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As SystemC gains popularity as a System Level Design Language (SLDL) for System-On-Chip (SOC) designs, heterogeneous modelling and efficient simulation become increasingly important. The key in making an SLDL heterogeneous is the facility to express different Models Of Computation (MOC). Currently, all SystemC models employ a Discrete-Event simulation kernel making it difficult to express most MOCs without specific designer guidelines. This often makes it unnatural to express different MOCs in SystemC. For the simulation framework, this sometimes results in unnecessary delta cycles for models away from the Discrete-Event MOC, hindering the simulation performance of the model. Our goal is to extend SystemC's simulation framework to allow for better modelling expressiveness and efficiency for the Synchronous Data Flow (SDF) MOC. The SDF MOC follows a paradigm where the production and consumption rates of data by a function block are known a priori. These systems are common in Digital Signal Processing applications where relative sample rates are specified for every component. Knowledge of these rates enables the use of static scheduling. When compared to dynamic scheduling of SDF models, we experience a noticeable improvement in simulation efficiency. We implement an extension to the SystemC kernel that exploits such static scheduling for SDF models and propose designer style guidelines for modelers to use this extension. The modelling paradigm becomes more natural to SDF which results to better simulation efficiency. We will distribute our implementation to the SystemC community to demonstrate that SystemC can be a heterogeneous SLDL. / Master of Science

<p>Embedded computer systems are used as control systems in many products, such as VCRs, digital cameras, washing machines, automobiles, airplanes, etc. As the complexity of embedded applications grows and time-to-market of the products they are used in reduces, designing reliable systems satisfying multiple require-ments is a great challenge. Successful design, nowadays, cannot be performed without good design tools based on powerful design methodologies. These tools should explore different design alternatives to find the best one and do that at high abstraction levels to manage the complexity and reduce the design time.</p><p>A design is specified using models. Different models are used at different de-sign stages and abstraction levels. For example, the functionality of an application can be specified using hierarchical functional blocks. However, for such design tasks as mapping and scheduling, a lower-level flat model of interacting processes is needed. Deriving this model from a higher-level model of functional blocks is the main focus of this thesis. Our objective is to develop efficient strategies for such derivations, aiming at producing a process graph specification, which helps the synthesis tasks to find schedulable implementations. We proposed several strategies and evaluated them experimentally.</p>

Embedded computer systems are used as control systems in many products, such as VCRs, digital cameras, washing machines, automobiles, airplanes, etc. As the complexity of embedded applications grows and time-to-market of the products they are used in reduces, designing reliable systems satisfying multiple require-ments is a great challenge. Successful design, nowadays, cannot be performed without good design tools based on powerful design methodologies. These tools should explore different design alternatives to find the best one and do that at high abstraction levels to manage the complexity and reduce the design time. A design is specified using models. Different models are used at different de-sign stages and abstraction levels. For example, the functionality of an application can be specified using hierarchical functional blocks. However, for such design tasks as mapping and scheduling, a lower-level flat model of interacting processes is needed. Deriving this model from a higher-level model of functional blocks is the main focus of this thesis. Our objective is to develop efficient strategies for such derivations, aiming at producing a process graph specification, which helps the synthesis tasks to find schedulable implementations. We proposed several strategies and evaluated them experimentally.

Coal-fired power plant boilers consist of several complex subsystems that all need to work together to ensure plant availability, efficiency and safety, while limiting emissions. Analysing this multi-objective problem requires a thermofluid process model that can simulate the water/steam cycle and the coal/air/flue gas cycle for steady-state and dynamic operational scenarios, in an integrated manner. The furnace flue gas side can be modelled using a suitable zero-dimensional model in a quasi-steady manner, but this will only provide an overall heat transfer rate and a single gas temperature. When more detail is required, CFD is the tool of choice. However, the solution times can be prohibitive. A need therefore exists for a computationally efficient model that captures the three-dimensional radiation effects, flue gas exit temperature profile, carbon burnout and O2 and CO2 concentrations, while integrated with the steam side process model for dynamic simulations. A thermofluid network-based methodology is proposed that combines the zonal method to model the radiation heat transfer in three dimensions with a one-dimensional burnout model for the heat generation, together with characteristic flow maps for the mass transfer. Direct exchange areas are calculated using a discrete numerical integration approximation together with a suitable smoothing technique. Models of Leckner and Yin are applied to determine the gas and particle radiation properties, respectively. For the heat sources the burnout model developed by the British Coal Utilisation Research Association is employed and the advection terms of the mass flow are accounted for by superimposing a mass flow map that is generated via an isothermal CFD solution. The model was first validated by comparing it with empirical data and other numerical models applied to the IFRF single-burner furnace. The full scale furnace model was then calibrated and validated via detailed CFD results for a wall-fired furnace operating at full load. The model was shown to scale well to other load conditions and real plant measurements. Consistent results were obtained for sensitivity studies involving coal quality, particle size distribution, furnace fouling and burner operating modes. The ability to do co-simulation with a steam-side process model in Flownex® was successfully demonstrated for steady-state and dynamic simulations.

Ultrasonic sensors are well known for various applications such as NDT, ultrasound imaging, and proximity sensing. Conventional ultrasound transducers are bulky, work at notoriously high voltages, and consume significant power. Microfabrication techniques are leading to a paradigm shift in the field of ultrasonics by enabling development of low power - small footprint ultrasound transducers. This work focuses on the development of piezoelectric type flexural mode micromachined ultrasound transducer also known as PMUTs. We start by establishing a system level analytical model of a PMUT and use it to offer insights into scaling of the performance of the transducer with respect to various design parameters. In this analysis we give special attention to residual stresses thus establishing a contrast between membrane type and plate type PMUTs. After going through various steps of material development and microfabrication, we obtain arrays of PMUTs with different designs. PZT thin films deposited by sol-gel method are used as the piezoelectric layer in the multilayer stack. Further, we present a thorough characterization of fabricated PMUTs which includes measurement of the piezoelectric properties of the embedded PZT thin film, electrical impedance of the electromechanical transducer, its vibrational charac-teristics and acoustic radiation from a single PMUT cell. We also develop a pre-amplifier circuit for a PMUT receiver and present its working as a simple proximity sensor. After establishing the repeatability and predictability of our PMUT sensors we delve into application development beyond ultrasound imaging. Experiments and analysis of PMUTs submerged in water show strong structural-acoustic coupling between the PMUT membrane and the surrounding fluid. We hypothesize the applicability of this feature to sense changes in the acoustic environment of a PMUT. To this end, we integrate an array of PMUTs with a micro-fluidic chip and study the changes in the vibrational behaviour of the PMUT in response to change in the air-water ratio in a closed cell around a PMUT membrane. We also present our preliminary results on presence of micro-bubbles in the closed cell around the PMUT.

The rapid development in the semiconductors industry has enabled the placement of multiple chips on a single die. This has helped boost the functionality of modernday application specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Thus, digital circuits are being increasingly placed along-side analog and RF circuits in what are known as mixed signal circuits. As a result, the noise couplings through the substrate now have an increased role in mixed-signal ASIC design. Therefore, there is a need to study the effects of substrate noise and include them in the traditional design methodology. ∆Σ analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) are a perfect example of digital integration in traditionally analog circuits. ADCs, used to interface digital circuits to an analog world, are indispensable in mixed-signal systems and therefore set an interesting case study. A ∆Σ ADC is used in this thesis to study the effects of substrate noise. A background study is presented in the thesis to better understand ∆Σ modulators and substrate couplings. An intensive theoretical background on generation, propagation and reception of substrate noise is presented in light of existing researches. System and behavioural level models are proposed to include the effects of substrate noise in the design stages. A maximum decay of 10dB is seen due to injection of substrate noise system level simulations while a decay of 12dB is seen in behavioural simulations. A solution is proposed using controlled clock tree delays to overcome the effects of substrate noise. The solution is verified on both the system and behavioural levels. The noise models used to drive the studies can further be used in mixed-signal systems to design custom solutions. / Den snabba utvecklingen inom halvledarindustrin har möjliggjort placering av flera marker på en enda dö. Detta har hjälpt till att öka funktionaliteten hos moderna applikationsspecifika integrerade kretsar. Sålunda placeras digitala kretsar i allt högre grad parallella och RF-kretsar i de så kallade blandade signalkretsarna. Som ett resultat har bullerkopplingarna genom substratet nu en ökad roll i ASICdesign med blandad signal. Därför finns det behov av att studera effekterna av substratbuller och inkludera dem i den traditionella designmetoden. ∆Σ analog-till-digital omvandlare är ett perfekt exempel på digital integration i traditionellt analoga kretsar. ADC, som används för att gränssnitta digitala kretsar till en analog värld, är oumbärliga i blandningssignalsystem och är därför en intressant fallstudie. A ∆Σ arkitektur används i denna avhandling för att studera effekterna av substratstörning. En bakgrundsstudie presenteras i avhandlingen för att bättre förstå ∆Σ modulatorer och substratkopplingar. En intensiv teoretisk bakgrund på generering, förökning och mottagande av substratbuller presenteras i ljuset av befintliga undersökningar. Systemoch beteendemodellmodeller föreslås inkludera effekterna av substratbuller i konstruktionsstadiet. Ett maximalt förfall på 10dB ses på grund av injektion av substratbuller på systemnivå medan ett förfall av 12dB ses i beteende simuleringar.En lösning föreslås med hjälp av kontrollerade klockträdfördröjningar för att övervinna effekterna av substratbuller. Lösningen är verifierad på både system och beteendenivåer. De brusmodeller som används för att driva studierna kan vidare användas i blandningssignalsystem för att designa anpassade lösningar.