This paper presents electromagnetic simulations of a wireless power transfer system suitable for a monitoring system for detection of solder fatigue in power semiconductor modules. Power is provided wirelessly from a printed spiral coil on a printed circuit board to a silicon chip with an on-chip coil. We use and adapt a known gradient-ascent-based optimisation algorithm to obtain suitable coil geometries. For a frequency of 433 MHz, the simulations show an efficiency of -34.7 dB which we conclude is sufficient for the proposed monitoring system.

Efficient beamforming of phased-array antennas requires that the phase delay of each channel is accurately known. One technique for achieving this is to distribute a calibration or local-oscillator reference signal through a delay-insensitive signal distribution network. In this paper, we propose using passive hierarchical signal distribution networks to distribute such signals, a method that scales significantly better with the size of the array than existing signal distribution methods. We analyze the impact of impedance variations within the network on the phase accuracy and propose a calibration front-end architecture. This front end also enables the return loss and coupling between antennas to be monitored for diagnostic purposes. We present an implementation of this front end that was applied to a small prototype antenna array, and show that this implementation exhibited low sensitivity to delays within the calibration network, reduced the temperature-dependent phase error of the front ends substantially, and can be used for performing antenna return-loss measurements

This paper presents an encapsulation concept that enables the construction of small wireless measurement systems that can operate in industrial environments with ambient temperatures of up to 1200°C. To maximize operational time and minimize size, a layer of thermal insulation is combined with water absorbed in a porous material in the core of the device. The simulated operating time before all of the frozen water at 0?C has transformed into steam at 100°C when the ambient temperature of the device was 1200°C is 21 minutes for a sphere with an outer radius of 4 cm. If the outer radius is increased to 10 cm the simulated operating time increases to 125 minutes. Measurements were performed to validate the design. When a sphere with a radius of 4 cm was subjected to an oven temperature of 1200°C the device held the core temperature at or below 101°C for a total of 25 minutes. The time to reach the boiling point of the water was 9 minutes. Thereafter, the temperature was held constant at 100 +/- 1°C for an additional 16 minutes whereafter a rapid rise in temperature took place once all water had evaporated.

This paper analyses the frequency limitations of an active rectifier for RFID applications that has been optimised for 13.56 MHz. The rectifier utilises an active MOS diode with threshold cancellation and a control scheme to reduce reverse leakage. The rectifier is implemented in AMS 0.35 µm CMOS and simulated in Cadence Spectre. For an input voltage of 2 V and an output current of 20 µA, a power and voltage conversion efficiency of 83 % and 89 %, respectively, are achieved at 13.56 MHz. We show that reducing the width of the main MOS transistor from 90 to 60 µm improves the upper frequency limit, but beyond 30 MHz the finite speed of the threshold cancellation control circuit limits the efficiency of the rectifier circuit.

A front-end architecture for inductive RFID transponders using multiple coil antennas for reduced ori- entation sensitivity is presented. The front-end uses multiple antennas for reception and one antenna for transmission. A select function identifies the antenna that is most favorably oriented toward the reader for transmission by comparing the DC charge-up phases of multiple DC generation blocks during power-up of the transponder. CMOS circuit design and simulation results of a front-end for 125 kHz FSK modulation are presented for a pulsed RFID system as well as an archi- tecture for cascaded DC generation. This paper also includes an example of a coil antenna for spherical transponders using three independent orthogonal windings.

The response and the reaction of the brain system to hypoxia is a vital research subject that requires special instrumentation. With this research subject in focus, a new multifunctional lab-on-a-chip (LOC) system with control over the oxygen content for studies on biological cells was developed. The chip was designed to incorporate the patch clamp technique, optical tweezers and absorption spectroscopy. The performance of the LOC was tested by a series of experiments. The oxygen content within the channels of the LOC was monitored by an oxygen sensor and verified by simultaneously studying the oxygenation state of chicken red blood cells (RBCs) with absorption spectra. The chicken RBCs were manipulated optically and steered in three dimensions towards a patch-clamp micropipette in a closed microfluidic channel. The oxygen level within the channels could be changed from a normoxic value of 18% O 2 to an anoxic value of 0.0-0.5% O 2. A time series of 3 experiments were performed, showing that the spectral transfer from the oxygenated to the deoxygenated state occurred after about 227 ± 1 s and a fully developed deoxygenated spectrum was observed after 298 ± 1 s, a mean value of 3 experiments. The tightness of the chamber to oxygen diffusion was verified by stopping the flow into the channel system while continuously recording absorption spectra showing an unchanged deoxygenated state during 5400 ± 2 s. A transfer of the oxygenated absorption spectra was achieved after 426 ± 1 s when exposing the cell to normoxic buffer. This showed the long time viability of the investigated cells. Successful patching and sealing were established on a trapped RBC and the whole-cell access (Ra) and membrane (Rm) resistances were measured to be 5.033 ± 0.412 M Ω and 889.7 ± 1.74 M Ω respectively.

The design of a 450 nW bandgap temperature sensor in the 0 to 175 °C range is presented. The design demonstrates a leakage current compensation technique that is useful for low-power designs where transistor performance is limited. The technique mitigates the effects of leakage in Brokaw bandgap references by limiting the amount of excess current that is entering the bases of the main bipolar pair due to leakage. Using this technique, Monte Carlo simulations show an improvement factor of 7.6 for the variation of the temperature sensitivity over the full temperature range. For the variation of the reference voltage, Monte Carlo simulations show an improvement factor of 2.3.Sensors built using this technique can be used to accurately monitor the temperature of power semiconductors since wireless temperature sensors become feasible with sufficiently low power consumption.

The design of a 450 nW bandgap temperature sensor in the 0 to 175 °C range is presented. The design demonstrates a leakage current compensation technique that is useful for low power designs where transistor performance is limited. The technique mitigates the effects of leakage in Brokaw bandgap references by limiting the amount of excess current that is entering the bases of the main bipolar pair due to leakage. Using this technique, Monte Carlo simulations show an improvement factor of 7.6 for the variation of the temperature sensitivity over the full temperature range. For the variation of the reference voltage, Monte Carlo simulations show an improvement factor of 2.3. Sensors built using this technique can be used to accurately monitor the temperature of power semiconductors since wireless direct-contact temperature sensors become feasible with sufficiently low power consumption.

In this letter we present the results from a series of single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) structures implemented in a commercial 0.18 μm CMOS process intended for CMOS image sensors. Variations without effect on the performance and variations that produced non-functional devices are described. Devices based on the P+/NWELL and deep-NWELL/P-EPI SPADs junctions were found to work well in this process. When biased for 10% QE the best 10 μm diameter P+/NWELL SPADs exhibited a DCR of about 1 kHz, whereas the DCR of the deep-NWELL/P-EPI SPADs was only 10 Hz under the same conditions. We also show that the former type exhibited local sensitivity variations within the SPADs ranging from a factor 4 at low excess voltage to 1.2 at an excess voltage of about 0.5 V. No significant sensitivity variations were found for the deep- NWELL/P-EPI SPADs, but they were found to exhibit significant sensitivity outside the central junction, contributing from 8.3 % at low excess voltage to approximately 70% at high excess voltage

A concept for doing accurate monitoring of temperature in power semiconductor modules is proposed. The concept involves glueing wireless single-chip temperature sensors with on-chip coils in direct contact with power semiconductor devices within their modules. Direct contact results in accurate temperature measurements while wireless technology such as RFID provides galvanic isolation from the power devices. An overview of the electromagnetic situation within wire bond power semiconductor modules is presented and a prototype chip with an on-chip coil has been manufactured as an initial attempt to investigate the feasibility of the concept. Measurements on said chip provides some insight in the challenges in on-chip coil designs. The feasibility of the concept is supported by earlier work that have demonstrated high power transfer efficiencies and a low power temperature sensor that is able to operate at high temperatures.

This paper presents a background and an overview of the initial design considerations for phased array antenna being designed for the New Generation multi-static, incoherent-scatter radar station - EISCAT-3D - in Northern Scandinavia. Its anticipated electrical, mechanical and environmental design requirements are given both by the physics as well as by the extreme climate in the subarctic region of northern Scandinavia