Electrical and Electronics Commons^™

Resistive Switching Of Tin Dioxide (Sno2) For Memristor Applications, Sergio Fabian Almeida

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In the last decades new electrical devices have been investigated in order to overcome problems caused by integrated circuit shrinking. Within these devices there is one that has attracted much attention due to its high scalability and simple structure. This device was proposed theoretically by Leon Chua in 1971 who gave it the name of "Memristor". In the recent years thin films structures composed of a metal/oxide/metal (MOM) stack have been linked to this new device, also known as "Resistive switching". There are several applications for the memristor; one of the most important is for resistive random access memory (ReRAM) …

Simulation And Optimization Of Ultra Thin Photovoltaics, Jose Luis Cruz-Campa

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) conducts pioneering research and development in Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and solar cell research. This dissertation project combines these two areas to create ultra-thin small-form-factor crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells. These miniature solar cells create a new class of photovoltaics with potentially novel applications and benefits such as dramatic reductions in cost, weight and material usage.

At the beginning of the project, unusually low efficiencies were obtained in the research group. The intention of this research was thus to investigate the main causes of the low efficiencies through simulation, design, fabrication, and characterization.

Commercial simulation tools were …

Investigation Of Selective Nanohetero-Epitaxy Growth On Si(100) Substrates For Hgcdte Infrared Detector Applications, Aryzbe Diaz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The selective CdTe Nanohetero-Epitaxy growth on Si(100) substrates has been achieved without the use of a mask in an attempt to reduce the dislocation density at the CdTe/Si interface to 10⁵/cm³ using the Close-Space Sublimation (CSS) technique, which is a low-cost effective technique for the deposition of polycrystalline CdTe films. Furthermore, CdTe is a compound semiconductor with a direct bandgap of 1.5 eV, which makes it an ideal material for the applications of infrared detectors and solar cells. It has been demonstrated that the selective growth of CdTe on patterned Si(100) substrates results in CdTe grains with …

Design And Simulation Of A Position Sensitive Device With Gaussian Response, Debra Erin Medina

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Not Required

Dynamic Modeling Of Human Gait And Motor, Chad Everett Joshua Macdonald

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The simulation of gait, impairments and the outcomes of rehabilitation strategies is an important area of research. The ability to study the efficacy of treatment options before applying them to patients has the potential to improve the efficiency of the rehabilitation process. Any such simulations must incorporate some model of the motor learning process to properly anticipate the responses of patients.This dissertation presents initial work on the modeling of gait and the study of motor adaptation with a view towards simulating the motor adaptation process during gait.

Specifically, an inverse dynamic model of gait incorporating sagittal plane limb and torso …

Acoustic Reflectometry Using Gaussian-Modulated Sinusoidal Waves And The Ware-Aki Algorithm, Ernesto Rodrigo Vazquez Ceron

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Acoustic reflectometry, a non invasive technique, consists of solving, the inverse problem of estimating the cross sectional area as function of the distance of a cylindrical cavity by impacting an audible acoustic pulse of high amplitude and short duration, and analyzing the reflected wave. The technique has been applied in Biomedical Engineering to estimate both the area of a human upper airway and the patency of endotracheal tubes as a function of distance. Several ways have been tested to improve the quality of an acoustic pulse and different algorithms have been tested to reduce the losses. However, an acoustic pulse …

Sensor Interpolation And Super Resolution Image Reconstruction Using The Optimal Recovery Framework, Veenarai Moram

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Wireless sensor networks have the potential to benefit society in a myriad of ways, but due to constraints of sensor placement, obtaining the desired signals is not an easy problem. Retrieving the information accurately from sensors placed randomly is a challenging problem of sensor communication and signal interpolation. In this research the optimal recovery (OR) method, a deterministic framework that can use a priori bandwidth or spectral shape information, is used to interpolate from the given samples produced by sensors. In the reconstruction formulation, a worst case error signal occurs. To minimize this error, the OR method uses a norm …

12 Bit Charge Redistribution Digital To Analog Converter For The Residence Time Fluxgate Magnetometer, Miguel Angel Alamillo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The continuous advances in CMOS VLSI technology have culminated in high speed, low voltage CMOS digital circuits with gate delays below 50 ps at 1.5 V supply. At the same time, high voltage analog signal processing has fallen behind to the high flexibility and high reliability of DSP. However, the main drawback of DSP is the need for high accuracy low distortion data converters and as a consequence of the persistent efforts of reducing size, cost and power of solid-state components the field of CMOS Mixed-Signal circuit design has become of the utmost importance.

The obvious functionality of data converters …

Analysis Of Periodic Structures Using Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method, Khaled Elmahgoub

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Periodic structures are of great importance in electromagnetics these days due to their wide range of applications such as frequency selective surfaces (FSS), electromagnetic band gap, periodic absorbers, metamaterials and many others. The aim of this work is to develop several algorithms to analyze different types of electromagnetic periodic structures using the constant horizontal wavenumber finite-difference time-domain periodic boundary condition (FDTD/PBC). A new FDTD/PBC approach is introduced to analyze the scattering properties of general skegrid periodic structures. The approach is simple to implement and efficient in terms of both computational time and memory usage. In addition, an efficient hybrid FDTD …

Nano-Scaled Fet Device For Cmos Technology, Prabhat Ranjan Pathak

Dissertations

In this work the 3-D structure of the Accumulation mode (ACM) and Enhance mode (ECM) FinFET was developed by the Taurus-Device Editor. The design of both ACM and ECM FinFET was optimized for high-performance IC applications to meet ITRS specification for I_off current, for 9nm gate length. The design of ACM and ECM FinFET is optimized, analyzed and compared against each other with respect to Darin Induced Barrier Lower (DIBL), Sub-threshold Swing(SS), operation and performance characteristics with varying electrical and physical parameters Silicon thickness (T_si), Source/Drain doping gradient (σ_sd), electrical channel length (L_eff ), …

Slow Complexity Wavelet Packet Compression Of Bayer Images For Communication Over Wireless Sensor Networks, Ivan Calzada

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis was to develop a low complexity image compression algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). The main constraints in a WSN node are limited processing power, memory allocation, and battery life. The goal of this thesis was to develop an image compression algorithm that would thrive under this constraint environment. The main focus was to minimize the complexity of the algorithm by taking advantage of the spatial correlation found in Bayer images. The algorithm employs line based 1-D Discrete Wavelet Packets Transform of Bayer images. In addition the image compression method includes the application of a …

Computer-Aided Detection Of Sleep Apnea And Sleep Stage Classification Using Hrv And Eeg Signals, Edson F. Estrada

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Sleep is a circadian rhythm essential for human life. Many events occur in the body during this state. In the past, significant efforts have been made to provide clinicians with reliable and less intrusive tools to automatically classify the sleep stages and detect apnea events. A few systems are available in the market to accomplish this task. However, sleep specialists may not have full confidence and trust in such systems due to issues related to their accuracy, sensitivity and specificity. The main objective of this work is to explore possible relationships among sleep stages and apneic events and improve on …

A Subthreshold Reconfigurable Architecture For Harsh Environments, Ameet O. Chavan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Energy harvesting and functional reconfigurability are necessary features in order to simultaneously achieve longer operating lifetimes and versatility in application for many next generation electronic systems. The presented research incorporates capabilities that not only enable applications to self-power from ambience but also permit change in functionality based on real-time application requirements. Currently, many applications are battery powered with custom hardware, which severely confines the application platform. Moreover, maintenance and upgrades are prohibitively expensive, particularly in the case of remote locations with limited accessibility. For harsh environments like Space or the battlefield, apart from features such as low power and econfigurability, …

Study Of The Interactions Of Proteins, Cells And Tissue With Biomaterials, Abhijeet Bhalkikar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bioengineering is the application of engineering principles to address challenges in the fields of biology and medicine. Biomaterials play a major role in bioengineering. This work employs a three level approach to study the various interactions of biomaterials with proteins, cells and tissue in vitro. In the first study, we qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed the process of protein adsorption of two enzymes to two different surface chemistries, which are commonly used in the field. In the second study, we attempted to engineer a tissue construct to build a biocompatible interface between a titanium substrate and human skin. In the third …

Modeling And Design Of Multi-Port Dc/Dc Converters, Zhijun Qian

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, a new satellite platform power architecture based on paralleled three-port DC/DC converters is proposed to reduce the total satellite power system mass. Moreover, a fourport DC/DC converter is proposed for renewable energy applications where several renewable sources are employed. Compared to the traditional two-port converter, three-port or four-port converters are classified as multi-port converters. Multi-port converters have less component count and less conversion stage than the traditional power processing solution which adopts several independent two-port converters. Due to their advantages multi-port converters recently have attracted much attention in academia, resulting in many topologies for various applications. But …

High-Density And High-Efficiency Soft Switching Modular Bi-Directional Dc-Dc Converter For Hybrid Electric Vehicles, John Elmes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation1 presents the design of a high-density and high-efficiency soft-switching bi-directional DC-DC converter for hybrid-electric vehicles. The converter operates in a new bidirectional interleaved variable-frequency quasi-square-wave (QSW) mode, which enables high efficiency, high switching frequency, and high power-density. The converter presented utilizes a new variable frequency interleaving approach which allows for each module to operate in an interleaved position while allowing for tolerance in inductance and snubber capacitor values. The variable frequency interleaved soft-switching operation paired with a high-density nanocrystalline inductor and high-density system structure results in a very high performance converter, well exceeding that of the current technology. …

Robust Dialog Management Through A Context-Centric Architecture, Victor C. Hung

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents and evaluates a method of managing spoken dialog interactions with a robust attention to fulfilling the human user’s goals in the presence of speech recognition limitations. Assistive speech-based embodied conversation agents are computer-based entities that interact with humans to help accomplish a certain task or communicate information via spoken input and output. A challenging aspect of this task involves open dialog, where the user is free to converse in an unstructured manner. With this style of input, the machine’s ability to communicate may be hindered by poor reception of utterances, caused by a user’s inadequate command of …

Design Of Low-Capacitance And High-Speed Electrostatic Discharge (Esd) Devices For Low-Voltage Protection Applications, You Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) is defined as the transfer of charge between bodies at different potentials. The electrostatic discharge induced integrated circuit damages occur throughout the whole life of a product from the manufacturing, testing, shipping, handing, to end user operating stages. This is particularly true as microelectronics technology continues shrink to nano-metric dimensions. The ESD related failures is a major IC reliability concern and results in a loss of millions dollars to the semiconductor industry each year. Several ESD stress models and test methods have been developed to reproduce the real world ESD discharge events and quantify the sensitivity of …

The Simulation And Control Of A Grid-Connected Wind Energy Conversion System, Shauna Mccartney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the rising cost of petroleum, concerns about exhausting the fossil fuels we depend on for energy, and the subsequent impacts that the burning of these types of fuels have on the environment, countries around the world are paying close attention to the development of renewable types of energy. Consequently, researchers have been trying to develop ways to take advantage of different types of clean and renewable energy sources. Wind energy production, in particular, has been growing at an increasingly rapid rate, and will continue to do so in the future. In fact, it has become an integral part in …

Mitigating Misbehavior In Wireless Networks: A Game Theoretic Approach, Wenjing Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In a distributed wireless system, multiple network nodes behave cooperatively towards a common goal. Though such assumptions on cooperation are desirable (e.g., controlling the transmit power level, reducing interference for each other, revealing private information, adhering to network policies) for analyzing and modeling, certain nodes belonging to a real-world system have often shown to deviate. These nodes, known as misbehaving nodes, bring more challenges to the design of the wireless network because the unreliable channel makes the actions of the nodes hidden from each other. In this dissertation, we analyze two types of misbehavior, namely, selfish noncooperation and malicious attacking. …