ELLIIT workshop 2017

Published: 2016-12-13

ELLIIT logo

The aim of this annual workshop is to share experiences and results within the environment and to inspire collaboration within the ELLIIT-network and between the network and the surrounding society. 

Keynote speakers:

April 26 at 13.30: Margaret-Anne Storey, University of Victoria, Canada  "The software developer as the knowledge worker of tomorrow?

April 27 at 9.00: Thor I. Fossen, NTNU Centre for Autonomous Marine Operations and Systems, Norway "Nonlinear Observer Design and Strapdown Inertial Navigation Systems for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles? 

Program and registration: http://www.lth.se/lu350/elliitws17/

2017-02-03 PhD Thesis defense by Gabriele Costanza

Published: 2016-12-29

Date: Feb 3, 2017
Time: 10.15
Place: LTH, E-huset, Room 1406

2016-12-13 PhD Thesis defense by Qian Guo

Published: 2016-11-01

Date: Dec 13, 2016 
Time: 10.15 
Place: E:1406

2016-11-29 PhD Thesis defense by Zachary Miers

Published: 2016-11-01

Date: Nov 29, 2016 
Time: 10.15 
Place: E:1406

2016-11-24 Seminar by Fredrik Anderson, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, LTH

Published: 2016-11-23

Date: Thursday, November 24 
Time: 15.15-16 
Place: E:2517 
Title: Direction of arrival estimation for multiple frequencies

2016-11-15 PhD Thesis defense by Christopher Jämthagen

Published: 2016-11-01

Date: Nov 15, 2016 
Time: 10.15 
Place: E:1406

Abstract

This thesis presents new methods contributing to the area of software security. Both offensive and defensive methods are proposed, where the offensive methods presented in this thesis mostly deal with how an attacker can embed malicious code in a stealthy manner, and the defensive methods aims at detecting some form of attack.

The first approach deals with how a virtual machine can be detected and we discuss its use as both an offensive as well as a defensive method. We develop a proof-of-concept that aims to demonstrate how the technique works in practice.

Next we implement a GlobalPlatform compatible RPC mechanism utilizing both a hypervisor and SELinux and provide some benchmarks for both solutions. 

Following this we will look at timestamping of data on a massive scale and how by utilizing the blockchain of the Bitcoin network, we can gain Byzantine fault tolerance for the Keyless Signing Infrastructure.

Then we will look at methods for obfuscating code by overlapping assembly instructions in machine code. We do this both by crafting custom no-operation instructions in the binary, but also provide a method to accomplish this in the source code when that source code will be compiled via a deterministic building process to produce the expected binaries.

Finally this thesis will conclude with a method for detecting Return Oriented Programming attacks by analyzing the raw data of a network stream.

2016-11-11 PhD Thesis defense by Aein Shiri Babadi

Published: 2016-11-01

Date: Nov 11, 2016 
Time: 10:15 am 
Place: E:1406 

Abstract

This thesis investigates the electronic properties of a number of novel III-V materials and material combinations for transistor applications. In particular, high-κ/InAs metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) structures and transport properties of GaSb nanowires have been studied. III-V semiconductors are potential candidates to replace Si-based electronics due to their outstanding electron transport properties. 

One of the main challenges in the performance of III-V MOS Field-Effect Transistors (MOSFETs) is the integration of high quality high-κ gate oxides. The quality of the oxide and the oxide-semiconductor interface affects the density of trapped charges which subsequently affects the device performance. The first part of the thesis is focused on studying the electrical properties of high-κ/InAs material system. A theoretical model of MOS capacitance-voltage (C-V) response is developed for narrow band gap semiconductors to quantify the densities of InAs-oxide interface and border traps. Different deposition conditions and surface passivation techniques are examined to minimize the trap densities. The optimized structure shows trap densities in the order of 1012 cm-2eV-1, which is comparable to the state-of-the-art high-κ on other high-electron-mobility III-Vs, such as InGaAs. 

The second part of the thesis discusses the transport properties of GaSb nanowires. The electrical properties of the nanowires are characterized by fabricating lateral nanowire-based Field-Effect transistors. The thesis further explores a strategy for boosting the mobility in GaSb nanowires using strained GaSb/InGaAs core-shell nanowires.

2016-11-09 PhD Thesis defense by Tobias Tired

Published: 2016-11-01

Date: Nov 9, 2016 
Time: 10.15 
Place: E:1406 

Abstract:

This doctoral thesis is addresses two topics in integrated circuit design: multiband direct conversion cellular receivers for cellular frequencies and beam steering transmitters for millimeter wave communication for the cellular backhaul. The trend towards cellular terminals supporting ever more different frequency bands has resulted in complex radio frontends with a large number of RF inputs. Common receivers have, for performance reasons, in the past used differential RF inputs. However, as shown in the thesis, with novel design techniques it is possible to achieve adequate performance with a single ended frontend architecture, thereby reducing the complexity and pin-count. Millimeter wave integrated circuits development has previously not been subject to the mass production requirements that have been put on chip sets for cellular terminals, i.e. a minimum number of circuits, low supply voltage and power consumption, together with programmability to handle process spread and performance fine tuning. However, in the near future, when 5G networks will be deployed and the number of small pico- and femtocell base stations will explode, there will be a strong demand for low cost and high performance single-chip millimeter wave beam steering transceivers. The millimeter wave circuits presented in this work have been designed in a SiGe bipolar technology. Traditionally, SiGe designs use a higher supply voltage compared to CMOS. In this work, however, it has been shown that millimeter wave transceivers can be designed using a low supply voltage, thereby reducing the power consumption and eliminating the need for dedicated voltage regulators. Paper I presents a 28 GHz QVCO with an I/Q phase error tuning and detection. In paper II a 28 GHz beam steering PLL is presented together with measurement results for the design in paper I. Measurement results for the beam steering PLL are shown in paper III. Simulation results for a two-stage 81-86 GHz power amplifier are provided in paper IV. Paper V shows measurement results for two E-band power amplifiers. In paper VI, simulation results are presented for a complete E-band transmitter including a three-stage power amplifier. A reconfigurable single-ended CMOS LNA for different cellular frequency bands is presented in paper VII. A single-ended multiband RF-amplifier and mixer with DC-offset and second order distortion suppression in BiCMOS technology is presented in paper VIII.

2016-10-24 Master Thesis presentation by Antoniso Pateas' and Dragos Naegoes'

Published: 2016-10-18

Date: Oct 24, 2016 
Time: 14:15 
Place: E:3139 
Title:  "Efficient IPv6 Network Discovery in Wireless Environment".  

Abstract

As the address space of IPv4 is being depleted with the development of IoT (Internet Of Things), there is an increasing need for permanent transition to the IPv6 protocol as soon as possible. Nowadays, many 3GPP Networks have implemented or will implement IPv6 in the near future for Internet access. These networks will also use NDP (Neighbor Discovery Protocol), which is the IPv6 tailored version of ARP (Address Resolution Protocol). The protocol is responsible of address auto-configuration, maintaining lists of all neighbors connected to a
network, verifying if they are still reachable, managing prefixes and duplicate address detection. The protocol is defined in RFC 4861 and although it works fine for wired connected devices, it has been proven highly inefficient in terms of battery lifetime saving, when wireless networks came to the market and its use increased tremendously. This thesis work is a continuation of a previous master thesis and complements the work done previously by showing how the solutions suggested in the new draft can be implemented at the router and host side and practically confirms the previous results of the theoretical analysis through simulation scenarios of sleep and wake-up of the nodes, performed in OMNeT++. Subsequently, the scalability of the system as a whole was analyzed with a simulation model containing a range of hosts from 1 to 100, and shows it can operate efficiently on a larger scale, reducing multicast messaging by almost 100%, presumably saving their battery power .

2016-10-20 Seminar by Karim Cherkaoui, visiting from Tyndall National Institute, Ireland.

Published: 2016-10-18

Date: Thursday Oct 20 
Time: 11.15 
Place: E:2349

Abstract

In this seminar the Nano-Electronic Materials and Devices group of the Tyndall National Institute in Cork, Ireland will be introduced. The group’s research areas and capabilities will be briefly presented. The high-k/III-V system has been the core of the research effort within the NMD group. The emphasis has been on the characterisation and metrology of interface states, oxide traps in the high-k/III-V metal oxide semiconductor using MOS capacitors and MOSFETs. Some examples of recent results obtained in this area will be presented and the relevance to the recently funded EU project (INSIGHT) will be discussed.

2016-10-18 “Scientific Information Management” Autumn 2016– course for PhD students

Published: 2016-05-27

“Scientific Information Management” Autumn 2016– course for PhD students

It’s time for a new run of the course “Scientific Information Management” for PhD students at LTH. The course will start next time on the 18^th October.  For more information and registration, see:

http://www.lth.se/english/staff/teaching-and-research/phd-studies/phd-courses/faculty-wide-phd-courses/scientific-information-management/

2016-10-18 Seminar by EIT postdoc Erik Leitinger from TU Graz

Published: 2016-10-14

Date: Tuesday Oct 18, 2016 
Time: 15.15 
Place: E:2517 
Title: Indoor Positioning and Mapping using Multipath Channel Information

Description:

Location awareness is one of the most important requirements for many future wireless applications. Multipath-assisted indoor navigation and tracking (MINT) is a possible concept to enable robust and accurate localization of an agent in indoor environments. Using knowledge of a floor plan of the environment and the position of the physical anchors, specular multipath components can be exploited, based on a geometry-based stochastic channel model. So-called virtual anchors, which are mirror images of the physical anchors, are used as additional anchors for positioning. In this way additional position-related information is exploited that is contained in the radio signals. This position-related information is based on the CRLB of the position error for a GSCM to account for geometry dependent MPCs as well as for stochastically modeled diffuse/dense multipath. It shows that the SINR of each useful MPC quantities the amount of position-related information.

The quality of this additional information also depends strongly on the accuracy of the corresponding floor plan.  Therefore, probabilistic MINT was introduced that has the aims (i) to remove the requirement of a precisely known a-priori floor plan and (ii) to cope with uncertainties in the environment representation. In probabilistic MINT the VAs are treated as RV and comprised in a geometry-based probabilistic environment model (GPEM). The resulting probabilistic multipath-assisted feature-based simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) approach can operate without any prior knowledge of the floor plan.

2016-10-18 Live webinar on Massive MIMO by Lund University and National Instruments

Published: 2016-10-14

Date: Tuesday Oct 18 
Time: 12.00 PM EDT 
Title: Massive Signal Processing for Massive MIMO, Challenges and Lessons Learned

Speakers: 

Dr. Karl Nieman, Senior Wireless Platform Architect, National Instruments 
Kyle Teegarden, Product Marketing Engineer, National Instruments 
Dr. Fredrik Tufvesson, Professor of radio systems, Lund University
Dr. Liang Liu, Associate Professor, Lund University 
Dexter Johnson, Moderator

Abstract

In the coming years, telecommunications providers face the daunting challenge of increasing data rates while also expanding network capacity by orders of magnitude. High channel count MIMO technologies such as Massive MIMO offer unique benefits that can address these concerns and enable 5G networks. To move Massive MIMO from theory to reality, however, advanced hardware must be combined with challenging signal processing.

In this webinar, we will go over the creation of the world's first real-time Massive MIMO system at Lund University, Sweden. This successful deployment produced a host of field trial results, but also revealed new challenges in Massive MIMO development. We will cover lessons learned from the Lund system while also diving deep into the signal processing used, including reciprocity calibration, MIMO precoding, and MIMO decoding. Finally, we will discuss the future of Massive MIMO research and standardization. Join us to learn how you can begin building your own Massive MIMO testbed to tackle these challenges. 

Full info and registration here 

2016-10-17 Master Thesis presentation by Albert Llimós

Published: 2016-10-14

Date: Oct 17, 2016 
Time: 11.15 - 12.00 
Place: E:2349 
Title: Design and implementation of a 2-channel high precision and high speed digitizing system

This is a collaborative work between EIT and Chemical Physics Department.

Abstract

New spectroscopic techniques, such as photocurrent detected two-dimensional spectroscopy, require analog to digital converters with very high dynamic range. In such techniques, one measures the linear as well as the nonlinear response from the sample that are excited by modulated light. Typically, the linear signal is 100 to 1000 times larger than the nonlinear signal. Thus, ADCs with very high dynamic range are necessary to measure both the signals simultaneously. It is required to digitize and store the measured signals to be able to transfer the data to a computer in order to process the information. In this thesis project, a 2-channel, 23bit, and 4MS/s digitizing system has been build which meets the aforementioned application requirement. The project includes system architecture design, ADC sampling control, digital data processing on FPGA, PC interfacing, as well as control software implementation.

2016-10-14 Licenciatseminarium för Jens A Andersson

Published: 2016-09-16

Datum: 14 Okt, 2016 

Tid: 13.15 
Plats: E:2311, Inst för Elektro- och Informationsteknik, E-huset, LTH. 
Titel: From Noise to Zapping - Quality of Service Issues Affecting Internet TV Distribution

Särskild granskare: Universitetslektor Patrik Arlos, Blekinge tekniska högskola, Karlskrona 
Handledare: Professor Maria Kihl, EIT 
Examinator: Docent Christian Nyberg, EIT 
Högskolepoäng: 75 hp

Abstract:

The Internet and the development and deployment of new access network technologies have opened up for new information and communication applications. The mobile or cellular networks have evolved from a facility for voice call to today's IP only network. The evolution has also allowed for re-use of old and available infrastructure for technologies that increases the available capacity far beyond the original objective. The strive of having the Internet as the only 'carrier' for all applications, leads to change of transport channel for 'old' and well-known and well-established services. The customer thus expects the old behaviour - it is still the same service - but the changed channels makes the applications behave differently.

This thesis discusses performance parameters and monitoring with focus on Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) links and TV over Internet (IPTV) or Video on Demand (VoD). Studies of some typical disturbances that degrade the DSL channel and their impact on IP datagram transportation, and thus on IPTV Quality of Experience (QoE) are presented. Also, profiling of VoD users for pre-fetching and terminal caching is shown to be a possible path for increasing the QoE and lower the network utilisation.

2016-09-23 PhD Thesis defense by Waqas Ahmad

Published: 2016-09-19

2016-09-23 PhD Thesis defense by Waqas Ahmad

Date: Sept 23, 2016 
Time: 9-12 
Place: E:1406 
Title: "Low Cost Remote Antenna Units in CMOS for Fiber-fed Distributed MIMO Systems".

Massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) is a revolutionary communication technique, where large numbers of antennas are employed at the base stations to increase the spectral efficiency, reliability and data rate of the system. Moreover, in multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) multiple users can be served by the base stations on the same time-frequency resource. Distributed antenna system (DAS) is a form of massive MIMO, where the antennas are distributed over a geographic area instead of being co-located. Optical fibers can be used to connect these remote antenna units (RAUs) to the base station in a low loss and coherent fashion. Since large numbers of RAUs are required it is very important to reduce their cost. This work is focused on designing a low cost RAU intended for a multi-mode fiber (MMF) fed distributed MIMO system. It is also assumed that MMF and vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) would be used to keep the system cost low. A standard 65 nm CMOS technology was used to design the circuits. In paper I, a low cost RAU architecture was presented where a basic downlink signal chain with an integrated photodiode was designed. An intermediate frequency (IF) over fiber approach is chosen, so that an integrated photodiode and low cost optical components could be used. Measurement results indicated that the proposed architecture is promising for implementing low cost RAUs. Paper II presents the design and measurements of a complete RAU, featuring both uplink and downlink signal chains, and frequency generation circuits. The designed RAU also includes a novel scheme which allows the use of an antenna switch instead of a bulky circulator, saving both cost and area. Furthermore, RAU phase synchronization is achieved using reference signal distribution, which is critical for the performance of distributed MIMO systems. In paper III design and measurements of a RF power amplifier driver is presented. The driver was linearized by a triode multiplier, which significantly increased the linearity performance without any power and with minimal area overhead. The design and measurements of a fully integrated RF power amplifier (PA) is presented in paper IV. The PA was linearized by analog pre-distortion, achieved by employing a driver stage biased in class-C. In paper V, design and measurements of different CMOS photodiodes are presented. The obtained results are then used to choose the optimum photodiode structure for the optical receiver. Paper VI presents the design of a transimpedance amplifier, which converts the single-ended current signal from the integrated photodiode into a differential voltage signal. The single-ended to differential conversion was achieved by applying an ac common mode feedback. Furthermore, capacitive cross-coupling was applied to increase the gain of TIA, without affecting its bandwidth or using extra power.

2016-09-23 Candidate Thesis Presentation by Fredrik Zetterblom

Published: 2016-09-19

Date: Friday, Sept. 23 
Time: 13:15 
Place: E:3139. 
Title: “Frequency Tracking Using Digital Cavities” 

Abstract:

Digital cavities are efficient algorithms for comb filters with very low computational costs. The digital cavities have been used in a previous master thesis project  to precisely measure the amplitude and phase of high frequency signals (few giga samples per second) from data acquired by high speed digitizers (80 giga samples per second). However, the previous measurements were done offline as the serial processors used in the analysis cannot cope with the large data acquisition rate. In this candidate project we have implemented a measurement system based on an FPGA architecture with multiple digital cavities to measure the amplitude and phase of signals in real time. The signals from a fast photodiode, which monitored the output  of a mode locked laser at the repetition rate of about 70 MHz, was digitized by a fast digitizer at the rate of 1.25 GSa/s. The data were analyzed in real time to measure the repetition rate of the laser. Moreover, we implemented multiple digital cavities that were tuned to slightly different frequencies, which processed the data in parallel. Based on the interpolation of the responses from each digital cavity, algorithms to track the change in frequency of the signal were also developed. The tests showed that the repetition rate of the laser fluctuates, vibrations in the laser table, by about few kHz. The new advances made in this project are expected to be useful a wide range of applications such as in measuring the drifts in radio and microwave frequencies that are commonly used in FM broadcasting, frequency-shift keying, power systems, laser spectroscopy, synchrotrons, particle accelerators, etc.  

The candidate thesis is a joint collaboration between the department of Electrical and Information Technology and the Division of Chemical Physics at the department of Chemistry.

2016-09-16 IEEE Distinguished Lecture on Spatially Coupled Graphical Models by Prof. Henry D. Pfister from Duke University, USA

Published: 2016-09-09

Date: Friday, Sept 16, 2016 
Time: 10:00 am 
Location: Room E:B, ground floor, E-building, Ole Römers väg 3, Lund University, Lund 
Title: Graphical Models and Inference: Insights from Spatial Coupling 
Speaker: Prof. Henry D. Pfister, Duke University, USA

Abstract:

This talk focuses on recent theoretical and practical advances in coding, compressed sensing, and multiple-access communication based on spatially-coupled graphical models.  The goal is to introduce the key ideas and insights using concrete examples.  First, we introduce factor graphs and belief propagation (BP) as tools for understanding large systems of dependent random variables.  Then, we describe how these techniques are applied to problems in signal processing and communications.  Next, we use the example of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes on the binary erasure channel to introduce the idea of density-evolution analysis.  A key result is that BP decoding algorithms have a noise threshold below which recovery succeeds with high probability.  Finally, we discuss how extrinsic-information transfer (EXIT) functions can be used to compare the performance between BP and optimal decoding.

Biography:

Henry D. Pfister received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 2003 from the University of California, San Diego and he is currently an associate professor in the electrical and computer engineering department of Duke University.  Prior to that, he was a professor at Texas A&M University (2006-2014), a post-doctoral fellow at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (2005-2006), and a senior engineer at Qualcomm Corporate R&D in San Diego (2003-2004).

He received the NSF Career Award in 2008, the Texas A&M ECE Department Outstanding Professor Award in 2010, the IEEE COMSOC best paper in Signal Processing and Coding for Data Storage in 2007, and a 2016 STOC Best Paper Award.  He is currently an associate editor in coding theory for the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory (2013-2016) and a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Information Theory Society (2015-2016).

His current research interests include information theory, communications, probabilistic graphical models, and machine learning.

2016-09-09 PhD Thesis defense by Oskar Andersson

Published: 2016-05-17

Date: Sep 9, 2016 
Time: 10.15 - 11.00 
Place: E 1406
Research area: Ultra-low Voltage Embedded Memories – Design Aspects and a Biomedical Use-Case

Faculty opponent: 
Dr. Vivek De, Intel Corporation, USA

Examination Board: 
Prof. Wim Dehaene, KU Leuven, Belgium 
Dr. Philipp Häfliger, University of Oslo, Norway 
M.Sc. Anders Ekelund, Ericsson AB, Lund

Abstract

As the Internet of Things (IoT) era emerges the need for ultra-low power (ULP) devices is becoming more eminent. A research-proven approach to achieve ULP consumption is to aggressively lower the supply voltage (VDD) below or in the vicinity of the transistor threshold voltage (Vth) and operate the transistors in the subthreshold (sub-Vth) region. Operating below or near the threshold voltage, i.e., near threshold (near-Vth), incurs exponentially degrade performance, however, if tolerable, leads to a more energy efficient operation. In this doctoral thesis memory design for near-Vth and sub-Vthoperation is explored using standard-cell based memories (SCMs) where the storage element, which accounts for ∼2/3 of total memory area, is replaced by a full-custom designed alternative. The designed memories are used in a biomedical circuit for atrial fibrillation detection.

Paper I presents an ULP synthesizable memory using commercial standard-cells complemented with a low-leakage full-custom developed D-Latch with integrated 3-state output buffers as read-logic.

Paper II presents two ULP synthesizable memories which use a full-custom developed dual-Vth D-Latch, where PMOS transistors are implemented using a lower-Vth than NMOS transistors. The read-logic is implemented using complementary metal oxide semiconductors (CMOS) multiplexers in one of the memories and a mixture of 3-state buffers and CMOS multiplexers in the second memory.

Paper III presents a synthesizable memory using an area-optimized full-custom pass-latch where the pass transistors are implemented using a lower-Vth than the remaining transistors.

Paper IV explores the use of a general purpose (GP) process option [instead of low power (LP)] to achieve a higher maximum frequency at ultra-low voltage (ULV) and presents a coherent summary of the different trade-offs for SCMs, i.e., area, leakage power, access speed, access energy and retention voltage.

Paper V presents a wide operating range synthesizable memory designed in a 28 nm fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) process that takes advantage of the body bias capabilities to compensate for a slow corner using forward body bias (FBB).

Paper VI is a case study of an atrial fibrillation (AF) detector designed for sub-Vthoperation combined with an ULP memory using standard-cells. The detector is aimed to be operated together with a pacemaker on a single battery charge for 10 years.

Paper VII presents energy savings by using clock- and power-gating of the AF detector presented in Paper VI.

2016-09-07 Lund Circuit Design Workshop

Published: 2016-06-29

The yearly Lund Circuit Design Workshop will take place September 7-8, 2016 at Grand Hotel in Lund and at Faculty of Engineering, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.

You will find more information together with registration at

http://cdworkshop.eit.lth.se/index.php?L=0

2016-08-24 Master Thesis presentation by Sara Mikaelsson

Published: 2016-08-24

Date: Friday Aug 26 
Place: E:2311  
Time: 14.15 
Title: "Commissioning and Characterization of Two Undulators at the MAX IV 3 GeV Storage Ring”

Abstract

Insertion devices have several undesirable effects on the beam dynamics of a synchrotron storage ring, and these must be compensated for in order to ensure long term stable operation. This master’s thesis concerns the two first insertion devices at the MAX IV facility, two in-vacuum undulators for the BioMAX and NanoMAX beamlines. The report presents the work done to neutralize closed-orbit distortions caused by the undulators using a feed-forward scheme, as well as investigations into effects on the optics, and non-linear effects on lifetime and beam size. An algorithm was developed which was able to automatically find feed-forward tables which reduced the closed-orbit distortions to noise level. This algorithm was adapted to be usable for future insertion devices at MAX IV. The tune shift and beta-beat was determined to be negligible and no compensation scheme was implemented. Beam displacement measurements were attempted and found to have insufficient range, thus highlighting the need for other methods to investigate nonlinear effects in the future.

2016-08-15 Summer school “Fundamentals of accelerator technology”

Published: 2016-08-09

Datum: Aug 15-23 2016
Plats: E1406
Titel: Summer school “Fundamentals of accelerator technology”

The summer school “Fundamentals of accelerator technology” will be held Aug 15-23, 2016, coordinated by  Professor Anders Karlsson. The summer school is an activity within the  Erasmus+ project "Nordic Particle Accelerator Project”  and will be attended by 26 students from different countries.

2016-06-20 Masters project presentation by Martin Gunnarsson and Joakim Brorsson

Published: 2016-06-16

Date: June 20, 2016 
Time: 10.15 
Place: E3139 
Title: Compact Object Security for the Internet of Things

Abstract

The Internet of Things is coming. With it comes security challenges not present on common, more capable, devices. We argue that traditional channel security needs to be complemented with object security to cope with the constrained nature of small devices and Low Power Lossy Networks. The main reason for a partial

transition to object security being heavy use of asynchronous communication. This thesis explores the feasibility of OSCoAP, a novel draft for an object security solution for CoAP, on constrained devices. It also evaluates the performance of OSCoAP compared to the well known channel security standard DTLS. We find that OSCoAP is indeed implementable on constrained devices and that it actually outperforms DTLS in some aspects. Further, we suggest some minor alterations to the proposed draft.

2016-06-20 Master Thesis presentation by Axel Andersson and John Gustavsson

Published: 2016-06-16

Date: June 20, 2016 
Time: 13.15 
Place E:2311 
Title: Design of a Memory Compiler 

Abstract

Memory compilers are typically intellectual property of memory vendors. The purpose of compilers is to automatically generate various kinds of memories depending on the customer order. These compilers support the generation of various memory capacities as well as static random-access memory (SRAM) types, e.g., single- and dual-port memories.  Discrepancy between the customers requirements and vendors portfolio are typically left to be solved by the customer. This results in a remarkable extra engineering effort, if an optimized SRAM solution is desired. In order to reduce this engineering overhead and quality enhancement a more flexible memory compiler was developed.

The purpose of this project is to develop a memory compiler for a new SRAM architecture designed at the Department of Electrical and Information Technology at Lund University. The compiler provides the necessary functionality to generate memories in various sizes and with different types of bitcells. The compiler will be used by a co-project to generate a high-speed SRAM with dual-port support, which is going to be fabricated. The work will be available for further thesis's to improve and add functionality. The compiler was developed in Cadence Virtuoso using the scripting language SKILL as the primary tool. The flow was evaluated for two different technologies, 65 and 28 nm. Performance simulations were performed to determine the constraints and bottlenecks. Parasitic modelling of the memory was performed in Verilog-A for simulation purposes. 

Using a script based design approach will result in a configurable, reliable and fast design flow. It was concluded that a strong framework has to be set up for the layout designer to follow due to the script limits. Using a parasitic model of a bitcell block was found to be excellent for simulation purposes. Improving the simulation time of a 4 kb memory by a factor of 11 and keeping the most significant parasitic information. 

2016-06-17 Master Thesis presentation by Karl Nordin and Sina Shamekhi.

Published: 2016-06-14

Date: Friday June 17 
Time: 14.15 
Place: E:2517 
Title: 24 GHz Patch Antenna Array Design for RADAR 
Supervisors: Buon Kiong Lau (EIT) 
Examiner: Mats Gustafsson (EIT) 

Abstract:

Radar is a technology that is widely used in many diverse areas; from space monitoring to ocean surveillance, with many more applications in between. The technology existed before, but was mainly developed in secret by several nations during World War II. Radar technology uses radio waves to detect various kinds of objects and can determine their range, velocity and orientation. It is, therefore, a very attractive technology to be used for surveillance applications.

The main goal with the thesis is to create a non-expensive, fast, and efficient people detecting device that can be used for surveillance applications. The device should be able to detect positions of people in the area under surveillance. The motivation for using radar technology is that it does not get affected by poor weather conditions or low visibility, unlike visual based surveillance systems.

Three different configurations of 24 GHz Frequency-Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) patch antenna arrays were designed and manufactured to be tested with an existing radar. Different signal processing algorithms, so called Direction-of-Arrival (DOA) methods, were also implemented in order to process the data from the radar. The antenna array configurations showed good results, with one of them showing a more robust performance overall.

2016-06-17 Master Thesis presentation by Edward Jovcic and Filip Olsson

Published: 2016-06-14

Date: June 17, 2016 
Time: 11.15 
Place: E:2517 
Title: TEM Cell design for Material Characterization 
Supervisors: Torleif Martin and Christer Larsson (EIT and SAAB)
Examiner: Mats Gustafsson (EIT)

The thesis work was performed at SAAB in Linköping.

Abstract:

This thesis investigates a TEM cell (Transverse ElectroMagnetic cell) design for material characterization. The focus is to design a practical setup where the material measurement is straightforward to implement. A test sample is placed between the two ports in the setup to measure the scattering parameters. The impedance matching between the coaxial to microstrip transition and the TEM cell tapering are investigated. The TEM cell operating bandwidth is 0 − 5GHz. The design is optimized and simulated in CST (Computer simulation technology) and is manufactured and measured with a network analyzer to verify its performance. From the measured scattering parameters two different algorithms are investigated to extract the permittivity of the sample. Finally it is concluded that the measurements are in a good agreement with the numerical simulations and that the TEM cell works well for measuring low permittivity materials.

2016-06-16 PhD Thesis defense by Nafiseh Seyed Mazloum

Published: 2016-05-17

Date: June 16, 2016 
Time: 10.15 - 11.00 
Place: E 1406 
Title:  "Duty-cycled Wake-up Schemes for Ultra-low Power Wireless Communications".

Faculty opponent: 
Assistant Professor Sofie Pollin, KU Leuven, Belgien

Examination Board:

Ledamot 1: Docent Elisabeth Uhlemann, Mälardalens högskola, Västerås 
Ledamot 2: Doktor Ylva Jading, Eriksson AB, Stockholm 
Ledamot 3: Professor Di Yuan, Linköpings universitet, Linköping 
Suppleant 1: Professor Bo Bernhardsson, Lunds Tekniska högskola LTH, Lunds Universitet, Lund

Chairman: Docent Fredrik Rusek

Abstract

In sensor network applications with low traffic intensity, idle channel listening is one of the main sources of energy waste. The use of a dedicated low-power wake-up receiver (WRx) which utilizes duty-cycled channel listening can significantly reduce idle listening energy cost. In this thesis such a scheme is introduced and it is called DCW-MAC, an acronym for duty-cycled wake-up receiver based medium access control. We develop the concept in several steps, starting with an investigation into the properties of these schemes under idealized conditions. This analysis show that DCW-MAC has the potential to significantly reduce energy costs, compared to two established reference schemes based only on low-power wake up receivers or duty-cycled listening. Findings motivate further investigations and more detailed analysis of energy consumption. We do this in two separate steps, first concentrating on the energy required to transmit wake-up beacons and later include all energy costs in the analysis. The more complete analysis makes it possible to optimize wake-up beacons and other DCW-MAC parameters, such as sleep and listen intervals, for minimal energy consumption. This shows how characteristics of the wake-up receiver influence how much, and if, energy can be saved and what the resulting average communication delays are. Being an analysis based on closed form expressions, rather than simulations, we can derive and verify good approximations of optimal energy consumption and resulting average delays, making it possible to quickly evaluate how a different wake-up receiver characteristic influences what is possible to achieve in different scenarios. In addition to the direct optimizations of the DCW-MAC scheme, we also provide a proof-of-concept in 65 nm CMOS, showing that the digital base-band needed to implement DCW-MAC has negligible energy consumption compared to many low-power analog front-ends in literature. We also propose a simple frame-work for comparing the relative merits of analog front-ends for wake-up receivers, where we use the experiences gained about DCW-MAC energy consumption to provide a simple relation between wake-up receiver/analog front-end properties and energy consumption for wide ranges of scenario parameters. Using this tool it is possible to compare analog front-ends used in duty-cycled wake-up schemes, even if they are originally designed for different scenarios. In all, the thesis presents a new wake-up receiver scheme for low-power wireless sensor networks and provide a comprehensive analysis of many of its important properties.

2016-06-16 Master Thesis presentation by Anton Tropp

Published: 2016-06-15

Date: June 16, 2016 
Time: 15.15 
Place: E2311 
Title: Studies of vacuum discharges in the CLIC accelerating structure

The project was done in collaboration with Uppsala University.

Abstract

The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC), is one of the proposed successors to the LHC accelerator at CERN. In CLIC, particles are accelerated by very strong electric fields. Unfortunately, large electric fields may lead to vacuum discharges, which in turn can affect the particle beam by disrupting the flow of energy inside the accelerating structure and deteriorate the performance of the accelerator. Studies of the physics of vacuum discharges and its effect on the beam are crucial for the realization of the CLIC accelerator. The objective of this master thesis is  to improve the knowledge of how vacuum discharges occur and what can be done to prevent them. The project was done together with the CLIC group at Uppsala University. They have their diagnostic equipment, Uppsala/CLIC X-band spectrometer (UCXS), at the High Gradient Test Stand for research on RF-structures (X-Box)2, where also the accelerating structure is located. The spectrometer consists of a collimator, a dipole and a fluorescent screen, which receives images from electrons that come from  discharges. These images have been analysed, together with Radio Frequency (RF)-signal data from X-Box2,  to find discharge positions inside the accelerating structure. The achieved results are consistent with previous analyses. We see that there is a possibility to use images to study the geometrical shape of the discharges. It is hard to accredit one image to a single breakdown and an hypothesis is that there are more than one breakdown during a pulse.

2016-06-15 Master Thesis presentation by Byron Murphy

Published: 2016-06-14

Date: June 15 
Time: 13.15 
Place: E2349 
Title:  Design of a 30 GHz PLL for use in Phased Arrays

Abstract

This project includes the research and implementation of a high frequency
phase-locked loop (30 GHz or more) for beamforming use in a phased
antenna array. The phase-locked loop includes a quadrature voltage-
controlled oscillator with a 10% tuning range and 417 degrees of phase
control with a 10 degree resolution, a current mode latch in the divide-by-
two configuration operates over the quadrature voltage-controlled
oscillator’s tuning range while consuming less than 583 uA of current, D-
type flip flops in a divide-by-8 configuration, a phase-frequency detector, a
charge-pump, and a loop filter. The quadrature voltage-controlled oscillator
has a phase noise of -102.2 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz, less than 3.53 mA current
consumption, and up to 185.6 dBc/Hz figure of merit. Additionally, an
injection-locked frequency divider was explored as an optional first-stage
divider. The phase-locked loop was implemented using the ST
Microelectronics 65 nanometer design kit and simulated using Cadence
Virtuoso. The circuit consumes 4.93 mA of current from a 1.2 V supply.
Lastly, the bottlenecks that may be encountered while increasing the
operating frequency of the phase-locked loop are discussed.

2016-06-03 Seminar with Torben Voigt, Altair

Published: 2016-05-31

Date: Friday, June 3 
Time: 10.15-11 
Place: E:3139 
Title: Altair HyperWorks

2016-06-02 VNA-Seminar with Zachary Miers

Published: 2016-05-31

Date: Thursday, June 2 
Time: 15.15-16 
Place: E:2311 
Title: "A Do It Yourself - Building a Low Cost VNA"

2016-06-02 Master Thesis presentation by Sakib Bin Redhwan and Ahmad Shekhan

Published: 2016-06-01

Date: June 2, 2016 
Time: 13.15 
Place: E:2311 
Title: “Investigating the Effect of Antenna Polarization on the Performance CoMP Systems based on Synchronous Multi-link Measurements”

Abstract:

In this master thesis work, the effect of polarization, at the base station (BS) side, on the performance of multi-user Cooperative Multi-Point (CoMP) systems is studied. This study was performed using synchronous multi-link measurements that took place at the campus of the faculty of Engineering, LTH, Lund University, Lund, Sweden, where two different BS setups were studied.

In the first setup, we use one BS provided with one antenna array consisting of four antenna elements. The antenna aperture size was varied from 0.17 m to 24 m, where different antenna polarizations (single- and dual-polarized arrangements) are considered. In the second setup, we use two BSs located 60 m apart, each of which is provided with two co-located antennas elements spaced by half a wavelength. Two antenna polarizations at the BS are studied: single- and double-polarized arrangements. In both setups, four virtual users, spaced 0.5 m apart with one or two dual-polarized antennas were considered.

For each setup, the user MIMO channels are used to evaluate the sum-rate capacity of the system, where the minimum mean square error (MMSE) beamforming at both the BS and the mobile station (MS) was used. Furthermore, in the second setup, the influence of user hand and torso into the MS antenna patterns and hence into the resulting performance was incorporated.

For the first setup, i.e., using one BS antenna with variable aperture, it is found that: 1) using dual-polarized antenna elements at the BS improves the capacity by about 35% and 72% in NLOS and LOS, respectively, if the aperture of the antenna array is small (less than 1 m). 2) Increasing the BS array aperture gives better capacity to a certain point, then the improvement saturates. 3) If the BS array aperture is "large enough", then the performance improvement gained from using BS dual-polarized antennas is insignificant compared to using single-polarized ones. For the second setup, i.e., using two BSs each of which is provided with co-located antennas with half a wavelength inter element spacing, it is found that: the cross polarized antenna configuration improves the ergodic sum-rate capacity about 50% compared to the single-polarization configuration. In addition, increasing the number of antenna (from 1 to 2) at the MS side yielded an improvement of 43% in capacity

2016-06-01 Fourth vice chancellors seminar on strategic plan

Published: 2016-06-01

Welcome!

http://www.staff.lu.se/article/welcome-to-the-fourth-vice-chancellors-seminar-about-the-new-strategic-plan

2016-05-26 Hear the honorary doctors May 26

Published: 2016-05-24

Time: May 26, 09:00-09:45 
Place: Fernströmsalen, BMC, Sölvegatan 19, Lund 
Speaker: Takehiko Kitamori, University of Tokyo 
Title: “Innovating Microfluidics and Pioneering Nanofluidics” 

Time: May 26, 10:15-11:30 
Place: Sal 1406, E-huset, John Ericssons väg 4, Lund 
Speaker: Keith Trigwell, University of Sydney
Title: "Academic teachers’ thoughts about teaching and how they affect student learning" 

Time: May 26, 13:15-14:00 följt av kaffe och mingel 
Place: Rydbergsalen, Fysikum, Professorsgatan 1, Lund
Speaker: Heike Riel, IBM Research, Zürich 
Title: "Towards Next Generation of Computing"  

2016-05-25 Seminar by Prof J Redwing from Penn State University

Published: 2016-05-24

Date: May 25, 2016 
Time: 15.15 
Place: K-Space, Fysicum, Lund 
Host: Prof Lars-Erik Wernersson, EIT, LTH.

Welcome to  a  seminar by  Prof. J. Redwing from Penn State University, USA. She is director for the new NSF-center “2Dimensional Crystal Consortium”  https://www.mri.psu.edu/mip and she will inspire us about the remarkable properties  of  the 2D materials.

2016-05-24 IEEE Distinguished Lecture on Compressive Sensing by Andrea Massa, Trento, Italy

Published: 2016-05-13

Date: May 24, 2016 
Time: 13.15-14.15 
Place: E:2311 
Title: Compressive Sensing – Basics, State of the Art, and Advances in Electromagnetic Engineering

Abstract:

The widely known Shannon/Nyquist theorem relates the number of samples required to reliably retrieve a "signal" to its (spatial and temporal) bandwidth. This fundamental criterion yields to both theoretical and experimental constraints in several Electromagnetic Engineering applications. Indeed, there is a relation between the number of measurements/data (complexity of the acquisition/ processing), the degrees of freedom of the field/signal (temporal/spatial bandwidth), and the retrievable information regarding the phenomena at hand (e.g., dielectric features of an unknown object, presence/position of damages in an array, location of an unknown incoming signal). The new paradigm of Compressive Sensing (CS) is enabling to completely revisit these concepts by distinguishing the "informative content" of signals from their bandwidth. Indeed, CS theory asserts that one can recover certain signal/phenomena exactly from far fewer measurements than it is indicated by Nyquist sampling rate. To achieve this goal, CS relies on the fact that many natural phenomena are sparse (i.e., they can be represented by few non‐zero coefficients in suitable expansion bases), and on the use of aperiodic sampling strategies, which can guarantee, under suitable conditions, a perfect recovery of the information content of the signal. Despite its recent introduction, the application of CS methodologies Electromagnetics has already enabled several innovative design/synthesis methodologies and retrieval/diagnosis methods to be developed. In this framework, this talk is aimed at reviewing the fundamentals of the CS paradigm, specifically focusing on the applicability conditions, requirements, and guidelines for EM applications. Moreover, it is aimed at illustrating the state‐of‐the‐art and the most recent advances in Electromagnetic Engineering (including application of CS to antenna synthesis and diagnosis, direction‐of‐arrival estimation, inverse scattering, and radar imaging), as well as at envisaging possible future research trends and challenges within CS as applied to Electromagnetics.

We have also organized a workshop with several presentations on compressed sensing, May 24, see https://www.overleaf.com/read/nqgsjnydwksd for details, registration, and a preliminary schedule.

2016-05-20 PhD Thesis defense by Mohammed Abdulaziz

Published: 2016-02-18

Date: May 20, 2016
Time:
Place: E 1406

His research deals with adaptive receiver techniques, specialized on linearization of active channel filters. He has designed a number of circuits in 65nm CMOS technology, the latest one a complete receiver front-end with channel filters and a spectrum sensor to determine the blocker situation.

Technology scaling in advanced CMOS nodes has been very successful in reducing the cost and increasing the operating frequency, however, it has also resulted in reduced transistor intrinsic gain and increased thermal noise coefficient, and most importantly, deteriorated linearity performance. At the same time, advanced wireless communication standards offer ever increasing data rates and pose more stringent requirements on coexistence, leading to very stringent linearity requirements .    

The objective of this dissertation is therefore to investigate techniques for enhancing the linearity of the receiver front-end in CMOS technology. The bandwidth of two-stage operational transconductance amplifiers (OTAs) in closed loop configuration is addressed in paper I and a compensation technique is proposed using positive feedback RC links. Analysis  show that this introduces two left hand plane zeros and a parasitic pole. In paper II the compensated OTA is used in a fifth order active-RC channel select filter for LTE-rel8. The filter's power consumption measures only 3.4mW, and the linearity at the band edge and out-of-band is not deteriorated.

In paper III, the linearity of the well-known triode OTA with feedback amplifiers is investigated, and feedforward linearization is proposed instead of using feedback amplifiers. Not only are the amplifiers are removed along with their power consumption, but also state-of-the-art linearity is achieved.

Paper IV proposes a novel linearization technique suitable for high frequency OTAs. The linearization draws no bias current and measurements show that it is robust to mismatch as well as temperature and voltage variations. A low noise amplifier is simulated and a fourth order OTA-C filter was measured, demonstrating the performance of the technique.

Finally, in paper V a fully integrated receiver front-end with spectrum sensing is presented, including measurements with LTE signals. Different blocker scenarios were measured and it is concluded that spectrum sensing is very beneficial for blocker handling, resulting in significantly improved performance. Furthermore, the effect of noise cancellation and improvements of the OTA linearity are demonstrated on the overall front-end performance.  

2016-05-19 Licentiate presentation by Muhammad Atif Yaqoob

Published: 2016-03-18

Date: May 19
Time: 13.15 - 14.00 
Place: E 3139 
Title: Inertial Measurement Unit based Virtual Antenna Arrays - DoA Estimation and Positioning in Wireless Networks

Discussion leader: Prof. Thomas Schön, Uppsala University. 
Supervisor: Fredrik Tufvesson 
Co-supervisor: Bo Bernhardsson 
Examiner: Ove Edfors

Abstract:

Today we have different location based services available in a mobile phone or mobile station (MS). These services include: direction finding to nearby ATMs, locating favorite food restaurants, or finding any target destination. Similarly, we see different applications of the positioning and navigation systems in firefighting or other rescue operations. The common factor in almost all of the location based services is the system's ability to determine the user's current position, with reference to a floor plan or a navigation map. Current technologies are using sensor data measurements from one or more sensors, available to the positioning device, for positioning and navigation. Typical examples are radio based positioning such as global positioning system, inertial sensors based inertial navigation system, or camera based positioning systems. Different accuracy and availability conditions of the positioning and navigation solution can be obtained depending on the positioning algorithms and the available sensor information.

Nowadays, the focus of research in positioning and navigation has been mostly on the use of existing hardware infrastructure and low-cost solutions, such that the proposed technique can be deployed with ease and without extra infrastructure requirements as well as without any expensive sensor equipment. In this work, we investigate a novel idea for positioning using existing wireless networks and low-cost inertial sensor measurements available at the MS. We propose to use received baseband radio signal along with inertial sensor data, such as accelerometer and rate gyroscope measurements, for direction of arrival (DoA) estimation and positioning. The DoA information from different base stations or access points can be used to estimate the MS position using triangulation technique. Furthermore, due to size and cost restrictions it is difficult to have real antenna arrays at the MS, the idea of DoA estimation and positioning is proposed to be used with single antenna devices by using the so-called virtual antenna arrays.

We have presented our research results in three different papers. We provide measurement based results to perform a quantitative evaluation of DoA estimation using arbitrary virtual antenna arrays in 3-D; where a state-of-the-art high-resolution algorithm has been used for radio signal parameter estimation. Furthermore, we provide an extended Kalman filter framework to investigate the performance of unaided inertial navigation systems with 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis rate gyroscope measurements, from a six-degrees-of-freedom inertial measurement unit. Using the extended Kalman filter framework, we provide results for position estimation error standard deviation with respect to integration time for an unaided inertial navigation system; where the effect of different stochastic errors noise sources  in the inertial sensors measurements such as white Gaussian noise and bias instability noise is investigated. Also, we derive a closed form expression for Cramér-Rao lower bound to investigate DoA estimation accuracy for a far-field source using random antenna arrays in 3-D. The Cramér-Rao lower bound is obtained using known antenna coordinates as well as using estimated antenna coordinates, where the antenna coordinates are estimated with an uncertainty whose standard deviation is known. Furthermore, using Monte-Carlo simulations for random antenna arrays, we provide Cramér-Rao lower bound based performance evaluation of random 3-D antenna arrays for DoA estimation.

2016-04-27 Inspirationsdag om högskolepedagogik

Published: 2016-02-01

Datum: 27 April  Tid: 8.30 - 16.00  Plats: Hörsalen, St. Algatan 4. LU arrangerar en inspirationsdag kring högskolepedagogisk utveckling med bland annat Anders Ahlbergs undersökning om examination i forskarutbildningen som diskuterades vid senaste forskarkollegiet. Här finns också en undersökning av EITs Martin Höst och Martin Hell om Demola-konceptet, samt lite slutsatser om hur teknologers kommunikationsfärdigheter kan utvecklas. Dagen bjuder på spännande  presentationer av alla de utvecklingsprojekt på Lunds universitet som fått stöd från EQ11- och kvalitetsmedel. Initiativtagare till dagen är den universitetsgemensamma utbildningsnämnden. Anmälan här

2016-04-26 Matlab seminar by Loren Sure from Mathworks

Published: 2016-04-18

Date: April 26, 2016 
Time: 9-12 
Place: Segerfalksalen, Wallenbergs Neurocentrum

Loren Shure from Mathworks will give a seminar about how to integrate Matlab in research and teaching. The seminar is designed for researchers in all fields of science. Matlab can be used for everything from automated data analysis and simulations to ordinary statistical analysis. 

Register for the Matlab seminar.

2016-04-22 PhD Thesis Defense Jun Wu

Published: 2016-02-21

Date: April 22, 2016 
Time: 13.15 - 14.00 
Place: E 1406 
Title: Vertical III-V/High-k Nanowire MOS Capacitors and Transistors 

Supervisor Lars-Erik Wernersson
Co-supervisor Erik Lind

Opponent:
Associate Prof. Chris Hinkle, Physics, Electrical Engineering, University of Texas at Dallas

Committee:
Prof. Xavier Crispin, Linköping University
Prof. Stacey Ristinmaa Sörensen, Lund  University
Dr. Lars Tilly, Materials Business  Center, Technopol

Abstract

The emerging nanowire technology in recent years has attracted an increasing interest for high-speed, low-power electronics due to the possibility of a gate-all-around (GAA) geometry enabling aggressive gate length scaling, together with the ease in incorporating high-mobility narrow band gap III-V semiconductors such as InAs on Si substrates. These benefits make vertical nanowire transistors an attractive alternative to the planar devices. However, huge challenges are also encountered. Apart from the large parasitics associated with the device layout, vertical III-V/high-k nanowire MOSFETs so far are also suffering from a less efficient gate control partially due to the defect states existing in the MOS gate stack. Besides the narrow band gap InAs may result in impact-ionization and band-to-band tunneling at high drain voltages, influencing both the power efficiency and speed of modern integrated circuits (ICs). 

In this thesis, results on planar InAs/high-k MOS gate stacks investigated in detail using both the capacitance-voltage (C-V) and the x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques are first presented (Paper I and II). The origin of the specific trap state energy distribution is clarified and compared to the well studied InGaAs and GaAs materials. The results highlight the benefit of using InAs, with optimized high-k deposition strategies, as the n-MOSFET channel. 

The second focus of the thesis is the improvement of vertical GAA nanowire MOS gate stacks (Paper III and IV). By developing the fabrication scheme and design, conventional C-V technique is successfully applied to extract detailed trap state distributions. A low interface trap state density (Dit) below 10E12 eV-1cm-2 near the MOS semiconductor conduction band edge is achieved. Furthermore, RF C-V measurements, together with the development of a complete small signal equivalent circuit model, for vertical GAA nanowire MOS systems are also presented for the first time, which enables characterizations of border trap density, interface trap density, channel resistivity and quality factor of the nanowire MOSFETs simultaneously. 

The third focus is the development of a device structure to reduce detrimental impact-ionization and band-to-band tunneling due to the narrow band gap of InAs (Paper V and VI). An asymmetric InAs/InGaAs vertical nanowire MOSFET with a large band gap drain region is proposed, taking advantage of the efficient strain relaxation of nanowire epitaxial growth. Control of the InGaAs nanowire composition has been successfully demonstrated.

Finally, a vertical integration scheme was developed in the thesis, where track-and-hold circuits, consisting of a MOSFET in series with a metal-insulator-metal capacitor, were successfully fabricated along vertical InAs nanowires (Paper VII).

2016-04-21 Seminar by Professor Chris Hinkle, University of Texas, Dallas.

Published: 2016-04-18

Date: April 21, 2016 
Time: 15.15 
Place: E 2311 
Title: van der Waals Epitaxy for New 2D Materials Based Low-power Logic and Memory

Abstract

In this work, we demonstrate the high-quality MBE heterostructure growth of various layered 2D materials by van der Waals epitaxy (VDWE).  The coupling of different types of van der Waals materials including transition metal dichalcogenide thin films (e.g., WSe2, WTe2, HfSe2), insulating hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), and topological insulators (e.g., Bi­2Se3) allows for the fabrication of novel electronic devices that take advantage of unique quantum confinement and spin-based characteristics. The relaxed lattice-matching criteria of van der Waals epitaxy has allowed for high-quality heterostructure growth with atomically abrupt interfaces, allowing us to couple these materials based primarily on their band alignment and electronic properties.  We will discuss the impact of sample preparation, surface reactivity, and lattice mismatch of various substrates (sapphire, graphene, TMDs, Bi2Se3) on the growth mode and quality of the films and will discuss our studies of substrate temperature and flux rates on the resultant growth and grain size. Structural and chemical characterization was conducted via reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/S), atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Raman spectroscopy. Experimentally determined band alignments have been determined and compared with first-principles calculations allowing the design of novel low-power logic and magnetic memory devices.  Initial results from the electrical characterization of these grown thin films and some simple devices will also be presented. These VDWE grown layered 2D materials show significant potential for fabricating novel heterostructures with tunable band alignments and magnetic properties for a variety of nanoelectronic and optoelectronic applications.

2016-04-20 Seminar on Scala

Published: 2016-04-18

Date: April 20, 2016 
Time: 10.15 - 11.00 
Place: Kårhusets hörsal
Title: 2016- a Scala  odyssey

Viktor Klang, deputy CTO at www.lightbend.com will talk about lessons learned from the open source community around the Scala programming language. 

Register here

In this presentation we will examine what Scala is in 2016 and connect it with its history – how it has evolved over the past 10 years. We will talk about lessons learned, both from a language perspective as well as from an open source and software engineering point of view; about unexpected virtues and flaws – and of course – we’ll talk about how to maximize the joy of using, and the chance of success with Scala as a language and as a platform.

Viktor Klang is the Deputy CTO at Lightbend, Scala programmer since 2007, prolific contributor to the Akka project since 2009, as well as member of the Reactive Streams Special Interest Group and involved in the Scala Standard Library concurrency APIs. Interested in all things distributed and concurrent – software and hardware.

2016-04-05 Master Thesis presentation by Niklas Lindskog

Published: 2016-04-04

Date: Tuesday April 4 
Time: 10.15 
Place: E 3139 
Title: Authentication in Mesh Networks 

Abstract 
In a time where peer-to-peer networks, often with previously unconnected devices,
are increasing in relevance, new storage solutions are needed. Storage can no longer
rely on a single central entity but rather needs to depend on the resources of the entire network. Such a solution is the distributed hash table (DHT) which allows distributed storage of resources, ensuring redundancy and availability of resources. Common DHT implementations have however been found to be susceptible to several attack and therefore not suitable for security-critical data. To enable a wider use of DHT, a strengthening which can be easily implemented on existing DHT implementations have to be found. In this thesis, the security of the Kademlia DHT, present in the Ericsson developed framework Calvin, was tested by performing a series of well-known attacks against an existing implementation. From the vulnerabilities found in these tests, security enhancements based on authentication was designed. All new functionality was designed to interfere with the original implementation as little as possible. The Kademlia DHT was strengthened with provable identities, cryptographically signed messages and a certificate distribution scheme. All of this was built on a public key infrastructure having an out-of-band certificate authority. The security enhancements were shown to both hamper known attacks and prevent outsiders from retrieving any information from the DHT. However, overhead and more complex computation were introduced into the system with the security enhancements. Further research is needed to determine if very computationally limited devices can participate or if additional functionality is needed to facilitate this.

2016-03-22 Rektorsseminarium om den nya strategiska planen

Published: 2016-02-22

Datum: 22 Mars 2016 
Tid: 13-15 
Plats: Universitetshuset Aulan

Alla intresserade medarbetare och studenter välkomnas till ett tredje rektorsseminarium om Lunds universitets nya strategiska plan. Planen ska träda i kraft 2017 och gälla i 10 år. Den blir det viktigaste styrdokumentet för universitetet det kommande decenniet och därför vill vi att så många som möjligt är med i processen att ta fram den nya planen.

Två rektorsseminarier har tidigare hållits på samma tema och nu är det dags för ett tredje. På seminariet får du möjlighet att komma med dina egna synpunkter och bidra till diskussionen. Utöver rektorsseminarierna pågår möten på fakulteter. Sammanfattande material av de interna diskussionerna uppdateras kontinuerligt och finns att ta del av här.

Seminariet hålls på svenska men det går bra att ställa frågor på engelska. Mot slutet av seminariet serveras kaffe och kaka.

Anmälan sker senast den 15 mars till: strategiskplan@rektor.lu.se . Hit kan du också vända dig om du har frågor eller vill bidra med tankar och idéer till planen.

2016-03-18 Seminar by IEEE Distinguished Lecturer Andreas Stelzer, Johannes Kepler University Linz.

Published: 2016-03-01

Date: 2016-03-18 
Time: 14.15 - 15.00 
Place: E 2517 
Title: Integrated Microwave Sensors in SiGe with Antenna in Package: From Concepts to Solutions 

Abstract

In the last years wireless sensor systems operating in the microwave and mm-wave range became more and more popular. Automotive radar sensors are still the driving force for a higher integration of mm-wave sensors and thus pave the way for applications even in completely new areas. Especially industrial and life-science applications require additional functionality, smaller size, higher accuracy, easier applicability and imaging capabilities, which leads towards flexible multi-channel multi-mode Systems-on-Chip (SoC) and Antenna-in-Package (AiP) solutions, with most RF-parts included.

The lecture treats various aspects of radar and frontend concepts with respect to integration and begins with basic radar principles (FMCW, Pulse, PRN, OFDM) and realizations like mono-static or bi-static and their integration into a small package.

The signal evaluation part covers a simple FMCW signal model, extended towards MIMO operation, and concepts for TDMA-, FDMA-, and CDMA-MIMO realizations. Furthermore, a simultaneously transmitting multi-beam sensor combining FDMA transmit phased array with a DBF receiver is introduced. Performance degradations caused by signal imperfections, e.g. due to noise or ramp non-linearity will be analyzed and performance bounds by means of the Crámer Rao Lower Bound stated.

The integrated basic building blocks VCO, mixer, LNA, PA, realized SiGe-technology, form the core components of various integrated prototype systems. With advances in the packaging technology the handling of mm-wave components becomes much easier; a requirement for most new application areas. The introduced eWLB packaging technology serves as basis for the additional integration of the Antenna-in-Package (AiP).

With the wide availability of commercial mm-wave chipsets, the antenna as interface to the measurement problem on one hand and the signal processing algorithms on the other hand remain as the main design tasks of the application engineer. Combining the MIMO principle with non-uniform antenna arrangements allows to increase the number of virtual receive antennas. Signal coupling, a major issue in highly integrated devices, generally degrades the performance. In that context a worst-case beam pattern estimation due to statistical errors will be shown.

The last part of the lecture deals with realized systems of highly integrated SiGe-based sensors covering frequencies from 24 to 160 GHz and applications for 3D-surface monitoring in harsh environments, polarimetric edge detection, as well as low-cost AiP based mm-wave imaging at 160 GHz.

Biography: 

Andreas Stelzer (M’00) was born in Haslach an der Mühl, Austria, in 1968. He received the Dipl.-Ing. degree in electrical engineering from the Technical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, in 1994, and the Dr. techn. degree (Ph.D.) in mechatronics (with honors sub auspiciis praesidentis rei publicae) from Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria, in 2000.

In 2003, he became Associate Professor with the Institute for Communications Engineering and RF Systems, Johannes Kepler University Linz. Since 2008, he has been a key researcher for the Austrian Center of Competence in Mechatronics (ACCM), where he is responsible for numerous industrial projects. Since 2007, he has been head of the Christian Doppler Research Laboratory for Integrated Radar Sensors, and since 2011 he has been full Professor at the Johannes Kepler University, heading the Department for RF-Systems. He has authored or coauthored over 300 journal and conference papers. His research is focused on microwave sensor systems for industrial and automotive applications, radar concepts, SiGe based circuit design currently up to 320 GHz, microwave packaging in eWLB, RF and microwave subsystems, surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensor systems and applications, as well as digital signal processing for sensor signal evaluation.

Dr. Stelzer is a member of the Austrian ÖVE. He has served as an associate editor for the IEEE MICROWAVE AND WIRELESS COMPONENTS LETTERS. Currently he serves as Co-Chair for MTT-27 Wireless-Enabled Automotive and Vehicular Applications and he was Awards Chair at the EuMW 2013. He was recipient of several awards including the 2008 IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (IEEE MTT-S) Outstanding Young Engineer Award and the 2011 IEEE Microwave Prize. Furthermore, he was recipient of the 2012 European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP) Best Measurement Paper Prize, the 2012 Asia Pacific Conference on Antennas and Propagation (APCAP) Best Paper Award, the 2011 German Microwave Conference (GeMiC) Best Paper Award, as well as the EEEfCOM Innovation Award and the European Microwave Association (EuMA) Radar Prize of the European Radar Conference (EuRAD) 2008. He is a member of the IEEE MTT, IM, and CAS Societies.

2016-03-17 Seminar by Prof. CongDuc Pham

Published: 2016-03-09

Date: Thursday March 17 
Time: 10.00 
Place: E 3139 
Title: Lower Cost, Longer Range Sensing Systems for Surveillance Infrastructures

Abstract:

It is widely accepted that the Era of IoT can potentially connect billions of sensors, devices, equipment, systems, etc. In turn, the challenge is about driving business outcomes, consumer benefits, and the creation of new value. While benefits of IoT are clearly stated the deployment of such devices in a large scale is still held back by technical challenges such as short communication distances. Recent long-range radio technologies are promising to deploy Low Power WAN for a large variety of applications. In this presentation we will first present how new contributions in the domain of hardware and communication technologies definitely make the IoT paradigm to happen with an unpreceding level of flexibility and cost effective implementations.  We will then describe our low-cost, open IoT gateway  & test-bed  developed in the H2020 WAZIUP project which  focuses on IoT and related big data management for developing countries' applications. It takes cost of hardware, quick appropriation & customization as the main challenges to be addressed. A (quick) demonstration will show how out-of-the box surveillance infrastructures can be deployed with the proposed platform.

Bio:

CongDuc Pham is professor at the University of Pau, France. He obtained his Ph.D in Computer Science in 1997 at the LIP6 Laboratory (Laboratoire dÕInformatique de Paris 6), University Pierre and Marie Curie. He also received his Habilitation in 2003 from University Claude Bernard Lyon 1. From 1998 to 2005, he was associate professor at the university of Lyon, member of the INRIA RESO project in the LIP laboratory at the ENS Lyon. He is now with the University of Pau, in the LIUPPA laboratory that he directed from Sep. 2006 to July 2009. His research domains are communication networks and quality of service. He worked on TCP congestion control, reliable multicast protocols and QoS for grid/cloud computing. In the last years he has been working on wireless sensor networks and their usage in mission-critical surveillance applications, especially with multimedia data (acoustic, image) .

2016-03-17 Seminar by IEEE Distinguished Lecturer, Prof. Karl F. Warnick, Brigham Young University, USA

Published: 2016-03-10

Date: March 17, 2016
Time: 13.15-14 
Place: E:2517 
Title: Network Theory, Microwave Noise Analysis, and Signal Processing for Antenna Arrays

Abstract

Network theory provides a theoretical bridge between array antenna models and the techniques of array signal processing. The antenna community often takes a simplistic approach to array beamforming and processing algorithms that lags far behind the state-of-the-art in the signal processing community. Similarly, the signal processing community usually employ simplistic physical models and assumptions that do not accurately represent key electrical effects that occur in realistic multiport antenna systems. To bridge the gap between the antenna and signal processing communities, we present a network theory treatment of phased arrays and multiantenna systems that brings concepts such as mutual coupling, impedance matching, electronics noise, thermal noise, and antenna losses into a unified theoretical framework. In particular, the network point of view demystifies antenna noise and mutual coupling effects and provides a simple way to understand and work with the interactions between nearby elements in an antenna array. This theoretical framework provides a powerful set of modeling tools that can be used to design, optimize, and characterize antenna systems for multiple input multiple output (MIMO) communications systems, digitally beamformed arrays, and steered beam antennas for remote sensing and satellite communications.

Biography

Karl F. Warnick (SM’04, F’13) received the B.S. degree (magna cum laude) with University Honors and the Ph.D. degree from Brigham Young University (BYU), Provo, UT, in 1994 and 1997, respectively. From 1998 to 2000, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate and Visiting Assistant Professor in the Center for Computational Electromagnetics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Since 2000, he has been a faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at BYU, where he is currently a Professor.  In 2005 and 2007, he was a Visiting Professor at the Technische Universität München, Germany.  Dr. Warnick has published many scientific articles and conference papers on electromagnetic theory, numerical methods, remote sensing, antenna applications, phased arrays, biomedical devices, and inverse scattering, and is the author of the books Problem Solving in Electromagnetics, Microwave Circuits, and Antenna Design for Communications Engineering (Artech House, 2006) with Peter Russer, Numerical Analysis for Electromagnetic Integral Equations (Artech House, 2008), and Numerical Methods for Engineering: An Introduction Using MATLAB and Computational Electromagnetics Examples (Scitech, 2010).

Dr. Warnick is a Fellow of the IEEE and is a recipient of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, Outstanding Faculty Member award for Electrical and Computer Engineering, the BYU Young Scholar Award, the Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology Excellence in Scholarship Award, and the BYU Karl G. Maeser Research and Creative Arts Award. He has served the Antennas and Propagation Society as a member and co-chair of the Education Committee and as Senior Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation and Antennas. Dr. Warnick has been a member of the Technical Program Committee for the International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation for several years and served as Technical Program Co-Chair for the Symposium in 2007. WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS (2005-2013). He is member of the Technical Board of the European School of Antennas and organizer of the course on Antenna Imaging Techniques. He is a member of the steering committee of the network of excellence NEWFOCUS, dedicated to focusing techniques in mm and sub-mm wave regimes. In 2011, he was awarded the European Research Council Starting Grant to perform research on Advanced Antenna Architectures for THz Sensing Systems. He is the Awards and Grants Chair for EUCAP 2014.

2016-03-17 Seminar by IEEE Distinguished Lecturer Prof. Christophe Caloz, École Polytechnique de Montréal, Canada

Published: 2016-03-10

Date: March 17 
Time: 15.15-16 
Place: E:2517 
Title:Metamaterial-Based Electromagnetic Space, Time and Spacetime Engineering
Web: http://calozgroup.grames.polymtl.ca/

Abstract

Everything in our universe occurs in space, time, and spacetime where space and time are interrelated. These concepts are therefore fundamental across all areas of human activities, including history, economy, politics, philosophy, arts and sciences. The author believes systematic endeavours in manipulating waves in space, time and spacetime will bring about considerable opportunities towards the development of tomorrow’s electromagnetic science and technology. Manipulation waves in space essentially consists in engineering their spatial frequency (k) spectrum, which may be performed using conventional electromagnetic structures, such as apertures, antennas, lenses, polarizers, photonic crystals, Talbot imagers, optical masks, etc. However, the frontiers of spatial dispersion engineering may be pushed far beyond the current state of the art, particularly using the novel concept of metasurfaces. The talk will present several innovations in this area, including magnetless nonreciprocal gyrotropy, generalized refraction, multiple wave transformation, multi-refringence, and orbital angular momentum operations.

In time, manipulating waves essentially consists in engineering their temporal frequency () spectrum, as partly done in ultrafast optics where oscillations are too fast to be handled by digital signal processors, and where real-time chirping and nonlinear materials and devices have therefore to be used instead. Such concepts have been little explored in electromagnetics, and may represent a solution to the exploding demand for faster and more reliable radio if sufficient progress is made. The author developed in his group metamaterial-inspired structures called phasers, which provide specifiable group delay versus frequency responses to perform unprecedented temporal dispersion engineering. The talk will present the related Radio Analog Signal Processing (R-ASP) concept and technology, and demonstrate a number of related applications, such as spectrum sniffing, real-time Fourier analysis, and dispersion code multiple access.

   Aforementioned concepts typically concern monochromatic spatial dispersion engineering and mono-directional temporal dispersion engineering. Combining the two aspects in simultaneous space and time dispersion engineering, as nature does it in rainbows and humans in holograms, will open up further horizons in electromagnetics processing. The talk will also address this area, first introducing the fundamental concept of temporal to spatial frequency mapping, and next describing a few recent applications, including real-time spectrogram analysis, and two-dimensional mapping for the processing of ultrafast waves. Finally, novel concepts in electromagnetic spacetime discontinuities, where space and time are related as in special and general relativity, will be introduced and discussed as a potential platform for future developments in electrodynamics.

Biography

Christophe Caloz received the Diplôme d'Ingénieur en Électricité and the Ph.D. degree from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, in 1995 and 2000, respectively. From 2001 to 2004, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Microwave Electronics Laboratory, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). In June 2004, Dr. Caloz joined École Polytechnique of Montréal, where he is now a Full Professor, the holder of a Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Metamaterials and the head of the Electromagnetics Research Group. He has authored and co-authored over 500 technical conference, letter and journal papers, 12 books and book chapters, and he holds many patents. His works have generated over 11,000 citations. In 2009, he co-founded the company ScisWave, which develops CRLH smart antenna solutions for WiFi. Dr. Caloz received several awards, including the UCLA Chancellor’s Award for Post-doctoral Research in 2004, the MTT-S Outstanding Young Engineer Award in 2007, the E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship in 2013, the Prix Urgel-Archambault in 2013, and many best paper awards with his students at international conferences. He is an IEEE Fellow. His research interests include all fields of theoretical, computational and technological electromagnetics, with strong emphasis on emergent and multidisciplinary topics, including particularly metamaterials, nanoelectromagnetics, exotic antenna systems and real-time radio.

2016-03-14 Lecture on how to use synchrotron x-rays in your field of research

Published: 2016-02-02

Date: 14 March 
Time: 13:30 – 16:30 
Location: MAX IV Laboratory, Fotongatan 2 (bus no. 20) 
Registration: tutti.johansson_falk@maxiv.lu.se 

14 March, Prof. Philip Willmott, Paul Scherrer Institute, will give a two-hour lecture on how synchrotrons can be used in different kinds of research. It’s an overview tailored for researchers with no former knowledge on how to use synchrotron x-rays. After the lecture there will be an opportunity to meet and talk to our staff and beamline managers more in-depth on specific research needs and how we can accommodate them when MAX IV opens. There will also be a guided tour of the MAX IV facility. There are 30 seats available and you register by mailing your name and your field of research to tutti.johansson_falk@maxiv.lu.se

2016-03-11 Master thesis presentation by Leonard Andersson.

Published: 2016-03-09

Date: Friday March 11 
Time: 10.15 
Place: E 2311 
Title: “Material Characterization by Millimeter-Wave Techniques”

Abstract

This master thesis investigates material characterization by reflection and transmission of electromagnetic waves in the 40-60 GHz band (millimeter-wave spectrum) for different materials. The free-space measurement method is a fast, efficient and non-destructive way of examining a material and is being researched by both academics and industries. 

The theory of how electromagnetic waves interact with different materials such as dielectrics and conductors is reviewed as well as how the reflection and transmission from such materials can be computed theoretically. This theory is partially derived from Maxwell’s equations. From this theory, simulations are performed to get signal levels of reflection and transmission for different materials and varying material parameters. From the simulations it is shown that certain materials are better examined in either transmission or reflection.

Measurements were performed in time domain (with a wavelet generator and an oscilloscope) and in frequency domain (with a network analyzer). Both reflection and transmission were measured for all samples. Four samples were investigated thoroughly: two PMMA (Poly(Methyl MethAcrylate)) samples, one silicon sample and a thin gold film sample.  

Before the measured data can be compared to the simulated, it is necessary to apply signal processing to both the measured and the simulated data. This is done to make sure the comparison of the two data sets works and it consists of removing multiple reflections and other unwanted noise from the signal.  The material characterization could then be performed, by extracting a specific material parameter, such as permittivity or conductivity. This is done by comparing simulated data iteratively to measured data. The best fit should then, in theory, correspond to the actual material parameter. 

The material characterization worked, although sometimes differences in time and frequency domain were found. Permittivity values were extracted for the PMMA samples and conductivity values for the silicon and thin gold film samples. The values extracted compared well with reference values for the PMMA samples and the thin gold film sample.

2016-03-04 Master Thesis presentation by Johan Svensson

Published: 2016-03-02

Date: Friday March 4 
Time: 10.15 
Place: E 3139 
Title: Strict separation between OS and USB driver using a hypervisor

Abstract

During 2014 an attack called a "BadUSB attack" surfaced. This attack allows the attacker to reflash the firmware of a USB device and make it perform malicious tasks. One particularly interesting attack whose source code as been released recently includes modifying a USB flash drive into also acting as a keyboard, thus enabling it to send malicious keystrokes. In this project, a modified version of the BitVisor hypervisor is proposed as a protection mechanism against the BadUSB attack. In order to test the modified hypervisor the initial thought was to construct a BadUSB attack device using the source code made available to the public. As no vulnerable devices were found the possibility to emulate a vulnerable USB was considered and possibilities and limitations of this approach were analyzed. Moreover, a theoretical evaluation of the proposed protection mechanism, as well as a comparison to several other protections proposed in literature, were conducted. The evaluation showed that the hypervisor prototype was efficient in protecting against this specific type of BadUSB attack but not against BadUSB attacks in general. The same conclusions was also reached for the other protection mechanisms investigated and evaluated in the thesis.

2016-03-04 Master Thesis presentation by Jonathan Sönnerup and Jonathan Karlsson

Published: 2016-03-02

Date: Friday March 4, 2016 
Time: 11.15 
Place: E 3139 
Title: Robust security updates for connected devices 

Abstract

We are emerging into the IoT (Internet of Things) era as the IoT market is quickly increasing, giving us connected devices everywhere, from personal accessories to smart homes and even whole city infrastructures. The manufacturing companies need to stay competitive in this rapidly evolving market, so they need to minimize the price and optimize the Time to Market (TTM). When new versions of a product are released, they get higher priorities than their predecessors. Still there are many devices based on the old version in use. With all these old devices connected to the Internet, problems are raised when software vulnerabilities are found because they will be more exposed to attackers. This may have severe consequences, not only for users’ privacy, but also for the security of the society. In this thesis we try to overcome these problems by providing a thorough vulnerability assessment as well as a secure update mechanism. An in-depth analysis on how to assess vulnerabilities is presented. We provide an implementation to deploy updates in a robust way. We consider security aspects such as confidentiality, integrity and non-repudiation, but also the need for failure recovery of the system and distribution of data in an efficient way. A camera is being attacked to demonstrate the need for a secure update mechanism.

2016-03-02 Master Thesis presentation by Jens Elofsson and Peter Seimar

Published: 2016-03-01

Date: March 2, 2016 
Time: 10.15 
Place: E:2349 
Title: Software Defined Radio based MIMO channel sounding

Abstract

With todays increased use of smartphones and other wireless devices, the demands on the wireless networks have increased dramatically. This has prompted the research and development of new types of wireless systems using multiple antennas at both the transmitter and the receiver, known as MIMO. Since wireless systems are very susceptible to interference and to changes in the environment, it is important to know how the wireless channel behaves in the environment that the wireless system is intended to operate in. This is done by sounding the channel, e.g. where a signal is transmitted from the transmitter and processed on the receiver in order to obtain the impulse response of the channel. When performing channel sounding on a MIMO system it is important that the signals transmitted from the antennas interfere with each other as little as possible so as to get a good estimation for how the channel behaves. In this thesis we implement a 2 by 2 MIMO channel sounder using m-sequences and Zadoff Chu-sequences, both with good autocorrelation properties. The major part of the implementation is done on an FPGA in order to be able to perform the sounding in real time.

2016-02-18 PhD thesis defense Xiang Gao

Published: 2016-02-03

Date: 2016-02-18 
Time: 10:15 
Room: Lecture hall E:1406 
Site: Building E, Ole Römers väg 3, Lund University, Faculty of Engineering LTH, Lund. 
Opponent: Giuseppe Caire. University of Southern California and Technical University of Berlin Title: Massive MIMO in Real Propagation Environments

Abstract

Mobile communications are now evolving towards the fifth generation (5G). In the near future, we expect an explosive increase in the number of connected devices, such as phones, tablets, sensors, connected vehicles and so on. Much higher data rates than in today's 4G systems are required. In the 5G visions, better coverage in remote regions is also included, aiming for bringing the current "4 billion unconnected" population into the online world. There is also a great interest in "green communications", for less energy consumption in the ICT (information and communication technology) industry.

Massive MIMO is a potential technology to fulfill the requirements and visions. By equipping a base station with a large number, say tens to hundreds, of antennas, many terminals can be served in the same time-frequency resource without severe inter-user interference. Through "aggressive" spatial multiplexing, higher data rates can be achieved without increasing the required spectrum. Processing efforts can be made at the base station side, allowing terminals to have simple and cheap hardware. By exploiting the many spatial degrees of freedom, linear precoding/detection schemes can be used to achieve near-optimal performance. The large number of antennas also brings the advantage of large array gain, resulting in an increase in received signal strength. Better coverage is thus achieved. On the other hand, transmit power from base stations and terminals can be scaled down to pursue energy efficiency.

In the last five years, a lot of theoretical studies have been done, showing the extraordinary advantages of massive MIMO. However, the investigations are mainly based on theoretical channels with independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) Gaussian coefficients, and sometimes assuming unlimited number of antennas. When bringing this new technology from theory to practice, it is important to understand massive MIMO behavior in real propagation channels using practical antenna arrays. Not much has been known about real massive MIMO channels, and whether the claims about massive MIMO still hold there, until the studies in this thesis were done.

The thesis study connects the "ideal" world of theory to the "non-ideal" reality. Channel measurements for massive MIMO in the 2.6 GHz band were performed, in different propagation environments and using different types of antenna arrays. Based on obtained real-life channel data, the studies include

? channel characterization to identify important massive MIMO properties,

? evaluation of propagation conditions in real channels and corresponding massive MIMO performance,

? channel modeling for massive MIMO to capture the identified channel properties, and

? reduction of massive MIMO hardware complexity through antenna selection.

The investigations in the thesis conclude that massive MIMO works efficiently in real propagation environments. The theoretical advantages, as observed in i.i.d. Rayleigh channels, can also be harvested in real channels. Important propagation effects are identified for massive MIMO scenarios, including channel variations over large arrays, multipath-component (MPC) lifetime, and 3D propagation. These propagation properties are modeled and included into the COST 2100 MIMO channel model as an extension for massive MIMO. The study on antenna selection shows that characteristics in real channels allow for significant reductions of massive MIMO complexity without significant performance loss.

As one of the world's first research work on massive MIMO behavior in real propagation channels, the studies in this thesis promote massive MIMO as a practical technology for future communication systems.

2016-02-17 Seminar by professor Guiseppe Caire

Published: 2016-02-16

Date: Feb 17, 2016 
Time: 15.15 
Place: E:2311 
Title: Massive MIMO for structured channels.

2016-02-11 Welcome to a day about alumni relations.

Published: 2016-01-20

Date: Feb 11, 2016 
Time: 10.00-15.30 

Why are our alumni important? Learn more about the lifecycle of alumni and how your role at Lund University can play an important part in the enhancement of alumni relations and vice versa, how alumni relations can help you. 

The day will be lead by our guest, Corey Morris, from Aarhus University.

Schedule:

10-12: Seminar (LUX hörsal del övre) 
13-15:30: Workshop (Stora Algatan 4 hörsal) 
We'll be offering an afternoon fika. 
This event will be held in English. 
Click here to register by 27 January. 

2016-02-11 Jesperspex 2016: DEN FLYGANDE HOLLÄNDAREN

Published: 2016-02-02

Special performance for LTH faculty & staff and their guests

The Flying Dutchman was the very first spex presented by the Jesper Spex Company, 50 years ago. The company has its roots at the LTH and most of its members come from the various guilds of the Engineering Students' Union, TLTH.

Synopsis

The year is 1726, the place, Cape Town, South Africa. In the small Dutch settlement the tulips are in bloom and the windmills busy milling flour. To celebrate the town's prosperity, the Mayoress gives a speech of praise to the local residents. In the midst of her speech, the harbourmaster comes rushing: a strange dot has been sighted on the horison. Rumours are rife about "The Flying Dutchman", a mythical ghost ship spreading fear and unrest wherever it appears. The quiet little community goes topsy-turvy as everyone engages in the arrival of the ghost ship...

Time: Thursday 11 February 7.30 p.m.
Venue: the Academic Society building (AF-borgen), Lundagård
Price: no charge, courtesy of LTH
Booking: by e-mail to info@lth.se  Info

Please state your name, department and the number of seats that you wish to reserve
No tickets are issued. List of attendees at the entrance. 
Questions? E-mail info@lth.se.   Info

Welcome!

2016-02-05 Master Thesis presentation by Clara Bäck

Published: 2016-02-02

Date: Feb 5, 2016 
Time: 13.15 
Place: E:2517 
Title: Restrictions in the far-field of antennas enclosed in bodies of revolution 

The thesis work has been conducted at RUAG Space AB in Göteborg with Johan Wettergren as the company advisor and Daniel Sjöberg as the academic advisor. Mats Gustafsson is the examiner. 

Abstract

Antennas can be found everywhere in our everyday life. One of the applications for them are space satellites, which can be used for communication, positioning and weather supervision. A satellite carries several components on its body, such as solar panels and cameras, therefore there is a volume restriction for the antenna to fit. This requirement gives rise to restrictions in the far-field for the radiation pattern.

The objective was to implement a calculation-tool by MATLAB, where theoretical surface currents on a structure could be calculated for a required far-field for a specified antenna outline. A genetic algorithm optimization generated feasible solutions and the MATLAB-tool evaluated the cost for it by comparing a far-field mask with the far-field given by the feasible solution. 

The analysis was performed for two structures, a cylinder and a circular disc. Solutions were found when the dimensions of the structures were large, but the cost increased when the structures diminished. The solutions that were found were theoretical and not feasible in practice. A suggestion for excluding unphysical solutions is presented with a contribution to the cost function.

2016-02-04 Cake seminar with Olof Samuelsson

Published: 2016-02-02

Date: 4 Feb, 2016
Time: 14.06
Place: E:1406.
Title: Automation for a Sustainable and Reliable Power System

Summary:

”Electricity plays a key role in the transition to a sustainable energy system. The overall challenge is to make the best of existing electric power system assets combined with new options like power electronics, solar electricity, GPS-based measurements and involving end users. Using automation for this results in what is often referred to as smart grid solutions. This forms an important part of my activities and I will describe these but also how a few LTH individuals have influenced my career.”

2016-01-21 Master Thesis presentation by Jijun Chen and Jianan Shi

Published: 2016-01-20

Date: Jan 21, 2016 
Time: 13.15 
Location: E:2349 
Title: Hardware Implementation of Number Inversion Function 

Abstract

Nowadays, number inversion is of great significance and the most complex arithmetical operator, especially the implementation in hardware which provides a higher speed performance and lower power consumption. The basic idea is an approximation for inversion of a fractional number, which processing an approximation to the mantissa part of the number. In this paper, the number inversion function is carried out by two methods: one is Harmonized Parabolic Synthesis and the other one is an unrolled Newton-Raphson, both in software and hardware. What is worth mentioning, these two different methods are implemented in Application Specific Integrated Circuit using a 65nm Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor technology with Low Power High Threshold Voltage transistors. To discover the alternative method, various aspects such as accuracy, error behavior, area, power consumption, and performance are investigated and compared.

2016-01-19 Panagiotis Papaioannou will present his master thesis.

Published: 2016-01-19

Date: Wednesday Jan 20 
Time: 10.15 am 
Place: E:2517 
Title: “Performance Evaluation of Distributed Antenna Systems: Comparison using the COST 2100 Model and Measured Channels”

Abstract 

Modern wireless technologies strive to meet users' ever increasing demand for high data rates and improved services. One of the most important constraints in wireless system performance is interference. More specifically, the interference caused by serving multiple users in the same geographical area can degrade the link quality greatly.

A possible solution to the aforementioned problem it to utilize Coordinated Multi Point (CoMP) transmission and reception techniques. A system that operates using CoMP is capable of dynamically coordinating its transmission and/or reception in order to achieve improved performance. CoMP technology is already adapted by 3GPP for the LTE-Advanced system and numerous studies took place in order to investigate deployment scenarios on that platform. 

In this work the performance evaluation of different CoMP transmission techniques will be presented. The performance evaluation will be performed using two approaches. In the first approach, the performance evaluation will be based on channel matrices collected from a measurement campaign at Lund University. In the second approach, the different realizations of the channel matrices are generated using the COST 2100 channel model. Then, we compare the results of the two approaches.

It was found that, performance evaluation using the COST 2100 can describe the relative performance of the CoMP transmission techniques accurately compared to the measurements.

2016-01-15 Master's thesis presentation by Jocelin Lillienau

Published: 2016-01-14

Date: Wednesday, Jan 15, 2016 
Time: 15.15 
Place: E:2517 
Opponent: Jonathan Wernberg. 
Title: How to meet security standards as a cloud provider – A journey set out to clear the sky of cloud security and certifications

Abstract
An upcoming trend in the current IT-landscape is to outsource services to so called Cloud Service Providers (CSPs). However, many companies are still skeptical to this new kind of services, since they bring about a certain loss of control. For this reason, it is important for CSPs to show that their services are secure. There are several options in proving this and it is up to every CSP to choose which of those options, in this report referred to as assessment schemes, that suits them best. The question is, how do they make this choice? In the starting phase of this thesis project, an extensive information search was carried out. More than 30 different certifications, standards, attestations, ratings, assessments, reports, compliances or audits, touching upon this subject were found. Add to the equation that much of the information found was questionable or straight out incorrect, and the question of which assessment scheme to concentrate on becomes quite complex. The described problem was identified by the Belgian company Ferranti Computer Systems, who just opened up their cloud services to customers. In collaboration with them, the following three goals were defined to solve the problem:

·        Create a clear overview of the cloud assessment schemes that exist on the Market
·        Provide methods to categorize or compare assessment schemes
·        Make a case study on Ferranti Computer Systems demonstrating how the       accomplishments can be put to practice

To fulfill those goals, three main deliveries were created. First of all an overview
including a short explanation of relevant assessment schemes on the market. Second,
a comparison of assessment schemes in terms of risk mitigation. Four known
cloud risks were put forward and some surprising observations were made. The
third delivery was a case study on Ferranti Computer Systems. Previous findings
in combination with results from interviews were used to select a suitable
assessment scheme for their cloud platform. The assessment scheme they chose was more or less unknown to everyone at Ferranti Computer Systems. It was the research that opened their eyes to this new assessment scheme and convinced them to try something new, rather than choosing something they knew about by reputation. Seeing how the investigation changed their mind, it became obvious how important it is to create more transparency in the world of assessment schemes. It is essential that companies choose the assessment scheme that is most suitable for them and that they have a clear understanding of why it is suitable. This thesis proves the need for clarity among cloud security assessment schemes and presents methods to achieve this clarity.

2016-01-14 Master Thesis Presentation by Max Andersson and Gabriel Jönsson.

Published: 2016-01-11

Date: Thursday Jan 14 
Time: 13.15
Place: E:2517
Title: High speed backbone for FPGA at ESS

Abstract:
The purpose of this project is to backwards engineer and re-design a PCI Express
communication system which is currently being used at ESS in Lund. The current
model is non-modifiable and our goal is to create a system open for customization.
The aspects explored are communication between hardware and software using
PCI Express, data handling and arbitration, direct memory access and how these
can be implemented in hardware. We have successfully re-created the original
design with a fully utilized read interface and a significantly slower write interface.
The write function has been studied to find possible options to improve the current
design. This system will be installed in 150 different parts of the accelerator and
although it is a small part, it will be vital for the overall performance.

2016-01-11 EU Project Insight Kickoff in Lund

Published: 2016-01-11

A two-day kick-off  for the EU-project "Insight" or "Integration of III-V Nanowire Semiconductors for next Generation High Performance CMOS SOC Technologies" will take place Jan 11-12, 2016, in Lund with participation from LU, Glasgow University, IBM, IAF, LETI and T-UCC. Speaks on goals, milestones, workpackages and also a guided tour at Lund Nano Lab are some of the activities at the event. Main project coordinator is Prof Lars-Erik Wernersson, Lund University.