Recent Activities
Posted by edcasadmin on Tuesday, 7 February 2017|
Approval of Integrated Bio-GMI Sensor and Electronics by PSF - Apr 2021 This project proposes a high-sensitivity, miniaturized and low-cost bio-sensor system for blood-assay and pathogen detection for point-of-care testing (POCT). The proposed system would enable early-stage detection of infectious diseases by driving technological developments towards low cost, easy to use and accurate portable electronic systems for medical diagnosis. The complete bio-sensor system would consist of a GMI (Giant Magneto Impedance) sensor, an application-specific readout IC (ASIC) developed to provide electrical and mechanical interface to the GMI sensor. The system would target specific diagnostic bio-markers and biological linkers to modulate the sensor’s impedance through magnetic coupling for selective detection. The GMI sensor would be integrated with the readout ASIC in an appropriate package to reach an area-efficient footprint. The ASIC would be custom-designed and fabricated in CMOS process through a standard CMOS FAB.
Testing of the Wireless Power Transfer System funded by HEC NRPU - Apr 2021 The Prototype test system for the purpose of wireless power transfer at a mid-range scale of 2 to 5m was developed in-house with the development of custom characterized antenna arrays and test boards. The system which consists of a smart transmitter and moderate efficiency receiver running at 2.4 GHz provided the required power transmission results with moderate efficiency.
Test Setup for Wireless Power Transfer System
Approval of Point-of-Care Electronic Test Kit for Rapid Detection of Pathogens using Graphene-Transistors as Biosensors by HEC-NCAI Mar-2021 This project proposes the development of ahand-held point-of-care electronic test-kit for rapid pathogen detection (termed as the front-end), which is supported by a backend server employing Artificial Intelligence. This front-end would be similar to a hand-held Glucometer with disposable sensor-strips and a battery-operated reusable reader/teller with internet connectivity. The backend server would bea high computation-power platform with cloud connectivity and data-storage placed at a centralized site. Prototype Development of Vaccine Monitoring System - Mar 2021 A smart electronic system which can be used as a low-cost data-logger for different phases of the vaccine cold-chain and as a multi-feature electronically controlled vaccine dispenser to enhance the last-mile transportation and delivery. It will minimize the vaccines to turn impotent, will locate faulty part of cold chain to increase yield and will minimize the mishandling of vaccines by the healthcare-worker.
Test Setup for Vaccine Dispensor System Approval of Indigenous design and manufacturing of full flight motion platform by HEC-NCRA - Jan 2021 The motion-actuated platform is an indigenously designed first-of-its-kind motorized full flight simulator. Covering high ranges of rotation and a distinct feature of mimicking the performance and rates of multiple large aircrafts. The motorized feature gives us a greater edge to control the inertia, momentum, torque, acceleration and speed of the platform which enables us to cover a wide range of aircrafts. The simulator comes equipped with our multi-axes motion platform which demonstrates a robust and accurate depiction of an aircraft’s deflection and turbulent behavior in the pitch, roll, yaw and heave axes.
Testing of the Developed system and Ignite Funded Project Completion - Dec 2020
Prototype systems were developed around the Fabricated ASIC to test the working and performance of the ASIC. The PCB Test Boards were designed in-house, they were initially used to electrically test the ASIC standalone and later integrated with the in-house developed testing systems for lab and field testing of the Accelerometer, Bio and Chemical sensors and their readouts. The Results for Both the Lab and Field Testing met the targeted specifications resulting in the successful completion of the project.
Vibration Test Setup for the Ignite Project, showing one of the three systems under the project
Thesis Defense of EDCAS Researchers
Syed Usman Amin Master’s Thesis Defense Funded under IGNITE Project - Aug 2020
Thesis Title:Design And Analysis Of Monolithically Integrated Cmos-Mems Based Micro-Cantilever With Roic Design For Biosensors
his thesis is based on the Monolithic integration of a CMOS-MEMS based Micro-Cantilever for a Bio Sensor with its complete Readout Integrated Circuit (ROIC). The Design was implemented using the 180nm XFAB CMOS technology on an 6 Metal and 1 ploy Stack, taking advantage of the multilayer stacking (z-profile) of the process by designing two electrodes on it. The micro cantilever structure was designed and analyzed using COMSOL Multiphysics with its ROIC designed on the CADENCE CAD tool. The sensor has an overall dimension of 400μm×200μm with a structural thickness of approximately 4μm. The MEMS structure detects change in capacitance due to the mechanical bending of the microcantilever, which results from the change in surface stress produced by molecular interaction between bacteria cells and the microcantilever structure itself. To achieve an improved sensitivity, rectangular portions are cut from the fixed side of the MEMS structure, this will result in reducing the stiffness of the structure which will lead to an increase in bending at the same applied stress. The modelled simulations resulted in the structural sensitivity of approximate 8nm/(mJ/m2), also equivalent to 165aF/(mJ/m2) in terms of capacitance change and its 1st eigen mode at 4.19 KHz. The ROIC was designed to provide a reasonable readable voltage output from a relatively low change in capacitance with it being capable to work at low noise and extremely sensitive conditions. The ROIC consumed a total power of less than 1mW and achieved sensitivity of about 360µV/aF or ~60mV/(mJ/m2) while the lowest detectable capacitance change is around 30-35aF.
Danish Kaleem Master’s Thesis Defense - Jun 2020 Thesis Title:Design And fabrication Of 2.2-4.6GHz active quasi-circulator with > -25 dB transmit and receive isolation This dissertation presents the design of an Active Quasi Circulator (AQC) with strong transmitter-receiver isolation at a frequency of 2.4 GHz. The common gate (CG), the common source (CS) and the common drain (CD) configurations are implemented to enhance the transmitter and receiver isolation. Experimental results show that the insertion losses (S21 and S32) are 6.8±0.5 dB and 7.4±0.5 dB within a frequency band ranging from 2.2 to 4.6 GHz respectively. The transmitter-receiver (S31) isolation is 24 dB with a maximum value of 29.5 dB @ 3.6 GHz, return losses at all the ports (S11, S22, S33) are ≥ 10 dB. The simulated and measured result of input-referred 1-dB compression points (IIP1dB) at a frequency of 2.4 GHz between port 1 and 2 and port 2 and 3 is -3.89 dBm and -4.1 dBm respectively. The total power consumed by this circulator is 40 mW and a power voltage of 1.8 V.
Successful Tapeout of IGNITE ASIC Based on 180nm CMOS MEMS Technology from X-FAB Foundry - Feb 2020
A Successful Tapeout of the Application Specific IC was recently conducted in the month of Feb 2020. The State-of-the-art project comprises of MicroElectroMechanical (MEMS) Sensors including Accelerometer, Chemical and Bio Sensors Monolithically integrated along with their respective Electronic Readouts based on 180nm CMOS Technology from X-FAB foundry. This IC might be first of its kind from the Pakistani academic sector. The applications cover structural health monitoring for predictive maintenance, real-time pathogen detection to enable wide-spread biological monitoring at domestic level and OPD level and IR spectroscopy for green-house gases detection and explosives vapor detection. The scope of underlying technologies is not limited by the mentioned applications - it points to a gradual capacity building in Integrated Circuits and Micro-Nano Electronics, which is a very rare but useful capability for national R&D landscape.
Successful Demo 2 of IGNITE Project - July 2019 A successful Demonstration of the Sensor Designs for the project were given to the Project Manager for this project. A detail design description was presented and the roadmap for the second half of the project was discussed.
HEC NRPU funded Project started - May 2019 HEC through its National Research Program for Universities (NRPU) awarded a project funding of PKR 8.25 Million to the EDCAS Research group. The Project has a duration of 2 years and it started in May 2019. The project would involve high level designing in the field of wireless power transfer. The project would outcome a WPT system, which can be used for 1-5 Watts of Power over the air, at a distance of 5 meters with a power efficiency above 50%. The proposed system will use multiple wall-mounted transmitters (TX) and a portable small footprint receiver (RX).
Successful Completion of Arinc 429 Trainer - Dec 2018 An ARINC-429 Avionics Interface Bus Trainer was designed, manufactured, integrated and successfully tested in collaboration with Aero Train - USA. Designed to train students and personnel to data transmission and bus standards used in commercial and transport aircraft. Features include, Linear Actuator, Rotating Beacon, Outside Air Temperature Probe and Cargo Door.
Green Innovation Challenge Participation - Sept 2018 Organized By WWF- Pakistan, Green Innovation Challenge held a competition encouraging entrepreneurs, by providing them a platform to transform their ideas into ventures with a strong potential to reduce or eliminate plastic waste in Pakistan. EDCAS participated a cost-effective bio-degradable cotton tote bag with embedded electronic smart features including RFID Tag, Temperature Maintained compartment, Energy Harvester circuit and a Tracker. EDCAS made to the final round of the competition.
Successful Demo 1 of IGNITE Project - Sept 2018 A successful Demonstration of the Acquired CADENCE Design tool which was acquired through IGNITE was given to the Project Manager for this IGNITE project. An overview of the project progress was given through a detail presentation.
Dr. Sarmad Sheikh Joins the EDCAS Research group - Sept 2018 EDCAS welcomed Dr. Sarmad Ahmed Shaikh to Avionics Department, KIET and the EDCAS Research Group. With his PhD in Information Technology from Alpen-Adria University, Austria, and more than 5 years of research experience in the field of RF/microwave engineering and antenna designing he would be an important addition in leading the RF wing of the Research Group.
Perpetual License of Cadence Acquired - Jun 2018 EDCAS Group procured Perpetual License of an industry standard IC Design from CADENCE Design Systems, Ireland. This is one of the only two globally available complete front-end and back-end IC Design Suites. These tools have been procured through Ignite National Technology Fund and have been installed on a powerful HP Linux Server provided by KIET. KIET is the first university to have the necessary
IGNITE funded Project started - Jan 2018 One of the Largest funded projects by IGNITE to an Institute in Sindh was granted to EDCAS Research group. This 3-year long project with funding amount of PKR 33 Million was started in January 2018 and would target a smart fusion of micro-sensor-systems, monolithically integrated inside a CMOS microchip. The targeted application of the proposed sensor-fusion would include structural-, chemical- and bio-hazard detection/prediction. This monolithic multi-sensor mire-system can be employed as a sensing node on a wireless-sensor-network (WSN) node in conjunction with off-chip connectivity and controller modules. (http://edcas.gsse.pafkiet.edu.pk/?q=Ignite">http://edcas.gsse.pafkiet.edu.pk/?q=Ignite)
EDCAS Patent Published and Granted - Sep 2017 Alhamdulillah, An international patent of EDCAS Research Group has been published and granted by USPTO (https://patents.justia.com/inventor/syed-arsalan-jawed) last week. This patent is of a high-precision IC to generated reference current. This patent is the result of International collaborative research between EDCAS and KACST, Saudi Arabia. This might well be the first-ever patent in IC design domain from Pakistani Academic sector. This patent is the sign of the fast pace at which research in KIET is achievning maturity.
EDCAS won EFABLESS and XFAB Challenge- Jan 2017 X-FAB, one of the main IC manufacturers, located in Germany, opened up a global competition in November 2016 for a Voltage-Reference IC, the IC had to pass 475 specifications. EDCAS design met all the specifications and made it through a community consisting 88 teams of designers from 26 countries and secured 1st position.
EDCAS taped-out Vaccine Monitoring IC in collaboration with Al-Ain, UAE- Jan 2017 EDCAS taped-out a ground-breaking IC for Vaccine Monitoring System in collaboration with Al-Ain University UAE. The IC comprises ultra low-power circuits along with resonant high-efficiency wireless-power-transfer. This IC would be immersed in Vaccine right at the time of its manufacturing and would be regularly used to monitor the vaccine temperature through an external controller in a highly energy efficient manner.
Awards and certificates distributed among EDCAS membersfor designing a ground-breaking Vaccine Monitoring IC - Jan 2017 Award and certificates ceremony to honor EDCAS members who were instrumental in designing the ground-breaking Vaccine Monitoring IC in collaboration with Al-Ain university UAE.
Delegation from SEU China Visits COE to deliver talks on seminar,“Integrated Circuits, Micro-Systems and Supporting Technologies” - Nov 2016: Delegation from South East University, China comprising Prof. Dr. Ing. Wang Zhi-Gong, Director of the Institute and Prof. Zhiqun Li, Vice Dean personally visited the Main Campus of PAF-KIET on 17 th and 18 th November, 2016 and delivered talks on the topics “IC Design for RF, Optic-Fiber and Neural Communications” and “40 GHz mm-wave receiver front-end design” respectively in a seminar namely “Integrated Circuits, Micro-Systems and Supporting Technologies”, organized by PAF-KIET in this context. Academias from all engineering universities were invited to attend this seminar and a live web-telecast was also arranged.
EDCAS taped-out a full-duplex LVDS transceivers Chip - Oct 2015 EDCAS successfully tapped out LOW-POWER HIGH-SPEED LVDS TRANSCEIVER chip in collaboration with WAFERCAT, King Abdul-Aziz City of Science and Technology, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
EDCAS won WAFERCAT IC Fabrication Award- Jun 2014 The EDCAS group's design of an LVDS transceiver operating at 2Gbps in 250nm CMOS technology has been selected as the top project in the WaferCAT post-grad University projects design contest organized by KACST, KSA. The EDCAS group will have free-fabrication of their design sponsored by WaferCAT.
|
.png)
.png)
