CSR-EHCS(CPS), TM: Low-Power Digital MEMS Feedback Control

本研究项目研究了微机电系统（MEMS）的数字化、可编程、基于软件的控制的可行性。 MEMS是能够移动的非常小的物理结构，通过光刻与类似规模的电路相结合来生产微米级的机械设备。 MEMS的示例是隧道加速度计、陀螺仪和微镜。 目前，模拟控制器用于控制MEMS，因为在这种规模下控制器件所需的时间常数非常小。 该项目的目标是开发一种新型的嵌入式软件反馈控制器，通过高采样率delta编码与sigma-delta过采样模拟接口进行通信。这些设计是基于度量的控制器分解研究的结果，该分解专门寻求实现多速率、过采样信号处理的潜力。这项工作的直接好处是适合MEMS集成的数字控制器，符合这些设计的要求和潜力，提供目前不可能实现的性能/功率比。 虽然所选择的实现策略是基于FPGA的，但分解策略应导致非常小的设计，在功率上与当前低端微处理器竞争，具有通过使用数字信号处理（DSP）平台的当前基于软件的控制所实现的性能的数十至数百倍。 该研究项目的更广泛影响是开发实用技术，用于MEMS设备的过采样控制器的设计和建模，这将对医疗假肢，分布式传感以及可以受益于电池供电的传感器阵列设备的广泛应用产生直接影响。该项目寻求教育影响的形式研究生课程的发展和努力，使实质性的本科生参与研究。

This research project studies the feasibility of digital, programmable, software-based control of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS). MEMS are extremely small physical structures capable of movement, lithographically combined with similarly-scaled electrical circuits to produce micron-scale mechanical devices. Examples of MEMS are tunneling accelerometers, gyroscopes, and micro-mirrors. Currently, analog controllers are used to control MEMS because of the very small time constants required to control devices at this scale. This project has the goal of developing a new style of embedded, software feedback controllers that communicate to sigma-delta over-sampled analog interfaces via high sample rate delta encoding. These designs are the result of research in metric-based controller decomposition that specifically seeks to achieve the potential of multi-rate, over-sampled signal processing. Direct benefits of this work are digital controllers suitable for MEMS integration that match the requirements and potential of these designs, delivering performance/power ratios that are not possible currently. Although the chosen implementation strategy is FPGA based, the decomposition strategy should lead to very small designs, competitive in power to current low-end microprocessors, with dozens to hundreds of times the performance achieved by current software based control using digital signal processing (DSP) platforms. The broader impact of this research project is the development of practical techniques for the design and modeling of over-sampled controllers for MEMS devices that will have direct impact in medical prosthetics, distributed sensing, and the vast range of applications that can benefit from battery-operated sensor array devices. The project seeks educational impact in the form of graduate curriculum development and of efforts to enable substantive undergraduate involvement in research.