Hani Saleh

Khalifa University | KU · Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) are computationally and memory intensive, which present a big challenge for hardware, especially for resource-constrained devices such as Internet-of-Things (IoT) nodes. This paper introduces a new method to improve DNNs performance by fusing approximate computing with data reuse techniques for image recognition applicat...

In this paper, we propose GNNUnlock, the first-of-its-kind oracle-less machine learning-based attack on provably secure logic locking that can identify any desired protection logic without focusing on a specific syntactic topology. The key is to leverage a well-trained graph neural network (GNN) to identify all the gates in a given locked netlist t...

Current Mode Class-D (CMCD) Power Amplifiers are of particular interest in outphasing transmitters or Doherty configuration. This is because the output capacitance can be absorbed in the RLC output matching network and 100% theoretical efficiency. In this paper, a 28 GHz current mode (inverse) Class-D power amplifier was simulated, implemented, and...

This paper presents analysis, characterization and measurement results in a 65nm CMOS process for different inverter topologies that use various leakage reduction method-ologies. The measurement results are carried out to compare the topologies in regards of leakage reduction, active power and speed. Four different methodologies are implemented: st...

This paper presents a detailed characterization of several power management units (PMUs) targeting wearable healthcare IoT device powered by a thermoelectric generator (TEG). The characterization is based on silicon measurements where the TEG-PMUs are fabricated in 65nm CMOS. Power efficiency, area and voltage ripple have been measured for differen...

Estimating the power consumption and computational complexity of various digital signal processing (DSP) algorithms used in wireless communications systems is critical to assess the feasibility of implementing such algorithms in hardware, and for designing energy-constrained communications systems. Therefore, this paper presents a novel approach, b...

Continuous monitoring of vital signs, such as respiration and heartbeat, plays a crucial role in early detection and even prediction of conditions that may affect the wellbeing of the patient. Sensing vital signs can be categorized into: contact-based techniques and contactless based techniques. Conventional clinical methods of detecting these vita...

The efficiency of the hardware implementations of fractional-order systems heavily relies on the efficiency of realizing the fractional-order derivative operator. In this work, a generic hardware implementation of the fractional-order derivative based on the Grünwald–Letnikov’s approximation is proposed and verified on a field-programmable gate arr...

In order to achieve batteryless operation of low power systems such as wearable devices, energy harvesting has been utilized to enable autonomous operation; however, it is critical to efficiently harvest energy from the surroundings. Furthermore, dynamic voltage scaling plays an important role in reducing the overall power consumption of the device...

This chapter presents a detailed characterization of several PMUs that target thermal energy harvesting wearable device. Several TEG-based PMU design options are proposed to select the appropriate option according to the blocks’ requirements within the device given in Fig. 1.12. In this chapter, three various TEG-based PMUs are characterized: desig...

The proposed wearable biomedical device as given in Fig. 1.12 includes analog and noise sensitive blocks that should be supplied by LDO regulator in order to support a clean and a low voltage ripple. LDO regulators are widely utilized in PMU as they provide fast response, small area, and full integration. However, with the increase of process varia...

The advancements in CMOS technology have enabled the evolution of low power circuits and systems in many applications including wearable biomedical devices. It allows the devices to operate at sub-microwatt power range and opens up a new era of the Internet of things. These new devices require small size with near perpetual lifetime. However, the t...

Since multiple voltage levels are required simultaneously by the proposed wearable device in Fig. 1.12, multiple voltage regulators are needed. The switched capacitor (SC) voltage regulator is widely utilized in low power applications since the small capacitance can be fully integrated on-chip while driving μA current. Conventionally, multiple SC v...

This chapter discusses in details the state of the art thermoelectric generator (TEG)-based power management unit (PMU) circuits in the literature. First, we introduce the basic concept of the TEG device and how the electricity is generated from heat. Then, we explain the interface circuit needed when using TEG device. Finally, we present the exist...

This paper presents analysis, characterization and measurement results in a 65 nm CMOS process for different inverter topologies that use various leakage reduction methodologies. The measurement results are carried out to compare the topologies in regards of leakage reduction, active power and speed. Four different methodologies are implemented: st...

This book describes power management integrated circuits (PMIC), for power converters and voltage regulators necessary for energy efficient and small form factor systems. The authors discuss state-of-the-art PMICs not only for battery powered wearable devices, but also energy harvesting-based devices. The circuits presented support voltage scaling...

Memristor characteristics such as nonlinear dynamics, state retention and accumulation are useful for many applications. FPGA implementation of memristor-based systems and algorithms provides fast development and verification platform. In this work, we first propose a versatile digital memristor emulator that exhibits either continuous or discrete...

In this paper, a built-in-self-calibration RF amplitude detector circuit in 65 nm CMOS is presented. The proposed architecture makes use of two detector replicas with a feedback control system to perform the self-calibration. The system is capable of detecting RF peak amplitudes range of 0–0.6 Vp with a conversion gain of − 3 V/V. The proposed syst...

While financially advantageous, outsourcing key steps, such as testing, to potentially untrusted Outsourced Assembly and Test (OSAT) companies may pose a risk of compromising on-chip assets. Obfuscation of scan chains is a technique that hides the actual scan data from the untrusted testers; logic inserted between the scan cells, driven by a secret...

While financially advantageous, outsourcing key steps, such as testing, to potentially untrusted Outsourced Assembly and Test (OSAT) companies may pose a risk of compromising on-chip assets. Obfuscation of scan chains is a technique that hides the actual scan data from the untrusted testers; logic inserted between the scan cells, driven by a secret...

This paper presents a detailed characterization of several power management units (PMUs) targeting wearable healthcare IoT device powered by a thermoelectric generator (TEG). The characterization is based on silicon measurements where the TEG-PMUs are fabricated in 65 nm CMOS. Power efficiency, area and voltage ripple have been measured for differe...

Local feature detection and description algorithms such as scale invariant feature transform (SIFT) algorithm are among the most commonly used techniques in computer vision. They are used mainly to detect and extract high-level information from low-level (pixel) information in images. These algorithms are computationally intensive and its pure soft...

The electrocardiogram signal (ECG) has been widely used as a diagnostic tool for many heart related diseases. In this work, we present a novel method for the prediction and detection of ventricular arrhythmia using a unique set of ECG features extracted from two consecutive cardiac cycles. Two databases of the heart signal recordings from MIT Physi...

Logic locking is a solution that mitigates hardware security threats, such as Trojan insertion, piracy and counterfeiting. Research in this area has led to, in an iterative fashion, a series of logic locking defenses as well as attacks that circumvent these defenses by extracting the logic locking key. The most powerful attacks rely on a full acces...

This paper presents a single-stage power management unit to boost and regulate a low supply voltage for CMOS system-on-chip (SoC) applications. It consists of low-leakage, enhanced Dickson charge pump (DCP) that utilizes both stage and frequency modulation (FM) techniques to achieve high efficiency and lower area. In addition, the proposed design u...

While financially advantageous, outsourcing key steps such as testing to potentially untrusted Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) companies may pose a risk of compromising on-chip assets. Obfuscation of scan chains is a technique that hides the actual scan data from the untrusted testers; logic inserted between the scan cells, driven...

This chapter presents an improved zero current switching (ZCS) control for high-gain inductor-based DC-DC converter targeting thermoelectric generator (TEG) for wearable electronics. The proposed ZCS control is an all-digital circuit that utilizes a simple finite state machine (FSM) and a 3-bit counter to locate the zero current point. In addition,...

This chapter introduces an efficient reconfigurable, multiple voltage gain switched-capacitor DC–DC buck converter as part of a power management unit for wearable IoTs. The switched-capacitor converter has an input voltage of 0.6–1.2 V generated from an energy harvesting source. The switched-capacitor converter utilizes pulse frequency modulation t...

This chapter presents an ultra-low-power ECG processor for applications of IoT devices. It includes full system description consisting of ECG analog front end, ECG feature extraction and ventricular arrhythmia (VA) prediction system. Each of these components operate at ultra-low-power dissipation utilizing low-power circuits and architectures. The...

MSERs (maximally stable extremal regions) belong to the most popular local image features with a wide range of highly practical applications, e.g., (to name a few) in image search and retrieval, object detection and recognition, image stitching, tracking mobile objects, etc. Low complexity of MSER detectors (combined with a regular structure suitab...

In this chapter, a novel algorithm for predicting ventricular arrhythmia (VA) is presented. It utilizes a unique set of ECG features with LDA classifier. These features are extracted from two consecutive heartbeats. The proposed method achieves a capability of predicting the arrhythmia up to 3 h before the onset with an accuracy of 99.1\(\%\) sensi...

This chapter presents a top-level design of the first self-powered SoC platform that can predict, with high accuracy, ventricular arrhythmia before it occurs. The system provides a very high level of integration in a single chip of mainstream modules that are typically needed to build biomedical devices. Hence, the platform could help in reducing t...

In this chapter, an ECG processor on-chip for full ECG feature extraction and cardiac autonomic neuropathy (CAN) is presented. Absolute value curve length transform (ACLT) is performed for QRS detection, whereas full feature extraction (detecting QRSon, QRSoff, P-, and T-waves) is achieved by low-pass differentiation. Proposed QRS detector attains...

The Internet of Things (IoT) has enabled remote sensing and communication with various devices. In the area of healthcare, IoT has far benefits in monitoring and alerting patients. IoT healthcare is applicable in many medical instruments such as ECG monitors, glucose level sensing, and oxygen concentration detection. Advanced technological platform...

This chapter presents an ultra-low power ECG feature extraction engine. ECG signal represents the cardiac cycle and contains key features, such as QRS complex, P-wave, and T-wave, that provide important diagnostic information about cardiovascular diseases. The ECG feature extraction is based on combined techniques of CLT and DWT. A pipelined archit...

This chapter introduces the book. It gives the main highlights about motivation, objectives, and challenges for ultra-low power ECG processors.

In this chapter, a QRS detection architecture based on absolute value curve length transform is presented. Ultra-low power and optimized architectures are crucial for IoT devices. Moreover, optimized ECG processing architectures with an adequate level of accuracy is a necessity for IoT medical wearable devices. This chapter presents a real-time QRS...

In this chapter the basics about ECG processing are presented. First, ECG is introduced as a representation of the cardiac activity of the heart. ECG features and extraction techniques along with ECG classifiers are reviewed. Ultra-low power biomedical circuit approaches are also discussed in this chapter.

An ultra-low power electrocardiogram (ECG) processing architecture with an adequate level of accuracy is a necessity for Internet of Things (IoT) medical wearable devices. This paper presents a novel real-time QRS detector and an ECG compression architecture for IoT healthcare devices. An absolute-value curve length transform (A-CLT) is proposed th...

This paper presents an area- and power-efficient dual-output switched capacitor (DOSC) dc-dc buck converter for wearable biomedical devices. The DOSC converter has an input voltage range between 1.05 and 1.4 V and generates two simultaneous regulated output voltages of 1 and 0.55 V. The DOSC consists of two main blocks: a switched capacitor regulat...

The Internet of Things (IoT) presents opportunities to address a variety of systemic, metabolic healthcare issues. Cardiovascular disease and diabetes are among the greatest contributors to premature death worldwide. Wireless wearable continuous monitoring systems such as ECG sensors connected to the IoT can greatly decrease the risk of death relat...

In this chapter, recent work is presented on different interface circuits for TEG energy harvesting systems. Further, the inductor-based boost converter is introduced as the main interface circuit for TEG harvesting systems. After that, different digital control circuits are explored for inductor-based boost converter. This includes zero current co...

In this chapter, common energy harvesting sources are discussed, namely thermoelectric generators, piezoelectric harvester, RF harvesting, and solar. The operating principle of each energy source is explained in detail, along with the electrical model for each which is essential for designing the interface circuits. Further, different power convers...

In this chapter, ZCS control techniques for inductor-based boost converters are presented. The ZCS circuit controls the high side switch of the synchronous inductor converter to maintain the output voltage and hence the efficiency. In the first section, several reported ZCS techniques are explained and compared in regard to design, complexity, and...

In this chapter, polarity circuits for thermoelectric generator are demonstrated. These circuits are important since it monitors the polarity status of the TEG voltage and flips it when a negative voltage is encountered. Several auto-polarity circuits are reported in the literature which are explained and compared. A novel technique is proposed and...

In this chapter, recent work in multi-source energy harvesting system is compared. This includes different energy combining techniques used to deliver the energy from multiple energy harvesting sources to the load. In addition, the design of an efficient energy combiner is proposed with power manager to form a complete energy harvesting system. Fur...

The chapter discusses the performance of the presented system. The high-level simulation results are presented, and then a detailed comparison with the published work is given. The chapter is concluded by presenting the obtained results from the first chip tapeout of the introduced system.

The chapter introduces the hardware design of an automated system for prediction and detection of cardiac arrhythmias especially VT/VF. The system’s architecture is presented, the preprocessing stage is explained, then the system control scheme is introduced, and next the specifics for the realization of the QRS complex, the P and T wave signal del...

The chapter introduces an automated system for prediction and detection of cardiac arrhythmias especially VT/VF. The system is overviewed, next the ECG signal processing specifics are covered, and then the feature extraction process is explained. The chapter is concluded by explaining features of the classification system.

This book discusses the design and implementation of energy harvesting systems targeting wearable devices. The authors describe in detail the different energy harvesting sources that can be utilized for powering low-power devices in general, focusing on the best candidates for wearable applications. Coverage also includes state-of-the-art interface...

This book presents techniques necessary to predict cardiac arrhythmias, long before they occur, based on minimal ECG data. The authors describe the key information needed for automated ECG signal processing, including ECG signal pre-processing, feature extraction and classification. The adaptive and novel ECG processing techniques introduced in thi...

Methods and systems for detecting and/or tracking one or more objects utilize depth data. An example method of detecting one or more objects in image data includes receiving depth image data corresponding to a depth image view point relative to the one or more objects. A series of binary threshold depth images are formed from the depth image data....

This paper presents an ultra-low power Electrocardiography (ECG) feature extraction engine. ECG signal represents the cardiac cycle and contains key features such as QRS complex, P-wave and T-wave that provide important diagnostic information about cardiovascular diseases. The ECG feature extraction is based on combined techniques of Curve Length T...

This paper presents a new method for detecting and reversing the polarity of a low-voltage thermoelectric generator (TEG) in inductor-based converters. The proposed technique makes use of the inductor response to a voltage change due to the flip in the TEG polarity. The inductor voltage provides two distinguishable states which correspond to the no...

ECG signal is an important tool to analyze the heart operation and detect many cardiac diseases. In this paper an improved Pan and Tompkins algorithm in the log2 domain is proposed. The proposed algorithm successfully detects the QRS complex and significantly reduces noise in the ECG signal. An average sensitivity of 99.68% and predictivity of 100%...

This paper introduces an efficient reconfigurable, multiple voltage gain switched-capacitor dc-dc buck converter as part of a power management unit for wearable electronics. The proposed switched-capacitor converter has an input voltage of 0.6 V to 1.2 V generated from an energy harvesting source. The switched-capacitor converter utilizes pulse fre...

In this paper, electrostatic energy harvesting interface circuit is introduced and analyzed. The harvester and interface circuit are designed using GF 65nm process technology and cadence CAD tools. System level analysis is performed where the impact of the initial voltage level and the harvester resonance frequency have been studied. Moreover, the...

This paper presents an efficient on-chip switched-capacitor DC-DC buck converter targeting μW power range applications. The proposed switched-capacitor converter has an input of 1.2V and generates multiple output voltage levels, namely 1V, 0.8V and 0.6V based on two digital bits. In addition, the switched-capacitor converter has the capability to d...

Floating point arithmetic provides high resolution and wide range for representing numbers. However it requires huge resources and high power consumption which makes it unfavorable for implementation in power constrained wearable devices. In this paper we present fused floating point arithmetic for realizing Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT). Compar...

Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals provide vital information about heart activity and diagnostics. Here, a dry ECG electrode based on reduced Graphene Oxide (rGOx) coated fabrics is presented. Graphene Oxide (GOx) affinity towards recoating of already coated GOx fabrics is relied upon to reduce fabric resistance. The facile fabrication process is pres...

This paper presents a multi-input, multi-output, frequency modulated Dickson charge pump targeting power management unit in energy harvesting applications. Four stages Dickson charge pump is designed and simulated using 65nm CMOS. The design has an input voltage range from 0.4V-0.6V and generates a regulated output voltage of 0.6V, 0.8V and 1V usin...

This paper presents a 65nm ASIC based 256 NIST prime field ECC processor. To achieve high throughput, extensive pipelining techniques were applied to realize the Karatsuba-Ofman Multiplier along with enhanced NIST Reduction Formula. The processor architecture was implemented using Global Foundry 65nm Low Power (LPE) technology. The processor runs a...

Methods and systems process an MRI image to detect cancer. A method includes forming a series of binary threshold intensity images from an MRI image of a patient. Each of the binary threshold intensity images is based on a respective intensity. The binary threshold intensity images are processed to identify one or more bright extremal regions in wh...