Engineering Commons^™

Programmable Vibration Table Retrofit With Eagle Medical, Jonathan Ilagan, Madhav Asok, Max Lewter

Biomedical Engineering

This project aimed to repair and upgrade a vibration table used for package testing for the sponsor, Eagle Medical - a medical packaging and sterilization company based in Paso Robles, California. The current vibration table is not programmable and lacks circuit diagrams, making it difficult to repair. In addition, it is not functional due to internal circuitry issues and power requirements. To address these issues, the team will implement several upgrades to improve the product and allow for better random cyclic vibration testing. A full assessment of the existing vibration table will be conducted to ensure the viability of these …

Development Of An Automated Electronic Prototyping System, Cesar Yahir Sanchez Zambrano

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Prototyping systems with interconnected components can be a time and resource expensive process. The process consists of three main phases (design, build and analysis) with each having their own associated cost. For the case of electronic circuits, the building phase is the costliest phase among the three, being prone to human errors which causes the circuit to fail. All three phases of the prototyping process are important. However, often a disproportionate amount of time is spent on the build phase due to the difficulty of making and troubleshooting circuits by hand. In this thesis we will discuss a system that …

The Bracelet: An American Sign Language (Asl) Interpreting Wearable Device, Samuel Aba, Ahmadre Darrisaw, Pei Lin, Thomas Leonard

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Checkerbot, Sean P. Whitty

Electrical Engineering

This product is able to play a game of checkers against the customer at three different preset difficulties. It can process the board on its turn, and displays its next turn to its opponent by updating the board state via the LEDs. It consists of a laptop screen display, and a computer chip with the programmed ability to process the checkers board and decide its next move. It provides the customer with an opponent that can be modified in difficulty so it can provide however much of a challenge as the customer desires, as well as allowing for a 2 …

Assessment Of Cable Length Limit For Effective Protection By Z-Source Circuit Breakers In Dc Power Networks, Ruiyun Fu, Sagar Bhatta, Joseph M. Keller, Yucheng Zhang

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper introduces groundbreaking research on how to assess the Cable Length Limit (CLL) to ensure effective protection by Z-source Circuit Breakers (ZCBs) in DC power networks. It has been revealed that the line parameters of power cables have a significant impact on the cutoff performance of ZCBs. The question of assessing the CLL has been raised as an unsolved problem. In this paper, a method of CLL assessment is proposed based on physical models and simulation tests. To verify the proposed method, two studies were performed to assess the Cable Length Limits depending on fault levels and power delivery …

Development Of A Reference Design For A Cyber-Physical System, Nicholas Paul Blair

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a reference design to assist in the selection of security practices in power electronics design. A prototype will be developed from this reference design for evaluation. This evaluation will include a brief cost/benefit analysis to gauge the efficacy of implementing each layer of security throughout the power electronics design process. This thesis will also describe the obstacles and effectiveness of integrating a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) into a cyber-hardened grid-connected device. The TPM device is a secured crypto processor that assists in generating, storing, and restricting the use of cryptographic keys. The …

Dc To Dc Usb-C Charger, Nikki Gmerek, Kenneth Nguyen, Uriel Serna

Electrical Engineering

The DC House USB-C Charger will convert the 48V input from the DC house, found on the Cal Poly campus, to 3 USB-C outputs: 5V, 12V, and 24 volts. The converter will deliver a total of 185 Watts out across all 3 outputs, with an efficiency greater than 82% at full load. The USB-C ports will be used to connect to compatible phones, laptops or any other device for charging/powering purposes. The goal of this project is to develop the most efficient and safe converter to deliver power to multiple outputs using USB-C, for items as small as a cell …

Fully Analog Laser Driver With Robust Active Feedback Control, John Petrilli

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this project was to go through a real life engineering development cycle, document and justify the design choices, and use background experience in electronic design and control systems to implement the best design possible. The laser driver implemented in this project is designed for the general use of a large variety of diodes in continuous wave mode, much like off the shelf laser drivers. The design goals included improving upon off the shelf laser drivers by decreasing steady state error, setting time, response time, and overshoot. Many different feedback control systems were evaluated, and a modified PID …

Reliability Evaluation And Improvement Based On Operational Failure Rate Of Power Electronics In Islanded Microgrid, Wen Zhong

Theses and Dissertations

With power electronics being widely applied in microgrids, they become a key part in micro-grid and the reliability assessment considering power electronic devices have become a hot research topic, and much work has been done to evaluate the reliability of power electronics in microgrids. However, the impact of operational failure of power electronics on the overall microgrid reliability has not been studied yet.

This thesis has three objectives. The first objective of this thesis is to construct a systematic operational failure rate model of power electronic systems. The power generated from renewable generation units, such as PV arrays or wind …

A Folded Cascode Operational Amplifier With Wide-Swing Current Mirrors And High Icmr, Designed With A 1.2-Micron Silicon-Carbide Process, Austin Gattis

Electrical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis describes in detail the process of designing, simulating, and creating the layout for a modified folded cascode op-amp, fabricated with silicon carbide MOSFETS. The modifications consist of using a wide-swing current mirror to help deal with output voltage issues stemming from high threshold voltages in the silicon carbide process, as well as using a modification that allows for an increased input common mode range. The folded cascode op-amp uses silicon carbide transistors, as it is intended to be used for high temperature applications, ideally in the 25 C - 300 C range. It is designed to have 25 …

Wireless Audio Bridge, Daniel L. Hodges

Electrical Engineering

Bluetooth, a wireless technology standard used to exchange data using radio transmissions, has made a significant impact on the audio technology industry, specifically the way people listen to music. This technology enables a wireless listening experience, eliminating the need for wires or cables between audio devices as previously required. Audio can transmit from a cellphone or laptop (an output device) to a pair of headphones or speakers (an input device) without any physical connection. Compared to alternative wireless listening solutions (i.e. FM transmitter, radio broadcast), Bluetooth offers greater reliability, audio fidelity, portability, and ease of use. To obtain this functionality, …

Dc House Energy Management System, Zachary L. Eldredge, Zoe M. Hay

Electrical Engineering

In this work, a previously completed proof of concept for an Energy Management System (EMS) for the DC House project has been revised and re-implemented. The implemented design changes will improve the performance and reproducibility of the system. This new design of the EMS replaces the two-separate buck and boost DC-DC converters with a single bidirectional DC-DC converter to reduce components and improve efficiency. Analysis of the bidirectional DC-DC converter shows high efficiency especially at larger load currents. The code of the previous work was updated for smoother operation as well as to accommodate an LCD capable of displaying more …

Investigating Student Learning Of Analog Electronics, Kevin L. Van De Bogart

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Instruction in analog electronics is an integral component of many physics and engineering programs, and is typically covered in courses beyond the first year. While extensive research has been conducted on student understanding of introductory electric circuits, to date there has been relatively little research on student learning of analog electronics in either physics or engineering courses. Given the significant overlap in content of courses offered in both disciplines, this study seeks to strengthen the research base on the learning and teaching of electric circuits and analog electronics via a single, coherent investigation spanning both physics and engineering courses.

This …

The Evolution Dynamics And Trends Of The Content Of Chinese Exports From 1995-2011, Megan Kerbs

Honors Theses

There is no question that China’s role in the international economy has grown over time, as it seems to be claiming more and more of center stage in the global arena. Back in the early 1990’s, the phenomenon of globalization enabled China to expand its reach, inserting itself into intricate production hierarchies that began to define the global marketplace. China experienced a massive export boom in 2000, and since, has evolved to become a highly sophisticated, high-tech country that now plays an integral role within not only the East Asian region, but also the rest of the world. This thesis …

Conversion Of Digital Circuits Labs, Caleb N. Taber

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The engineering technology department at ETSU currently lacks a modern method to teach digital circuits. The aim of this thesis is to convert our current digital circuits labs to equivalent labs suited to run on the Basys 3. The Basys has several advantages over the aging NI Elvis boards (and now just breadboards) currently in use. The first advantage is that the Basys gives students a taste of FPGA programming without being overwhelmingly; like the systems currently in place for the digital signal processing class. The Basys is also a more modern system; our current integrated circuit and breadboard system …

Design And Development Of A Wearable Wireless Health Monitoring System: A Smart Watch Approach, Keerthi Paranikumar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

According to Statistics, every year, about 610,000 people die because of heart disease in United States of America. (i.e. 1 in every 4 deaths.*) Heart disease is common for both men and women. Annually, about 370,000 people die because of coronary heart disease, which is the most common type of heart disease [1]. About 735,000 Americans have heart attack every year. In this, 210,000 people gets heart attack who already has heart problems and 525,000 people get heart attack for the first time [2]. Not many people know that they have heart problems. Around 47% of the people in United …

Project Labyrinth: Exploration Of Modulating Guitar Signals, Joseph Andrews, Andrew Patterson

Senior Theses

The overall objective of this project is to create a guitar pre-amplifier in the casing of an effects pedal. The pedal must be able to modulate amplitude and pitch. More specifically, the design for this pedal will include floating frequency filtering, phase shifting, and amplitude modulation.

Rubidium-Based Atomic Clock, Kate Miles

Physics

In this paper we will explore the process of building an atomic clock from a function generator, go into an in-depth introductory discussion of the Datum LPRO, and examine how rubidium function generators work.

3-Input Pre-Amp, Daniel Pico, Carla Salome Ramirez

Electrical Engineering

There is no commercial available pre-amplifier that takes 3 individual input signals and synthesizes them for an acoustic guitar. The acoustic pre-amplifier takes three separate small signal inputs and combines or isolates to endure amplification depending with user setting. The user deciphers which signal or signal combination is desired. The device features coil pick-up, microphone pick-up, and piezo disc pick-up for variety of tone quality and control.

Synthesis Of Rhenium And Manganese Pyridazoal Complexes, Jesse Evans

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Pyridazines are a heterocyclic aromatic compound containing a characteristic N-N bond that are utilized in many fields, including medicine and electronics. It is this latter field that Dr. Snyder's research group is focused upon. Organometallic compounds are a better conducting material than the current inorganic compounds used in electronics due to better conductance of electricity, lower production cost, and the ability to be formed into thin films. With this in mind, Dr. Snyder's research group has set out to synthesize organometallic compounds for this purpose. Following procedures set forth by Snyder etc, and altered to form an off-metal route, we …

Determining Planck's Constant Using Leds, Zechariah Thurman

Zechariah Thurman

In this paper a value for Planck's constant is measured. The value found with this experiment is within two sigma of the accepted value, this constitutes reasonable agreement with theory for the purposes of this experiment.

Analysis Of Modulation And Voltage Balancing Strategies For Modular Multilevel Converters, Ryan Blackmon

Theses and Dissertations

Modular multilevel converters are an emerging voltage source converter topology suitable for many applications. The increased utilization of HVDC power transmission solutions has resulted in modular multilevel converters becoming a more common converter type. Other applications include interfacing renewable energy power sources to the grid and motor drives. Modular multilevel converters are beneficial for medium voltage motor drives because the properties of this converter topology, such as low distortion, allow for an efficient motor drive design.

Modular multilevel converters are designed where instead of using 6 IGBTs as in a conventional voltage source converter, numerous low-rated IGBTs are used to …

The Unprecedented Assimilation Of Mobile Telephony In Ireland: A Phenomenon Of The Celtic Tiger Era Or A Result Of Cultural Traits?, Andreas Scheibelhut

Masters

Following the universal acceptance of mobile telephony the once elitist gadget has become an indispensable democratic tool of everyday communications over the last three decades. Controversially, this thesis illustrates that its level of both adoption and usage did not develop in a similar homogenous pattern in selected OECD countries. In particular, the Irish performance is rather astonishing given the speed of adoption as well as the exceptional high revenue figures achieved by the wireless operators. Consequently, this work determines a selection of factors that drive and encourage both the adoption and usage of cellular telephony in Ireland. The Irish experience …

Portable Solar Powered Charging Station, Jordan Bonner

Electrical Engineering

The portable solar powered charging station uses a solar powered mat that can be folded for portability. The device has the ability to charge small electronics during both day and night. When sunlight is available, the charger charges two C batteries in series and at the same time it charges any electronic device that can be connected via USB or cigarette lighter. At night the charger will charge the same electronic devices from the onboard batteries. The charging station must be able to interface with electronic devices using USB and a car cigarette lighter to charge the device’s battery.

Design And Production Aspects Of An Electroluminescent Segment Display, Veronica Kopp, Chris Nixon

Graphic Communication

The purpose of this study was to get a better understanding of the different ways printed circuits could be constructed and then implemented into creative, visual designs for printed electroluminescent displays. A variety of circuit design variables, such as area and length, were tested that will help create solutions for printed electronics.

This study tested different variables of circuit design, such as length of silver traces and the size of the image area, to help optimize ways to build a printed circuit. Then, findings were implemented into a segmented graphic display in order to analyze innovative ways to utilize multiple …

The Applications And Limitations Of Printable Batteries, Matthew Delmanowski

Graphic Communication

This study focuses on the potential applications for printed batteries and how they could affect the printing industry. It also analyzes the main problems associated with manufacturing this technology and what needs to be done to overcome these issues. To find the answers to these questions, two methods of research were used. The first was through the elite and specialized interviewing of Dr. Scott Williams of Rochester Institute of Technology and Professor Nancy Cullins from Cal Poly. The second form of research was a common, yet useful, method called secondary research. This entailed looking at recent written research papers about …

Wideband Dual Polarized Directional Base Station Antenna, Francisco L. Lerma

Masters

The thesis presents a study of different microwave radiators for wireless applications in the frequency range of 2.2 – 2.5GHz. The performance of microstrip patch antennas and dual polarized dipole antennas were evaluated numerically and experimentally verified. A single microstrip patch and a four- element microstrip array were simulated, fabricated and tested. Simulation was carried out by the finite integration time domain (FITD) method. Polarization diversity is realised using crossed dipoles printed elements. For the crossed dipole elements, two different feed arrangements were studied. Parameters such as return loss, isolation, radiation pattern, gain and bandwidth were measured and found to …

An Electronics Course Of Study For The High Schools In The Highline School District, Rual Elmer Tigner

Graduate Student Research Papers

Electronics is now being taught in the Highline District in one course for one year in each of the four high schools. There are no formal district objectives tor this course, no sequence of instruction, no list of course content. The writer has felt the need for the above and has interviewed all four instructors in the district and the assistant superintendent of instruction. It was agreed that in order to provide a more meaningful, correlated program, it would be necessary to have such a district-wide course of study developed. In view of this, the writer has attempted to develop …