Awarded Grants and Research
Dr. Kevin Zhang Donation (Duke Alumni 1994)
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, 6/1/2011 to present
Titled: ASIC Design Competition and support
The main objective of this VLSI design competition is to promote
innovative ASIC project
designs and awareness within the Pratt School of Engineering and the VLSI coursework of ECE539 and ECE532.
Students will submit their Digital and Mixed Signal ASIC project
at the end of the courses and the winners will get their names
posted on a plaque inside the VLSI design lab Room 115A in Hudson Hall.
The Mixed Signal ASICs Competition is held June and the Digital
ASIC Competition is held December of every year.
This donation will also provide for new engineering workstation
equipment and VLSI Cad support
for all of the VLSI tools and libraries used in the VLSI design lab
and related courses.
SUNY Brooklyn Research Contract
Department of Physiology and Pharmacology,
6/1/2002 to 5/31/2006
Titled: Integrated Circuit Design for Neural Stimulator
The main objective of this VLSI design project is to develop a functional analog application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for the microstimulator headstage used for neuron stimulations located in the brain of a rat, monkey or human. This full custom analog device will contain 16 independent channels of biphasic current drivers that can source and sink up to 300 microamps of differential current into high impendance load.
The first pass STIM_1 device will be an 8-channel user selectable microstimulator current source module initially designed in 5v, double poly, triple level metal, .5um Cmos technology. The maximum differential output voltage range for this technology is 10 volts.The second pass device, STIM_2, is a programmable 16-channel microstimulator module.
NSF Phase II and IIB Grant,
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, 4/1/2003 to 12/31/2006
Titled: Integrated Circuit Design for Biomedical Data Transmission
This Phase II project is being used to develop, test, market and produce a low-power wireless headstage system for neural monitoring and prosthetic devices by 2004. This wireless neural headstage device can transmit and receive sixteen electrodes sourced from a patient. The analog signals are encoded and transmitted over a wireless connection to a remote receiver where they appear on a 16-channel connector. This technology will use a proprietary hybrid analog ASIC chipset to transmit 4 Mbs data rates at 1mWatt per channel over a five meter transmit distance.
The rF analog circuits to be integrated with the wireless technology in this project are currently being verified.
Duke University Research Contract
Department of Biomedical Engineering,
6/1/2002 to 5/31/2005
Titled: Integrated Circuit Design for Neural Data Acquisition
Develop mixed-signal Integrated circuits for neural pre-conditioning that are used to amplify and filter signals acquired from chronically implanted electrodes in an animal’s brain. Sub-circuit macros will be developed to include a low noise, high gain, bandpass filter pre-amplifiers, a cascaded bandpass switch capacitor filter, a selectable gain output buffers and sigma delta analog to digital converters.
NSF Phase I Grant,
6/1/2003 to 12/31/2003
Titled: MatchBox Projector
This LCOS display system will have excellent picture quality, high manufacturing yield potential and exceed all quality benchmarks of business projection displays from size, weight, manufacturing cost and brightness. This LCOS development includes design of a full custom, mixed signal integrated circuit (IC), LED sourced light engine and mechanical sub-assembly. The IC will contain novel pixel circuits that remove charge sharing noise and increase charge storage memory increasing display brightness and contrast ratio. This LCOS display reduces the need for high speed CMOS technology thus reducing IC manufacturing costs.
This Phase I objective is to prototype and demonstrate LCOS display technology positioning STI to penetrate 10% of current $5.2B business display market with an OEM display parts kit during the Phase II grant period. This display market includes business multimedia projectors and HDTV project displays, which is expected to grow to $20 billion by 2007.
Duke University Research Contract
Department of Biomedical Engineering,
6/1/2001 to 10/31/2002
Titled: Integrated Circuit Design for Ultrasound Transducer Pre-amplifier
Develop novel, specialized Integrated Circuits to improve the resolution and
image quality of the Real Time Volumetric Imaging system (RTVI). A 64-channel
ultrasound pre-amplifier ASIC will be designed, laid out, fabricated and tested.
This ASIC will amplify and filter pulsed echo transducer braodband signals sourced from a
transducer of the RTVI systems. Custom analog circuits include a
high gain pre-amplifier, a linear output buffer, and bias circuits. This device was implemented using AMI Semiconductor’s, 0.5um, double poly, triple level metal CMOS technology.
NSF Phase I Grant,
6/1/2001 to 12/31/2001
Titled: Integrated Circuit Design for Biomedical Data Transmission
In this Phase I project we will develop integrated, wireless transceiver Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) circuits for neuron based data acquisition (DAQ) systems. Today’s multi-channel neuron DAQ systems require a tethered connection for the surgically implanted analog head stage electronics. This wired connection limits the subject’s freedom and motion. If a low power, wireless connection were possible, these limitations are eliminated. Furthermore, a wireless connection will broaden the use of DAQ systems to clinical possibilities with humans. The critical design parameters for the wireless head stage transceiver circuits are the 4 Million Bits per second (Mbs) data rate and 1mWatt power dissipation.