Engineering Commons^™

Design And Analysis Of A Fully-Integrated Resonant Gate Driver, Yu Long

Doctoral Dissertations

Several decades ago the resonant gate driving technique was proposed. Given the recent rapid growth in GaN HEMT power device applications for high-frequency power applications, research has been conducted in the power electronics field using resonant gate driving for GaN power devices. Previous research for resonant gate drivers for GaN HEMT devices mostly focused on implementing the gate driving function itself, and mostly for normally-on HEMT devices.

The normally-off (enhancement mode) GaN power device was introduced to the commercial market in 2009. A new resonate gate driver is proposed in this work to implement resonant gate driving for commercial high-speed …

Cmos Based Impedance Sensing, Jinlong Gu

Masters Theses

This thesis focuses on a compact, low power circuit design for biological cell impedance sensing. Cell impedance sensing provides a new way to diagnose the cancers. Experiments done previously have shown that cancer cells have lower impedance than the normal cells, due to the thinner membrane of cancer cells. Traditional methods of cancer diagnosis require special chemicals, skilled personnel, and take long time to obtain the results. Two circuit structures are proposed in this work. One is a silicon cochlea based architecture. The other one is a current mode lock-in amplifier. Both of these two structures are able to measure …

Bi-Level Optimization Considering Uncertainties Of Wind Power And Demand Response, Xin Fang

Doctoral Dissertations

Recently, world-wide power systems have been undergone a paradigm change with increasing penetration of renewable energy. The renewable energy is clean with low operation cost while subject to significant variability and uncertainty. Therefore, integration of renewables presents various challenges in power systems. Meanwhile, to offset the uncertainty from renewables, demand response (DR) has gained considerable research interests because of DR’s flexibility to mitigate the uncertainty from renewables. In this dissertation, various power system problems using bi-level optimization are investigated considering the uncertainties from wind power and demand response.

In power system planning, reactive power planning (RPP) under high-penetration wind power …

The Design And Validation Of A Wireless Bat-Mounted Sonar Recording System, Jeremy Joseph Langford

Masters Theses

Scientists studying the behavior of bats monitor their echolocation calls, as their calls are important for navigation and feeding, but scientist are typically restricted to ground-based recording. Recording bat calls used for echolocation from the back of the bat as opposed to the ground offers the opportunity to study bat echolocation from a vantage otherwise only offered to the bats themselves. However, designing a bat mounted in-flight audio recording system, (bat-tag), capable of recording the ultra-sound used in bat echolocation presents a unique set of challenges. Chiefly, the bat-tag must be sufficiently light weight as to not overburden the bat, …

Review And Characterization Of Gallium Nitride Power Devices, Edward Andrew Jones

Masters Theses

Gallium Nitride (GaN) power devices are an emerging technology that have only recently become available commercially. This new technology enables the design of converters at higher frequencies and efficiencies than those achievable with conventional Si devices. This thesis reviews the characteristics and commercial status of both vertical and lateral GaN power devices from the user perspective, providing the background necessary to understand the significance of these recent developments. Additionally, the challenges encountered in GaN-based converter design are considered, such as the consequences of faster switching on gate driver design and board layout. Other issues include the unique reverse conduction behavior, …

Adopting 3d Time-Of-Flight Sensing Technology For Design Information Verification In International Safeguards, Matthew Stephen Duchene

Doctoral Dissertations

International safeguards inspectors periodically perform examinations at sensitive nuclear facilities to verify that the facilities’ designs, layouts, and functions are identical to information declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Such design information verification (DIV) relies on tools and techniques—such as 3D laser range-finding (3DLR) with light detection and ranging (LIDAR) instruments—that are resource intensive. This research explores 3D Time-of-Flight (TOF) sensors as a possible alternative technology to LIDAR systems for performing spatial change-detection to enhance the DIV process.

This research uses the Microsoft Kinect Version 2 (Kinect v2) camera system, one of several commercial depth-sensing instruments that is …

Motion-Activated Infrared Security System, Christopher H. Skelton, Daniel Graves, Kenton Culbertson, Joseph B. Burke, Edward Hockaday

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Design And Implementation Of An Integrated Biosensor Platform For Lab-On-A-Chip Diabetic Care Systems, Khandaker Abdullah Al Mamun

Doctoral Dissertations

Recent advances in semiconductor processing and microfabrication techniques allow the implementation of complex microstructures in a single platform or lab on chip. These devices require fewer samples, allow lightweight implementation, and offer high sensitivities. However, the use of these microstructures place stringent performance constraints on sensor readout architecture. In glucose sensing for diabetic patients, portable handheld devices are common, and have demonstrated significant performance improvement over the last decade. Fluctuations in glucose levels with patient physiological conditions are highly unpredictable and glucose monitors often require complex control algorithms along with dynamic physiological data. Recent research has focused on long term …

Sic Band Gap Voltage Reference For Space Applications, Charles Kenneth Roberts

Masters Theses

Electronics for space applications can experience wide temperature swings depending on orientation towards stars and duty cycle of propulsion systems. Energy on satellites primarily comes from radiological thermal generators and / or solar panels. This requires space electronic applications to be energy efficient and have high temperature tolerance. As a result, space electronic systems use high efficiency SMPS [switching mode power supplies].

Currently, there exists SiC [silicon carbide] based electronics that is state of the art for high temperature applications. Commercial manufacturers at this time produce SiC Power MOSFETs [Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors], which are the switching element …