Engineering Commons^™

Ism-Band Energy Harvesting Wireless Sensor Node, Fnu Naveed

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, the interest in remote wireless sensor networks has grown significantly, particularly with the rapid advancements in Internet of Things (IoT) technology. These networks find diverse applications, from inventory tracking to environmental monitoring. In remote areas where grid access is unavailable, wireless sensors are commonly powered by batteries, which imposes a constraint on their lifespan. However, with the emergence of wireless energy harvesting technologies, there is a transformative potential in addressing the power challenges faced by these sensors. By harnessing energy from the surrounding environment, such as solar, thermal, vibrational, or RF sources, these sensors can potentially operate …

Design And Comparison Of Asynchronous Fft Implementations, Julie Bigot

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is a widely used digital signal processing technology in a large variety of applications. For battery-powered embedded systems incorporating FFT, its physical implementation is constrained by strict power consumption, especially during idle periods. Compared to the prevailing clocked synchronous counterpart, quasi-delay insensitive asynchronous circuits offer a series of advantages including flexible timing requirement and lower leakage power, making them ideal choices for these systems. In this thesis work, various FFT configurations were implemented in the low-power Multi-Threshold NULL Convention Logic (MTNCL) paradigm. Analysis illustrates the area and power consumption trends along the changing of the number …

Efficiently Estimating Survival Signature And Two-Terminal Reliability Of Heterogeneous Networks Through Multi-Objective Optimization, Daniel Bruno Lopes Da Silva

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The two-terminal reliability problem is a classical reliability problem with applications in wired and wireless communication networks, electronic circuit design, computer networks, and electrical power distribution, among other systems. However, the two-terminal reliability problem is among the hardest combinatorial problems and is intractable for large, complex networks. Several exact methods to solve the two-terminal reliability problem have been proposed since the 1960s, but they have exponential time complexity in general. Hence, practical studies involving large network-type systems resort to approximation methods to estimate the system's reliability. One attractive approach for quantifying the reliability of complex systems is to use signatures, …

Reference Design Of An Online Emulation And Hot-Patching Approach For Power Electronic Controller Validation, Estefano Soria Pearson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis aims to develop a reference design of an online security system approach embedded in a power electronic controller for cybersecurity purposes. Cybersecurity in power electronics focuses on reducing vulnerabilities in the system, where most reside in the communication with the hardware devices. Although methods to secure communications lessen the probability and effects of cyber-attacks, discovering vulnerabilities is inevitable. This thesis attempts to provide a fail-safe approach to securing the system by targeting the safety of the power-electronic controller. This approach applies an additional security layer in case of a malicious or accidental controller firmware malfunction.

The online security …

Direct Torque Control For Silicon Carbide Motor Drives, Mohammad Hazzaz Mahmud

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Direct torque control (DTC) is an extensively used control method for motor drives due to its unique advantages, e.g., the fast dynamic response and the robustness against motor parameters variations, uncertainties, and external disturbances. Using higher switching frequency is generally required by DTC to reduce the torque ripples and decrease stator current total harmonic distortion (THD), which however can lower the drive efficiency. Through the use of the emerging silicon carbide (SiC) devices, which have lower switching losses compared to their silicon counterparts, it is feasible to achieve high efficiency and low torque ripple simultaneously for DTC drives.

To overcome …

The Linear And Non-Linear Relationships Between Peripheral Venous Pressure, Arterial Circulation, And Patient Factors, Lauren Crimmins

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Peripheral venous pressure (PVP) can be used to measure blood volume status with a minimally invasive procedure. The pediatric cohort undergoing surgery for pyloric stenosis was studied to determine how arterial circulation and patient factors linearly impact PVP. The relationship between PVP and these confounding factors can provide valuable information for future PVP researchers.

To investigate the linear relationship between PVP and electrocardiogram (ECG) the waveforms were transformed into the frequency domain. A power spectral density was plotted, and the Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated for both preoperative and intraoperative settings. Linear regression models were computed for PVP and varying …

Design And Assembly Of High-Temperature Signal Conditioning System On Ltcc With Silicon Carbide Cmos Circuits, Sajib Roy

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objective of the work described in this dissertation paper is to develop a prototype electronic module on a low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) material. The electronic module would perform signal conditioning of sensor signals (thermocouples) operating under extreme conditions for applications like gas turbines to collect data on the health of the turbine blades during operation so that the turbines do not require shutdown for inspection to determine if maintenance is required. The collected data can indicate when such shutdowns, which cost $1M per day, should be scheduled and maintenance actually performed. The circuits for the signal conditioning system within …

Data Forgery Detection In Automatic Generation Control: Exploration Of Automated Parameter Generation And Low-Rate Attacks, Yatish R. Dubasi

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Automatic Generation Control (AGC) is a key control system utilized in electric power systems. AGC uses frequency and tie-line power flow measurements to determine the Area Control Error (ACE). ACE is then used by the AGC to adjust power generation and maintain an acceptable power system frequency. Attackers might inject false frequency and/or tie-line power flow measurements to mislead AGC into falsely adjusting power generation, which can harm power system operations. Various data forgery detection models are studied in this thesis. First, to make the use of predictive detection models easier for users, we propose a method for automated generation …

Optoelectronic Valley-Spin Qubits With Ambipolar Quantum Dots, Jeremy Tull

Electrical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The current limitations of qubit-based processors are caused by imperfections in quantum gates, leading to a lack of gate fidelity. Gate fidelity can be refined by extending the coherence of qubits and reducing logic operation speed. A potential solution is to develop a hybrid qubit that has the coherence of electrically-controlled quantum dots and the gate speed of their optically-controlled counterparts. Quantum bits that utilize ultrafast optical gating to perform gate operations require precise control of the gating pulse duration. Optical dispersion can cause adverse effects pulse duration, such as pulse broadening, so dispersion-compensation techniques must be employed; by properly …

Design And Control Of A Peristaltic Pump To Simulate Left Atrial Pressure In A Conductive Silicone Model, Jeremy Collins

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

According to the CDC, atrial fibrillation is responsible for more than 454,000 hospitalizations and approximately 158,000 deaths per year. A common treatment for atrial fibrillation is catheter ablation, a process in which a long flexible tube is guided through the femoral artery and to the source of arrhythmia in the heart, where it measures the electrical potential at various locations and converts problematic heart tissue to scar tissue via ablation. This paper details the design and control of a low-cost ($400) peristaltic pump system using repetitive control to replicate blood pressure in the left atrium in a conductive silicone model …

An 8-Bit Analog-To-Digital Converter For Battery Operated Wireless Sensor Nodes, Marvin Wayne Suggs Jr.

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Wireless sensing networks (WSNs) collect analog information transduced into the form of a voltage or current. This data is typically converted into a digital representation of the value and transmitted wirelessly using various modulation techniques. As the available power and size is limited for wireless sensor nodes in many applications, a medium resolution Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) is proposed to convert a sensed voltage with moderate speeds to lower power consumption. Specifications also include a rail-to-rail input range and minimized errors associated with offset, gain, differential nonlinearity, and integral nonlinearity. To achieve these specifications, an 8-bit successive approximation register ADC is …

Methods Of High-Fidelity, High-Efficiency Class-D Audio Amplification, Kaleb Kassaw

Electrical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Gallium nitride-based field effect transistors (FETs) have opened a path for full-frequency-range class-D audio amplifiers with low distortion and noise, thanks to their ability to switch at much higher frequencies than that of the upper range of human hearing. Compared to traditional silicon-based transistors, GaN-based transistors offer superior efficiencies, particularly at power levels below their maxima. Paired with an analog-to-digital converter, digital signal processor, and pulse-code modulation to pulse-width modulation converter, these transistors are used to design and implement a solid-state amplifier capable of generating 100 watts of output through speakers with an impedance of 8 ohms using a 1-volt …

An Fpga-Based Hardware Accelerator For The Digital Image Correlation Engine, Keaten Stokke

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The work presented in this thesis was aimed at the development of a hardware accelerator for the Digital Image Correlation engine (DICe) and compare two methods of data access, USB and Ethernet. The original DICe software package was created by Sandia National Laboratories and is written in C++. The software runs on any typical workstation PC and performs image correlation on available frame data produced by a camera. When DICe is introduced to a high volume of frames, the correlation time is on the order of days. The time to process and analyze data with DICe becomes a concern when …

A Power Constrained 433-Mhz Low Noise Amplifier, Pablo Alvarez Arellano

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Within wireless communication systems, low noise amplifiers are critical for the performance of receivers. They are primarily responsible for providing enough gain while adding little noise to overcome the noise of the subsequent stages. The LNA presented here is part of a battery-powered transceiver meant to measure crop nutrient data and relay the information. Therefore, power consumption and area become import considerations. To design for a specific power level, a power-constrained noise optimization method is used. The method sizes the amplifying transistor for a fixed source impedance, power dissipation, technology, and operating frequency. The chosen topology is the cascode stage …

Design Of An Embedded Iris Recognition System For Use With A Multi-Factor Authentication System., Christopher David Hess

Electrical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper describes in detail the design, manufacturing and testing of an embedded iris scanner for use with a multifactor authentication system. The design process for this project included hardware design from part selection to board design to populating. Additionally, this process included the entirety of the software development, though the iris recognition process was largely based on other works. The functional requirements for the overall multi-factor authentication system were to have three authentication methods with a thirty second window to complete all three. The system acceptance accuracy was required to be greater than 75%. Those requirements therefore dictate that …

A Silicon Germanium Cmos Linear Voltage Regulator For Wireless Agricultural Applications, Aminta Naidili Castillo Robles

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents the design, simulation and test results of a silicon germanium (SiGe) complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) linear regulator. The objective of the circuit is to power other analog devices regardless of the load current and input voltage changes. The application of this regulator is to be part of a project developing a miniaturized semiconductor platform that can be inserted into stems of crops in order to measure data inside the plant and then send it wirelessly to the user. The linear regulator was designed on a BiCMOS SiGe 0.13µm which is a GlobalFoundries process. It has been tested at …

System-Layout-Dependent Thermally Induced Solder Stress & Reliability Implications, Ange C. Iradukunda

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Electronic flip chip assemblies consist of dissimilar component materials, which exhibit different CTE. Under thermal cyclic operating conditions, this CTE mismatch produces interfacial and interconnect stresses, which are highly dependent on system layout. In this paper, sensitivity analyses are performed using ANSYS FEA to establish how the proximity and arrangement of neighboring devices affect interconnect stress. Flip chip alignment modes ranging from edge-to-edge to corner-to-corner are studied. Results of these FEA studies, demonstrated that closely packing devices together has the effect of making them act as one. This results in a significant increase in the thermomechanical stresses induced on peripheral …

Transmission Of Stereo Audio Signals With Lasers, William Austin Curbow

Electrical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

An alternative method for transmitting audio signals via the use of laser technology was presented here. The primary focus of this document is on the audio amplifier subsystem including the design, simulation, and performance results. Simulations using the PSPICE computer simulation software were utilized to investigate the theoretical designs of the audio amplifier subsystem. The audio amplifier was examined in three junctures including the noise-canceling input stage, the high voltage gain cell, and the low impedance driver. Through the design procedure using theoretical calculations, simulations using PSPICE computer software, and examination of the finished product with an oscilloscope, the audio …