We propose the probabilistic transfer matrix (PTM) framework to capture nondeterministic behavior in logic circuits. PTMs provide a concise description of both normal and faulty behavior, and are well-suited to reliability and error susceptibility calculations. A few simple composition rules based on connectivity can be used to recursively build larger PTMs (representing entire logic circuits) from smaller gate PTMs. PTMs for gates in series are combined using matrix multiplication, and PTMs for gates in parallel are combined using the tensor product operation. PTMs can accurately calculate joint output probabilities in the presence of reconvergent fanout and inseparable joint input distributions. To improve computational efficiency, we encode PTMs as algebraic decision diagrams (ADDs). We also develop equivalent ADD algorithms for newly defined matrix operations such as eliminate_variables and eliminate_redundant_variables, which aid in the numerical computation of circuit PTMs. We use PTMs to evaluate circuit reliability and derive polynomial approximations for circuit error probabilities in terms of gate error probabilities. PTMs can also analyze the effects of logic and electrical masking on error mitigation. We show that ignoring logic masking can overestimate errors by an order of magnitude. We incorporate electrical masking by computing error attenuation probabilities, based on analytical models, into an extended PTM framework for reliability computation. We further define a susceptibility measure to identify gates whose errors are not well masked. We show that hardening a few gates can significantly improve circuit reliability.

/pdf/probabilistic-transfer-matrices-in-symbolic-reliability-4obj81itd1.pdf

Probabilistic transfer matrices in symbolic reliability analysis of logic circuits

This review, with 201 references, describes the recent advancement in the application of carbonaceous nanomaterials as highly conductive platforms in electrochemical biosensing. The electrochemical biosensing is described in introduction by classifying biosensors into catalytic-based and affinity-based biosensors and statistically demonstrates the most recent published works in each category. The introduction is followed by sections on electrochemical biosensors configurations and common carbonaceous nanomaterials applied in electrochemical biosensing, including graphene and its derivatives, carbon nanotubes, mesoporous carbon, carbon nanofibers and carbon nanospheres. In the following sections, carbonaceous catalytic-based and affinity-based biosensors are discussed in detail. In the category of catalytic-based biosensors, a comparison between enzymatic biosensors and non-enzymatic electrochemical sensors is carried out. Regarding the affinity-based biosensors, scholarly articles related to biological elements such as antibodies, deoxyribonucleic acids (DNAs) and aptamers are discussed in separate sections. The last section discusses recent advancements in carbonaceous screen-printed electrodes as a growing field in electrochemical biosensing. Tables are presented that give an overview on the diversity of analytes, type of materials and the sensors performance. Ultimately, general considerations, challenges and future perspectives in this field of science are discussed. Recent findings suggest that interests towards 2D nanostructured electrodes based on graphene and its derivatives are still growing in the field of electrochemical biosensing. That is because of their exceptional electrical conductivity, active surface area and more convenient production methods compared to carbon nanotubes. Graphical abstract Schematic representation of carbonaceous nanomaterials used in electrochemical biosensing. The content is classified into non-enzymatic sensors and affinity/ catalytic biosensors. Recent publications are tabulated and compared, considering materials, target, limit of detection and linear range of detection.

A review on recent advancements in electrochemical biosensing using carbonaceous nanomaterials

Aptamers in nanostructure-based electrochemical biosensors for cardiac biomarkers and cancer biomarkers: A review

The emergence of the rising alliance between aggregation-induced emission (AIE) and electrochemiluminescence (ECL) is defined as aggregation-induced electrochemiluminescence (AIECL). The booming science of AIE has proved to be not only distinguished in luminescent materials but could also inject new possibility into ECL analysis. Especially in the aqueous phase and solid state for hydrophobic materials, AIE helps ECL circumvent the dilemma between substantial emission intensity and biocompatible media. The wide range of analytes makes ECL an overwhelmingly interesting analytical technique. Therefore, AIECL has gained potential in clinical diagnostics, environmental assays, and biomarker detections. This review will focus on introduction of the novel concept of AIECL, current applied luminophores, and related applications developed in recent years.

Recent Advances in Aggregation‐Induced Electrochemiluminescence

In the last decades, compounds with ‘Aggregation-Induced Emission’ (AIE), which are weakly or non-emissive at all in solution but exhibit a strong luminescence in aggregated states, have emerged as an extraordinary breakthrough in the field of luminescent materials, allowing to circumvent ‘Aggregation Caused Quenching’ (ACQ), which in many cases prevents the development of efficient solid-state materials for optoelectronic applications. Since the discovery of AIE, many AIE-active materials have been developed, most of them composed of organic molecules, and thus fluorescent in nature. Although a wide range of applications such as bioimaging, sensing, multi-stimuli responsive materials, and optoelectronic devices have been proposed for this new class of materials, triplet harvesting phosphorescent materials have much longer lifetimes as compared to their singlet harvesting analogues, and for this particular reason, the development of AIE-active phosphorescent materials seems to be a promising strategy from the applications point of view. In this respect, the synthesis of new AIE-active systems including heavy metals that would facilitate the population of low-lying excited triplet states via spin-orbit coupling (SOC), for which the strength increases as the fourth power of atomic number, i.e. Z4, is highly desirable. This review covers the design and synthetic strategies used to obtain the AIEgens reported in the literature that contain either d-block metals such as Cu(I), Zn(II), Re(I), Ru(II), Pd(II), Ir(III), Pt(II), Au(I), and Os(IV), describing the mechanisms proposed to explain their AIE. New emerging high-tech applications such as OLEDs, chemical sensors or bioimaging probes proposed for these materials are also discussed in a separate section.

“Aggregation-induced emission” of transition metal compounds: Design, mechanistic insights, and applications

An ultrasensitive electrochemiluminescence (ECL) disposable aptamer sensor (aptasensor) is presented for detection of myocardial infarction biomarker by quantification of troponin I in blood serum. A screen-printed electrode was modified with (a) aptamer-modified gold nanoparticles, (b) cyclometallated iridium(III)-poly-4-vinylpyridine nanoparticles, and (c) nitrogen-doped graphene in order to increase the loading capacity and conductivity of the aptasensor. If the aptasensor is exposed to troponin I, it will bind to the aptamer and desorb the aptamer from gold nanoparticles and the surface of the electrode. This generates an enhancement in ECL emission depending on troponin I concentration. ECL emission is strongly improved by aggregation-induced phenomenon, which is caused by inhibition of the water and oxygen quenching effect on the iridium complex ECL in aqueous media. Under optimum conditions, the aptasensor has a wide dynamic range that extends from 0.1 pM to 10 nM, with a 20 fM detection limit (S/N = 3) and a relative standard deviation of 3.1%. The ECL aptasensor was successfully applied to 20 individual human serum for the detection of troponin I biomarker.

An aptasensor for troponin I based on the aggregation-induced electrochemiluminescence of nanoparticles prepared from a cyclometallated iridium(III) complex and poly(4-vinylpyridine-co-styrene) deposited on nitrogen-doped graphene

In this paper, the variations of the main characteristics in three SOI device structures due to channel length and thin-film thickness variations are investigated. The structures are studied in a 32nm technology and include SOI-GPS (Ground-Plane in Substrate), SOI-GPB (Ground-Plane in BOX), and SOI-WGP (Without Ground Plane). For this study, we assume normal distributions for the channel length and thin-film thickness of the transistors and then obtain the distributions for the threshold voltage, leakage, DIBL coefficient, and subthreshold swing. The results show that the GPS structure is more resistant against the variations when compared to the other two structures.

Process variation study of Ground Plane SOI MOSFET

A new transformer-less boost-based DC–DC converter is suggested in this research. The voltage gain of the proposed converter is enhanced employing a charge-pump circuit (CPC) and n-stages of voltage multiplier cells (VMC). Each VMC consists of one inductor, one diode, and two capacitors. As the number of these VMC stages (n) increases, it is feasible to achieve high voltage gains with low duty cycles. Furthermore, by expanding n, a significant reduction of the normalized peak voltage stress (NPVS) of the components is possible. Due to this feature, using the MOSFET switches with low ON-state resistance and the low-rating voltage components is provided which results in diminishing the conduction and switching losses. The steady-state analysis is accomplished in details and the comparison considering other converters in the literature is presented in this manuscript. Validating of the converter performance is accomplished by implementing a laboratory prototype for the power of 300 W, input, and output voltages of 30 V and 310 V, respectively, and switching frequency of 40 kHz. Experimental results validate the mathematical analysis.

An extended high-voltage-gain DC–DC converter with reduced voltage stress on switches/diodes

Along with decrement in size of nanoelectronic devices, they are more prone to the effects of transient faults. Therefore, investigating the effects of such faults is of great importance. Due to high count of transistors in nanoelectronic devices, performing simulation by HSPICE is a time consuming process. Hence, several mathematical models have been proposed. However, our proposed model is simple while being more precise considering factors such as glitch amplitude and rise-fall time mismatch. The predictions of our model are 98% close to those of HSPICE simulation ones in average.

A model for transient fault propagation considering glitch amplitude and rise-fall time mismatch

The electron transport layer (ETL) performs a functional role in the structure of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Here in this study, various additives were used to improve the electron transport layer and the performance of PSCs. Recently, carbon nanostructures have shown the capability to be a good candidate to improve the performance of perovskite solar cells. In this study, carbon nanostructures of reduced graphene oxide (RGO), carbon quantum dots (CQDs), and a combination of these, were used in the mesoporous TiO2 precursor solution (mTiO2) to increase the performance and stability of hole-transport-free PSCs. The use of these materials due to their unique properties in the electron transfer layer has facilitated, increased electron transfer, and improved the surface of the perovskite layer. These factors have increased the efficiency and performance of PSCs. Using these materials, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of PSCs was increased from 5.88% without additives to 10.92% with additives and improved the stability than the pristine sample. The best-optimized PCE and stability are related to adding a combination of CQDs and RGO with a ratio of 50:50 into the electron transport layer, the device structure is Fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO)/cTiO2/ CQDs+RGO+mTiO2/methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3)Au.

Mohammad Saremi

Papers

An aptasensor for troponin I based on the aggregation-induced electrochemiluminescence of nanoparticles prepared from a cyclometallated iridium(III) complex and poly(4-vinylpyridine-co-styrene) deposited on nitrogen-doped graphene

Process variation study of Ground Plane SOI MOSFET

An extended high-voltage-gain DC–DC converter with reduced voltage stress on switches/diodes

A model for transient fault propagation considering glitch amplitude and rise-fall time mismatch

Study of performance and stability of hole transport layer-free perovskite solar cells with modified electron transport layer