Die Einführung des Internets hat einen stetigen Wandel des täglichen, sowie beruflichen Alltags verursacht. Hierbei ist eine deutliche Verlagerung in den virtuellen Raum (Internet) festzustellen. Zusätzlich hat die Einführung von sozialen Netzwerken, wie beispielsweise Facebook das Verlangen des Nutzers immer „online“ zu sein, deutlich verstärkt. Hinzu kommen die kontinuierlich wachsenden Datenmengen, welche beispielsweise durch Videostreaming (YouTube oder Internet Protocol Television (IPTV)) oder den Austausch von Bildern verursacht werden. Zusätzlich verursachen neue Dienste, welche beispielsweise im Rahmen vom Internet der Dinge und auch Industrie 4.0 eingeführt werden, zusätzliche Datenmengen. Aktuelle Technologien wie Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) im Funkbereich und Very High Speed Digital Subsciber Line (VDSL) beziehungsweise Glasfaser in kabelgebundenen Netzen, versuchen diesen Anforderungen gerecht zu werden. Angesichts der steigenden Anforderungen an die Mobilität des Nutzers, ist die Verwendung von Funktechnologien unabdingbar. In Verbindung mit dem stetig wachsenden Datenaufkommen und den ansteigenden Datenraten ist ein wachsender Bedarf an Spektrum, also freien, beziehungsweise ungenutzten Frequenzbereichen einhergehend. Für die Identifikation geeigneter Bereiche müssen allerdings eine Vielzahl von Parametern und Einflussfaktoren betrachtet werden. Einer der entscheidenden Parameter ist die entstehende Dämpfung im betrachteten Frequenzbereich, da diese mit steigender Frequenz größer wird und somit die resultierende Abdeckung bei gleichbleibender Sendeleistung sinkt. In aktuellen Funksystemen werden Frequenzen < 6 GHz verwendet, da diese von den Ausbreitungseigenschaften geeignete Eigenschaften aufweisen. Des Weiteren müssen vorhandene Nutzungsrechte, Inhaber des Spektrums, Nutzungsbedingungen und so weiter im Vorfeld abgeklärt werden. In Deutschland wird die Koordination von der Bundesnetzagentur vorgenommen. Aufgrund der Vielfalt der vorhandenen Dienste und Anwendungen ist es leicht ersichtlich, dass der Frequenzbereich < 6 GHz stark ausgelastet ist. Neben den kontinuierlich ausgelasteten Diensten wie zum Beispiel Long Term Evolution (LTE) oder Digital Video Broadcast (DVB), gibt es spektrale Bereiche, die nur eine geringe zeitliche Auslastung aufweisen. Markant hierfür sind Frequenzbereiche, welche beispielsweise ausschließlich für militärische Nutzung reserviert sind. Bei genauerer Betrachtung fällt auf, dass sich dies nicht ausschließlich auf den zeitlichen Bereich beschränkt, vielmehr ergibt sich eine Kombination aus zeitlicher und räumlicher Beschränkung, da die Nutzung meist auf einen räumlichen Bereich eingrenzbar ist. Eine weitere Einschränkung resultiert aus der derzeit starren Vergabe von Frequenzbereichen. Die Zuteilung basiert auf langwierigen Antragsverfahren und macht somit eine kurzfristige variable Zuteilung unmöglich. Um diesem Problem gerecht zu werden, erfolgt im Rahmen dieser Arbeit die Entwicklung eines generischen Spektrum-Management-Systems (SMSs) zur dynamischen Zuteilung vorhandener Ressourcen. Eine Anforderung an das System ist die Unterstützung von bereits bekannten Spektrum Sharing Verfahren, wie beispielsweise Licensed Shared Access (LSA) beziehungsweise Authorized Shared Access (ASA) oder Spectrum Load Smoothing (SLS). Hierfür wird eine Analyse der derzeit bekannten Sharing Verfahren vorgenommen und diese bezüglich ihrer Anwendbarkeit charakterisiert. DesWeiteren werden die Frequenzbereiche unterhalb 6 GHz hinsichtlich ihrer Verwendbarkeiten und regulatorischen Anforderungen betrachtet. Zusätzlich wird ein erweiterter Anforderungskatalog an das Spektrum-Management-System (SMS) entwickelt, welcher als Grundlage für das Systemdesign verwendet wird. Essentiell ist hierbei, dass alle (potentiellen) Nutzer beziehungsweise Inhaber eines spektralen Bereiches die Funktionalität eines derartigen Systems verwenden können. Hieraus ergibt sich bereits die Anforderung der Skalierbarkeit des Systems. Zur Entwicklung einer geeigneten Systemarchitektur werden bereits vorhandene Lösungsansätze zur Verwaltung und Speicherung von Daten hinsichtlich ihrer Anwendbarkeit verglichen und bewertet. Des Weiteren erfolgt die Einbeziehung der geografischen Position. Um dies adäquat gewährleisten zu können, werden hierarchische Strukturen in Netzwerken untersucht und auf ihre Verwendbarkeit geprüft. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist die Entwicklung eines Spektrum-Management- Systems (SMSs) durch Adaption bereits vorhandener Technologien und Verfahren, sowie der Berücksichtigung aller definierten Anforderungen. Es hat sich gezeigt, dass die Verwendung einer zentralisierten Broker- Lösung nicht geeignet ist, da die Verzögerungszeit einen exponentiellförmigen Verlauf bezüglich der Anzahl der Anfragen aufweist und somit nicht skaliert. Dies kann mittels einer Distributed Hash Table (DHT)- basierten Erweiterung überwunden werden ohne dabei die Funktionalität der Broker-Lösung einzuschränken. Für die Einbringung der Geoinformation hat sich die hierarchische Struktur, vergleichbar zum Domain Naming Service (DNS) als geeignet erwiesen. Als Parameter für die Evaluierung hat sich die resultierende Zugriffszeit, das heißt die Zeit welche das System benötigt um Anfragen zu bearbeiten, sowie die resultierende Anzahl der versorgbaren Nutzer herausgestellt. Für die Simulation wird ein urbanes Areal mit fünf Gebäuden betrachtet. In der Mitte befindet sich ein sechsstöckiges Firmengebäude, welches in jedem Stockwerk mit einem Wireless Local Area Network Access Point (WLAN-AP) ausgestattet ist. Umliegend befinden sich vier Privathäuser, welche jeweils mit einem WLAN-AP ausgestattet sind. Das komplette Areal wird von drei Mobilfunkbetreibern mit je einer Basisstation (BS) versorgt. Als Ausgangspunkt für die Evaluierung erfolgt der Betrieb ohne SMS. Aus den Ergebnissen wird deutlich, dass eine Überlastung der Long Term Evolution Basisstationen (LTE-BSen) vorliegt (im Speziellen bei Betreiber A und B). Im zweiten Durchlauf wird das Szenario mit einem SMS betrachtet. Zusätzlich kommen in diesem Fall noch Mikro Basisstationen (Mikro-BSen) zum Einsatz, welche von der Spezifikation vergleichbar zu einem Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) sind. Hier zeigt sich ein deutlich ausgewogeneres Systemverhalten. Alle BSen und Access Points (APs) befinden sich deutlich unterhalb der Volllastgrenze. Die Untersuchungen im Rahmen dieser Arbeit belegen, dass ein heterogenes, zeitweise überlastetes Funksystem, vollständig harmonisiert werden kann. Des Weiteren ermöglicht der Einsatz eines SMSs die effiziente Verwendung von temporär ungenutzten Frequenzbereichen (sogenannte White- und Gray-spaces).

Field-effect transistor (FET) sensors and in particular their nanoscale variant of silicon nanowire transistors are very promising technology platforms for label-free biosensor applications. These devices directly detect the intrinsic electrical charge of biomolecules at the sensor’s liquid-solid interface. The maturity of micro fabrication techniques enables very large FET sensor arrays for massive multiplex detection. However, the direct detection of charged molecules in liquids faces a significant limitation due to a charge screening effect in physiological solutions, which inhibits the realization of point-of-care applications. As an alternative, impedance spectroscopy with FET devices has the potential to enable measurements in physiological samples. Even though promising studies were published in the field, impedimetric detection with silicon FET devices is not well understood. The first goal of this thesis was to understand the device performances and to relate the effects seen in biosensing experiments to device and biomolecule types. A model approach should help to understand the capability and limitations of the impedimetric measurement method with FET biosensors. In addition, to obtain experimental results, a high precision readout device was needed. Consequently, the second goal was to build up multi-channel, highly accurate amplifier systems that would also enable future multi-parameter handheld devices. A PSPICE FET model for potentiometric and impedimetric detection was adapted to the experiments and further expanded to investigate the sensing mechanism, the working principle, and effects of side parameters for the biosensor experiments. For potentiometric experiments, the pH sensitivity of the sensors was also included in this modelling approach. For impedimetric experiments, solutions of different conductivity were used to validate the suggested theories and assumptions. The impedance spectra showed two pronounced frequency domains: a low-pass characteristic at lower frequencies and a resonance effect at higher frequencies. The former can be interpreted as a contribution of the source and double layer capacitances. The latter can be interpreted as a combined effect of the drain capacitance with the operational amplifier in the transimpedance circuit. Two readout systems, one as a laboratory system and one as a point-of-care demonstrator, were developed and used for several chemical and biosensing experiments. The PSPICE model applied to the sensors and circuits were utilized to optimize the systems and to explain the sensor responses. The systems as well as the developed modelling approach were a significant step towards portable instruments with combined transducer principles in future healthcare applications.

”In contemporary electronics 80% of a chip may perform digital functions but the 20% of analog functions may take 80% of the development time.” [1]. Aggravating this, the demands on analog design is increasing with rapid technology scaling. Most designs have moved away from analog to digital domains, where possible, however, interacting with the environment will always require analog to digital data conversion. Adding to this problem, the number of sensors used in consumer and industry related products are rapidly increasing. Designers of ADCs are dealing with this problem in several ways, the most important is the migration towards digital designs and time domain techniques. Time to Digital Converters (TDC) are becoming increasingly popular for robust signal processing. Biological neurons make use of spikes, which carry spike timing information and will not be affected by the problems related to technology scaling. Neuromorphic ADCs still remain exotic with few implementations in sub-micron technologies Table 2.7. Even among these few designs, the strengths of biological neurons are rarely exploited. From a previous work [2], LUCOS, a high dynamic range image sensor, the efficiency of spike processing has been validated. The ideas from this work can be generalized to make a highly effective sensor signal conditioning system, which carries the promise to be robust to technology scaling. The goal of this work is to create a novel spiking neural ADC as a novel form of a Multi-Sensor Signal Conditioning and Conversion system, which • Will be able to interface with or be a part of a System on Chip with traditional analog or advanced digital components. • Will have a graceful degradation. • Will be robust to noise and jitter related problems. • Will be able to learn and adapt to static errors and dynamic errors. • Will be capable of self-repair, self-monitoring and self-calibration Sensory systems in humans and other animals analyze the environment using several techniques. These techniques have been evolved and perfected to help the animal sur- vive. Different animals specialize in different sense organs, however, the peripheral neural network architectures remain similar among various animal species with few ex- ceptions. While there are many biological sensing techniques present, most popularly used engineering techniques are based on intensity detection, frequency detection, and edge detection. These techniques are used with traditional analog processing (e.g., colorvi sensors using filters), and with biological techniques (e.g. LUCOS chip [2]). The local- ization capability of animals has never been fully utilized. One of the most important capabilities for animals, vertebrates or invertebrates, is the capability for localization. The object of localization can be predator, prey, sources of water, or food. Since these are basic necessities for survival, they evolve much faster due to the survival of the fittest. In fact, localization capabilities, even if the sensors are different, have convergently evolved to have same processing methods (coincidence detection) in their peripheral neurons (for e.g., forked tongue of a snake, antennae of a cockroach, acoustic localization in fishes and mammals). This convergent evolution increases the validity of the technique. In this work, localization concepts based on acoustic localization and tropotaxis are investigated and employed for creation of novel ADCs. Unlike intensity and frequency detection, which are not linear (for e.g. eyes saturate in bright light, loose color perception in low light), localization is inherently linear. This is mainly because the accurate localization of predator or prey can be the difference between life and death for an animal. Figure 1 visually explains the ADC concept proposed in this work. This has two parts. (1) Sensor to Spike(time) Conversion (SSC), (2) Spike(time) to Digital Conversion(SDC). Both of the structures have been designed with models of biological neurons. The combination of these two structures is called SSDC. To efficiently implement the proposed concept, a comparison of several biological neural models is made and two models are shortlisted. Various synapse structures are also studied. From this study, Leaky Integrate and Fire neuron (LIF) is chosen since it fulfills all the requirements of the proposed structure. The analog neuron and synapse designs from Indiveri et. al. [3], [4] were taken, and simulations were conducted using cadence and the behavioral equivalence with biological counterpart was checked. The LIF neuron had features, that were not required for the proposed approach. A simple LIF neuron stripped of these features and was designed to be as fast as allowed by the technology. The SDC was designed with the neural building blocks and the delays were designed using buffer chains. This SDC converts incoming Time Interval Code (TIC) to sparse place coding using coincidence detection. Coincidence detection is a property of spiking neurons, which is a time domain equivalent of a Gaussian Kernel. The SDC is designed to have an online reconfigurable Gaussian kernel width, weight, threshold, and refractory period. The advantage of sparse place codes, which contain rank order coding wasvii Figure 1: ADC as a localization problem (right), Jeffress model of sound localization visualized (left). The values t 1 and t 2 indicate the time taken from the source to s1 and s2 respectively. described in our work [5]. A time based winner take all circuit with memory was created based on a previous work [6] for reading out of sparse place codes asynchronously. The SSC was also initially designed with the same building blocks. Additionally, a differential synapse was designed for better SSC. The sensor element considered wasviii a Wheatstone full bridge AMR sensor AFF755 from Sensitec GmbH. A reconfigurable version of the synapse was also designed for a more generic sensor interface. The first prototype chip SSDCα was designed with 257 modules of coincidence detectors realizing the SDC and the SSC. Since the spike times are the most important information, the spikes can be treated as digital pulses. This provides the capability for digital communication between analog modules. This creates a lot of freedom for use of digital processing between the discussed analog modules. This advantage is fully exploited in the design of SSDCα. Three SSC modules are multiplexed to the SDC. These SSC modules also provide outputs from the chip simultaneously. A rising edge detecting fixed pulse width generation circuit is used to create pulses that are best suited for efficient performance of the SDC. The delay lines are made reconfigurable to increase robustness and modify the span of the SDC. The readout technique used in the first prototype is a relatively slow but safe shift register. It is used to analyze the characteristics of the core work. This will be replaced by faster alternatives discussed in the work. The area of the chip is 8.5 mm 2 . It has a sampling rate from DC to 150 kHz. It has a resolution from 8-bit to 13-bit. It has 28,200 transistors on the chip. It has been designed in 350 nm CMOS technology from ams. The chip has been manufactured and tested with a sampling rate of 10 kHz and a theoretical resolution of 8 bits. However, due to the limitations of our Time-Interval-Generator, we are able to confirm for only 4 bits of resolution. The key novel contributions of this work are • Neuromorphic implementation of AD conversion as a localization problem based on sound localization and tropotaxis concepts found in nature. • Coincidence detection with sparse place coding to enhance resolution. • Graceful degradation without redundant elements, inherent robustness to noise, which helps in scaling of technologies • Amenable to local adaptation and self-x features. Conceptual goals have all been fulfilled, with the exception of adaptation. The feasibility for local adaptation has been shown with promising results and further investigation is required for future work. This thesis work acts as a baseline, paving the way for R&D in a new direction. The chip design has used 350 nm ams hitkit as a vehicle to prove the functionality of the core concept. The concept can be easily ported to present aggressively-scaled-technologies and future technologies.

In current practices of system-on-chip (SoC) design a trend can be observed to integrate more and more low-level software components into the system hardware at different levels of granularity. The implementation of important control functions and communication structures is frequently shifted from the SoC’s hardware into its firmware. As a result, the tight coupling of hardware and software at a low level of granularity raises substantial verification challenges since the conventional practice of verifying hardware and software independently is no longer sufficient. This calls for new methods for verification based on a joint analysis of hardware and software. This thesis proposes hardware-dependent models of low-level software for performing formal verification. The proposed models are conceived to represent the software integrated with its hardware environment according to the current SoC design practices. Two hardware/software integration scenarios are addressed in this thesis, namely, speed-independent communication of the processor with its hardware periphery and cycle-accurate integration of firmware into an SoC module. For speed-independent hardware/software integration an approach for equivalence checking of hardware-dependent software is proposed and an evaluated. For the case of cycle-accurate hardware/software integration, a model for hardware/software co-verification has been developed and experimentally evaluated by applying it to property checking.

Safety-related Systems (SRS) protect from the unacceptable risk resulting from failures of technical systems. The average probability of dangerous failure on demand (PFD) of these SRS in low demand mode is limited by standards. Probabilistic models are applied to determine the average PFD and verify the specified limits. In this thesis an effective framework for probabilistic modeling of complex SRS is provided. This framework enables to compute the average, instantaneous, and maximum PFD. In SRS, preventive maintenance (PM) is essential to achieve an average PFD in compliance with specified limits. PM intends to reveal dangerous undetected failures and provides repair if necessary. The introduced framework pays special attention to the precise and detailed modeling of PM. Multiple so far neglected degrees of freedom of the PM are considered, such as two types of elementwise PM at arbitrarily variable times. As shown by analyses, these degrees of freedom have a significant impact on the average, instantaneous, and maximum PFD. The PM is optimized to improve the average or maximum PFD or both. A well-known heuristic nonlinear optimization method (Nelder-Mead method) is applied to minimize the average or maximum PFD or a weighted trade-off. A significant improvement of the objectives and an improved protection are achieved. These improvements are achieved via the available degrees of freedom of the PM and without additional effort. Moreover, a set of rules is presented to decide for a given SRS if significant improvements will be achieved by optimization of the PM. These rules are based on the well-known characteristics of the SRS, e.g. redundancy or no redundancy, complete or incomplete coverage of PM. The presented rules aim to support the decision whether the optimization is advantageous for a given SRS and if it should be applied or not.