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Electronic Devices & Circuit / Designing Smart Meters with Circuit Protection, Sensing, and Power Control Capab

« on: February 25, 2020, 05:14:23 PM »

This article offers an overview of the various component options for smart meter design and how they can improve the operation of the meters into which they are designed.

Utility meters―once hidden away in cobwebby basements and behind shrubbery―are now emerging as leading players in energy conservation efforts. The latest generation of “smart” electricity, water, and gas meters now offer both commercial and residential customers the information they need to use these resources more wisely. They also allow utility companies to monitor usage remotely, largely eliminating the need for manual readings; they can even make it possible to smooth grid power peaks spot tampering, leakage, excess temperatures, etc.

The switch from traditional electromechanical meters to smart meters presents a variety of challenges for meter designers as they strive to develop solutions that are compatible with Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). This allows integrating smart meters into the fast-growing Internet of Things (IoT), which supports remote communication and fault detection. However, one thing that has remained the same is that the utility companies that install these meters need them to be robust enough to operate reliably for decades and provide accurate measurements over the course of their lifetimes. To do that, they must incorporate a growing array of circuit protection, sensing, and power control components.

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Electrical Machine / Wearables and Trackers for Competitive Sports

« on: February 25, 2020, 05:13:05 PM »

These sports wearables and trackers are pushing how we track our performance on and off the field, and how engineers devise ever more svelte packaging and clever ways to improve ourselves.

Wearables have become an important part of our everyday lives as they allow us to not only look hip, but they have the ability to monitor multiple aspects of our health. In addition to tracking heart rate, pulse, and steps taken, they have the ability to make us better athletes. That means running faster, jumping higher, swinging harder, and improving your overall game no matter what it is. Here are a few that are pushing the boundaries of sports wearables and how they track our performance.

The PIQ multi-sport sensor unit. Courtesy of PIQ
PIQ
PIQ offers a wearable multi-sport sensor that can be used for sports as varied as skiing, tennis, and golf. The PIQ and its sport-specific apps are clever enough to track parameters like forehand, backhand, overhead smash, volleys, and top-spin for tennis. The skiing app will track edge-to-edge speed, G-force, air time, and rotation. The golf app can analyze and help improve your swing by tracking swing path and club head speed.

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Signal Processing & Control System / Biosensor Sensitivity Enhanced Considerably by Moscow Institute Physicists

« on: February 25, 2020, 05:11:23 PM »

Until this point, biosensors have never really been considered for use in consumer electronics. This is because the biosensor devices that existed were simply not sensitive enough and were far too expensive for the consumer market.

However, the new biosensor design created by the researchers at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology Center for Photonics and 2D Materials could increase detector sensitivity several times over while also dramatically reducing the price.

"A conventional biosensor incorporates a ring resonator and a waveguide positioned in the same plane," explained MIPT graduate student Kirill Voronin from the Laboratory of Nanooptics and Plasmonics, who came up with the idea used in the study. "We decided to separate the two elements and put them in two different planes, with the ring above the waveguide."

This, as the researchers call it, is a two-level sensor layout. It was achieved by depositing a thin film and etching it, which creates both a ring resonator and waveguide at the same time and resulted in a higher sensitivity. Although this two-level design is less convenient for manufacturing unique devices, it is cheaper for mass-producing sensors. More importantly, however, is that the new two-tier design resulted in sensitivity many times higher than current biosensors.

"We have positioned the strip waveguide under the resonator, in the bulk dielectric," said paper co-author Aleksey Arsenin, a leading researcher at the MIPT Laboratory of Nanooptics and Plasmonics. "The resonator, in turn, is at the interface between the dielectric substrate and the external environment. By optimizing the refractive indices of the two surrounding media, we achieve a significantly higher sensitivity."

 

A biosensor layout provided by the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

A diagram layout of the biosensor used by Moscow Institute researchers. Image used courtesy of Kirill Voronin
 

Using Biosensors in Consumer Electronics
Biosensors are electrochemical devices that determine the composition of biological fluids. A blood glucose meter is a good example of biosensors and indeed is virtually the only example of a biosensor device currently available on the mass market.

However, many people are hopeful that advances in biosensor technology like those made by the research team at MIPT could pave the way for more consumer electronics that include them. Examples of consumer electronics could include smartphones, wearable health and exercise sensors, and household appliances that could analyse bodily fluids for applications such as identity verification, medical analysis, and diet planning.

According to Valentyn Volkov, head of the MIPT Center for Photonics and 2D Materials, the team’s development will take biosensors to a “qualitatively new level”. However, it is estimated that it will take two-to-three years to develop an industrial design based on the proposed technology.

19

Signal Processing & Control System / Analog Devices Inc. ADPD4000/1 Multimodal Sensor Front End

« on: February 25, 2020, 05:09:19 PM »

Analog Devices Inc. ADPD4000/1 Multimodal Sensor Front End can stimulate up to eight LEDs and measure the return signal on up to eight separate current inputs. Twelve available time slots can enable 12 separate measurements per sampling period. The data output and functional configuration utilize an I2C interface on the ADPD4001 or a serial port interface (SPI) on the ADPD4000. The control circuitry includes flexible LED signaling and synchronous detection. The devices use a 1.8V analog core and 1.8V/3.3V compatible digital input/output (I/O).

FEATURES
8 input channels with multiple operation modes to accommodate the following measurements: PPG, ECG, EDA, impedance, and temperature
Dual channel processing with simultaneous sampling
12 programmable time slots for synchronized sensor measurements
Flexible input multiplexing to support differential and single-ended sensor measurements
8 LED drivers, 4 of which can be driven simultaneously
On-chip digital filtering
Flexible sampling rate from 0.004Hz to 9kHz using internal oscillators
SNR of transmit and receive signal chain: 90dB
Ambient light rejection: 60dB up to 1kHz
400mA total LED drive current
Total system power dissipation: 50µW (combined LED and AFE power), continuous PPG measurement at 75dB SNR, 25Hz ODR, 100nA/mA CTR
SPI and I2C communications supported
256-byte FIFO
APPLICATIONS
Wearable health and fitness monitors: heart rate monitors (HRMs), heart rate variability (HRV), stress, blood pressure estimation, SpO2, hydration, body composition
Industrial monitoring: CO, CO2, smoke, and aerosol detection
Home patient monitoring

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Fundamental of Electrical Engineering / A New Method to Harvest and Generate Electricity by Manipulating Liquid

« on: February 25, 2020, 05:07:40 PM »

In their research, published in the journal Nano Energy, the Japanese researchers focused on energy from the movement of liquid and created a device capable of generating electricity from the movement of a liquid droplet. The device was fabricated using flexible thin films made from molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) instead of graphene as the generator’s active material. This makes it possible to generate over five volts from a single liquid droplet. In contrast, graphene’s output voltage is limited to 0.1 volts. This is not enough to power electronic devices.

"To use MoS2 for the generator, it was necessary to form a large-area single-layer MoS2 film on a plastic film. With conventional methods, however, it was difficult to grow MoS2 uniformly on a large-area substrate," says Professor Ohno of the Institute of Materials and Systems for Sustainability at Nagoya University.

"In our study, we succeeded in fabricating this form of MoS2 film by means of chemical vapor deposition using a sapphire substrate with molybdenum oxide (MoO3) and sulphur powders. We also used a polystyrene film as a bearing material for the MoS2 film, so that we were able to transfer the synthesized MoS2 film to the surface of the plastic film quite easily."

When water droplets slide down the device’s upper surface, electricity is generated from the natural energy that is produced and harvested.

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Faculty Sections / Re: পড়ালেখার জন্য শহর থেকে গ্রামে

« on: February 25, 2020, 03:13:07 PM »

Thanks for sharing

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Faculty Sections / Re: মধুর সাহায্যে চিকিৎসা

« on: February 25, 2020, 03:12:50 PM »

Thanks for sharing

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Faculty Sections / Re: Electronic Banking

« on: February 25, 2020, 03:12:28 PM »

Thanks for sharing

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Faculty Sections / Re: ঘুমালেও টাকা দেবে অফিস

« on: February 25, 2020, 03:12:11 PM »

wow

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Faculty Sections / Re: ভার্জিনিয়া হল: নাৎসিদের ঘুম কেড়ে নিয়েছিলেন যে গুপ্তচর

« on: February 25, 2020, 03:11:38 PM »

Thanks for sharing

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Faculty Sections / Re: ডেঙ্গু হলে আতংক নয়, হাতের কাছেই আছে প্রতিরোধের উপায়

« on: February 25, 2020, 03:11:22 PM »

Thanks for sharing

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Faculty Sections / Re: অল্পতেই বেশি রাগ!

« on: February 25, 2020, 03:11:08 PM »

Thanks for sharing

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Faculty Sections / Re: শীতে শিশুর হাঁপানি

« on: February 25, 2020, 03:10:50 PM »

Thanks for sharing

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Faculty Sections / Re: Gesture-Based Remote Control

« on: February 25, 2020, 03:10:24 PM »

Thanks for sharing

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Faculty Sections / Re: কাঁঠালের বিচির এত গুণ!

« on: February 25, 2020, 03:08:28 PM »

Thanks for sharing