• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.62-70
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• 2011

Nowadays image sensor is an essential component in many multimedia devices, and it is covered by a color filter array to filter out specific color components at each pixel. We need a certain algorithm to combine those color components reconstructed a full color image from incomplete color samples output from an image sensor, which is called a demosaicking process. Most existing demosaicking algorithms are developed for ideal image sensors, but they do not work well for the practical cases because of dissimilar characteristics of each sensor. In this paper, we propose a new demosaicking algorithm in which the color filter characteristics are fully utilized to generate a good image. To demonstrate significance of our algorithm, we used a commerically available sensor, CBN385B, which is a sort of Honeycomb-style CFA(Color Filter Array) CCD image sensor. As a performance metric of the algorithm, PSNR(Peak Signal to Noise Ratio) and RGB distribution of the output image are used. We first implemented our algorithm in C-language for simulation on various input images. As a result, we could obtain much enhanced images whose PSNR was improved by 4~8 dB compared to the commonly idealized approaches, and we also could remove the inclined red property which was an unique characteristics of the image sensor(CBN385B).Then we implemented it in hardware to overcome its problem of computational complexity which made it operate slow in software. The hardware was verified on Spartan-3E FPGA(Field Programable Gate Array) to give almost the same performance as software, but in much faster execution time. The total logic gate count is 45K, and it handles 25 image frmaes per second.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.401-417
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• 1994

In this paper, a new testable design technique for domino CMOS circuits is proposed to detect stuck-at(s-at), stuck-open(s-op) and stuck-on(s-on) faults in the circuits by observing logic test reponses. The proposed technique adds one pMOS transistor per domino CMOS gate for s-op and s-on faults testing of nMOS transistors and one nMOS transistors and one nMOS transistor per domino gate or multilevel circuit to detect s-on faults in pMOS transistors of inverters in the circuit. The extra transistors enable the proposed testable circuit to operate like a pseudo static nMOS circuit while testing nMOS transistors in domino CMOS circuits. Therefore, the two=phase operation of a precharge phase and a evaluation phase is not needed to keep the domino CMOS circuit from malfunctionong due to circuit delays in the test mode, which reduces the testing time and the complexity of test generation. Most faults of th transistors in the proposed testable domino CMOS circuit can be detected by single test patterns. The use of single test patterns makes the testing of the proposed testable domino CMOS circuit free from path delays, timing skews, chage sharing and glitches. In the proposed design, the testing of the faults which, require test sequences also becomes free from test invalidation. The conventional automatic test pattern generators(ATPG) can be used for generating test patterns to detect faults in the circuits.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.45 no.7
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• pp.61-68
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• 2008

In this paper, we propose an efficient hardware architecture and algorithm to increase an encoding process rate and implement a hardware for CABAC (Context Adaptive Binary Arithmetic Coding) which is used with one of the entropy coding ways for the latest video compression technique, H.264/AVC (Advanced Video Coding). CABAC typically provides a better high compression performance maximum 15% compared with CAVLC. However, the complexity of operation of CABAC is significantly higher than the CAVLC. Because of complicated data dependency during the encoding process, the complexity of operation is higher. Therefore, various architectures were proposed to reduce an amount of operation. However, they have still latency on account of complicated data dependency. The proposed architecture has two techniques to implement efficient pipeline architecture. The one is quick calculation of 7, 8th bits used to calculate a probability is the first step in Binary arithmetic coding. The other is one step reduced pipeline arcbitecture when the type of the encoded symbols is MPS. By adopting these two techniques, the required processing time was reduced about 27-29% compared with previous architectures. It is designed in a hardware description language and total logic gate count is 19K using 0.18um standard cell library.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.43 no.11 s.353
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• pp.26-36
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• 2006

In this paper, we propose a cost-effective color filter may (CFA) demosaicing method for digital still cameras in which a single CCD or CMOS image sensor is used. Since a CFA is adopted, we must interpolate missing color values in the red, green and blue channels at each pixel location. While most state-of-the-art algorithms invest a great deal of computational effort in the enhancement of the reconstructed image to overcome the color artifacts, we focus on eliminating the color artifacts with low computational complexity. Using spatial correlation of the adjacent pixels, the edge-directional information of the neighbor pixels is used for determining the edge direction of the current pixel. We apply our method to the state-of-the-art algorithms which use edge-directed methods to interpolate the missing color channels. The experiment results show that the proposed method enhances the demosaiced image qualify from $0.09{\sim}0.47dB$ in PSNR depending on the basis algorithm by removing most of the color artifacts. The proposed method was implemented and verified successfully using verilog HDL and FPGA. It was synthesized to gate-level circuits using 0.25um CMOS standard cell library. The total logic gate count is 12K, and five line memories are used.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.55-62
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• 2007

This paper proposes a defective pixel detection algorithm and its hardware structure for CCD/CMOS image sensor. In previous algorithms, the characteristics of image have not been considered. Also, some algorithms need quite a time to detect defective pixels. In order to make up for those disadvantages, the proposed defective pixel detection method detects defective pixels efficiently by considering the edges in the image and verifies them using several frames while checking scene-changes. Whenever scene-change is occurred, potentially defective pixels are checked and confirmed whether it is defective or not. Test results showed that the correct detection rate in a frame was increased 6% and the defective pixel verification time was decreased 60%. The proposed algorithm was implemented with verilog HDL. The edge indicator in color interpolation block was reused. Total logic gate count was 5.4k using 0.25um CMOS standard cell library.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.103-111
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• 2007

In this paper, we propose a VLSI architecture of hardware optimized high quality image signal processor for a Single-chip CMOS Image Sensor(CIS). The Single-chip CIS is usually used for mobile applications, so it has to be implemented as small as possible while maintaining the image quality. Several image processing algorithms are used in ISP to improve captured image quality. Among the several image processing blocks, demosaicing and image filter are the core blocks in ISP. These blocks need line memories, but the number of line memories is limited in a low cost Single-chip CIS. In our design, high quality edge-adaptive and cross channel correlation considered demosaicing algorithm is adopted. To minimize the number of required line memories for image filter, we share the line memories using the characteristics of demosaicing algorithm which consider the cross correlation. Based on the proposed method, we can achieve both high quality and low hardware complexity with a small number of line memories. The proposed method was implemented and verified successfully using verilog HDL and FPGA. It was synthesized to gate-level circuits using 0.25um CMOS standard cell library. The total logic gate count is 37K, and seven and half line memories are used.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.422-429
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• 2022

A light sensor chip requires a small capacity eFuse (electrical fuse) OTP (One-Time Programmable) memory IP (Intellectual Property) to trim analog circuits or set initial values of digital registers. In this paper, 128-bit eFuse OTP IP is designed using only 3.3V MV (Medium Voltage) devices without using 1.8V LV (Low-Voltage) logic devices. The eFuse OTP IP designed with 3.3V single MOS devices can reduce a total process cost of three masks which are the gate oxide mask of a 1.8V LV device and the LDD implant masks of NMOS and PMOS. And since the 1.8V voltage regulator circuit is not required, the size of the illuminance sensor chip can be reduced. In addition, in order to reduce the number of package pins of the illumination sensor chip, the VPGM voltage, which is a program voltage, is applied through the VPGM pad during wafer test, and the VDD voltage is applied through the PMOS power switching circuit after packaging, so that the number of package pins can be reduced.

• Journal of KIISE:Computer Systems and Theory
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• v.31 no.7
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• pp.402-413
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• 2004

This paper presents an Implementation of Korean standard 128-bit block cipher SEED for the small (8 or 16-bits) embedded system using a low-cost FPGA(Field Programmable Gate Array) chip. Due to their limited computing and storage capacities most of the 8-bits/16-bits small embedded systems require a separate and dedicated cryptography processor for data encryption and decryption process which require relatively heavy computation job. So, in order to integrate the SEED with other logic circuit block in a single chip we need to invent a design which minimizes the area demand while maintaining the proper performance. But, the straight-forward mapping of the SEED specification into hardware design results in exceedingly large circuit area for a low-cost FPGA capacity. Therefore, in this paper we present a design which maximize the resource sharing and utilizing the modern FPGA features to reduce the area demand resulting in the successful implementation of the SEED plus interface logic with single low-cost FPGA. We achieved 66% area accupation by our SEED design for the XC2S100 (a Spartan-II series FPGA from Xilinx) and data throughput more than 66Mbps. This Performance is sufficient for the small scale embedded system while achieving tight area requirement.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.183-190
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• 2010

We propose an eFuse one-time programmable (OTP) memory cell based on a logic process, which is programmable by an external program voltage. For the conventional eFuse OTP memory cell, a program datum is provided with the SL (Source Line) connected to the anode of the eFuse going through a voltage drop of the SL driving circuit. In contrast, the gate of the NMOS program transistor is provided with a program datum and the anode of the eFuse with an external program voltage (FSOURCE) of 3.8V without any voltage drop for the newly proposed eFuse cell. The FSOURCE voltage of the proposed cell keeps either 0V or the floating state at read mode. We propose a clamp circuit for being biased to 0V when the voltage of FSOURCE is in the floating state. In addition, we propose a VPP switching circuit switching between the logic VDD (=1.8V) and the FSOURCE voltage. The layout size of the designed eFuse OTP memory IP with Dongbu HiTek's $0.15{\mu}m$ generic process is $359.92{\times}90.98{\mu}m^2$.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.46 no.7
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• pp.53-60
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• 2009

Motion estimation for H.264/AVC video CODEC is very complex and requires a huge amount of computational efforts because it uses multiple reference frames and variable block sizes. We propose the architecture of high-performance integer-pixel motion estimation circuit based on fast algorithms for multiple reference frame selection, block matching, block mode decision and motion vector estimation. We also propose the architecture of high-performance interpolation circuit for sub-pixel motion estimation. We described the RTL circuit in Verilog HDL and synthesized the gate-level circuit using 130nm standard cell library. The integer-pixel motion estimation circuit consists of 77,600 logic gates and four $32\times8\times32$-bit dual-port SRAM's. It has tile maximum operating frequency of 161MHz and can process up to 51 D1 (720$\times$480) color in go frames per second. The fractional motion estimation circuit consists of 22,478 logic gates. It has the maximum operating frequency of 200MHz and can process up to 69 1080HD (1,920$\times$1,088) color image frames per second.