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TRIUMF's research programs drive progress not only in basic science but also the enabling technologies that allow newer, more precise, and more sensitive measurements. In the realm of particle and radiation detection, a core technology is electronic processing of signals -- at high speeds and in noisy environments.
At the August 2013 IEEE Pacific Rim Conference on Communications, Computers, and Signal Processing, Yair Linn from TRIUMF's Electronics Development group presented a ground-breaking paper on "Efficient Phase Detectors for M-PSK." This technique deals with M-ary Phase-Shift Keying, an approach in wireless digital communications that uses the phase of a signal to encode information. The simplest PSK technique is to use two opposite phases of the signal; more sophisticated versions with quaternary or octal phases are also in use. Linn's research examined novel approaches to optimize the number of logic gates used in a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) when such devices are used to implement M-PSK receivers. Linn also chaired a session on the topic of cognitive radio.
Dr. Yair Linn received his B.Sc. (with honors) in computer engineering from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel, in 1996. From 1996-2001 he was employed as an electrical engineer in the Israeli Ministry of Defense, where he worked with the development, implementation, and deployment of wireless communications systems. From 2002-2007 he earned his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering at the University of British Columbia, Canada. In 2008-2010 he was a visiting professor in electronic engineering at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana and also at the Universidad Industrial de Santander, Colombia. He came to TRIUMF about 9 months ago from the semiconductor company PMC-Sierra in Burnaby, BC. He is an adjunct professor at UBC's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Congratulations to Dr. Linn and the Electronics Development group!
-- by T.I. Meyer, Head of Strategic Planning & Communication