminar Series with Distinguished Speakers at a three week average frequency. The PI proposes to utilize the NCSU venue for web-casting, possible broadcasting over MBONE over the triangle area and possible other parts of the state as well and maximally reach out the community for a greatest benefit.

This project is sponsored by Army Research Office.

Proposal in Support of the 14th Workshop on Statistical Signal Processing (SSP'07)
Hamid Krim
08/01/07 - 07/31/08

The 2007 IEEE Workshop on Statistical Signal Processing is tentatively planned for August 26-29, 2007, at the beautiful Monona Terrace Convention Center in Madison, Wisconsin. The purpose of this workshop is to bring together researchers and scientists from the IEEE Signal Processing Society and related fields, for a two-and-one-half-day workshop focused on statistical methods in signal and image processing. The workshop will feature regular contributed paper sessions, special invited paper sessions, and a small number of plenary lectures covering basic theory, methods and algorithms, and applications in statistical signal processing. Areas of interest include array processing, telecommunications, distributed signal processing and networks, biosignal processing and bioinformatics, Monte Carlo methods, statistical image analysis, and machine learning. The workshop will kick-off with a welcoming reception on Sunday, August 26, 2007. Technical sessions will begin on the morning of Monday, August 27, and finish on the afternoon of Wednesday, August 29. The workshop itself will be organized into relatively small poster sessions consisting of 10-20 papers per session. In addition, we are planning to include four or five plenary lectures to be held prior to the morning and afternoon poster sessions each day. The workshop and its organization has been approved by the IEEE Signal Processing Society, and will be the 14th biannual meeting in this area. One of the themes to be highlighted in the 2007 IEEE SSP Workshop is the theory and applications of the compressed sensing, and the role that compressed sensing can play in signal analysis and processing. Compressed Sensing was first proposed in 2004 by Professor Emmanuel Candes of Caltech. Candes, who received the National Science Board's prestigious Alan T. Waterman Award for his work, will present a one hour plenary lecture on this subject at the workshop. The workshop will provide an ideal forum for researchers to exchange ideas and relate research progress in this and other emerging areas of vital importance. In this proposal we seek funding in the amount of $7,000 from the Army Research Office to defray the costs of registration fees, so that workshop attendance will be made available to as large an audience as possible.

This project is sponsored by Army Research Office.

Workshop Proposal: New Directions in Complex Data Analysis for Emerging Applications
Hamid Krim
05/15/07 - 12/14/07

Difficult challenges arise in many applications where the curse of dimension- ality very quickly becomes a the limiting issue, starting with 3D bodies to other processes lying in higher dimensions but yet associated with common characteristics which may be used to advantage. One such example, relevant in security applications is the characteristic space where human face data lie. A workshop serving as a forum of discussions and debate for defining new directions in research of novel mathematical tools is proposed.

This project is sponsored by US Air Force-Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR).

A High-Density Microelectronic Tissue for Imaging: Electromagnetic and Thermal Effects
Gianluca Lazzi
12/15/03 - 12/14/07

The complete characterization of electric, electromagnetic, and thermal interactions of devices with the human body is critical for both the safety assessment and the development of implantable neurostimulators. The retinal prosthesis system under development by the ?Retina Team? requires an efficient and compact wireless telemetry system for power and data, an effective retinal stimulator, and implantable electronics characterized by limited power dissipation. This is critical for progress toward next generation higher resolution retinal prosthetic devices: computational and experimental models and methods, capable of accurately determining electrical and thermal interactions, are needed so that a) smaller telemetry coils can be designed, b) the electromagnetic and thermal safety of the telemetry device and implanted microchips can be determined, c) electromagnetic safety in the presence of external sources such as the MRI fields can be established; d) the characteristics of the fields and currents induced in the retina by the stimulating array can be predicted. We propose to continue the development of computational and experimental methods necessary to answer these fundamental questions that will assist determining the safety and effectiveness of the retinal prosthesis system and its individual components. The ultimate goal is to provide recommendations to meet technical design specifications in order to achieve the performance necessary for high-resolution visual stimulation. To address these goals, we propose the following specific aims: Specific Aim #1 ? Develop and apply computational and experimental methods for the determination of induced fields and SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) induced in the human body by the external telemetry coils/antennas or MRI equipment. These methods will allow us to determine the coupling between coils and human body as a function of angle of rotation, misalignment, shape, and other parameters and optimize coils to achieve optimal coupling and low SAR under realistic operational condition. The tasks of this specific aim will be performed both computationally and experimentally using miniature electric field probes and human body phantoms with the goal of achieving safe and effective telemetry system with a smaller internal coil (as applied to 200+, 1000+ electrodes). Specific Aim #2 ? Develop and apply computational models and methods for the assessment of the temperature increase in the human body due to the future generation of prosthetic systems (including the impact of multiple implantable packages, their positions and increased power requirements due to the increased number of electrodes) and external magnetic fields (including RF fields generated by MRI) (as applied to 200+, 1000+ electrodes). Specific Aim #3 ? Determine the fields induced in the retina by the implanted electrodes with our multiresolution impedance method, accounting for contact capacitance between the electrode and the tissue and full time domain effects, as a function of electrode shape, size, and physical characteristics. The goal of this task is to determine the impact of size and position of the return electrode as well as size and shape of stimulating electrodes (applied to 200+, 1000+ electrodes, and Adv. Techn.).

This project is sponsored by US Dept. of Energy.

Biomimetic Electronic Systems (BIMS): Electrical and Electromagnetic Interactions
Gianluca Lazzi
09/01/04 - 08/31/07

In this project we will investigate thermal effects (models and methods) of bioimplantable devices developed in the ERC at the University of Southern California.

This project is sponsored by Southern California, University of.

Multi-Functional Engineered Fabrics for Tarps
Behnam Pourdeyhimi, Gianluca Lazzi
09/25/06 - 09/30/07

Tarps are deployed to cover structures from the environment and may have the ability to reduce the visual and thermal signature of the structure. The use of materials and supplies that are lightweight, energy efficient and durable under extreme weather conditions would be desirable. This proposal addresses the development of lightweight, novel materials for use as tarps with a specifics signature management strategy. This is a proposal for the research, development, test and evaluation of innovative nonwoven fabric structures that incorporate a dipole antenna signature management strategy. At the completion of this effort, the equivalent of three tarps (12?x36?) will have been delivered to NATICK for delivery to the Counter Narcoterrorism Technology Program Office (CNTPO).

This project is sponsored by US Army.

Protocol Driven Studies to Measure Absorbed Radiofrequency, Microwave and Millimeter Wave Energy: Computational Electromagnetic
Gianluca Lazzi
01/01/07 - 03/31/08

Investigate adaptation of ADI-FDTD code and Impedance code currently available at North Carolina State University to modeling human electromuscular incapacitation (HEMI) exposures. In consultation with the HEMI staff at NHRC-DET, decide which code would best suit the needs of the HEMI project and adapt that code for use in simulating a variety of HEMI waveforms in the high resolution man, goat and swine models. The anatomical models would be provided by NHRC-DET. Adapt the selected code to meet the input and output requirements of the HEMI project as defined in conjunction with the other HEMI investigators at Brooks City-Base. The goal is to develop a code capable of running these high-resolution anatomical models with reasonable turnaround times.

This project is sponsored by Henry M. Jackson Foundation.

IPA Agreement with NSF
Leda Lunardi
06/06/05 - 07/31/07

This is an IPA Agreement between Leda Lunardi and NSF. The Amount requested consists of the salary and benefits that will be paid by NSF and NC State. Attached are documents supporting this submission Continuation of IPA at NSF

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

North Carolina Photonics Initiative Phase II
Leda Lunardi
04/21/04 - 12/31/07

In Phase IV we intend to complete the tasks necessary to continue to grow, promote and institutionalize the Carolinas Photonics Cluster. As we organize ourselves through an inter-institutional agreement into effectively one distributed collaborative campus, the rewards for our faculty and students and even more so, our industry partners, will be considerable. We are at a point in time where there is willingness on the part of the campuses involved to invest in the resources, time and energy needed to accomplish this important multi-institutional activity. Coordinated educational programs and complementary research facilities simplifies the Consortium's engagement with the broader industry driven Cluster.

This project is sponsored by UNC - General Administration.

Molecular Information Storage
Jonathan S. Lindsey, Raymond E. Fornes, Veena Misra, John S. Strenkowski
01/01/02 - 12/31/07

Molecules will be developed for use at the counterelectrode as required for molecular information storage. Additional molecules will be prepared for use at the working electrode. Compounds will be synthesized in the PI?s laboratory, and then sent to Prof. David F. Bocian at UC Riverside for characterization. Selected compounds will be sent to Prof. Veena Misra at NCSU for evaluation in nanodevices.

This project is sponsored by Zettacore, Inc.

Novel Approaches for Integration of Vertical Silicon Nanoelectronics
Veena Misra
02/01/01 - 01/31/08

The goal of this supplemental funding proposal is to request funds to partially support the acquisition of an atomic layer deposition tool to support the research activities under NSF funded CAREER grant (0093815): PECASE: Novel Approaches for Integration of Vertical Si Nanoelectronics. Under this funding, we are pursuing novel silicon based nanostructures to build advanced CMOS devices which are needed for continued performance gain over planar Si-CMOS devices. To date, we have experimented with both chemical vapor deposition and physical vapor deposition. Although, both of these techniques have enabled us to analyze devices with advance gatestacks, we have not been able to get good deposition due to non-conformality and non-uniformity of the films. These limitations can be overcome by atomic layer deposition. However, obtaining films through external collaborators with existing ALD capabilities is not feasible since the surface of the dielectrics can get exposed to ambient conditions which result in a change of electrical properties and pinning of the metal work function values. Therefore, I am writing this supplemental funding request to seek partial funding to purchase a research grade ALD tool.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Porphyrin-Based Molecular Memories
Jonathan S. Lindsey, Veena Misra
09/19/06 - 09/30/07

New porphyrin-based charge-storage materials will be synthesized (Lindsey lab, NCSU) for attachment to electroactive surfaces in nanodevices as required for molecular-based information storage. Novel approaches for development of charge-transfer layers also will be investigated. Molecular-based charge-storage materials will be incorporated into a variety of novel nanodevices (Misra lab, NCSU), with a particular emphasis on achieving solid-state designs. Material samples will be delivered from the Lindsey lab to collaborators (David Bocian, UC Riverside; Veena Misra, NCSU ECE) on a regular basis for physical studies. Results from the characterization studies will guide the synthesis efforts. The collaborative effort of the three groups will lead to new insights in molecular information storage. The Misra and Lindsey labs at N. C. State University will split equally the funds allocated to our labs ($150K each). The focus of the efforts subsequent to synthesis and characterization of the molecules on semiconductor substrates will be divided into three sub-areas: (1) Control of Writing/Reading Rates; (2) In situ Construction of Nanoscale Molecular Architectures; (3) Construction of Solid-State Devices. The control of writing/reading rates is essential for the systematic design of memory chips for a given application. Research in this area will include substrate engineering and control of tunnel barrier design aimed at increasing the speeds for addressing the molecular information storage medium. In situ construction of molecular architectures provides a mechanism for increasing the charge densities on the surface of the semiconductor materials. Obtaining high charge densities is essential for the ultimate success of molecular-based information storage. Research in this area will explore a variety of linkage chemistry aimed at nanoscale control of the thickness of the molecular films. Ultimately, all solid-state approaches will be imperative for large scale manufacturing. Research in this area will focus on atomic layer deposition approaches for assembling solid-state electrolyte equivalent materials on the molecular information storage medium on the semiconductor substrate.

This project is sponsored by University of California - Riverside.

Carolina Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence
John F. Muth
09/30/06 - 08/31/07

At present, single cell and single molecule fluorescence studies have been a powerful toolset for understanding cellular processes. However, one can argue that traditional optical microscopy most of the photons are wasted with only a very small number of photons are exciting fluorophores of interest. The remaining photons are producing autofluorescence from the medium, heat within the cell and are undesirable. The goal of this portion of the project is to fabricate an array of nano-lights to create an intelligent microscope slide. By breaking the paradigm of requiring an external light source to propagate through the microscope, the nano-light emitters will be a powerful new tool for investigating cell/surface interactions and performing selective area fluorescence studies of individual cells. In addition to acting as nano-light sources for fluorescence excitation, we can also build intelligence into the nano-lights by constructing using peptides/protein binding interactions to mediate a surface plasmon resonance effect that in turn will alter the amount of light that is emitted from the nano-light. The three technological thrusts of this portion of the project are: ? Fabrication of nano-light emitters in an array format will also allow selective areas of an individual cell to be illuminated. Selective excitation of fluorophores present in specific areas of the single cell will: o Significantly improve the signal to noise ratio by reducing the total amount of background fluorescence. o Allow selective activation of photosensitive biomolecules in one portion of the cell while leaving other portions of cells untouched. o Allow selective photoactiviated peptide synthesis in nanosized areas, rather than micrometer or millimeter scale areas as is presently done. ? Fabricate nano-lights where the efficiency of output is mediated by surface plasmon interactions with peptide/protein binding events. This will allow one to watch individual elements of the nano-light array to be turned on/off as the cell moves across the array. ? Retain compatibility with standard microscope instrumentation. The transparency of wide band gap semiconductor materials potentially allows the slide to be used with both inverted and non-inverted microscopes. Thus the nano-light arrays would be used simultaneously with traditional microscopy techniques.

This project is sponsored by UNC - UNC Chapel Hill.

Defining the Boundaries of Free Space Underwater Communications
John F. Muth
01/01/07 - 12/31/08

This is a $10,000 undergraduate Fellowship from the NCMR that is being routed through NSF as a supplement.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Micromachined Chemical Sensor
John F. Muth
08/15/05 - 08/15/08

The need to be able to detect chemical or explosive agents has grown greatly in importance in recent years. Present sensor systems require the sensor and readout to be at the location of the agent. The ability to remotely interrogate sensors from a distance would be advantageous. This proposal involves the fabrication of micromachined sensors that will be sensitive to chemicals and can be read out by a laser from a distance.

This project is sponsored by Naval Research Laboratory.

Novel Coding Methods and Receiver Designs For Underwater Optical Communications
John F. Muth, Brian L. Hughes
05/23/07 - 12/22/07

There are many challenges to underwater optical communications. This proposal examines novel coding techniques and receiver designs to increase the data rate and range of underwater optical communication system.

This project is sponsored by Ambalux Corporation.

Underwater Optical System
John F. Muth
09/12/07 - 09/30/07

The future tactical ocean environment will be increasingly complicated. In addition to traditional communication links there will be increased reliance on underwater networks and a proliferation of unmanned vehicles in space, in the air, on the surface, and underwater. Above the air/water interface wireless radio frequency communications will continue to provide the majority of communication channels. Underwater, where radio waves do not propagate, acoustic methods will continue to be used. However, while there have been substantial advances in acoustic underwater communications, acoustics will be hard pressed provide sufficient bandwidth to multiple platforms at the same time. Acoustic methods will also continue to have difficulty penetrating the water/air interface. This suggests that high bandwidth, short range underwater optical communications have high potential to augment acoustic communication methods.

This project is sponsored by Naval Research Laboratory.

Valencell: Pulse Oximetry
John F. Muth
05/01/07 - 06/30/08

Multiwavelength emitters are an importent component in devices that measure the amount of oxygen in the blood. This proposal examines how to better make better light sources for pulse oximetery devices.

This project is sponsored by Valencell Inc..

National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network - Triangle National Lithography Center
Carlton M. Osburn
03/01/04 - 02/28/09

The ASML 5500/9xx, in the Triangle National Lithography Center (TNLC), is a state-of-the-art, 193 nm optical lithography system for rapid turnaround time, high volume patterning. The stepper, which is slated for 4Q03 installation, will be housed in Class 100 facilities within NC State?s Nanofabrication Facility which provides auxiliary capabilities: resist coating, developing, descum, and trim. The tool specifications include 130 nm resolution (half-pitch) and < 40 nm nm alignment, with a 26 mm x 33 mm field size. The system will accommodate wafers up to 200 mm in diameter. Previous experience with other steppers suggest that, once the tool is installed and lithography processes are developed, isolated features as small as 65 nm will be able to be printed. Using the resist trimming processes already developed at NC State, features as small as 20 nm are expected. To complete the pattering process, RIE tools are available for film etching. In conjunction with the Strasbaugh 6EC chemical mechanical polishing tool, damascene pattering can be performed. This stepper has a market value of over $10M and represents an investment by UNC-CH and NCSU in excess of $4M. This stepper is expected to fill an important gap in nanofabrication. On the one hand, using resist-trimming techniques, its resolution and alignment capabilities approach that available with direct write e-beam systems, without imposing as severe a constraint on the substrate and resist materials and their thicknesses. On the other hand, once the masks are made, the high volume capability of the stepper (several 10?s of full 200 mm wafers per hour) will allow users to quickly pattern many substrates in order to evaluate alternate materials and/or process sequences in their experiments. Since the stepper can productively expose hundreds of wafers per day, it can also be expected to accommodate a large number of users with very short queuing times. In addition to patterning nanometer features on device wafers, the stepper is designed to support research programs in 193 nm, 157 nm and EUV resist materials, and in green processing. For example, the NSF Science and Technology Center for Environmentally Responsible Solvents and Processes plans to use the stepper to develop solvent-free lithography and cleaning processes for future device generations. The 193 nm stepper will be the center-piece of the ?Dry FAB of the Future? demonstration facility associated with our NSF Science and Technology Center. Systems to coat and develop resists using liquid and supercritical CO2 will be an integral part of the TNLC.

This project is sponsored by Cornell University.

Recessed SiGe and SiC Source/Drain Engineering For Future CMOS Technologies Employing Uniaxial Channel Stress For Channel Mobility Enhancement
Mehmet C. Ozturk, Veena Misra
07/01/06 - 06/30/08

Supplement funds are to fund a second student to work on the awarded project research.

This project is sponsored by Semiconductor Research Corp..

REU Site: Research Experiences For Undergraduates in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at North Carolina State University
Mehmet C. Ozturk, Mihail Devetsikiotis
03/01/07 - 02/29/08

Funds are requested to create a site for research experiences for rising seniors in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Ten students from different institutions will be sponsored every summer for a period of 10 weeks. The students will work on independent research projects with the mentoring ECE faculty and learn about research performed in different ECE specialization areas. The students will be exposed to various elements of academic life including ethics, diversity and forming collegial relationships.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Control-Flow Processors
Eric Rotenberg
09/01/04 - 08/31/08

An architecture is presented that unifies fine-grain control-flow and data-flow dependences in the context of contemporary superscalar processors, preserving highly streamlined mechanisms of superscalar processors while endowing them with dataflow properties. Future independent instructions are fetched, executed, and locally finalized, their results propagated and corresponding resources freed, and their cumulative effects sustained regardless of prior unresolved branch mispredictions. Branch mispredictions no longer serialize execution, leaving exceptions and finite resources as the only remaining serializing constraints in the system. The proposed approach promises to overcome one of the remaining grand-challenge problems in scaling processor performance.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Retention-Aware Placement in DRAM (RAPID): Software Methods for Quasi-Non-Volatile DRAM
Eric Rotenberg
07/01/07 - 06/30/08

DRAM is predicted to displace SRAM in future embedded systems (cell phones, sensor nodes, etc.) as functionality evolves. This future can be better met by dealing with the DRAM refresh problem and thereby reap the capacity benefits of DRAM without impacting battery life. The key lies with exploiting dramatic variations in retention times among different DRAM pages. We recently proposed Retention-Aware Placement in DRAM (RAPID), novel software approaches that can exploit off-the-shelf DRAMs to reduce refresh power to vanishingly small levels approaching non-volatile memory. The key idea is to favor longer-retention pages over shorter-retention pages when allocating DRAM pages. This allows selecting a single refresh period that depends on the shortest-retention page among populated pages, instead of the shortest-retention page overall. We explore three versions of RAPID and observe refresh energy savings of 83%, 93%, and 95%, relative to conventional temperature-compensated refresh. RAPID with off-the-shelf DRAM also approaches the energy levels of idealized techniques that require custom DRAM support. This ultimately yields a software implementation of quasi-non-volatile DRAM. In addition to providing real value for highly-functional, energy-constrained, and cost-constrained computing/communication devices, we believe RAPID is inexpensively deployable because it is based solely on software and commodity off-the-shelf DRAM. The next step in this research is to integrate RAPID into one or more real system prototypes of interest to CACC members, including a cell phone and/or a sensor node.

This project is sponsored by NCSU Center for Advanced Computing & Communication.

Static-Power-Efficient Caches
Eric Rotenberg
05/16/06 - 08/15/08

There are three research thrusts: (1) Continue our research on static-power-efficient caches. (2) Begin exploratory research on logic-process embedded dynamic random access memory (DRAM) trends. (3) Apply our research on Retention-Aware Placement in DRAM (RAPID) to a real system, such as an ultra-low-power wireless sensor network node.

This project is sponsored by Texas Instruments.

The Phase Based Behavior of Objects
Eric Rotenberg
07/01/07 - 06/30/10

In the 90s, the theme of speculation drove innovation in all aspects of processor design and led to significant cumulative performance gains. Today, single core performance is not scaling as impressively due to technology issues and the lack of a compelling theme to drive a new generation of microarchitecture innovation. While the now popular multi-core theme is important, it poses more of a challenge than a solution because much software remains non-parallel. Thus, the multi-core theme must be combined with a new sequential-program-centric thrust. This project puts forward a new microarchitecture theme. We propose a paradigm in which the processor has an unprecedented view of the structure of a running program. Like speculation in the past, this paradigm will enable a new generation of powerful performance optimizations. We propose that current processors are fundamentally performance limited because they narrowly focus on fine-grained program behavior. In particular, they treat individual memory accesses (loads and stores) to program data separately. The novelty of our proposal is recognizing that program data is naturally organized into objects and an object is accessed as a whole via clusters of instructions we term object phases. The additional novelty of this project lies in developing powerful optimizations enabled by object and object phase identification. Our centerpiece and truly novel strategy becomes evident from object phases. When the processor detects the end of a phase operating on an object, signaling an end to modifications (stores) to the object, the next phase can be anticipated and the corresponding code can be specialized according to the new data stored within the object. This represents an unprecedented execution model: when the data in an object or objects change, the program changes with it in real time thereby continuously compressing the future dynamic instruction stream in reaction to object modifications. We observe millions of instructions between successive object phases to a given object, providing ample time for specialization before the next phase. Furthermore, this execution model presents a unique form of parallelization, where the program under observation is not parallelized itself but rather compressed, and the specialization process itself is highly parallel by virtue of assigning responsibility for different objects to different processors in a multi-core or many-core platform. Thus the proposal unifies the prevailing multi-core theme with our new sequential-program-centric theme.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

The Phase Based Behavior of Objects: Enabling a New Generation of Microarchitecture
Eric Rotenberg
04/01/07 - 03/31/08

In the 90s, the theme of speculation drove innovation in all aspects of processor design and led to significant cumulative performance gains. Today, single core performance is not scaling as impressively due to technology issues and the lack of a compelling theme to drive a new generation of microarchitecture innovation. While the now popular multi-core theme is important, it poses more of a challenge than a solution because much software remains non-parallel. Thus, the multi-core theme must be combined with a new sequential-program-centric thrust. This project puts forward a new microarchitecture theme. We propose a paradigm in which the processor has an unprecedented view of the structure of a running program. Like speculation in the past, this paradigm will enable a new generation of powerful performance optimizations.

This project is sponsored by Semiconductor Research Corp..

Virtual Simple Architecture (VISA): Exceeding the Complexity Limit in Safe Real-Time Systems
Eric Rotenberg, Frank Mueller
08/15/03 - 07/31/07

We propose a radically new solution to the problem of building safe real-time systems from unsafe components. Our approach features a reconfigurable pipeline with two modes – a primary mode that is unsafe but energy-efficient and a backup mode that is safe but energy-inefficient. The dual-mode pipeline enables the unrestricted yet safe use of contemporary processors in real-time systems, resolving a long-standing problem in this domain.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Development of Highly-Sensitive HgCdTe Detectors and Large-Format Focal Plane Arrays for Space-Based Imaging Applications in the 2-14 um Infrared Region and Beyond
Jan F. Schetzina, Mark A. Johnson
09/30/05 - 09/29/08

The increased threat to the U.S. associated with international terrorism will require the development of large numbers of sensitive detectors to protect against biological and chemical attacks. Enhanced photo detectors and digital imagers in the ultraviolet, visible, and infrared are also needed for both tactical and strategic DoD and MDA applications. Specifically, in the case of infrared (IR) detectors and imagers, there is now a clear MDA need to develop large quantities of low cost, large-format (1024 x 1024 pixels or larger) highly sensitive IR focal plane arrays (FPAs) that span the 2-14 mm wavelength range and beyond in order for the U.S. to continue to develop a space-based missile defense system. These FPAs must exhibit very high sensitivity, low noise below the limiting background, and operate at temperatures that can be implemented cost-effectively on the battlefield and in missiles and satellites. In the case of HgCdTe, it is clear that the performance of FPAs, particularly at long IR wavelengths, is presently limited by dislocations in the HgCdTe devices and underlying CdZnTe substrate materials which contribute directly to detector noise. For HgCdTe on (211) Si, the best devices and FPAs exhibit dislocation densities in the mid 106 per cm2 at present. For background limited (BLIP) performance when viewing the earh, dislocation densities of mid 104 per cm2 or less must be achieved for long-wavelength IR imagers. For space-based applications, where the background may be orders of magnitude lower than that of the earth, the FPAs requirements for sensing small launch object in space will require the development of even more sensitive detectors and FPAs This project will employ new epitaxial growth methods for CdTe, along with CdZnTe, and CdSeTe lattice-matched to HgCdTe, in order to achieve the required reduction in HgCdTe device dislocations. In particular, epitaxial layer overgrowth (ELO) techniques will be investigated in detail using vapor phase epitaxial growth techniques in order to dramatically reduce dislocations and, hence, greatly improve the performance of large HgCdTe FPAs over the entire 2-14 mm wavelength range and beyond. Our goal is to reduce dislocations to a level of 103 per cm2 or less, such that long wavelength (8-14 mm) HgCdTe detectors and arrays will be limited only by the background radiation (BLIP-limited) when used in satellites to view the earth. This work also represents enabling technology for using sensitive HgCdTe FPAs for certain proposed space-based missile defense systems where the space background is even lower. As the proposed work progresses, we will work closely with scientists at the Army Research Laboratory and the Army Night Vision Laboratory at Ft. Belvoir to transfer the NCSU technology into working IR devices. In addition, these new and improved IR detector materials will be provided to leading DoD industrial suppliers of HgCdTe IR imagers for fabrication and testing of large-format HgCdTe FPAs.

This project is sponsored by US Missile Defense Agency.

NeTS-NBD: Measurement-Based Mobility Modeling for MANETs
Mihail L. Sichitiu, Injong Rhee
08/15/06 - 07/31/08

Mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) have been the focus of significant research activity in the past decade. Thousands of algorithms and protocols for MANETs have been proposed, evaluated and compared. One of the defining characteristics of MANETs is their mobility. Cellular and wireless local area networks also involve mobility, but, due to their fixed infrastructure, the effects of mobility are more limited. In MANETs the breakage of a link between two nodes may affect more than just the two nodes, as that link may be used as a routing path by several other nodes. Furthermore, if a proactive routing protocol is employed, updates on the status of any link in MANETs can propagate through the entire network. Although a few MANET testbeds have been implemented, due to the tremendous logistical difficulties and expenses associated with large mobile testbeds, the vast majority of the proposed protocols have been evaluated through simulation (usually employing network simulator). Either for convenience, or for its simplicity the random waypoint (RWP) mobility model is by far the most popular mobility model used in simulation experiments. A much smaller percentage of papers use detailed simulations (e.g., in vehicular networks, using realistic car following models that follow the roads) to generate the mobility traces. Although it was repeatedly pointed out that the results from simulations using RWP differ both quantitatively, as well as qualitatively from those using detailed mobility simulations, most papers avoid the trouble of generating realistic mobility traces. Intellectual merit: We propose to develop and evaluate a hybrid mobility model that is relatively easy to generate and, at the same time, produces realistic mobility traces, that in turn, result in meaningful simulation results for MANET simulations. The proposed model has the desirable characteristics that it is customizable to match any scenario (e.g., busses in a city, students in a campus, or zebras in a herd), while allowing the users to vary key parameters (number of nodes, density, etc.). Broader impacts: Since for the foreseeable future MANET performance evaluation will be based on network simulations, we expect that the results of this project will be widely used in the MANET community. We envision that the proposed model will effectively replace the RWP as the standard mobility model used in any MANET performance evaluation.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

On-the-fly Scene-dependent ATR
Wesley E. Snyder, Siamak Khorram
02/15/07 - 11/30/07

A hyperspectral imager produces an image with a hundred or more spectral measurements at each pixel. A multispectral imager on the other hand may sample the spectrum in only three to ten bands. Given hyperspectral data, one can synthesize multispectral data by simply integrating over the appropriate portion of the spectrum at each point. One would think that a pattern classifier based on multispectral data would perform poorly as compared to the same type of classifier based on hyperspectral data, since surely information is being lost in going from many measurements to few. However, we know that the hyperspectral data is highly correlated and that much research has shown that the data has many fewer degrees of freedom than the number of individual bands. This work will show how to use the hyperspectral data to it fullest advantage to detect and classify a target, then design a lower dimensional multispectral system that can perform the same task using fewer resources that can be implemented on a smaller platform.

This project is sponsored by US Air Force-Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR).

CAREER: Intelligently Managing the Memory Hierarchy of Future High Performance Servers
Yan Solihin
03/01/04 - 02/29/08

Continuing trends in chip integration will soon lead to on-Chip Massive Multi Processors (CMMP) for high performance servers in the multi-billion transistor chip era. A unique feature of CMMP is that there will be a large number of threads, up to hundreds of them, simultaneously competing for shared resources such as caches and off-chip bandwidth. This presents unprecedented new challenges in designing the memory hierarchy of CMMP, such as interthread cache conflicts, off-chip bandwidth bottleneck, and costly context switches To tackle the challenges, fine-grain thread-aware resource management of caches, off-chip bandwidth, and the main memory is proposed.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Collaborative Research: Software and Hardware Support for Efficient Monitoring of Program Behavior
Yan Solihin
09/01/06 - 08/31/09

Today's software systems run on a number of platforms and environments and are increasingly dynamic in nature. Heterogeneity in the runtime environments occurs at different layers (hardware, operating system, runtime libraries, virtual machine) and may cause the software to behave differently on different machines. Different instances of the software may also behave differently because of the dynamic nature of the software. For example, it is very common for a software system to be highly configurable, extensible through plug-ins, and dynamically upgradeable and adaptable. For these reasons, it is becoming difficult to asses the performance of a software systems without considering the context in which it will run. However, evaluating the software in all possible configurations and environments is typically infeasible, whereas considering only a subset thereof may not be representative of the way the software is going to be used. Therefore, the analysis of software behavior is shifting from a purely in-house activity to a task that is increasingly performed on live runs in the production environment. This shift has spurred much interest in runtime monitoring approaches that can collect information about software's behavior when it runs on users' platforms. In the last years, monitoring approaches have been defined for a range of domains (e.g., performance optimization, testing, runtime verification, security). Unfortunately, most existing approaches to runtime monitoring are limited in three main ways. First, they are defined ad-hoc, which makes it difficult to extend and adapt them to new contexts. Second, they use monitoring code that is hand-crafted and unmodifiable at runtime, which limits their suitability for highly adaptive, self-monitoring systems. Third, they are typically defined within only one computational layer (e.g., software, operating system, or hardware)---they do not take advantage of the capabilities offered by the other layers and do not leverage the interplay across layers. The long term goal of this proposed research is to define a general approach to efficient runtime monitoring of software that leverages software and hardware capabilities in a synergistic way. The approach will allow for specifying monitoring tasks using a language that provides suitable abstractions. Such specifications would then be automatically analyzed and translated into primitive monitoring tasks that would be distributed across software and hardware layers to minimize the performance overhead.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Providing and Maximizing Quality of Service in Utility Computing Servers
Yan Solihin
09/01/04 - 08/31/07

This project proposes new run-time, operating system, and performance modeling techniques that enable Quality of Service (QoS) through providing performance guarantee and contention minimization for user jobs in future utility computing servers. {\em Utility Computing} is an IT business model where users outsource computing to a vendor that manages computing resources and charges its customers based on the actual computing that they use. Utility computing servers will likely simultaneously run many user jobs with varying performance guarantee requirements. Many important applications, such as transaction processing, weather prediction, and real-time applications, require execution time guarantee. In addition, trends in server architecture design suggest that future servers will have deep memory hierarchy where lower level caches and memory bandwidth will be highly shared by a large number of processors. Guaranteeing performance in an environment where inter-job contention is high is a new and serious challenge. Even on today's servers, contention has been shown to cause a large performance variability on impacted jobs. The need to provide performance guarantee in high performance servers has long been neglected, and the proposed work seeks to address that. The proposed work will make revolutionary advances to the current state of the art technology in batch job submission system, OS job scheduling, and performance modeling.

This project is sponsored by National Science Foundation.

Electromagnetic Modeling Tools for Three Dimensional Integrated Circuits
Michael B. Steer, William R. Davis, Paul D. Franzon
07/05/04 - 04/12/08

The central aim of this proposal is development of a workflow that supports three dimensional integrated circuit (3DIC) design and, with minimal change, will support module design. Work will address partitioning of high performance functions among individual integrated circuits in the 3DIC stack, reuse of the existing integrated circuit design infrastructure, and the critical thermal environment in 3DICs. The project requires good thermal modeling and thermally-oriented design.

This project is sponsored by Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC).

Optimum Waveform Design for Electromagnetic Disruption and Probing of Remote Devices
Michael B. Steer
11/01/06 - 10/31/08

Acoustic signals can be generated at relatively low power levels and require less of an infrastructure (e.g. large antennas) than does electromagnetic probing. Thus acoustic-based systems provides an additional sensor for characterizing the environment. Acoustic signals interact with the environment responding to differences in volume and density of objects. There also is a fundamental difference in the response to man-made and natural objects due to the stresses inherent to manufactured objects. Also the interface of materials of different density is acoustically nonlinear. The objective of this work is to find discover the acoustic signatures of objects and to use microwave characterization techniques to model acoustic nonlinearities.

This project is sponsored by Army Research Office.

Standoff Inverse Analysis and Manipulation of Electronic System
Michael B. Steer
07/01/05 - 01/31/08

We propose a program to probe, locate, and identify wireless electronic circuits using electromagnetic probing. We have crafted a program that will contribute to the required fundamental understanding of the phenomena involved through theoretical developments; and we will engage in experimental and modeling-based phenomenological investigations. In particular we will develop high power , wideband passive circuits will low passive intermodulation performance.

This project is sponsored by Army Research Office.

Ultra-Wideband Impulse Radio for Ad-Hoc Tactical Military Communications
J. K. Townsend
05/15/07 - 01/14/08

Ultra-wideband (UWB) impulse radio has been shown to offer advantages that make it well-suited for many tactical, military applications. In particular, the UWB waveform has the potential for good Low Probability of Intercept/Low Probability of Detection (LPI/LPD). The body of literature on UWB impulse radio is growing. However, most of the work in the area of UWB impulse radio does not address issues that apply to the ad-hoc radio network environment. We propose to investigate ultra-wideband technology with emphasis on the tactical military mission. The requirements of tactical communications have some important differences when compared to commercial radio, and include covertness, survivability, rapid deployment, and low power in an ad-hoc, peer-to-peer environment. Our approach will be to leverage our recent results in the area of chip discrimination with the transmitted reference UWB schemes. This research will provide new theoretical and practical architectures and techniques that do not require the restrictive assumptions of the current state of the art.

This project is sponsored by Army Research Office.

Ultra-Wideband Impulse Radio for Tactical Military Communications
J. K. Townsend
08/20/03 - 08/19/07

The requirements of tactical communications have some important differences when compared to commercial radio, and include covertness, survivability, rapid deployment, and low power in an ad-hoc, peer-to-peer environment. Some of the operational covert characteristics of SINGARS for example are implicit in UWB with the added advantage of a very dynamic data throughput used for simultaneous voice and data. We propose to investigate ultra-wideband technology with emphasis on the tactical military mission. Our approach will be to leverage our existing experience in impulse radio. Our investigation will provide the theoretical and practical foundation for the potential of UWB in the tactical environment.

This project is sponsored by US Army.

IMPATT-mode AlGaN/GaN mm-Wave HFETs
Robert J. Trew
10/03/06 - 10/03/08

This research is directed towards investigation of a novel IMPATT mode of operation of AlGaN/GaN high voltage HFET?s. Novel device structures are investigated using a physics-based large signal RF simulator and simulated results are compared to experimental data obtained from industrial collaborators. The simulator is used to provide design guidance, as well as investigate physical operational details.

This project is sponsored by SVT Associates.

Label-Free THz-Optoelectronic Sensing of Ultra-Low Concentration of Genetic Sequences: Theoretical Treatment
Robert J. Trew, Carl T. Kelley, Peiji Zhao
08/01/04 - 01/31/09

To fully understand the operational principle of the suggested device concept for label-free THz optoelectronic sensing of single or a few DNA molecules, a series of scientific issues associated with the operational principle of the device have to be investigated. These issues are illustrated as follows. 1). THz Photoconduction of the Probe ssDNA. Research on conduction of DNA molecules have been studied for many years. However, as far as our knowledge can reach, there is no research on THz photoconductivity of ssDNA molecules so far. The photoconduction characteristics of ssDNA are key features in monitoring hybridization processes for it provides the reference in identifying the occurrence of the hybridization process. 2). Vibration Spectrums of Probe ssDNA and hybridized dsDNA. Research on vibrational characteristics of DNA molecules have been studied for many years. Previous research on the vibration spectrum of DNA molecules is mainly focused on free DNA molecules. With the development of modern device technology, DNA molecules have been bound onto the surfaces of electrodes for fabricating DNA based electronic devices. However, as far as we know, there is no research on the vibrational spectrum of the bound DNA molecules so far, let along the vibration spectrum of a bound ssDNA. The vibration characteristics of DNA are key features in determining the frequency of THz sources for exciting the vibration and photo-conductivity measurement of the suggested device. 3). Simulation of the THz- Photocurrent Characteristics of the Suggested Device A common feature of the biomolecular detection techniques is that known DNA molecules are used as the probes of detectors. Recently, the electronic transport characteristics of the molecules have triggered research interest for the possible application of the molecules in biomolecular electronics. Research on the conductive characteristics of DNA molecules shows that single DNA molecule exhibits metallic, semiconductor, and insulator behaviors. These behaviors of DNA molecular conductivity are closely related to the sequence of the base pairs of the molecules. Furthermore, the charge transport in single DNA molecule is associated with the motion of the backbone of the molecule. While the device is illuminated by THz radiation, the vibration of the backbone of the DNA molecules will be excited. Meanwhile, the energy levels of the DNA molecules will be changed because of the position change of the atoms in the backbone of the DNA. This process will also lead to the change of the current through the DNA molecules. Hence, simulation of the THz- photocurrent characteristics of the suggested device will provide fundamental expression of the photocurrent through the molecular wire. This characteristic will be used as evidence for verifying the feasibility of the suggested device for label-free THz-optoelectronic detection of ultralow concentration of DNA molecules. 4). Methodology for Design of Electrodes Previous researches show that the materials of electrodes are one of the key factors that influence the sensitivity of electrochemistry-based sensors for detection of DNA molecules. In most of the experiments, gold is used as the electrode material. Although the sensors with Au electrodes can reach very high sensitivity (in the order of magnitude of 10 pm), this technique is not compatible with current microelectronics technology (silicon technology). In contrast, sensors with silicon electrodes have lower sensitivity ( in the order of magnitude of ìm to nano-m). Our recent research shows that a potential barrier can be crested between the silicon surface and an organic molecule [23]. It is this barrier that reduces the sensitivity of silicon-electrode-based biosensors. In this research task, we will study the way to reduce the height of the barrier. This study will lead to the design rules for silicon electrodes for biosensing.

This project is sponsored by US Army.

mm-Wave AlGaN/GaN HFET's
Robert J. Trew
06/09/03 - 06/08/08

Significant progress has been achieved on this grant. We have investigated the physical operation of the nitride devices and have discovered new and previously unrecognized phenomena that may result in the use of these devices as very high frequency sources, extending from the mm-wave spectrum to possible THz frequencies. The new phenomena consist of RF channel breakdown and transit-time phenomena that can introduce negative resistance behavior into the conducting channel of the device. This negative resistance can be used to increase the gain of the device at high frequencies and permit gain at frequencies well above the normal cutoff frequency for the device. Also, our work has expanded to the investigation of molecular electronics, with application at THz frequencies and we have established fundamental simulation capability that provides the basis to investigate the potential of the molecular devices for use at THz frequencies. The purpose of this addendum is to request additional funding on the grant to increase the scope of the research in order to explore the potential of the recently discovered phenomena for very high frequency applications. Adequate funding for the additional work is not presently available on the grant.

This project is sponsored by US Army.

Modeling Support For Investigation of AlGaN/GaN-Based Transistors on Nonpolar AlN Substrates
Robert J. Trew
03/01/07 - 01/31/08

This project will provide device modeling support to Crystal-IS for the purpose of investigating the use of non-polar AlN substrates in the fabrication of AlGaN/GaN HFETs. The use of non-polar substrates is expected to affect the formation of the 2DEG conducting channel and to permit control over RF breakdown during operation. Control over RF breakdown should permit more uniform performance and higher reliability devices to be fabricated and realized.

This project is sponsored by Crystal IS, Inc..

Physics-Based Device Modeling
Robert J. Trew
05/20/05 - 02/01/08

Not required

This project is sponsored by Northrop Grumman.

Proposal for Defense University Research Instrumentation Program
Carl T. Kelley, Robert J. Trew
05/01/06 - 10/31/07

This is a revised budget for an ARO proposal entitled "Proposal for Defense University Research Instrumentation Program." We plan to purchase 53 dual-Xeon compute nodes with Myrinet interconnect for use in two ARO supported projects in nano-molecular electronics.

This project is sponsored by Army Research Office.

The Millimeter-Wave Initiative for Nitide Electronics
Robert J. Trew
04/01/05 - 03/31/10

This investigation will make use of a series of advanced physics-based device models that have been previously developed. These models will be modified and enhanced with appropriate physical phenomena that will permit accurate simulation of realistic HFET device performance. The models will be used to determine optimized device designs for mm-wave operation. Physical effects to be investigated include: • Channel charge transport models that properly account for interface scattering and velocity vector variation. • Space-charge and high current density effects in the source-gate region. • Channel current non-confinement under large-signal RF voltage. • Electron transit-time and channel depletion region phenomena. • Accurate models for channel breakdown will be developed. The IMPATT-mode of operation will be thoroughly investigated. • Design modifications to permit full development of channel current while sustaining high dc and RF voltage will be investigated and determined. • Charge trapping/de-trapping under large-signal transient conditions • Dc and transient thermal effects The models will be calibrated with experimental data and will serve to guide improved device design.

This project is sponsored by Santa Barbara, University of California.

IP Triple and Quadruple Play Services: Modeling and Design
Harry G. Perros, Ioannis Viniotis
07/01/06 - 06/30/08

We propose to develop an analytic model that will permit us to dimension the access multiplexer on the downstream side, and also on the upstream side if we assume that the users on/off process is an Interrupted Poisson Process (IPP). That is, the on period is exponentially distributed, rather than Pareto as assumed above. In addition, the same model will be able to permit us to dimension connections through a WAN that are necessary to connect the IP router of the access network to a distant content provider. Such connections can be setup using pseudowires.

This project is sponsored by NCSU Center for Advanced Computing & Communication.

Reliable Medium Access in Wireless Networks: Vulnerabilities, Protection, and Recovery
Wenye Wang, Peng Ning
08/01/07 - 02/28/08

The goal is to study vulnerabilities of medium access in wireless networks and develop preventive algorithms for protection and reactive algorithms for recovery in the aftermath of cyber-attacks The approach will be to start with detailed middle-ware based traffic injecting, monitoring, measurement, and analysis in the Networking of Wireless Information Systems (NeTWIS) lab of North Carolina State University. The collected data will be later used for evaluation and verification of our proposed solutions. We will derive simpler drivers for wireless devices with different power, processing capability, and operation systems to capture all traffic that initiate an effort of communications at the MAC-layer. Then we will develop resilient MAC-layer mechanism, which target to main categories: DoS attacks aimed at reducing network availability, and selfish/greedy behaviors that favor some selected nodes but affect the overall network availability. This effort includes authentication of MAC-layer frames, surviving and recovering from MAC-layer DoS attacks. By considering multi-radio networks as a promising technique for military applications, we propose to design a MAC-oriented resource management framework for enhancing network availability. This mechanism is capable of precisely discovering accessible wireless networks and fairly allocating transmission slots. The expected result of this research is a new approach to solving the unreliable medium access problems by combining cryptographic approaches and networking design.

This project is sponsored by Army Research Office.

Magneto-Transports in Interband Resonant Tunneling Diodes (I-RTDs) and Dilute Magnetic Semiconductor (DMS) 1-RTDs
Peiji Zhao
05/01/07 - 04/30/08

The double-barrier resoant tunneling diodes with staggered band alignments can admit significant interband tunneling current in addition to conduction band electron transport. This research seeks to develop multi-band models for understanding of basic transport physics of I-RTDs when subjected to magnetic fields and when composed of diluted magnetically-ordered type II superlattices. Here magnetically ordered I-RTDs refers to the situation where a small percentage of sublattice cation sites from one or two heterostrucutre layers are substitued by Mn magetic ions, which carry localized magnetic moments. The exchange coupling between conduction and valence-band electrons of a semiconductor with strongly localized substutional Mn d electrons inside a magnetic field may be significient. Therefore spin dependent tranport equation sets are derived by decoupling the total (at least six-band) Hamiltonian into ?spin-up? and ?spin-down? subsets where both Zeeman splitting and strong sp-3d exchange interaction are included in both. The objectives of this research are: (1) to calculate the resonant conduction-band current and interband Zener tunneling current; and (2) to study the nanoscale feedback dynamic processes arising from interband tunneling and its accompanied space charge accumulation. Therefore, these investigations will develop new models and execute simulations to analyze and engineer specific DMS device configurations suitable for a two-phase charging-discharging THz oscillator and explore other possible applications such as spintronics.

This project is sponsored by Army Research Office.

Nanoscale Imaging Technology for THz-Frequency Transmission Microscopy I.F.1.h (CBT)
Peiji Zhao, Robert J. Trew
06/01/07 - 05/31/08

A novel nanoscale-engineering research project is proposed for the first-time development of a microscope-system capable of collecting terahertz (THz) frequency spectroscopic signatures from microscopic biological (bio) structures. This unique THz transmission microscopy is motivated primarily by previous U.S. Army & DTRA supported studies on biological materials and agents that have produced spectral features within the THz frequency regime (i.e., ~ 300 GHz to 1000 GHz) that appear to be representative of the internal structure and characteristics of the biological samples ? e.g., DNA, RNA and bacterial spores. Research conducted by a number of groups during the last ten years has produced results that suggest terahertz (THz) frequency spectroscopy is a potential new method for detecting, identifying and characterizing biological agents. Specifically, spectroscopic measurements conducted on biological materials and agents have produced spectral features within the THz frequency regime (i.e., ~ 300 GHz to 1000 GHz) that appear to be representative of the internal structure and characteristics of the biological samples that have been considered ? e.g., DNA, RNA and bacterial spores. However, the THz spectroscopic approach is problematic in that the spectral features observed from bulk samples of the biological materials tends to be very weak (i.e., ~ 1-5% local variation in spectral absorption) and of limited number within the band (i.e., < 50-100 spectral features). Very noteworthy to the THz sensing problem are recent results that suggest the underlying dynamics (i.e., vibrational modes) that produce the THz frequency absorption characteristics might be seriously underestimated by measurements performed on large samples made up of microscopic biological materials (i.e., either ordered or random in nature). In particular, recent theoretical and experimental results suggest that the absorptions characteristics of isolated biological molecules may possess optically active vibrational (or phonon) modes that produce spectral absorption features that are much stronger and sharper (i.e., and therefore less overlapping between individual spectral signatures) that those obtained from measurements made on bulk samples. Note that bulk samples have been required in almost all the reported THz spectral studies to date because a sufficiently large and uniform aperture must be supplied in order to measure the very weak phenomenon within the microscopic biological system. Needless to say, one obviously needs extremely high sensitivity in performing such measurements and when large collections of either randomly placed or highly ordered biological molecules are considered it becomes extremely difficult to execute repeatable spectroscopic experiments because it is difficult to prepare identically systems and to subsequently control them during testing. One fundamental approach for avoiding the previously discussed limitations is to prescribe a technique whereby the THz frequency signatures could be collected from individual biological molecules. In the proposal that follows this problem will be considered and a study will be proposed for the pursuit of a nanoscale technological approach for achieving this goal. As will be argued, it is possible to envision the development of a ?nanoscale imaging array? that would possess the characteristics necessary for successfully performing ?THz-frequency microscopy.? Note that the concepts discussed in this proposal are to be considered proprietary and are not for distribution. The proposal that follows will describe a team effort between North Carolina State University, the University of California at Irvine, and the University of New Mexico that seeks to investigate the device and system technology that will be required to potentially achieve the goal of a THz Microscope

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