Engineering Commons^™

Single Photon Avalanche Diode (Spad) Array Quenching And A Novel Quantum Random Number Generator (Qrng), Mano Rahul Kumar Pakalapati

Theses and Dissertations

Single Photon Avalanche Diodes, SPADs is a single-photon sensitive light detector with capabilities of pico-second timing resolutions and offer potential for enhancing various fields of science to evolve into quantum-age. SPAD has applications ranging from quantum computing, cryptography (QKD) to applications in medicine such as neural imaging and Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT). SPAD arrays are gaining popularity as they enable for parallel photon detection and 3D imaging. To account for the process tolerances and aging, each SPAD-pixel needs a tunable quenching circuit in the frontend for post-fabrication fine-tuning, this research work presents a novel Dual Triggered Tunable Active …

Dual-Task Multimodal Web Browsing In Semi-Autonomous Vehicles, Jarrett William Clark

Theses and Dissertations

Drivers should remain alert when operating semi-autonomous vehicles as human intervention is required when the automated systems fail, or an unusual situation is encountered. However, drivers do not always focus solely on the road and sometimes divert their attention to look at cell phones, laptops, tablet computers, or in-dash infotainment systems. In this research, software was created to enable operators of a simulated self-driving car to browse the Human-Centered Design Institute (HCDI) website using multimodal interaction. The software used synthesized speech to read the website aloud and visually highlighted the content on the screen as it was read. Web analytics …

Development Of A Simulated Tangle-Based Microgrid Communications System, Adrian Vincent T. Tayag

Undergraduate Theses

The emergence of renewable energy sources (RES) brought up the potential advantages of more granular controls that Microgrids offer. In this study, Tangle-based-decentralized ledger technology was implemented to the communications system of a fabricated prototype microgrid. The microgrid controls were managed by a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ minicomputer, where the energy manager, protection coordinator, and microsource controller agents are running. Through the Masked Authenticated Messaging (MAM) module of the IOTA Tangle ledger, the grid operator was able to act as an energy manager to send commands and receive status reports from the protection coordinator and microsource controller. The fabricated …

Blockchain-Based Distributed Network Architecture For Internet Of Things, Min Li

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

IoT networks have already been widely deployed due to their convenience and low-cost advantage. However, due to the lack of strong self-protection mechanisms and the imperfect network architectures, many IoT devices are vulnerable to malicious cyber-attacks, which will further threaten the availability and security of IoT applications. Therefore, securing the network infrastructure while protecting data from malicious or unauthorized devices/users become a vital aspect of IoT network design. In the thesis, two types of IoT security mechanisms are mainly investigated, namely, IoT routing protection and smart community device authentication.

By adopting the distributed consensus mechanism, we propose a blockchain-based reputation …

Novel Control Of Pv Solar Farms As Statcom (Pv-Statcom) For Frequency Control And Power Oscillation Damping, Mohammad Akbari Kelishadi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Frequency stability and low-frequency power oscillations are two major concerns in modern power systems. PV-STATCOM is a patented concept which enables PV inverters to provide STATCOM functions, during day and night, as well as real power modulation during daytime. This thesis aims to utilize PV-STATCOM capability effectively for enhancing frequency stability and power oscillations damping.

A novel, simultaneous real power-based Fast Frequency Response (FFR) and reactive power-based Power Oscillation Damping (POD) control is proposed for PV-STATCOMs. This control not only significantly reduces system under- and over-frequency deviations, but also uses the unutilized capacity of PV inverters to enhance damping of …

Optical Angular Scatterometry: In-Line Approach For Roll-2-Roll And Nano-Imprint Fabrication Systems, Juan Jose Faria-Briceno

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

As critical dimensions continue to shrink and structures become more complex, metrology processes are challenging to implement during in-line nanomanufacturing. Non-destructive, non-contact, and high-speed conditions are required to achieve proper metrology processes during in-line manufacturing. Optical scatterometry is a nanoscale metrology tool widely used in integrated circuit manufacturing for characterization and quality control. However, most applications of optical scatterometry operate off-line. A high-speed, in-line, non-contact, non-destructive scatterometry angular system has been demonstrated in this work to scan pattern surfaces during real-time nano-fabrication.

Our system has demonstrated scanning capabilities using flat, 1D and 2D complex structures. The flat surface samples consist …

Indocyanine-Green-Assisted Near-Infrared Dental Fluorescence Imaging To Detect Common Dental Diseases, As Compared With Dental X-Ray, Yoshita Viraj Holamoge

LSU Master's Theses

Oral health is indicative of a person’s overall health. Even with advances in medical science, dental diseases are very much prevalent in our society. Dental imaging techniques help in the early detection of these dental diseases and eventually avoids the risk of poor oral health as well as medical expenses. Current dental imaging techniques rely mostly on X-ray imaging whose ionizing property is a concern amongst the population. Near-infrared spectrum is known to have tissue penetration property and they belong to the non-ionizing part of the electromagnetic spectrum. This study utilized a contrast agent assisted near-infrared imaging for common dental …

Exploitation Of Robust Aoa Estimation And Low Overhead Beamforming In Mmwave Mimo System, Yuyan Zhao

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The limited spectral resource for wireless communications and dramatic proliferation of new applications and services directly necessitate the exploitation of millimeter wave (mmWave) communications. One critical enabling technology for mmWave communications is multi-input multi-output (MIMO), which enables other important physical layer techniques, specifically beamforming and antenna array based angle of arrival (AoA) estimation. Deployment of beamforming and AoA estimation has many challenges. Significant training and feedback overhead is required for beamforming, while conventional AoA estimation methods are not fast or robust. Thus, in this thesis, new algorithms are designed for low overhead beamforming, and robust AoA estimation with significantly reduced …

A Parallel Direct Method For Finite Element Electromagnetic Computations Based On Domain Decomposition, Javad Moshfegh

Doctoral Dissertations

High performance parallel computing and direct (factorization-based) solution methods have been the two main trends in electromagnetic computations in recent years. When time-harmonic (frequency-domain) Maxwell's equation are directly discretized with the Finite Element Method (FEM) or other Partial Differential Equation (PDE) methods, the resulting linear system of equations is sparse and indefinite, thus harder to efficiently factorize serially or in parallel than alternative methods e.g. integral equation solutions, that result in dense linear systems. State-of-the-art sparse matrix direct solvers such as MUMPS and PARDISO don't scale favorably, have low parallel efficiency and high memory footprint. This work introduces a new …

Measurement Of Photoionization Rates In Air, Justin K. Smith

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

The ionization of gas molecules from the absorption of photons produced in different parts of a discharge is an important process in the development of streamers. Photoionization rates are essential in the propagation of streamers and are therefore important in simulations of computational codes. Although streamers are widely used in computational codes, there is a limited data set on the experiments measuring photoionization rates in gases. Usually, the photoionization rate data used in computational codes comes from a single source and the validity of this data combined with the photoionization model has been questionable. It is postulated there is a …

Software Design For Probabilistic Safety: Stochastic Reachability And Circadian Control, Joseph D. Gleason

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Stochastic reachability is an important verification tool that provides probabilistic assurances of safety in a variety of contexts. In engineered systems, safety may be synonymous with the ability of the system to avoid "bad" constraints on the state space, that constitute collision, departure from a flight envelope, or other undesirable phenomenon. In biomedical systems, assurance of safety (such as the mandate to ``do no harm'') are considerably complicated by the fact that there is a lack of physics-driven models, extensive signal processing is needed to capture the underlying state of the system, and the stochasticity inherent to the system may …

Vision-Based Autonomous Tracking Of A Non-Cooperative Mobile Robot By A Low-Cost Quadrotor Vehicle, Cheikhna Ahmed Tidiane Sy

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

The goal of this thesis is the detection and tracking of a ground vehicle, in particular a car-like robot, by a quadrotor. The first challenge to address in any pursuit or tracking scenario is the detection and unique identification of the target. From this first challenge, comes the need to precisely localize the target in a coordinate system that is common to the tracking and tracked vehicles. In most real-life scenarios, the tracked vehicle does not directly communicate information such as its position to the tracking one. From this fact, arises a non-cooperative constraint problem. The autonomous tracking aspect of …

Validation Of Gaseous Absorption & Cloud Attenuation Models Utilizing A 72 Ghz Terrestrial Link, Ralph Lyndon Gesner

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Interest in the W & V-bands of the radio frequency (RF) spectrum has become steadily more desirable for system designers due to the ever increasing need for greater communication bandwidths and higher data rates. The 40 GHZ to 110 GHz range that constitutes the W & V-bands provide a unique solution to both of these current demands by providing a bandwidth nearly double that of all current RF frequencies in use. To date, this range has only been used for point to point satellite and short link communications meaning these bands have remained largely unexplored and undeveloped.

To capitalize on …

Integrated Chirped-Grating Spectrometer-On-A-Chip, Shima Nezhadbadeh

Optical Science and Engineering ETDs

In this dissertation we demonstrate a new structure based on waveguide coupling atop a silicon wafer using a chirped grating to provide the dispersion that leads to a high-resolution, compact, fully integrable and CMOS-compatible spectrometer. Light is both analyzed and detected in a single, completely monolithic component which enables realizing a high-resolution portable spectrometer with an extremely compact footprint. The structure is comprised of a SiO₂/Si₃N₄/SiO₂ waveguide on top of a silicon wafer. Grating regions are fabricated on the top cladding of the waveguide. The input light is incident on a chirped grating …

Bio-Mechanical Characterization Of Adherent Cell Layers With A Pdms Cantilever, Merrel Truly Holley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In the last few decades, the mechanical characteristics of human cells has been linked to many physiological processes and pathological conditions, illustrating the importance as effective biomarkers. Mounting research has shown the mechanical force between cells and the extracellular matrix (ECM) plays a vital role in cellular processes such as tissue homeostasis, wound healing, cancer metastasis, and the progression of various diseases. This mechanical force, or the force that a cell produces on its surroundings, is termed as the cellular traction force (CTF). Precise characterization of the CTF can expand our knowledge of these important cellular processes as well as …

Split Dc Bus Converters For Power Electronic And Ac-Dc Microgrid Applications, Javad Khodabakhsh

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Power electronic converters are used extensively for electrical power conversion in applications such as renewable energy systems, utility applications, and electric vehicles. Such converters are needed as it is rare for a source voltage to fit the needs of a load or a set of loads for any particular application. They consist of active semiconductor switches and passive components that are combined in circuit structures (topologies) that are operated with a control strategy. The focus of this thesis is on AC-DC and DC-DC converters and their applications in AC-DC microgrids.

AC-DC converters are typically two-stage converters that consist of a …

Energy-Efficient Multicarrier And Multicarrier-Cdma Systems, Moftah Ali

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Design, analysis, and performance of Multicarrier (MC) and Multicarrier-Code Division Multiple Access (MC-CDMA) systems are considered. Specifically, Multicarrier Modulation (MCM) such as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is used in these systems with emphasis on energy efficiency. These systems are examined for their performances over frequency-selective and frequency-non-selective channels. Methods are proposed for reduction of energy costs of an OFDM system. They are: i) Clipping (CL) based on symbol statistics; ii) Partial Transmit Sequence (PTS) using Magic square pattern and adjacent partitioning; and iii) Selective Mapping (SLM) and Tone Reservation (TR) with reduced complexity. These methods are described and algorithms …

Experimental Testing Of A 3d-Printed Metamaterial Slow Wave Structure For High Power Microwave Generation, Antonio B. De Alleluia

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

A metamaterial (MTM) high power microwave (HPM) vacuum electron device (VED) was developed using 3D printing technology. The specific geometric pattern of the source can produce both negative permittivity and permeability to interact with a relativistic electron beam. The electron beam is generated using a pulsed electron accelerator with a maximum energy of 700 keV and lasting approximately 16 ns. The design of this novel VED consists of a circular waveguide loaded with complementary split-ring resonators in a linear periodic arrangement in which the relativistic beam travels guided by a magnetic field. The electrons interact with the MTM producing electromagnetic …

Demand Response Management In Smart Grid Networks: A Two-Stage Game-Theoretic Learning-Based Approach, Pavlos Athanasios Apostolopoulos

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

In this diploma thesis, the combined problem of power company selection and Demand Response Management in a Smart Grid Network consisting of multiple power companies and multiple customers is studied via adopting a distributed learning and game-theoretic technique. Each power company is characterized by its reputation and competitiveness. The customers who act as learning automata select the most appropriate power company to be served, in terms of price and electricity needs’ fulfillment, via a distributed learning based mechanism. Given customers' power company selection, the Demand Response Management problem is formulated as a two-stage game theoretic optimization framework, where at the …

Novel Night And Day Control Of Pv Solar Farm As Statcom (Pv-Statcom) For Critical Induction Motor Stabilization And Fidvr Alleviation, Sibin Mohan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Induction motors are globally used in several critical operations such as petrochemicals, mining, process control, etc., where their shutdown during faults causes significant financial loss. System faults can also lead to Fault Induced Delayed Voltage Recovery (FIDVR) causing service disruptions. Dynamic reactive power compensators such as SVC and STATCOM are conventionally employed to mitigate these issues, however, these are very expensive.

PV solar plants are growing at unprecedented rate globally and are likely to be installed near such critical motors. This thesis presents several novel applications of a patented technology of utilizing PV solar plants, both during night and day, …

Novel Pv Solar Farm Control As Statcom (Pv-Statcom) For Ssr Mitigation In Synchronous Generators And Wind Farms, Reza Salehi Sharafdarkolaee

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Transmission lines across the world are extensively compensated by series capacitors to increase their power transfer capacity. However, series compensation can potentially cause subsynchronous resonance (SSR) which can lead to significant damage in shafts of synchronous generators and wind farms. Dynamic reactive power compensators such as STATCOM and SVCs are typically used for mitigation of SSR, but these are quite expensive.

Large scale PV solar farms are growing at a very rapid rate across the world. It is quite likely that they may get installed near synchronous generators or wind farms which are directly or indirectly interfaced with series compensated …

5-Bit Dual-Slope Analog-To-Digital Converter-Based Time-To-Digital Converter Chip Design In Cmos Technology, Jojoe S. Sagoe

LSU Master's Theses

Time-to-Digital Converters (TDC) have gained increasing importance in modern implementations of mixed-signal, data-acquisition and processing interfaces and are used to perform high precision time intervals in systems that incorporate Time-of-Flight (ToF) or Time-of-Arrival (ToA) measurements. The linearity of TDCs is very crucial since most Digital Signal Processing (DSP) systems require very linear inputs to achieve high accuracy.

In this work, a TDC has been designed in the 0.5 μm n-well CMOS process that can be used for on-chip integration and in applications requiring high linearity. This TDC used a Dual-Slope-ADC-based architecture for the time-to-digital conversion and consists of the following …

Study Of Distributed Versus Compressed Layouts For Physically Unclonable Functions, Joshua Trujillo

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Society continues to depend on electronics for everything from smart systems in our homes to cellphones and tablets, which are more powerful today than many desktop computers that are still in use [1]. With increased consumption of these electronic products comes an increase in problems, such as counterfeit integrated circuits being sold as genuine integrated circuits. This is just one of many problems that corporations and end users are having to deal with in this digital age.

Software security has been accepted as a problem by both the media and general public, but only recently has hardware security begun to …

Satisfaction-Aware Data Offloading In Surveillance Systems, Marcos Paul Torres

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

In this thesis, exploiting Fully Autonomous Aerial Systems' (FAAS) and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) servers' computing capabilities to introduce a novel data offloading framework to support the energy and time-efficient video processing in surveillance systems based on satisfaction games. A surveillance system is introduced consisting of Areas of Interest (AoIs), where a MEC server is associated with each AoI, and a FAAS is flying above the AoIs to support the IP cameras' computing demands. Each IP camera adopts a utility function capturing its Quality of Service (QoS) considering the experienced time and energy overhead to offload and process remotely or …

Artificial Intelligence Empowered Uavs Data Offloading In Mobile Edge Computing, Nicholas Alexander Kemp

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

The advances introduced by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are manifold and have paved the path for the full integration of UAVs, as intelligent objects, into the Internet of Things (IoT). This paper brings artificial intelligence into the UAVs data offloading process in a multi-server Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) environment, by adopting principles and concepts from game theory and reinforcement learning. Initially, the autonomous MEC server selection for partial data offloading is performed by the UAVs, based on the theory of the stochastic learning automata. A non-cooperative game among the UAVs is then formulated to determine the UAVs' data to be …

Diseño E Implementación De Un Sistema Automático De Fertiirrigación Para Un Cultivo De Gulupa, Lisbey Catherine Gómez Puentes, Sebastian Ilich Jimenez Vivas

Ingeniería en Automatización

En Colombia la producción frutícola se ha tecnificado notablemente en los últimos años debido a la creciente demanda nacional e internacional de frutas tropicales; la gulupa fue la segunda fruta exótica con más exportación en el año 2017 (La vanguardia, 2018). Actualmente en el municipio de La Belleza Santander los sistemas de riego y fertilización para el cultivo de gulupa son trabajos manuales, ocasionando anormalidades en los frutos ya que por este motivo el fruto puede quedar rugoso, con pulpa seca, insípida y poco aromática; además, se puede presentar desorden fisiológico en la planta (crecimiento y vigor). Al ser este …

Desarrollo De Un Juguete Educativo Armable, Que Permita El Aprendizaje Correcto Del Cepillado Dental, Jhon Alejandro Celis Méndez, Luis Arturo Penagos Gómez

Ingeniería en Automatización

El presente documento se constituye como la memoria técnica y a su vez la guía para el entendimiento del prototipo denominado por los autores como “ODONTODRILO”, el cual surge a partir del proyecto titulado “Desarrollo de un juguete educativo armable, que permita el aprendizaje correcto del cepillado dental”. En este sentido, se tiene que el proyecto consistió en diseñar, fabricar e implementar un juguete educativo armable, que permita el aprendizaje correcto del cepillado dental en niños de temprana edad. A partir de la necesidad citada, se definió un marco metodológico que consiste en tres etapas, la primera de ellas se …

Fabrication And Characterization Of Electrical Energy Storage And Harvesting Energy Devices Using Gel Electrolytes, Belqasem Aljafari

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Redox-active materials in the bulk of gel electrolytes are unquestionably holding the primary roles in developing energy harvesting and storage technology. Both technologies are necessary in order to cope with the current challenges of the environmental crises of global warming and finite non-renewable sources while the demand for energy modern societies have been speedily increased. One of the most challenges of making a hybrid device of energy conversion and storage is the cost of the fabrication process. Therefore, gel electrolyte-based materials with redox-active properties can potentially be a promising solution to improve the performance of electrochemical and photoelectrochemical devices for …

Design And Performance Of A Communications System For A Low-Cost High Altitude Balloon Platform For Troposphere And Stratosphere Research, Noemí Miguélez Gómez

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

AFOSR Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI), "Integrated Measurement and Modeling Characterization of Stratospheric Turbulence", is a 5-year effort to resolve significant operational issues concerning hypersonic vehicle aerothermodynamics, boundary layer stability, and aero-optical propagation. In situ turbulence measurements along with modeling will quantify spatiotemporal statistics and the dependence of stratospheric turbulence on underlying meteorology to a degree not previously possible. Data from high altitude balloons sampling up to kHz is required to characterize turbulence to the inner-scale, or smaller, over paltitudes from 20 km to 35+ km.

This thesis presents the development of a standard balloon bus, based on reliable COTS …

The Challenges Of Low-Energy Secondary Electron Emission Measurement, Matthew J. Vincie

Theses and Dissertations

The phenomena known as secondary electron emission was discovered over a century ago. Yet it remains very difficult to model accurately due to the limited availability of reliable experimental data. With the growing use of computer simulations in hardware development, the need for accurate models has increased. This research focused on determining what factors may be causing measurement discrepancies and methods for increasing the accuracy of measurements. It was found that several assumptions are commonly invoked when these measurements are performed that may not always be consistent with reality. The violation of these assumptions leads to measurement bias that is …