Matching Items (61)
Filtering by

Clear all filters

156146-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Energy harvesting from ambient is important to configuring Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) for environmental data collecting. In this work, highly flexible thermoelectric generators (TEGs) have been studied and fabricated to supply power to the wireless sensor notes used for data collecting in hot spring environment. The fabricated flexible TEGs can

Energy harvesting from ambient is important to configuring Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) for environmental data collecting. In this work, highly flexible thermoelectric generators (TEGs) have been studied and fabricated to supply power to the wireless sensor notes used for data collecting in hot spring environment. The fabricated flexible TEGs can be easily deployed on the uneven surface of heated rocks at the rim of hot springs. By employing the temperature gradient between the hot rock surface and the air, these TEGs can generate power to extend the battery lifetime of the sensor notes and therefore reduce multiple batteries changes where the environment is usually harsh in hot springs. Also, they show great promise for self-powered wireless sensor notes. Traditional thermoelectric material bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) and advanced MEMS (Microelectromechanical systems) thin film techniques were used for the fabrication. Test results show that when a flexible TEG array with an area of 3.4cm2 was placed on the hot plate surface of 80°C in the air under room temperature, it had an open circuit voltage output of 17.6mV and a short circuit current output of 0.53mA. The generated power was approximately 7mW/m2.

On the other hand, high pressure, temperatures that can reach boiling, and the pH of different hot springs ranging from <2 to >9 make hot spring ecosystem a unique environment that is difficult to study. WSN allows many scientific studies in harsh environments that are not feasible with traditional instrumentation. However, wireless pH sensing for long time in situ data collection is still challenging for two reasons. First, the existing commercial-off-the-shelf pH meters are frequent calibration dependent; second, biofouling causes significant measurement error and drift. In this work, 2-dimentional graphene pH sensors were studied and calibration free graphene pH sensor prototypes were fabricated. Test result shows the resistance of the fabricated device changes linearly with the pH values (in the range of 3-11) in the surrounding liquid environment. Field tests show graphene layer greatly prevented the microbial fouling. Therefore, graphene pH sensors are promising candidates that can be effectively used for wireless pH sensing in exploration of hot spring ecosystems.
ContributorsHan, Ruirui (Author) / Yu, Hongyu (Thesis advisor) / Jiang, Hanqing (Committee member) / Yu, Hongbin (Committee member) / Garnero, Edward (Committee member) / Li, Mingming (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
156413-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Li-ion batteries are being used on a large scale varying from consumer electronics to electric vehicles. The key to efficient use of batteries is implementing a well-developed battery management system. Also, there is an opportunity for research for improving the battery performance in terms of size and capacity. For all

Li-ion batteries are being used on a large scale varying from consumer electronics to electric vehicles. The key to efficient use of batteries is implementing a well-developed battery management system. Also, there is an opportunity for research for improving the battery performance in terms of size and capacity. For all this it is imperative to develop Li-ion cell model that replicate the performance of a physical cell unit. This report discusses a dual polarization cell model and a battery management system implemented to control the operation of the battery. The Li-ion cell is modelled, and the performance is observed in PLECS environment.

The main aspect of this report studies the viability of Li-ion battery application in Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) in Modular multilevel converter (MMC). MMC-based BESS is a promising solution for grid-level battery energy storage to accelerate utilization and integration of intermittent renewable energy resources, i.e., solar and wind energy. When the battery units are directly integrated in submodules (SMs) without dc-dc interfaced converters, this configuration provides highest system efficiency and lowest cost. However, the lifetime of battery will be affected by the low-frequency components contained in arm currents, which has not been thoroughly investigated. This paper investigates impact of various low-frequency arm-current ripples on lifetime of Li-ion battery cells and evaluate performance of battery charging and discharging in an MMC-BESS without dc-dc interfaced converters.
ContributorsPuranik, Ishaan (Author) / Qin, Jiangchao (Thesis advisor) / Karady, George G. (Committee member) / Yu, Hongbin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
156416-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
ABSTRACT

Autonomous smart windows may be integrated with a stack of active components, such as electrochromic devices, to modulate the opacity/transparency by an applied voltage. Here, we describe the processing and performance of two classes of visibly-transparent photovoltaic materials, namely inorganic (ZnO thin film) and fully organic (PCDTBT:PC70BM), for integration

ABSTRACT

Autonomous smart windows may be integrated with a stack of active components, such as electrochromic devices, to modulate the opacity/transparency by an applied voltage. Here, we describe the processing and performance of two classes of visibly-transparent photovoltaic materials, namely inorganic (ZnO thin film) and fully organic (PCDTBT:PC70BM), for integration with electrochromic stacks.

Sputtered ZnO (2% Mn) films on ITO, with transparency in the visible range, were used to fabricate metal-semiconductor (MS), metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS), and p-i-n heterojunction devices, and their photovoltaic conversion under ultraviolet (UV) illumination was evaluated with and without oxygen plasma-treated surface electrodes (Au, Ag, Al, and Ti/Ag). The MS Schottky parameters were fitted against the generalized Bardeen model to obtain the density of interface states (Dit ≈ 8.0×1011 eV−1cm−2) and neutral level (Eo ≈ -5.2 eV). These devices exhibited photoconductive behavior at λ = 365 nm, and low-noise Ag-ZnO detectors exhibited responsivity (R) and photoconductive gain (G) of 1.93×10−4 A/W and 6.57×10−4, respectively. Confirmed via matched-pair analysis, post-metallization, oxygen plasma treatment of Ag and Ti/Ag electrodes resulted in increased Schottky barrier heights, which maximized with a 2 nm SiO2 electron blocking layer (EBL), coupled with the suppression of recombination at the metal/semiconductor interface and blocking of majority carriers. For interdigitated devices under monochromatic UV-C illumination, the open-circuit voltage (Voc) was 1.2 V and short circuit current density (Jsc), due to minority carrier tunneling, was 0.68 mA/cm2.

A fully organic bulk heterojunction photovoltaic device, composed of poly[N-9’-heptadecanyl-2,7-carbazole-alt-5,5-(4’,7’-di-2-thienyli2’,1’,3’-benzothiadiazole)]:phenyl-C71-butyric-acidmethyl (PCDTBT:PC70BM), with corresponding electron and hole transport layers, i.e., LiF with Al contact and conducting
on-conducting (nc) PEDOT:PSS (with ITO/PET or Ag nanowire/PDMS contacts; the illuminating side), respectively, was developed. The PCDTBT/PC70BM/PEDOT:PSS(nc)/ITO/PET stack exhibited the highest performance: power conversion efficiency (PCE) ≈ 3%, Voc = 0.9V, and Jsc ≈ 10-15 mA/cm2. These stacks exhibited high visible range transparency, and provided the requisite power for a switchable electrochromic stack having an inkjet-printed, optically-active layer of tungsten trioxide (WO3), peroxo-tungstic acid dihydrate, and titania (TiO2) nano-particle-based blend. The electrochromic stacks (i.e., PET/ITO/LiClO4/WO3 on ITO/PET and Ag nanowire/PDMS substrates) exhibited optical switching under external bias from the PV stack (or an electrical outlet), with 7 s coloration time, 8 s bleaching time, and 0.36-0.75 optical modulation at λ = 525 nm. The devices were paired using an Internet of Things controller that enabled wireless switching.
ContributorsAzhar, Ebraheem (Author) / Yu, Hongbin (Thesis advisor) / Dey, Sandwip (Thesis advisor) / Goryll, Michael (Committee member) / Alford, Terry (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
157046-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductors GaN (3.4 eV), Ga2O3 (4.8 eV) and AlN (6.2 eV), have gained considerable interests for energy-efficient optoelectronic and electronic applications in solid-state lighting, photovoltaics, power conversion, and so on. They can offer unique device performance compared with traditional semiconductors such as Si. Efficient GaN based light-emitting

Wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductors GaN (3.4 eV), Ga2O3 (4.8 eV) and AlN (6.2 eV), have gained considerable interests for energy-efficient optoelectronic and electronic applications in solid-state lighting, photovoltaics, power conversion, and so on. They can offer unique device performance compared with traditional semiconductors such as Si. Efficient GaN based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have increasingly displaced incandescent and fluorescent bulbs as the new major light sources for lighting and display. In addition, due to their large bandgap and high critical electrical field, WBG semiconductors are also ideal candidates for efficient power conversion.

In this dissertation, two types of devices are demonstrated: optoelectronic and electronic devices. Commercial polar c-plane LEDs suffer from reduced efficiency with increasing current densities, knowns as “efficiency droop”, while nonpolar/semipolar LEDs exhibit a very low efficiency droop. A modified ABC model with weak phase space filling effects is proposed to explain the low droop performance, providing insights for designing droop-free LEDs. The other emerging optoelectronics is nonpolar/semipolar III-nitride intersubband transition (ISBT) based photodetectors in terahertz and far infrared regime due to the large optical phonon energy and band offset, and the potential of room-temperature operation. ISBT properties are systematically studied for devices with different structures parameters.

In terms of electronic devices, vertical GaN p-n diodes and Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) with high breakdown voltages are homoepitaxially grown on GaN bulk substrates with much reduced defect densities and improved device performance. The advantages of the vertical structure over the lateral structure are multifold: smaller chip area, larger current, less sensitivity to surface states, better scalability, and smaller current dispersion. Three methods are proposed to boost the device performances: thick buffer layer design, hydrogen-plasma based edge termination technique, and multiple drift layer design. In addition, newly emerged Ga2O3 and AlN power electronics may outperform GaN devices. Because of the highly anisotropic crystal structure of Ga2O3, anisotropic electrical properties have been observed in Ga2O3 electronics. The first 1-kV-class AlN SBDs are demonstrated on cost-effective sapphire substrates. Several future topics are also proposed including selective-area doping in GaN power devices, vertical AlN power devices, and (Al,Ga,In)2O3 materials and devices.
ContributorsFu, Houqiang (Author) / Zhao, Yuji (Thesis advisor) / Vasileska, Dragica (Committee member) / Goodnick, Stephen (Committee member) / Yu, Hongbin (Committee member) / Wang, Liping (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
157065-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
The detection and segmentation of objects appearing in a natural scene, often referred to as Object Detection, has gained a lot of interest in the computer vision field. Although most existing object detectors aim to detect all the objects in a given scene, it is important to evaluate whether these

The detection and segmentation of objects appearing in a natural scene, often referred to as Object Detection, has gained a lot of interest in the computer vision field. Although most existing object detectors aim to detect all the objects in a given scene, it is important to evaluate whether these methods are capable of detecting the salient objects in the scene when constraining the number of proposals that can be generated due to constraints on timing or computations during execution. Salient objects are objects that tend to be more fixated by human subjects. The detection of salient objects is important in applications such as image collection browsing, image display on small devices, and perceptual compression.

This thesis proposes a novel evaluation framework that analyses the performance of popular existing object proposal generators in detecting the most salient objects. This work also shows that, by incorporating saliency constraints, the number of generated object proposals and thus the computational cost can be decreased significantly for a target true positive detection rate (TPR).

As part of the proposed framework, salient ground-truth masks are generated from the given original ground-truth masks for a given dataset. Given an object detection dataset, this work constructs salient object location ground-truth data, referred to here as salient ground-truth data for short, that only denotes the locations of salient objects. This is obtained by first computing a saliency map for the input image and then using it to assign a saliency score to each object in the image. Objects whose saliency scores are sufficiently high are referred to as salient objects. The detection rates are analyzed for existing object proposal generators with respect to the original ground-truth masks and the generated salient ground-truth masks.

As part of this work, a salient object detection database with salient ground-truth masks was constructed from the PASCAL VOC 2007 dataset. Not only does this dataset aid in analyzing the performance of existing object detectors for salient object detection, but it also helps in the development of new object detection methods and evaluating their performance in terms of successful detection of salient objects.
ContributorsKotamraju, Sai Prajwal (Author) / Karam, Lina J (Thesis advisor) / Yu, Hongbin (Committee member) / Jayasuriya, Suren (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
171672-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Voltage Source Inverter (VSI) is an integral component that converts DC voltage to AC voltage suitable for driving the electric motor in Electric Vehicles/Hybrid Electric Vehicles (EVs/HEVs) and integration with electric grid in grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) converter. Performance of VSI is significantly impacted by the type of Pulse Width Modulation

Voltage Source Inverter (VSI) is an integral component that converts DC voltage to AC voltage suitable for driving the electric motor in Electric Vehicles/Hybrid Electric Vehicles (EVs/HEVs) and integration with electric grid in grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) converter. Performance of VSI is significantly impacted by the type of Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) method used.In this work, a new PWM method called 240° Clamped Space Vector PWM (240CPWM) is studied extensively. 240CPWM method has the major advantages of clamping a phase to the positive or negative rail for 240° in a fundamental period, clamping of two phases simultaneously at any given instant, and use of only active states, completely eliminating the zero states. These characteristics lead to a significant reduction in switching losses of the inverter and lower DC link capacitor current stress as compared to Conventional Space Vector PWM. A unique six pulse dynamically varying DC link voltage is required for 240CPWM instead of constant DC link voltage to maintain sinusoidal output voltage. Voltage mode control of DC-DC stage with Smith predictor is developed for shaping the dynamic DC link voltage that meets the requirements for fast control. Experimental results from a 10 kW hardware prototype with 10 kHz switching frequency validate the superior performance of 240CPWM in EV/HEV traction inverters focusing on loss reduction and DC link capacitor currents. Full load efficiency with the proposed 240CPWM for the DC-AC stage even with conventional Silicon devices exceeds 99%. Performance of 240CPWM is evaluated in three phase grid-connected PV converter. It is verified experimentally that 240CPWM performs well under adverse grid conditions like sag/swell and unbalance in grid voltages, and under a wide range of power factor. Undesired low frequency harmonics in inverter currents are minimized using the Harmonic Compensator that results in Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of 3.5% with 240CPWM in compliance with grid interconnection standards. A new, combined performance index is proposed to compare the performance of different PWM schemes in terms of switching loss, THD, DC link current stress, Common Mode Voltage and leakage current. 240CPWM achieves the best value for this index among the PWM methods studied.
ContributorsQamar, Haleema (Author) / Ayyanar, Raja (Thesis advisor) / Yu, Hongbin (Committee member) / Lei, Qin (Committee member) / Weng, Yang (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
187661-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Antenna arrays are widely used in wireless communication, radar, remote sensing, and other fields. Compared to traditional linear antenna arrays, novel nonlinear antenna arrays have fascinating advantages in terms of structural simplicity, lower cost, wider bandwidth, faster scanning speed, and lower side-lobe levels. This dissertation explores a novel design of

Antenna arrays are widely used in wireless communication, radar, remote sensing, and other fields. Compared to traditional linear antenna arrays, novel nonlinear antenna arrays have fascinating advantages in terms of structural simplicity, lower cost, wider bandwidth, faster scanning speed, and lower side-lobe levels. This dissertation explores a novel design of a phased array antenna with an augmented scanning range, aiming to establish a clear connection between mathematical principles and practical circuitry. To achieve this goal, the Van der Pol (VDP) model is applied to a single-transistor oscillator to obtain the isolated limit cycle. The coupled oscillators are then integrated into a 1 times 7 coupled phased array, using the Keysight PathWave Advanced Design System (ADS) for tuning and optimization. The VDP model is used for analytic study of bifurcation, quasi-sinusoidal oscillation, quasi-periodic chaos, and oscillator death, while ADS schematics guide engineering implementation and physical fabrication. The coupled oscillators drive cavity-backed antennas, forming a one-dimensional scanning antenna array of 1 times 7. The approaches for increasing the scanning range performance are discussed.
ContributorsZhang, Kaiyue (Author) / Pan, George (Thesis advisor) / Yu, Hongbin (Committee member) / Aberle, James (Committee member) / Palais, Joseph (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
171929-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
The strong demand for the advancing of Moore’s law on device size scaling down has accelerated the miniaturization of passive devices. Among these important electronic components, inductors are facing challenges because the inductance value, which is strongly dependent on the coil number for the air core inductor case, will be

The strong demand for the advancing of Moore’s law on device size scaling down has accelerated the miniaturization of passive devices. Among these important electronic components, inductors are facing challenges because the inductance value, which is strongly dependent on the coil number for the air core inductor case, will be sacrificed when the size is shrinking. Adding magnetic core is one of the solutions due to its enhancement of inductance density but it will also add complexity to the fabrication process, and the core loss induced by the eddy current at high frequency is another drawback. In this report, the output of this research will be presented, which has three parts. In the first part, the CoZrTaB thin films are sputtered on different substrates and characterized comprehensively. The laminated CoZrTaB thin films have been also investigated, showing low coercivity and anisotropy field on both Si and polyimide substrates. Also, the different process conditions that could affect the magnetic properties are investigated. In the second part, Ansys Maxwell software is used to optimize the lamination profile and the magnetic core inductor structure. The measured M-H loop is imported to improve the simulation accuracy. In the third part, a novel method to fabricate the magnetic core inductors on flexible substrates is proposed. The sandwich magnetic core inductor is fabricated and assembled with flipchip bonder. The measurement result shows that this single-turn magnetic core inductor can achieve up to 24% inductance enhancement and quality factor of 7.42. The super low DC resistance (< 60 mΩ) proves that it is a good candidate to act as the passive component in the power delivery module and the use of polyimide-based substrate extends its compatibility to more packaging form factors.
ContributorsWu, Yanze (Author) / Yu, Hongbin (Thesis advisor) / Chickamenahalli, Shamala (Committee member) / Rizzo, Nicholas (Committee member) / Goryll, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
171408-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
A remarkable phenomenon in contemporary physics is quantum scarring in classically chaoticsystems, where the wave functions tend to concentrate on classical periodic orbits. Quantum scarring has been studied for more than four decades, but the problem of efficiently detecting quantum scars has remained to be challenging, relying mostly on human visualization of wave

A remarkable phenomenon in contemporary physics is quantum scarring in classically chaoticsystems, where the wave functions tend to concentrate on classical periodic orbits. Quantum scarring has been studied for more than four decades, but the problem of efficiently detecting quantum scars has remained to be challenging, relying mostly on human visualization of wave function patterns. This paper develops a machine learning approach to detecting quantum scars in an automated and highly efficient manner. In particular, this paper exploits Meta learning. The first step is to construct a few-shot classification algorithm, under the requirement that the one-shot classification accuracy be larger than 90%. Then propose a scheme based on a combination of neural networks to improve the accuracy. This paper shows that the machine learning scheme can find the correct quantum scars from thousands images of wave functions, without any human intervention, regardless of the symmetry of the underlying classical system. This will be the first application of Meta learning to quantum systems. Interacting spin networks are fundamental to quantum computing. Data-based tomography oftime-independent spin networks has been achieved, but an open challenge is to ascertain the structures of time-dependent spin networks using time series measurements taken locally from a small subset of the spins. Physically, the dynamical evolution of a spin network under time-dependent driving or perturbation is described by the Heisenberg equation of motion. Motivated by this basic fact, this paper articulates a physics-enhanced machine learning framework whose core is Heisenberg neural networks. This paper demonstrates that, from local measurements, not only the local Hamiltonian can be recovered but the Hamiltonian reflecting the interacting structure of the whole system can also be faithfully reconstructed. Using Heisenberg neural machine on spin networks of a variety of structures. In the extreme case where measurements are taken from only one spin, the achieved tomography fidelity values can reach about 90%. The developed machine learning framework is applicable to any time-dependent systems whose quantum dynamical evolution is governed by the Heisenberg equation of motion.
ContributorsHan, Chendi (Author) / Lai, Ying-Cheng (Thesis advisor) / Yu, Hongbin (Committee member) / Dasarathy, Gautam (Committee member) / Seo, Jae-Sun (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
171673-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
The performance of voltage source inverter (VSI) in terms of output waveform quality, conversion efficiency and common mode noise depends greatly on the pulse width modulation (PWM) method. In this work, a low-loss space vector PWM i.e., 240°-clamped space vector PWM (240CPWM) is proposed to improve the performance of VSIs

The performance of voltage source inverter (VSI) in terms of output waveform quality, conversion efficiency and common mode noise depends greatly on the pulse width modulation (PWM) method. In this work, a low-loss space vector PWM i.e., 240°-clamped space vector PWM (240CPWM) is proposed to improve the performance of VSIs in electric/hybrid electric vehicles (EV/HEVs) and grid connected photovoltaic (PV) systems. The salient features of 240CPWM include 240° clamping of each phase pole to positive or negative DC bus in a fundamental cycle ensuring that switching losses are reduced by a factor of seven as compared to conventional space vector PWM (CSVPWM) at unity power factor. Zero states are completely eliminated and only two nearest active states are used ensuring that there is no penalty in terms of total harmonic distortion (THD) in line current. The THD of the line current is analyzed using the notion of stator flux ripple and compared with conventional and discontinuous PWM method. Discontinuous PWM methods achieve switching loss reduction at the expense of higher THD while 240CPWM achieves a much greater loss reduction without impacting the THD. The analysis and performance of 240CPWM are validated on a 10 kW two-stage experimental prototype. Common mode voltage (CMV) and leakage current characteristics of 240CPWM are analyzed in detail. It is shown analytically that 240CPWM reduces the CMV and leakage current as compared to other PWM methods while simultaneously reducing the switching loss and THD. Experimental results from a 10-kW hardware prototype conform to the analytical discussions and validate the superior performance of 240CPWM. 240CPWM requires a six-pulse dynamic DC link voltage that introduces low frequency harmonics in DC input current and/or AC line currents that can affect maximum power point tracking, battery life or THD in line current. Four topologies have been proposed to minimize the low frequency harmonics in input and line currents in grid-connected PV system with 240CPWM. In order to achieve further benefits in terms of THD and device stress reduction, 240CPWM is extended to three-level inverters. The performance metrics such as THD and switching loss for 240CPWM are analyzed in three-level inverter.
ContributorsQamar, Hafsa (Author) / Ayyanar, Raja (Thesis advisor) / Yu, Hongbin (Committee member) / Lei, Qin (Committee member) / Weng, Yang (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022