CAREER: Spatial Sensing for Design of Miniature Sensor Array Microsystems

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。本研究的重点是利用微型传感器阵列进行源定位和分离任务的算法设计和实时系统实现。阵列的尺寸比入射信号的波长小得多。该方法将波前传感和独立分量分析集成在一个框架中，该框架有可能扩展当前源分离算法的性能，并在混合信号非常大规模集成（VLSI）电路中有效实现，以小尺寸实现实时性能。将所研究的算法扩展到电磁波中，有可能显著提高植入式生物医学设备通过电感耦合传输功率的效率。向射频（RF）波的扩展为便携式设备中紧凑型智能天线的自适应宽带波束形成提供了另一种解决方案。传感器的小型化对传感器集成提出了新的挑战，并为提高现有系统的性能提供了新的机遇。所研究的梯度流方法有可能通过时空传感的协同作用推进智能传感器阵列接口的理论和实践。这种受生物学启发的概念的整合有可能在解决困难的“鸡尾酒会”问题方面取得重要进展，即在声学中观察到的嘈杂环境中分离和区分信号。提出的工作结果有可能有助于许多应用，包括智能助听器，苛刻环境中的声学监测和监视，植入式神经接口和便携式通信设备。除了项目的科学和工程影响外，该研究还具有通过模拟集成电路设计和感官信息处理的课程、项目和研讨会，培养和向本科生和研究生引入跨学科方法来解决工程问题的潜力。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The focus of this research is the design of algorithms and real-time system implementations for the task of source localization and separation using miniature sensor arrays. The dimensions of the arrays are much smaller than the wavelength of the incident signals. The approach integrates wave-front sensing and independent component analysis in a framework that has the potential to extend the performance of current source separation algorithms and result in efficient implementation in mixed-signal very large-scale integration (VLSI) circuitry, yielding real-time performance in a small form factor. The extension of the algorithms under study to electromagnetic waves has the potential to significantly increase the efficiency of power transfer through inductive coupling for implantable biomedical devices. Extension to radio frequency (RF) waves presents an alternative solution for adaptive wideband beam-forming for compact smart antennas in portable devices.The miniaturization of sensors poses new challenges in sensor integration and presents new opportunities to advance the performance of current systems. The gradient flow method under investigation has the potential to advance the theory and practice of smart sensor array interfaces through the synergy of spatial and temporal sensing. The integration of this biologically-inspired concept has the potential to lead to important advances in solving the difficult "cocktail party" problem, separating and distinguishing signals in a noisy environment, observed in acoustics.The results of the proposed work have the potential to contribute to a number of applications including intelligent hearing aids, acoustic monitoring and surveillance in demanding environments, implantable neural interfaces, and portable communication devices. In addition to the project's scientific and engineering impact, the research has the potential to cultivate and introduce interdisciplinary approaches to engineering problems to undergraduate and graduate students through classes, projects, and workshops in analog integrated circuit design and sensory information processing.