Vlsi Egypt Magazine Issue 1

8/3/2019 Vlsi Egypt Magazine Issue 1

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Chip inside... You Millimeter Waves Leaders vs. Manage

Start-up Nat ion 2

HybridVehicles

How to be an EmbeddedSystems Engineer?


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Together we build the Innovation Tower


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Stay Connected

Get tuned toour recent updates andact ivit ies by following us at

VLSI Egypt Grouphttp://www.facebook.com/groups/164586813554814/

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VLSI Egypt Official Twitter Pagehttp://twitter.com/#!/VLSI_Egypt


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A Quarter -AnnualMagazine by VLSI Egypt

HaythamAshour

Editor in Chief

3

6

Editorial WordWelcome toVLSIEgypt magazine

VLSI EgyptThepast, thepresent and thefuture

Leaders vs ManagersAmixedconcept

How to be an EmbeddedSystems Engineer?

Hybrid VehiclesYou can plug-in your car

Chip Inside...You!

Why do we needmillimeter waves?

10

16

20

22

24Editorial Team

MohammadOmar

AhmadAbdEl-Hamid

AhmadIbrahim

Website

www.vlsiegypt.co.cc

2 ISSUE 1

Should we understand the term "Star t-upNat ion" as thenat ion with the largest numberof startups or namely successful startups?

Start-up Nation 210

VLSI-Egypt is a non-profit, service oriented,community based NGO

Contacts

[email protected]

Microelectronics in Egypt4


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Editorial Word

ISSUE 1

22

14

8

Welcome to the first issue of VLSI Egypt magazine. We are very excited to

introduce this first issue which has been under preparation for more than ayear and we hope it would be a prolific step in the enhancement of informa-

tion flow among the VLSI community in Egypt.

First of all, we would like to thank all those who had supported this project

throughout its evolution from an idea to its materialization in this current

issue. We would also like to thank all the contributors who had offered

their help and dedicated their time to aid with the incarnation of this issue.

VLSI-Egypt magazines target is to spread the knowledge available in the in-

dustry among the members of the community and the academia. VLSI in-dustry is one of the most vibrant fields, it is always changing and

developing with an ever-increasing pace that requires its members to be up-

to-date with the latest trends and state-of-the-art technologies in order to

be competent and maintain their edge in the market. Such requirements do

not only occur on the technical side, they also manifest themselves strongly

on the management and business scale where there are countless examples

of great ideas that has fallen into oblivion due to the lack of good business

planning or marketing shortcomings. For these reasons, we believe we

need to cover not only technical aspects but also business aspects in order

to aid the community as much as possible.

Although the articles are diverse, they cover yet a small part of the myriad

aspects of the VLSI industry. Our choice of the covered areas was influ-

enced by our will to cover as much of the fields as possible in order to en-

courage more collaboration and interaction with the community. We

would like to seize this opportunity to ask you to collaborate and commu-

nicate with us. All your feedback and comments are highly appreciated. We

also anticipate all your comments regarding the articles; they will be pub-

lished starting with the next session. Those who are interested in publish-

ing an article or column in the magazine are highly encouraged to contactus.

In the end, we would like to thank you all for making VLSI Egypt such a

lively community; we believe it is the members that make VLSI Egypt lively

and vivacious. We hope the magazine proves to be an added value to the

community and we hope VLSI Egypt plays an effective role in the advance-

ment of VLSI in Egypt.

Welcome to VLSI Egypt magazine


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Looking back fifteen years ago, one

should be proud of the microelectronics

industry in Egypt right now. At that

time, the first chip out of the Integrated

Circuits lab, Ain Shams University, was

sent for fabrication at the CMP using

the 0.6 micron process technology. The

free ALLIANCE[1] educational VLSI

design system was employed for RTL

simulation, synthesis, placement and

routing. A DELL workstation occupy-

ing a complete bench was used. Stu-

dents watched those working on that

system as if dr iving a space station. Des-

pite the fact that the IC was not 100%

functional, it was quite an experience.

We should compare this to what is hap-

pening right now; several design com-

panies exist in the market dealing with a

broad spectrum of design aspects ran-

ging from RF, analog and mixed-signal

to digital front-end and back-end

design. Many successful tapeouts are

done each year using state-of-the-art

technologies, and complex IPs are de-

veloped and delivered to customers

worldwide. Even, some of the most ad-

vanced design software and CAD tools

are developed in the country. This is all

a dream coming true for anyone work-

ing in that field. However, it is sti ll a lim-

ited industry; design teams are still of

small numbers, experience is hard to

find, design houses are small and medi-

um enterprises (SME), mostly working

in isolated islands.

How can microelectronics in Egypt

grow to the next level, that of a mature

industry? In order to answer this ques-

tion, we should go through the electron-

ics ecosystem. This includes not only

existing companies, but also Universit-

ies, government initiatives and the local

market.

Companies have to start sharing ideas

to grow their business. Eitisal[2] is a

good initiative to group companies work-

ing in the information, telecommunica-

tions, electronics and software field

together. There is a special electronics

division. Companies are encouraged to

use this framework more efficiently to

communicate together in order to pro-

mote the microelectronics industry in

the country.

The main problem facing such industry

and might limit future expansion in

Egypt is the scarcity of experienced re-

sources. This is badly felt by existing

companies each time a new comer

enters the market and starts pulling out

their valuable resources. The only way

to overcome such limitation is to rein-

force the source of qualified engineers,

i.e. the University. It is not a secret that

among the existing companies, those

who were able to scale their business are

those with very tight cooperation with

academia. Summer training and gradu-

ation projects are powerful tools to pre-

pare future engineers to this

experience-intensive field. Companies

underestimating these opportunitie

will sooner or later face human re

sources problem. It is also clear th

without up-to-date education and state

of-the-art research, chances to grow th

VLSI business will always rema

bounded. Whi le it is the job of Un

versity professors to lead these twactivities, we find that many companie

in this field have University sta

among their co-founders, managemen

or employ professors as consultant

Professors on the other hand do no

have much choice to survive dependin

only on the University income. Th

situation is fine as an intermedia

phase, but on the long run it is not sus

tainable. Wi th depleted resources, Unversities will never be able to perform

its role as a human education factor

without full-time dedicated staff.

At the same time, different researc

teams at the Universities must direc

their research to serve existing compan

ies, if they want to attract them for

win-win research relationship. The

must identify their points of strengtand their capabilities in order to kno

how to put them into use. This is actu

ally what we are trying to do current

at the Integrated Circuits lab at A

Shams University, through what we ca

the "Industry Interaction Initiative

Companies will be invited to sha

ideas, to introduce them to lab capab

ities and resources, to get their feed

back on the education curriculum anto brainstorm together on possible co

operation paths. Recently, the govern

ment has created the mechanisms t

make this cooperation possible b

providing several ways to fund re

search. Those interested should refe

to the ITAC[3], the STDF[4], th

RDI[5] and the NTRA[6] web sites.

Microelectronicsin EgyptBy: Dr. Muhammad Dessouky

VLSI Egypt Cor ner

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In fact, the role of the government in

the electronics industry in any country

is crucial. In addition to the above re-

search initiatives, the Ministry of High-er Education and Scientific Research

has a considerable investment in what is

called the Microelectronics Science

Park. It is currently being constructed

near Heliopolis, Cairo. Besides the Elec-

tronics Research Institute, the building

will also host a MEMS cleanroom, a Mi-

croelectronics Services Center, and an in-

dustrial section to group electronics

companies and startups. This would bea huge leap into the future of our coun-

try. This project is scheduled to be

ready in an 18-month period of time.

All parties should be ready to make use

and support it. Otherwise it will only

be a park.

The microelectronics industry is a stra-

tegic cornerstone. It builds an essential

expertise for the country development.

From an economic viewpoint, it results

in high added-value products that are

sold in the global market with verygood returns. It also absorbs and re-

tains high caliber engineers in a creative

work that satisfies their capabilities in-

stead of searching for jobs outside

Egypt. However, the best value to the

country would be in using this accumu-

lated expertise to solve local problems,

rather than going after global one-size-

fits-all products. The best solution for

any problem always comes out fromthose who live the situation and feel the

needs. This is real creativity. We are

not there yet, and the road might be still

long. But this can expand the role of mi-

croelectronics from a mere economic

one to social and political grounds

where its effect on the daily life of Egyp-

tians can be appreciated. Such applica-

tions lie at the system-level. In Egypt,

companies are currently designin

block or macro-block level IPs. This

essential to gain the required exper

ence. The next step is to own

product, but down the road real valu

resides at the system-level. Nowaday

systems are not only a pure hardware is

sue, but there is also a lot of softwareor what we call embedded systems. It

not a surprise that companies lik

Freescale and HP, known for their lon

history of hardware design, have re

cently shifted their focus to softwa

and embedded systems design.

From all the above, I see an importan

role that this magazine can play; it is

local magazine concerned with thEgyptian microelectronics market, ex

periences and problems. It should be

forum to share innovative ideas and dis

cussions from different parties of th

ecosystem. It should avoid being

mere relay of advanced technology b

copying interesting art icles. Informa

tion is now accessible but innovatio

proactive communications and creativ

ideas are what we need at this great moment of our history.

`

Links:

1.http://www-asim.lip6.fr/pub/alliance/

2.http://www.eitesal.org/

3.http://www.itida.gov.eg/En/OurProg

ams/ResearchInnovation/ITacademiaC

ollaboration/

4.http://www.stdf.org.eg/

5.http://www.rdi.eg.net/6.http://www.tra.gov.eg/eng-

lish/DPages_DPagesDe-

tails.asp?ID=472&Menu=1

Muhammad Dessouky

Associate Professor,

Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams Un

versity, Cairo, Egypt

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VLSI EgyptthePast

thePresent

any of us are part of this story.VLSI-Egypt as ajourney fromanideainasingle persons mind t i l l the mo-

ment when it is start ing to formulateandtaking steps forward tobecomea poolofinformat ion and a link that gathers al lplayers of this industry in Egypt in asingle channel is the topic of this art icle.

Let s see thestart

M

theFuture

By: Haytham Ashour

6 ISSUE 1

VLSI Egypt Cor ner


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VLSI-Egypt: The past

Circa 1999, when the VLSI in-

dustry was only a dream for many

engineers in Egypt, one engineer -

Nabil Ibrahim- noticed the lack of

a communication channel that

would gather all people interested

in this field. Back then, Eng. Nabil

thought that he could create a

simple Yahoo group to establish

such a channel, which he did. He

created and publicized the group,

putting the following sentences as

the description for his emerging

group, The aim of this group is

providing a PERMANENT commu-

nication link between all people

who are interested in VLSI design

(Engineers, Professors and under-

graduate students).

Many people started joining the

group and rapidly many Egyptian

people at different level of expert-

ise, from both academic and indus-

trial backgrounds, both inside and

outside Egypt, started to join in.. A

strong and diversified group was

thus formulated and represented

the nucleus of the group. Many fas-

cinating technical discussions star-

ted that showed the level of

expertise present within. In addi-

tion, some early trails to start out-

sourcing activity in the

semiconductor industry by collect-

ing resumes and trying to contact

potential employees started at this

time. These trails did not work well

because the target of such activity

was not clear enough in the minds

of the group members and also be-

cause members were still not syn-

chronized as to the target of the

group.

However, the group continued to

play an important role in informa-

tion sharing, job announcements

and answering questions that are fa-

cing people working in this in-

dustry.

Some years later, due to personal

reasons, Eng. Nabil decided to passon his duties as group moderator

to others who he found to be inter-

ested in the task. Till 2004, about 4

or 5 people were assigned to follow

up the groups moderation tasks.

By the end of 2004, Eng. Nabil as-

signed myself, Haytham Ashour, as

the moderator of the group. Eng.

Haytham Ashour tried to under-

stand the old moderation issueswith the group and started to put

some rules that were approved by

the group members to facilitate

such tasks. Once approved, these

rules were strictly applied to group

members and actions were taken

against any group member who vi-

olated these rules. This allowed fil-

tering of many un-related topics

and put an end to a large portion

of email spam. During this period,

the following set of rules was ap-

proved by the members and was

monitored by the moderator:

1-It is strictly prohibited to send re-

ligious, Charitable, or politically re-

lated emails on this groups

mail ing list.

2- Emails of job announcements or

other technically related topics are

allowed.

3-Course announcements, promo-

tions, and advertisements are al-

lowed to be sent only once during

a period of two weeks. The topic of

a message is taken into considera-

tion, and not the name of the

sender. Therefore, if the same

course advertisement is sent more

than once in two weeks it would be

considered as a violation, even if

sent by a different person.

4-It is not permitted to circulate

any kind of topic concerning

cracked tools within the VLSI-

Egypt group.

In doing so, the group gained

more credibility within the com-

munity and more people started to

join. By the end of 2010, the num-

ber of group members reached

1000 members.

VLSI-Egypt: The present

Eventually, many group memberscame with ideas to extend the

groups activities and tried to for-

mulate it. This was always

hindered by the lack of resources

in the moderation team; it was all

done by a single person. One mem-

ber, Ahmad Ibrahim, inquired

about the possibility of creating a

forum on which all activities may

be discussed. The moderator wel-

comed this step and asked Eng.

Ahmad Ibrahim to take on this

task. A few months later, Eng.

Ahmed Ibrahim was able to suc-

cessfully launch the forum ht-

tp://vlsiegypt.co.cc. It was a good

step forward in allowing informa-

tion and questions to be shared

with the group and keeping track

of it. In this way, the topics being

shared were categorized and a

database of all technical informa-

tion available on the group was cre-

ated.

This step, however, was not fully

accepted by the group members.

Many members preferred to use

the Yahoo group as the emails sent

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were automatically forwarded to

their email accounts without the

need to check the forum itself

every now and then to check if

there had been any activity. We

would like to seize this opportunity

and encourage members to register

on the forum and send their topicson it as this would help in future

for all group members to search

and get answers for their questions

and queries.

At the start of 2010, the group mod-

erator Eng. Haytham Ashour

took the decision to start making a

moderation committee by adding

more people to the committee tohelp with him in making the group

better. He asked people on the Ya-

hoo group who were interested in

enrolling in moderation roles to

start contact him and a month

later, a moderation committee was

created and started to make

monthly meetings to follow-up

and discuss activities on the group.

Currently the moderation commit-tee is composed of four members

(Haytham Ashour, Ahmed

Ibrahim, Mohammed Omar and

Ahmed Abdel- Hamid).

The committee started first to try

to formulate the group by putting a

clear mission and vision for it.

After long discussions, the commit-

tee agreed on the following state-ments for VLSI-Egypt as an entity

and its vision and mission:

VLSI-Egypt is a non-profit, service

oriented, community based NGO.

VLSI-Egypt has the following mis-

sion and vision:

Vision

Establishing a dynamic environ-

ment for the electronics engineers

and interested entities in order to

help the advancement of the VLSI

field in Egypt

Mission

1-Develop methods to share tech-

nical knowledge between people

2-Develop methods to encouragepeople to join and interact on the

group

3-Develop channels between engin-

eers and interested entities

As per this mission and vision, the

moderation committee decided to

create more channels between

group members. The committee

started a Facebook group that has

about 300 members as of the date

of this article and a Facebook pagethat has almost the same number

of followers. It was initiated mainly

to add more socialization between

the group members and it has little

restriction on topics that can be

sent on it compared to the Yahoo

group. The Facebook group is cur-

rently representing the official inter-

face of VLSI-Egypt on the web. It

has all news about official activitiesthat are carried out by the commit-

tee. As of the time of publishing of

this article, we have an overall of

2000 members between the Yahoo

group, forum, Facebook group and

Facebook page.

As per the activities, the committee

started the Share Your Know-

ledge initiative. This initiative

aims to encourage experienced

people in the industry to share

their knowledge with other mem-

bers. VLSI-Egypt is aiming to be a

pool of lecture and courses in each

and every field that is related to

the VLSI industry. The committeesuccessfully managed to make a

printed lecture series on microcon-

troller track PIC16F87X Nuts and

Bolts". This was a series of eight

lectures with labs about

PIC16F87X microcontroller and

some applications using it. A we-

binar series on FPGA design titled

"Unlocking FPGA Secrets" fol-

lowed later on. This series is still inprogress and is focused on illumin-

ating the secrets of FPGA design.

Another activity that has been star-

ted and which had taken a very

long time in preparations and dis-

cussions is this magazine, VLSI-

Egypt Magazine. In this first is-

sue, we hope to present something

that would enhance the commu-nication between the members of

this field in Egypt.

VLSI-Egypt: The Future

After this long story, what we are

targeting in the future? We see the

future as bright as this story has

been. Our plans for the future are

shaped by the moderation commit-

tee and by group members whoare willing to share their ideas with

us. We see it more depending on

you the members to help us in

our activities and to be part of this

success story.

We want to continue in the

magazine activity and we are plan-

ning to issue it quarterly. We want

Our Vision:Establishingadynamicen-vironment for theelectron-icengineers and interestedent it ies inorder tohelp theadvancement of the VLSI

fieldinEgypt

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to formulate an editorial group to

take over this responsibility and to

help with the moderation commit-

tee in making future issues of the

magazine. We see this first issue as

a start of a reputable and periodic

magazine that gathers all news and

presents new ideas in this industry.

We want also to get contacts from

people who are ready to share their

knowledge with others and to ar-

range with them about courses that

they can present. This would allow

us to be able to continue Share

Your Knowledge initiative. We

see this as our way to make VLSI-

Egypt, after a few years, enrichedwith a pool of courses, lectures and

webinars that could be down-

loaded for free to share our current

knowledge with the new genera-

tions and fresh graduates and

make them prepared for our ever-

changing field.

We have ideas about starting an ap-

plication notes or white papersactivity that are written by engin-

eers who have some specific experi-

ence about certain topics and are

ready to share it with the com-

munity. This is also can be con-

sidered as a part of our effort to

collect information from experi-

enced people and sharing it. The dif-

ference here is that these white

papers are more into tiny detailsand deep technical problems. This

would allow more people, even

fresh graduates, to share more in-

formation about the problems they

faced and how they solved it.

We have many more ideas about

making VLSI-Egypt to be the inter-

face of the VLSI industry in Egypt.

As a policy, we are targeting to be

at the same distance from all com-

panies and universities that are

working in this filed in Egypt. We

want to build a successful relation-

ship with them as sponsors and

partners with us.

We have many dreams in our

mind that we feel that it can be real

only by co-operation between all of

us; committee and members. We

are seeking all members who can al-

locate some of their time to help in

driving and following up the activit-

ies that are carried over by the com-

mittee to contact us to join the

committee as active members. Wealso want people who have expert-

ise in any field and are ready to

share this information with others

to contact us to arrange with them

the best way to share this informa-

tion. We would be pleased to col-

lect all your ideas, feed-back and

questions to study it and take it in-

to consideration in our future

plans.

Haytham Ashour,M.Sc

VP of VLSI-Egypt Moderation Com-

mittee Board,

M.Sc. Electronics & Communications

Engineering

Digital Design and Verification Lead-

er, Consultant and Entrepreneur

[email protected]

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Leadersvs. ManagersA mixed concept

The words leader and manager areoften useinterchangeably,without any real awareness asto thedi fference inmeaningbetween the two. In fact , these two posit ions requireent irelydifferent character istics;otherwise,amanager can serveas theleader as well,and vice versa.To fur ther resolve this issue, let us takeacloser lookat what amanager typical ly does andcompare that to what aleader shoulddo, so that wemay evaluate whether both roles canbeper formedby one person,or whether each role represents separatecharacter istics.

By: Kareem Refaat

10 ISSUE 1

Business & Enterpr enurship


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Managers are typically involved in theday to day operations and most of theirtime goes into running the system andensuring it delivers the required results.Their scope of work include typical taskslike planning and budgeting, projectmanagement and follow up, setting thestaff structure and putting the policiesand procedures, delivery control andproblem solving. Managers are typicallyinvolved in resource planning, executionprogress and monitoring and control ofthe output. From the above we see thatthe involvement of management ismainly centralized to running the sys-tem putting some effort to align the staffto deliver the results. They are mainlyconcerned with the current situation orwe can say the "AS IS" of the business todeliver the required results.Let us switch now to leaders and seewhat they are typically supposed to do.The word leader is generally associatedwith the word "direction", or we can saya "vision". Leaders set long term goalsand stretch the mind of their employees

to the future; they typically align staff ona specific direction and make all the ne-cessary communication with their staffto make sure that everyone sees thesame vision. Leaders inspire and motiv-ate staff in every single way to drivethem towards a common goal givingthem the ability to overcome any pos-sible barriers and think positively to-wards achieving the strategic goals of theorganization. Leaders are futuristic andthey always keep an eye on the longterms aspects rather than the short termoperational issues, they are more inter-

ested in the "TO BE" of the business toestablish a robust and healthy organiza-tion.Having reviewed the typical tasks of themanager and the leader we can con-clude that we definitely need both in theorganization, yet it is worth mentioningthat a leader can do a managers workwhereas a manager can't do a leaderswork. Leaders have the talent to workon the "people" aspect; they are con-cerned with developing people to be-come leaders of the future, whilemanagers are concerned with systems,policies and procedures.Leaders have followers while managershave subordinates or employees; the fol-lowers of the leaders believe in the vis-ion and the future while the employeesof the managers believe in the shortterm results and the status of the opera-tional cycle. Leaders are not understoodby many people simply because they arefew, they can't be developed, and theyare born as leaders.The above discussion concludes that

handling people is far more challengingthan handling the systems, managerscan be trained to handle the operationalcycles while leaders are born to handlethe people.

Kareem RefaatSenior Business Consultant, SolutionsConsultingM.Sc. System on Chip Design, KTH,SwedenMBA, Maastr icht School of Manage-ment, Netherlands

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Startup Nation 2

ave you ever heardof the Startup Nat ion termbefore? Wereal l probably familiar with the Nat ion part ofit .. St i l l the Star-tup par t can somehow beanew term tomany,especial ly those

whoarenot intobusiness.

A Startup,as definedinWikipedia,is acompany w ithalimitedoperat-inghistory. Thesecompanies,general ly newly created,areina phaseofdevelopment and research for markets. The termbecame internat ion-al ly popular dur ing thedot-combubble that occur red roughly in thesecondnibbleof the90s endingaround 2000.Dur ing this bubbleagreatnumber ofdot-com companies were founded enr iching what we cal lnow theITindustry.

H

By: Muhammad Omara

12 ISSUE 1

Business & Enterpr enurship


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Although startup companies may

come in any form, sti ll the phrase Star-

tup Company is often associated with

high growth, and mostly technology-

oriented companies. On the contrary,

we have the Established Business

term which we can use with compan-

ies like IBM, Intel, General Motors,

etc. Successful startups are typically

more scalable than an established busi-

ness, in the sense that they can poten-

tially grow rapidly with limited

investment of capital, labor or land.

Back to our Startup Nation term,

should we now understand it as the na-

tion with the largest number of star-

tups or namely successful startups?

From my own personal point of view,

unsuccessful startups are also success-

ful in the way they contribute to the

successful ones that learn from their

failure. Still, the number of startups

within a nation is insignificant until

they positively contribute to the na-

tions economy. But what about the

2.0 part that we skipped along the

way? Does it mean that there is already

a 1.0? The straight answer comes from

DAN SENORs & SAUL SINGERsbook Startup Nation: The story of Is-

raels economic miracle.

YES, Israel is the current Startup Na-

tion or what we technologically ver-

sion as Startup Nation 1.0. Being an

Egyptian doesnt make me disbelieve

in this fact. The economy of Israel is a

technologically advanced market eco-

nomy, consisting of a rapidly develop-

ing high-tech sector, mainly

innovative startups, which is backedby a strong Venture Capital Industry.

Israel is known for being a world lead-

er in software, telecommunications

and semiconductors development in-

dustries. Amazingly, its also known

for being relatively poor in natural,

and probably human, resources that

make up the greatest nations. Israel de-

pends on imports of coal, food, petro-

leum and the latest Natural Gas

from our own beloved Egyptian Na-

tion.

A huge effort was exerted to make Is-

rael the current Startup Nation. This

effort came from three main tributar-

ies: Government, Entrepreneurs andInvestors. The erudite, eighty-three

year old, two-time prime minister and

Nobel Prize winner Shimon Perez

along with the thirty-nine year old

smart geek, who is of an Iraqi origin,

Shai Agassi make the best example of

the cooperation between Israeli state

government and Israeli entrepreneurs

leading to the Startup Nation 1.0.

Perez invited the CEOs of the worldsfive largest carmakers to let Shai pitch

his electric car idea in front of them.

Doesnt it look odd to pitch an electric

car idea in 2007? Electric cars were

popular in the late-19th century and

early 20th century, until advances in

internal combustion engine techno-

logy and mass production of cheaper

gasoline vehicles led to a decline in the

use of electric drive vehicles. The ideaof the electric car came back to the

scene after the huge rise in oil prices

during the 2000s. Shai decided to

make a national project that allows Is-

rael to be completely independent

from its neighboring enemy, oil and

natural gas. The good news here is

that his, most probably 5 minute long

pitch managed to raise a fund of $200

mill ion dollars, out of which $130 mil-lion of the total amount came from

only one risk-taking Israeli investor

who wanted to build a better Israeli

state. Shais pitch made his Better

Place company the fifth-largest star-

tup in the whole history. It is a no

brainer; a state like this is the worlds

Startup Nation given such persistent

government, smart innovative entre-

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preneurs and risk-taking investors.

Israels military service is obligatorythe same way it is in Egypt. Yet, milit-

ary service is only due after the comple-

tion of ones high school education;

unlike in Egypt. I wont spend much

time in comparing our military service

to Israels. I will let you do that on

your own after telling you about one

of Israels military service pro-

grams/units. The Talpiot program

has the distinction of being both themost selective unit and the one that

subjects its soldiers to the longest train-

ing course in the Israeli Defence

Forces (IDF) a whopping forty-one

months.

This is comparable to our military ser-

vice training camp of 45 days (now

probably shortened after #Jan25 revolu-

tion).

Those who enter the program sign on

for an extra six years in the military, so

their minimum obligatory service is atotal of nine years! Whats so good

about this program that imprisons

people for a whole nine years!

Each year, the top 2% of Israeli high

school students are asked to try out

thats two thousand students. Of these,

only one in ten pass a battery of tests

mainly in physics and math!! (Yes,

physics and math as qualifications toenter military service!!!!!). These two

hundred students are then run

through two days of intensive personal-

ity and aptitude testing (this reminds

me of the screening tests of Police

Academy in Egypt). Once admitted in-

to the program, Talpiot cadets blaze

through an accelerated university de-

gree in math of physics while they are

introduced to the technological needs

of all IDF branches. The academic

training they receive goes beyondwhat the typical university student

would receive in Israel or anywhere

elsethey study more, in less time to

get university degrees comparable to

those obtained from MIT, Berkeley

and Stanford.

They also go through basic training

with the paratroopers. The idea is to

give them an overview of all the major-

IDF branches so that they understandboth the technology and military

needs and especially the connection

between them. The Talpiot program

as a whole is under Mafat, the IDFs

internal research and development

arm, which is parallel to Americas

DARPA (can we call the Arab Organ-

ization for Industrialization AOI,

the Egyptian Army arm for R&D???).

14 ISSUE 1


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Mafat has the coveted and sensitive

job of assigning each Talpiot cadet (Tal-

pion) to a specific unit in the IDF for

their next six years of regular service.

Talpiot training is optimized to main-

tain the IDFs technological edge, the

same combination of leadership experi-ence and technical knowledge is ideal

for creating new companies. Although

the program has produced only about

650 graduates since it was founded

after the historical defeat against Egypt

in the 6th of October war, yet they

have become some of Israels top aca-

demics and founders of the states

most successful companies. NICE sys-

tems, the global corporation behindcall-monitoring systems used by 85 of

the Forbes 100 companies, was foun-

ded by a team of Talpions. So was Cam-

pugen, a leader in human-gnome

decoding and drug development.

Many of the Israeli technology compan-

ies traded on the NASDAQ were

either founded by a Talpion or have

alumni situated in key roles. We need

to know that, after the Uni ted States, Is-rael has more companies listed on the

NASDAQ than any other country in

the world, including India, China,

Korea, Singapore and Ireland.

More stories can be narrated about

how Israel became the current Startup

Nation. Still, this is not the end. They

will do more to sustain their success

and grow their illegal state. But where

are we? What is our reaction towards

that? Should we even have a reaction?

Yes, we have to have a reaction. We

successfully moved one step forward

towards being an independent nation.

We made a peaceful successful revolu-tion against dictatorship that inspired

even our enemies. We should contin-

ue to build a great nation. I, person-

ally, believe that Economy Comes

First. We should have a national

dream, not like Turkeys, not like

Malaysias, not like Koreas, not even

like the United States or Israels. We

should have our own model that, once

again, redirects history towards thispart of the world called Egypt. We

should be the Startup Nation 2.0 in

less than 10 years. Israel may have

muscles, but it lacks both the spirit

and belief inherent to achieving vic-

tory. What we have is true belief and a

divine spirit; all we want now is awork

out for our muscles.

Muhammad OmaraCo-Founder, Chairman and Chief Ex-

ecutive officer of Fascila Technologies.

M.Sc. Electronics & Communications

Engineering

More stor ies can be narrated abouthow Israelbecame thecur rent StartupNat ion. St i l l, this is not theend. Theywi l l domore to sustain their successandgrow their illeg

al st

ate.

But whereare we? What is our react ion towards

that?Should weevenhavea react ion?

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How to be an

Embedded

SystemsEngineer?From time to time, I am asked by

young enthusiastic engineers the same

question: How can I an embedded en-

gineer? I will summarize the needed

skills for a freshman to enter the em-

bedded engineering field.

What is an Embedded System?

Before plotting a learning track, lets

define an embedded system. An embed-

ded system is a tightly coupled Hard-

ware(HW) + Software (SW) system to

perform a dedicated system.

On average, a person meets around

100 embedded devices daily.

Like any computer system, the architec-ture of an embedded system is:

Hardware

Firmware/Drivers

Operating System

Middleware

Application

As shown in figure 1, the middleware

and operating system are optional lay-

ers. The needed knowledge for embed-

ded engineering is vast. It depends onwhich layer the engineer will focus on

as well as the application domain.

Basic Learning Track

The prerequisites for any embedded en-

gineer are to understand what is

meant by computer architecture and

operating systems. These 2 topics are

covered in most Egyptian universities,

so I will skip them. In addition, to cov-

er all layers, I suggest the following

track.

C Programming

By C programming I neither mean em-bedded C nor do I mean C for embed-

ded. We have to discriminate between

the language and where it is used. C it-

self is environment independent.

Adding some extensions does not

make it a new language. The problem

with C is its flexibility and that it is

poorly tutored both in universities and

in training centers. You should focus

on C language, data structures and al-gorithms as well as on how to write

elite and bug free code. 2 good refer-

ences I always point out are:

C Programming by Example

Writing Bug Free C Code

Real-Time Operating System

An operating system is a piece of soft-

ware that manages HW and SW in the

system. The real-time adds the senseof correct timing as well as correct

functionality. The goal is to learn how

to do multitasking programming over

RTOS. Multitasking programming is a

very common programming method

used heavily in embedded systems.

The de facto for learning RTOS is

C/OS-II written by Jean J. Labrosse.www.embedded-tips.blogspot.com has

By: Amr Ali

a complete free C/OS-II with plentyof labs you can develop and test on

your PC without the need of a develop-

ment board.

ARM Architecture and Peripherals

ARM is the dominant processor in the

embedded industry. Its market shareis around 75%. I highly recommend

the ARM CortexM3 core. Many of the

SoC manufacturers have adopted it. A

good reference for the Cortex M3 core

is The Definitive Guide to the ARM

Cortex M3. After wards, going to the

SoC is recommended. Famous SoCs

are NXP LPC, ST STm32, and TI Lu-

minary Sterallis. For those who cant

purchase a development board, theycan use QEMU to experience how to

develop on Cortex M3 core and how

to write different drivers for different

peripherals. Again a quick introduc-

tion can be found in www.embedded-

tips.blogspot.com about the ARM

Cortex

M3 and the ST STm32 Soc.

SW EngineeringEmbedded SW development is like

any SW development, it needs to fol-

low a disciplined process. An Embed-

ded

SW engineer should be familiar with:

Requirements Engineering

Design

Implementation

Testing

Configuration ManagementPlenty of references are available on-

line. For those who are interested in

courses, the Software Engineering

Competence Center, there are really

good courses to cover these topics.

Amr Ali

Embeddded Systems Engineer

www.embedded-tips.blogspot.com

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Fig.2: Basic Learning Track

Fig.3: ARM Cortex M3 Core

and CPUFig.4: STm32 SoC Block

Diagram

Fig.1: Embedded System

Layered Architecture

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Hybrid Vehicles: YouTo reduce the harmful transport effects on the environment,different options are available such as advanced vehicle techno-logies, alternative fuels and improved conventional fuel qual-ity.

Road transport is responsible for 17-18% of global CO2 emis-sions from fossil fuel combustion. Significant improvementsin fuel usage efficiency are required to decrease greenhousegas emissions from the transport sector.

Besides CO2 emissions, the transport sector is responsible foran estimated 70-90% of air pollution in urban areas espe-cially in developing countries where fuel quality, vehicle tech-nology, and inspection and maintenance regimes areinadequate.In summary, reducing vehicle emission and utilizing cleanerfuel are the main targets of the state of the art vehicles techno-logy.

A new generation of vehicles that use electricity is one of thesolutions. The presence of electric power is intended to

achieve better fuel economy than a conventional vehicle, lesCo2 emission and less population. The electric drive vehiclecan be divided into three categories: hybrid electric vehicle(HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and aelectric vehicles (EVs).

Hybrid Electric VehiclesHEVs utilize two or more different power sources. The regular gasoline engine is combined with another electric motor.

The gasoline engine can run on conventional or alternativfuel and the electric motor uses energy stored in a battery.The extra power provided by the electric motor allows for smaller engine, resulting in better fuel economy without sacrficing performance. HEVs combine the benefits of high fueeconomy and low emissions with the power of conventionavehicles.

HEVs do not require a plug to charge the battery; insteadthey charge using regenerative braking and the internacomiliary power when idling.

By: Rania Hassan

18 ISSUE 1

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ay Plug-in your Car!!!Plug-in hybrid vehicles

Plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles have recently emerged as a

promising alternative that uses electricity to displace a signific-

ant fraction of fleet petroleum consumption. A plug-in hybrid

electric vehicle (PHEV) is a hybrid-electric vehicle (HEV)

with the ability to recharge its electrochemical energy storage

with electricity from an off-board source (such as the electric

utility grid). The vehicle can then drive in a charge-depleting

(CD) mode that reduces the systems state-of-charge (SOC),

thereby using electricity to displace liquid fuel that would oth-

erwise have been consumed. This liquid fuel is typically petro-

leum (gasoline or diesel), although PHEVs can also use

alternatives such as bio-fuels or hydrogen. PHEV batteries typ-

ically have larger capacity than those in HEVs so as to in-

crease the potential for petroleum displacement.

PHEV batteries can be charged several ways: by an outside elec-

tric power source, by the internal combustion engine, or

through regenerative braking. If a PHEV is never plugged i

to charge, its fuel economy will be about the same as that of

similarly sized HEV. If the vehicle is fully charged and the

driven a shorter distance than its all-electric range, it is pos

sible to use electric power only.

All-Electric Vehicles

EVs use a battery to store the electrical energy that powers th

motor. EV batteries are charged by plugging the vehicle int

an electric power source.

EVs are considered to be zero-emission vehicles because the

motors produce no exhaust or emissions. Since EVs use n

other fuel, they help reduce petroleum consumption.

Currently available EVs have a shorter range per charge tha

most conventional vehicles have per tank of gas. Light-du

HEV, PHEV, and EV models are currently available from

number of auto manufacturers, with additional models expec

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ted to be released in coming years.

There are a variety of medium- and

heavy-duty options available.

The first gasoline-electric hybrid auto-

mobile in the world was developed in

1900 by Ferdinand Porsche (the Lohner-

Porsche Mixte Hybrid). The hybrid- elec-

tric vehicle did not become widely avail-

able until the release of the Toyota

Prius in Japan in 1997, followed by the

Honda Insight in 1999.

Worldwide sales of hybrid vehicles pro-

duced by Toyota, the market leader,

reached 1.0 million vehicles by May 31,2007; the 2.0 million mark was reached

by August 31, 2009; and 3.0 million

units by February 2011, with hybrids

sold in 80 countries and regions. World-

wide sales are led by the Toyota Prius,

with cumulative sales of 2.0 million by

September 2010, and sold in 70 coun-

tries and regions. The United States is

the largest hybrid market in the world,

with 2 million hybrid automobiles andSUVs sold through May 2011, and Cali-

fornia is the biggest regional American

market. The Prius is the top selling hy-

brid car in the U.S. market with 1 mil-

lion units sold by Apri l 2011.

How are EV and PHEV batteries

charged?

Charging EVs and PHEVs requires plug-

ging the vehicle into charging equip-

ment, also called electric vehicle supply

equipment (EVSE).

Charging times vary based on how de-pleted the battery is, how much energy

it holds, and the type of battery and

EVSE. The charging time for a fully de-

pleted battery can range from 30

minutes to more than 20 hours, depend-

ing on the vehicle and the type of char-

ging equipment used. Because charging

an EV or PHEV takes significantly

longer than fueling a conventional

vehicle at a gas station, most EVSE willbe available in locations where vehicles

park for extended periods, including res-

idences, workplaces, and parking gar-

ages. The table above presents sever

EVSE options.

Modern charging equipment an

vehicles are designed with standar

connectors and plug receptacles, s

drivers do not need to worry abou

whether their vehicles are compatib

with charging equipment. Utilities aalso working to upgrade local distribu

tion infrastructure in neighborhood

with higher EV and PHEV concentra

tions to handle increased electricity de

mand and ensure uninterrupted service

Are electric drive vehicles safe?

HEVs, PHEVs, and EVs undergo th

same rigorous safety testing as conven

tional vehicles sold in the United Stateand must meet the Federal Moto

Vehicle Safety Standards. In additio

their battery packs are encased

sealed shells and meet testing standard

that subject batteries to conditions suc

as overcharge, vibration, extreme tem

peratures, short circuit, humidity, fire

collision, and water immersion. Manu

facturers also design vehicles with insu

lated high-voltage lines and safefeatures that deactivate electric system

when they detect a collision or short ci

cuit. For additional electric-driv

20 ISSUE 1


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vehicle safety information, refer to the

AFDCs Maintenance and Safety of Hy-

brid, Plug-In Hybrid, and All-Electric

Vehicles page

How do maintenance require-

ments compare to those of con-ventional vehicles?

Because HEVs and PHEVs have intern-

al combustion engines, their mainten-

ance requirements are comparable to

conventional vehicles. The electrical sys-

tem (battery, motor, and associated elec-

tronics) doesnt require scheduled

maintenance. Due to the effects of regen-

erative braking, brake systems on these

vehicles typically last longer than thoseon conventional vehicles.

EVs typically require less maintenance

than conventional vehicles because:

They have fewer moving parts

Their brake fluid is the only fluid to

change

Regenerative braking reduces brake

wear

Their electrical systems dont require

regular maintenance.

How do fuel costs compare to

those of conventional vehicles?

When discussing electric drive vehicles,

fuel includes the gasoline, diesel, or al-

ternative fuel used in the internal com-

bustion engine, as well as the electricity

used to charge the EV or PHEV battery.

Taking both fuel types into account,

fuel costs for electric drive vehicles are

generally less than conventional

vehicles due to higher vehicle fuel eco-

nomy and low costs for electricity.

Electricity prices also tend to be more

stable than conventional fuel prices, al-lowing greater certainty when budget-

ing for fuel costs.

For EPA fuel economy ratings and fuel

cost comparisons between different

vehicle models currently available in the

United States refer to the Fuel Eco-

nomy.gov website.

What are the emissions benefits

of electric drive vehicles?

In general, HEVs, PHEVs, and EVs pro-

duce lower emissions than conventional

vehicles. Vehicle emissions can be con-

sidered in terms of tailpipe emissions or

well-to-wheel emissions. Tailpipe emis

sions refer to emissions produce

through fuel combustion during

vehicles operation. Well-to-wheel emis

sions take into consideration the pro

duction and distribution of the fuel a

well as the actual operation of th

vehicle.HEV tailpipe emissions are generate

from the vehicles internal combustio

engine and vary by vehicle and type o

hybrid power system. Because HEV

generally achieve better fuel econom

than comparable conventional vehicle

they produce lower emissions.

Because PHEVs can operate either

all-electric mode or with the help of th

internal combustion engine, emissionvary based on the vehicles operatin

mode. When the vehicle is charged b

an electrical power source, emission

calculations must take electricity pro

duction into account. On average, mos

categories of emissions are lower fo

electricity generated from power plan

than from engines running on gasolin

or diesel. However, emissions from

electricity production depend on the eficiency of the power plant and the m

of fuel sources used. To determine you

regions specific fuel mix, as well as th

emissions rates of electricity in your z

code, see EPAs Power Profiler.

All-electric vehicles do not produc

tailpipe emissions, so EVs are con

sidered zero-emission vehicles by EPA

However, as with PHEVs, there a

emissions associated with most U.Selectricity production. If electricity

generated from nonpolluting, renew

able sources, EVs have the potential t

produce zero well-to-wheel emissions.

Rania Hassan Mekky, M.Sc.

Senior Analog-Mixed Signal Design En

gineer

[email protected]

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Well, it's all possible using "intelligentmedicine". Proteus Biomedical providespills that integrate pharmaceutical tech-nology with MEMS and typical siliconprocessing technologies all made frombiological components that are loadedinside the drug.

Intelligent medicineAndrew Thomson the CEO of ProteusBiomedical says: "We put a computerchip made of food that should be activ-ated once you swallow it, and will dis-solve in your body; it communicatesthrough a personal health companion, asmall bandage which will transfer datato your GSM then to your web profile.The bandage that lasts for a week canmeasure your heart rate, your respira-tion, moving angle, movement activ-

i

ty etc"This "electronic observed therapy" as An-drew Thomson likes to call it, can goeverywhere a mobile phone can go.Mainly, to developed countries where pa-tients can have these intelligent pillsthat will feed the doctors offshore thefull profile of the patient. Moreover, itis an intelligent solution for those whowould like to monitor their activity andhealth without going to a hospital on afrequent basis.

Lab on ChipAdvanced silicon processing for micro-fluidic devices enables unprecedentedbiomedical microsystems such as La-bon- Chip (LoC) detection systems.The biomedical giant Novartis for in-stance, has sealed a contract with Pro-

teus Biomedical to bring their chip-ptechnology to the pharmaceutical maket. Novartis observed a potential ithe idea which was presented at diffeent Davos World Economic forumsince 2009 and TED talks by AndrewThomson himself.

In this article we will focus on the LoCconcepts necessary to follow up techno

logy advancements by silicon engineers. We shall investigate a particulaexample that is Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms "SNPs" detection in humaDNA where research is still in its preliminary stages.

Pharmaceutical BasisThe DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is oten called as the blueprint of life, sincit contains instructions to construc

other components of cells. In othe

terms the DNA is the "ProgramminCode" needed by any organism to deveop, survive, or reproduce. The DNA a polymer of smaller units, each calle"nucleotide". Each nucleotide consisof one sugar unit, a phosphate groupand one of 4 nitrogenous bases: Adenine, Thymine, Guanine and Cytosin(i.e. A, T, G and C). The DNA is finalldescribed by genetic scientists as double helix in which the two DNAstrands are connected together by baspairing between the nitrogenous base(i.e A-T, C-G).

DNA replicates in order to allow the organism to develop or reproduce. Yet, is possible that an error occurs durinthis replication process. If the error occurs in a single base pair it is called single nucleotide polymorphism (SNpronounced snip).SNPs are oftefound to be a cause of many diseases oa direct influencer for the response ohuman bodies to drugs.

The SNP information is made availabfor you at the hospital by means o

Chip Inside...You!By: Ahmad Abdel-Hamid

HAT IF your mother has to take 8 different drugs at differ-

ent times around the day, and you are not there to follow up

her medication cycle around the clock? What if 3 of those

are mandatory to keep her respiratory system and blood

pressure at the appropriate level. What if you could actually monitor

your family's health from work via internet?

W

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large table-top tools for fluid manipula-tion, which might be expensive as well.Yet, the information is very useful to per-sonalize your medical treatment by doc-tors, or to "predict" some diseases that

you will acquire in the future. The SNPinformation is also available now bymeans of LoC using a smaller, fasterand portable version.

SNP detectionSNP detection is known to be done bytwo different methods: 1. Fluorescencebased detection or 2. Electrochemicalbased detection. The one used in LoC istypically the second one (EC). The ECdetection requires many sample pro-cessing steps. An LoC device is a cost-ef-fective and portable solution. The

necessary microfluidics research com-ponents are typically: pumps, filters,valves, heaters, mixers and micro-chan-nels.A typical EC analysis is done by meansof five stages: 1. A micropump: whereblood is fed from a mixer, the mixertakes another input from enzymes re-agents. 2. The output of the mixer is al-lowed to pass to a "thermal reactionchamber" with heaters. Sensors allowcontrol where cell lysis (breaking downthe cell wall to extract the DNA) andmultiplication of the target DNA is

done (named as PCR operation). 3. Ex-traction of the target DNA chain isdone by a coarse grain filter. 4. A mi-cropillar filter is used to separate DNA(shown in the image above). 5. DNA rep-lication is carried out to detect SNP viathermal chambers and electrochemicalsensors.

The whole detection process is carriedout on a certain DNA chain. In the stateof the art experimental chips by IMECresearch lab, VUB university labs andPanasonic, five SNPs are detected all atonce at the final SNP detection stageeach with 50 base pairs, with a 20ul in-put sample(0.5ul in the near future) bymeans of electrochemical sensors. TheSNP detection silicon implementationincludes in the package a high pressuremicro-pump (8mm pump), a thermalchamber for PCR, a fast and selective mi-

cropillar filter and an SNP detector. Thecore technology for all is microfluidicsfor MEMS technology. For instance thedeep-UV patterned silicon pillar arraywas realized using advanced MEMS tech-nology. It consists of many micronscalepillars, being typically 20 m high andwith 1-2 m inter-pillar distance (asshown in the image above).

Various MEMS based microfluidicdevices are necessary to start biomedic-al LoC detection systems. In this articlewe posed the heterogeneous nature of

science, It is evident that advanced silicon technology, with electrochemicasensors, microfluidics and pharmaceuical sciences are necessary to carry ousuch work. Yet, the advantages and potential applications are outstanding.In our upcoming articles we shall focuon the low power processors and communication architectures for such systems with their prospective and state othe art area and power constraints.

Ahmad Abdel-HamidNanoelectronics researcher at IMEC,PhD student of university of BrusseVUB,[email protected]/main

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Why do we need

millimeter-wave?

Current Trends in RF and Microwave Integrated Circuits Research (1)

RFICandmicrowave- IC researchcanbedivided into many areas such as ultralow power RF frontends, wide bandcircuits andcognit ive radiodesign, theaim of this research it to bui ld auniversal radio frontend, self healingRF circuits with Bui lt In Self Test(BIST), and millimeter-wave circuitsand systems from 30-300 GHz

frequency range. Within this ar t iclcur rent trends in millimeter-wavresearch are addressed from deviceper formance metr ics to highlintegrated radio frontends. It alsprovides some design aspects andprecaut ions for such high frequenccircuits and systems.

By: Muhammad Elkholy

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There are two main applications for mil-

limeter- wave systems, wireless commu-

nication as well as millimeter-wave

radar and imaging. Fig. 1 shows the cur-

rent trend in the wireless communica-

tion data rate and technologies. In the

next few years Wireless LAN and wire-

less PAN data rates should be withinthe range of 1-10 Gbps. As the required

data rate increases the RF channel band-

width increases accordingly. Based on

Shannons Theorem, the maximum

data-rate of a communication channel,

known as channel capacity, C, is related

to the frequency bandwidth of the chan-

nel, BW, and the signal-to-noise ratio,

SNR as in

C=BW.log2(1+SNR) (1)

The Federal Communication Commis-

sion (FCC) has allocated several fre-

quency bands at millimeter waves for

high data rate wireless communication.

Fig. 2 shows selected parts of the FCC-al-

located frequency spectrum. Also

shown in this figure are frequency alloca-

tions for automotive radar applications.

The radar azimuth resolution (perpen-dicular to the radar wave) and range res-

olution (in the direction of radar wave)

are inversely proportional with the carr i-

er frequency and bandwidth, respect-

ively, explaining the choice of such high

frequencies and bandwidths. While the

22-29 GHz frequency band is allocated

for short-range applications such as

park assist, stop-and-go, and blind spot

detection, the 77 GHz band is used for

the long-range automatic cruise control

application. These radars are currently

realized using compound semiconduct-

or technologies and limited to higher

end cars. Radar range resolution is in-

versely proportional to the bandwidthof the transmitted pulse. Therefore, the

FCC has allocated a wide frequency spec-

trum around 24 GHz (22-29 GHz) for

short range automotive radar applica-

tions. The FCC allocated frequency

band allows using the ultra wideband

(UWB) technology to achieve a highe

resolution for short range vehicula

sensing applications such as blind spo

detection, side and rear impact sensin

blind spot detection, and stop-and-go

One desirable objective is pedestrian de

tection and protection as illustrated

Fig. 3.

New potential systems such as mil

meter wave imaging and sub-THchemical detectors are implemented

current silicon technologies with the ap

plication in astronomy, chemistr

physics and security. Those systems a

designed for specific frequencies suc

as 90 GHz, 140 GHz, and 300 GH

those are the attenuation windows o

the millimeter wave spectrum at wit

the attenuation either minimum o

maximum as depicted in Fig. 4. (prevous sentence not understood) Anothe

potential application for mm-wav

technology is passive millimeter wav

imaging. By detecting only the natura

thermal radiation of objects in the mm

wave band, images of objects can b

formed in a very similar fashion as i

an optical system. Either a group of re

ceivers or a movable mechanical an

Fig. 1 Roadmap of wi reless and some wireli ne personal communication [5]

Fig. 2 The mm-wave band allocation in the Uni ted State [4].

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tenna is required to scan the area of in-terest. Unless special techniques are em-ployed, due to the relatively largewavelength, the resolution of this ap-proach is limited to objects on the orderof a millimeter. The millimeter wave im-age is clearly able to penetrate throughthe fog and rain and provide a clear im-age. In security applications, passive (oractive) millimeter wave images of a per-son can be used to find hidden weaponsUnlike X-ray based imaging systems,which can only be used with limiteddosage with living organisms, passivemm wave imaging does not use any addi-tional radiation than what is naturallypresent.

Why Silicon for millimeter waveapplication?The main premise behind using siliconat millimeter waves is the higher level ofintegration offered at a high yield thatleads into lower cost systems. Over therelatively short span of five years, sever-al highly integrated and complex milli-meter wave systems have been reportedby academia and industrial researchlabs such as IBM research [8]. Thesefully integrated chips consist of several

thousand RF and digital transistors andon-chip passives in multi metal-layer sil-icon processes and include all the receiv-er, transmitter and even transceiverbuilding blocks such as low noise ampli-fiers, mixers, voltage controlled oscillat-ors, phase locked loops, poweramplifiers, and in some cases on-chip an-tennas. Moreover, in many cases mul-tiple receive and transmit paths areintegrated in a single chip to realizefully integrated phased arrays.If silicon technology has adequate per-formance to implement the front-endportions of the transceiver, the ability tointegrate digital logic in CMOS increas-ing densities offers the opportunity todrastically lower overall system cost.Lower cost could be the prime motivat-or for the use of BiCMOS or CMOSover III-V technologies. Again consider-ing fT as a measure of performance, theSiGe BiCMOS HBT has comparable per-formance to the NFET at roughly twicethe minimum feature size. For stan-dalone RF functions, where area is dom-inated by passive devices and I/O pads,BiCMOS may be the lower-cost optiondespite the approximately 20% addition-al process complexity required to formthe HBT. III-V transistor performanceat substantially relaxed lithography di-mensions is comparable with leadingedge CMOS. So, again for purely RFdevices, III-V implementations may of-

fer a lower cost especially when utilizing existing designs antime-to-market is considered.Howevewhen even modest amounts of digitalogic are to be integrated, CMOS has clear advantage as circuit density anchip size scale with the square of thminimum lithographic dimension.

Limitations at Millimeter wave frequencies for silicon technologiesThe current silicon technologies suffe

from high noise and lower outpupower at millimeter wave frequenciecompared to III-V counterparts. It serously limits the link budget of Gbptransmission. The SNR affects both thcommunication data rates and distanceFor a given distance, the received signaexperience higher attenuation as the frequency increases. It is due to smalleantenna size higher absorption in aand other materials. In a multipath environment, multiple replicates of th

transmitted signal that are reflectefrom various objects reach the receiveat different times with different amplitudes and phases, causing unwantesignal fading. The amount of attenuation due to unwanted multi-path efects depends on the size of scatterinobjects relative to the carrier frequencas well as their type and location. Bothigh intrinsic noise of the current silicon technologies and low received sign

Fig. 3 Top view of an automobi le and

the desired sensors.

Fig. 4 The propagation attenuation characteristics [dB/km] versus frequency(wavelength) for Earths atmosphere under various conditi ons [6].

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power due to attenuation and multi-

path, results in lower SNR. And lower

SNR is translated to either lower dis-

tance or data rate. Before discussing

how to overcome these limitations lets

present the performance of the state of

the art silicon technologies at milli-

meter wave frequencies.

Millimeter wave Silicon DevicesAs stated earlier the performance of sil ic-

on technologies is inferior if compared

to the III-V semiconductors technolo-

gies. They suffer from relatively low car-

rier motilities and hence low devices

figure of merit (FOM). High resistive or

semi insulating silicon substrate is very

hard to implement resulting in lower

isolation and higher substrate losses in

passives devices and interconnects at mil-limeter wave frequencies.

However, the recent advances in silicon

technologies driven by high perform-

ance digital circuits enhanced the per-

formance of the active devices in

millimeter wave frequencies. The per-

formance of the active device is quanti-

fied by fT , fmax or NFmin . The

performance is dramatically increased

with geometry scaling and technology

enhancements in both CMOS and SiGe

HBT [7]. The roadmap of the cutoff fre-

quency (fT ) comparing a number of

IIIV semiconductor devices with the sil-

icon CMOS NFET and SiGe HBT as

taken from the 2006 ITRS are plotted in

Fig. 5. It is evident that silicon techno-

logy currently exhibits small signalgains that are competitive with those of

III-V transistors and are predicted to

scale at least as quickly in the near-ter

future. Fig. 6 shows the different type

of RF devices.

Active Devices

Bipolar Devices

Silicon Heterojunction Bipolar transis

ors offer some advantages compared CMOS devices such as lower 1/f nois

higher output resistance and highe

voltage capability for a given spee

The range of technologies on the ma

ket today offers HBTs with fT

200GHz and sometimes fmax

300GHz [9] as shown in Fig. 7.

CMOS devices

CMOS transistors follow the weknown Moores Law of scaling, thu

leading to always increasing function

integration. The 65nm node still use

poly silicon gate, but the carrier mob

ity is sometimes increased by using sev

eral technological solutions a

described previously. As depicted

Fig. 8 , fT as high as 150GHz an

200GHz are reached in the 65nm nod

for Low Power (LP) and General Pupose (GP) devices, respectively.

Fig. 5 Cutoff f requency by year of producti on comparing sili con and II I -Vcompound semiconductor devices [7] .

Fig. 6. Main high-frequency device types.

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References

[1]http://bwrc.eecs.berkeley.edu/php/pu

bs/pubs.php/1278/jwu_thesis2009.pdf

[2]http://www2.imec.be/be_en/research

/green-radios/cognitive-radio.html

[3]http://www.ek.isy.liu.se/~jdab/Tampere-LoopbackBiST.pdf

[4]http://www.ieeevtc.org/plenaries/vtc2

007fall/28.pdf

[5]L.Yujiri,M. Shoucri, P.Moffa, Pass-

vie mm-Wave Imaging, IEEE Mi-

crowave Magazine, vol. 4, issue 3, pp.

39-50, Sept. 2003.

[6]International Technology Roadmap

for Semiconductors,

http://www.itrs.net/

[7]http://domino.watson.ibm.com/com

m/research_projects.nsf/pages/mmwave

.pubs.html

[8]P. Chevalier, et al., Advanced SiGe

BiCMOS and CMOS platforms for Op-tical and Millimeter-Wave Integrated

Circuits, IEEE CSICS 2006

Muhammad Aly El-Kholy

Microwave, mill i-meter researcher , IHP

M.Sc Electronics and communications

Fig. 7. fT - BVCEO chart buil t with various Si/SiGeC HBTs available in 130-nmCMOS node. Di fferent architectures with di fferent maturiti es are compared

(technology trials at STMicroelectronics).

Fig. 8 Evolution of fT with physical gate length for different NMOS devices (LP

and GP) of 130-nm, 90-nm and 65-nm CMOS nodes.

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