Electrical and Computer Engineering Commons^™

Design And Implementation Of A Signal Conditioning Operational Amplifier For A Reflective Object Sensor, Ankit Master

Masters Theses

Industrial systems often require the acquisition of real-world analog signals for several applications. Various physical phenomena such as displacement, pressure, temperature, light intensity, etc. are measured by sensors, which is a type of transducer, and then converted into a corresponding electrical signal. The electrical signal obtained from the sensor, usually a few tens mV in magnitude, is subsequently conditioned by means of amplification, filtering, range matching, isolation etc., so that the signal can be rendered for further processing and data extraction.

This thesis presents the design and implementation of a general purpose op amp used to condition a reflective object …

A Secured Data Protocol For The Trusted Truck(R) System, Srinivasa Anuradha Bulusu

Masters Theses

Security has become one of the major concerns in the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). The Trusted Truck(R) System, provides an efficient wireless communication mechanism for safe exchange of messages between the moving vehicles (trucks) and the roadside inspection stations. The vehicles and the station are equipped with processing units but with different computational capabilities. To make this Trusted Truck(R) system more secure, this thesis proposes a secured data protocol which ensures data integrity, message authentication and non-repudiation. The uniqueness of the protocol is: it is cost-effective, resource-efficient and embeds itself into the Trusted Truck (R) environment without demanding any additional …

Analytical Computation Of Proper Orthogonal Decomposition Modes And N-Width Approximations For The Heat Equation With Boundary Control, Tasha N. Fernandez

Masters Theses

Model reduction is a powerful and ubiquitous tool used to reduce the complexity of a dynamical system while preserving the input-output behavior. It has been applied throughout many different disciplines, including controls, fluid and structural dynamics. Model reduction via proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) is utilized for of control of partial differential equations. In this thesis, the analytical expressions of POD modes are derived for the heat equation. The autocorrelation function of the latter is viewed as the kernel of a self adjoint compact operator, and the POD modes and corresponding eigenvalues are computed by solving homogeneous integral equations of the …

Concept For Next Generation Phasor Measurement: A Low-Cost, Self-Contained, And Wireless Design, Brian Ray Miller

Masters Theses

Phasor measurement is a growth technology in the power grid industry. With new funding, grid reliability concerns, and power capacity margin motivating a smart grid transformation, phasor measurement and smart metering are taking center stage as the implementation methods for grid intelligence. This thesis proposes a novel concept for designing a next generation phasor measurement unit.

The present generation phasor measurement unit relies upon venerable existing current and voltage transducer technology that is expensive, bulky, and not well suited to the modern age of digital and computerized control signals. Also, the rising proliferation of installed phasor measurement units will soon …

An Fpga Based Implementation Of The Exact Stochastic Simulation Algorithm, Phani Bharadwaj Vanguri

Masters Theses

Mathematical and statistical modeling of biological systems is a desired goal for many years. Many biochemical models are often evaluated using a deterministic approach, which uses differential equations to describe the chemical interactions. However, such an approach is inaccurate for small species populations as it neglects the discrete representation of population values, presents the possibility of negative populations, and does not represent the stochastic nature of biochemical systems. The Stochastic Simulation Algorithm (SSA) developed by Gillespie is able to properly account for these inherent noise fluctuations. Due to the stochastic nature of the Monte Carlo simulations, large numbers of simulations …

Design And Implementation Of Signal Processing Circuitry For Implantable Sensors, Anusha Atla

Masters Theses

Recent technological advancements in integrated circuits and medical technology have made real-time monitoring of physiological factors possible. One such important physiological factor to be measured is glucose. Continuous monitoring of glucose is extremely important for patients with diabetes as it helps make optimal treatment decisions. To enable continuous measurement, a chip containing the sensors and the electronic circuitry is implanted in the human body. This implanted chip provides for continuous measurement and helps reduce inconvenience caused to diabetic patients. A potentiostat forms an integral part of a sensor signal processing circuit. In this thesis the design and simulation of an …

High Order Contingency Selection Using Particle Swarm Optimization And Tabu Search, Ashwini Chegu

Masters Theses

There is a growing interest in investigating the high order contingency events that may result in large blackouts, which have been a great concern for power grid secure operation. The actual number of high order contingency is too huge for operators and planner to apply a brute-force enumerative analysis. This thesis presents a heuristic searching method based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) and tabu search to select severe high order contingencies. The original PSO algorithm gives an intelligent strategy to search the feasible solution space, but tends to find the best solution only. The proposed method combines the original PSO …

Optimization Of Alternating Current Electrothermal Micropump By Numerical Simulation, Quan Yuan

Masters Theses

Microfluidic technology has been grown rapidly in the past decade. Microfluidics can find wide applications in multiple fields such as medicine, electronics, chemical and biology. Micro-pumping is an essential part of a microfluidic system. This thesis presents the optimization process of AC electro-thermal micropump with respect to the geometry of electrode array and channel height.

The thesis first introduces the theories of AC electrokinetic including dielectrophoresis, AC electro-osmosis (ACEO) and AC electro-thermal (ACET). Also presented are the basic theory and governing equations of microfluidics, the continuity equation, the Navier-Stokes equation, and the conservation of energy equation. AC electro-thermal effect results …

Mpi-Based Parallel Solution Of Sparse Linear Systems Using Chio's Condensation Algorithm And Test Data From Power Flow Analysis, Robert Bernard Armistead

Masters Theses

Solving sparse systems of linear equations permeates power system analysis. Newton-Raphson, decoupled, and fast decoupled algorithms all require the repeated solving of sparse systems of linear equations in order to capture the steady state operational conditions of the power system under test. Solving these systems of equations is usually done using LU Factorization which has an order of complexity O(n3) where n represents the number of equations in the system. The Chio’s condensation algorithm is an alternative approach, which in general has a complexity of O(n4). However, it has a straightforward formulation that can be easily implemented in a parallel …

A Fully Integrated High-Temperature, High-Voltage, Bcd-On-Soi Voltage Regulator, Benjamin Matthew Mccue

Masters Theses

Developments in automotive (particularly hybrid electric vehicles), aerospace, and energy production industries over the recent years have led to expanding research interest in integrated circuit (IC) design toward high-temperature applications. A high-voltage, high-temperature SOI process allows for circuit design to expand into these extreme environment applications. Nearly all electronic devices require a reliable supply voltage capable of operating under various input voltages and load currents. These input voltages and load currents can be either DC or time-varying signals. In this work, a stable supply voltage for embedded circuit functions is generated on chip via a voltage regulator circuit producing a …

A High Voltage Charge-Coupled Device (Ccd) Controller Asic For The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (Lsst), Ross F. Chun

Masters Theses

This thesis will present the design, implementation, and testing of a high voltage Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) controller ASIC for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), which will be used to study dark energy and dark matter. The LSST observatory, which includes a 3.2-gigapixel camera, will cover the entire sky every three nights by taking continuous 15-second exposures. The CCD controller ASIC, or Sensor Control Chip (SCC), will provide five CCD driver channels that are capable of generating serial or parallel clock signals for the LSST’s imaging sensors during readout mode. The SCC will also provide three programmable bias voltages for …

Doubly Fed Induction Generator With Integrated Energy Storage System For Smoothening Of Output Power, Nishant Swaraj Chouhan

Masters Theses

"Wind energy is one of the fastest growing renewable energies in the world today. However, integration of wind power into the power system network is still confronting many challenges. One of the main challenges is the suppression of wind power fluctuations. This thesis focuses on integration of wind power with energy storage to overcome the integration challenges. The first part of this thesis investigates the suitability of energy storage systems for transmission, distribution and wind farm applications. A review on the available energy storage systems is performed considering several criteria. Efforts are made to investigate solutions that meet all the …

Distributed Spatiotemporal Detection For Chemical And Biological Threats Using Human Immune Mechanisms, Yatin Bodas

Masters Theses

"Ubiquitous detection of chemical and biological (CB) threats in an urban environment using widely distributed, low-cost, broad-spectrum sensors carried by public or on vehicles is extremely desirable and pertinent for homeland security. These distributed sensors should interoperate autonomously and adaptively to meet stringent operational and detection performance requirements. This research explores the use of scalable detection methodology, inspired by the human immune mechanisms to meet these challenges. An adaptive spatiotemporal control mechanism is proposed to organize the detection behavior of spatially dispersed sensors using peer-to-peer communication so that a shorter response time, higher probability of detection and lower false alarm …

Control And Design Considerations In Electric-Drive Vehicles, Shweta Neglur

Masters Theses

"Electric-drive vehicles have been identified as one of the promising technologies of the future. Electric-drive vehicles including fuel cell, hybrid electric, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles have the potential to improve the fuel economy and reduce gas emissions when compared to conventional vehicles. One of the important challenges in the advancement of the electric-drive vehicles is to develop a control strategy which meets the power requirements of the vehicles. The control strategy is an algorithm designed to command the battery and the internal combustion engine of the vehicle for specific power demands. In this thesis, load follower and thermostat control …

Excitation Of Whispering Gallery Modes In Glass Microspheres Using Optical Fiber Couplers, Sudha Sneha Devarakonda

Masters Theses

"This research is a study conducted on the excitation of whispering gallery modes (WGM) in small micron-scale glass spheres. Optical WGM may be represented by a light wave that propagates along the surface of the sphere and reaches back itself in phase at specific wavelengths. Due to this, very high intensities of light with narrow line widths circulate in the microspheres contributing to high Q factor. The evanescent field of an optical waveguide is used to resonantly stimulate the WGM.

The WGM excitation in fused silica spheres was demonstrated in the laboratory with 60% coupling efficiency. Tapered optical fibers were …

Full Wave Simulation Of An Electrostatic Discharge Generator Discharging In Air Discharge Mode Into A Product And Quantify Channel Performance Utilizing Novel Time Domain Convolution Method, Dazhao Liu

Masters Theses

"In the first section, it introduces a methodology to simulate the currents and fields during an air discharge ESD into a product by combining a linear description of the behavior of the DUT with a non-linear arc resistance equation. The most commonly used test standard IEC 61000-4-2 requires using contact mode discharges to metallic surfaces and air discharge mode to non-conducting surfaces. In contact mode, an Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) generator is a linear system. In air discharge mode, a highly non-linear arc is part of the current loop. This paper proposes a method that combines the linear ESD generator full …

Characterizing Near-Field Circuit Board Radiation Using Crossed Electric And Magnetic Dipole Sources, Weiping He

Masters Theses

"A method to analyze radiated emissions of electronic components/circuits is presented in this thesis. More specifically the purpose of this approach is to determine an equivalent source model to accurately represent the radiated emissions produced by the circuits and components. The proposed equivalent source model, which is able to predict both electric and magnetic fields at various distances from the device under test, consists of an array of both electric and magnetic dipoles. Each source point includes two electric dipoles orientated in x and y directions and two magnetic dipoles in x and y directions"--Abstract, page iii.

A Comparative Study Of Capacitor Voltage Balancing Techniques For Flying Capacitor Multi-Level Power Electronic Converters, Vennela Yadhati

Masters Theses

"With the advent of multilevel converters for high power applications in industry, a need to develop simpler topologies and control techniques has arisen. The flying capacitor multilevel inverter (FCMLI) is one such topology which is gaining popularity in recent years with many advantages such as extra ride-through capabilities because of the capacitor storage, redundancy in switching states, low common mode voltage ratio, improved power quality, etc. In this thesis, different basic multilevel converter topologies and their advantages and applications are discussed. The thesis mainly focuses on single-phase five-level FCMLI topology. Different control techniques for capacitor voltage regulation like staircase modulation, …

Implementing Frequency Regulation Capability In A Solar Photovoltaic Power Plant, Venkata Ajay Kumar Pappu

Masters Theses

"Photovoltaic power plants pose some challenges when integrated with the power grid. Today's PV plants focus on extracting the maximum power from the arrays. This makes the PV system unavailable for helping in regulating the grid frequency as compared to conventional synchronous generators. A new technique for tracking a pseudo-maximum power point for creating power reserve is presented. This will help provide fast response in injecting power to respond to rapid load changes in a manner analogous to the inertia of a rotating machine. This helps in contributing toward frequency regulation. This thesis examines the implementation of a two stage …

Detection And Estimation Of Image Blur, Harish Narayanan Ramakrishnan

Masters Theses

"The airborne imagery consisting of infrared (IR) and multispectral (MSI) images collected in 2009 under airborne mine and minefield detection program by Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD) was found to be severely blurred due to relative motion between the camera and the object and some of them with defocus blurs due to various reasons. Automated detection of blur due to motion and defocus blurs and the estimation of blur like point spread function for severely degraded images is an important task for processing and detection in such airborne imagery. Although several full reference and reduced reference methods are …

Solid State Fault Interruption Devices In Medium Voltage Distribution Systems With Distributed Generators, Mehul Kiran Madan

Masters Theses

"Faults in electric power grids often result in long term interruption of electricity supply. The frequent and the sudden occurrences of faults undermine the reliability and continuity of electric networks. However, the new age digital economy demands a continuous supply of electricity of high power quality. This demand of continuous supply and the effort to increase the penetration of renewable power sources into the electric grid has led to a need of highly efficient and flexible systems with the ability to provide power of very high quality. The solid state fault interruption device (SSFID) is one amongst those devices. It …

Standoff Raman Spectroscopy Detection Of Trace Explosives, Abhijeet Singh

Masters Theses

"During the 2003-present Iraq war, Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) are being used extensively by the terrorists against the coalition forces and these IEDs were responsible for 40% of coalition force casualties, by the end of 2007. As these IEDs are not based on standard production formulae, their tracking and detection becomes extremely complicated. Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) and Raman Spectroscopy are among the many techniques that have shown promise in detection of explosive compounds. However, the performance of these systems is dependent on the concentration of explosives and ambient noise.

The research presented in this thesis applies signal processing …

Dynamic Networking For Programmable Logic Controller Communication, Richard Andrew Hardison

Masters Theses

"This thesis confronts the issue of set path communication in Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs). In order to increase reliability in a networked automated process, it is necessary to develop a dynamic method of communication between PLCs. Three methods for dynamic messaging in PLCs are explored in this work. These methods are based on the real-time reconfiguration of message paths when communication fails on the originally configured path. The simplest method involves replacing the original message block with an Add-On Instruction (AOI) which can accept multiple communication paths and has the ability to switch between these paths to maintain communication. A …

The Study Of A Model For Via Transition And The Multi-Layer Via Transition Tool Gui Design, Ketan Shringarpure

Masters Theses

"One of the many challenges faced by engineers working with the present design scenario is to estimate the extent to which a signal, with significant high frequency content, is affected when it is routed on a printed circuit board. The printed circuit board routing will include the transition through the geometries like micro-strip or strip-line transmission lines, via transitions, and irregularities or asymmetries in the aforementioned geometries. One of these discontinuities, the via transition, results in the interaction of the signal on the via and the cavity (plane-pair) through which it passes. The via transition modeling will help characterize a …

Graded-Index Fiber Collimator Enhanced Extrinsic Fabry-Perot Interferometer, Yinan Zhang

Masters Theses

"In this thesis, we studied a fringe visibility enhanced extrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometer (EFPI) by fusion splicing a quarter-pitch graded-index fiber (GIF) fiber to the lead-in single-mode fiber (SMF). The performance of the GIF collimator is theoretically analyzed using a ray matrix model and experimentally verified through beam divergence angle measurements. The fringe visibility of the GIF-collimated EFPI is measured as a function of the cavity length and compared with that of a regular SMF-EFPI. At the cavity length of 500µm, the fringe visibility of the GIF-EFPI is 0.8 while that of the SMF-EFPI is only 0.2. The visibility enhanced GIF-EFPI …

Modeling The Practical Performance Of Switched-Capacitor Converters And A Method For Automating State-Space Model Generation, Jordan M. Henry

Masters Theses

"A new modeling technique and a method for automating the modeling process are introduced for analyzing complex switched-capacitor (SC) converters. The model uses conventional circuit analysis methods to derive state-space models of each switching state. Steady-state performance is derived and expressed as an equivalent resistance. Whereas previous techniques have provided either the detailed performance of a simple SC converter or the limiting performance of a complex SC converter, this new model is flexible enough to provide detailed performance for any practical converter. Nonuniform component choices, asymmetric duty cycles, and other deviations from an ideal converter can be readily included. Dynamics …

Power Distribution Network Inductance Calculation, Transient Current Measurement And Conductor Surface Roughness Extraction, Fan Zhou

Masters Theses

"The first part in the thesis discussed the modeling of the mid-frequency inductance for Zpp type plane pairs in power distribution networks (PDN). It is a key step for the placement of the decoupling capacitors. This paper gives an efficient approach for the calculation of the inductance for different capacitor placements. The PEEC based formulations takes advantage of the opposite currents in the planes. This leads to compute time reductions and memory savings for both the element calculation and the matrix solve step. A formulation is used where placement of capacitors leads to only small changes in the circuit matrix. …

Reverberation Reduction In A Room For Multiple Positions, Raghavendra Ravikumar

Masters Theses

"Reverberation in a room occurs when the direct path sound from a sound source undergoes multiple reflections from the walls of the room before reaching the listener. An impulse response of the room can be measured called the room impulse response (RIR) which captures the effects of the room. This can be represented digitally on a computer. A filter is designed to cancel the effects of the room using the information in the room impulse response. This filter is called an equalization filter and is usually placed between the source signal and loudspeaker to perform the equalization. The RIR changes …

Prediction Of Soft Error Response Of Integrated Circuits To Electrostatic Discharge Injection Via Simulation Field; Package Interaction For Electrostatic Discharge Soft Error Prediction; Full Wave Model For Simulating Noise Ken Electrostatic Discharge Generator, Argha Nandy

Masters Theses

"In the first section, a concept for analyzing soft error response in ICs to ESD via coupling through flex cable structures is presented. Its novelty lies in accounting for the transient electromagnetic fields radiated by the ESD generator that couples to the flex cable PCB thereby causing disturbance on the IC under test. This is accomplished in three stages; first by developing a full wave model of the DUT which includes modeling the PCB and flex cable geometry and validating it in frequency domain with regard to the transfer impedance. This followed by combining the ESD generator with the DUT …

Methodology And Applications Of Electrostatic Discharge Current Reconstruction By Near-Field Scanning Technique, Wei Huang

Masters Theses

"Electrostatic discharge (ESD) can cause interference in or damage to circuits or systems in many ways e.g., by E- field or H- field coupling or via conduction paths. Although one can roughly estimate the voltage and current at the injection location during an ESD event, the real offending parameter is mostly the ESD current spreading throughout the system. Those currents can be simulated if great simplifications of the system are acceptable. However, even in moderately complex systems, the ability to simulate is limited by a lack of models and computational resources. Independent of the complexity, but obviously not free of …