Power efficiency and real-time processing capability are two major issues in today's mobile video applications. We proposed a novel Motion Estimation (ME) engine for power-efficient real-time MPEG-4 video coding based on our previously proposed content-based ME algorithm [8],[13]. By adopting Full Search (FS) and Three Step Search (TSS) alternatively according to the nature of video contents, this algorithm keeps the visual quality very close to that of FS with only 3% of its computational power. We designed a flexible Block Matching (BM) Unit with 16-PE SIMD data path so that the adaptive ME can be performed at a much lower clock frequency and hardware cost as compared with previous FS based work. To reduce the energy cost caused by excessive external memory access, on-chip SRAM is also utilized and optimized for parallel processing in the BM Unit. The ME engine is fabricated with TSMC 0.18 µm technology. When processing QCIF (15 fps) video, the estimated power is 2.88 mW@4.16 MHz (supply voltage: 1.62 V). It is believed to be a favorable contribution to the video encoder LSI design for mobile applications.

This paper concerns the design, implementation and subsequent experimental validation of a low-voltage analog CMOS switch based on a gate-bootstrapped method. The main part of the proposed circuit is a new low-voltage and low-stress CMOS clock voltage doubler. Through the use of a dummy switch, the charge injection induced by the bootstrapped switch is greatly reduced resulting in improved sample-and-hold accuracy. An important attribute of the design is that the ON-resistance is nearly constant. A test chip has been designed and fabricated using a TSMC 0.18 µm CMOS process (single poly, n-well) to confirm the operation of the circuit for a supply voltage of down to 0.65 V.

High Rate Space-Time Block Codes (HR-STBCs) with greater than 1 symbol/transmission and simple decoding schemes are proposed. The HR-STBC demonstrates 3 dB Eb/No gain at BER = 10-3 compared with the conventional STBC when three transmit antennas and two receive antennas are utilized.

This paper presents a wavelet-based approach for the design of the finite impulse response (FIR) notch filter with controlled null width. The M-band P-regular wavelet filters are employed to constitute the null space of the derivative constraint matrix. Taking advantage of the vanishing moment property of the wavelet filters, the proposed method controls the null width of the notch filter by adjusting the regularity of the employed wavelet filters. Besides, the selection of large number of bands of the wavelet filters can effectively reduce the minimum mean square error and thus improve the performance of the notch filter. Computer simulations show that, in addition to possessing lower computational complexity, the proposed reduced-rank method has similar frequency response compared to those of the full-rank-based techniques.

In this paper, we treat a design problem for IIR digital filters described by rational transfer function in discrete space. First, we form the filter design problem using the modified least-squares (MLS) criterion and express it as the quadratic form with respect to the numerator and denominator coefficients. Next, we show the relaxation method using the Lagrange multiplier method in order to search for the good solution efficiently. Additionally we can check the filter stability when designing the denominator coefficients. Finally, we show the effectiveness of the proposed method using a numerical example.

A novel robust watermarking scheme based on image connectivity is proposed. Having obtained the connected objects according to the selected connectivity pattern, the gravity centers are calculated in several larger objects as the reference points for watermark embedding. Based on these reference points and the center of the whole image, several sectors are formed, and the same version watermarks are embedded into these sectors. Thanks to the very stable gravity center of the connected objects, watermark detection is synchronized successfully. Simulation results show that our scheme can survive under both local and global geometrical distortions.

In recent years, digital watermarking has become a popular technique for labeling digital images by hiding secret information which can protect the copyright. The goal of this paper is to develop a DCT-based watermarking algorithm for low power and high performance. Our energy-efficient technique focuses on reducing computation required on block-based permutation. Instead of using spacial coefficients proposed by Hsu and Wu's algorithm [1], we use DCT coefficients to pair blocks directly. The approach is implemented by C language and estimated power dissipation using Wattch toolset. The experimental results show that our approach not only reduces 99% energy consumption of pairing mechanism, but also increase the PSNR by 0.414 db for the best case. Moreover, the proposed approach is robust to a variety of signal distortions, such as JPEG, image cropping, sharpening, blurring, and intensity adjusting.

In general, a corner model with best- and worst-case delay conditions is used in static timing analysis (STA). The best- and worst-case delays of a stage are defined as the fastest and slowest delays from a cell input to the next cell input. In this paper, we present a methodology for determining the parameters that yield the best- and worst-case delays when interconnect structural parameters have the minimum and maximum values with process variations. We also present analysis results of our circuit model using the methodology. The min and max conditions for the time constant are found to be (+Δw, +Δt, +Δh) & (-Δw, -Δt, -Δh), respectively. Here, +Δ or -Δ means the max or min corner value of each parameter variation, where w is the width, t is the interconnect thickness, and h is the height. Best and worst conditions for delay time are as follows: 1) given a circuit with an optimum driver, dense interconnects, and small branch capacitance, the best and worst conditions are respectively (-Δw, +Δt, +Δh) & (+Δw, +Δt, -Δh), 2) given driver and/or via resistances that are higher than the interconnect resistance, dense interconnects, and small branch capacitance, they are (-Δw, -Δt, +Δh) & (+Δw, +Δt, -Δh), and 3) for other conditions, they are (+Δw, +Δt, +Δh) & (-Δw, -Δt, -Δh). Moreover, if there must be only one condition each for the best- and worst-case delays, they are (+Δw, +Δt, +Δh) & (-Δw, -Δt, -Δh).

This paper presents a test input data compression technique, Selective Low-Care Coding (SLC), which can be used to significantly reduce input test data volume as well as the external test channel requirement for multiscan-based designs. In the proposed SLC scheme, we explored the linear dependencies of the internal scan chains, and instead of encoding all the specified bits in test cubes, only a smaller amount of specified bits are selected for encoding, thus greater compression can be expected. Experiments on the larger benchmark circuits show drastic reduction in test data volume with corresponding savings on test application time can be indeed achieved even for the well-compacted test set.

Temperature-tracking is becoming of paramount importance in modern electronic design automation tools. In this paper, we present a deterministic thermal placement algorithm for standard cell based layout which can lead to a smooth temperature distribution over the die. It is mainly based on Fiduccia-Mattheyses partition scheme and a former substrate thermal model that can convert the known temperature constraints into the corresponding power distribution constraints. Moreover, a kind of force-directed heuristic based on cells' power consumption is introduced in the above process. Experimental results demonstrate a comparatively uniform temperature distribution and show a reduction of the maximal temperature on the die.

Two compact and low loss dual-mode filters are proposed by using degenerate modes of slotted triangular microstrip patch resonators. The geometrical size and radiation loss of the triangular patch are reduced simultaneously by loading both horizontal and vertical slots. The resonant frequencies of two degenerate modes can be easily controlled by varying the dimensions and positions of the slots. A two-pole dual-mode filter operating at 3.94 GHz with a fractional bandwidth of 4.3% is designed, fabricated, and measured. The measured results verify well the theoretical predictions.

The Public Wireless Local Area Network (PWLAN) is an emerging service for wireless access to the Internet. However, the service coverage of the PWLAN is limited by the deployment of access points (APs) because only those who stay near the AP can access the PWLAN. A feasible way of extending the service coverage of a PWLAN is to deploy mobile ad hoc access networks (MAHANs) so that users who are not in an AP's radio coverage area can send their packets to the AP in a multihop manner. However, in a MAHAN, mobile nodes that intend to access the Internet have to discover routes to the AP first, which may result in considerable bandwidth cost. In this paper, we propose the Appointed BrOadcast (ABO) method to reduce the cost of route discovery in MAHANs. Using the ABO method can achieve this goal on the basis of packet overhearing. Functions that are necessary for network and data link layers to employ the ABO method are also discussed. Simulation results show that using the ABO method can significantly reduce the cost on route discoveries. Due to the widespread use of legacy IEEE 802.11 nodes, the problem of how ABO-enhanced and legacy IEEE 802.11 nodes can coexist in a MAHAN is also discussed.

The characteristics of various techniques, including some new techniques, in mitigating wavelength contention in optical path setups were compared by simulations. The assumed network here is a WDM photonic network in which each node is equipped with a limited number of wavelength-tunable optical transceivers. In the photonic network, the frequency of optical path setups and releases is very high, because optical path lifetime is short and optical transceivers are time-shared, and therefore, the wavelength contention becomes a serious problem. In this paper, we propose four new techniques to mitigate the phenomenon. In those techniques, a new small-sized parameter, the history number, was introduced based on the conceptual requirements of the assumed network, namely, low-cost and low additional control load. The four proposed techniques are history recording (HR), history notifying (HN), conditional random selection (CRS), and HN with dithering target (HNDT). We have evaluated the characteristics of those techniques along with those of two conventional techniques: no mitigation and random selection (RS). The simulations were carried out while varying four parameters: the maximum generation number, the optical path lifetime, the number of wavelengths, and the number of optical transceivers per node. Consequently, it is clarified that for a sufficient number of wavelengths, namely, almost no limitation on number of wavelengths, the CRS technique is advantageous, and for a small number of wavelengths the HNDT technique is advantageous.

A selectively ion-implanted collector (SIC) is implemented in a 0.8 µm BiCMOS process to improve the RF characteristics of the BJT devices. The SIC BJT device has better ft and fmax than the FIC (fully ion-implanted collector) BJT device because the extrinsic base-collector capacitance is reduced by the SIC process. The ft is 7.8 GHz and fmax is 9.5 GHz for the SIC BJT device while the ft is 7.2 GHz and fmax is 4.5 GHz for the FIC BJT device when biased at Vce=3.6 V and Jc=0.07 mA/µm2. The noise parameters are the same for both BJT devices but the associated gain is higher for the SIC BJT device.

In this paper, we define a stopping set of turbo codes with the iterative decoding in the binary erasure channel. Based on the stopping set analysis, we study the block and bit erasure probabilities of turbo codes and the performance degradation of the iterative decoding against the maximum-likelihood decoding. The error floor performance of turbo codes with the iterative decoding is dominated by the small stopping sets. The performance degradation of the iterative decoding is negligible in the error floor region, so the error floor performance is asymptotically dominated by the low weight codewords.

Fingerprints are useful for biometric purposes because of their well known properties of distinctiveness and persistence over time. However, owing to skin conditions or incorrect finger pressure, original fingerprint images always contain noise. Especially, some of them contain useless components, which are often mistaken for the terminations that are an essential minutia of a fingerprint. Mathematical Morphology (MM) is a powerful tool in image processing. In this paper, we propose a linear time algorithm to eliminate impulsive noise and useless components, which employs generalized and ordinary morphological operators based on Euclidean distance transform. There are two contributions. The first is the simple and efficient MM method to eliminate impulsive noise, which can be restricted to a minimum number of pixels. We know the performance of MM is heavily dependent on structuring elements (SEs), but finding an optimal SE is a difficult and nontrivial task. So the second contribution is providing an automatic approach without any experiential parameter for choosing appropriate SEs to eliminate useless components. We have developed a novel algorithm for the binarization of fingerprint images [1]. The information of distance transform values can be obtained directly from the binarization phase. The results show that using this method on fingerprint images with impulsive noise and useless components is faster than existing denoising methods and achieves better quality than earlier methods.

A differential detection Space-Time Block Code (STBC) is proposed with a high transmission rate, allowing a trade-off between diversity and multiplexing gain with low encoding and decoding complexity. The proposed method offers multiplexing gain by doubling the transmission rate for three and four transmission antennas. Computer simulations demonstrate that the proposed STBC can achieve a 5.8 dB Eb/N0 gain at BER = 10-3 compared with a conventional differential detection STBC for four transmission and two receiving antennas.

With the proliferation of various types of computing and networking resources in ubiquitous computing environments, an architecture allowing mobile users to flexibly access these resources is desirable. We have focused our attention on the access link resources of devices surrounding users. Our framework named Personal Mesh allows personal devices to seamlessly access the Internet via appropriate access links available in a personal area network. The Personal Mesh deals with two technical issues: access link selection management and a PAN mobility support mechanism. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of Personal Mesh and show the effectiveness of our system by experiment.

A planar composite right/left-handed leaky wave antenna which operates at W-band is fabricated and its backward to forward beam scanning operation including broadside direction is confirmed experimentally. The scanning angle from 61 to 114 degrees with a frequency scanning range of 76 to 79 GHz is achieved.

In iterative software development methodology, a version control system is used in order to record and manage modification histories of products such as source codes and models described in diagrams. However, conventional version control systems cannot manage the models as a logical unit because the systems mainly handle source codes. In this paper, we propose a version control technique for handling diagrammatical models as logical units. Then we illustrate the feasibility of our approach with the implementation of version control functions of a meta-CASE tool that is able to generate a modeling tool in order to deal with various diagrams.