Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)

Professor Collins, Chair; Associate Professor Board, Associate Chair; Associate Professor Cummer, Director of Graduate Studies (3455 CIEMAS); Assistant Research Professor Tantum, Associate Director of Graduate Studies; Professors Brady, Brown, Carin, Chakrabarty, Fair, Glass, Joines, Jokerst, Krolik, Liu, Massoud, Smith, and Trivedi; Associate Professors Board, Brooke, Cummer, Kedem, and Teitsworth; Assistant Professors Dwyer, George, Lebeck, Kim, Ozev, Reynolds, Roy Choudhury, Sorin, Stiff-Roberts, Willett, and Yoshie; Professors Emeriti Casey, Marinos, Owen, Wang and Wilson; Professor of the Practice Ybarra; Associate Professor of the Practice Huettel;Assistant Professor of the Practice Gustafson; Assistant Research Professors Liao, Morizio, Pitsianis, Remus, Tantum, and Wolter; Adjunct Associate Professors Derby and Janet; Visiting Professors Kaiser and McCumber

Graduate study in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) is intended to prepare students for leadership roles in academia, industry, and government that require creative technical problem solving skills. The department offers both PhD and MS degree programs with options for study in a broad spectrum of areas within electrical and computer engineering. Research and course offerings in the department are organized into five areas of specialization: computer engineering, sensing and waves, micro/nano systems, photonics, and signal processing and communications. Detailed descriptions of course offerings, faculty research interests, and degree requirements may be found on the department's Web Site, http://www.ece.duke.edu/. Interdisciplinary programs are also available that connect the above areas with those in other engineering departments and computer science, the natural sciences, and the Medical School. Students in the department may also be involved in research conducted in one of Duke's Centers (e.g. the Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics and Communications). Recommended prerequisites for graduate study in electrical engineering include knowledge of basic mathematics, statistics, and physics, electrical networks, electromagnetics, and system theory. Students with non-electrical and/or computer engineering undergraduate degrees are welcome to apply but should discuss their enrollment and course requirement options with the Director of Graduate Studies. The MS degree program includes thesis, project, or courses-only options. A qualifying examination is required for the PhD degree program and must be taken by the beginning of the third semester of enrollment. The exam is intended to assess the student's potential for success as a researcher in their chosen sub-discipline. To ensure breadth of study, PhD students are required to take at least three courses in two areas outside their area of specialization. There is no foreign language requirement.

211. Quantum Mechanics. Discussion of wave mechanics including elementary applications, free particle dynamics, Schrödinger equation including treatment of systems with exact solutions, and approximate methods for time-dependent quantum mechanical systems with emphasis on quantum phenomena underlying solid-state electronics and physics. Prerequisite: Mathematics 107 or equivalent. Instructor: Brady, Brown, or Stiff-Roberts. 3 units.

214. Introduction to Solid-State Physics. Discussion of solid-state phenomena including crystalline structures, X-ray and particle diffraction in crystals, lattice dynamics, free electron theory of metals, energy bands, and superconductivity, with emphasis on understanding electrical and optical properties of solids. Prerequisite: quantum physics at the level of Physics 143L or Electrical and Computer Engineering 211. Instructor: Teitsworth. 3 units.

215. Semiconductor Physics. A quantitative treatment of the physical processes that underlie semiconductor device operation. Topics include band theory and conduction phenomena; equilibrium and nonequilibrium charge carrier distributions; charge generation, injection, and recombination; drift and diffusion processes. Prerequisite: Electrical and Computer Engineering 211 or consent of instructor. Instructor: Staff. 3 units.

216. Semiconductor Devices for Integrated Circuits. Basic semiconductor properties (energy-band structure, effective density of states, effective masses, carrier statistics, and carrier concentrations). Electron and hole behavior in semiconductors (generation, recombination, drift, diffusion, tunneling, and basic semiconductor equations). Current-voltage, capacitance-voltage, and static and dynamic models of PN Junctions, Schottky barriers, Metal/Semiconductor Contacts, Bipolar-Junction Transistors, MOS Capacitors, MOS-Gated Diodes, and MOS Field-Effect Transistors. SPICE models and model parameters. Prerequisites: ECE 162. Instructor: Massoud. 3 units.

217. Analog Integrated Circuits. Analysis and design of bipolar and CMOS analog integrated circuits. SPICE device models and circuit macromodels. Classical operational amplifier structures, current feedback amplifiers, and building blocks for analog signal processing, including operational transconductance amplifiers and current conveyors. Biasing issues, gain and bandwidth, compensation, and noise. Influence of technology and device structure on circuit performance. Extensive use of industry-standard CAD tools, such as Analog Workbench. Prerequisite: Electrical Engineering 216. Instructor: Richards. 3 units.

219. Digital Integrated Circuits. Analysis and design of digital integrated circuits. IC technology. Switching characteristics and power consumption in MOS devices, bipolar devices, and interconnects. Analysis of digital circuits implemented in NMOS, CMOS, TTL, ECL, and BiCMOS. Propagation delay modeling. Analysis of logic (inverters, gates) and memory (SRAM, DRAM) circuits. Influence of technology and device structure on performance and reliability of digital ICs. SPICE modeling. Prerequisites: Electrical and Computer Engineering 162 and 163L. Instructor: Massoud. 3 units.

226. Optoelectronic Devices. Devices for conversion of electrons to photons and photons to electrons. Optical processes in semiconductors: absorption, spontaneous emission and stimulated emission. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs), semiconductor lasers, quantum-well emitters, photodetectors, modulators and optical fiber networks. Prerequisite: Electrical and Computer Engineering 216 or equivalent. Instructor: Stiff-Roberts. 3 units.

227. Quantum Information Science. Fundamental concepts and progress in quantum information science. Quantum circuits, quantum universality theorem, quantum algorithms, quantum operations and quantum error correction codes, fault-tolerant architectures, security in quantum communications, quantum key distribution, physical systems for realizing quantum logic, quantum repeaters and long-distance quantum communication. Prerequisites: ECE 211 or Physics 211 or equivalent. Instructor: Kim. 3 units. C-L: Physics 272

243. Pattern Classification and Recognition Technology. Theory and practice of recognition technology: pattern classification, pattern recognition, automatic computer decision-making algorithms. Applications covered include medical diseases, severe weather, industrial parts, biometrics, bioinformation, animal behavior patterns, image processing, and human visual systems. Perception as an integral component of intelligent systems. This course prepares students for advanced study of data fusion, data mining, knowledge base construction, problem-solving methodologies of "intelligent agents" and the design of intelligent control systems. Prerequisites: Mathematics 107, Statistics 113 or Mathematics 135, Computer Science 6, or consent of instructor. Instructor: Collins or P. Wang. 3 units.

246. Optimal Control. Review of basic linear control theory and linear/nonlinear programming. Dynamic programming and the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman Equation. Calculus of variations. Hamiltonian and costatic equations. Pontryagin's Minimum Principle. Solution to common constrained optimization problems. This course is designed to satisfy the need of several engineering disciplines. Prerequisite: Electrical and Computer Engineering 141 or equivalent. Instructor: Staff. 3 units. C-L: Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science 232

251. Advanced Digital System Design. This course covers the fundamentals of advanced digital system design, and the use of a hardware description language, VHDL, for their synthesis and simulation. Examples of systems considered include the arithmetic/logic unit, memory, and microcontrollers. The course includes an appropriate capstone design project that incorporates engineering standards and realistic constraints in the outcome of the design process. Additionally, the designer must consider most of the following: Cost, environmental impact, manufacturability, health and safety, ethics, social and political impact. Each design project is executed by a team of 4 or 5 students who are responsible for generating a final written project report and making an appropriate presentation of their results to the class. Prerequisite: Electrical and Computer Engineering 52L and Senior/graduate student standing. Instructor: Derby. 3 units.

253. Parallel System Performance. Intrinsic limitations to computer performance. Amdahl's Law and its extensions. Components of computer architecture and operating systems, and their impact on the performance available to applications. Intrinsic properties of application programs and their relation to performance. Task graph models of parallel programs. Estimation of best possible execution times. Task assignment and related heuristics. Load balancing. Specific examples from computationally intensive, I/O intensive, and mixed parallel and distributed computations. Global distributed system performance. Prerequisites: Computer Science 110; Electrical and Computer Engineering 152. Instructor: Staff. 3 units.

255. Probability for Electrical and Computer Engineers. Basic concepts and techniques used stochastic modeling of systems with applications to performance and reliability of computer and communications system. Elements of probability, random variables (discrete and continuous), expectation, conditional distributions, stochastic processes, discrete and continuous time Markov chains, introduction to queuing systems and networks. Prerequisite: Mathematics 107. Instructor: Trivedi. 3 units. C-L: Computer Science 226

256. Wireless Networking and Mobile Computing. Theory, design, and implementation of mobile wireless networking systems. Fundamentals of wireless networking and key research challenges. Students review pertinent journal papers. Significant, semester-long research project. Networking protocols (Physical and MAC, multi-hop routing, wireless TCP, applications), mobility management, security, and sensor networking. Prerequisites: Electrical and Computer Engineering 156 or Computer Science 114. Instructor: Roy Choudhury. 3 units. C-L: Computer Science 215

257. Performance and Reliability of Computer Networks. Methods for performance and reliability analysis of local area networks as well as wide area networks. Probabilistic analysis using Markov models, stochastic Petri nets, queuing networks, and hierarchical models. Statistical analysis of measured data and optimization of network structures. Prerequisites: Electrical and Computer Engineering 156 and 255. Instructor: Trivedi. 3 units.

258. Artificial Neural Networks. Elementary biophysical background for signal propagation in natural neural systems. Artificial neural networks (ANN) and the history of computing; early work of McCulloch and Pitts, of Kleene, of von Neumann and others. The McCulloch and Pitts model. The connectionist model. The random neural network model. ANN as universal computing machines. Associative memory; learning; algorithmic aspects of learning. Complexity limitations. Applications to pattern recognition, image processing and combinatorial optimization. Instructor: Cramer. 3 units.

261. CMOS VLSI Design Methodologies. Emphasis on full-custom chip design. Extensive use of CAD tools for IC design, simulation, and layout verification. Techniques for designing high-speed, low-power, and easily-testable circuits. Semester design project: Groups of four students design and simulate a simple custom IC using Mentor Graphics CAD tools. Teams and project scope are multidisciplinary; each team includes students with interests in several of the following areas: analog design, digital design, computer science, computer engineering, signal processing, biomedical engineering, electronics, photonics. A formal project proposal, a written project report, and a formal project presentation are also required. The chip design incorporates considerations such as cost, economic viability, environmental impact, ethical issues, manufacturability, and social and political impact. Prerequisites: Electrical and Computer Engineering 52L and Electrical and Computer Engineering 163L. Some background in computer organization is helpful but not required. Instructor: Chakrabarty. 3 units.

262. Analog Integrated Circuit Design. Design and layout of CMOS analog integrated circuits. Qualitative review of the theory of pn junctions, bipolar and MOS devices, and large and small signal models. Emphasis on MOS technology. Continuous time operational amplifiers. Frequency response, stability and compensation. Complex analog subsystems including phase-locked loops, A/D and D/A converters, switched capacitor simulation, layout, extraction, verification, and MATLAB modeling. Projects make extensive use of full custom VLSI CAD software. Prerequisite: Electrical and Computer Engineering 162 or 163L. Instructor: Morizio. 3 units.

263. Multivariable Control. Synthesis and analysis of multivariable linear dynamic feedback compensators. Standard problem formulation. Performance norms. Full state feedback and linear quadratic Gaussian synthesis. Lyapunov and Riccati equations. Passivity, positivity, and self-dual realizations. Nominal performance and robust stability. Applications to vibration control, noise suppression, tracking, and guidance. Prerequisite: a course in linear systems and classical control, or consent of instructor. Instructor: Bushnell, Clark, or Gavin. 3 units. C-L: Civil Engineering 263, Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science 263

264. CAD For Mixed-Signal Circuits. The course focuses on various aspects of design automation for mixed-signal circuits. Circuit simulation methods including graph-based circuit representation, automated derivation and solving of nodal equations, and DC analysis, test automation approaches including test equipments, test generation, fault simulation, and built-in-self-test, and automated circuit synthesis including architecture generation, circuit synthesis, tack generation, placement and routing are the major topics. The course will have one major project, 4-6 homework assignments, one midterm, and one final. Prerequisites: ECE 163L. Permission of instructor required. Instructor: Ozev. 3 units.

267. Radiofrequency (RF) Transceiver Design. Design of wireless radiofrequency transceivers. Analog and digital modulation, digital modulation schemes, system level design for receiver and transmitter path, wireless communication standards and determining system parameters for standard compliance, fundamentals of synthesizer design, and circuit level design of low-noise amplifiers and mixers. Prerequisites: Electrical and Computer Engineering 54L and Electrical and Computer Engineering 163L or equivalent. Instructor: Ozev. 3 units.

272. Electromagnetic Communication Systems. Review of fundamental laws of Maxwell, Gauss, Ampere, and Faraday. Elements of waveguide propagation and antenna radiation. Analysis of antenna arrays by images. Determination of gain, loss, and noise temperature parameters for terrestrial and satellite electromagnetic communication systems. Prerequisite: Electrical and Computer Engineering 53L or 271. Instructor: Joines. 3 units.

273. Optical Communication Systems. Mathematical methods, physical ideas, and device concepts of optoelectronics. Maxwell's equations, and definitions of energy density and power flow. Transmission and reflection of plane waves at interfaces. Optical resonators, waveguides, fibers, and detectors are also presented. Prerequisite: Electrical and Computer Engineering 53L or equivalent. Instructor: Joines. 3 units.

275. Microwave Electronic Circuits. Microwave circuit analysis and design techniques. Properties of planar transmission lines for integrated circuits. Matrix and computer-aided methods for analysis and design of circuit components. Analysis and design of input, output, and interstage networks for microwave transistor amplifiers and oscillators. Topics on stability, noise, and signal distortion. Prerequisite: Electrical and Computer Engineering 53L or equivalent. Instructor: Joines. 3 units.

277. Computational Electromagnetics. Systematic discussion of useful numerical methods in computational electromagnetics including integral equation techniques and differential equation techniques, both in the frequency and time domains. Hands-on experience with numerical techniques, including the method of moments, finite element and finite-difference time-domain methods, and modern high order and spectral domain methods. Prerequisite: Electrical and Computer Engineering 271 or consent of instructor. Instructor: Carin or Liu. 3 units.

278. Inverse Problems in Electromagnetics and Acoustics. Systematic discussion of practical inverse problems in electromagnetics and acoustics. Hands-on experience with numerical solution of inverse problems, both linear and nonlinear in nature. Comprehensive study includes: discrete linear and nonlinear inverse methods, origin and solution of nonuniqueness, tomography, wave-equation based linear inverse methods, and nonlinear inverse scattering methods. Assignments are project oriented using MATLAB. Prerequisites: Graduate level acoustics or electromagnetics (Electrical and Computer Engineering 271), or consent of instructor. Instructor: Liu. 3 units.

279. Waves in Matter. Analysis of wave phenomena that occur in materials based on fundamental formulations for electromagnetic and elastic waves. Examples from these and other classes of waves are used to demonstrate general wave phenomena such as dispersion, anisotropy, and causality; phase, group, and energy propagation velocities and directions; propagation and excitation of surface waves; propagation in inhomogeneous media; and nonlinearity and instability. Applications that exploit these wave phenomena in general sensing applications are explored. Prerequisites: Electrical and Computer Engineering 53L. Instructor: Cummer. 3 units.

281. Random Signals and Noise. Introduction to mathematical methods of describing and analyzing random signals and noise. Review of basic probability theory; joint, conditional, and marginal distributions; random processes. Time and ensemble averages, correlation, and power spectra. Optimum linear smoothing and predicting filters. Introduction to optimum signal detection, parameter estimation, and statistical signal processing. Prerequisite: Mathematics 135 or Statistics 113. Instructor: Collins or Nolte. 3 units.

282. Digital Signal Processing. Introduction to the fundamentals of processing signals by digital techniques with applications to practical problems. Discrete time signals and systems, elements of the Z-transform, discrete Fourier transforms, digital filter design techniques, fast Fourier transforms, and discrete random signals. Prerequisite: Electrical and Computer Engineering 281 or equivalent with consent of the instructor. Instructor: Nolte, Tantum, or Willett. 3 units.

285. Signal Detection and Extraction Theory. Introduction to signal detection and information extraction theory from a statistical decision theory viewpoint. Subject areas covered within the context of a digital environment are decision theory, detection and estimation of known and random signals in noise, estimation of parameters and adaptive recursive digital filtering, and decision processes with finite memory. Applications to problems in communication theory. Prerequisite: Electrical and Computer Engineering 281 or consent of instructor. Instructor: Nolte. 3 units.

286. Digital Processing of Speech Signals. Detailed treatment of the theory and application of digital speech processing. Modeling of the speech production system and speech signals; speech processing methods; digital techniques applied in speech transmission, speech synthesis, speech recognition, and speaker verification. Acoustic-phonetics, digital speech modeling techniques, LPC analysis methods, speech coding techniques. Application case studies: synthesis, vocoders, DTW (dynamic time warping)/HMM (hidden Markov modeling) recognition methods, speaker verification/identification. Prerequisite: Electrical and Computer Engineering 182 or equivalent or consent of instructor. Instructor: Staff. 3 units.

288. Sensor Array Signal Processing. An in-depth treatment of the fundamental concepts, theory, and practice of sensor array processing of signals carried by propagating waves. Topics include: multidimensional frequency-domain representations of space-time signals and linear systems; apertures and sampling of space-time signals; beamforming and filtering in the space-time and frequency domains, discrete random fields; adaptive beamforming methods; high resolution spatial spectral estimation; optimal detection, estimation, and performance bounds for sensor arrays; wave propagation models used in sensor array processing; blind beamforming and source separation methods; multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) array processing; application examples from radar, sonar, and communications systems. Instructor: Staff. 3 units.

289. Adaptive Filters. Adaptive digital signal processing with emphasis on the theory and design of finite-impulse response adaptive filters. Stationary discrete-time stochastic processes, Wiener filter theory, the method of steepest descent, adaptive transverse filters using gradient-vector estimation, analysis of the LMS algorithm, least-squares methods, recursive least squares and least squares lattic adaptive filters. Application examples in noise canceling, channel equalization, and array processing. Prerequisites: Electrical and Computer Engineering 281 and 282 or consent of instructor. Instructor: Krolik. 3 units.

310. Foundations of Nanoscale Science and Technology. This course is the introductory course for the Graduate Certificate Program in Nanoscience (GPNANO) and is designed to introduce students to the interdisciplinary aspects of nanoscience by integrating important components of the broad research field together. This integrated approach will cross the traditional disciplines of biology, chemistry, electrical & computer engineering, computer science, and physics. Fundamental properties of materials at the nanoscale, synthesis of nanoparticles, characterization tools, and self-assembly. Prerequisites: Physics 62L and Chem 21L or instructor approval. C-L: NANO 200 pending in COMPSCI, CHEM, and PHYS. Instructor: Dwyer. 3 units. C-L: Nanosciences 310

316. Advanced Physics of Semiconductor Devices. Semiconductor materials: band structure and carrier statistics. Advanced treatments of metal-semiconductor contacts, Schottky barriers, p-n junctions, bipolar transistors (charge-control and Gummel-Poon models), and field-effect transistors (short channel effects, scaling theory, subthreshold conduction, nonuniformly doped substrates, surface and buried-channel devices, hot-electron effects). Device modeling in two dimensions using PISCES. Prerequisite: Electrical Engineering 216. Instructor: Massoud. 3 units.

318. Integrated Circuit Fabrication Laboratory. Introduction to IC fabrication processes. Device layout. Mask design and technology. Wafer cleaning, etching, thermal oxidation, thermal diffusion, lithography, and metallization. Laboratory fabrication and characterization of basic IC elements (p-n junctions, resistors, MOS capacitors, gated diodes, and MOSFETs). Use of four-point probe, ellipsometer, spreading resistance probe, scanning electron microscope, and evaporation system. Testing of basic inverters and gates. Prerequisite: Electrical Engineering 218 and consent of instructor. Instructor: Massoud. 3 units.

2008-09 Bulletin of the Duke University Graduate School

2008-09 Bulletin of the
Duke University Graduate School