Electrical and Computer Engineering Commons^™

Boron Nitride Thin-Film Deposited By Rf Magnetron Sputtering, Jesus A. Valladares Gonzalez

Theses and Dissertations

Cubic Boron Nitride is considered a superhard material, its thermochemical stability makes it suitable for applications with corrosive environments and high temperatures. C-BN is grown by PDV on Si substrates. The plasma is energized via an RF source to sputter the target. The ion species in the plasma can be described by the classic electrodynamic expression . Plasma temperature is given by T = (6.2836*E/8*k). The sputter is given by the ratio of the heat transfer to the enthalpy of formation , of the target. The Hall Measurement is performed as recommended by NIST. The measurement was performed on a …

Study On The Pattern Recognition Enhancement For Matrix Factorizations With Automatic Relevance Determination, Hau Tao

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Learning the parts of objects have drawn more attentions in computer science recently, and they have been playing the important role in computer applications such as object recognition, self-driving cars, and image processing, etc… However, the existing research such as traditional non-negative matrix factorization (NMF), principal component analysis (PCA), and vector quantitation (VQ) has not been discovering the ground-truth bases which are basic components representing objects. On this thesis, I am proposed to study on pattern recognition enhancement combined non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) with automatic relevance determination (ARD). The main point of this research is to propose a new technique …

A Novel Fpga Implementation Of Hierarchical Temporal Memory Spatial Pooler, Paul Jeffrey Mitchell

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

There is currently a strong focus across the technological landscape to create machines capable of performing complex, objective based tasks in a manner similar to, or superior to a human. Many of the methods being explored in the machine intelligence space require large sets of labeled data to first train, and then classify inputs. Hierarchical Temporal Memory (HTM) is a biologically inspired machine intelligence framework which aims to classify and interpret streaming unlabeled data, without supervision, and be able to detect anomalies in such data.

In software HTM models, increasing the number of “columns” or processing elements to the levels …

Modeling And Simulation Methodologies For Spinal Cord Stimulation., Saliya Kumara Kirigeeganage

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The use of neural prostheses to improve health of paraplegics has been a prime interest of neuroscientists over the last few decades. Scientists have performed experiments with spinal cord stimulation (SCS) to enable voluntary motor function of paralyzed patients. However, the experimentation on the human spinal cord is not a trivial task. Therefore, modeling and simulation techniques play a significant role in understanding the underlying concepts and mechanics of the spinal cord stimulation. In this work, simulation and modeling techniques related to spinal cord stimulation were investigated. The initial work was intended to visualize the electric field distribution patterns in …

Comparison Of Organic And Inorganic Solar Photovoltaic Systems, Khulan Orgil

Electrical Engineering

This senior project report addresses the consumer’s need for accurate and easily accessible information when making a solar panel purchasing decision. Thus, the project analyzes and compares the costs and benefits of organic and inorganic photovoltaic systems during their life cycle. The cost comparison includes analysis of the environmental and economic costs of materials, production, installation, and disposal. The benefit comparison includes analysis of the economic, environmental, and social benefits accrued during the system’s lifetime. With the project’s data, consumers can make more informed decisions to fit their specific needs.

Development And Characterization Of Nano Nickel-Based Conductive Inks For Flexographic Printing Of Electronics And New Interpretations Of Surface Energies Of Solids, Bilge Nazli Altay

Dissertations

Traditional printing technologies and conductive/functional inks have been integrated to print electronic devices and circuits on really think, lightweight and flexible materials in a time and cost-effective manner. Printing is an additive manufacturing technology, which selectively deposits materials only where needed to produce a wide range of devices including sensors, smart packaging, solar panels, batteries, light sources and wearable electronics. Therefore, it greatly reduces the number of required steps for manufacturing as well as the amount of waste generated relative to conventional electronic manufacturing. However, the process requirements and ink formulations to print electronics differ from graphic printing; therefore, the …

Vision-Based Framework For Monitoring Of Eating Behavior Of Persons With Alzheimer’S Disease, Haitham Al-Anssari

Dissertations

Dementia is a syndrome used to describe an array of significant declines in cognitive abilities due to progressive and irreversible loss of neurons and brain functioning. This neurodegeneration seriously affects daily life activities like driving, shopping, working and speaking. Among these, Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia, with individuals experiencing loss of memory and thinking and reasoning skills. Due to cognitive decline, individuals with Alzheimer’s often suffer from malnutrition, since they do not eat, even when food is presented, and must be fed with assistance. This assistance presents a significant burden of time to caregivers, and consequently …

Integrated Compressive Sensing And Feature Descriptors- A Framework For Facial Recognition Systems, Ali Kadhem Jaber

Dissertations

Facial recognition is still a challenge in many applications, particularly in surveillance, security systems, and human-computer interactive (HCI) tools. The impact of real-world environmental variations on the performance of any facial recognition system can be significant. These variations may include illumination, facial expressions, poses, disguises (facial hair, glasses or cosmetics) and partial face occlusion. Furthermore, the number of images (samples) needed for facial recognition systems can be very large, much larger than what is typically required by an algorithm, and this is often made worse with expansion of the feature space dimensionality. Truly, the “curse of dimensionality” haunts any real-time …

Fully Analog Laser Driver With Robust Active Feedback Control, John Petrilli

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this project was to go through a real life engineering development cycle, document and justify the design choices, and use background experience in electronic design and control systems to implement the best design possible. The laser driver implemented in this project is designed for the general use of a large variety of diodes in continuous wave mode, much like off the shelf laser drivers. The design goals included improving upon off the shelf laser drivers by decreasing steady state error, setting time, response time, and overshoot. Many different feedback control systems were evaluated, and a modified PID …

Exponent: High Speed Cubesat Radio, Dana Sorensen

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Software Defined Radios (SDR) are limited by their usable bandwidth, which restricts how quickly they can transmit or receive data. The High Speed CubeSat Radio (HSCR) is capable of transmitting and receiving higher bandwidth signals by combining the bandwidths of several individual SDR transceivers. The HSCR performs phase correction to seamlessly stitch the bandwidths of each individual SDR into a single larger bandwidth.

By increasing the number of SDRs inside the HSCR, the bandwidth of the overall system will increase. This increase in bandwidth is limited only by the speed of the processing unit in working with received or transmitting …

Planar Linear Ion Traps With Microscale Radii For Portable Mass Spectrometry, Trevor Keith Decker

Theses and Dissertations

Radio frequency (RF) ion traps based on the quadrupole device developed by Paul and Steinwedel utilize a dynamic electric field to spatially confine the trajectory of charged particles and may be employed as mass spectrometers by selectively ejecting trapped molecules based on the mass to charge ratio. Because of the inherent sensitivity and specificity of this process, ion trap mass spectrometers have become a popular scientific instrument. In the past two decades there has been a push to develop portable ion trap mass spectrometers for in situ mass analysis by geometrically scaling traps to smaller sizes. This decreases the power …

Sparse Signal Recovery Based On Compressive Sensing And Exploration Using Multiple Mobile Sensors, Mohammad Shekaramiz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The work in this dissertation is focused on two areas within the general discipline of statistical signal processing. First, several new algorithms are developed and exhaustively tested for solving the inverse problem of compressive sensing (CS). CS is a recently developed sub-sampling technique for signal acquisition and reconstruction which is more efficient than the traditional Nyquist sampling method. It provides the possibility of compressed data acquisition approaches to directly acquire just the important information of the signal of interest. Many natural signals are sparse or compressible in some domain such as pixel domain of images, time, frequency and so forth. …

Investigation Of A Gan-Based Power Supply Topology Utilizing Solid State Transformer For Low Power Applications, Akrem Mohamed Elrajoubi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Gallium nitride (GaN) power devices exhibit a much lower gate capacitance for a similar on-resistance than its silicon counterparts, making it highly desirable for high-frequency operation in switching converters, which leads to their significant benefits on power density, cost, and system volume. High-density switching converters are being realized with GaN power devices due to their high switching speeds that reduce the size of energy-storage circuit components. The purpose of this dissertation research is to investigate a new isolated GaN AC/DC switching converter based on solid-state transformer configuration with a totem-pole power factor corrector (PFC) front-end, a half-bridge series-resonant converter (SRC) …

Intelligent Application Of Flexible Ac Transmission System Components In An Evolving Power Grid, Robert Wall

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The world revolves around energy and the energy sector is continually transforming and evolving. The status quo has been set by governing agencies in the United States for completely reliable power. The demand for energy efficiency continually rises for multiple reasons. Technology has improved for all sectors of the power grid, including renewable energy sources, fault protection, and SMART grid technology. The addition of new energy sources has led to the decommissioning of inefficient energy sources. The implementation of new technologies and power load on a large scale, coupled with the removal of grid stabilizers has posed different challenges that …

Comparative Study Of Power Semiconductor Devices In A Multilevel Cascaded H-Bridge Inverter, Kenneth Mordi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis compares the performance of a nine-level transformerless cascaded H-bridge (CHB) inverter with integrated battery energy storage system (BESS) using SiC power MOSFETs and Si IGBTs. Two crucial performance drivers for inverter applications are power loss and efficiency. Both of these are investigated in this thesis. Power devices with similar voltage and current ratings are used in the same inverter topology, and the performance of each device is analyzed with respect to switching frequency and operating temperature. The loss measurements and characteristics within the inverter are discussed. The Saber® simulation software was used for the comparisons. The power MOSFET …

Improving Detection Of Dim Targets: Optimization Of A Moment-Based Detection Algorithm, Shannon R. Young

Theses and Dissertations

Wide area motion imagery (WAMI) sensor technology is advancing rapidly. Increases in frame rates and detector array sizes have led to a dramatic increase in the volume of data that can be acquired. Without a corresponding increase in analytical manpower, much of these data remain underutilized. This creates a need for fast, automated, and robust methods for detecting dim, moving signals of interest. Current approaches fall into two categories: detect-before-track (DBT) and track-before-detect (TBD) methods. The DBT methods use thresholding to reduce the quantity of data to be processed, making real time implementation practical but at the cost of the …

Assuring Intellectual Property Through Physical And Functional Comparisons, Adam Kendall Hastings

Theses and Dissertations

Hardware trojans pose a serious threat to trusted computing. However, hardware trojan detection methods are both numerous and onerous, making hardware trojan detection a difficult and time-consuming procedure. This thesis introduces the IP Assurance Framework, which drastically improves the time it takes design teams to test for hardware trojans. The IP Assurance Framework is implemented in two ways: The first method, Physical Assurance, compares instantiated IP blocks to a golden model via physical-level comparisons, while the second method, Functional Assurance, compares IP to a golden model using logical-level comparisons. Both methods are demonstrated to distinguish between tampered and untampered IP …

Material Identification And Target Imaging With Rfids [Iot Connection], Ju Wang, Xiaojiang Chen, Dingyi Fang, Jie Xiong, Hongbo Jiang, Rajesh Krishna Balan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

TagScan is a system that determines the material type and shape of an object with inexpensive commercial RFID technology. Real-world experiments show that TagScan can identify 10 common liquids with accuracy greater than 94%.

Mems Variable Area Capacitor For Room Temperature Electrometry, George C. Underwood, Tod V. Laurvick

Faculty Publications

This paper introduces a new way to detect charge using MEMS variable capacitors for extremely sensitive, room temperature electrometry. It is largely based on the electrometers introduced by Riehl et al. [1] except variable capacitance is created by a changing area, not a changing gap. The new scheme will improve MEMS electrometers by eliminating the effects of squeeze-film damping and by theoretically increasing the maximum charge resolution by 70%. The charge conversion gain (the increase in output voltage per input unit charge) for this system is derived. The result show good agreement with MATLAB calculations.

“How Is My Child’S Asthma?” Digital Phenotype And Actionable Insights For Pediatric Asthma, Utkarshani Jaimini, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Maninder Kalra, Revathy Venkataramanan, Dipesh Kadariya, Amit Sheth

Publications

Background: In the traditional asthma management protocol, a child meets with a clinician infrequently, once in 3 to 6 months, and is assessed using the Asthma Control Test questionnaire. This information is inadequate for timely determination of asthma control, compliance, precise diagnosis of the cause, and assessing the effectiveness of the treatment plan. The continuous monitoring and improved tracking of the child’s symptoms, activities, sleep, and treatment adherence can allow precise determination of asthma triggers and a reliable assessment of medication compliance and effectiveness. Digital phenotyping refers to moment-by-moment quantification of the individual-level human phenotype in situ using data from …

Asic Design To Support Low Power High Voltage Power Supply For Radiation Monitoring Applications, Daniel Rogge

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A low power high voltage power supply is designed for use in a long duration radiation monitoring system. The supply employs a flexible pulse frequency modulation switching controller implemented in a 0.35 $\mu$m CMOS technology. The controller drives and regulates a flyback transformer driven 12-stage Cockroft-Walton voltage multiplier chain. The chain provides bias for the dynodes of a photomultiplier tube. The supply voltage is selectable via a 12-bit on-chip digital to analog converter. The system is designed for low power operation and immunity to supply voltage variation as the application is battery-powered.

Advisors: Sina Balkir and Michael W. Hoffman

Review Of Recent Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Studies Of Ion Transport In Polymer Electrolytes, Stephen Munoz, Steven Greenbaum

Publications and Research

Current and future demands for increasing the energy density of batteries without sacrificing safety has led to intensive worldwide research on all solid state Li-based batteries. Given the physical limitations on inorganic ceramic or glassy solid electrolytes, development of polymer electrolytes continues to be a high priority. This brief review covers several recent alternative approaches to polymer electrolytes based solely on poly(ethyleneoxide) (PEO) and the use of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to elucidate structure and ion transport properties in these materials.

Automated Control System For Photo-Bioreactor, Madankrishna Acharya

Posters-at-the-Capitol

At the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research, recent efforts have been made to optimize and reduce the cost of a unit designed to control an automated photobioreactor system in which microalgae is grown to reduce CO2 emissions. In contrast with a previously used system based on a compactRIO controller and NI LabVIEW software, a new optimized version utilizes an inexpensive Beagle Bone panel as a microcontroller that can be programmed through the use of Python software. Notably, the cost of the new control system was 1/10th of the price of the previous unit.

An Electron‐Rich Calix[4]Arene‐Based Receptor With Unprecedented Binding Affinity For Nitric Oxide, Denan Wang, Lena V. Ivanova, Maxim V. Ivanov, Saber Mirzaei, Qadir K. Timerghazin, Scott A. Reid, Rajendra Rathore

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Calixarenes have found widespread application as building blocks for the design and synthesis of functional materials in host–guest chemistry. The ongoing desire to develop a detailed understanding of the nature of NO bonding to multichromophoric π‐stacked assemblies led us to develop an electron‐rich methoxy derivative of calix[4]arene (3), which we show exists as a single conformer in solution at ambient temperature. Here, we examine the redox properties of this derivative, generate its cation radical (3^+.) using robust chemical oxidants, and determine the relative efficacy of its NO binding in comparison with model calixarenes. We find …

Frequency Domain Decomposition Of Digital Video Containing Multiple Moving Objects, Victor M. Stone

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Motion estimation has been dominated by time domain methods such as block matching and optical flow. However, these methods have problems with multiple moving objects in the video scene, moving backgrounds, noise, and fractional pixel/frame motion. This dissertation proposes a frequency domain method (FDM) that solves these problems. The methodology introduced here addresses multiple moving objects, with or without a moving background, 3-D frequency domain decomposition of digital video as the sum of locally translational (or, in the case of background, a globally translational motion), with high noise rejection. Additionally, via a version of the chirp-Z, fractional pixel/frame motion detection …

Blazed Metasurface Grating With Handedness Preservation For Circularly Polarized Incident Wave, Xiaoqiang Li, Cheng Tao, Lijun Jiang, Tatsuo Itoh

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A new blazed metasurface grating for circularly polarized (CP) incident wave operating at 10 GHz is proposed. Such a structure can provide strong auto-collimation for the CP incident wave. Unlike the conventional scatterer, which typically reverses the handedness of the incident CP wave upon reflection, the proposed grating can preserve the handedness. The auto-collimation blazing effect and handedness preservation are achieved by a specially designed reactive impedance surface, which allows independent response controls to transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) polarizations. The proposed idea is demonstrated by simulations and verified by experiments. Comparisons with conventional sawtooth grating are made …

Planar Resonator Embedded Substrate Integrated Waveguide (Siw) Cavity Filter, Kirti Dhwaj, Richard Hadi, Tao Yang, Li (Lijun) Jun Jiang, Joshu Kovitz, Tatsuo Itoh

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Two capacitor loaded planar resonators are introduced in a two-cavity substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) structure to obtain a fourth order filter. The planar resonators each produce a transmission zero by signal interference. Design methodology for a 5 % bandwidth bandpass filter operating at 2.35 GHz is presented in the paper. Two transmission zeroes are placed on either side of the filter passband to obtain a quasi-elliptic response with a mid-band inserion loss of 1.65 dB. Good agreement is obtained between measured and simulated responses of the single-layer printed circuit board (PCB) filter.

Intelligent Sensing And Decision Making In Smart Technologies, Wenbing Zhao, Jinsong Wu, Peng Shi, Hongqiao Wang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Linking Lignin Source With Structural And Electrochemical Properties Of Lignin-Derived Carbon Materials, Wenqi Li, Yan Zhang, Lalitendu Das, Yikai Wang, Mi Li, Namal Wanninayake, Yunqiao Pu, Doo Young Kim, Yang-Tse Cheng, Arthur J. Ragauskas, Jian Shi

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Valorization of lignin to high-value chemicals and products along with biofuel production is generally acknowledged as a technology platform that could significantly improve the economic viability of biorefinery operations. With a growing demand for electrical energy storage materials, lignin-derived activated carbon (AC) materials have received increasing attention in recent years. However, there is an apparent gap in our understanding of the impact of the lignin precursors (i.e., lignin structure, composition and inter-unit linkages) on the structural and electrochemical properties of the derived ACs. In the present study, lignin-derived ACs were prepared under identical conditions from two different lignin …

Big Data And Sensor Network For Construction Material Testing, Yao Shi

Theses and Dissertations

Engineers and contractors need to have a precise understanding of the development progress of concrete strength in the natural environment, which helps to save project time and cost. However, current practice of concrete construction depends on published data, charts and curves from laboratory tests. The data would not show frequently changing environmental conditions in the real world, which can affect concrete quality significantly. The objective of this research is to design a reliable and accurate method to validate test data of the strength developments of concrete specimens in early stages. The approach includes the following tasks: (1) arrange sensors to …