Data converters are ubiquitous building blocks of a signal chain. The rapid increase in
communication and connectivity devices presents new avenues for pushing the state of
the art analog to digital converters. Techniques for improving resolution, bandwidth,
linearity and bit-error rate, while reducing the power, energy and area is the...
Dynamic modeling is key to the successful operation and reliability of electrical grids by evaluating transient stability. Developing dynamic load models and identifying where they are necessary is a challenging task as loads are an aggregation of individual devices that change throughout the year. This thesis investigates how to develop...
Continuous-time ΔΣ modulators are widely used in cellular handsets due to their power efficiency and inherent anti-aliasing characteristics. To achieve demanding cellular bandwidth requirements while maintaining good power efficiency, multi-bit feedback is typically used. This approach provides benefits such as lower OSR, relaxed loop filter requirements, and reduced jitter sensitivity....
The research presented herein focuses on electrical assessment of oxide thin films as insulators. The current density-electric field (J-E) characteristics of four insulators of dramatically different electrical quality are assessed in terms of their operative electronic conduction mechanisms. Conduction in the two high-quality insulators is dominated by Ohmic conduction and...
Flexible Dual-TCP/UDP Streaming Protocol with Adaptive Bitstream Prioritization (FDSP with Adaptive-BP) is a new method for streaming H.264-encoded High-definition (HD) video over WLANs. Traditionally, video streaming is done either using Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or User Datagram Protocol (UDP) protocol, resulting in either rebuffering or packet loss respectively. While FDSP-based...
This dissertation focuses on indoor free-space optical communications systems for use in short range wireless networks. We propose that current radio frequency wireless links be augmented or replaced with optical frequency links due to overcrowding in the radio frequency spectrum. Optical frequencies contain hundreds of terahertz of unregulated bandwidth and...
An innovative silver nano-dimple arrays (Ag DAs)-integrated microfluidic device was developed to achieve highly sensitive fluorescence-based nucleic acid detection. The Ag DAs were utilized to produce surface plasmon resonance (SPR) for strong fluorescence enhancement. We systematically investigated the plasmon-enhanced fluorescence by controlling the nanostructure dimension of the Ag DA substrate....
Wave energy is a potentially important renewable clean source of energy that can help solve the energy demand throughout the world. A great deal of research has been conducted in the last few decades and it is now reaching the point of full implementation. In order to compete with other...