With the latest improvements in device size, power consumption, and communications, sensor networks are becoming increasingly more popular. There has also been a great increase in the popularity of ...commercial applications based on ultrawideband (UWB). Impulse radio (IR) based UWB technology utilizes noise-like signal, has potentially low complexity and low cost, is resistant to severe multipath, and has very good time domain resolution allowing for location and tracking applications. In this paper, the architecture and performance of a noncoherent low complexity UWB impulse radio based transceiver designed for low data rate, low cost sensor network applications is presented. The UWB-IR transmitter is based on a delay locked loop (DLL) and UWB monocycle pulse generator. The UWB-IR receiver utilises a noncoherent, energy detection based approach, which makes it largely independent of the shape of the transmit waveform and robust to multipath channels. The test circuits are designed for 0.35 /spl mu/m SiGe BiCMOS technology. This paper presents system simulations results as well as the performance of key functional blocks of the designed UWB application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) transceiver architecture. The simulated power consumption of UWB-IR transceiver circuits is 136 mW with 100% duty cycle with a 3.3 V power supply.
Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) are multipotent cells that are found in the bone marrow. Inflammation and tissue damage mobilize MSCs and induce their migration towards the damaged site through ...mechanisms that are not well defined. Toll-like receptor-9 (TLR9) is a cellular receptor for microbial and vertebrate DNA. Stimulation of TLR9 induces inflammatory and invasive responses in TLR9-expressing cells. We studied here the expression of TLR9 in human MSCs and the effects of synthetic TLR9-agonists on their invasion. Constitutive expression of TLR9 was detected in human MSCs but the expression was suppressed when MSCs were induced to differentiate into osteoblasts. Using standard invasion assays and a novel organotypic culture model based on human myoma tissue, we discovered that stimulation with the TLR9 agonistic, CpG oligonucleotides increased the invasion capacity of undifferentiated MSCs. Simultaneously, an increase in MMP-13 synthesis and activity was detected in the CpG-activated MSCs. Addition of anti-MMP-13 antibody significantly diminished the CpG-induced hMSC invasion. We conclude that treatment with TLR9-ligands increases MSC invasiveness, and this process is at least partially MMP-13-mediated.
The Gigatracker is a hybrid silicon pixel detector developed to track the highly intense NA62 hadron beam with a time resolution of 150
ps (rms). The beam spectrometer of the experiment is composed ...of three Gigatracker stations installed in vacuum in order to precisely measure momentum, time and direction of every traversing particle. Precise tracking demands a very low mass of the detector assembly (
<
0.5
%
X
0 per station) in order to limit multiple scattering and beam hadronic interactions. The high rate and especially the high timing precision requirements are very demanding: two R&D options are ongoing and the corresponding prototype read-out chips have been recently designed and produced in
0.13
μ
m
CMOS technology. One solution makes use of a constant fraction discriminator and on-pixel analogue-based time-to-digital-converter (TDC); the other comprises a delay-locked loop based TDC placed at the end of each pixel column and a time-over-threshold discriminator with time-walk correction technique. The current status of the R&D program is overviewed and results from the prototype read-out chips test are presented.
Low-power amplifier-discriminators based on a so-called NINO architecture have been developed with high time resolution for the readout of radiation detectors. Two different circuits were integrated ...in the NINO13 chip, processed in IBM 130 nm CMOS technology. The LCO version (Low Capacitance and consumption Optimization) was designed for potential use as front-end electronics in the Gigatracker of the NA62 experiment at CERN. It was developed as pixel readout for solid-state pixel detectors to permit minimum ionizing particle detection with less than 180 ps rms resolution per pixel on the output pulse, for power consumption below 300 muW per pixel. The HCO version (High Capacitance Optimization) was designed with 4 mW power consumption per channel to provide timing resolution below 20 ps rms on the output pulse, for charges above 10 fC. Results presented show the potential of the LCO and HCO circuits for the precise timing readout of solid-state detectors, vacuum tubes or gas detectors, for applications in high energy physics, bio-technologies or medical imaging.
The NA62 Gigatracker pixel detector system Mazza, G.; Ceccucci, A.; Cortina, E. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
05/2010, Letnik:
617, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The silicon tracker for the NA62 experiment has to provide both a time resolution of 150
ps
rms and a space resolution of about
100
μ
m
rms
. These challenging specifications require the development ...of a new readout electronics in order to address the problem of measuring the tracks arrival time with such a high channel density. Moreover, the high particle density (up to
1.5
MHz
/
mm
2
in the center and 0.8–1
GHz in total) requires a high speed measurement and data transmission in order to keep the dead time below 1%.
The NA62 Gigatracker: Detector properties and pixel read-out architectures Fiorini, M.; Carassiti, V.; Ceccucci, A. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
12/2010, Letnik:
624, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The beam spectrometer of the NA62 experiment, named Gigatracker, has to perform single track reconstruction with unprecedented time resolution (150
ps rms) in a harsh radiation environment. To meet ...these requirements, and in order to reduce material budget to a minimum, three hybrid silicon pixel detector stations will be installed in vacuum. An adequate strategy to compensate for the discriminator time-walk must be implemented and R&D investigating two different options is ongoing. Two read-out chip prototypes have been designed in order to compare their performance: one approach is based on the use of a constant-fraction discriminator followed by an on-pixel TDC, while the other one is based on the use of a time-over-threshold circuit followed by a TDC shared by a group of pixels. This paper describes the Gigatracker system, presents the global architectures of both read-out ASICs and reviews the current status of the R&D project.
The architecture of a low-power, low-complexity ultra wideband (UWB) impulse radio (IR) transceiver circuit, aimed for low data rate, low-cost applications, is presented. The UWB-ER receiver is based ...on a non-coherent, energy-based approach, which makes it largely independent of the shape of the transmit waveform and robust to multipath channels. Both transmitter and receiver functionalities are included in the circuit presented. The circuits are designed for 0.35 /spl mu/m CMOS IC technology, and the top-level layout of the transmitter is given. The UWB pulse generator produces a Gaussian monocycle of 340 ps typical width. The UWB-IR transmitter IC occupies a total area of 0.16 mm/sup 2/, and consumes 20 mW with a 3.3 V supply.
The P326 (NA48/3) Gigatracker: Requirements and design concept Fiorini, M.; Anelli, G.; Bifani, S. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
03/2007, Letnik:
572, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
P326 aims at measuring the very rare decay
K
+
→
π
+
ν
ν
¯
at the CERN SPS. The Gigatracker should track every particle of the
75
GeV
/
c
hadron beam at a rate of about 1
GHz with time resolution in ...the 100
ps range and good momentum and angle resolution. The calculated fluence in 100 days of data taking is comparable to the one expected in the inner layers of the silicon trackers in LHC experiments during 10 years of operation. The physics requirements on the Gigatracker performance are overviewed and the preliminary design concept is outlined.
An ultrawide band front-end receiver for low power, low complexity communications system is designed and simulated. The receiver consists of an ultra wideband antenna, band-pass filter, low noise ...amplifier, variable gain amplifier, a Gilbert mixer for squaring and an integrator used for integrating the squared signal. The receiver is based on a non-coherent, energy collection approach, which makes the receiver highly independent of the shape of the received waveform. The bandwidth of the used signal in the system is 1 GHz at 3.1 GHz - 4.1 GHz which is attained by filtering the transmitted signal before and after antenna in transmitter and receiver, respectively. The design is made using a SiGe 0.35 /spl mu/m BiCMOS process provided by Austria Microsystems.
An ultra wideband TAG circuit transceiver architecture Stoica, L.; Tiuraniemi, S.; Rabbachin, A. ...
2004 International Workshop on Ultra Wideband Systems Joint with Conference on Ultra Wideband Systems and Technologies. Joint UWBST & IWUWBS 2004 (IEEE Cat. No.04EX812),
2004
Conference Proceeding
The paper presents the architecture of a low power, low complexity ultra wideband (UWB) transceiver circuit. The circuit is designed for low data rate, low cost applications with built in location ...and tracking. The system is based on a non-coherent architecture which enables the receiver to be extremely simple and largely insensitive to the transmitted pulse shape. The circuit presented contains the oscillator generator, the transmitter, the receiver and baseband digital signal processing (DSP) block. The oscillator generator contains the quartz oscillator, a delay-locked loop (DLL) and edge combiner for clock multiplication to generate a 495 MHz timing signal for pulse generation. The transmitter contains a second DLL (to fix the UWB pulse delay), UWB pulse generator and antenna. The 495 MHz RF signal together with the transmitted UWB pulse are presented. The receiver contains low noise amplifier, variable gain amplifier, squaring circuits, integrators for energy collection, 4 bit A/D converters, digital control logic, integrator and gain selection logic block and detection/bit decision block. The circuits are designed in a 0.35 /spl mu/m Si-Ge BiCMOS process from Austria Microsystems. The UWB TAG is not yet manufactured.
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