Digital Commons Network^™

A Multi-Processor Control System Architecture For A Cascaded Statcom With Energy Storage, Chang Qian, Stan Atcitty, Mariesa Crow

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents a multi-processor control system for a general purpose five-level cascaded inverter for real time power system applications. Practical design considerations for the digital controller architecture as well as the power converter are discussed and a 3 kVA laboratory prototype is presented. As a case study, a StatCom with battery energy storage was implemented on this multi-processor controlled inverter system. To eliminate the troublesome PI parameter tuning and the limitation of small signal models, which exist in conventional control for StatComs, a new and simple control method based on large signal model was designed to realize four-quadrant power …

Pulse Regulation Control Technique For Flyback Converter, Mehdi Ferdowsi, Ali Emadi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Pulse regulation, a fixed frequency control technique, is introduced and applied to flyback converter operating in discontinuous conduction mode (DCM). The control parameters are designed in a way that the converter operates as close as possible to the critical conduction mode. In contrast to the conventional pulse width modulation (PWM) control scheme, the principal idea of pulse regulation is to achieve output voltage regulation using high and low-power pulses. Pulse regulation is simple, cost effective, and enjoys a fast dynamic response. The proposed technique is applicable to any converter operating in DCM. However, this work mainly focuses on flyback topology. …

Adaptive Learning For Event Modeling And Pattern Classification, Shuangshuang Dai

Dissertations

It is crucial to detect, characterize and model events of interest in a new propulsion system. As technology advances, the amount of data being generated increases significantly with respect to time. This increase substantially strains our ability to interpret the data at an equivalent rate. It demands efficient methodologies and algorithms in the development of automated event modeling and pattern recognition to detect and characterize events of interest and correlate them to the system performance. The fact that the information required to properly evaluate system performance and health is seldom known in advance further exacerbates this issue.

Event modeling and …

Oblivious Data Hiding : A Practical Approach, Husrev T. Sencar

Dissertations

This dissertation presents an in-depth study of oblivious data hiding with the emphasis on quantization based schemes. Three main issues are specifically addressed:

1. Theoretical and practical aspects of embedder-detector design.

2. Performance evaluation, and analysis of performance vs. complexity tradeoffs.

3. Some application specific implementations.

A communications framework based on channel adaptive encoding and channel independent decoding is proposed and interpreted in terms of oblivious data hiding problem. The duality between the suggested encoding-decoding scheme and practical embedding-detection schemes are examined. With this perspective, a formal treatment of the "processing" employed in quantization based hiding methods is presented. In …

Configurable Computer Systems Can Support Dataflow Computing, Anish Arvind Sathe

Theses

This work presents a practical implementation of a uni-processor system design. This design, named D²-CPU, satisfies the pure data-driven paradigm, which is a radical alternative to the conventional von Neumann paradigm and exploits the instruction-level parallelism to its full extent. The D²-CPU uses the natural flow of the program, dataflow, by minimizing redundant instructions like fetch, store, and write back. This leads to a design with the better performance, lower power consumption and efficient use of the on-chip resources. This extraordinary performance is the result of a simple, pipelined and superscalar architecture with a very …

A Faster Technique For Distributed Constraint Satisfaction And Optimization With Privacy Enforcement, Marius C. Silaghi

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

A problem that received recent attention is the development of negotiation/cooperation techniques for solving naturally distributed problems with privacy requirements. An important amount of research focused on those problems that can be modeled with distributed constraint satisfaction, where the constraints are the secrets of the participants. Distributed AI develops techniques where the agents solve such problems without involving trusted servers. Some of the existing techniques aim for various tradeoffs between complexity and privacy guarantees [MTSY03], some aim only at high efficiency [ZM04], while others aim to offer maximal privacy [Sil03]. While the last mentioned work achieves an important level of …

Low-Frequency Fast Inhomogeneous Plane-Wave Algorithm (Lf-Fipwa), L. (Lijun) J. Jiang, W. C. Chew

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A new method, the low-frequency fast inhomogeneous plane-wave algorithm (LF-FIPWA) is presented to extend the traditional multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MLFMA) and fast inhomogeneous plane-wave algorithm (FIPWA) seamlessly into the low-frequency range. It uses evanescent-wave extrapolation and translation techniques to overcome the low-frequency breakdown problem. The accuracy can be well controlled over a broad frequency range. Numerical examples show the effectiveness of this new algorithm.

Optically Coupled Etalons And Methods Of Making And Using Same, Michael A. Scobey, Lucien P. Ghislain, Dennis Derickson, Loren F. Stokes

Electrical Engineering

Optical elements comprise stacked, optically matched and optically coupled etalons, at least one of the optically coupled etalons comprising first and second selectively transparent thin film mirror coatings on opposite surfaces of a bulk optic. The bulk optic defines the cavity spacing of the etalon and may, for example be formed of a monolithic body of silica or other optically transparent glass diced from a glass wafer. The bulk optic may further comprise a wedge coating of progressively increasing thickness overlying the monolithic glass body and compensating for, or offsetting non-parallelism of the bulk optic. The bulk optic may further …

Thermal Stability Of Electron Traps In Gan Grown By Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition, D. Johnstone, S. Doğan, J. Leach, Y.-T. Moon, Y. Fu, Y. Hu, Hadis Morkoç

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Deep level transient spectroscopy was used to investigate the thermal stability of electron traps in n-type GaN grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The concentration of traps at 160 and at 500K increased more than fivefold over the course of several 700Kanneal cycles, while a peak at 320K increased by a factor of only 1.19. The increase in the trap concentration with repeated annealing might be due to a mobile trap or loss of passivant. Hydrogen is very likely present in high concentration in the epilayer, and its passivating effects may be lost with annealing.

Surface Band Bending In As-Grown And Plasma-Treated N-Type Gan Films Using Surface Potential Electric Force Microscopy, Sang-Jun Cho, Seydi Doğan, Shahriar Sabuktagin, Michael A. Reshchikov, D. Johnstone, Hadis Morkoç

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

The surface band bending, as well as the effect of plasma-induced damage on band bending, on GaN surfaces, was investigated. The upward band bending, measured by surface potentialelectric force microscopy (a variant of atomic force microscopy), for the as-grown n -type GaNwas about 1.0 eV which increased to ∼1.4 eV after reactive ion etching (RIE). UV illuminationdecreased the band bending by 0.3 eV with time constants on the order of seconds and hundreds of seconds for the as-grown and RIE treated GaN, respectively. This implies that there is a higher density of the surface states in the samples subjected to …

Excitonic Fine Structure And Recombination Dynamics In Single-Crystalline Zno, A. Teke, Ü. Özgür, S. Doğan, X. Gu, Hadis Morkoç, B. Nemeth, J. Nause, H. O. Everitt

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

The optical properties of a high quality bulk ZnO, thermally post treated in a forming gas environment are investigated by temperature dependent continuous wave and time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) measurements. Several bound and free exciton transitions along with their first excited states have been observed at low temperatures, with the main neutral-donor-bound exciton peak at 3.3605 eV having a linewidth of 0.7 meV and dominating the PL spectrum at 10 K. This bound exciton transition was visible only below 150 K, whereas the A-free exciton transition at 3.3771 eV persisted up to room temperature. A-free exciton binding energy of 60 meV …

Transient Photovoltage In Gan As Measured By Atomic Force Microscope Tip, M. A. Reshchikov, S. Sabuktagin, D. K. Johnstone, H. Morkoç

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

We studied restoration of the band bending at the surface of undoped GaN layers after illumination with above-bandgap light. The photovoltage saturated with illumination at about 0.2–0.3 eV at room temperature, although the upward band bending for GaN in the dark is of the order of 1 eV. We attribute the photovoltage effect to charging of the surface states, the density of which is estimated at about 10^12 cm^−2. Restoration of the barrier after a light pulse is simulated by a phenomenological model whereby the acceptorlike surface states are emptied of electrons under illumination and filled back in dark due …

The Removal Of Motion Artifacts From Non-Invasive Blood Pressure Measurements, Paresh Thakkar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Modern Automatic Blood Pressure Measurement Techniques are based on measuring the cuff pressure and on sensing the pulsatile amplitude variations. These measurements are very sensitive to motion of the patient or the surroundings where the patient is. The slightest unexpected movements could offset the readings of the automatic Blood Pressure meter by a large amount or render the readings totally meaningless. Every effort must be taken to avoid subjecting the body of the patient or the patient's surroundings to motion for obtaining a reliable reading. But there are situations in which we need Blood Pressure Measurements with the patient or …

Observations Upon Entering The Kettle, Gary Spivey

Faculty Publications - Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

An oft told parable relates how a frog, when dropped in a kettle of hot water, will instantly jump out. But if you drop that frog in a kettle of cold water, and slowly heat it up, the frog will not be aware of the gradual change in its environment and will die in the kettle. I had formerly limited the kettle analogy to the broad concepts of the “worldly culture” alluded to by pastors who use this imagery. Then, after completing educational experience at major state universities and a fifteen year career in industry, I decided to enter upon …

Raindrop Size Distribution Retrieval And Evaluation Using An S-Band Radar Profiler, Fang Fang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Vertical pointing Doppler radar profilers are used to explore the vertical structure of precipitation cloud systems and to provide validation information for use in weather research. In this thesis, a theoretical radar rain-backscatter model was developed to simulate profiler Doppler spectra as a function of assumed rain parameters, of which the raindrop size distribution (DSD) is the fundamental quantity used to describe the characteristics of rain. Also, profiler observations during stratiform rain are analyzed to retrieve the corresponding rain DSD’s. In particular, a gamma distribution model is introduced, which uses Rayleigh scattering portion of the Doppler velocity spectrum to estimate …

Analysis And Implementation Of A Synchronous Buck Converter Used As An Intermediate Stage Of An Hid Ballast, Sergey V. Vernyuk

ETD Archive

The contribution of this thesis is the analysis of a Synchronous Buck converter, used as the second stage (which controls the current through the lamp, and consequently, the lamp power) in a 3-stage High-Intensity Discharge (HID) ballast. Where previously standard Buck converters were used, this new application of the Synchronous Buck converter to a medium-power lighting ballast improves efficiency by operating the converter in a new, modified critical-conduction mode to achieve soft-switching and improve efficiency significantly. The converter and 2-loop controller will be analyzed in the three HID lamp modes of operation: open circuit, short circuit, and power control mode. …

Harmonic Distortion Caused By Ev Battery Chargers In The Distribution Systems Network And Its Remedy, Malabika Basu, Kevin Gaughan, Eugene Coyle

Conference papers

An effective way to minimise harmonic pollution in power systems is by careful design of the equipment connected to them. It is important for designers of equipment associated with emerging technologies to be aware of the potential impact of their designs on power system quality. One such upcoming technology is electric vehicle (EV) battery charging which may contribute to high harmonic distortion in the power system during the charging period. The literature notes total harmonic distortion of up to 50%. These findings are the impetus behind the present paper, where an EV battery charger has been designed, with an inherent …

Energy Aware Design And Analysis For Synchronous And Asynchronous Circuits, Jia Di

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

Power dissipation has become a major concern for IC designers. Various low power design techniques have been developed for synchronous circuits. Asynchronous circuits, however. have gained more interests recently due to their benefits in lower noise, easy timing control, etc. But few publications on energy reduction techniques for asynchronous logic are available.

Power awareness indicates the ability of the system power to scale with changing conditions and quality requirements. Scalability is an important figure-of-merit since it allows the end user to implement operational policy. just like the user of mobile multimedia equipment needs to select between better quality and longer …

Evaluation Of A Microwave Radiative Transfer Model For Calculating Sat, Simonetta Thompson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Remote sensing is the process of gathering and analyzing information about the earth's ocean, land and atmosphere using electromagnetic "wireless" techniques. Mathematical models, known as Radiative Transfer Models (RTM), are developed to calculate the observed radiance (brightness temperature) seen by the remote sensor. The RTM calculated brightness temperature is a function of fourteen environmental parameters, including atmospheric profiles of temperature, pressure and moisture, sea surface temperature, and cloud liquid water. Input parameters to the RTM model include data from NOAA Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), Reynolds weekly Sea Surface Temperature and National Ocean Data Center (NODC) WOA98 Ocean Salinity and …

Thermal Management, Beam Control,And Packaging Designs For High Power, Te-Yuan Chung

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Several novel techniques for controlling, managing and utilizing high power diode lasers are described. Low pressure water spray cooling for a high heat flux system is developed and proven to be an ideal cooling method for high power diode laser arrays. In order to enable better thermal and optical performance of diode laser arrays, a new and simple optical element, the beam control prism, is invented. It provides the ability to accomplish beam shaping and beam tilting at the same time. Several low thermal resistance diode packaging designs using beam control prisms are proposed, studied and produced. Two pump cavity …

Performance Analysis Of Low-Power, Short-Range Wireless Transceivers, Usha Neupane

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To address the various emerging standards like BluetoothTM, Home RF, Wi-fiTM (IEEE 802.11), ZigBeeTM etc., in the field of wireless communications, different transceivers have been designed to operate at various frequencies such as 450 MHz, 902-920 MHz, 2.4 GHz, all part of designated ISM band. Though, the wireless systems have become more reliable, compact and easy to develop than before, a detailed performance analysis and characterization of the devices should be done. This report details the performance analysis and characterization of a popular binary FSK transceiver TRF6901 from Texas Instruments. The performance analysis of the device is done with respect …

Autonomous Robotic Automation Systemwith Vision Feedback, Jeffery Rosino

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, a full design, development and application of an autonomous robotic automation system using vision feedback is performed. To realize this system, a cylindrical manipulator configuration is implemented, using a personal computer (PC) based PID controller from National Instruments. Full autonomous control will be achieved via a programmable human machine interface (HMI) developed on a PC using Borland C++ Builder. The vision feedback position control is accomplished using an ordinary "off-the-shelf" web camera. The manuscript is organized as follows; After Chapter 1, an introduction to automation history and its role in the manufacturing industry, Chapter 2 discusses and …

Motivating Undergraduate Feedback Control Through Robot Soccer, Randal Beard

Faculty Publications

One of the challenges in control engineering education is to motivate students to invest the effort necessary to understand the theoretical foundations of feedback control. We have found that many students are inherently interested in robotics and are attracted to control engineering when they understand that it plays a central role in robotic systems. To capitalize on this appeal, we have established a one semester robot soccer senior design course that uses the undergraduate feedback control course to introduce the prerequisite material. As a consequence, the undergraduate feedback control course and its lab have been redesigned to focus on mobile …

The Frequency Distribution Of Quantization Error In Digitizers For Coherent Sampling, Sol Neeman Ph.D.

Engineering Studies Faculty Publications and Creative Works

In this paper the frequency distribution of quantization error in coherent sampling of digitizers will be investigated. As the distribution of the quantization error affects the values of THD and SNR, it is relevant for a correct interpretation of THD and SNR of sine waves in coherent sampling. The distribution of the quantization error will be analyzed as a function of N, total number of samples and M, number of cycles in the sample set and it will be proved that for certain cases, the quantization error falls on odd harmonics only of the frequency of the sampled sine wave.

Determination Of The Phase Of A Transfer Function: Theory Versus Practice, Pauline Sourdille, Aidan O'Dwyer

Conference papers

In control systems, a way to evaluate the stability of a system is to determine the magnitude and phase of the open loop system transfer function in the frequency domain. But due to the nature of the phase expression, practice and theory are not aligned. Some problems arise when the phase is determined, caused by the properties of the arctan function. This paper analyses these phase problems for a third order lag system and a third order lag with time delay system. It also presents modifications to obtain the analytically correct phase values from the computed values.

The 7 C'S For Creating Living Software: A Research Perspective For Quality-Oriented Software Engineering, Mehmet Akşi̇t

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

This article proposes the 7 C's for realizing quality-oriented software engineering practices. All the desired qualities of this approach are expressed in short by the term living software. The 7 C's are: Concern-oriented processes, Canonical models, Composable models, Certifiable models, Constructible models, Closure property of models and Controllable models. Each C is explained by the help of a set of definitions, a short overview of the background work and the problems that software engineers may experience in realizing the corresponding C. Further, throughout the article, a software development example is presented for illustrating the realization of the 7 C's. Finally, …

Topology And Control Investigation For Low-Voltage High-Current Isolated Dc-Dc Converters, Hong Mao

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

High conversion efficiency and fast transient response at high switching frequency are the two main challenges for low-voltage high-current DC-DC converters, which are the motivations of the dissertation work.

To reduce the switching power loss, soft switching is a desirable technique to keep power loss under control at high switching frequencies. A Duty-Cycle-Shift (DCS) concept is proposed for half-bridge DC-DC converters to reduce switching loss. The concept of this new control scheme is shifting one of the two symmetric PWM driving signals close to the other, such that ZVS can be achieved for the lagging switch due to the shortened …

Chemical Structure - Nonlinear Optical Property Relationships For A Series Of Two-Photon Absorbing Fluorene Molecules, Joel Mccajah Hales

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation reports on the investigation of two-photon absorption (2PA) in a series of fluorenyl molecules. Several current and emerging technologies exploit this optical nonlinearity including two-photon fluorescence imaging, three-dimensional microfabrication, site-specific photodynamic cancer therapy and biological caging studies. The two key features of this nonlinearity which make it an ideal candidate for the above applications are its quadratic dependence on the incident irradiance and the improved penetration into absorbing media that it affords. As a consequence of the burgeoning field which exploits 2PA, it is a goal to find materials that exhibit strong two-photon absorbing capabilities. Organic materials are …

Ocr: A Statistical Model Of Multi-Engine Ocr Systems, Mercedes Terre Mcdonald

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a benchmark performed on three commercial Optical Character Recognition (OCR) engines. The purpose of this benchmark is to characterize the performance of the OCR engines with emphasis on the correlation of errors between each engine. The benchmarks are performed for the evaluation of the effect of a multi-OCR system employing a voting scheme to increase overall recognition accuracy. This is desirable since currently OCR systems are still unable to recognize characters with 100% accuracy. The existing error rates of OCR engines pose a major problem for applications where a single error can possibly effect significant outcomes, such …

Conformal Tracking For Virtual Environments, Larry Dennis Davis Jr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A virtual environment is a set of surroundings that appears to exist to a user through sensory stimuli provided by a computer. By virtual environment, we mean to include environments supporting the full range from VR to pure reality. A necessity for virtual environments is knowledge of the location of objects in the environment. This is referred to as the tracking problem, which points to the need for accurate and precise tracking in virtual environments. Marker-based tracking is a technique which employs fiduciary marks to determine the pose of a tracked object. A collection of markers arranged in a rigid …