In this report the finger vibrotactile subsystem of the SoftGlove wearable haptic feedback glove is discussed. This system is an upgrade over the vibrotactile feedback that the current SenseGlove haptic feedback glove provides. The designed system consists of a linear resonant actuator (LRA) on each finger, which is controlled by a dedicated LRA driver over I2C. To overcome addressing limitations of the drivers, an I2C switch is used to be able to communicate with each driver individually. The system is characterized both in terms of latency and vibration strength. The peak-to-peak vibration strength is measured to be 1.44 G and a 10 % to 90 % rise and fall time of 44 ms from rest to the maximum vibration strength. Furthermore, the system is integrated with the other subsystems of the SoftGlove on a PCB.

VR gear is in the early stages of public use. A recent development is the use of haptic feedback and gloves to improve the immersion. This reports describes some of the challenges in this field, methods to stream haptic feedback in the form of audio, potential haptic protocols and contains the design process of a haptic feedback glove for SenseGlove.

Virtual reality gear is in the early stages of public use. A recent development is the use of haptic feedback gloves to improve immersion. This report describes some of the challenges in this field. The finger force feedback subsystem design of the SoftGlove is discussed including all methods used and measurements done to accomplish an optimal subsystem.

A new antenna measurement setup, the Antenna Dome, is being developed, which can provide real time antenna and beamformer measurements. In order to be able to validate this setup, an existing beamforming system will be will be extensively studied and characterized. Multiple measurement setups will be used, providing multiple measured characteristics. The result is an accurate statistical model for the steering system, and a comprehensive error model for the complete beamforming system, including the provided antenna array. This model will help in validating the functionality of the Antenna Dome, and ultimately will help in its further development.

In the ADome project, a truncated icosahedron is used as a frame for multiple antenna nodes. These nodes are used to measure the radiation pattern of an antenna-under-test located in the center of this dome. Since these antennas can be placed anywhere in the ADome by the user, a calibration system is necessary to find the spherical coordinates of each of these antennas. In this thesis, a method is proposed that uses computer vision algorithms, written using the OpenCV library in C++, to locate each of these antennas by detecting controllable LEDs attached to the PCBs of the antenna nodes. The found pixel locations will then be used to get the spherical coordinates of the antennas with respect to the camera. Finally these spherical coordinates will be transformed to fit to the coordinate system of the ADome itself, by detecting landmarks in the form of fiducial markers which are located at predetermined locations. The methods of recognition of the antennas within using computer vision are discussed, implemented and tested on real and simulated data. The accuracy of finding the antennas on the real data was within 2 pixels from the true location. The methods regarding estimating the location of the antenna with respect to the camera are discussed next. These methods include a distortion estimation and correction, after which each pixel will get there corresponding spherical angles θ and φ. These methods are also tested on simulated and real data, where the accuracy on the real data falls within 0.5 degrees in comparison to the true data. Finally the methods of transforming the spherical angle θ and φ of the antenna with respect to the camera, to the coordinate system of the ADome are discussed. This starts with a method of recognizing fiducial landmarks (landmarks are accurately known reference points), where in this research there is chosen for ArUco fiducials. After this, the location of these landmarks can be used to determine the location and orientation of the camera within the ADome. The method of finding the distances between each of the landmarks and the camera, is discussed and tested and has an accuracy of 2 cm. The method of finding the location of the camera, and the method of finding the orientation of the camera are discussed, however this has not been tested and fully implemented yet. With this location and orientation the location of an antenna can be easily determined. In conclusion, this thesis is a good starting point for designing an Optical Calibration System, which could make determining the location of each of the antennas faster, and more accurate.

Lunar dust presents a serious problem for future lunar rovers. Due to the charged nature of this fine dust, it tends to stick to sensitive elements like solar panels. It is clear that a system needs to be implemented in order to remove lunar dust to keep the output power of the solar panel at a satisfactory level. This paper develops the proof of concept electronics for a method sometimes called an electrodynamic screen, that uses electrostatic fields to sweep away the dust adhered to the surface of the solar panel. The electronics for this system needs to produce a high voltage three phase pulse wave in order to drive the electrodes placed on top of the solar panel. The design of the electrodes themselves are not part of this thesis, but it is the main subject of the companion thesis produced by other members of our group.

Until now parameter analysers for Organ-on-Chips (OoCs) have needed bulky multi-probe setups that do not fit in biological research labs. For this reason a bachelor graduation project was proposed to get one of the sensors designed by the Electronic Components, Technology and Materials group (ECTM) out of the lab and into the hands of potential end users. This thesis is one of three from that project, and describes the calibration and user interface components of the portable parameter analyzer that is developed for the OoC sensor. First, an analysis is performed on the amplifier design that was given with the sensor. The analysis showed that the biggest sources of error in the overall gain are the offset and gain error, while non-linearity was not significant. Therefore, a two-point calibration method was deemed sufficient for the amplifier calibration. It is performed by taking two reference voltages as input of the amplifier, and measuring the corresponding output. With those points the actual gain and offset voltage can be calculated and corrected in measurements. Because of circumstances it was not possible to test in a lab environment whether the amplifier and the two-point method would meet the requirements. Therefore a second calibration method is proposed, the `sweep' method. For each input voltage step the corresponding output voltage is measured. This mapping can be stored in memory, and any future measurement can be looked up to find the correct voltage. The sweep method can also be used with a slight modification of the current hardware in order to simply plot the gain of the amplifier, to verify that it is linear as intended. Because the portable parameter analyzer is operated remotely, there was a need to develop a communication protocol on top of the Bluetooth link, in order to allow for parallel development of the GUI and embedded software on the analyzer. Once the communication between GUI and analyzer was defined, it was also possible for the other group to calculate the power consumption of the communication module. Finally, a Graphical User Interface (GUI) needs to be developed that can interact with the analyzer (connect, change settings, retrieve data, etc.) and it should display and store the measured data. A framework called Qt is chosen for developing the GUI, and a graphical design was made. Two modules are implemented in the GUI: A Bluetooth scanner to connect to the analyzer, and a way to plot data from the analyzer.

In this thesis, the realization and qualification of an anechoic dome chamber for 5G antenna’s is discussed. As with audio, where no echoes or noise from outside is wanted when listening to music, when characterizing an antenna it must be prevented to get internal reflections or electromagnetic (EM) radiation from outside. For this reason, a measurement setup was simulated, using that setup, different absorbers were tested and characterized. And a Faraday cage shielding is designed and evaluated, to remove EM interference. To make the anechoic chamber physically possible, rebuilding the minidome was also required, so that the absorber and Faraday cage could be mounted on the inner wand of the dome. Eventually, a suitable test environment for 5G antenna’s is build. In the end, the assessment of the absorbing materials was completed, and the chamber achieved all requirements. Despite the space of improvement, the idea of building an anechoic chamber is successfully verified.

Problems in drug development and personalised disease treatments are the main impulse for the development of OoCs. At the Electronic Components, Technology and Materials (ECTM) group at TU Delft an OoC sensor has been developed and the design is now at a stage where a system can be developed to take the sensor out of the initial research environment, into a complete product that incorporates the sensor. In this thesis a design is proposed for a portable parameter analyser based around the STM32L4 microcontroller platform. It contains an instrumentation amplifier and a communication module to connect to an external device. A power consumption estimation is made for individual system components as well as for the system as a whole. From this it is concluded which components contribute the most to the power consumption and recommendations are made on how to decrease this power consumption.

The commercialization of millimeter wave frequencies for the 5G New Radio standard requires time and cost -effective testing equipment. The over-the-air measurement setup developed at the TU Delft (ADome) is able to reduce measurement time, by positioning multiple fixed sensing nodes around the antenna-under-test. To expand the system capabilities of the ADome, this work researches the possibilities of measuring signal quality by down-converting the high-frequency modulated signal to an intermediate frequency. This includes analysis on distributing the local oscillator to the sensing nodes, a proposed design and simulation of a passive single-balanced diode mixer circuit and simulated system EVM performance.

Real-time cell culture media monitoring can be conducted by Organ-on-Chip (OoC) ion-sensitive floating-gate field-effect transistor based sensors (ISFGFET). A method of modelling the sensor is described and implemented in the Advanced Design System (ADS) design and simulation software. The model is validated using measurement data of the sensor when exposed to an aqueous solution and in a 'dry' scenario. The model is utilized for an overall sensitivity analysis and the effect of the sensor dimensions on the sensitivity to charge variation that are immobilized on the sensing area surface. In addition to a SPICE compatible floating gate, level 3 MOSFET parameters are extracted, along with a sensing area model that links changes in the floating gate voltage to changes in the pH of the solution. Subsequently, a bias point is determined based on measurement data and limiting factors. Finally, the sensitivity of the ISFGFET is analysed. Our results characterize the effect that the sensing area dimensions, control gate capacitance and bias point have on the sensitivity.

Neonates are among the most fragile in the human population. Even more so when born prematurely. Their loss of development time in the womb disrupts their growth, and the neonatal intensive care unit environment can add multiple stresses that hinder their development. This can partly be attributed to the intrusive environment of a neonatal intensive care unit incubator. Neonatal development cannot be monitored without multiple wires and sensors, such as pulse oximetry and electrocardiogram (ECG). The strong adhesives of these sensors can hurt the delicate skin of the neonates and the sensors make bonding with parents difficult. The issue of the intrusive nature of current neonatal healthcare has led this thesis towards something not normally associated with healthcare: radar. Millimeter wave radar with frequency modulation of the continuous wave transmission has been shown to measure adult’s heart and respiration rate without contact with the patient. Using the small wavelength and high configurability of frequency modulated millimeter wave radar, the goal will be to scale down this technology from adults to neonates that can be as small as 500 grams. This thesis provides a look into the application investigation of frequency modulated millimeter wave radar in monitoring neonates. It dives into the environment of the neonatal intensive care unit incubator and the radar monitoring system operation. The environment is modelled with a thermal focus to avoid high temperature increases caused by the radar module. The system operation is described and the most influential component simulated and characterized. Lastly, the thermal model of the neonatal intensive care unit incubator is validated to understand how the system operation influences the environment. And the radar system operation will be characterized for measuring the smallest amplitude changes of a chest to understand how the environment influences the system performance. The conclusion of this thesis will provide reasoning for why or why not the application of frequency modulated millimeter wave radar has the capability to be safely implemented in the neonatal intensive care unit.

In recent years, quantum computers have become increasingly popular, with high-profile companies in-vesting more and more resources into the development of quantum-computing prototypes. Such interest is motivated by the exponential increase in the computing power that quantum computers offer over classical computers, which may be used in several practical applications, such as producing faster and more accurate solutions to machine learning algorithms, the quantum simulations of molecules for drug and material synthesis, techniques that combat cybersecurity threats, and more. Quantum processors are typically placed in a dilution refrigerator, which cools down the processor to near absolute zero to make use of their quantum behavior. These fridges are large in scale and require multiple long wires from the processor to the readout/control equipment, which mostly resides at room temperature. However, although this approach is suitable for currently available systems with few quantum bits (qubits), it is unpractical for future quantum computers, with thousands or millions of qubits, due to the interconnect bottleneck. One solution isto move the readout/control circuits closer to the processor to avoid the need for bulky unreliable interconnects. However, this has proven to be difficult due to the limited cooling power of the fridges, which is below a few Watts at 4 K and below a few mW at temperatures below 100 mK. These limitations stress the need for low power readout/control circuitry of the processor as the number of qubits in a single processor increases. This thesis focuses on an ultra-low-power cryogenic amplifier design for the readout of spin qubits.Only recently, the cryogenic performance of Silicon-Germanium Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors (SiGe HBT) has been demonstrated to be specifically suited for the cryogenic readout of spin qubits, because of their ultra-low-power and their high sensitivity. This thesis focuses on the standard SiGe HBT available in the IHP 0.13μm SG13G2 BiCMOS process and on an optimized variant with modified doping profiles for enhanced current gain. As a first step, a comprehensive cryogenic (4 K or 15 K) DC characterization of the SiGe HBTs, CMOS transistors, and resistors is performed. This data proves the suitability of such technology for cryogenic application and will enable the future integration of a complete qubit readout, including SiGe front-end amplification and CMOS back-end post-processing. The measurement results of the SiGe HBT characterization show outstanding cryogenic performance for low power applications, with an attain-able current gain in the standard HBT of 100, 500, and 1000 at a power dissipation of 61nW, 2μW and 30μW,respectively, and, for the modified HBT, of 100, 500 and 1000 at a power dissipation of 5.5nW, 90nW, and140nW, respectively. To mimic the spin qubit readout, a discrete amplifier employing a SiGe HBT produced in the IHP SG13G2process has been built and used to characterize a single-electron transistor (SET), with both the SET and the amplifier operating at 4 K. By comparing the charge-stability diagram measured with room-temperature equipment, the proper operation of the proposed amplifier is demonstrated. Furthermore, the amplifier characterization showed a gain > 40 dB with an 113 kHz -3-dB bandwidth, and Signal-Noise Ratio (SNR)above 10 dB for a total measurement time of t<10μs, thus demonstrating performance compatible with the requirements for single-shot readout in state-of-the-art spin-qubit computers. Overall, the results show the capabilities of the SiGe HBT in low power cryogenic applications as well as the capabilities of the 0.13μmBiCMOS technology for the future full integration of qubit readout schemes.

The analysis of integrated front ends operated in the high-frequency regimes is addressed in this work. The analysis of these problems has been a critical bottleneck for decades due to the difficulties arising in adopting full-wave techniques. Assuming, as typical at lower frequencies, that the structures are planar leads to the inaccurate representation of some characteristic reactive behaviors. As a case in point, the characteristic impedance of transmission lines, whose thickness is comparable to the width, is not well represented by planar tools. Moreover, existing analytic formulas based on quasi-static approximations for the surrounding fields typically fail when the dynamic components of the fields are also affected by the stratifications. In this thesis, planar stratified media with transmission lines and radiators are considered to be part of the front end, with this latter being integrated (or in package) thanks to the systematic presence of a dielectric lens antenna.