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Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Predictive Modeling For Assessing The Reliability Of Bypass Diodes In Photovoltaic Modules, Narendra Shiradkar
Predictive Modeling For Assessing The Reliability Of Bypass Diodes In Photovoltaic Modules, Narendra Shiradkar
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Solar Photovoltaics (PV) is one of the most promising renewable energy technologies for mitigating the effect of climate change. Reliability of PV modules directly impacts the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE), which is a metric for cost competitiveness of any energy technology. Further reduction in LCOE of PV through assured long term reliability is necessary in order to facilitate widespread use of solar energy without the need for subsidies. This dissertation is focused on frameworks for assessing reliability of bypass diodes in PV modules. Bypass diodes are critical components in PV modules that provide protection against shading. Failure of bypass …
Rf Power Amplifier And Oscillator Design For Reliability And Variability, Shuyu Chen
Rf Power Amplifier And Oscillator Design For Reliability And Variability, Shuyu Chen
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
CMOS RF circuit design has been an ever-lasting research field. It gained so much attention since RF circuits have high mobility and wide band efficiency, while CMOS technology has the advantage of low cost and better capability of integration. At the same time, IC circuits never stopped scaling down for the recent many decades. Reliability issues with RF circuits have become more and more severe with device scaling down: reliability effects such as gate oxide break down, hot carrier injection, negative bias temperature instability, have been amplified as the device size shrinks. Process variability issues also become more predominant as …
Design And Characterization Of High Temperature Packaging For Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Devices, Brian Grummel
Design And Characterization Of High Temperature Packaging For Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Devices, Brian Grummel
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Advances in wide-bandgap semiconductor devices have increased the allowable operating temperature of power electronic systems. High-temperature devices can benefit applications such as renewable energy, electric vehicles, and space-based power electronics that currently require bulky cooling systems for silicon power devices. Cooling systems can typically be reduced in size or removed by adopting wide-bandgap semiconductor devices, such as silicon carbide. However, to do this, semiconductor device packaging with high reliability at high temperatures is necessary. Transient liquid phase (TLP) die-attach has shown in literature to be a promising bonding technique for this packaging need. In this work TLP has been comprehensively …
Structural Identification Through Monitoring, Modeling And Predictive Analysis Under Uncertainty, Hasan Burak Gökçe
Structural Identification Through Monitoring, Modeling And Predictive Analysis Under Uncertainty, Hasan Burak Gökçe
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Bridges are critical components of highway networks, which provide mobility and economical vitality to a nation. Ensuring the safety and regular operation as well as accurate structural assessment of bridges is essential. Structural Identification (St-Id) can be utilized for better assessment of structures by integrating experimental and analytical technologies in support of decision-making. St-Id is defined as creating parametric or nonparametric models to characterize structural behavior based on structural health monitoring (SHM) data. In a recent study by the ASCE St-Id Committee, St-Id framework is given in six steps, including modeling, experimentation and ultimately decision making for estimating the performance …
Optimizing Dynamic Logic Realizations For Partial Reconfiguration Of Field Programmable Gate Arrays, Matthew Parris
Optimizing Dynamic Logic Realizations For Partial Reconfiguration Of Field Programmable Gate Arrays, Matthew Parris
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Many digital logic applications can take advantage of the reconfiguration capability of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) to dynamically patch design flaws, recover from faults, or time-multiplex between functions. Partial reconfiguration is the process by which a user modifies one or more modules residing on the FPGA device independently of the others. Partial Reconfiguration reduces the granularity of reconfiguration to be a set of columns or rectangular region of the device. Decreasing the granularity of reconfiguration results in reduced configuration filesizes and, thus, reduced configuration times. When compared to one bitstream of a non-partial reconfiguration implementation, smaller modules resulting in …
Hot Carrier Effect On Ldmos Transistors, Liangjun Jiang
Hot Carrier Effect On Ldmos Transistors, Liangjun Jiang
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
One of the main problems encountered when scaling down is the hot carrier induced degradation of MOSFETs. This problem has been studied intensively during the past decade, under both static and dynamic stress conditions. In this period it has evolved from a more or less academic research topic to one of the most stringent constraints guaranteeing the lifetime of sub-micron devices. New drain engineering technique leads to the extensive usage of lateral doped drain structures. In these devices the peak of the lateral field is lowered by reducing the doping concentration near the drain and by providing a smooth junction …
Utilizing A Real Life Data Warehouse To Develop Freeway Travel Time Eliability Stochastic Models, Emam Emam
Utilizing A Real Life Data Warehouse To Develop Freeway Travel Time Eliability Stochastic Models, Emam Emam
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
During the 20th century, transportation programs were focused on the development of the basic infrastructure for the transportation networks. In the 21st century, the focus has shifted to management and operations of these networks. Transportation network reliability measure plays an important role in judging the performance of the transportation system and in evaluating the impact of new Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) deployment. The measurement of transportation network travel time reliability is imperative for providing travelers with accurate route guidance information. It can be applied to generate the shortest path (or alternative paths) connecting the origins and destinations especially under conditions …
Study Of Nanoscale Cmos Device And Circuit Reliability, Chuanzhao Yu
Study Of Nanoscale Cmos Device And Circuit Reliability, Chuanzhao Yu
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The development of semiconductor technology has led to the significant scaling of the transistor dimensions -The transistor gate length drops down to tens of nanometers and the gate oxide thickness to 1 nm. In the future several years, the deep submicron devices will dominate the semiconductor industry for the high transistor density and the corresponding performance enhancement. For these devices, the reliability issues are the first concern for the commercialization. The major reliability issues caused by voltage and/or temperature stress are gate oxide breakdown (BD), hot carrier effects (HCs), and negative bias temperature instability (NBTI). They become even more important …
Structural Condition Assessment Of Prestressed Concrete Transit Guideways, Robert Zachary Shmerling
Structural Condition Assessment Of Prestressed Concrete Transit Guideways, Robert Zachary Shmerling
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Objective condition assessment is essential to make better decisions for safety and serviceability of existing civil infrastructure systems. This study explores the condition of an existing transit guideway system that has been in service for thirty-five years. The structural system is composed of six-span continuous prestressed concrete bridge segments. The overall transit system incorporates a number of continuous bridges which share common design details, geometries, and loading conditions. The original analysis is based on certain simplifying assumptions such as rigid behavior over supports and simplified tendon/concrete/steel plate interaction. The current objective is to conduct a representative study for a more …
High Voltage Bias Testing And Degradation Analysis Of Photovoltaic Modules, Vinaykumar Hadagali
High Voltage Bias Testing And Degradation Analysis Of Photovoltaic Modules, Vinaykumar Hadagali
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This thesis mainly focuses on two important aspects of the photovoltaic modules. The first aspect addressed the high voltage bias testing and data and degradation analysis of high voltage biased thin film photovoltaic modules. The second aspect addressed the issues of reliability and durability of crystalline silicon module. Grid-connected photovoltaic systems must withstand high voltage bias in addition to harsh environmental conditions such as intermittent solar irradiance, high humidity, heat and wind. a-Si:H thin-film photovoltaic modules with earlier generation SnO2:F transparent conducting oxide (TCO) on the front glass installed on the FSEC High Voltage Test Bed were monitored since December …
Modeling And Simulation Of Long Term Degradation And Lifetime Of Deep-Submicron Mos Device And Circuit, Zhi Cui
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Long-term hot-carrier induced degradation of MOS devices has become more severe as the device size continues to scale down to submicron range. In our work, a simple yet effective method has been developed to provide the degradation laws with a better predictability. The method can be easily augmented into any of the existing degradation laws without requiring additional algorithm. With more accurate extrapolation method, we present a direct and accurate approach to modeling empirically the 0.18-ìm MOS reliability, which can predict the MOS lifetime as a function of drain voltage and channel length. With the further study on physical mechanism …
Study Of Oxide Breakdown, Hot Carrier And Nbti Effects On Mos Device And Circuit Reliability, Yi Liu
Study Of Oxide Breakdown, Hot Carrier And Nbti Effects On Mos Device And Circuit Reliability, Yi Liu
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
As CMOS device sizes shrink, the channel electric field becomes higher and the hot carrier (HC) effect becomes more significant. When the oxide is scaled down to less than 3 nm, gate oxide breakdown (BD) often takes place. As a result, oxide trapping and interface generation cause long term performance drift and related reliability problems in devices and circuits. The RF front-end circuits include low noise amplifier (LNA), local oscillator (LO) and mixer. It is desirable for a LNA to achieve high gain with low noise figure, a LO to generate low noise signal with sufficient output power, wide tuning …
Software Quality Assurance, Edward C. Soistman
Software Quality Assurance, Edward C. Soistman
Retrospective Theses and Dissertations
The problems associated with software development and use are investigated from a management point of view. Having identified the critical aspects of effective software management, an approach is suggested for the creation and implementation of a software quality assurance program, Particular attention is focused on the concept of Life Cycle Procurement as currently utilized by the Department of Defense. The research was accomplished in two phases. The first consisted of an extensive literature search, seminar attendance and participation in several working groups assigned the responsibility for establishing software quality assurance guidelines. The second phase involved direct participation in the development …
Analysis Of System Reliability As A Capital Investment, Albert J. Williams
Analysis Of System Reliability As A Capital Investment, Albert J. Williams
Retrospective Theses and Dissertations
This report, "Analysis of System Reliability as a Capital Investment", is an analysis of radar system reliability of two similar tracking radar systems as a capital investment. It describes the two tracking radar systems and calculates the mission failures rates based upon field failure data. Additionally, an analysis of a simulation program written in FORTRAN is performed which treats system reliability as a capital investment based on 335 electronic systems that were fabricated with a reliability program versus 564 electronic systems fabricated without a reliability program. The data from the two tracking radar systems, one with reliability program and the …