Last Update:
February 1, 2012, 23:00
by Stephan Senn



Projects during Study


Wavelet-based Compression using the SPIHT Algorithm (Semester Thesis)
Optimization of High-Density Neurochip (Semester Thesis)
Embedded MEMS Lab (Practical Course)
Open Survey Project
BioMEMS - Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) on a Chip (Presentation)
A Multi-Standard ADC for Cellular and WLAN in 65nm CMOS (Master Thesis)


Wavelet-based Compression using the SPIHT Algorithm (Semester Thesis)

Authors : Tobias Blaser, Stephan Senn, Philipp Stadelmann

Advisors : Marc Wegmüller, David Perels

Superadvisors : Norbert Felber, Hubert Käslin

Professor : Wolfgang Fichtner

Institutes : Integrated Systems Laboratory ETHZ, Microelectronics Design Center ETHZ

The aim of this semester thesis was to develop an ASIC which is able to encode ECG and image data by using SPIHT. Set Partitioning In Hierarchical Tree, for short SPIHT, is a compression algorithm for image data that was invented by Pearlman and Said in 1996. The chip was designed, fabricated in a fab and afterwards tested on a IC tester. According to our knowledge so far, it is the first ASIC implementation of SPIHT worldwide. We were able to show that an ASIC implementation is feasible, but the huge memory demand ask for further improvements. Especially the ability to partition the image into smaller parts and the processing of these small parts is a key requirement for hardware design in our opinion.

Please see the following documents and weblinks for further details:


Optimization of High-Density Neurochip (Semester Thesis)

Authors : Stefan Berg, Stephan Senn

Advisors : Urs Frey, Flavio Heer

Professor : Andreas Hierlemann

Institute : Physical Electronics Laboratory ETHZ

The aim of this semester thesis was a redesign of the readout circuit block of a so called neurochip. The task of a neurochip is the detection of the potential of neurons by the help of an array of electrodes, called Multi Electrode Array (MEA). Beside of other invasive detection methods, this detection principle is non-invasively and therfore is very welcome for neuronal research.

Please see the following documents and weblinks for further details:


Embedded MEMS Lab (Practical Course)

Authors : Tomislav Cvetic, Dirk Möller, Stephan Senn, Franz Zürcher

Advisors : Daniel Bachmann, Wulf Glatz, Alain Jungen, Silvan Schmid, Bernd Schäberle, Christoph Stampfer, Florian Umbrecht

Superadvisor : Ronald Grundbacher

Professor : Christofer Hierold

Institute : Micro and Nanosystems ETHZ

The aim of this practical course was the fabrication, the testing and the characterization of a MEMS device. The MEMS device was a one-dimensional accelerometer sensor (measurement of acceleration in only one direction). The device was fabricated under guidance of our tutors in a clean room at ETH. The testing and the characterization were carried out by the help of a speaker.

Read more about this interesting project in the report and of course on our project website:


Open Survey Project

Authors : Georg Boecherer, Stephan Senn, Philipp Stadelmann, Diego Stutzer

Advisor : Elisabeth Coutts †

Professor : Andreas Diekmann

Institute : Professur für Soziologie ETHZ

Open Survey Package is an open source package, licenced under GNU General Public License. So you are free to reuse, change or append new code to the existing framework. But make sure that you do not include third party software that is not licenced as open source software. As this project is licenced under GNU Gneral Public License your modification will also be part of this licence. You are not allowed to sell your product. But you are encouraged to distribute it so that other people could also use it for their projects. It offers you the following benefits:

For further details see the Project Website.


BioMEMS - Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) on a Chip (Presentation)

Authors : Stefan Axmann, Stefan Berg, Stephan Senn

Advisor : Nils Goedecke

Professors : Andreas Hierlemann, Christofer Hierold

Institutes : Physical Electronics Laboratory ETHZ, Micro and Nanosystems ETHZ

This is a short presentation that was held in the course 'Micro- and Nanosystems'. The presentation can be downloaded here.


A Multi-Standard ADC for Cellular and WLAN in 65nm CMOS (Master Thesis)

Authors : Tomislav Cvetic, Stephan Senn

Advisors : Thomas Christen, Craig Keogh

Professor : Qiuting Huang

Institute : Integrated Systems Laboratory ETHZ

This master thesis deals with the design of a reconfigurable wideband ΣΔ-modulator for the cellular standards GSM-EDGE and UMTS as well as for the WLAN standards IEEE 802.11a/b/g and the proposal draft n. A 4th order feed-forward ΣΔ-modulator is evaluated and optimized in MATLAB and later implemented in 65nm CMOS in Cadence. The designed ΣΔ-modulator fulfills the target specifications for all standards. In detail, it supports a bandwidth that reaches from 100kHz to 20MHz. Further, it has a dynamic range of 88dB / 79dB / 71dB / 64dB for GSM-EDGE / UMTS / WLAN a/b/g / WLAN n respectively. Its input stable range is 0.8FS for a differential input swing of 1.4V at a supply voltage of 1.2V.

Please see the following documents and weblinks for further details:


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