Electrical and Electronic Engineering - Research Publications

Permanent URI for this collection

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 12
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Silicon nanowire photodetector enhanced by a bow-tie antenna
    Felic, GK ; Al-Dirini, F ; Hossain, FM ; Thanh, CN ; Skafidas, E (SPRINGER, 2014-05)
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    An ab-initio Computational Method to Determine Dielectric Properties of Biological Materials
    Abeyrathne, CD ; Halgamuge, MN ; Farrell, PM ; Skafidas, E (NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP, 2013-05-08)
    Frequency dependent dielectric properties are important for understanding the structure and dynamics of biological materials. These properties can be used to study underlying biological processes such as changes in the concentration of biological materials, and the formation of chemical species. Computer simulations can be used to determine dielectric properties and atomic details inaccessible via experimental methods. In this paper, a unified theory utilizing molecular dynamics and density functional theory is presented that is able to determine the frequency dependent dielectric properties of biological materials in an aqueous solution from their molecular structure alone. The proposed method, which uses reaction field approximations, does not require a prior knowledge of the static dielectric constant of the material. The dielectric properties obtained from our method agree well with experimental values presented in the literature.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Predicting the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder using gene pathway analysis
    Skafidas, E ; Testa, R ; Zantomio, D ; Chana, G ; Everall, IP ; Pantelis, C (NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP, 2014-04)
    Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) depends on a clinical interview with no biomarkers to aid diagnosis. The current investigation interrogated single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of individuals with ASD from the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange (AGRE) database. SNPs were mapped to Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG)-derived pathways to identify affected cellular processes and develop a diagnostic test. This test was then applied to two independent samples from the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI) and Wellcome Trust 1958 normal birth cohort (WTBC) for validation. Using AGRE SNP data from a Central European (CEU) cohort, we created a genetic diagnostic classifier consisting of 237 SNPs in 146 genes that correctly predicted ASD diagnosis in 85.6% of CEU cases. This classifier also predicted 84.3% of cases in an ethnically related Tuscan cohort; however, prediction was less accurate (56.4%) in a genetically dissimilar Han Chinese cohort (HAN). Eight SNPs in three genes (KCNMB4, GNAO1, GRM5) had the largest effect in the classifier with some acting as vulnerability SNPs, whereas others were protective. Prediction accuracy diminished as the number of SNPs analyzed in the model was decreased. Our diagnostic classifier correctly predicted ASD diagnosis with an accuracy of 71.7% in CEU individuals from the SFARI (ASD) and WTBC (controls) validation data sets. In conclusion, we have developed an accurate diagnostic test for a genetically homogeneous group to aid in early detection of ASD. While SNPs differ across ethnic groups, our pathway approach identified cellular processes common to ASD across ethnicities. Our results have wide implications for detection, intervention and prevention of ASD.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    All-Graphene Planar Self-Switching MISFEDs, Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor Field-Effect Diodes
    Al-Dirini, F ; Hossain, FM ; Nirmalathas, A ; Skafidas, E (NATURE PORTFOLIO, 2014-02-05)
    Graphene normally behaves as a semimetal because it lacks a bandgap, but when it is patterned into nanoribbons a bandgap can be introduced. By varying the width of these nanoribbons this band gap can be tuned from semiconducting to metallic. This property allows metallic and semiconducting regions within a single Graphene monolayer, which can be used in realising two-dimensional (2D) planar Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor field effect devices. Based on this concept, we present a new class of nano-scale planar devices named Graphene Self-Switching MISFEDs (Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor Field-Effect Diodes), in which Graphene is used as the metal and the semiconductor concurrently. The presented devices exhibit excellent current-voltage characteristics while occupying an ultra-small area with sub-10 nm dimensions and an ultimate thinness of a single atom. Quantum mechanical simulation results, based on the Extended Huckel method and Nonequilibrium Green's Function Formalism, show that a Graphene Self-Switching MISFED with a channel as short as 5 nm can achieve forward-to-reverse current rectification ratios exceeding 5000.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Filling schemes at submicron scale: Development of submicron sized plasmonic colour filters
    Rajasekharan, R ; Balaur, E ; Minovich, A ; Collins, S ; James, TD ; Djalalian-Assl, A ; Ganesan, K ; Tomljenovic-Hanic, S ; Kandasamy, S ; Skafidas, E ; Neshev, DN ; Mulvaney, P ; Roberts, A ; Prawer, S (NATURE PORTFOLIO, 2014-09-22)
    The pixel size imposes a fundamental limit on the amount of information that can be displayed or recorded on a sensor. Thus, there is strong motivation to reduce the pixel size down to the nanometre scale. Nanometre colour pixels cannot be fabricated by simply downscaling current pixels due to colour cross talk and diffraction caused by dyes or pigments used as colour filters. Colour filters based on plasmonic effects can overcome these difficulties. Although different plasmonic colour filters have been demonstrated at the micron scale, there have been no attempts so far to reduce the filter size to the submicron scale. Here, we present for the first time a submicron plasmonic colour filter design together with a new challenge - pixel boundary errors at the submicron scale. We present simple but powerful filling schemes to produce submicron colour filters, which are free from pixel boundary errors and colour cross- talk, are polarization independent and angle insensitive, and based on LCD compatible aluminium technology. These results lay the basis for the development of submicron pixels in displays, RGB-spatial light modulators, liquid crystal over silicon, Google glasses and pico-projectors.
  • Item
    No Preview Available
    Graphene Field Effect Nanopore Glycine Detector
    Al-Dirini, F ; Hossain, MS ; Qiu, W ; Hossain, FM ; Nirmalathas, A ; Skafidas, E (IEEE, 2014)
  • Item
    No Preview Available
    Experimental demonstration of free-space based 120 Gb/s reconfigurable card-to-card optical interconnects
    Wang, K ; Nirmalathas, A ; Lim, C ; Skafidas, E ; Alameh, K (OPTICAL SOC AMER, 2014-10-01)
    In this Letter, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a free-space based reconfigurable card-to-card optical interconnect architecture with 16-carrierless-amplitude-phase modulation. Experimental results show that up to 120 Gb/s (3×40  Gb/s) flexible interconnection can be achieved for up to 30 cm distance with a worst-case receiver sensitivity of -9.70  dBm.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Response to Belgard et al.
    Skafidas, E ; Testa, R ; Zantomio, D ; Chana, G ; Everall, IP ; Pantelis, C (SPRINGERNATURE, 2014-04)
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Chromatic dispersion estimation in 40 Gb/s coherent polarization-multiplexed single carrier system using complementary golay sequences
    Do, CC ; Zhu, C ; Tran, AV ; Chen, S ; Anderson, T ; Hewitt, D ; Skafidas, E (OSA, 2012-12-01)
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    High-speed indoor optical wireless communication system with single channel imaging receiver
    Wang, K ; Nirmalathas, A ; Lim, C ; Skafidas, E (OPTICAL SOC AMER, 2012-04-09)
    In this paper we experimentally investigate a gigabit indoor optical wireless communication system with single channel imaging receiver. It is shown that the use of single channel imaging receiver rejects most of the background light. This single channel imaging receiver is composed of an imaging lens and a small photo-sensitive area photodiode attached on a 2-axis actuator. The actuator and photodiode are placed on the focal plane of the lens to search for the focused light spot. The actuator is voice-coil based and it is low cost and commercially available. With this single channel imaging receiver, bit rate as high as 12.5 Gbps has been successfully demonstrated and the maximum error-free (BER<10⁻⁹) beam footprint is even larger than 1 m. Compared with our previous experimental results with a single wide field-of-view non-imaging receiver, an improvement in error-free beam footprint of >20% has been achieved. When this system is integrated with our recently proposed optical wireless based indoor localization system, both high speed wireless communication and mobility can be provided to users over the entire room. Furthermore, theoretical analysis has been carried out and the simulation results agree well with the experiments. In addition, since the rough location information of the user is available in our proposed system, instead of searching for the focused light spot over a large area on the focal plane of the lens, only a small possible area needs to be scanned. By further pre-setting a proper comparison threshold when searching for the focused light spot, the time needed for searching can be further reduced.