Engineering Commons^™

On Co-Optimization Of Constrained Satisfiability Problems For Hardware Software Applications, Kunal Ganeshpure

Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014

Manufacturing technology has permitted an exponential growth in transistor count and density. However, making efficient use of the available transistors in the design has become exceedingly difficult. Standard design flow involves synthesis, verification, placement and routing followed by final tape out of the design. Due to the presence of various undesirable effects like capacitive crosstalk, supply noise, high temperatures, etc., verification/validation of the design has become a challenging problem. Therefore, having a good design convergence may not be possible within the target time, due to a need for a large number of design iterations.

Capacitive crosstalk is one of the …

A Comprehensive Study Of The Extensional Rheology Of Complex Fluids, Manojkumar Chellamuthu

Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014

Non-Newtonian fluids play an important role in our daily life. The visco-elastic nature of these fluids comprises a class of materials found in variety of items ranging from food, to plastic products, to the cosmetic products. The design and tunability of non-Newtonian fluids is only possible through an understanding of their complex dynamics and rheology. In this thesis, a filament stretching rheometer is used to investigate the extensional rheology of three important classes of complex visco-elastic fluids namely surfactants, suspensions and polymers.

Surfactants with their unique molecular amphiphilic chemistry allow them to form long wormlike micellar structures, which behave like …

"Hedging Future Uncertainty: A Framework For Obsolescence Prediction, Proactive Mitigation And Management", Craig L Josias

Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014

Component obsolescence in the "high-tech" electronics industry has become a problem that cannot be ignored. Although recent attention has been given to component obsolescence, in general this issue is still dealt with reactively. This often results in sustainment of a long-life system such as ships, airplanes, power plant, and space based programs to be extremely costly. In addition, delayed schedules, extended downtimes, and technology lags are common occurrences in approaches that deal with obsolescence as it occurs. In wake of the rapid pace of technology innovation, turbulent markets and growing globalization, developing proactive approaches for dealing with obsolescence is a …

Supercritical Fluid Deposition Of Thin Metal Films: Kinetics, Mechanics And Applications, Christos Fotios Karanikas

Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014

In order to meet the demands of the continuous scaling of electronic devices, new technologies have been developed over the years. As we approach the newest levels of miniaturization, current technologies, such as physical vapor deposition and chemical vapor deposition, are reaching a limitation in their ability to successfully fabricate nano sized electronic devices.

Supercritical fluid deposition (SFD) is a demonstrated technology that provides excellent step coverage for the deposition of metals and metal oxides within narrow, high aspect ratio features. This technique shows the potential to satisfy the demands of integrated circuit miniaturization while maintaining a cost effective process …

Understanding Adsorption In Mesoporous Materials Through Lattice-Based Density Functional Theory And Monte Carlo Simulation, Bradd E Libby

Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014

Confining walls induce qualitative changes in adsorbed fluids. Among the most intriguing phenomena is hysteresis, where a pore fills with fluid at a greater pressure than it empties. The causes and mechanisms by which this occurs are intensely investigated yet still poorly understood. Ordered mesoporous silicas, recently discovered materials with well-defined pore size distributions, provide an opportunity to deepen our understanding of the fundamental physics of the interaction of fluids with complex solids.

In part of this computational investigation we examine idealized pores. In agreement with other recent studies, we find that in 'inkbottle'-shaped pores, where a large cavity is …

Investments In Energy Technological Change Under Uncertainty, Ekundayo Shittu

Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014

This dissertation addresses the crucial problem of how environmental policy uncertainty influences investments in energy technological change. The rising level of carbon emissions due to increasing global energy consumption calls for policy shift. In order to stem the negative consequences on the climate, policymakers are concerned with carving an optimal regulation that will encourage technology investments. However, decision makers are facing uncertainties surrounding future environmental policy. The first part considers the treatment of technological change in theoretical models.

This part has two purposes: (1) to show-through illustrative examples-that technological change can lead to quite different, and surprising, impacts on the …

Microwave Reactor Engineering Of Zeolites Synthesis, Murad Gharibeh

Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014

Microwave chemistry has expanded over the last two decades due to the enhanced reaction rates achieved for many processes, including organic synthesis, inorganic synthesis and polymerization. Significant time and energy saving can be realized using microwave chemistry, which is important both commercially and for the environment.

One of the most exciting and commercially/technologically significant areas where microwave energy has been demonstrated to influence the kinetics and selectivity is in the synthesis of nanoporous materials, such as zeolites. New nanoporous materials can be created, and the times for their syntheses can be significantly reduced, involving using less energy. By reducing the …

Functionalized Nanoparticles For Biological Imaging And Detection Applications, Bing C Mei

Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014

Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have gained tremendous attention in the last decade as a result of their size-dependent spectroscopic properties. These nanoparticles have been a subject of intense study to bridge the gap between macroscopic and atomic behavior, as well as to generate new materials for novel applications in therapeutics, biological sensing, light emitting devices, microelectronics, lasers, and solar cells. One of the most promising areas for the use of these nanoparticles is in biotechnology, where their size-dependent optical properties are harnessed for imaging and sensing applications. However, these nanoparticles, as synthesized, are often not stable …

Fault-Tolerant Nanoscale Microprocessor Design On Semiconductor Nanowire Grids, Teng Wang

Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014

As CMOS manufacturing technology approaches fundamental limits, researchers are looking for revolutionary technologies beyond the end of the CMOS roadmap. Recent progress on devices, nano-manufacturing, and assembling of nanoscale structures is driving researchers to explore possible new fabrics, circuits and architectures based on nanoscale devices.

Several fabric architectures based on various nanoscale devices have been proposed for nanoscale computation. These show great advantages over conventional CMOS technology but focus on FPGA-style applications. There has been no work shown for nanoscale architectures tuned for a processor application.

This dissertation proposes a novel nanowire-based 2-D fabric referred to as Nanoscale Application-Specific IC …