Department of Electrical Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH) is a premier institute of science and technology established in 2008. IITH has been consistently ranked in the&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/reports/" rel="noopener noreferrer">top 10 institutes</a>&nbsp;in India for Engineering&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nirfindia.org/2021/EngineeringRanking.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to NIRF</a>&nbsp;making it one of the most coveted schools for science and technology in the country.

IITH offers&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/academics/under-graduate/">undergraduate programs</a>&nbsp;in all the classical engineering disciplines, applied sciences, design, as well as several modern interdisciplinary areas. Students are given a flexibility to explore a broad set of areas, and potentially pursue a minor or double major in a discipline that is not their own. Students who wish to seek a deeper understanding of their own discipline are strongly encouraged to get involved in cutting-edge research with the help of a faculty to mentor them, and earn an Honors in their own field.

The very foundation of IIT Hyderabad is based on&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/research/">research and innovation</a>. The vibrant research culture is evident from the number of patents and publications that IITH produces consistently every year. IITH offers&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/academics/programmes-offered/">graduate programs</a>&nbsp;at both a masters, and a doctoral level, in several diverse areas. There are separate programs for technology, design, science, and liberal arts. The&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/academics/post-graduate/">MTech program</a>&nbsp;is offered in various modes and durations to cater to the ever-growing need of postgraduate level professionals in the country.

IITH encourages and supports&nbsp;<a href="https://iic-iith.netlify.app/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">innovation and entrepreneurship</a>&nbsp;at every stage. The minor program in entrepreneurship is open to all students of IITH, and many of the courses are offered by industrialists who are entrepreneurs themselves. There are various&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/research/centres-incubators/">innovation centers and incubators</a>&nbsp;that promote entrepreneurship and help mentor young innovators. IITH has been very successful in building tie-ups with leading academic institutions around the globe.

IITH enjoys a very special relationship with Japanese universities and industries that goes beyond academic and research collaborations. In fact, some of the iconic buildings in IITH campus will carry the signature of Japanese architecture.

IITH creates a unique holistic ecosystem for education that offers interactive learning, a very flexible academic structure, cutting-edge research, strong industry collaboration, and entrepreneurship. This is an environment which enables students and faculty to translate their dreams into realities.

IIT Hyderabad

In this paper, a fault-tolerant multiphase multilevel inverter (MPMLI) configuration is proposed based on the dual inverter concept. This configuration helps to improve the performance of pole-phase modulated multiphase induction motor (PPMMIM) drive in both normal and switch failure conditions. Comparing to the existing multilevel inverter topologies for multiphase induction motor (MIM) drives, the proposed MPMLI configuration requires less number of dc sources and power electronic devices. The proposed MPMLI configuration is able to sustain under various faulty conditions, which can improve the reliability of the system. In addition, dc-link utilization (DLU) in low-pole mode is improved by using space vector pulsewidth modulation (SVPWM). In high-pole mode, carrier-phase-shifted 3-Φ SVPWM is used for reducing the torque ripple. This MPMLI configuration produces a multilevel voltage profile across the effective phase in 3-phase 12-pole mode. By maintaining the V/f ratio constant, the proposed MPMLI-fed MIM drive facilitates a wide range of load torque with half of the rated speed in faulty condition. This advantage makes it suitable for traction and electric vehicle applications where reliability and wide range of torque-speed are the major concerns. The performance of proposed MPMLI-fed 5 hp, 9-φ PPMMIM drive is simulated by finite-element method (FEM) in ANSYS Maxwell 2-D and experimentally verified by laboratory prototype under normal and faulty conditions. © 2017 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.

World University root node

IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics

A fault-tolerant multilevel inverter for improving the performance of a pole-phase modulated nine-phase induction motor drive

Structural changes in the choroid, interspersed between the retina and sclera, could indicate various vision impairments. So far, choroidal thickness and volume measured from optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans of the rear part of the eye have found clinical applications. However, such gross measurements do not provide vasculature-specific information crucial in managing various chorioretinal diseases. To fill this gap, we propose an automated method of ratiometric quantification of choroidal vascular (luminal) and interstitial (stromal) regions. Specifically, our method removes idiosyncratic artefacts of OCT imaging including speckle noise, exponential dynamic range compression, and depth-dependent attenuation in a targetted manner using median filtering and exponential enhancement. The proposed method assumed significance as manual estimation of the desired ratio is infeasible in view of the inherently fine structure of many choroidal vessels. Further, our technique demonstrated vast superiority over existing protocol based on the generic ImageJ software in terms of quality. Moreover, unlike the existing protocol which is interactive, our method could be applied to high-throuput and volumetric analysis. © 2016 IEEE.

2016 International Conference on Signal and Information Processing, IConSIP 2016

Optical coherence tomography imaging: Automated binarization of choroid for stromal-luminal analysis

In this paper, we proposed a novel stacked layer of liner structure around the TSV's and verified its performance on noise coupling between them. The performance of proposed structure with different materials and thickness were optimized and verified with respect to the noise coupling reduction. The obtained results show almost equal noise reduction performance of around 40% with the Teflon-Cu-Teflon and BCB-Cu-BCB as liner material structure. Due to TSV fabrication issues industries are preferring Via-middle process and also Teflon have low melting point. Hence we have chosen with optimized BCB thicknesses of 30 nm as dielectric and Cu with 90 nm as metal. And also we observed that by decreasing the dielectric materials thicknesses compared with the metal we get more improved noise coupling between the TSV's in 3D IC. From the obtained results we inherent that the above structure will improve the noise coupling performance in 3D IC. © 2016 IEEE.

2016 IEEE International 3D Systems Integration Conference, 3DIC 2016

Noise performance improvement through optimized stacked layer of liner structure around the TSV in 3D IC

Enhanced Cu diffusion, Cu surface passivation, and surface smoothness at the bonding interface are the key requirements for high quality Copper-Copper (Cu-Cu) thermocompression bonding. In our previous work, we have demonstrated the usage of optimized Manganin metal alloy of 3 nm not only helps in passivating the Cu surface even at high temperature (<300°C) but also reduces the surface roughness to about 0.8 nm which substantially led to high quality Cu-Cu bonding. In this paper, we demonstrate an ultra-fine pitch Cu-Cu thermocompression bonding using an optimized ultra-thin damascene compatible Manganin metal alloy passivation. This engineering surface passivation approach has led to high quality bonding at sub 200° C temperature and a nominal contact force of 4kN. Furthermore, electrical characterization using modified kelvin structure, and reliability assessment of this bonded structure was investigated under multiple current stressing, temperature cycling test and the results indicate excellent stability without electrical performance degradation. This practical finding has immense potential to leads into practical realization of 3D IC integration. © 2017 JSPS 191st Committee on Innovative Interface Bonding Technology.

Proceedings of 2017 5th International Workshop on Low Temperature Bonding for 3D Integration, LTB-3D 2017

Optimized ultra-thin Manganin alloy passivated fine-pitch damascene compatible Cu-Cu bonding at sub 200°C for 3D IC integration

Development of pH sensitive nanofibres for milk adulteration detection is described in this work. Electrospun nanofibrous membrane of a polymer composite comprising of nylon and pH indicator dyes is synthesized to produce separate color signature for pure and adulterated milk samples. A suitable combination of pH indicator dyes is carefully chosen and their concentration in the polymer composite is optimized to successfully detect desired pH ranges. The targeted pH ranges are preferably selected to differentiate pure milk from acidic and basic milk samples. The morphological study of the electrospun nanofibres is carried out using Scanning Electron Microscopy. The efficiency of the developed nanofibrous pH sensor is experimentally evaluated using standard pH solutions. The effect of incorporation of the pH indicator dyes into the polymer composite on their halo-chromic behavior is also demonstrated in this study. This is a first of its kind study where pH sensitive nanofibres are used to detect the changes in milk acidity upon addition of adulterants. The proposed scheme can be extended towards developing a universal platform for milk adulteration detection. © 2016 IEEE.

2016 3rd International Conference on Emerging Electronics, ICEE 2016

Facile, low-cost, halochromic platform using electrospun nanofibers for milk adulteration detection

As part of the PhysioNet/Computing in Cardiology Challenge 2017, this work focuses on the classification of a single channel short electrocardiogram (ECG) signal into normal, atrial fibrillation (AF), others and noise classes. To this end, we propose a shallow convolutional neural network architecture which learns suitable features pertaining to each class while eliminating the need to extract the traditionally used ad hoc features. In particular, we first developed a robust R-peak detector and stacked sequence of fixed number of detected beats with R-peaks aligned. These stack of beats corresponding to a segment of ECG record are classified into one of the four aforementioned classes. To improve the robustness, multiple classifiers were trained to classify these segments. Overall record classification was then generated using an voting scheme from the classification results of individual segments. Our best submission result during the official phase has a score of 71% with F1 scores of 86%, 73% and 56% respectively for normal, AF and other classes respectively. © 2017 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.

Department of Mathematics

Computing in Cardiology

Atrial fibrillation detection using convolutional neural networks

In this paper, the innate peizoelectricity of silk is utilized to demonstrate an optimized silk thin film-based pressure sensor. Furthermore, a novel approach to pattern silk films is proposed, which could potentially lead to the development of a variety of miniaturized, flexible, and wearable sensors. The key in this endeavor is to achieve a uniform thin film of silk. The preparation methodology was optimized to achieve an ultra-smooth, reproducible thin film. The surface quality of the optimized thin film was analyzed using atomic force microscopy and the RMS roughness was found to be 2.43 nm. The piezo-response of the silk film was measured using Piezo force microscopy and the average $d-{33}$ value of the silk piezoelectric thin film was estimated at 56.7 pm/V. A pressure sensor using silk piezoelectric thin film was developed with a simple process flow. This process is devoid of any silk patterning steps. Keeping in view the potentiality of piezoelectric silk films in MEMS, a novel lithography-based technique was developed to pattern the silk films. This patterning technique can easily be integrated with any standard MEMS/Post CMOS process flow, thus opening up a new avenue in developing a variety of sensors. © 2001-2012 IEEE.

IEEE Sensors Journal

Leveraging Innate Piezoelectricity of Ultra-Smooth Silk Thin Films for Flexible and Wearable Sensor Applications

In this paper, heat transfer in 3D IC system is investigated using practical and novel materials for Inter Layer Dielectric (ILD) and Thermal Through Silicon Vias (TTSV). The currently used SiO2 ILD is amiss for heat mitigation due to its poor thermal conductivity. The unique thermal and electrical properties of Hexagonal Boron Nitride (h-BN) are explored in this work for improved heat mitigation. © 2016 IEEE.

Novel inter layer dielectric and thermal TSV material for enhanced heat mitigation in 3-D IC

In this work, we demonstrate a novel, label-free flexible plastic based platform for immunosensing application. This nanobiosensor platform comprises of mercaptopropionic acid functionalized electrospun zinc oxide nanofiber modified flexible plastic film for covalent conjugation of protein. The highly oriented zinc oxide nanowires were synthesized by simple, low cost electrospinning technique and electrophoretically deposited on the ITO coated flexible plastic sheet. The performance of nanobiosensor platform is validated by using BSA-Anti BSA interaction as a model system. The zinc oxide nanowire modified flexible biosensing platforms have been characterized using scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The fabricated flexible plastic based immunosensor shows a remarkable detection limit of 100fg/mL in the wider detection range of 100 fg/mL-100 μg/mL. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that zinc oxide nanofiber modified flexible plastic substrate have been used to develop immunosensing application and efforts should be made to explore this flexible immunosensor platform for the detection of several important biomarkers for point of care (POC) diagnostics. © 2016 IEEE.

Proceedings of IEEE Sensors

Zinc oxide nanowire modified flexible plastic platform for immunosensing

This paper presents a novel fast transient suppression technique to improve the transient response of DC-DC converters with minimal area overhead and power dissipation. The proposed pseudo error voltage technique is implemented in AMS 0.35 m high-voltage CMOS process for wide supply range automotive dc - dc converter. For 18 V to 3.3 V conversion, the proposed technique suppress overshoot voltage from 560 mV to 250 mV and undershoot voltage from 420 mV to 210 mV with 55.3% and 50% improvement respectively for a load transient of 2.8A. This method makes it possible to use very small output capacitance in the buck converter. © 2016 IEEE.