Electrical and Computer Engineering Commons^™

Metal Modulation Epitaxy Growth For Extremely High Hole Concentrations Above 10(19) Cm(-3) In Gan, Gon Namkoong, Elaissa Trybus, Kyung Keun Lee, Michael Moseley, W. Alan Doolittle, David C. Look

Applied Research Center Publications

The free hole carriers in GaN have been limited to concentrations in the low 10¹⁸ cm⁻³ range due to the deep activation energy, lower solubility, and compensation from defects, therefore, limiting doping efficiency to about 1%. Herein, we report an enhanced doping efficiency up to ~10% in GaN by a periodic doping, metal modulation epitaxy growth technique. The hole concentrations grown by periodically modulating Ga atoms and Mg dopants were over ~1.5 x 10¹⁹ cm⁻³.

© 2008 American Institute of Physics.

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Fall 2007, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge.

The senior design competition helps to focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects …

A Fast Image Super-Resolution Algorithm Using An Adaptive Wiener Filter, Russell C. Hardie

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

A computationally simple super-resolution algorithm using a type of adaptive Wiener filter is proposed. The algorithm produces an improved resolution image from a sequence of low-resolution (LR) video frames with overlapping field of view. The algorithm uses subpixel registration to position each LR pixel value on a common spatial grid that is referenced to the average position of the input frames. The positions of the LR pixels are not quantized to a finite grid as with some previous techniques. The output high-resolution (HR) pixels are obtained using a weighted sum of LR pixels in a local moving window. Using a …

Trends In Uspto Office Actions, Ron D. Katznelson

Ron D. Katznelson

No abstract provided.

Practical Sensor For Measurement Of Nitrogen, Dusan Popovic, Vladimir Milosavljevic, Steven Daniels

Articles

This paper presents a method for precise measurement of atomic and molecular nitrogen in an oxygen-nitrogen dc plasma. This is achieved by monitoring the intensities of the atomic nitrogen spectral line at 821.6 nm and the molecular nitrogen bandhead at 337.1 nm, relative to the atomic oxygen spectral line at 844.7 nm. Oxygen is one of the most frequently used gases for surface chemical treatment, including deposition and etching, therefore the ability to measure and control the process and chemical composition of the process is essential. To validate this oxygen actimometry method for N2-xO2 (where x varies from 0 to …

Electrochemical Oxidization Of Herring Sperm Dna And Its Interaction With Histone, Juan Xu, Gui-Ping Huang, Hong Li, Wei Zhu

Journal of Electrochemistry

The voltammetric behavior of herring sperm DNA at glassy carbon electrode and its interaction with histone have been investigated by using cyclic voltammetry,differential pulse voltammetry,and fluorescence measurement.In the potential range of 0.20 V to 1.25 V,it is found that an irreversible oxidative peak is exhibited in acid solution,but in the neutral or alkaline solution two oxidative peaks are observed.Oxidative peak potential values show a negative shift with increasing pH via a slope of-57 mV·pH-1 and a linear relation with DNA concentration in the range of 0.45 to 8.20 mmol·L-1.In the presence of histone,the oxidative peak current of DNA and the …

Eiectro-Oxidation Of Methanol On Pdnio/C Catalyst In Alkaline Medium, Mei-Li Wang, Lin Sang, Cheng-De Huang

Journal of Electrochemistry

The electro-oxidation of methanol in alkaline electrolyte at in-house synthesized PdNiO/C and Pd/C catalysts and the effect of heat treatment on the structure and performance of catalysts were studied by cyclic voltammetry,chronoamperometry,chronopotentiometry and X-ray diffraction methods.It is shown that when the reduction temperature is 70℃ and the ratio between Pd and Ni is 8∶2,The PdNiO/C catalyst presents a highest activity for methanol electrooxidation.Calcining can increase the particle size and crystallinity of catalysts,but decrease the dispersion and activity of catalysts, too.Besides,the NiO is disengaged from Pd lattice by heat-treatment.The optimal PdNiO/C catalyst shows higher catalytic activity and much better poisoning resistance …

Study On Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy Of Carbon Steel Eroded In Methyldiethanolamine Solution, Dong-Ping Wei, Rong-Zong Hu, Dan-Mei Pan, Wei-Xiong Huang, Rui Dong

Journal of Electrochemistry

Corrosion behavior of carbon steel in methyldiethanolamine(MDEA) solution was investigated by Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy(EIS).The results were showed that the corrosion rate of carbon steel in solution containing dissolved oxygen is higher than that in solution removed of dissolved oxygen before cathodic activation.They were reversed after cathodic activation.The corrosion rate is increased at first and then decreased when the concentration of MDEA is increased in the blank solutions.In the simulated solutions containing quantities of!heat-stable salts(HSS),the corrosion rate is decreased monotonously with increase of the MDEA concentration.As anodic polarization potential is increased,the EIS of carbon steel in HSS simulated solution showed characteristics …

Preparation And Properties Of High Capacity Lifepo_4, Jun Li, Gui-Tang Lai, Hui-Min Huang, Da-Guang Li, Xin-De Xia

Journal of Electrochemistry

Carbon-doped LiFePO4/C and pure phase LiFePO4 cathode materials were prepared by liquid-state precipitation reaction.The results of XRD,SEM,elemental analysis,FTIR and A.C.impedance tests show that the samples have had olivine structure and a 3.4V discharge platform.The tapped density of LiFePO4/C sample could reach 1.46g/cm3,the initiate discharge capacity is 144.6mAh/g at 0.1C,which remained capacity is 93.2% after 20 cycles.The first discharge capacity is 133.5mAh/g at 1C and the capacity decreased 8.76% after 20 cycles.

Electrochemical Behavior And Determination Of Luteolin At A Glassy Carbon Electrode, Ai-Lin Liu, Shao-Bo Zhang, Xiao-Sha Wu, Li-Ping Li, Yang-Yuan Cao, Li-Ying Huang, Xin-Hua Lin

Journal of Electrochemistry

The electrochemical behavior of luteolin was studied by voltammetry at a glassy carbon electrode in phosphate buffer solution.The results exhibited that the well-defined redox peak of luteolin is observed and the electrode process is adsorption-controlled.The charge transfer coefficient(α) was calculated as 0.66 in phosphate buffer solution(pH 4.0).The relationships between oxidation peak current and the concentration of luteolin are linear in the range of 1.0×10-8 ～ 5.0×10-6 mol·L-1 by differential pulse voltammetric method.The detection limit had been estimated as 1.0×10-8 molL-1.This method can be used for the determination of luteolin with satisfactory results.

Selection Of Additions In The Process Of Electrochemical Synthesizing Of K_2feo_4, Wei-Hua Yang, Dong-Qin Bi, Yan Zhou, Hong-Hui Wang, Xin-Ren Lan

Journal of Electrochemistry

Some of different additions including KIO4 was added to the anodic electrolyte for electrochemical synthesizing of K2FeO4,the effects of these additions on current yield were investigated.XRD and SEM were used to characterize the structure and image of K2FeO4.The results show that KIO4 is a preferable addition.When the mass dosage of KIO4 is 0.02%,electrolysis time is 1 h,the current yield is enhanced by 31.6% and the corresponding purity of the product is improved by 3.85 %.

Ion-Implanting Modification Of Layered Manganese Dioxide And Its Electrochemical Performance, He-Ning Huang, Dong-Ping Lv, Xing-Kang Huang, Qi-Wei Zhang, Yong Yang

Journal of Electrochemistry

Layered MnO2(δ-MnO2) was prepared by thermal decomposition of potassium permanganate.Ti was ion-implanted into such δ-MnO2 by physical techniques,forming a composite(δ-MnO2-Ti).These materials were characterized by XRD,SEM,XPS techniques and their electrochemical proprieties were investigated.The results showed that the layered structure of δ-MnO2 did not been destroyed after Ti ion implantation,and the implanted Ti element was mainly Ti4+ as indicated by XPS.Both of the first and the highest discharge specific capacities of the ion-implanted layered MnO2(δ-MnO2-Ti),compared to those of δ-MnO2,were improved significantly.

Determination Of Malathion Based On Carbon Nanotubes Modified Electrode Incorporating Acetylcholinesterase, Lu Zhang, Yao-Dong Zhang, Hong-Lan Qi

Journal of Electrochemistry

A biosensor for determination of organophosphorus pesticide based on the acetylcholinesterase and multi-wall carbon nanotubes modified electrode is fabricated.Under the optimal conditions,the chronoamperometric current at +0.70V(vs.SCE) increased linearly with the concentration of malathion in the range from 6.0×10-10 to 6.0×10-9 mol·L-1 with a detection limit of 1.0×10-10 mol·L-1.The recoveries of malathion in lake water is 97% to 105% determinated by this method.

Effects Of Electromagnetic Interference On Control Area Network Performance, Fei Ren, Y. Rosa Zheng, Maciej Jan Zawodniok, Jagannathan Sarangapani

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, the effects of electromagnetic interference (EMI) on control area network (CAN) communications are investigated by hardware experiments. Distinct CAN bit rates, communication cables, and networks are used to test effects of EMI on CAN bus. Waveforms of CAN data frames in EMI environment are observed and analyzed for figuring out details of effects. Experiments show that the EMI pulses frequently encountered in automobile and off-road machinery can cause the reduction of bit rates and errors in high-speed CAN communications. Replacing traditional unshielded parallel communication cables with shielded communication cables is proved to be an effective method of …

Predictive Congestion Control Protocol For Wireless Sensor Networks, Maciej Jan Zawodniok, Jagannathan Sarangapani

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Available congestion control schemes, for example transport control protocol (TCP), when applied to wireless networks, result in a large number of packet drops, unfair scenarios and low throughputs with a significant amount of wasted energy due to retransmissions. To fully utilize the hop by hop feedback information, this paper presents a novel, decentralized, predictive congestion control (DPCC) for wireless sensor networks (WSN). The DPCC consists of an adaptive flow and adaptive back-off interval selection schemes that work in concert with energy efficient, distributed power control (DPC). The DPCC detects the onset of congestion using queue utilization and the embedded channel …

Electric Power: Cyber And Electromagnetic Security Issues, George H. Baker

George H Baker

Electric power is essential to the functioning of U.S. society. The electric power system increasingly operates at or near its reliability limits. The geographic scale of the tightly coupled networks involved makes the system susceptible to large-scale outages. More frequent natural and accidental failures portend possible catastrophes from intentional disruption. Deregulation has been a major factor to the lack of investment in system upgrades. Techniques to prevent attacks and reduce vulnerabilities are available and affordable.

Comparisons Of An Adaptive Neural Network Based Controller And An Optimized Conventional Power System Stabilizer, Wenxin Liu, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy, Jagannathan Sarangapani, Donald C. Wunsch, Mariesa Crow, Li Liu, David A. Cartes

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Power system stabilizers are widely used to damp out the low frequency oscillations in power systems. In power system control literature, there is a lack of stability analysis for proposed controller designs. This paper proposes a Neural Network (NN) based stabilizing controller design based on a sixth order single machine infinite bus power system model. The NN is used to compensate the complex nonlinear dynamics of power system. To speed up the learning process, an adaptive signal is introduced to the NN's weights updating rule. The NN can be directly used online without offline training process. Magnitude constraint of the …

Hydrological Monitoring With Hybrid Sensor Networks, Thomas V. Freiberger, Sahra Sedigh, Estella A. Atekwana

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Existing hydrological monitoring systems suffer from short- comings in accuracy, resolution, and scalability. Their fragility, high power consumption, and lack of autonomy necessitate frequent site visits. Cabling requirements and large size limit their scalability and make them prohibitively expensive. The research described in this paper proposes to alleviate these problems by pairing high-resolution in situ measure- ment with remote data collection and software maintenance. A hybrid sensor network composed of wired and wireless connections autonomously measures various attributes of the soil, including moisture, temperature, and resistivity. The mea- surements are communicated to a processing server over the existing GSM cellular …

Neural Network Based Decentralized Controls Of Large Scale Power Systems, Wenxin Liu, Jagannathan Sarangapani, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy, Donald C. Wunsch, Mariesa Crow, Li Liu, David A. Cartes

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents a suite of neural network (NN) based decentralized controller designs for large scale power systems' generators, one is for the excitation control and the other is for the steam valve control. Though the control inputs are calculated using local signals, the transient and overall system stability can be guaranteed. NNs are used to approximate the unknown and/or imprecise dynamics of the local power system dynamics and the inter-connection terms, thus the requirements for exact system parameters are relaxed. Simulation studies with a three-machine power system demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller designs.

Energy-Efficient Hybrid Key Management Protocol For Wireless Sensor Networks, Timothy J. Landstra, Maciej Jan Zawodniok, Jagannathan Sarangapani

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, we propose a subnetwork key management strategy in which the heterogeneous security requirements of a wireless sensor network are considered to provide differing levels of security with minimum communication overhead. Additionally, it allows the dynamic creation of high security subnetworks within the wireless sensor network and provides subnetworks with a mechanism for dynamically creating a secure key using a novel and dynamic group key management protocol. The proposed energy-efficient protocol utilizes a combination of pre-deployed group keys and initial trustworthiness of nodes to create a level of trust between neighbors in the network. This trust is later …

A Universal Theory Of Pseudocodewords, Nathan Axvig, Emily Price, Eric T. Psota, Deanna Turk, Lance C. Pérez, Judy L. Walker

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

Three types of pseudocodewords for LDPC codes are found in the literature: graph cover pseudocodewords, linear programming pseudocodewords, and computation tree pseudocodewords. In this paper we first review these three notions and known connections between them. We then propose a new decoding rule — universal cover decoding — for LDPC codes. This new decoding rule also has a notion of pseudocodeword attached, and this fourth notion provides a framework in which we can better understand the other three.

Use Of Max-Flow On Facts Devices, Adam Lininger, Bruce M. Mcmillin, Badrul H. Chowdhury, Mariesa Crow

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

FACTS devices can be used to mitigate cascading failures in a power grid by controlling the power flow in individual lines. Placement and control are significant issues. We present a procedure for determining whether a scenario can be mitigated using the concept of maximum flow. If it can be mitigated, we determine what placement and control setting will solve the scenario. This paper treats fourteen cascading failure scenarios and reports on the use of the max-flow algorithm both in determining the mitigation of each scenario and in finding FACTS settings that will mitigate the scenario.

Control Of Nonholonomic Mobile Robot Formations Using Neural Networks, Jagannathan Sarangapani, Travis Alan Dierks

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper the control of formations of multiple nonholonomic mobile robots is attempted by integrating a kinematic controller with a neural network (NN) computed-torque controller. A combined kinematic/torque control law is developed for leader-follower based formation control using backstepping in order to accommodate the dynamics of the robots and the formation in contrast with kinematic-based formation controllers. The NN is introduced to approximate the dynamics of the follower as well as its leader using online weight tuning. It is shown using Lyapunov theory that the errors for the entire formation are uniformly ultimately bounded, and numerical results are provided.

Self-Organization In Cathode Boundary Layer Discharges, Nobuhiko Takano

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Cathode boundary layer (CBL) discharge, which has been developed as a UV light source, operates in a direct current between a planar cathode and a ring-shape anode that are separated by a dielectric with an opening of the same diameter as the anode. The nonthermal CBL discharges operate in a medium pressure range down to 30 Torr, emitting excimer radiation when operated with noble gases. The radiant excimer emittance at 172 nm in xenon reaches 1.7 W/cm², and a maximum excimer efficiency of 6 % has been obtained. The high excimer radiant emittance, in addition to low cost …

Blueprint For Iteratively Hardening Power Grids Employing Unified Power Flow Controllers, William M. Siever, Ann K. Miller, Daniel R. Tauritz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A stable electricity supply is vital for modern society. However, many parts of our power transmission grid are operating near their operational limits. Such stressed systems are vulnerable to cascading failures, where a few small faults can induce a cascade of failures potentially leading to a major blackout The unified power flow controller (UPFC), the most powerful highspeed, semi-conductor based power flow device, can be used as a theoretical model to study how these devices can be used to improve power grid resilience. The blueprint presented here can be used to iteratively identify critical weaknesses in power grids and to …

Examination Of Energy And Group Velocities In Positive And Negative Index Chiral Materials With And Without Dispersion, Monish Ranjan Chatterjee, Partha P. Banerjee

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Concepts of energy and group velocities, Poynting and propagation vectors are examined for both positive and negative index materials. Known definitions for these entities are explored in terms of the interplay of chirality and dispersion.

Reliability Modeling For The Advanced Electric Power Grid, Ayman Z. Faza, Sahra Sedigh, Bruce M. Mcmillin

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The advanced electric power grid promises a self-healing infrastructure using distributed, coordinated, power electronics control. One promising power electronics device, the Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS), can modify power flow locally within a grid. Embedded computers within the FACTS devices, along with the links connecting them, form a communication and control network that can dynamically change the power grid to achieve higher dependability. The goal is to reroute power in the event of transmission line failure. Such a system, over a widespread area, is a cyber-physical system. The overall reliability of the grid is a function of the respective reliabilities …

The Syntheses And Electrochemical Performance Of Nano-Mno_2 For Supercapacitor, Jun Ma, Ming-Sen Zheng, Quan-Feng Dong

Journal of Electrochemistry

Nano-manganese dioxide were prepared by two different methods which are low temperature solid reaction and chemical deposition.The products were characterized by XRD,SEM,BET and constant current charge-discharge tests.The result shows that there is a close relationship between specific capacitance and BET surface areas.Meanwhile the specific capacitance was impacted little by the structure of the nano-manganese dioxides.However,the product performance of high rates,was influenced by structure,the higher rate can be obtained with the more perfect crystal structure.

Prerapation And Supercapacitor Property Of Al Doped Co_3o_4, Xin Ge, Ye Chen, Chun-Xia Zhang, Chang Shu

Journal of Electrochemistry

With KOH as precipitator to prepare Aluminum doped Co3O4,X-ray diffraction indicated that the doping Al did not change the crystal structure of Co3O4.Electrochemical properties of the sample were tested by cyclic voltammetry and constant-current charge/discharge.The results showed that the chemical doping improved the specific capacitance.When the mol ratio of Co(Ⅱ) with Al(Ⅲ)was 1∶0.05,the specific capacitance was up to 518.07 F/g within 0～400 mV potenitial at current density 5 mA/cm2.

Preparation,Structure,And Cv Study Of The Supported Ptruir/Tic Electrocatalysts For Oxygen Electrodes, Sheng Sui, Li-Rong Ma

Journal of Electrochemistry

The PtRuIr/TiC electrocatalysts were prepared by method of reduction and deposition on TiC powders as supports together with ultrasonic wave dispersion.The sampls were characterized by BET surface area,scanning electron microscope,X-ray diffraction,and cyclic voltammetry techniques.The active components of Pt,Ru,and Ir particles(2.6%Pt,1.3%Ru,16%Ir,and 80%TiC,by mass) were mainly dispersed on the outer surface of the TiC supports,which structures were in favor of fine variable crystallites.It was found that the electrochemical performance of the PtRuIr/TiC electrodes was about three times as that of the unsupported electrocatalysts with the same active compositions for oxygen evolution reaction.After 120 times of CV cycles,there was almost no PtRuIr/TiC dissolving …