The Plasma Impedance Probe (PIP) is an electronic instrument that measures the impedance of a dipole antenna immersed in a plasma environment. Measurements made by the PIP provide valuable information regarding the plasma environment. Knowledge of ionospheric plasma density and density disturbances is required to understand radio frequency communication with satellites. The impedance curve provides us with significant plasma characteristics such as the electron-neutral collision frequency and plasma electron density. The work proposed here is a transistor-level implementation of the analog front-end, the non-inverting amplifier that is used to drive the antenna. The antenna immersed in plasma is excited with a sinusoidal/pulse stimulus and the output from the non-inverting configuration is fed into the difference amplifier. In the difference amplifier the output signal from the non- inverting amplifier is subtracted from the original stimulus and then fed into a high-speed pipeline data converter. The entire analog and mixed signal components are integrated on a single chip. The obvious advantages with this design are that it eliminates several sources of analog signal processing errors, thereby improving stability. A Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is then applied on the sampled input stimulus as well as the processed signal. The input voltage FFT is then divided by the current FFT to obtain the antenna impedance. The FFT method helps in reducing transient errors and improves noise immunity of the system. The antenna impedance span curves over the frequency range from 100 kHz to 20MHz. The approach for the tranistor-level design is implementing short-channel design tech- niques using the gm/ID method. This is the primary focus of the thesis where the emphasis has been on using a simple and intuitive method to design the front-end amplifier in the TSMC .35 um technology. The design specifications for this amplifier are derived from the system-level simulations. The transition from a Printed Circuit Board (PCB)-based design to System on Chip (SOC) implementation is explored. This makes the design components highly specific to the application. The following are the design approaches used for the analog front-end design. * A detailed study of the various factors affecting the PIP instrument measurement capabilities from the previous works. * System-level simulation of the the entire PIP system to completely characterize the analog front-end. * Exploration of the possible design topologies for the transistor-level implementation. * A novel method of analog amplifier design using the gm/ID methodology. Miniaturization of the instrument and using a pulse-based measurement scheme also offer an immediate benefit to sounding rocket missions. The reduction of power, mass, and volume will enable the instrument to be flown on many more sounding rockets than at present. The faster measurement is especially valuable since the ionospheric plasma changes in character most rapidly with altitude.

Keywords: ID-method, internet, security, digitzing, bank Background: The digitizing of our society continues to grow and more parts of our lives is spent on the internet. The banks are one of the institutions that is at the forefront of this development since they established themselves on a early basis. The banks meeting points have since this establishment moved from the regular bank office out on the internet. A problem that has occurred during this transfer is the possibility to positive ID a customer in a virtual world. It is essential to offer the customer methods to identify themselves that are both safe and easy to use. Objective: The objective with this study is to describe the methods and technique that banks use to today and may use in the future. Method: A qualitative study with semi-structured interviews. The sample consisted of four different persons that from different angles is in contact with ID-methods. Result: The study shows some different security techniques that is used within ID-methods and safe communication today. The study gives an overview how encryption, SSL and digital signatures work. It also gives an overview over the most common threats against e-banking and its ID-methods. In the end the interviews is summarized. These interviews are conducted with people who look on ID-methods from different angles. Conclusion: ID-methods are already a part of people’s everyday lives and a development is inevitable to respond the increased demands which are placed on the users. / Nyckelord: ID-metod, internet, säkerhet, digitalisering, bank Bakgrund: Digitalisering av samhället tar allt större steg och allt mer av våra liv tar plats på internet. En av samhällsinstitutionerna som ligger i framkant när det gäller detta är bankerna som var tidigt ute med att etablera sig på internet. Bankernas mötesplatser har efter denna etablering allt mer flyttat ut från dem vanliga bankkontoren och ut på internet. En flaskhals för att denna flytt ska kunna utvecklas än mer är hur bankerna på ett säkert sätt ska kunna identifiera sina kunder. Det för att kunna ge kunderna den säkerhet som krävs, men ändå en så pass användarvänlig metod att den är intuitiv för kunderna att använda. Syfte: Syftet är att beskriva den teknik och de metoder som banker använder inom identifieringskontroll nu och vad som kan tänkas användas i framtiden. Metod: En kvalitativ studie där det använts semistrukturerade intervjuer. Urvalet har bestått i olika personer som på olika sätt kommer i kontakt med ID-metoderna. Resultat: Studien visar på en rad olika säkerhetstekniker som används inom ID-metoder och säker kommunikation idag. Studien visar översiktligt hur kryptering, SSL och digitala signaturer fungerar. Dessutom gås de vanligaste hoten mot internetbanker och deras identifieringsmetoder igenom. I slutet redovisas också de fyra intervjuerna som har genomförts med människor som på olika sätt använder och arbetar med dessa ID-metoder.  Slutsats: ID-metoder är en del av mångas vardag och en utveckling är oundviklig för att tillmötesgå de allt hårdare krav som ställs på användarna.