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Description
High-efficiency DC-DC converters make up one of the important blocks of state-of-the-art power supplies. The trend toward high level of transistor integration has caused load current demands to grow significantly. Supplying high output current and minimizing output current ripple has been a driving force behind the evolution of Multi-phase topologies.

High-efficiency DC-DC converters make up one of the important blocks of state-of-the-art power supplies. The trend toward high level of transistor integration has caused load current demands to grow significantly. Supplying high output current and minimizing output current ripple has been a driving force behind the evolution of Multi-phase topologies. Ability to supply large output current with improved efficiency, reduction in the size of filter components, improved transient response make multi-phase topologies a preferred choice for low voltage-high current applications.

Current sensing capability inside a system is much sought after for applications which include Peak-current mode control, Current limiting, Overload protection. Current sensing is extremely important for current sharing in Multi-phase topologies. Existing approaches such as Series resistor, SenseFET, inductor DCR based current sensing are simple but their drawbacks such low efficiency, low accuracy, limited bandwidth demand a novel current sensing scheme.

This research presents a systematic design procedure of a 5V - 1.8V, 8A 4-Phase Buck regulator with a novel current sensing scheme based on replication of the inductor current. The proposed solution consists of detailed system modeling in PLECS which includes modification of the peak current mode model to accommodate the new current sensing element, derivation of power-stage and Plant transfer functions, Controller design. The proposed model has been verified through PLECS simulations and compared with a transistor-level implementation of the system. The time-domain parameters such as overshoot and settling-time simulated through transistor-level

implementation is in close agreement with the results obtained from the PLECS model.
ContributorsBurli, Venkatesh (Author) / Bakkaloglu, Bertan (Thesis advisor) / Garrity, Douglas (Committee member) / Kitchen, Jennifer (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
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Description
Activated Carbon has been used for decades to remove organics from water at large scale in municipal water treatment as well as at small scale in Point of Use (POU) and Point of Entry (POE) water treatment. This study focused on Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) and also activated Carbon Block

Activated Carbon has been used for decades to remove organics from water at large scale in municipal water treatment as well as at small scale in Point of Use (POU) and Point of Entry (POE) water treatment. This study focused on Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) and also activated Carbon Block (CB) were studied.

This thesis has three related elements for organics control in drinking water. First, coagulation chemistry for Alum and Aluminum Chlorohydrate (ACH) was optimized for significant organics removal to address membrane fouling issue at a local municipal water treatment plant in Arizona. Second, Rapid Small Scale Column Tests were conducted for removal of Perfluorinated compounds (PFC), PFC were present in groundwater at a local site in Arizona at trace levels with combined concentration of Perfluorooctaneoic Acid (PFOA) and Perfloorooctanesulfonic Acid (PFOS) up to 245 ng/L. Groundwater from the concerned site is used as drinking water source by a private utility. PFC Removal was evaluated for different GAC, influent concentrations and particle sizes. Third, a new testing protocol (Mini Carbon Block (MCB)) for bench scale study of POU water treatment device, specifically carbon block filter was developed and evaluated. The new bench scale decreased the hydraulic requirements by 60 times approximately, which increases the feasibility to test POU at a lab scale. It was evaluated for a common POU organic contaminant: Chloroform, and other model contaminants.

10 mg/L of ACH and 30 mg/L of Alum with pH adjustment were determined as optimal coagulant doses. Bituminous coal based GAC was almost three times better than coconut shell based GAC for removing PFC. Multiple tests with MCB suggested no short circuiting and consistent performance for methylene blue though chloroform removal tests underestimated full scale carbon block performance but all these tests creates a good theoretical and practical fundament for this new approach and provides directions for future researchers.
ContributorsAshani, Harsh Satishbhai (Author) / Westerhoff, Paul (Thesis advisor) / Hristovski, Kiril (Committee member) / Conroy-Ben, Otakuye (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
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Description
In this dissertation, two problems are addressed in the verification and control of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS):

1) Falsification: given a CPS, and a property of interest that the CPS must satisfy under all allowed operating conditions, does the CPS violate, i.e. falsify, the property?

2) Conformance testing: given a model of a

In this dissertation, two problems are addressed in the verification and control of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS):

1) Falsification: given a CPS, and a property of interest that the CPS must satisfy under all allowed operating conditions, does the CPS violate, i.e. falsify, the property?

2) Conformance testing: given a model of a CPS, and an implementation of that CPS on an embedded platform, how can we characterize the properties satisfied by the implementation, given the properties satisfied by the model?

Both problems arise in the context of Model-Based Design (MBD) of CPS: in MBD, the designers start from a set of formal requirements that the system-to-be-designed must satisfy.

A first model of the system is created.

Because it may not be possible to formally verify the CPS model against the requirements, falsification tries to verify whether the model satisfies the requirements by searching for behavior that violates them.

In the first part of this dissertation, I present improved methods for finding falsifying behaviors of CPS when properties are expressed in Metric Temporal Logic (MTL).

These methods leverage the notion of robust semantics of MTL formulae: if a falsifier exists, it is in the neighborhood of local minimizers of the robustness function.

The proposed algorithms compute descent directions of the robustness function in the space of initial conditions and input signals, and provably converge to local minima of the robustness function.

The initial model of the CPS is then iteratively refined by modeling previously ignored phenomena, adding more functionality, etc., with each refinement resulting in a new model.

Many of the refinements in the MBD process described above do not provide an a priori guaranteed relation between the successive models.

Thus, the second problem above arises: how to quantify the distance between two successive models M_n and M_{n+1}?

If M_n has been verified to satisfy the specification, can it be guaranteed that M_{n+1} also satisfies the same, or some closely related, specification?

This dissertation answers both questions for a general class of CPS, and properties expressed in MTL.
ContributorsAbbas, Houssam Y (Author) / Fainekos, Georgios (Thesis advisor) / Duman, Tolga (Thesis advisor) / Mittelmann, Hans (Committee member) / Tsakalis, Konstantinos (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
A new loop configuration capable of reducing power radiation magnitudes lower than conventional loops has been developed. This configuration is demonstrated for the case of two coaxial loops of 0.1 meter radius coupled via the magnetic reactive field. Utilizing electromagnetism theory, techniques from antenna design and a new near field

A new loop configuration capable of reducing power radiation magnitudes lower than conventional loops has been developed. This configuration is demonstrated for the case of two coaxial loops of 0.1 meter radius coupled via the magnetic reactive field. Utilizing electromagnetism theory, techniques from antenna design and a new near field design initiative, the ability to design a magnetic field has been investigated by using a full wave simulation tool. The method for realization is initiated from first order physics model, ADS and onto a full wave situation tool for the case of a non-radiating helical loop. The exploration into the design of a magnetic near field while mitigating radiation power is demonstrated using an real number of twists to form a helical wire loop while biasing the integer twisted loop in a non-conventional moebius termination. The helix loop setup as a moebius loop convention can also be expressed as a shorted antenna scheme. The 0.1 meter radius helix antenna is biased with a 1MHz frequency that categorized the antenna loop as electrically small. It is then demonstrated that helical configuration reduces the electric field and mitigates power radiation into the far field. In order to compare the radiated power reduction performance of the helical loop a shielded loop is used as a baseline for comparison. The shielded loop system of the same geometric size and frequency is shown to have power radiation expressed as -46.1 dBm. The power radiated mitigation method of the helix loop reduces the power radiated from the two loop system down to -98.72 dBm.
ContributorsMoreno, Fernando (Author) / Diaz, Rodolfo (Thesis advisor) / Aberle, James T., 1961- (Committee member) / Kozicki, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
Groundwater contamination is of environmental and human health concern. Bioremediation is a nature-based method for contaminant treatment. Bioremediation, which relies on the ability of microorganisms to destroy or transform contaminants, must be reliable and cost-competitive in comparison to more traditional treatment methods. Two hurdles must be overcome

Groundwater contamination is of environmental and human health concern. Bioremediation is a nature-based method for contaminant treatment. Bioremediation, which relies on the ability of microorganisms to destroy or transform contaminants, must be reliable and cost-competitive in comparison to more traditional treatment methods. Two hurdles must be overcome to enhance bioremediation’s effectiveness and competitiveness: i) being able to degrade recalcitrant compounds, and ii) being able to control the growth rate and location of microorganisms involved in bioremediation in the subsurface. My dissertation adds foundational knowledge and engineering application on how to biodegrade recalcitrant emerging and legacy halogenated compounds. Generating biotransformation knowledge on the recalcitrant emerging contaminants called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) may lead to solutions for protecting both people and the planet. In my dissertation, I analyzed PFAS biotransformation and microbial defluorination literature via meta-analytical and bibliometric methods to identify unexplored topics and experimental conditions. The metanalytical work identified trends in PFAS microbial biotransformation science to inform future experimental design. The second hurdle which must be overcome is being able to control bacterial growth in the subsurface. During bioremediation implementation microbial overgrowth may clog injection wells and the subsurface, leading to reduced porosity and treatment efficacy. Contaminant treatment schemes based on aerobic cometabolism frequently exhibit overgrowth at subsurface injection points for O2 (the electron acceptor) and a labile hydrocarbon (e.g., propane). My dissertation work experimentally evaluated acetylene as a microbial inhibitor for use in controlling microbial overgrowth during trichloroethene (TCE) aerobic cometabolism. I demonstrated that acetylene reduces the likelihood of microbial overgrowth of TCE-degrading microorganisms in soil-free microcosms and aquifer soil columns while retaining TCE degradation capacity. Cumulatively, my dissertation provides foundational knowledge for academics and bioremediation practitioners to develop robust and reliable bioremediation technologies.
ContributorsSkinner, Justin Paul (Author) / Delgado, Anca G. (Thesis advisor) / Rittmann, Bruce E (Committee member) / Chu, Min Ying Jacob (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
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Description
Novel means are needed to diagnose neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) and cancer, given delays in medical diagnosis and rising rates of disease incidence, prevalence, and mortality worldwide. Development of NDDs and cancer has been linked to environmental toxins. Ensuing epigenetic changes may serve as helpful biomarkers to diagnose amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Novel means are needed to diagnose neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) and cancer, given delays in medical diagnosis and rising rates of disease incidence, prevalence, and mortality worldwide. Development of NDDs and cancer has been linked to environmental toxins. Ensuing epigenetic changes may serve as helpful biomarkers to diagnose amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson’s Disease (PD), and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) as well as various cancers sooner and more accurately. This dissertation tabulates and evaluates a spectrum of diagnostic matrixes (i.e., soil, sewage sludge, blood) and markers of disease to inform disease surveillance. A literature search using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) and Bradford Hill criteria implicated BMAA, formaldehyde, Mn, Hg, and Zn as environmental factors with strong association to ALS risk. Another PRISMA search identified epigenetic changes (e.g., DNA methylation) in NDD patients associated with environmental toxic exposures to air pollutants, heavy metals, and organic chemicals. Of the 180 environmental toxins hypothesized to be associated with AD, PD, or ALS, four heavy metals (As, Cd, Mn, and Hg) were common to these NDDs. Sources, as well as evidence and proxies of human exposure to these heavy metals and Pb were investigated here, namely the metal industries, and metal concentrations in topsoil, sewage sludge, and blood. Concentrations of Cd and Pb in sewage sludge were found to be significantly correlated with NDD prevalence rates in co-located populations (state-level) with odds ratios of 2.91 and 4.08, respectively. Markers of exposure and disease in urine and feces were also evaluated using PRISMA, finding 73 of 94 epigenetic biomarker panels to be valid for tracking primarily gastric and urinary cancers. In all studies, geospatial analyses indicated a preference in study cohorts located in the U.S., Europe, and the northern hemisphere, leaving underserved many populous regions particularly in the southern hemisphere. This dissertation draws attention to sewage sludge as a currently underutilized proxy matrix for assessing toxic human exposures and further identified a spectrum of particularly attractive, non-invasive biomarkers for future diagnostic use to promote early detection, survivability, and quality of life of individuals at risk of NDDs and cancer.
ContributorsNewell, Melanie Engstrom (Author) / Halden, Rolf U. (Thesis advisor) / Mastroeni, Diego (Committee member) / Lee, Heewook (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023