Electronic Devices and Semiconductor Manufacturing Commons^™

The Sliding Aperture Transform: A Mathematical Method Applied To Radiation-Induced Dlts Capacitance Transients, Md Abu Bakkar Siddique

Graduate Masters Theses

This thesis presents the Sliding Aperture Transform (SLAPt), a novel mathematical technique for extracting exponential argument and pre-factor  from experimental data. The method transforms measured waveforms into an inverse-domain representation where exponential decay processes appear as distinct peaks, simplifying data analysis and reducing the effects of baseline offsets and noise. The technique is here applied to time dependent capacitance transients associated with irradiated and non-irradiated silicon pn junction diodes. The technique is further developed and applied to positive argument exponentials using an axillary function. This allows forward bias  current-voltage measurements, and forward pulse-bias current transient measurements to be SLAP analyzed, …

Dc/Dc Converter For A Solar Module, Stella Uribe, Richie Zaragoza, Olivia Grace Tran, Phillip Tyler Rich

Electrical Engineering

This project focuses on the design and validation of a general-purpose DC/DC power converter intended for use with photovoltaic (PV) solar modules operating under variable environmental and loading conditions. Solar panels exhibit significant variation in output voltage, current, and available power due to changes in irradiance, temperature, and operating point, making direct connection to downstream loads impractical. The proposed system addresses this challenge by providing a single, user-adjustable regulated DC output capable of both stepping up and stepping down the solar module voltage. The converter is designed to interface with solar modules rated between 50 W and 400 W, with …

Hybrid Solar - Coal Thermal Energy System For Industrial Process Heat At Sayona Drinks Limited In Tanzania, Santos Kihwele, Elisha D. Bitesigirwe

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Over the past two decades, global efforts to mitigate pollution from conventional energy sources have intensified, with coal remaining a major contributor to carbon emissions. While fossil fuels cannot be eliminated from thermal generation in manufacturing industries, particularly in middle‑income countries such as Tanzania, they continue to dominate as the primary energy source. Industries including food and beverage, paper, textile, paints, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals require substantial thermal energy for heating and drying, and typically rely on coal and natural gas.This study introduces a unique application of a parabolic trough solar thermal system with integrated thermal energy storage, specifically tailored to …

On The Use Of Lorawan For Smart Fishing Applications In The Blue Economy Sector, Eva Shayo

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

The growth of digital technology is expected to transform small-scale fishery sectors, where a need for robust, low-cost, long-range communication networks becomes critical. There exist several technologies that are used in the fishery sector but they are never affordable to small scale fisheries. This study evaluates the feasibility of using low cost Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) technology specifically tailored for smart fishing environments to small scale fishery sector. Using simulation, we assess the performance of the key performance metrics including probability of success and energy efficiency under varying device densities and time. During evaluation, we considered end devices …

Ion Irradiation Of Microelectromechanical Resonators, Hengky Chandrahalim, David D. Lynes

AFIT Patents

A method of enhancing an electromechanical coupling coefficient of a microelectromechanical (“MEMS”) device. The method includes applying, to a fully fabricated MEMS device, heavy particle ion radiation to the MEMS device at a fluence of at least 1×10¹⁴ cm.⁻². According to other embodiments of the present invention are directed to a bandpass filter comprising a plurality of MEMS devices fabricated in accordance with the methods provided. The MEMS of the plurality are electronically or mechanically coupled.

Rapid-Prototyping Nanofabrication: Lcd-Based Projection Lithography And Physical Vapor Deposition, Sabeel Saleem Mohammmed

University Honors Theses

The semiconductor industry's continued growth, driven in large part by demand for artificial intelligence hardware, has highlighted the need for greater workforce development in regions adjacent to major fabrication centers like Oregon's Silicon Forest. This capstone project lays the groundwork for a small scale and student led semiconductor fabrication lab at Portland State University by demonstrating two of the core steps in chip manufacturing: photolithography and thin film deposition. Rather than relying on conventional fixed reticles, this work explores a unique, low cost approach to patterning that uses an ultraviolet-compatible liquid crystal display (LCD) as a programmable reticle, allowing arbitrary …

Analysis And Design Of A 2-Bit Millimeter-Wave Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface And Investigation Of Fss-Assisted Angular Stability, Max Spalek

Master's Theses

Millimeter-Wave (mm-wave) technology utilizes high frequency spectrum and can deliver multi-gigabit speeds, ultra-low latency, and massive bandwidth capacity. However, this technology is rather new and many technical challenges remain. On the other hand, Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) have emerged as promising structures for controllable electromagnetic wavefront manipulation in wireless communication systems. This thesis presents the design of a 2-bit RIS unit-cell element operating throughout the 30–34 GHz mm-wave band, where the structure was progressively refined from an initial resonating geometry toward a grounded reflective RIS configuration. The proposed structure utilizes PIN-diode switching states to produce four discrete reflected phase states …

Vlsi Spike Encoder For Spiking Neural Networks With 4-Bit Sar Adc, Jack Marshall, Wyatt Tack, Cameron Young, Ryken Thompson

Electrical Engineering

A spike encoder forms the interface between sampled data, such as image data or a sensor signal, and a spiking neural network by converting numerical input samples into discrete spike events. Unlike conventional artificial neural networks, spiking neural networks use spare, even-driven computation instead of continuous-valued activations. This makes them attractive for low-power embedded systems, biomedical electronics, and other edge applications where energy consumption, physical area, and thermal limits are important design constraints.

This project develops a modular spike encoder architecture for spiking neural networks with selectable support for temporal, rate, multi-spike, and delta encoding. Prior work has shown that …

Millimeter-Wave Antenna Gain Enhancement Through Stacked Planar Substrates, Zachary Bergstedt

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

This work presents a new wideband millimeter-wave (mmWave) and sub-terahertz antenna design with flexible directivity through the integration of stepped horn antennas and transverse substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) slots for radar and communication applications. The work gives a theoretical and analytical basis for this filter-inspired approach to improving bandwidth and directivity, and presents design and results for a standalone stepped horn, a Ka-band antenna with a solid stepped horn and SIW feed, and W-band antennas with empty SIW feeds and stepped horns manufactured out of multiple planar layers. The realized antennas show bandwidth up to 40% and gain up to …

Designing Enhanced Nonlinearity In Plasmonic Devices With Epsilon-Near-Zero Films, Kevin Tran Le

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (MS) Theses

The growing demand for energy-efficient optical information processing motivates compact nonlinear photonic devices that can operate at low power. Silicon photonics is a mature platform for linear optical functions, but nonlinear operation remains challenging because of its weak Kerr response, two-photon absorption at telecommunication wavelengths, and limited compatibility with deeply subwavelength plasmonic confinement. This thesis computationally investigates epsilon-near-zero thin films integrated into plasmonic waveguide architectures as a route toward stronger light–matter interaction in compact nonlinear devices.

Two waveguide geometries are examined: a hybrid metal-insulator-metal plasmonic slab waveguide incorporating an ultrathin indium tin oxide epsilon-near-zero layer (5–50 nm), and a dielectric-loaded …

Robust Hardware Trojan Detection Leveraging Dual‑Domain Features And Stacked Ensemble Learning, Sefatun-Noor Puspa

All Theses

In Cyber-physical systems rely on sensors, communication, and computing, all powered by integrated circuits (ICs). These ICs are vulnerable to malicious hardware attacks, with hardware Trojans being one of the stealthiest threats. Trojans are malicious implants in the circuitry, which are often inserted during design or fabrication stages. This stealthy addition remains dormant until triggered and might cause functional disruptions or sensitive information leakage once triggered. Traditional IC validation methods, such as functional testing and logic analysis, usually fail to capture these subtle anomalies because hardware Trojans are intentionally designed to mimic normal circuit behavior. They often remain dormant under …

Advancement And Characterization Of Next-Generation Solid-State Photon-Counting Image Sensors For Astrophysics Applications, Nicholas R. Shade

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Astronomers’ pursuit of detecting light from increasingly faint and distant objects in the expanse of space necessitates continuous improvement in signal-to-noise ratio of camera technology. Recent advancements in solid-state detector technologies have enabled the determination of photon-number, including single photon events, enabling observations at the fundamental limits of physics. These developments are instrumental not only for standard two-dimensional imaging but also for advanced spectroscopy, which increasingly drives future astrophysical applications. This thesis presents an evaluation of three next-generation silicon-based detectors capable of photon-counting with deep-sub-electron input-referred read noise: the electron-multiplying charge-coupled device (EMCCD), the single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD), and the …

Condition Monitoring Of Induction Motor Using Motor Current Signature Analysis, Francis Ikechukwu Obianke, Joseph Okhaifoh, Benjamin Akinloye

Al-Bahir

Induction machines serve as the cornerstone and driving force of modern manufacturing and production systems. This research aims to monitor and analyse the operating performance of induction motors using motor current signature analysis (MCSA). MCSA is employed to process the current signal of a motor into a frequency spectrum, known as the current signature by applying the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithm. The underlying principle is that vibration generated in a motor is closely related to the changes of the magnetic field density, and the induced voltage varies with the stator current.

A simulation model replicating the behaviour of an …

Sustainabake, Kevin Kunta Swanson Ii

Electrical Engineering

This senior project outlines the development of an oven that utilizes renewable energy to operate safely and effectively. It aims to test building an oven using mostly basic hardware students acquired during their time at Cal Poly and provide a starting point for those interested in creating a solar-powered oven. As our society continues to innovate and increasingly relies on electricity, it is important to place more emphasis on how we can make our lives sustainable to take care of our environment without introducing excessive pollutants. Food preparation is a daily activity that typically involves significant energy consumption, making this …

Design, Modeling, And Experimental Development Of Nanoscale Confinement Structures On Planar Silicon-Based Microelectrode Arrays For Single-Entity Electrochemical Sensing, Parinaz Eskandari

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Electrochemical sensing is widely used for chemical and biological detection due to its high sensitivity, label-free operation, and compatibility with miniaturized electronic systems. However, conventional microelectrode platforms operate in an ensemble-averaged regime in which the measured current represents the collective response of many molecules interacting with the electrode surface. This ensemble averaging masks localized nanoscale electrochemical events and limits the ability to detect rare interactions, such as single molecules or nanoparticles. Achieving single-entity electrochemical detection therefore requires strategies that confine electrochemical reactions to nanoscale regions while maintaining compatibility with scalable planar microfabrication.

This dissertation investigates nanoscale electrochemical confinement on planar …

Application Of Matlab Simulation For Quantum Wells And Absorption Modelling, Mohamed Nur

Electrical Engineering Theses

The Quantum-Well User Entered Simulation Tool (QUEST), originally developed at the University of Texas at Arlington in 2005, is a simulation program built in MATLAB for computing energy eigenvalues and wavefunctions in user-defined semiconductor quantum well structures. This thesis presents a new revision and extension of QUEST with three primary contributions: compatibility updates to the existing MATLAB codebase, intersubband absorption modelling, and a redesigned graphical user interface for ease-of-use in testing.

The modernization effort for this program addresses incompatibilities introduced by changes to the MATLAB runtime environment since QUEST’s original release in 2005, including corrections to the self-consistent Schrödinger-Poisson solver …

Nanomagnet Based Reservoir Computing And Quantum Control, Fahim F. Chowdhury

Theses and Dissertations

Conventional CMOS scaling has driven remarkable advances in computing but faces increasing physical and energy constraints, motivating alternative computing paradigms that integrate memory and computation while improving energy efficiency. Nanoscale magnetic systems offer a promising platform for such approaches because their intrinsic nonlinear dynamics and localized magnetic fields can support both classical and quantum information processing. This thesis investigates nanomagnetic systems for physical reservoir computing and, with primary emphasis, for localized quantum control of spin qubits.

The first part explores dipole-coupled nanomagnet arrays as physical reservoirs. Micromagnetic simulations demonstrate nonlinear dynamical behavior with high short-term memory and parity-check capacity, enabling …

Numerical Analysis And Simulation Of Enhanced Performance In Nanowire Cds/Cdte Solar Cells: A Pathway To Greater Than 25% Efficient Cdte Solar Cell, Riasad Badhan

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

This Thesis finds a pathway to a significantly high-efficient CdTe based solar cell by demonstrating and harvesting the advantages of a nano-structure configuration in CdTe based solar cells. Nanowire CdS window layer and the “control”, planar CdS window layer films were fabricated in the laboratory and compared for their optical transmission and other characteristics affecting the performance of the CdS-CdTe solar cell. Numerical simulations were performed for a comparative evaluation of the embedded nanowire CdS-CdTe solar cell device and the traditional planar CdS-CdTe solar cell device. Experimentally measured spectral transmission of nanowire CdS film was used in the simulation environment. …

Design Of Energy-Efficient, Scalable, And Flexible Tensor Processing Architectures With Electro-Photonic Integrated Circuits, Oluwaseun Alo

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

In recent years, artificial intelligence has achieved remarkable success across domains such as computer vision, natural language processing, and scientific computing. This progress has been driven largely by advances in deep learning, particularly deep neural networks (DNNs), including convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and transformer-based models. While these models deliver unprecedented accuracy, often surpassing human performance, their computational complexity continues to grow rapidly due to multibillion- and trillion-parameter designs. As model sizes and deployment scales expand, the demand for energy-efficient and high-throughput hardware accelerators has intensified. Conventional electronic platforms based on CPUs, GPUs, ASICs, and FPGAs are increasingly constrained by the …

Development Of Alternative Plasma Etching Techniques For The Selective Removal Of Tan With Respect To Sioch Dielectric Materials To Enable Future Back-End-Of-The-Line Scaling, Ivo Otto Iv

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Transistor scaling has continued according to Moore’s Law for over fifty years. As transistor size decreases, adequate power delivery is required to enable transistor scaling without performance loss. Power delivery is provided by a metal interconnect network with insulating dielectric that connects the transistor level to the power source, the signal speed within this metal line network limiting transistor level switching speeds. Reduction of signal delay has moved from primarily dimension-based improvement towards adoption of conductor and dielectric materials with lower resistivity and a reduced dielectric constant value, respectively: transitioning from Al/SiO₂ to Cu/low-κ SiOCH. With this transition comes …

Next-Generation Computing Hardware: Advancements In Tantalum Oxide Reram For Ai And Neuromorphic Applications, Rajas Ravindra Mathkari

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The rapid development of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data-intensive computing has exposed the fundamental limitations of conventional von Neumann architectures, in which energy and time are continuously lost transferring data between physically separate memory and processing units. In contrast, the human brain performs complex computations directly at the point of memory storage through billions of parallel synaptic connections, a paradigm known as in-memory computing. Realizing this in hardware requires memory devices that are fast, energy-efficient, non-volatile, and capable of storing multiple resistance levels in an analog manner. Resistive Random Access Memory (ReRAM) based on tantalum oxide (TaOx) is one …

The Design And Analysis Of Robust Mems Devices For Extreme Space Environments, Joshua Taggart

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this study is to analyze aluminum nitride (AlN) micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) resonators designed for extreme-environment applications. The devices of study are Lamb wave, piezoelectric resonators designed and fabricated using conventional semiconductor manufacturing processes and operating around various frequencies in the megahertz range. The purpose of this study is to advance understanding of MEMS devices in extreme-temperature and radiated environments for outer-space applications.

Devices were tested under vacuum at temperatures ranging from room temperature (~21°C) to 800°C. Under these conditions, the device was measured both as a resonator and in an oscillator circuit. Results show that the resonant …

“Bridging The Gap To Midwave Infrared Event-Based Sensors: Design, Sensitivity, And Radiation-Hardness Characterization Of A Single-Pixel Iii-V Event-Based Infrared Sensor For Space Applications, Zinah M. Alsaad

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Event-based sensing presents a revolutionary paradigm shift for next-generation space surveillance systems, where power consumption is an ever-worsening constraint as temporal resolution demands increase. In addition to reduced power consumption, low latency, and wide dynamic range, the event-based sensor fundamentally only produces data when there is a change in illumination from which events are generated; no data is produced if the scene remains static. With their event-based datastream being inherently focused on the dynamic information of the scene, they are particularly well-suited to machine vision and autonomous sensing applications. While these sensors have many compelling advantages, there are presently no …

Test Data: Raised Or Recessed? Finding The Optimal Gate Architecture For Improving The Static Performance Of Graphene Transistors, Ivan Puchades, Tzu-Jung Huang, Andrew Spencer, Luke Ingraham, Anibal Pacheco

Data

As silicon CMOS technology approaches its scaling limits, graphene offers a compelling alternative as the active material channel in transistors due to its high carrier mobility and atomically thin profile, which provide strong electrostatic control and promise high-performance analog applications. However, roadblocks such as device-to-device variation, high contact resistance, poor dielectric interfaces, and non-uniform graphene quality have limited the adoption of graphene field effect transistors (GFETs). Hence, further investigations are required for mitigating these issues at a material, e.g., by improving graphene transfer, and device level, e.g., by finding an appropriate gate architecture. In this work, we directly compare two …

Exploratory Study Of Semiconductor Nanomembranes In Em Applications, Grant D. Heileman

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Antenna systems are a cornerstone of modern technologies, playing an increasingly vital role in their advancement. As demand for compact, high-performance, and adaptable communication platforms grows reconfigurable antenna technologies are becoming essential. This research explores a novel front-end reconfigurable antenna system (FERAS) architecture that leverages the mechanical flexibility and photoconductive behavior of semiconductor nanomembrane (SNM) devices. By exploiting the emergent properties of ultra-thin silicon (Si) or gallium arsenide (GaAs) nanomaterials and optically exciting these samples using vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) arrays, this study develops lightweight, low-cost, deployable antenna structures for satellite communications, remote sensing, GPS, and radar. Despite their significant …

Design And Performance Analysis Of A Frequency-Reconfigurable Rectangular Patch Antenna With Dual-Slot Defected Ground Structure For Gsm Band, Sara Abdelbaset, Ashraf Khalaf, Amr Hussien, Ahmed A. Kabeel

Journal of Engineering Research

In this paper, an innovative frequency-tunable rectangular patch antenna is presented, featuring interlaced circular and U-shaped narrow slots, combined with a rectangular-shaped defected ground structure (DGS). This design is specifically developed to produce radiation patterns similar to those of traditional dipole antennas. The integration of the rectangular DGS with three RF varactor diodes, along with two equivalent microstrip conductors, enables a tunable operating frequency band that ranges from 1.08 GHz to 1.7 GHz, achieving a total bandwidth of 0.62 GHz. The DC biasing network connected to the three RF varactor diodes is utilized to finely tune and adjust the resonance …

A Tailored Analog-To-Digital Converter Architecture For Optimal Performance In Troponin Cardiac Protein Detection, Karem Abdelgawad, Sameh O. Abdellatif

Electrical Engineering

In recent years, the detection of troponin cardiac proteins has emerged as a crucial component in the diagnosis and management of acute coronary syndromes. This paper presents a tailored analog-to digital converter(ADC) architecture specifically designed to enhance the performance of diagnostic systems for troponin detection. Utilizing a 180 nm CMOS process technology, the developed 8-bit Successive Approximation Register(SAR) ADC integrates key components, including a preamplifier, comparator, and a digital-to-analog converter(DAC), to optimize signal processing and ensure accurate data conversion from analog to digital formats. The ADC architecture is evaluated for its ability to achieve a substantial sampling rate of 10 …

Scalable And Adaptive Agile Framework For Semiconductor Foundry: Advanced Packaging And Heterogeneous Integration Perspective, Pravin Thorat

Harrisburg University Dissertations and Theses

This research addressed the critical requirement for a scalable and adaptive agile framework specifically designed for the unique demands of semiconductor foundries specializing in advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration (HI). The semiconductor industry was encountering growing pressure to innovate and respond quickly to rapidly evolving demands, yet traditional manufacturing processes often struggled to adapt. Existing agile frameworks, mainly developed for the software industry, lacked the necessary adaptations to address the complexities of semiconductor manufacturing, including extended lead times, high capital investment, rigorous quality requirements, and the integration of various technologies. This research gap hindered the ability of semiconductor foundries to …

Low Energy Ion Irradiation Effects In Electronic Devices And Materials, David C. Mccall

All Dissertations

The physics and engineering of ion-solid interactions are governed by the ion beam characteristics (flux, charge, energy) and target(s) in question. Here I present work on two projects related to the extraction of a high flux of low charge state Argon ions from a commercial plasma source and the irradiation of an engineered target, a transistor, with high charge state Argon ions.

An end-Hall ion source that produces a a high current plasma of ions and electrons in a rough vacuum environment is characterized. Using a Langmuir probe and multiple pressure measurements, the ion and electron content of the source …

Self-Poled P(Vdf-Trfe) Based Composites For Energy Harvesting And Wearable Sensor Applications, Lavanya Muthusamy

All Dissertations

The growing demand for flexible, low-power, and self-powered wearable electronic systems has accelerated research interest in polymer-based sensors and energy harvesting technologies. Among piezoelectric polymer materials, Poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoro ethylene) [P(VDF-TrFE)], over the years, has garnered significant attention due to its unique piezoelectric properties, high dielectric constant, mechanical flexibility, thermal stability, chemical resistance, biocompatibility and compatibility with scalable fabrication processes. Despite its advantages, conventional P(VDF-TrFE)-based devices often require external poling and face limitations in integration with low-cost, flexible substrates. To overcome these limitations, this research study explores the nanofiller approach, along with facile fabrication processes, and structural design strategies aimed at …