Measurement and Electronic Architectures group

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Microelectrodes implanted in a microfluidic channel. Unit characterization of biological cells by bio-impedance measurement in flow cytometry
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Microelectrodes implanted in a microfluidic channel. Unit characterization of biological cells by bio-impedance measurement in flow cytometry

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Artificial neural network carried out on a parallel and distributed architecture based on a NoC chip network intended for implantation on a reconfigurable technology of the FPGA type
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Artificial neural network carried out on a parallel and distributed architecture based on a NoC chip network intended for implantation on a reconfigurable technology of the FPGA type

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Laboratory prototypes of circuit breaker
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Laboratory prototype of an embedded electronic system for robust detection of electric arc faults. 
The system is designed around a System-on-a-Chip (SoC) and a current sensor conditioning circuit

Last publications

Presentation

The MAE group specialises in the design of intelligent and autonomous sensors and electronic measuring systems. The fields of application of these are multiple and respond to societal issues, health, energy efficiency, industrial renewal.

The expertise of the group members enables them to address design issues of embedded electronic systems at different levels: From sensors (especially biosensors) to the system integrating complex and fast signal processing.

The approach takes aspects of machine learning, fault tolerance and problems of energy consumption and recovery. 

The research carried out by the group focuses on intelligent and autonomous sensors and electronic systems with two complementary axes:

  • Sensors, instrumentation and measurement
  • Electronic circuit architectures and systems
Keywords
Sensors
Microelectrodes and bio-impedance spectroscopy
Circuits
Embedded Electronic Systems
Signal Processing
Energy recovery
Accordéons

Research topics

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Sensors, instrumentation and measurement

Bio-impedance spectroscopy is an extremely important diagnostic tool for the study of electrophysiological and biophysical changes due to viral infections, cancer detection and drug quality control. The use of microelectrodes has several fields of application related to medical diagnosis such as:

  • single cell characterization
  • detection of changes induced during cell culture
  • the study of the environment/biological tissue interaction at the cellular level

Modelling of the whole system (biosensor loaded by a biological medium) allows optimisation of interfaces, which involves very advanced theoretical developments in electromagnetism, electronics and characterization of materials. This approach also helps optimize the dimensioning of microelectrodes. The development of biosensors and their functionalization constitutes an important criterion for the optimal transduction of the biological signal. The work carried out by the group concerns:

  • optimization of the electrode-living environment interfaces
  • improvement of sensitivity
  • optimized calibration
  • electronic conditioning and multiplexing for a biosensor array

The challenges involved are to develop of these methods at application scales beyond the prototype to aim for added value compared to existing techniques.

As an example, the detection of the E.coli bacterium requires at least 48 hours using conventional techniques. Impedance spectroscopy would make it possible to lower this to a few minutes or even seconds. Similarly, cell characterization by a bio-impedance-metric signature can concern several thousand cells or hundreds of cell aggregates. The objective is to develop a multi-sensor matrix allowing such an approach, with the possibility of combining different types of characterization (healthy cells versus malignant ones) or biological media (erythrocytes, intestinal cell).


Projects:

Thesis:

  • Mengxi Zhou, CEM of low frequency (50/60 Hz) cardiac implants at a normative context Contract RTE, 2020-2023
     
  • Rémi Bettenfeld : Cellular scale impedance spectroscopy study of the electromagnetic fields effects between 1 kHz and 100 MHz, Doctoral contract, 2020-2023


Articles:

Architectures of circuits and electronic systems

Reconfigurable architectures are one of the group's areas of expertise. The work in progress is more specifically devoted to neuromorphic architectures on reconfigurable targets for signal and image processing. This concerns the implementation of neural networks ( self-organizing maps (SOM), convolutive network and transformer) on embedded electronic architectures.

The main objective is to make current neuronal and/or neuromorphic hardware architectures more flexible and more easily scalable while remaining competitive in terms of performance. These architectures are based on a hybrid approach allowing to decouple the computational layer, essentially composed of neurons, from the communication layer, which ensures the exchange of data between the neurons themselves and with the external world (with a Network on chip (NoC) for example). Other neural network structures are also being explored and prototyped on SoC and MPSoC platforms.

The work on circuit architectures is used to design intelligent, autonomous and communicating electronic measurement systems with very high added value. The team is particularly interested in electronic systems for detecting complex phenomena or anomalies in one- or two-dimensional signals.

The objectives are the detection of electrical arcs faults (aeronautic, photovoltaic, domestic) or the characterization of physiological phenomena (state of alertness, epilepsy, ...) in ECG, EEG signals .... This concens also the tracking of objects and the tracking of apparent movements in video sequences. The team implements embedded technologies as close as possible to the sensors and using machine learning methods with hardware acceleration.

The research work on energy autonomy and operational safety concerns the study, design and development of optimized and reliable electrical energy micro-sources, with or without storage. Our efforts are focused on the optimization of maximum power point tracking algorithms adapted to hybrid sources combining photovoltaic and thermoelectric generators. Moreover, our future work on intermittent computing will also allow us to take into account energy availability when designing new computing architectures (neural and/or neuromorphic or others) in order to make them more sustainable and respectful of the working environment.


Projects:

  • Ecos-Nord with Mexico concerning the design of converters for photovoltaic panels incorporating protection against series arcing faults. (Find out more)
  • ANR PRC « Hybrid photovoltaic-thermoelectric systems for solar energy harvesting » (HYDRES) 2022 – 2025.
  • Erasmus+: Higher Education - International Capacity Building (Unit A4)

Theses:

  • Rabiaa Lachter, Embedded system for the detection of hypovigilance while driving, Cotutelle with the LTIM Monastir, Tunisia, 2019 – 2023
  • Shireen Ansarnia, Development and implementation of artificial intelligence and vision algorithms for the dynamic management of urban lighting, Cifre thesis, 2020-2023
  • Alexis Chabert:  Neural network architecture for arc fault detection: application to embedded aeronautical distribution systems. Collaboration with  IRT Saint Exupéry –Toulouse, 2020-2023
  • Deramgozin Mohammad Mahdi, Tools and Methods for Approximate Computation in Machine Learning: Application to 3D Imaging and Home Assistance, AvaKaghaz grant, 2019-2022.

Articles:

Know-how

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Processing

  • Low frequency electromagnetic measurements on living organisms
  • Design, sizing and synthesis of biosensors for measurements by cellular impedance spectroscopy
  • Design of embedded circuits for electric arc fault detection and localization
  • Design of architectures on reconfigurable circuits for signal and image processing
  • Methods for tracking the maximum power point of hybrid renewable energy sources.

Characterization

  • Electromagnetic characterization of biological cells
  • Characterization of tensions induced in active medical implants subjected to low frequency fields
  • Impedance spectroscopy

Technological transfer

  • CENELEC normalization
  • Transfer to the Leach International company of an electric arc fault detection device for aeronautics in the form of  a joint patent
  • Transfer to the Hager Group of the technology for the detection of electric arc defects for domestic electric networks

Members

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Professors, assistant professors

Technical and support staff

  • Patrice ROTH
  • Pierre SCHMITT

PhD students

  • Rémi BETTENFELD
  • Alexis CHABERT
  • Florent DERUE
  • Niloufar DIZANGIAN
  • Mashiul HUQ
  • Agathe LEMEE
  • Merlin LIMON

Post-doctoral researchers

Technical and support staff

  • Patrice ROTH
  • Pierre SCHMITT

PhD students

  • Alexis CHABERT
  • Florent DERUE
  • Niloufar DIZANGIAN
  • Mashiul HUQ
  • Agathe LEMEE
  • Merlin LIMON

Post-doctoral researchers

  • Rémi BETTENFELD
  • Mengxi ZHOU
Contact équipe

Publications

Articles

Thesis

HAL Collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contact

Head of the group
Patrick SCHWEITZER 
patrick.schweitzer@univ-lorraine.fr
+33 (0) 3 72 74 27 15

Administrative contact

Adresse

Nancy-Artem

Adresse

Institut Jean Lamour
Campus Artem
2 allée André Guinier - BP 50840
54011 NANCY Cedex