Engineering Commons^™

Energy Harvesting Sensors And Their Role In Fostering Sustainable Air Quality Monitoring, Tomas Valentin, Li Geng

Publications and Research

This research presents a comprehensive investigation into Energy Harvesting Sensors and their role in fostering sustainable air quality monitoring. The primary objective is to explore the viability of energy harvesting technologies in energizing sensor networks devoted to the real-time collection of air quality data, emphasizing the reduction of environmental impact and maintenance demands. The study delves into the integration of energy harvesting mechanisms, including solar and piezoelectric kinetic energy, to power advanced sensor nodes capable of detecting pollutants, particulate matter, and gas concentrations. The findings of this research highlight the significant benefits of energy harvesting sensors, including enhanced sustainability, long-term …

Investigating Mems Devices In Flow Conditions Relevant To Flow-Through Systems., Mohammad Shafquatul Islam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Advancements in microscale actuating technologies has substantially expanded the possibilities of interacting with the surrounding environment. Microstructures that deflect in response to mechanical forces are one of the largest application areas of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). MEMS devices, functioning as sensors, actuators, and support structures, find applications in inertial sensors, pressure sensors, chemical sensors, and robotics, among others. Driven by the critical role of catalytic membrane reactors, this dissertation aims to evaluate enzyme activity on polymeric membranes and explore how fabrication methods from the field of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) can incorporate sensing and actuation into these porous surfaces. Toward …

Instrumented Control Column For Optionally Piloted Aircraft, Andrew J. Klein

Electrical Engineering

Natilus, an aerospace company that is rapid-prototyping optionally piloted aircraft (OPA) for the shipping industry, needs a system that retrieves control column position data in order to manipulate flight simulator parameters in software. At present, a universally compatible system for all aircraft does not exist. Typically, established aerospace companies will sink significant time and money into developing proprietary systems for control column data retrieval as every aircraft is unique in its layout and linkage design. However, as a startup developing their first aircraft, Natilus does not have the privilege of modifying an existing sensor system to work with their HIL …

Simulation And Testing Of A High-Temperature Oscillator Circuit, Jude Zanoni

Honors College

A high-temperature Pierce oscillator circuit was designed, analyzed, simulated, built and tested. The oscillator was designed as part of a high-temperature sensor system for monitoring the condition of equipment operating in harsh environments. The oscillator was designed using a silicon carbide (SiC) metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) common source amplifier with an LC tank resonant circuit. It was manufactured using gold paste on alumina with 1 mil gold wire bonded between components. All components needed to be capable of operating at temperatures up to 400°C. To this end, high-temperature spiral planar inductors were designed and fabricated. These were found to …

The Development Of A Motion Sensing Device For Use In A Home Setting, Jaspreet K. Kalsi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disease, with over 10 million individuals diagnosed with PD world-wide. The most common symptom characterized by PD is tremor. Tremor is an involuntary oscillatory motion that most prominently occurs in upper limb, specifically in the hand and wrist that has a measurable frequency and amplitude. This thesis aims to evaluate the usability and functionality of a tremor sensing device designed to collect quantitative data on individuals with PD. The designed device uses 23 commercially-available inertial measuring units (IMUs) located between 21 joints: distal interphalangeal (DIP) joints, proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joints, Interphalangeal …

Soft Electronics And Sensors For Wearable Healthcare Applications, Li-Wei Lo

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Wearable electronics are becoming increasingly essential to personalized medicine by collecting and analyzing massive amounts of biological signals from internal organs, muscles, and blood vessels. Conventional rigid electronics may lead to motion artifacts and errors in collected data due to the mismatches in mechanical properties between human skin. Instead, soft wearable electronics provide a better platform and interface that can form intimate contact and conformably adapt to human skin. In this respect, this thesis focuses on new materials formulation, fabrication, characterization of low-cost, high sensitivity and reliable sensors for wearable health monitoring applications.

More specifically, we have studied the silver …

Detecting The Presence Of Electronic Devices In Smart Homes Using Harmonic Radar, Beatrice Perez, Gregory Mazzaro, Timothy J. Pierson, David Kotz

Dartmouth Scholarship

Data about users is collected constantly by phones, cameras, Internet websites, and others. The advent of so-called ‘Smart Things' now enable ever-more sensitive data to be collected inside that most private of spaces: the home. The first step in helping users regain control of their information (inside their home) is to alert them to the presence of potentially unwanted electronics. In this paper, we present a system that could help homeowners (or home dwellers) find electronic devices in their living space. Specifically, we demonstrate the use of harmonic radars (sometimes called nonlinear junction detectors), which have also been used in …

Design And Implementation Of A Multi-Modal Sensor With On-Chip Security, Ava Hedayatipour

Doctoral Dissertations

With the advancement of technology, wearable devices for fitness tracking, patient monitoring, diagnosis, and disease prevention are finding ways to be woven into modern world reality. CMOS sensors are known to be compact, with low power consumption, making them an inseparable part of wireless medical applications and Internet of Things (IoT). Digital/semi-digital output, by the translation of transmitting data into the frequency domain, takes advantages of both the analog and digital world. However, one of the most critical measures of communication, security, is ignored and not considered for fabrication of an integrated chip. With the advancement of Moore's law and …

Polyone Smartphone, Joshua Zalmanowitz, Chi Nguyen, Gerome Cacho, Chris Lim

Electrical Engineering

The Poly One Smartphone is a student designed smartphone built to explore the implementation of 5G, provide a hardware solution to ensure personal information security and privacy, and provide longer battery life. The key features of this smartphone include but are not limited to a main cpu, some form of network connectivity in the form of Wi-fi or Cellular Data, calling functionality, a rechargeable battery that works with common power connection protocols, and compatibility with popular applications.

Synthesis Of Graphene Using Plasma Etching And Atmospheric Pressure Annealing: Process And Sensor Development, Andrew Robert Graves

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Having been theorized in 1947, it was not until 2004 that graphene was first isolated. In the years since its isolation, graphene has been the subject of intense, world-wide study due to its incredibly diverse array of useful properties. Even though many billions of dollars have been spent on its development, graphene has yet to break out of the laboratory and penetrate mainstream industrial applications markets. This is because graphene faces a ‘grand challenge.’ Simply put, there is currently no method of manufacturing high-quality graphene on the industrial scale. This grand challenge looms particularly large for electronic applications where the …

Tidalsim Senior Project Report, Kent Zhang, Colin Vandervoort

Computer Engineering

Throughout the course of this project, our team helped the Cal Poly Biological Sciences department refine an intertidal zone simulator. The aim of this device is to allow any marine biologist to easily simulate a vast range of tidal zones in order to test animal behaviors within these zones. Another goal of this project is to make each simulation tank independent from the others by using a single microcontroller to handle all inputs and outputs of the system as well as logging all relevant data. The current system is set up so that a separate microcontroller handles dissolved oxygen and …

Designing And Testing 3-D Printed Wafer-Box With Embedded Pzt Sensors To Identify The Shape Effect On Energy Harvesting, Ahmad Jami Safayet

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Piezoelectric energy has been recently paid attention in the field of alternative energy. Day by day the traditional energy sources including Coal tar and oils are becoming scarce. People are heading to an alternative energy source to meet the future energy demand. Piezoelectric energy is one of the competitive energy sources compared to the conventional renewable energy sources including solar, wind, and geothermal power and so on. This energy production method bears enormous research potential because it can be used as the roadway for a new method of power generation. This research project aimed to identify which shaped wafer-box produced …

Min Kao Autonomous Robot Tour Guide, Albert J. Toth, Sunay G. Bhat, Christopher A. Treadway, Ammar S. Abdelwahed, Samuel C. Leach

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Smart Fitness Machine, Tyler M. Masters

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This paper details the design of a smart fitness machine that, by the use of sensors and a central micro controller, tracks an individual users exercise performance data and provides a platform for the data to be easily accessed either by the trainer or user.

Contactless Measurement Of Angular Velocity Using Circularly Polarized Antennas, Vit Sipal, Adam Narbudowicz, Max Ammann

Articles

An innovative method to measure the angular velocity using circularly polarized antennas is proposed. Due to the properties of circular polarization, the angular velocity is frequency modulated (FM) on a wireless carrier. This enables a low-cost precise continuous measurement of angular velocity using a standard FM demodulator. The hardware can be easily adapted for both high and low angular velocity values. The precise alignment angle between the antennas can be determined if the initial antenna orientation is known. The angular error is shown to be

Ghz Range Nanoscaled Aln Contour-Mode Resonant Sensors (Cmr-S) With Self-Sustained Cmos Oscillator, Matteo Rinaldi, Chiara Zuniga, Chengjie Zuo, Gianluca Piazza

Matteo Rinaldi

This paper reports on the design and experimental verification of a new class of nanoscaled AlN Contour-Mode Resonant Sensors (CMR-S) for the detection of volatile organic chemicals (VOC) operating at frequencies above 1 GHz and connected to a chip-based CMOS oscillator circuit for direct frequency read-out. This work shows that by scaling the CMR-S to 250 nm in thickness and by operating at high frequencies (1 GHz) a limit of detection of ~35 zg/µm2 and a fast response time (<1 >ms) can be attained. In addition, the capability to detect concentrations of volatile organic compounds such as 2,6 dinitroluene (DNT) …

Ss-Dna Functionalized Ultra-Thin-Film Aln Contour-Mode Resonators With Self-Sustained Oscillator For Volatile Organic Chemical Detection, Matteo Rinaldi, Brandon Duick, Chiara Zuniga, Chengjie Zuo, Gianluca Piazza

Matteo Rinaldi

This paper reports on the design and experimental verification of a new class of nanoscale gravimetric sensors based on ultra-thin-film AlN Contour-Mode Resonant Sensor (CMR-S) functionalized with ss-DNA and connected to a chip-based self-sustaining oscillator loop (fabricated in the ON Semiconductor 0.5 μm CMOS process) for direct frequency read-out. The 220 MHz oscillator based on the ultra-thin AlN CMR-S exhibits an Allan Variance of ∼20 Hz for 100 ms gate time. The sensor affinity for the adsorption of volatile organic chemicals such as 2,6 dinitroluene (DNT, a simulant for explosive vapors) is enhanced by functionalizing the top gold electrode of …

Wireless Telemetry System For Implantable Sensors, Kyle G. Fricke

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Advanced testing of medical treatments involves experimentation on small laboratory animals, such as genetically modified mice. These subjects are used to help researchers develop medication and cures for humans. To understand the effects of the treatments, innovative telemetry systems are developed, that enable remote real-time cardiac monitoring. The latest research in the field of cardiac monitoring has revealed two major limitations with wireless implantable systems: a) the current size of implantable electronics limits the physical size of the system to larger subjects; and b) the systems only interface with one sensor type (e.g., pressure sensor only). This research focuses on …

Ultra-Thin-Film Aln Contour-Mode Resonators For Sensing Applications, Matteo Rinaldi, Chiara Zuniga, Gianluca Piazza

Matteo Rinaldi

This paper reports on the design and experimental verification of a new class of ultra-thin-film (250 nm) aluminum nitride (AlN) microelectromechanical system (MEMS) contour mode resonators (CMRs) suitable for the fabrication of ultra-sensitive gravimetric sensors. The device thickness was opportunely scaled in order to increase the mass sensitivity, while keeping a constant frequency of operation. In this first demonstration the resonance frequency of the device was set to 178 MHz and a mass sensitivity as high as 38.96 KHz⋅μm2/fg was attained. This device demonstrates the unique capability of the CMR-S technology to decouple resonance frequency from mass sensitivity.

Ghz Range Nanoscaled Aln Contour-Mode Resonant Sensors (Cmr-S) With Self-Sustained Cmos Oscillator, Matteo Rinaldi, Chiara Zuniga, Chengjie Zuo, Gianluca Piazza

Matteo Rinaldi

This paper reports on the design and experimental verification of a new class of nanoscaled AlN Contour-Mode Resonant Sensors (CMR-S) for the detection of volatile organic chemicals (VOC) operating at frequencies above 1 GHz and connected to a chip-based CMOS oscillator circuit for direct frequency read-out. This work shows that by scaling the CMR-S to 250 nm in thickness and by operating at high frequencies (1 GHz) a limit of detection of ~35 zg/µm2 and a fast response time (<1 >ms) can be attained. In addition, the capability to detect concentrations of volatile organic compounds such as 2,6 dinitroluene (DNT) …

Ghz Range Nanoscaled Aln Contour-Mode Resonant Sensors (Cmr-S) With Self-Sustained Cmos Oscillator, Matteo Rinaldi, Chiara Zuniga, Chengjie Zuo, Gianluca Piazza

Chengjie Zuo

This paper reports on the design and experimental verification of a new class of nanoscaled AlN Contour-Mode Resonant Sensors (CMR-S) for the detection of volatile organic chemicals (VOC) operating at frequencies above 1 GHz and connected to a chip-based CMOS oscillator circuit for direct frequency read-out. This work shows that by scaling the CMR-S to 250 nm in thickness and by operating at high frequencies (1 GHz) a limit of detection of ~35 zg/µm2 and a fast response time (<1 ms) can be attained. In addition, the capability to detect concentrations of volatile organic compounds such as 2,6 dinitroluene (DNT) as low as 1.5 ppb (4.7 ag/µm2) is experimentally verified.

Polyenvi, Stephen Beard, Josh Engel, Paul Fake, Diego Flores, Alvaro Nunez, Miguel Wong

Electrical Engineering

Poor indoor air quality is a problem that is recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to cause health issues. In order to raise awareness of this problem, this document outlines the construction of a device that economically measures air quality through five metrics: dust, smoke, ozone, humidity, and temperature. The device integrates with a router to provide users access to information about their indoor air quality anywhere over the internet as well as local access to the data via an LCD mounted on the router. By increasing indoor air quality awareness, this device will aid users in making adjustments …

Design And Simulation For Encoded Pn-Ofc Saw Sensor Systems, John Pavlina

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors provide versatility in that they can offer wireless, passive operation in numerous environments. Various SAW device embodiments may also be employed for retrieval of the sensed data. Single sensor systems typically use a single carrier frequency and a simple device embodiment since tagging is not required. However, it is necessary in a multi-sensor environment to both identify the sensor and retrieve the information. Overlapping sensor data signals in time and frequency present problems when attempting to collect the sensed data at the receiver. This dissertation defines a system simulation environment exclusive to SAW sensors. The …

Ss-Dna Functionalized Ultra-Thin-Film Aln Contour-Mode Resonators With Self-Sustained Oscillator For Volatile Organic Chemical Detection, Matteo Rinaldi, Brandon Duick, Chiara Zuniga, Chengjie Zuo, Gianluca Piazza

Chengjie Zuo

This paper reports on the design and experimental verification of a new class of nanoscale gravimetric sensors based on ultra-thin-film AlN Contour-Mode Resonant Sensor (CMR-S) functionalized with ss-DNA and connected to a chip-based self-sustaining oscillator loop (fabricated in the ON Semiconductor 0.5 μm CMOS process) for direct frequency read-out. The 220 MHz oscillator based on the ultra-thin AlN CMR-S exhibits an Allan Variance of ∼20 Hz for 100 ms gate time. The sensor affinity for the adsorption of volatile organic chemicals such as 2,6 dinitroluene (DNT, a simulant for explosive vapors) is enhanced by functionalizing the top gold electrode of …

Ss-Dna Functionalized Ultra-Thin-Film Aln Contour-Mode Resonators With Self-Sustained Oscillator For Volatile Organic Chemical Detection, Matteo Rinaldi, Brandon Duick, Chiara Zuniga, Chengjie Zuo, Gianluca Piazza

Matteo Rinaldi

This paper reports on the design and experimental verification of a new class of nanoscale gravimetric sensors based on ultra-thin-film AlN Contour-Mode Resonant Sensor (CMR-S) functionalized with ss-DNA and connected to a chip-based self-sustaining oscillator loop (fabricated in the ON Semiconductor 0.5 μm CMOS process) for direct frequency read-out. The 220 MHz oscillator based on the ultra-thin AlN CMR-S exhibits an Allan Variance of ∼20 Hz for 100 ms gate time. The sensor affinity for the adsorption of volatile organic chemicals such as 2,6 dinitroluene (DNT, a simulant for explosive vapors) is enhanced by functionalizing the top gold electrode of …

Dna-Decorated Carbon Nanotubes As Sensitive Layer For Aln Contour-Mode Resonant-Mems Gravimetric Sensor, Chiara Zuniga, Matteo Rinaldi, Samuel M. Khamis, Timothy S. Jones, A T. Johnson, Gianluca Piazza

Matteo Rinaldi

In this work a nano-enabled gravimetric chemical sensor prototype based on single-stranded DNA (ss-DNA) decorated single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) as nano-functionalization layer for Aluminun Nitride (AIN) contour-mode resonant-MEMS gravimetric sensors has been demonstrated. Two resonators fabricated on the same silicon chip and operating at different resonance frequencies, 287 and 450 MHz, were functionalized with this novel bio-coating layer to experimentally prove the capability of two distinct single strands of DNA bound to SWNT to enhance differently the adsorption of volatile organic compounds such as dinitroluene (DNT, simulant for explosive vapor) and dymethyl-methylphosphonate (DMMP, a simulant for nerve agent sarin). The …

Nanoenabled Microelectromechanical Sensor For Volatile Organic Chemical Detection, Chiara Zuniga, Matteo Rinaldi, Samuel M. Khamis, A. T. Johnson, Gianluca Piazza

Matteo Rinaldi

A nanoenabled gravimetric chemical sensor prototype based on the large scale integration of single-stranded DNA (ss-DNA) decorated single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) as nanofunctionalization layer for aluminum nitride contour-mode resonant microelectromechanical (MEM) gravimetric sensors has been demonstrated. The capability of two distinct single strands of DNA bound to SWNTs to enhance differently the adsorption of volatile organic compounds such as dinitroluene (simulant for explosive vapor) and dymethyl-methylphosphonate (simulant for nerve agent sarin) has been verified experimentally. Different levels of sensitivity (17.3 and 28 KHz µm^2/fg) due to separate frequencies of operation (287 and 450 MHz) on the same die have also …

5-10 Ghz Aln Contour-Mode Nanoelectromechanical Resonators, Matteo Rinaldi, Chiara Zuniga, Gianluca Piazza

Matteo Rinaldi

This paper reports on the design and experimental verification of Super High Frequency (SHF) laterally vibrating NanoElctroMechanical (NEMS) resonators. For the first time, AlN piezoelectric nanoresonators with multiple frequencies of operation ranging between 5 and 10 GHz have been fabricated on the same chip and attained the highest f-Q product (4.6E12 Hz) ever reported in AlN contour-mode devices. These piezoelectric NEMS resonators are the first of their class to demonstrate on-chip sensing and actuation of nanostructures without the need of cumbersome or power consuming excitation and readout systems. Effective piezoelectric activity has been demonstrated in thin AlN films having vertical …

Detection Of Gas/Odor Based On Quartz Crystal Microbalance Sensors And Fuzzy Similarity Measure, Yi-Chen Lo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In this research, an array of six Quartz Crystal Microbalance sensors (QCM) using fuzzy similar measurement is proposed to recognize different gases and the percentage of those gases in a mixed gas. The experiment suggests three different gases, oxygen, helium, and argon as test gases and the nitrogen as the reference gas. Six QCMs in this array are coated respectively with six different specific polymers that are selected based on Linear Solvation Energy Relationship (LSER) method, in order to absorb gas molecules so as to recognize responses of resonant frequency changes from QCMs. Testing with different gases results in different …

Gravimetric Chemical Sensor Based On The Direct Integration Of Swnts On Aln Contour-Mode Mems Resonators, Matteo Rinaldi, Chiara Zuniga, Nipun Sinha, Marzie Taheri, Samuel Khamis, Alan Johnson, Gianluca Piazza

Matteo Rinaldi

This paper reports on the first demonstration of a gravimetric chemical sensor based on direct integration of Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes (SWNTs) grown by Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) on AlN Contour-Mode MicroElectroMechanical (MEMS) resonators. In this first prototype the ability of SWNTs to readily adsorb volatile organic chemicals has been combined with the capability of AlN Contour-Mode MEMS resonator to provide for different levels of sensitivity due to separate frequencies of operation on the same die. Two devices with resonance frequencies of 287 MHz and 442 MHz have been exposed to different concentrations of DMMP in the range from 80 …