Engineering Commons^™

High Accuracy Distributed Target Detection And Classification In Sensor Networks Based On Mobile Agent Framework, Xiaoling Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

High-accuracy distributed information exploitation plays an important role in sensor networks. This dissertation describes a mobile-agent-based framework for target detection and classification in sensor networks. Specifically, we tackle the challenging problems of multiple- target detection, high-fidelity target classification, and unknown-target identification.

In this dissertation, we present a progressive multiple-target detection approach to estimate the number of targets sequentially and implement it using a mobile-agent framework. To further improve the performance, we present a cluster-based distributed approach where the estimated results from different clusters are fused. Experimental results show that the distributed scheme with the Bayesian fusion method have better performance …

Polymer-Based Wide-Angle Micro -Optic Lens System With Dynamically Variable Focal Length And Field Of View, Mangilal Agarwal

Doctoral Dissertations

A novel polymer-based integrated wide-angle dynamic micro-optical lens system that can provide variable focal length and field of view (FOV) with large numerical aperture is designed, fabricated, and tested for its optical characteristics.

Initial experiments were conducted using static glass lenses to test for configuration of lenses that could provide wide FOV. From these initial experiments, it was found that the higher FOV could be achieved with double concave (DCV) lenses compared to double convex (DCX) lenses of the same focal length. Further, it was observed that increasing the number of DCV lenses increases FOV. Thus, an integrated dynamic polymer …

Layer-By-Layer Nanoassembly Combined With Microfabrication Techniques For Microelectronics And Microelectromechanical Systems, Jingshi Shi

Doctoral Dissertations

The objective of this work is to investigate the combination of layer-by-layer self-assembly with microfabrication technology and its applications in microelectronics and MEMS.

One can assemble, on a standard silicon wafer, needed multilayers containing different nanoparticles and polymers and then apply various micromanufacturing techniques to form microdevices with nanostructured elements.

Alternate layer-by-layer self-assembly of linear polyions and colloidal silica at elevated temperatures have been firstly studied by QCM and SEM. LbL self-assembly and photolithography were combined to fabricate an indium resistor. The RTA method was employed in the fabrication. Hot-embossing technique as a reasonably fast and moderately expensive technique was …

Development Of An Fpga-Based Hardware Evaluation System For Use With Ga-Designed Artificial Neural Networks, Dennis Duncan Earl

Doctoral Dissertations

The Hardware-Evolved Digital Artificial Neural Network (HEDANN) design platform is a circuit design platform built to evolve complex architecture ANN circuits using re-configurable hardware. By using genetic algorithms to evolve complex architecture ANN designs in field programmable gate arrays, this system is the first design system to evolve physical ANN circuits with unconstrained network architectures. With the HEDANN design system, the evolution of ANNs with recursive, non-layered, complex architectural connections is made possible. In addition, the HEDANN design system is capable of evolving device-independent circuit designs that can operate properly across a wide range of operating temperatures. This system is …

Fabrication, Characterization, And Modeling Of Organic Capacitors, Schottky Diodes, And Field Effect Transistors, Mo Zhu

Doctoral Dissertations

The objectives of this project are to fabricate, characterize, and model organic microelectronic devices by traditional lithography techniques and Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD).

Organic microelectronics is becoming a promising field due to its number of advantages in low-cost fabrication for large area substrates. There have been growing studies in organic electronics and optoelectronics. In this project, several organic microelectronic devices are studied with the aid of experimentation and numerical modeling.

Organic metal-insulator-metal (MIM) and metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) capacitors consisting of insulating polymer poly(4-vinylphenol) (PVP) have been fabricated by spin-coating, photo lithography, and reactive ion etching techniques. Based on the fabricated …

Space-Time Codes Concatenated With Turbo Codes Over Fading Channels, Junghoon Suh

Doctoral Dissertations

The uses of space-time code (STC) and iterative processing have enabled robust communications over fading channels at previously unachievable signal-to-noise ratios. Maintaining desired transmission rate while improving the diversity from STC is challenging, and the performance of the STC suffers considerably due to lack of channel state information (CSI). This dissertation research addresses issues of considerable importance in the design of STC with emphasis on efficient concatenation of channel coding and STC with theoretical bound derivation of the proposed schemes, iterative space-time trellis coding (STTC), and differential space-time codes.

First, we concatenate space-time block code (STBC) with turbo code for …

Automated Exploration Of The Asic Design Space For Minimum Power-Delay-Area Product At The Register Transfer Level, Fuat Karakaya

Doctoral Dissertations

Exploring the integrated circuit design space for minimum power-delay-area (PDA) product can be time-consuming and tedious, especially when the target standard-cell library has hundreds of options. In this dissertation, heuristic algorithms that automate this process have been developed, implemented and validated at the reg- ister transfer level. In some cases, the PDA product was 1.9 times better than the initial baseline solution. The parallel search algorithm exhibited 9x speed up when executed on 10 machines simultaneously. These two new methods also characterize the design space for the given RTL code by generating power-delay-area points in addition to the minimum PDA …