Physical-Layer Network Coding (PNC) is a promising technique that has great potentials for improving the achievable data rates of end-to-end flows through higher packet transmission rates, thereby increasing the overall network throughput. In this thesis, we study the performance of the PNC transmission techniques for unidirectional end-to-end flows in multi-hop...
Despite climate change requiring the cutback of fossil fuel consumption, the world continues to increase its energy demands each year. To meet the ambitious goals outlined during the Paris Agreement in 2015, which set a goal to limit global warming to 1.5°C [1], changes in energy production methods are necessary....
Nucleation in atomic layer deposition (ALD) determines how many cycles are required to initiate growth and to form a continuous film. Nucleation has been exploited for the formation of nanoparticles, catalysts, and for area-selective ALD. Although sometimes overlooked or misrepresented in ALD reports, nucleation is also critical for multicomponent ALD...
Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is an enabling technique for many new micro- and nanoscale technologies. The self-limiting surface chemical reactions by which ALD fundamentally operates give rise to uniquely high precision (atomic) control over deposited film thickness, uniformity over large areas, and conformality over complex and extreme topographies. One such...
Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have gained increasing attention due to their promising applications (e.g., gas storage/separations, and catalysis) as nanoporous materials stemming from generally ultrahigh porosities and surface areas. Recently, research has shifted to synthesize MOF thin films and micropatterns that enable new applications (e.g., optoelectronics, smart coatings, and sensors).
In...
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...
The electrical stability of amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide (a-IGZO) thinfilmtransistors (TFTs) is investigated for flat-panel display applications. Althoughproducts incorporating a-IGZO TFT backplanes are already commercially available,e.g., iMac with 5K retina display, technical challenges need to be addressed for nextgenerationapplications, e.g., active-matrix organic light-emitting diode displays.Device stability is one crucial issue. The...
CIGS and CdTe based commercial thin-film solar cells (TFSCs) require an absorber thickness greater than 2 µm and 4 µm, respectively, to adequately absorb the solar spectrum. To efficiently extract photoexcited electrons, these TFSCs require relatively defect-free absorbers with high-minority carrier mobility (> 100 cm2V−1s−1) and long lifetime (> 10...
Triangulateration uses geometric distance to estimate the location of user by employing techniques like received signal strength (RSS), time-of-arrival (TOA), time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA) and image processing.
Radio frequency (RF) signal positioning using TOA or TDOA techniques generally requires timing synchronization of the anchors and/or the anchors and targets. If the desired...
As the price of broadband access service becomes more affordable, the number of homes with WiFi and public WiFi hotspots in the US are projected to increase significantly in the next few years. However, limited capacity of existing WiFi networks fail to provide adequate bandwidth for densely populated areas. Therefore,...