Contact person
Competencies and research activities
The ESP Lab is equipped with hardware and software resources both to made experimental work in the field of electronic devices, circuits, systems and to develop procedures for digital applications. The staff of the laboratory provides research services and technology transfer in the following macro-areas:
- Sensor design for digital radiography.
In the field of X-ray detection application, semiconductors characterized by high atomic mass and resistivity have been adopted to fabricate detectors with high X-ray sensitivity. These features are valuable in especially applications, such as in medical field. Both pixel matrix and micro-strip prototypes of GaAs X ray detectors have been analyzed and designed. The device behavior has been modeled taking into account trapping and generated carrier phenomena. The obtained numerical simulations confirm the electrical behavior of the device which has been verified in the ESP Lab.
- Analysis and design of broadband multistage interconnection networks and of switching elements for multistage networks
Basic structure of a B-ISDN is the interconnection matrix. Researchers of ESP Lab have studied various switching matrixes taking into account both architectures and routing/control algorithms. Both Electronic and electro-optic switching elements for MINs (Multistage Interconnection Networks) and GSNs (Generalizzed Shuffle Networks) have been designed.
- Procedure development for real-time one-dimensional signals
The study of biological signals is a difficult task because of their non-stationary behavior.
For real-time detection of acute heart pathologies, real-time procedures have been developed for the localization of characteristic points in ECG and ICG signals. Both the obtained sensitivity and the positive predictivity have shown the validity of the implemented methods and their high noise immunity degree.
-Procedure development for automated processing of digital images
Computer Aided Detection (CAD) analysis is valuable in supporting physicians for pathology detection since it improves the diagnosis sensitivity and specificity. CAD system normally operates as an automated second opinion or as a double reading system that indicates lesion locations and types of possible abnormalities. ESP Lab. researchers have developed automated CAD systems able to localize and detect both single microcalcification and microcalcification clusters in mammographic images. The obtained performance show the method validity
- Analysis and design of biomedical/environmental data capture and storage systems
In particular, RFID systems, adopting active tag, can be integrated with other wireless devices to realize portable networks such as PAN or data network in vehicles. Researchers of ESP Lab. have designed and analyzed various systems for custom applications using RFID devices
- Analysis and synthesis of complex digital circuits
Specifications of a modern digital system are often so complex to need a detailed characterization of both the functionality sets and the memories between which data are transferred, according to a well-defined synchronization. The distribution of tasks between various devices composing the system can differ according to both the functional blocks disposable in the design libraries and the design requirements such as area occupancy, data throughput, cost, latency, low power dissipation .In the ESP lab., various complex circuits have been analyzed and synthesized adopting different methodologies.
Collaborations with companies and institutions
Some of the collaborations are listed below:
- Faculty of Engineering, Science and Medicine - Department of Health Science and Technology,-Center for Sensory-Motor Interaction - Aalborg University (Denmark);
- IMEC – NES/Wireless – Leuven (Belgium)
- Infineon Technologies GmbH- Villach (Austria)
- STMicroelectronics – Bluetooth BU – Zaventem (Belgium)
- SST lab
- Masmec S.p.A.
- El.Mo
- MASVIS S.r. L.