Matching Items (8)
Filtering by

Clear all filters

152194-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Distributed estimation uses many inexpensive sensors to compose an accurate estimate of a given parameter. It is frequently implemented using wireless sensor networks. There have been several studies on optimizing power allocation in wireless sensor networks used for distributed estimation, the vast majority of which assume linear radio-frequency amplifiers. Linear

Distributed estimation uses many inexpensive sensors to compose an accurate estimate of a given parameter. It is frequently implemented using wireless sensor networks. There have been several studies on optimizing power allocation in wireless sensor networks used for distributed estimation, the vast majority of which assume linear radio-frequency amplifiers. Linear amplifiers are inherently inefficient, so in this dissertation nonlinear amplifiers are examined to gain efficiency while operating distributed sensor networks. This research presents a method to boost efficiency by operating the amplifiers in the nonlinear region of operation. Operating amplifiers nonlinearly presents new challenges. First, nonlinear amplifier characteristics change across manufacturing process variation, temperature, operating voltage, and aging. Secondly, the equations conventionally used for estimators and performance expectations in linear amplify-and-forward systems fail. To compensate for the first challenge, predistortion is utilized not to linearize amplifiers but rather to force them to fit a common nonlinear limiting amplifier model close to the inherent amplifier performance. This minimizes the power impact and the training requirements for predistortion. Second, new estimators are required that account for transmitter nonlinearity. This research derives analytically and confirms via simulation new estimators and performance expectation equations for use in nonlinear distributed estimation. An additional complication when operating nonlinear amplifiers in a wireless environment is the influence of varied and potentially unknown channel gains. The impact of these varied gains and both measurement and channel noise sources on estimation performance are analyzed in this paper. Techniques for minimizing the estimate variance are developed. It is shown that optimizing transmitter power allocation to minimize estimate variance for the most-compressed parameter measurement is equivalent to the problem for linear sensors. Finally, a method for operating distributed estimation in a multipath environment is presented that is capable of developing robust estimates for a wide range of Rician K-factors. This dissertation demonstrates that implementing distributed estimation using nonlinear sensors can boost system efficiency and is compatible with existing techniques from the literature for boosting efficiency at the system level via sensor power allocation. Nonlinear transmitters work best when channel gains are known and channel noise and receiver noise levels are low.
ContributorsSantucci, Robert (Author) / Spanias, Andreas (Thesis advisor) / Tepedelenlioðlu, Cihan (Committee member) / Bakkaloglu, Bertan (Committee member) / Tsakalis, Kostas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
152275-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
With increasing demand for System on Chip (SoC) and System in Package (SiP) design in computer and communication technologies, integrated inductor which is an essential passive component has been widely used in numerous integrated circuits (ICs) such as in voltage regulators and RF circuits. In this work, soft ferromagnetic core

With increasing demand for System on Chip (SoC) and System in Package (SiP) design in computer and communication technologies, integrated inductor which is an essential passive component has been widely used in numerous integrated circuits (ICs) such as in voltage regulators and RF circuits. In this work, soft ferromagnetic core material, amorphous Co-Zr-Ta-B, was incorporated into on-chip and in-package inductors in order to scale down inductors and improve inductors performance in both inductance density and quality factor. With two layers of 500 nm Co-Zr-Ta-B films a 3.5X increase in inductance and a 3.9X increase in quality factor over inductors without magnetic films were measured at frequencies as high as 1 GHz. By laminating technology, up to 9.1X increase in inductance and more than 5X increase in quality factor (Q) were obtained from stripline inductors incorporated with 50 nm by 10 laminated films with a peak Q at 300 MHz. It was also demonstrated that this peak Q can be pushed towards high frequency as far as 1GHz by a combination of patterning magnetic films into fine bars and laminations. The role of magnetic vias in magnetic flux and eddy current control was investigated by both simulation and experiment using different patterning techniques and by altering the magnetic via width. Finger-shaped magnetic vias were designed and integrated into on-chip RF inductors improving the frequency of peak quality factor from 400 MHz to 800 MHz without sacrificing inductance enhancement. Eddy current and magnetic flux density in different areas of magnetic vias were analyzed by HFSS 3D EM simulation. With optimized magnetic vias, high frequency response of up to 2 GHz was achieved. Furthermore, the effect of applied magnetic field on on-chip inductors was investigated for high power applications. It was observed that as applied magnetic field along the hard axis (HA) increases, inductance maintains similar value initially at low fields, but decreases at larger fields until the magnetic films become saturated. The high frequency quality factor showed an opposite trend which is correlated to the reduction of ferromagnetic resonant absorption in the magnetic film. In addition, experiments showed that this field-dependent inductance change varied with different patterned magnetic film structures, including bars/slots and fingers structures. Magnetic properties of Co-Zr-Ta-B films on standard organic package substrates including ABF and polyimide were also characterized. Effects of substrate roughness and stress were analyzed and simulated which provide strategies for integrating Co-Zr-Ta-B into package inductors and improving inductors performance. Stripline and spiral inductors with Co-Zr-Ta-B films were fabricated on both ABF and polyimide substrates. Maximum 90% inductance increase in hundreds MHz frequency range were achieved in stripline inductors which are suitable for power delivery applications. Spiral inductors with Co-Zr-Ta-B films showed 18% inductance increase with quality factor of 4 at frequency up to 3 GHz.
ContributorsWu, Hao (Author) / Yu, Hongbin (Thesis advisor) / Bakkaloglu, Bertan (Committee member) / Cao, Yu (Committee member) / Chickamenahalli, Shamala (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
150375-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Current sensing ability is one of the most desirable features of contemporary current or voltage mode controlled DC-DC converters. Current sensing can be used for over load protection, multi-stage converter load balancing, current-mode control, multi-phase converter current-sharing, load independent control, power efficiency improvement etc. There are handful existing approaches for

Current sensing ability is one of the most desirable features of contemporary current or voltage mode controlled DC-DC converters. Current sensing can be used for over load protection, multi-stage converter load balancing, current-mode control, multi-phase converter current-sharing, load independent control, power efficiency improvement etc. There are handful existing approaches for current sensing such as external resistor sensing, triode mode current mirroring, observer sensing, Hall-Effect sensors, transformers, DC Resistance (DCR) sensing, Gm-C filter sensing etc. However, each method has one or more issues that prevent them from being successfully applied in DC-DC converter, e.g. low accuracy, discontinuous sensing nature, high sensitivity to switching noise, high cost, requirement of known external power filter components, bulky size, etc. In this dissertation, an offset-independent inductor Built-In Self Test (BIST) architecture is proposed which is able to measure the inductor inductance and DCR. The measured DCR enables the proposed continuous, lossless, average current sensing scheme. A digital Voltage Mode Control (VMC) DC-DC buck converter with the inductor BIST and current sensing architecture is designed, fabricated, and experimentally tested. The average measurement errors for inductance, DCR and current sensing are 2.1%, 3.6%, and 1.5% respectively. For the 3.5mm by 3.5mm die area, inductor BIST and current sensing circuits including related pins only consume 5.2% of the die area. BIST mode draws 40mA current for a maximum time period of 200us upon start-up and the continuous current sensing consumes about 400uA quiescent current. This buck converter utilizes an adaptive compensator. It could update compensator internally so that the overall system has a proper loop response for large range inductance and load current. Next, a digital Average Current Mode Control (ACMC) DC-DC buck converter with the proposed average current sensing circuits is designed and tested. To reduce chip area and power consumption, a 9 bits hybrid Digital Pulse Width Modulator (DPWM) which uses a Mixed-mode DLL (MDLL) is also proposed. The DC-DC converter has a maximum of 12V input, 1-11 V output range, and a maximum of 3W output power. The maximum error of one least significant bit (LSB) delay of the proposed DPWM is less than 1%.
ContributorsLiu, Tao (Author) / Bakkaloglu, Bertan (Thesis advisor) / Ozev, Sule (Committee member) / Vermeire, Bert (Committee member) / Cao, Yu (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
150360-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
A workload-aware low-power neuromorphic controller for dynamic power and thermal management in VLSI systems is presented. The neuromorphic controller predicts future workload and temperature values based on the past values and CPU performance counters and preemptively regulates supply voltage and frequency. System-level measurements from stateof-the-art commercial microprocessors are used to

A workload-aware low-power neuromorphic controller for dynamic power and thermal management in VLSI systems is presented. The neuromorphic controller predicts future workload and temperature values based on the past values and CPU performance counters and preemptively regulates supply voltage and frequency. System-level measurements from stateof-the-art commercial microprocessors are used to get workload, temperature and CPU performance counter values. The controller is designed and simulated using circuit-design and synthesis tools. At device-level, on-chip planar inductors suffer from low inductance occupying large chip area. On-chip inductors with integrated magnetic materials are designed, simulated and fabricated to explore performance-efficiency trade offs and explore potential applications such as resonant clocking and on-chip voltage regulation. A system level study is conducted to evaluate the effect of on-chip voltage regulator employing magnetic inductors as the output filter. It is concluded that neuromorphic power controller is beneficial for fine-grained per-core power management in conjunction with on-chip voltage regulators utilizing scaled magnetic inductors.
ContributorsSinha, Saurabh (Author) / Cao, Yu (Thesis advisor) / Bakkaloglu, Bertan (Committee member) / Yu, Hongbin (Committee member) / Christen, Jennifer B. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
150545-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Three-dimensional (3D) inductors with square, hexagonal and octagonal geometries have been designed and simulated in ANSYS HFSS. The inductors have been designed on Silicon substrate with through-hole via with different width, spacing and thickness. Spice modeling has been done in Agilent ADS and comparison has been made with results of

Three-dimensional (3D) inductors with square, hexagonal and octagonal geometries have been designed and simulated in ANSYS HFSS. The inductors have been designed on Silicon substrate with through-hole via with different width, spacing and thickness. Spice modeling has been done in Agilent ADS and comparison has been made with results of custom excel based calculator and HFSS simulation results. Single ended quality factor was measured as 12.97 and differential ended quality factor was measured as 15.96 at a maximum operational frequency of 3.65GHz. The single ended and differential inductance was measured as 2.98nH and 2.88nH respectively at this frequency. Based on results a symmetric octagonal inductor design has been recommended to be used for application in RF biosensing. A system design has been proposed based on use of this inductor and principle of inductive sensing using magnetic labeling.
ContributorsAbbey, Hemanshu (Author) / Bakkaloglu, Bertan (Thesis advisor) / Kiaei, Sayfe (Committee member) / Goryll, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
134800-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Sense of Community is related to numerous positive outcomes for university students. The purpose of this study was to explore sense of community amongst low income students who received a last dollar scholarship. This study also sought to understand how students define community and how they interact with communities from

Sense of Community is related to numerous positive outcomes for university students. The purpose of this study was to explore sense of community amongst low income students who received a last dollar scholarship. This study also sought to understand how students define community and how they interact with communities from their past (before university), present (since they started college), and how they envision their future community involvement after graduation. Through purposive sampling, six low income Arizona State University students were selected based on similar characteristics. The scholarship that they belong to selects them based on financial need, integrity, and prolonged commitment to community service. Using a qualitative narrative inquiry, I interviewed participants about their understanding and experiences with communities. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim for analysis. Based on the analysis, I identified three major themes: community as construction, community as nonlinear, and community as intersectional. Drawing from participants' definitions and experiences of community, I argue that community is a construction. In other words, individuals create their own constructions of community, and their actions vary based on that construction. Participants also experience their communities intersectionally, that is individual's experience their communities as coexisting and through multiple community perspectives, rather than as a single stand-alone entity. Finally, community does not exist as part of a linear time paradigm. Instead community is experienced in terms of relevance to the individual in creating meaning from that community. In addition to the above themes, I also examined participant perspectives of ASU as a community. Based on this research, I recommend that a platform be provided for students to engage in a dialogue about their understanding of community and interactions with communities. Moreover, I suggest researchers utilize intersectionality, constructionism, and non-linear time to frame future research on sense of community. This research is significant because it helps us understand student engagement, and offers a framework through which universities can provide students an opportunity to better understand their own sense of community.
ContributorsWhite, Misha Alexsandra (Author) / Foroughi-Mobarakeh, Behrang (Thesis director) / Legg, Walter Eric (Committee member) / School of Community Resources and Development (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
155703-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
This thesis presents a power harvesting system combining energy from sub-cells of

multi-junction photovoltaic (MJ-PV) cells. A dual-input, inductor time-sharing boost

converter in continuous conduction mode (CCM) is proposed. A hysteresis inductor current

regulation in designed to reduce cross regulation caused by inductor-sharing in CCM. A

modified hill-climbing algorithm is implemented to achieve maximum

This thesis presents a power harvesting system combining energy from sub-cells of

multi-junction photovoltaic (MJ-PV) cells. A dual-input, inductor time-sharing boost

converter in continuous conduction mode (CCM) is proposed. A hysteresis inductor current

regulation in designed to reduce cross regulation caused by inductor-sharing in CCM. A

modified hill-climbing algorithm is implemented to achieve maximum power point

tracking (MPPT). A dual-path architecture is implemented to provide a regulated 1.8V

output. A proposed lossless current sensor monitors transient inductor current and a time-based power monitor is proposed to monitor PV power. The PV input provides power of

65mW. Measured results show that the peak efficiency achieved is around 85%. The

power switches and control circuits are implemented in standard 0.18um CMOS process.
ContributorsPeng, Qirong (Author) / Kiaei, Sayfe (Thesis advisor) / Bakkaloglu, Bertan (Committee member) / Ogras, Umit Y. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
158092-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
The dissertation addresses questions tied in to the challenges posed by the impact of environmental factors on the nonlinear dynamics of social upward mobility. The proportion of educated individuals from various socio-economic backgrounds is used as a proxy for the environmental impact on the status quo state.

The dissertation addresses questions tied in to the challenges posed by the impact of environmental factors on the nonlinear dynamics of social upward mobility. The proportion of educated individuals from various socio-economic backgrounds is used as a proxy for the environmental impact on the status quo state.

Chapter 1 carries out a review of the mobility models found in the literature and sets the economic context of this dissertation. Chapter 2 explores a simple model that considers poor and rich classes and the impact that educational success may have on altering mobility patterns. The role of the environment is modeled through the use of a modified version of the invasion/extinction model of Richard Levins. Chapter 3 expands the socio-economic classes to include a large middle class to study the role of social mobility in the presence of higher heterogeneity. Chapter 4 includes demographic growth and explores what would be the time scales needed to accelerate mobility. The dissertation asked how long it will take to increase by 22% the proportion of educated from the poor classes under demographic versus non-demographic growth conditions. Chapter 5 summarizes results and includes a discussion of results. It also explores ways of modeling the influence of nonlinear dynamics of mobility, via exogenous factors. Finally, Chapter 6 presents economic perspectives about the role of environmental influence on college success. The framework can be used to incorporate the impact of economic factors and social changes, such as unemployment, or gap between the haves and have nots. The dissertation shows that peer influence (poor influencing the poor) has a larger effect than class influence (rich influencing the poor). Additionally, more heterogeneity may ease mobility of groups but results depend on initial conditions. Finally, average well-being of the community and income disparities may improve over time. Finally, population growth may extend time scales needed to achieve a specific goal of educated poor.
ContributorsMontalvo, Cesar Paul (Author) / Castillo-Chavez, Carlos (Thesis advisor) / Mubayi, Anuj (Thesis advisor) / Perrings, Charles (Committee member) / Kang, Yun (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020