FPGA-based concurrent watchdog for real-time control systems

2003

A straightforward and efficient implementation of a custom concurrent watchdog processor for real-time control systems is presented. Emphasis is given to the techniques used for on-line checking the main processor activity without adding overhead, and to the advantages of a field programmable gate array implementation.

Contract for the support of household appliances control and monitoring application interworking specification

2007

Impact of Novel Energy Management Actions on Household Appliances for Money Savings and CO2 Emissions Reduction

2009

In order to obtain CO2 emissions reductions, energy management control actions inside apartments and detached houses have to be carried out. In this work, new control actions devoted to the reduction of electrical energy consumptions inside typical Italian apartments are proposed. These “Distributed on Site” (DoS) actions consist in employing specific control strategies to smartly exploit the hot water provided by a solar panel, the electricity generated by a photovoltaic panel and the delayed starting of appliances.

P-on-N and N-on-P silicon photomultipliers: responsivity comparison in the continuous wave regime

2013

We report the electrical and optical comparison, in continuous wave regime, of two novel classes of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) fabricated on silicon P-type and N-type substrate respectively. Responsivity measurements have been performed with an incident optical power from tenths of picowatts to hundreds of nanowatts and on a broad spectrum, ranging from ultraviolet to near infrared (340-820 nm). For both classes of investigated SiPMs, responsivity shows flat response versus the optical incident power, when a preset overvoltage and wavelength is applied . More in detail, this linear behavior extends up to about 10 nW for lower overvoltages, while a shrink is observed when the reverse b…

Design of a portable (CW) fNIRS embedded system

2014

On the anomalous behavior of IEEE 802.11 commercial cards

2006

Optimized design of high power density EMI filters for power electronic converters

2016

Nowadays, power density of power converters and related EMI filters is gaining more and more attention. This severely impacts on the design constraints in several application domains. A conventional design of the EMI filter does not guarantee the selection of components/configuration leading to the best power density. For this reason, an optimized design procedure of discrete EMI filters in terms of power density is proposed in this paper. It is based on a previously developed rule-based design procedure, introducing here additional features to obtain a more effective optimization of EMI filter's power density. The proposed approach has been validated in terms of EMI filter's performance an…

ODEF: An interactive tool for optimized design of EMI filters

2016

The impact of EMI filters on volume and weight of power converters is significant. For this reason, filter's size optimization is a strategic step towards the improvement of the power converter's power density. An EMI filter design that follows a conventional procedure does not guarantee the selection of components/configuration leading to the best power density. Therefore, in order to help EMI engineers and scientists in pursuing a fast and effective choice of optimal discrete EMI filter components and configuration, a novel tool is proposed in this paper, namely ODEF (Optimized Design of EMI Filters). ODEF is an interactive software application running in Matlab® environment. It suitably …

Controllo intelligente nella gestione energetica degli alberghi

2008

L’avvento di controlli intelligenti nella gestione delle apparecchiature elettriche di tipo domotico negli hotel consente risparmi energetici significativi e tali da giustificare l’adozione diffusa di queste tecniche.

Dispositivo portatile per la rilevazione di scariche parziali

2008

Responsivity measurements of SiC photodiodes

2014

We investigated the technical features of three novel classes of 4H-SiC vertical Schottky UV photodiodes (henceforth, named SiC8, SiC10, SiC20) employing Ni2Si interdigitated strips whose pitch size is 8, 10 and 20 µm respectively [1] and based on the pinch-off surface effect.

GaN and SiC Device Characterization by a Dedicated Embedded Measurement System

2023

This work proposes a comparison among GaN and SiC device main parameters measured with a dedicated and low-cost embedded system, employing an STM32 microcontroller designed to the purpose. The system has the advantage to avoid the use of expensive laboratory measurement equipment to test the devices, allowing to obtain their behavior in operating conditions. The following KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are measured and critically compared: threshold voltage, on-resistance and input capacitance. All the measurements are carried out in a short time interval and on a wide range of switching frequencies, ranging from 10 kHz to 1 MHz. This investigation is focused on the deviation of the figu…

MATCHING THIN LAYER FOR SURFACE PLASMON RESONANCE TUNING ON LITHIUM NIOBATE WAVEGUIDES

2006

Computer Aided Optimal Design of High Power Density EMI Filters

2016

Power density of power converter systems is becoming an increasingly stringent design constraint for a wide range of applications. Size reduction of EMI filter in power converters is an important aspect due to its significant impact on the overall converter volume and weight. In order to take on this issue, a computer aided procedure for a fast selection of optimal discrete EMI filter components and configuration is described in this paper. The proposed technique is a rule-based automatic procedure based on suitable databases that consider datasheets information of commercially available passive components (e.g. magnetic cores, capacitors). It allows the minimization of the filter's volume …

Signal to noise ratio measurements of silicon photomultipliers in the continuous wave regime

2014

We report on our signal to noise ratio (SNR) measurements carried out, in the continuous wave regime, on a novel class of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) fabricated in planar technology on silicon p-type substrate.

Reducing energy consumptions and CO2 emissions in European countries: a review on legal environment and increasing use of photovoltaic energy for Ele…

2010

In Europe, the building sector is ranked second in terms of CO2 emissions, just after transport. Particularly, it accounts for 25% of the overall CO2 emissions. Moreover, in order to reduce CO2 emissions, European legislations encourage the use of renewable energies and, among them, particularly the use of PhotoVoltaic (PV) one. This because the connection between the use of PV clean energy and the reduction of CO2 emission is well demonstrated. In this context, the first part of the paper is focused on the regulations related to building energy efficiency while the second part investigates the deployment of PV source all over Europe.

Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy System Validation for Simultaneous EEG-FNIRS Measurements

2019

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) applied to brain monitoring has been gaining increasing relevance in the last years due to its not invasive nature and the capability to work in combination with other well–known techniques such as the EEG. The possible use cases span from neural-rehabilitation to early diagnosis of some neural diseases. In this work a wireline FPGA–based fNIRS system, that use SiPM sensors and dual-wavelength LED sources, has been designed and validated to work with a commercial EEG machine without reciprocal interference.

N-on-P and P-on-N Silicon Photomultipliers: Responsivity comparison in the continuous wave regime

2013

We report on the electrical and optical comparison, in continuous wave regime, of two novel classes of silicon photomultipliers fabricated in planar technology on silicon P-type and Ntype substrate respectively. A physical explanation of the experimental results is provided.

Signal to noise ratio measurements of silicon photomultipliers

2014

We report on our signal to noise ratio (SNR) measurements carried out, in the continuous wave regime, on a novel class of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) fabricated in planar technology on silicon p-type substrate. SiPMs are large area detectors consisting of a parallel array of Geiger Mode APDs with individual integrated quenching resistors. Each photodiode is an independent photon counting microcell and is connected to a common analog output to produce a summation signal proportional to the number of detected photons [1], [2]. SNR of SiPMs is expressed by the ratio of the SiPM average signal current and the RMS deviation of the overall current (i.e., the overall shot noise current). The …

Responsivity measurements of SiC Schottky photodiodes

2014

We investigated the technical features of three novel classes of 4H-SiC vertical Schottky UV detectors employing Ni2Si interdigitated strips whose pitch size is 8, 10 and 20 µm, respectively, based on the pinch-off surface effect.

Energy Management via Connected Household Appliances

2008

The study reported hereafter provides results based on a campaign of simulations conducted by University of Palermo on the basis of its knowledge in the field Energy Value Chain and in the field of Energy Management (EM) for household appliances. Inputs from CECED Convergence WG has been fundamental to base that study on realistic data and cases. Moreover, the so called EM study, offers also a clear picture about the opportunity to have energy management applications and services in house, being those opportunities strictly related to the cost of in- frastructure needed and to the benefits belonging to different actors in the energy value chain. Energy savings have been considered both in t…

Design and development of a continuous wave functional near infrared spectroscopy system

2014

Functional Near InfraRed Spectroscopy uses light sources and optical detectors for human brain monitoring. In this paper, a portable, low cost, battery-operated, multi-channel, continuous wave fNIRS embedded system, hosting up to 64 LED sources and 128 Silicon PhotoMultiplier optical detectors, is reported on. The designed system is based on a scalable architecture, in which each probe consists of 8 modular and flexible stands, able to host 4 bi-color LEDs as light sources, 16 silicon photomultipliers as photodetectors and a temperature sensor. The hardware structure allows to easily set up several relevant parameters: the timing of the LEDs, the optical power emitted by the LEDs; the acqui…

Progettazione e realizzazione di un sistema Continuous Wave fNIRS basato su tecnologia SiPM

2014

Design of a Multichannel Continuous Wave fNIRS System implemented with SiPM

2013

Design and Validation of a FPGA-Based HIL Simulator for Minimum Losses Control of a PMSM

2021

This work examines the FPGA programmable logic platforms applied to minimum losses control of a Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM), which represents a flexible solution for the implementation of an advanced digital control algorithm, given their intrinsic parallel structure and the capability to be directly reprogrammable in the field. In particular, design and validation of a FPGA-based Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) simulator is proposed, by investigating about data format, quantization and discretization effects and other issues arising during the experimental validation of a controller prototype, in order to reduce the embedded software development cycle and test control systems. The…

Sistema di abilitazione selettiva e disabilitazione di sicurezza per moduli fotovoltaici

2008

Low cost electrical current sensors with automatic measurement range

2014

We present a simple and low cost Smart Current Sensor with wide automatic measurement range. The logic core system of the sensor is the Atmel AT32UC3C2256C AVR 32-bit microcontroller, the wireless core is a Microchip MRF24J40MA IEEE 802.15.4 RF transceiver[3]. The MCU features 11 ADC multiplexed channels, with 12-bit resolution and sample rate up to 2Msps, two of which can be sampled in parallel. The sensing board consists of two hall-effect based current sensors, assembled on different PCBs in order to perform with different sensitivities. Custom primary conductor design allowed us to sense the current flowing in the conductor with two different sensitivities: the sensor mounted inside the…

Engineering requirements for avionics of unmanned aerial system

Within the framework of the European Project WInSiC4AP, the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) use case plays an important role in defining some of the specific constraints that on-board electronics systems must obey. Then it’s relevant to have clear view of the UAVs classification and their main characteristics especially with the focus of an Electrical UAV. Main component of the power supply are batteries, whose requirements must fulfil the tight design constraint such as lightweight, safety, pressure and temperature tolerance, cost effectiveness and cycle life. A quick look to available chemistry technology as well as market overview has been described. Regarding the power sub-system, the key…

A low power and high resolution data logger for submarine seismic monitoring

2010

The design, implementation and characterization of a digital waveform recorder for ocean bottom seismic monitoring is here reported. The system is capable of synchronously acquiring, and logging on a flash memory bank, four high resolution signals. Thanks to a very careful design of the system architecture and by using robust digital signal processing techniques, two main conflicting issues have been addressed: a high dynamic range, better than 120 dB, usually obtained with high energy demanding converters, and a power consumption as low as 250 mW, hence allowing to easily increase the time of a continuous submarine monitoring session up to 3 months.

Exploring FPGA Based Lock-in Techniques for Brain Monitoring Applications

2017

Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) systems for e-health applications usually suffer of poor signal detection mainly due to a low end-to-end signal to noise ratio of the electronics chain. Lock-In Amplifiers (LIA) historically represent a powerful technique helping to improve performances in such circumstances. In this work it has been designed and implemented a digital LIA system, based on a Zynq® Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), trying to explore if this technique might improve fNIRS system performances. More broadly, FPGA based solution flexibility has been investigated, with particular emphasis applied to digital filter parameters, needed in the digital LIA, and i…

PROGETTAZIONE OTTIMIZZATA DI FILTRI EMI AD ELEVATA POWER DENSITY PER CONVERTITORI ELETTRONICI DI POTENZA

2016

In molti dei campi di impiego dei convertitori elettronici di potenza (aeronautico, aerospaziale, automotive, etc.) è richiesta la realizzazione di sistemi di conversione che, in relazione a stringenti vincoli di progetto, presentino, a parità di potenza, dimensioni sempre più compatte e pesi ridotti. In tale ottica, l’ottimizzazione della densità di potenza (power density) del convertitore diventa un obiettivo essenziale

Brain Monitoring Via an Innovative CW-FNIRS System

2015

Functional Near InfraRed Spectroscopy (fNIRS) is an imaging technique mainly devoted to human brain monitoring. It is used as a non-invasive technique, in medical field, in order to measure the oxygen concentration of blood. This because the relatively good transparency of biological materials in the near infrared allows sufficient photon transmission through tissues. Within the so-called fNIRS range (650-900 nm), the main absorbers are blood chromophores, in particular the oxygenated and deoxygenated haemoglobin (HbO2 and Hb, respectively). When two or more wavelengths are used, changes of such chromophores can be computed by employing the modified Beer-Lambert law, thus providing importan…

Electro-Optical characterization of Silicon Carbide Schottky photodiodes

2014

Fiberless, Multi-Channel fNIRS-EEG System Based on Silicon Photomultipliers: Towards Sensitive and Ecological Mapping of Brain Activity and Neurovasc…

2020

Portable neuroimaging technologies can be employed for long-term monitoring of neurophysiological and neuropathological states. Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) and Electroencephalography (EEG) are highly suited for such a purpose. Their multimodal integration allows the evaluation of hemodynamic and electrical brain activity together with neurovascular coupling. An innovative fNIRS-EEG system is here presented. The system integrated a novel continuous-wave fNIRS component and a modified commercial EEG device. fNIRS probing relied on fiberless technology based on light emitting diodes and silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs). SiPMs are sensitive semiconductor detectors, whose large…

Silicon Photomultipliers Signal-to-Noise Ratio in the Continuous Wave Regime

2014

 Abstract— We report on Signal-to-Noise Ratio measurements carried out, in the continuous wave regime, at different bias voltages, frequencies and temperatures, on a class of silicon photomultipliers fabricated in planar technology on silicon p- type substrate. Signal-to-Noise Ratio has been measured as the ratio of the photogenerated current, filtered and averaged by a lock-in amplifier, and the Root Mean Square deviation of the same current. The measured noise takes into account the shot noise, resulting from the photocurrent and the dark current. We have also performed a comparison between our SiPMs and a photomultiplier tube in terms of Signal-to-Noise Ratio, as a function of the tempe…

Gruppo ESDP PAlermo: Attività di Ricerca

2004

An Embedded System for the integration of a Combined Photovoltaic Solar (CPS) system into a ZigBee Home Area Network

2011

In this paper is reported the design and implementation of an electronic system capable of communicating over a standard ZigBee network in order to let a residential gateway collector, named agent, gain access to the parameters of a Combined Photovoltaic and Solar thermal (CPS) plant, thus realizing a networked energy production appliance . The system is made of three parts: a PV metering device, a boiler metering device also capable of controlling a heating resistor embedded within the boiler tank, and a data collector acting as a ZigBee node. The data collector device periodically retrieves the following parameters from the metering devices: instantaneous photovoltaic power production, ac…

Exploring FPGA‐Based Lock‐In Techniques for Brain  Monitoring Applications

2017

Functional near‐infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) systems for e‐health applications usually suffer from poor signal detection, mainly due to a low end‐to‐end signal‐to‐noise ratio of the electronics chain. Lock‐in amplifiers (LIA) historically represent a powerful technique helping to improve performance in such circumstances. In this work a digital LIA system, based on a Zynq® field programmable gate array (FPGA) has been designed and implemented, in an attempt to explore if this technique might improve fNIRS system performance. More broadly, FPGA‐based solution flexibility has been investigated, with particular emphasis applied to digital filter parameters, needed in the digital LIA, and its …

Measurements of Silicon Photomultipliers Responsivity in Continuous Wave Regime

2013

We report on the electrical and optical characterization, in continuous wave regime, of a novel class of silicon photomultipliers fabricated in standard planar technology on a silicon p-type substrate. Responsivity measurements, performed with an incident optical power down to tenths of picowatts, at different reverse bias voltages and on a broad (340–820 nm) spectrum, will be shown and discussed. The device temperature was monitored, allowing us to give a physical interpretation of the measurements. The obtained results demonstrate that such novel silicon photomultipliers are suitable as sensitive power meters for low photon fluxes.

Automatic EMI filter design for power electronic converters oriented to high power density

2018

In this paper, a complete computer aided procedure based on the power density concept and aimed at the automatic design of EMI filters for power electronic converters is presented. It is rule-based, and it uses suitable databases built-up by considering information on passive components available from commercial datasheets. The power density constraint is taken into consideration by imposing the minimization of the filter volume and/or weight; nevertheless, the system in which the automatically designed filter is included satisfies the electromagnetic compatibility standards limits. Experimental validations of the proposed procedure are presented for two real case studies, for which the per…

Integration of distributed on site control actions via combined photovoltaic and solar panels system

2009

A systematic evaluation of the potential energy saving and CO2 emissions reduction on buildings was carried out, when a renewable energy system is locally installed. The exploitation of a combined solar and photovoltaic system and the integration of suitable energy management actions were deeply investigated. A model of these solar and photovoltaic components has been developed and included within a complete house simulator, capable to precisely figure out the daily electric energy consumptions of typical apartments and to measure the positive actions induced by the added renewable energy. Saving up to 40% on the energy consumptions and even more savings on wiring losses seems to be easily …

BusyBee: Low Rate WiFi-ZigBee Communications without Gateways

2014

Nowadays, the overcrowding of ISM bands is becoming an evident limitation for the performance and widespread us- age of 802.11 and 802.15.4 technologies. In this demo, we prove that it is possible to opportunistically exploit the inter- technology interference between 802.11 and 802.15.4 to build an unconventional low-rate communication channel and sig- nalling protocol, devised to improve the performance of each contending technology. Differently from previous solutions, inter-technology communications do not require the deploy- ment of a gateway with two network interfaces, but can be activated (when needed) directly between two heterogeneous nodes, e.g. a WiFi node and a ZigBee node. Thi…

Laser surface treatments for adhesion improvements of aluminium alloys structural joints

2006

The BEYWATCH FP 7th European Scientific Project: dissemination and standardization activities, liaison with other projects

2012

The outcome of the BEYWATCH project has been spread in various ways, including different publication channels such as scientific journals and conferences, exhibitions, standardisation efforts and liaison with other relevant scientific projects. An overview of the dissemination activities is given in section 2, they include details about the Internet presence and the project presentations in workshops and conferences. Besides, some effort has been put into contribution to standardization. Contributions to standardization is found in section 3. Further, the project has set up liaisons to other European research projects. For each such activity, topics and forms of cooperation are described in…

Adaptive tuning system and parameter estimation of a digitally controlled boost converter with STM32

2019

. This paper proposes a diagnostic system of a power electronic converter, based on a cheap STM32 Nucleo board, aiming to extract some relevant measurements which gives back important values of the converter's parameters behavior. Moreover the designed system is also exploited for implementing the converter's auto tuning in order to optimize its dynamic performance.

The FP7 BeyWatch European scientific project: general features and design criteria of the Combined Photovoltaic Solar (CPS) system within the BEYWATC…

2011

This paper includes the general features and design criteria of a combined photovoltaic solar system (CPS) and its allocation within the entire architecture of the BeyWatch system. The CPS main functionalities and characteristics, the description of the CPS main components and the CPS electronic control and monitoring subsystem, together with the description of the Firmware design and communication protocols are here reported. The Combined Photovoltaic and Solar system (CPS) is a Renewable Energy system that produces thermal and electrical energy and the design has been based on a modular approach.

An Electronic Emulator of Combined Photovoltaic and Solar Thermal Systems

2010

An emulator of combined Photovoltaic and Solar Thermal (CPS) systems is presented. In order to carry out early testing on the design of such systems, a - microcontrolled based - hardware board has been designed, implemented and tested. This emulator is able run several typical daily solar irradiation patterns as a function of the seasons and a complete solar thermal and photovoltaic model that depends on a very flexible set of parameters characterizing the real CPS behaviour. By properly varying these parameters many different CPS models can easily be created and tailored to the energy performance needed for a predefined target application. Beside these functionalities, the CPS emulator is …

Coalescence of ZnO nanorods grown by chemical bath deposition

2018

In this work, a way to grow isolated and coalesced ZnO nanorods on p-GaN/sapphire structure is presented. Chemical bath deposition [1],[2] was used to grow ZnO nanorods of device-quality on a p-GaN/n-GaN/sapphire template, simply controlling the duration time of the growth process and the concentration of the nutrient solution in the bath. Several p-GaN templates were soaked in a nutrient solution, prepared with different concentration of zinc nitrate hexahydrate (Sigma-Aldrich, reagent grade 98%) and hexamethylenetetramine (Alfa Aesar, ACS 99%) in deionized water, while being heated at a temperature of 80 °C for a period varying from 8 to 25 hours; then, the samples were left in the soluti…

Continuous Wave fNIRS with Silicon Photomultiplier

2015

This work is focused on the development of a Continuous Wave (CW) NIRS integrated system with multi-wavelength LED sources between 700 and 950 nm and a Silicon Photomultiplier detector (SiPM) developed by STMicroelectronics. The Signal Noise Rate (SNR), measured placing the LEDs and an SiPM in a direct contact with the surface of a plastic phantom mimicking a real human head, results higher than the calculated minimum, required to detect small variation in the HbO2 and HHb concentration, till a source detector separation (SDS) of 6 cm.

Signal to Noise Ratio of Silicon Photomultipliers: a study in the Continuous Wave Regime

2014

We report on Signal to Noise Ratio measurements carried out, in the continuous wave regime, at different bias voltages, frequencies and temperatures, on a novel class of silicon photomultipliers fabricated in planar technology on silicon p-type substrate. Signal to Noise Ratio has been measured as the ratio of the photogenerated current, filtered and averaged by a lock-in amplifier, and the Root Mean Square deviation of the same current. The measured noise takes into account the shot noise, resulting from the photocurrent and the dark current. We have also performed a comparison between our SiPMs and a photomultiplier tube in terms of Signal to Noise Ratio, as a function of the temperature …

Design and performance evaluation of a high power density EMI filter for PWM inverter-fed induction motor drives

2015

This paper presents the design of an electromagnetic interference (EMI) filter for a low voltage high current induction motor drives supplied by DC power grids, such as those used in several vehicle applications. In order to effectively design the EMI filter a suitable Common Mode/Differential Mode (CM/DM) separation technique has been used. In consideration of the high operating currents, a software based separation technique using time domain measurements has been applied. The proposed technique allows the CM and DM sections of the EMI filter to be properly selected in a more economical way, i.e. without the need of dedicated hardware or costly radio frequency (RF) instrumentation. The de…

Implementazione di un MAC 802.11 su FPGA

2004

Sliding Mode Control of Quadratic Boost Converters Based on Min-Type Control Strategy

2023

The paper deals with the control of a quadratic boost converter supplied by low-voltage energy sources, such as photovoltaic panels, fuel cells, or batteries. The control scheme consists of two control loops. A min-type controller governs the inner loop to force the current state of the nominal model to converge in a neighborhood of the equilibrium state. The external loop processes the output tracking error using an integrator, and it allows reconfiguring the converter's working point by changing the equilibrium state given in the input to the internal loop. This configuration assures both zero tracking error of the output voltage and robustness against load and input voltage variations an…

Development of a CW-fNIRS System for brain monitoring

2014

Benefit at Grid Level by Using DoS Actions via Combined Photovoltaic and Solar Panel System

2010

Blood Pressure Monitoring with a PPG Embedded System

2014

P-on-N and N-on-P silicon photomultipliers: an in-depth analysis in the continuous wave regime

2013

We report on the electrical and optical comparison, in the continuous wave regime, of two novel classes of silicon photomultipliers fabricated in planar technology on silicon P-type (N-on-P class) and N-type (P-on-N class) substrates respectively.

Design and Assessment of Optimized EMI Filters for Avionic Applications

2018

This paper presents a procedure to design EMI filters to reduce the electromagnetic disturbances generated by electrical apparatus used in avionic environment. The method proposed can be useful to save weight and size of the attenuation systems, and keep their effectiveness in agreement with the standard requirements. A design of a set of different filters with different topological characteristics is presented for a case study about an electrical actuator used for an aircraft onboard application. Performances and reliabilities of the attenuation systems are assessed by suitable full compliance experimental tests.

Wearable, Fiber-less, Multi-Channel System for Continuous Wave Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy Based on Silicon Photomultipliers Detectors and …

2019

Development and in-vivo validation of a Continuous Wave (CW) functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) system is presented. The system is wearable, fiber-less, multi-channel (16×16, 256 channels) and expandable and it relies on silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) for light detection. SiPMs are inexpensive, low voltage and resilient semiconductor light detectors, whose performances are analogous to photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). The advantage of SiPMs with respect to PMTs is that they allow direct contact with the scalp and avoidance of optical fibers. In fact, the coupling of SiPMs and light emitting diodes (LEDs) allows the transfer of the analog signals to and from the scalp through thin …

Test procedures for use of wireless partial discharges instrumentation in HV networks

2014

On-field diagnostic methods based on Partial Discharge (PD) measurements for asset assessment in High Voltage (HV) sectors are experiencing a constant growth in recent years. This rise of interest motivated the research toward faster, reliable and less expensive methods and technologies to perform PD measurements. Recently, a portable instrument based on a wideband antenna sensor, intended for accurate partial discharge measurements, has been developed by the authors. This sensor allows to capture electromagnetic waves in a bandwidth ranging from 0.1-100 MHz as well as the electric field of the AC supply voltage to be used as a phase reference. This approach completely avoid the need of a d…

A Novel Wireless Sensor Network for Electric Power Metering

2013

Wireless sensor network with lightweight and efficient communication infrastructures are today a great interest, both at research and industrial level, as they are the basis for reliable monitoring services. Mesh networks are ideal candidates in this scenario, as they can be very fault-tolerant. After introducing wireless network systems requirements, we show the design of a mesh network routing protocol based on AODV schemas. Its implementation runs on top of low-cost off-the-shelf components, and allowed us to build a custom power meter wireless sensor node.