Digital Commons Network^™

An Implantable Low Pressure, Low Drift, Dual Biopressure Sensor And In-Vivo Calibration Methods Thereof, Chad Eric Seaver

Doctoral Dissertations

The human body’s intracranial pressure (ICP) is a critical component in sustaining healthy blood flow to the brain while allowing adequate volume for brain tissue within the rigid structures of the cranium. Disruptions in the body’s autoregulation of intracranial pressure are often caused by hemorrhage, tumors, edema, or excess cerebral spinal fluid resulting in treatments that are estimated to globally cost up to approximately five billion dollars annually. A critical element in the contemporary management of acute head injury, intracranial hemorrhage, stroke, or other conditions resulting in intracranial hypertension, is the real-time monitoring of ICP. Currently, such mainstream clinical monitoring …

Modeling And Development Of A Mems Device For Pyroelectric Energy Scavenging, Salwa Mostafa

Doctoral Dissertations

As the world faces an energy crisis with depleting fossil fuel reserves, alternate energy sources are being researched ever more seriously. In addition to renewable energy sources, energy recycling and energy scavenging technologies are also gaining importance. Technologies are being developed to scavenge energy from ambient sources such as vibration, radio frequency and low grade waste heat, etc. Waste heat is the most common form of wasted energy and is the greatest potential source of energy scavenging.

Pyroelectricity is the property of some materials to change the surface charge distribution with the change in temperature. These materials produce current as …