Spiderman spotted at NUS central library 23/04/09

Holy shit! Spidey in NUS! Lmao!

EE4410 Chip Micrograph

The following shows the chip micrograph of the chip we designed in the module EE4410.







Notice the last one got 4 pacman ghost? Haha, its our logo, representing the 4 mooty aliens of this project, the 3rd one is xiao chuan cos that one has got a horn! Moo!

Just some oldies songs

Listening to oldies these days...

The final leg

13/04: FYP CA3
17/04: FYP CA4
20/04: EE4415 Report deadline
27/04: EE4410 Report deadline
30/04: Last final exam paper in Nus, EE4415


Dying moments of my undergrad life. I think i am starting to miss my schooling days. No, not the exams or quizzes of course, everything else i guess. That also includes the things i did not do, having more fun and enjoying life while I can being one of them.

Sigma Delta

This is the output for my fyp, sigma delta modulator. Generally, the noise shaping is working; notice how the low frequency components have lower noise compared to the higher frequency ones. This is because the low frequency noise has been "shifted" to the higher frequency part so that the signal of interest, which is in the lower frequency domain, is not affected by noise.

However, the result is far from expectation. 80dB of SNR is a far cry from the desired 120+dB that is required of a 20-bits sigma delta modulator. Sad. Sibeh sian. =((

And most people reading this dunno what i talking about. Also sibeh sian. No one can help me..

Engineering and Technology Careers are Not Valued - Singapore is “High Cost Low Tech”

(Link)

Among news like a monk and an infidel GP doctor making six-figure income, there’s an interesting piece in ST two days ago - ex-top civil servant Ngiam Tong Dow worries that Singapore is becoming “high cost, low tech”.

“The United States has overtaken Britain because while some of their best went to Wall Street, their best still go into engineering.”

His concern is valid.

In Singapore, the best JC students are attracted by glitzy ads and employment survey reports (see example) glamorizing the banking and finance industry and repeatedly highlighting that top dollars are made there.

For engineers and techies, they only get to hear things like “with a basic degree, you get to wash test tubes”.

Or that engineering and tech talent are a dime a dozen from China and India.

It is no wonder that students die to get into the in-demand courses like business, finance and accounting, while engineering and technology-related courses are dumping grounds.

See my previous posts on getting out of engineering and dead end career.

We all know that techies are undervalued in sunny Singapore. You’re a techie, you make 5k and be happy. Stay happy. Else get out and go to countries like USA, Japan, or even China and Taiwan where tech talent are much more highly valued than over here. Or, get into banking or do a sales job.

So Mr Ngiam worries about the lack of local high-tech talent.

There’s always a simple solution (right?): Start paying top dollars for engineers.

Start with tech-related ministries and agencies like Mindef and MDA. Then, move to tech-related GLCs like Singapore Technologies and JTC.

Pay millions for, say, the Chief Innovator in DSTA and ask the media to cover this ad nauseum (much like the way life sciences were glamorized in the not too distant past).

Hopefully we get to confuse the students again.

Why wasn't I confused by glitzy ads and employment survey reports and took an interest in banking/financial sector instead back then? =((

My first designed chip!

Yay, we just got back our chip, the one we spent one sem to design. So before sending for fabrication, our design was working pretty fine. Now that the real thing is fabricated, will it still work as we intended? That will be the task for us this semester, to perform all kinds of test on the chip to verify our design.









Initial test shows some system working fine. The ADC seems to be ok, but only 1 input tested. LNA seems to have lots of problems. Bandgap is ok. More tests will be perform for the next few weeks and if it works, yay! If not... then pray for at least a b+... lol

A Levels Mathematics Tuition & Consultation

Advertising for my friend who set up this webpage which offer tuition and consultation services for JC mathematics. There's also a download page to download summaries of topics, assignments and even mock papers. For tutors, he probably can hook you up with an assignment too!

Mathematically yours.

Of Dota gank went wrong

Void, pudge and tiny vs proudmore.

Nice hook, nice toss, nice failure. Lmao.

DotA skill that hurts the most in real life

I was surfing the DotA forum when i came across this interesting thread: "Which skill do you think hurts the most in REALITY?" So which skill in dota would you think is the worst if it hits you in real life?

Here are some of the most hurting ones of them all in my opinion:


Doom: It really hurts. What do you expect? You are roasted alive. And the worst part is? You cant even mutter a word, because you are silenced! Just imagine your mouth is being duct-taped while are being burned, yes the whole 16 agonizing seconds of the last of ur life.



Butcher's Combo: You are minding your own business and suddenly out of nowhere a hook comes, burrows into your flesh and pulls you toward a freaking nightmare monster...and that's not the end, the monster then releases rot and disease from his body and you see your body rotting alive and you cant do anything about it. Just when you thought its over, he starts to dismember you and eats you alive and U SEE UNTIL THE VERY LAST MINUTE TILL UR BODY JOINS WITH THE FLESH HEAP INSIDE THE BUTCHER, where eaten alive seems less painful..




Nether Strike: You're just sitting around, minding your own business again, when suddenly a giant blue humanoid pig phases in next to you, paralyzes you, and smacks you in the face with a thurible. Over, and over, AND OVER again....



Omnislash: Minding your own business, farming rice again, all of a sudden, some chaos orc comes round and slashes you again and again and again and again until you are a pile of meat balls. And if that's not enough he puts up a dance of death and spin and spin and spin and spin towards whatever that's left of you and can't do anything about it and makes you feel like a retard for every single last second.



Meepo's Combo: Imagine 4 little cute meepos whacking you and dealing 99999 dmg per second and slowing you like there's no tomorrow. You tried to run, but they net you down while walking around you laughing at your pathetic cries for mercy. Then for a moment you thought they let you go, as they each disappeared, for a split of a second that is and you get poof-ed to death. Now, that's gotta hurt your ego..

Exams is here again

Yay, its that time of the year again where people goes into mugging mode, furiously printing out notes for the whole semester and searching for past years papers and what not. So after having slacked for the whole semester, let's check out what's installed for me this time.

Hmm, first paper's on the 20th of November, HR2002 (Human Capital in Organizations). Hey! That's during the reading week right? Damn.. Thought i am supposed to be still playing dota or something? Dang, there goes my plans.

Next paper is like, wow, 2 weeks later, 4th of December, EE4412 (Technology and modelling of silicon transistors). Ahh with that much amout of time in between, let's just take it easy lar.

And, that's it. Yup that's right! 2 papers nia. So slack, this must have been the most slack semester i ever had.

Temaek selling chartered semiconductor?

(Source)

"Singapore's Temasek Holdings is seeking to sell its stake in Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd and has approached Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) (2330.TW), the Economic Daily News reported, citing market rumors."

Looks like its the end for the semiconductor industry in Singapore? Cutting losses or an attempt to save the company? Chartered recently also had a pay cut too, looks like it's a terrible time for those folks. Will they lay me off as well? gg

1 module down!

Last friday was the official tape out date for EE4410. (Tape out in electronics terms is to submit the circuit design for fabrication.) So now that means we have nothing to do for this module till the next semester when the chip comes back, or at least close to nothing cos the foundry shoots back to us with some DRC(Design rules check) errors once in a while and we have to try to resolve those.

Sucks, now i having problem with my FYP, dunno why the results weird weird one.

Of layout design of comparator

Yay, completed the layout design of my comparator and it passed the DRC and LVS test as well as the post-layout simulation. Most of the rest of the parts are completed too, now what's left is to stitch up the different parts and do the final overall system simulation. And if it meets our specs, that basically concludes the module! Woot! (at least for this semester that is)

Then i can start doing my FYP, too long never touch liao.. haha.

Play Light Bot

"Programming-style puzzle game. Give commands to your robot to light up the factory. Very soon you will realize though that using the main method on it’s own is not enough and you will have to start creating re-usable functions to achieve the ultimate goal."

Play Light Bot.

Completed with 188 commands

The most expensive module

EE4410 (Integtated circuit and system design), it cost around $6k to fabricate the chip that we design. So its around $1.5k per person, since there are 4 person in one group. So that just makes this the most worth it module to take. Not too sure about the grade though. But then again, i think our group is doing quite well, at least we are almost done with integration at schematic level, now proceeding with layout design.

Absolute Haven

We had a try at a restaurant along princep street, Absolute Haven. It certainly left a great impression and will probably be going back to try out the other dishes.

The ambience, it was really relaxing and pleasant. The romantic setting is ideal for couples with the dim lightings and lovely music, although of course, group of friends can equally enjoy the pleasant ambience while catching up with each others lives in the midst of the great food on the table.

The service was great with friendly staffs topping up our ice water (with strawberry flavor) regularly and food served pretty fast. I recalled an experience in another restaurant where we had to wait quite long for our food despite the fact that we were the only customers! Then we were joking that the cooks had to go catch the chickens and fishes… Here, we didn’t have to wait long; the soup came in like 5mins and shortly after, the starters.

The soup was mushroom soup. It was yummy and the bits of mushrooms taste great too. The soup was not too thick or diluted, pretty much to my liking. My starter was soft-shell crab with beetroot. Although portion is abit little, it was crispy and the meat was sweeter than I had imagined, very appetizing indeed.

My main course was Ribeye steak. The portion of the steak was just right, but it was the potato gratins that make it filling. The gratins contained potato and cheese I think. The meat was soft, that the knife just went right through effortlessly, and omg juicy and tender. Add some flavor to the meat with the sweet port wine sauce that’s drizzled presentably around the plate.

We didn’t had dessert there, although I heard their tiramisu is a must try. Perhaps next time.

So there, if you guys are looking for a great place to dine, there is Absolute Haven for you to try out. I give it 4/5!

Of Smiling Now Primarily Used To Communicate Anger

(Via)

NEW YORK—The smile, a facial expression traditionally used to convey joy, pleasure, or amusement, is now mainly used to suppress rage, according to a five-year study released Monday by the Countenance Institute. "More than 85 percent of smiles are involuntary responses to mounting anger," the study read in part. "In addition, the length and intensity of these smiles directly correspond to the amount of anger the smile is concealing. A smile that lasts less than two seconds represents just a passing annoyance, while a smile of four to eight seconds indicates a genuine hatred for its target." The study noted that individuals smiling for more than one minute while nodding and baring their teeth are most likely preparing to kill the person they are smiling at.

So if next time i smile at you...

Tian Tian Steamboat

I think it was last week. Ya last week after comex, a group of us went over to bugis and tried out the tian tian steamboat. And to our utter disappointment, we wished we had waited at the earlier stall where it was packed to the brim and had to wait.

Let's start with the service. The guy practically throws us at one corner, gets the money and left us waiting for our soup which took like more than 20mins to come. And despite BK waving at him in desperation after seeing the group who came after us getting the soup before we did, the guy seem to have sense our anger and steer well clear away from us, which was quite an easy task since we were in one corner remember? Then he went on to serve the queuing crowd at the entrance, totally ignoring our presence.

The soup finally came, when one of his colleagues finally spotted us who seemed to be genuinely surprise of our predicament and offered our soup not soon after. So came the soup and then at last its time to grab the food.

The food, well, it was horrible. The selection was laughable and the refill rate was ridiculously slow. Granted, the soup was not too bad. But that’s the only thing I can say I enjoyed, together with the noodles. The rest of the stuff I just gobbled down to satisfy my hunger needs, cos I didn’t eat anything for the whole day that day… Oh by the way, the refill rate of the soup was also absurd, our pot almost went dry and could be used for bbq liao.

For about 18 bucks per person, I would say it’s not quite worth it. But maybe our poor experience in tian tian was due to our high expectations of it; after all it had so much advertisement on tv and was supposed to have won some awards of sorts.

Of fyp and sigma delta modulator

Now that I am in my final year, one of the hot topics is none other than the final year project. Some of the conversations during gatherings, be it with ex-classmates, platoon mates or current school mates, have been centered around the opening of asking what each other’s FYP is about. More often than not, the responses from the other party usually make not much sense to me, unless of course the person is doing something general or something related to my area of specialization. Similarly, when I tell people I am doing a design of sigma delta modulator for my FYP, they go like wth is that?

So, I shall now present a brief overview of what sigma delta modulator is all about, as laymen as I can get. That is of course if you are even slightly interested in what I am doing, if not then just treat the rest of this entry as just some gibberish.

Now, in the world of electronics, there are 2 kinds of signals in general. They are either analog or digital. The signals from the outside world, sound for example, are analog in nature. These are the signals humans can understand. Yet, the computer or other microprocessor cannot. In order to process the analog data from the outside world, an interface is needed to bridge the 2 signals of different nature together. This is done using the Analog to Digital Converter (ADC).

How the ADC works is really, to put it very simply, approximating the analog data to a corresponding discrete level determined by the resolution. Due to this approximation, there will be some errors as the final digital output does not equal to the analog equivalent exactly. This error, or quantization noise, is inevitable but can be minimized. A sigma delta modulator is one such architecture of ADC to attempt to reduce this noise as much as possible.

The basic idea of a sigma delta modulator is to use the techniques of oversampling as well as noise shaping.

Oversampling is sampling at a frequency more than the nyquist rate, thereby reducing the amplitude of the quantization noise spectral density and spreading it over a wider range of frequency band while the total noise power is unaffected. Thus, by applying appropriate filters, the quantization noise out of the band of interest can be reduced.

Noise shaping further enhances the performance by means of filtering the quantization noise in the band of interest. This can be done by making a distinction between the noise and the input signal by means of a feedback loop filtering technique. Hence, by designing appropriate filters, the quantization noise inside the band of interest can also be reduced.

Improving the quantization noise is in essence improving the resolution of the ADC, and this is the objective of my project.

My FYP will start off with system level design using MATLAB, to design and determine the filter transfer function, order and coefficient and stuff, and also the oversampling ratio. After optimizing at the system level, I will then have to move into schematic level using the cadence ic design tools, where the modulator will be realized in transistors' level circuits. The technology that i will be using is 0.18um CMOS process technology. And if time allows, the layout design of the circuit will be implemented as well.

Now thats what i will be doing for the next 2 semesters.

A peek into EE4410

I was mentioning about my group wanting to chiong the project, and target to finish it by mid term. Well we are not joking. 2 weeks have gone by and we have already designed and completed the schematic for most of the parts. We are now trying to optimize our designs as well as think ahead for the layout design issues, such as area, mismatching and stuff. Hopefully the layout design will not posed too much problems. Oh wait, there's still a digital logic we have not complete yet. At first wanted to use verilog to design that part (which will be very simple), but the prof told us to use the digital library to implement it. That means using logic gates to do, think EE2006. And there isn't even a counter in the library for us to use! =(( Pure gates and mux. Sweet...




By the way, one of the sub-systems i am working on is the comparator. The comparator, as taken granted to be a block for most people that compares the 2 input and gives an indication of which is bigger at the output, requires some knowledge of the workings of the MOS transistor as an amplifier. I am actually quite impressed when i read and learn about how people implement the comparator, by making use of the characteristics of the op amp.

This is what goes on inside the black box, with current consumption of only 100nA!



And layout is more messy, here is just a testing layout for me to practice on cos i haven't take EE4415 which deals with abit on layout design, which proves to be really useful as my teammates all like very pro in layout except me.. =((