High-tech businesses are the driving force behind global knowledge-based economies. Academic institutions have positioned themselves to serve the high-tech industry through consulting, licensing, and university spinoffs. The awareness of commercialization strategies and building an entrepreneurial culture can help academics to efficiently transfer their inventions to the market to achieve the maximum value. Here, the concept of high-tech entrepreneurship is discussed from lab to market in technology-intensive sectors such as nanotechnology, photonics, and biotechnology, specifically in the context of lab-on-a-chip devices. This article provides strategies for choosing a commercialization approach, financing a startup, marketing a product, and planning an exit. Common reasons for startup company failures are discussed and guidelines to overcome these challenges are suggested. The discussion is supplemented with case studies of successful and failed companies. Identifying a market need, assembling a motivated management team, managing resources, and obtaining experienced mentors lead to a successful exit.

This paper introduces a new miniaturized on-chip photodetector front-end targeted for portable near infrared spectroscopy as a noninvasive tool for real-time brain imaging. It includes silicon avalanche photodiodes (SiAPDs) with dual detection modes using a transimpedance amplifier (TIA) with on-chip gain/bias control, and a controllable mixed (active–passive) quench circuit, with tunable hold-off time, and a novel gated quench-reset technique. This integrated photoreceiver front-end has been fabricated using submicrometer standard CMOS technologies with a minimum fill-factor of 95%. Fabricated SiAPDs exhibit avalanche gains of 35 and 22 at 10 and 18 V bias voltages with red-shifted peak photon-detection efficiency and dark count-rates of 114 and 4 kHz (at 1 V excess bias voltage). The TIA consumes 1-mW power, and offers a transimpedance gain of 250 MV/A, a tunable bandwidth (1 kHz–1 GHz), and an input current referred noise <10 fA/ Hz at 1 kHz. The photon-counter exhibits a quench-time of 10 ns with a 0.4-mW power-consumption with an adaptive hold-off time control. The on-chip integration of SiAPDs and front-end circuit, reduced the power-consumption and after-pulsing, and increased the sensitivity.

A fully integrated near-infrared spectroscopy photoreceiver including two new silicon avalanche photodiodes (SiAPDs) and a new transimpedance amplifier (TIA) is proposed in this paper. SiAPDs are designed in p+/n-well structure with guard-rings realized in different shapes. The TIA front-end has been designed using distributed-gain concept combined with resistive-feedback and common-gate topology to reach low-noise, low-power consumption, high gain-bandwidth product characteristics and it is robust against power-supply variation (1-3 V). This circuit is developed using 0.35 μm CMOS technology and the measurement results are compared with other results from the literature. The designed rectangular and octagonal SiAPDs have the avalanche gain of 100 and 45 with the breakdown voltage of 9 and 6 V and the photon absorption efficiency of 45% and 25% at 800 nm. Fabricated TIA offers high-transimpedance gain (up to 250 MV/A), tunable BW (1 kHz-1 GHz), extremely low input and output noises (100 fA/√Hz, 1.8 μV/√Hz), and low-power consumption (0.8 mW). The impact and effects of on-chip integration of SiAPD and TIA front-end have been also measured and evaluated.

The effects of premature edge breakdown (PEB) and available PEB prevention (PEBP) techniques in silicon avalanche photodiode fabrication using the standard complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) process are scrutinized in this paper. Impact of device simulation and its induced impacts on fabrication are addressed based on our design, simulation and fabrication experiences. Three most common PEBP techniques are implemented followed by a systematic study aimed at miniaturization, while optimizing the overall performance. The p-well-, p-sub- and n-well-based PEBP techniques are evaluated and compared based on simulation and fabrication results using the standard CMOS process. The results demonstrate that the n-well guard ring offers the most efficient PEBP technique. This technique offers a high-gain (~800), low-noise dark current rate (DCR = 40 Hz), high detection efficiency (70%) avalanche photodiode with a higher functionality probability.

new silicon avalanche photodiode is Integrated with transimpedance amplifier and photon counting circuitry front-end in order to be applied in a miniaturized optical brain imaging system. This on-chip integrated system is fabricated using low-cost standard CMOS process and offers high sensitivity, high-speed, with low-power and low-noise characteristics.

This paper surveys recent research on CMOS silicon avalanche photodiodes (SiAPD) and presents the design of a SiAPD based photoreceiver dedicated to near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) application. Near-infrared spectroscopy provides an inexpensive, non-invasive, and portable means to image brain function, and is one of the most efficient diagnostic techniques of different neurological diseases. In NIRS system, brain tissue is penetrated by near-infrared (NIR) radiation and the reflected signal is captured by a photodiode. Since the reflected NIR signal has very low amplitude, SiAPD is a better choice than regular photodiode for NIR signal detection due to SiAPD`s ability to amplify the photo generated signal by avalanche multiplication. Design requirements of using CMOS SiAPDs for NIR light detection are discussed, and the challenges of fabricating SiAPDs using standard CMOS process are addressed. Performances of state-of-the-art CMOS SiAPDs with different device structures are summarized and compared. The efficacy of the proposed SiAPD based photoreceiver is confirmed by post layout simulation. Finally, the SiAPD and its associated circuits has been implemented in one chip using 0.35 μm standard CMOS technology for an integrated NIRS system.

A new technique is proposed in this paper for real-time monitoring of brain neural activity based on the balloon model. A continuous-discrete extended Kalman filter is used to estimate the nonlinear model states. The stability, controlla- bility and observability of the proposed model are described based on the simulation and measured clinical data analysis. By introducing the controllable and observable states of the hemodynamic signal we have developed a numerical tech- nique to validate and compare the impact of brain signal parameters affecting on BOLD signal variation. This model increases significantly the signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) and the speed of brain signal processing. A linear-quadratic regulator (LQR) also has been introduced for optimal control of the model.

This paper introduces a stochastic hemodynamic system to describe the brain neural activity based on the balloon model. A continuous-discrete extended Kalman filter is used to estimate the nonlinear model states. The stability, controllability and observability of the proposed model are described based on the simulation and measurement data analysis. The observability and controllability characteristics are in- troduced as significant factors to validate the preference of different hemodynamic factors to be considered for diagnosis and monitoring in clinical applications. This model also can be efficiently applied in any monitoring and control platform include brain and for study of hemodynamics in brain imaging modalities such as pulse oximetry and functional near infrared spectroscopy. The work is on progress to extend the proposed model to cover more hemodynamic and neural brain signals for real-time in-vivo application.

Internet-based teleoperation employs robots and internet a two breakthrough technologies to manipulate robots from distance for different applications. Variable and unknown time delay dynamics of internet is the main obstacle for realtime teleoperation via internet. In this paper the internet delay dynamics and its characteristics have been studied based on the measurement in different nodes. Then a black-box model for end-to-end internet delay dynamics has been developed using system identification and Auto-Regressive eXogeneous (ARX) model. Our experimental studies show a regular periodic behaviour in long-term intervals of internet delay variation and also confirm the accuracy and reliability of our theoretical and modelling derivations. This paper also introduces a novel multivariable control method for real-time telerobotic operations via Internet. Random communications delay of the Internet can cause instability in realtime closed-loop telerobotic systems. When a single identification model is used, it will have to adapt itself to the operating condition before an appropriate control mechanism can be applied. Slow adaptation may result in a large transient error. As an alternative, we propose to use a Multiple Model framework. The control strategy is to determine the best model for the current operating condition and activate the corresponding controller. We propose the use of Multi-Model Adaptive Control Theory and Multivariable Wave prediction method to capture the concurrency and complexity of Internet-based teleoperation. The results confirm the efficiency of the proposed technique in dealing with constant and variable delay dynamics of internet.

This paper propose a novel approach for modeling the end-to-end time delay dynamics of the internet using system identification, and use it for controlling real-time internet-based telerobotic operations. When a single model is used, it needs to adapt to the operating conditions before an appropriate control mechanism can be applied. Slow adaptation may result in large transient errors. As an alternative, we propose to use an adaptive multiple model framework, and determine the best model for the current operating conditions to activate the corresponding controller. We employ multivariable wave prediction method to achieve this objective.

We have tried to present the most matched approaches with which the vision dose through numerous studying the segment fields and recognizing the picture. Here we define external pictures features as the prevailed picture features and then extract the locust point of minus decline and among these points. Of minus decline and among these points we have defined the points which match with the human vision specifications according to the defined factors in this research such as clarification sharpness roundness and adjacency and used them as copied systems. We have reviewed our proposed patterns for truth, correctness and validity through performing two empirical tests.