Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Solar Cell Temperature Dependent Efficiency And Very High Temperature Efficiency Limits, John Robert Wilcox

Open Access Dissertations

Clean renewable solar energy is and will continue to be a critically important source of electrical energy. Solar energy has the potential of meeting all of the world's energy needs, and has seen substantial growth in recent years. Solar cells can convert sun light directly into electrical energy, and much progress has been made in making them less expensive and more efficient. Solar cells are often characterized and modeled at 25 °C, which is significantly lower than their peak operating temperature. In some thermal concentrating systems, solar cells operate above 300 °C. Since increasing the temperature drastically affects the terminal …

Software Techniques To Reduce The Energy Consumption Of Low-Power Devices At The Limits Of Digital Abstractions, Mastooreh Salajegheh

Open Access Dissertations

My thesis explores the effectiveness of software techniques that bend digital abstractions in order to allow embedded systems to do more with less energy. Recent years have witnessed a proliferation of low-power embedded devices with power ranges of few milliwatts to microwatts. The capabilities and size of the embedded systems continue to improve dramatically; however, improvements in battery density and energy harvesting have failed to mimic a Moore's law. Thus, energy remains a formidable bottleneck for low-power embedded systems.

Instead of trying to create hardware with ideal energy proportionality, my dissertation evaluates how to use unconventional and probabilistic computing that …