Parameteric Excitation
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Date: 09-14-2012
Start Time:
2:00pm
End Time: 3:00pm
Speaker: Dr. Bob Melville
From:
Emecon, LLC
Location: Mudd 633
Hosted by:
Columbia Integrated System Laboratory
Abstract: A time-varying capacitor embedded in suitable supporting circuitry can be made to exhibit a negative resistance - hence, can provide gain, sustain an oscillation or convert energy from one frequency to another - all theoretically noise-free and with 100% efficiency (because it is a lossless circuit element). Of course, there are some details and parasitic resistances degrade the efficiency. In this talk, I will survey some of the early history of such parametric circuits, then show some modern circuit implementations with possible applications to RFID tags or (very ambitious) a possible replacement for the traveling-wave tube.
Speaker Bio: Bob Melville did his undergraduate training at the University of Delaware, then went on to graduate work at Cornell, culminating in a Ph. D. in Computer Science in 1981. He was a junior faculty member at Johns Hopkins University before joining Bell Labs in 1985. He worked at the labs for 16 years in the areas of computer-aided design, numerical simulation of electronic circuits, and design an fabrication of RF integrated circuits. Most recently, he has taught electrical engineering at Columbia University and served with the United States Antarctic Program at the Amundsen-Scott base at the South Pole doing engineering work in support of geophysics experiments.
Dr. Melville is a member of the IEEE, has served as a professional referee for various IEEE-sponsored journals and conferences, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. He co-organized a conference on numerical circuit simulation at Sandia National Labs and participated in the AT&T "Teachers and Technology" enrichment program for high-school math and science teachers. He is also extra-class amateur radio operator wb3eft.