Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) is a private university located in&nbsp;Tamil Nadu, India. Founded in 1984, as Vellore Engineering College, the institution offers 20 undergraduate, 34 postgraduate, four integrated and four research programs. It has campuses in Vellore, Amravati, Bhopal and Chennai.

VIT is one of the top ranked private universities in India according to NIRF, THE and QS Rankings.&nbsp;Govt. of India has recognized&nbsp;VIT, Vellore as an&nbsp;Institution of Eminence. This has allowed VIT to take independent quality initiatives and move up in world ranking.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

VIT University

Department of Sensor and Biomedical Technology

Composite metal oxide based thin film based sensors are proposed to eradicate the problems faced by the single phase materials. The composite thin films of ZnO and SnO2 are expected to have significantly enhanced humidity sensing properties. In the present work, pure and composite thin films of ZnO and SnO2 are prepared by sol-gel based spin coating. The structural, optical and morphological properties of the films were studied by X-ray diffraction, Ultraviolet-Visible absorption spectroscopy and the scanning electron microscopy. The composite films with different compositions of ZnO and SnO2 phase were studied for their impedometric humidity sensing characteristics. Among the proposed sensors, the zinc rich composite sensors exhibit the maximum sensor response of 95% and sensitivity of 8.6 ± 0.5 kΩ/RH%. Further, the composite metal oxide based humidity sensors exhibit better transient characteristics and significantly lower hysteresis compared to their pure counterparts. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.

VIT Unitversity

Department of Physics

School of Advanced Sciences

Vellore Campus

School of Electronics Engineering

Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical

Composite metal oxide thin film based impedometric humidity sensors

Optofluidic nano/microsystems have advanced the realization of Boolean circuits, with drastic progression to achieve extensive scale integration of desirable optoelectronics to investigate multiple logic switches. In this context, we demonstrate the optofluidic logic operations with interfacial piezophototronic effect to promote multiple operations of electronic analogues. We report an optofluidic Y-channeled logic device with tunable metal-semiconductor-metal interfaces through mechanically induced strain elements. We investigate the configuration of an OR gate in a semiconductor-piezoelectric zinc oxide nanorod-manipulated optofluidic sensor, and its direct reconfiguration to logic AND through compressive strain-induced (−1%) piezoelectric negative polarizations. The exhibited strategy in optofluidic systems implemented with piezophototronic concept enables direct-on chip working of OR and AND logic with switchable photocurrent under identical analyte. Featured smart intrinsic switching between the Boolean optoelectronic gates (OR↔AND) ultimately reduces the need for cascaded logic circuits to operate multiple logic switches on-a-chip. © 2019, The Author(s).

World University root node

Fulltext

Nature Communications

Piezophototronic gated optofluidic logic computations empowering intrinsic reconfigurable switches

An optical input pulse with a duration of nanosecond to femtosecond propagates through a dispersive nonlinear medium, it is subject to an extreme spectral broadening termed as white light supercontinuum (SC). In PCF, dispersion characteristics can be modified by the waveguide geometric parameters and thereby the nonlinear dynamics can be altered. In this article, the fiber parameters like core diameter, doping percentage, and pitch are varied and analyzed to achieve a conclusive zero-dispersion wavelength (ZDW) and a high nonlinearity. The numerical study presents different designs of solid-core photonic quasi-crystal fiber (PQF) and selection of highly nonlinear fiber with an effective area of 1.14 μm2 and nonlinearity of 196 W-1-km-1 at 780 nm exhibiting two-zero dispersion wavelength for supercontinuum generation in different regimes. The results exhibit a significant pulse broadening effect when the pump pulse (FWHM) was varied from 25 fs to 100 fs. Similarly, the influences of the pulse energy and peak average power on the bandwidth of the generated SC are studied. © 2019 by authors.

Universal Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Supercontinuum Generation in Highly Nonlinear PQF with Two Zero Dispersion Wavelength

This works gives solution to two most important problems in the universities by equipping a surveillance camera with Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology. The first problem solved is unnecessary time wastage in manual and bio-metric (fingerprint based) attendance marking for students. The second problem solved is the unnecessary electricity wastage in classrooms without occupants. Using the videos getting recorded in surveillance cameras, the number of heads detection and face recognition is done. When there is no occupants in the class, the number of heads detected will be zero. So we can cut-off the electricity supply for that classroom. With the face recognition process the attendance for the students will be get automatically marked. The Intel movidius stick does the work of face recognition and finding the head counts.

Department of Analytics

School of Computer Science and Engineering

International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering Regular Issue

Surveillance Camera using Face Recognition for Automatic Attendance Feeder and Energy Conservation in Classroom

Support Vector Machines (SVM) is one of the most commonly used the state-of-the-art supervised machine learning algorithm for various classification problems. It provides high accuracy rate compared to other classification algorithms. However, When SVM is modelled only using Software, it is a time consuming algorithm due to its high computational complexity. This makes the algorithm to be not suitable for embedded real time applications. We propose a new hardware software co-design approach to achieve the real time performance by accelerating the computationally intensive classifier part of the algorithm as a custom hardware Intellectual Property (IP) core. In this paper, a novel Support Vector Machine (SVM) linear classifier is modelled as a custom hardware Intellectual Property (IP) core using High Level Synthesis (HLS). The developed IP core is optimized for latency and hardware resource utilization by applying various directives of HLS tool. The synthesis results of the IP core for Skin segmentation dataset is reported. The proposed hardware software co-design approach is implemented in real time on Zynq-7000 XC7Z020 System on Chip (SoC) field programmable gate arrays (FPGA). A detailed comparative results of proposed hardware software co-design approach and the complete software approach is reported in this work for Iris and Breast cancer dataset. A promising result of 18x speedup is achieved using SVM classifier hardware IP compared to is software counterpart.

Department of Embedded Technology

International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering Regular Issue

Hardware Acceleration of SVM classifier using Zynq SoC FPGA

In this work, we have designed and developed MWCNTs based ECG electrodes that are versatile, skin friendly, flexible and waterproof thus helpful in better acquisition of ECG signals compared with the traditional electrodes available in the market. Thick film fabrication technology has been employed in developing the electrodes. Due to advancement in nanotechnology, we have reduced the dimensions, cost, and power requirement of the electrodes. We have used multiwalledcarbonnanotubes(MWCNTs) / Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite material for developing the electrodes. These electrodes will provide higher performance over typical electrodes and yet another important factor is that these electrodes are waterproof. We have also developed smart electronics circuit for interfacing the proposed MWCNTs/PDMS composite ECG electrode with android phones for mobile ECG application.

Design and Development of MWCNTS/PDMS Composite Flexible Dry Electrode and Smart Electronics for Mobile Electrocardiogram Application

SU-8 negative resist and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomer are widely used for the development of any polymer based flexible biosensors. Although SU8 based sensors are easier to realize through photolithography technique, PDMS is a better counterpart with enhanced sensitivity and biocompatibility for detecting various analytes and in the realization of implantable/semi-implantable flexible biosensors and energy harvesting devices. However, incompatibility of PDMS towards microdevice realization using photolithography process posses a great limitation. Present work explores 3D micropatterning of PDMS surface through customized wet etching technique using N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) and tetra-n-butylammonium fluoride (TBAF) using Kapton tape as a novel hard mask. The process flow involves incorporation of novel sacrificial layers of positive photoresist to realize free hanging 3D micro-structures of PDMS and PVA layer for spontaneous release of the polymeric microstructure after device realization. © 2019 IEEE.

TENCON 2019 - 2019 IEEE Region 10 Conference (TENCON)

PDMS micromachining for flexible 3D microdevice realization using Kapton Tape as hard mask

Synthetic heart valves restore the functioning of a diseased valve better than mechanical and biological valves. Its biocompatibility and superior flexibility ispreferred for the replacement of diseased mitral valve. Considering the anatomical and hemodynamic limitations of the mitral valve, synthetic valves will be able to perform better than mechanical or biological valves. In this computational study, models of segmented polyurethane valves with varying leaflet configuration were designed.The bileaflet, trileaflet and quadrileaflet modelswere subjected to linear structural analysis to determine its durability and flexibility. The leaflet models were simulated to operate against atransvavular pressure gradient of 30mmHg (systolic pressure) and 120mmHg (diastolic pressure). The output in the form of von Misesstress distribution pattern for each of the leaflet model was obtained. The trileaflet and quadrileaflet configurationshowed better functionality in comparison to bileaflet valve. The outcome of this study is the basis for the development of a low profiled, transcatheter mitral valve replacement device, with superior durability and flexibility. © 2019 Association for Computing Machinery.

Proceedings of the 2019 2nd International Conference on Electronics and Electrical Engineering Technology

Structural Analysis to Evaluate the Design of a Synthetic Mitral Valve Prosthesis

A flexible composite film based piezoelectric nanogenerator has been explored using lead-free (1−x) KNaNbO3-x BaTiO3 NPs (x = 0.02, 0.04, 0.06 and 0.08) (used as KNN-x BTO) nanoparticles (NPs). The composite films were made of KNN-x BTO NPs impregnated into a Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix. BTO was doped into the KNN lattice without affecting the orthorhombic phase of KNN. Structural analysis such as XRD and Raman spectroscopy were used to confirm the phase formation and atomic vibrations of the piezoelectric materials. Further the electrical analysis of the piezoelectric composite nanogenerator (PCNG) has been performed and the device generates a maximum electrical output of 58 V, 450 nA. Then the PCNG was used as an active sensor for sleep monitoring system by placing the PCNG in the hands and legs of human body and monitor the body movements. This type of system helps to diagnose the sleeping disorder in humans and to be a future advancement in mobile health care monitoring. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.