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

本研究项目主要研究微电子机械系统(MEMS)数字化、可编程、软件化控制的可行性。MEMS是能够移动的极其微小的物理结构，通过光刻与类似规模的电路相结合来制造微米级的机械设备。MEMS的例子有隧道加速计、陀螺仪和微镜。目前，由于控制这种规模的设备所需的时间常数非常小，所以使用模拟控制器来控制MEMS。该项目的目标是开发一种新型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用于MEMS集成的数字控制器符合这些设计的要求和潜力，提供目前无法实现的性能/功率比。虽然选择的实现策略是基于FPGA的，但分解策略应该会导致非常小的设计，在能力上与当前的低端微处理器竞争，性能是使用数字信号处理(DSP)平台的当前基于软件的控制所实现的数十到数百倍。该研究项目的更广泛影响是为MEMS设备的过采样控制器设计和建模开发实用技术，这些技术将对医疗假肢、分布式传感以及可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。该项目寻求以研究生课程开发和努力使本科生能够实质性地参与研究的形式产生教育影响。

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.