Ferrites have been used for various high frequency applications as bulk
materials. These applications, however, are limited to large dimension devices. In
this thesis, thin film ferrites were deposited from a low temperature solution-based
deposition process that is suitable for micro-scale high frequency applications. The
low temperature nature of this...
The primary purpose of this study was to try to (1) provide information on the chemical nature, including turbidity formation, of polygalacturonic acid in different concentrations of NaCl solution. (2) use turbidity formation characteristics to develop an assay for determining the activities polygalacturonic acid depolymerases by using a polyelectrolyte. (3)...
A digital phase locked loop (DPLL) and a statistical time-to-digital converter (STDC) were previously fabricated in a 0.35µm, 3.3V SOI CMOS process. This work summarizes these designs and characterizes the measured performance. Simulations supplement the measurements where applicable.
The DPLL was found to reach a locked state under a limited...
Digital-to-analog converters (DACs) with wide dynamic range and high
linearity are required for high-end audio applications. A multi-bit delta sigma
audio DAC, using a novel gain-correction technique, is described in this thesis. For
widely varying on-chip RC time constant, the DAC gain can be accurately
controlled by the correction circuitry....
The purpose of this thesis is to explore methods which can reduce the power dissipation of a mobile system while decoding MPEG video. MPEG decoding is a microprocessor intensive process that makes heavy use of both the L1 and L2 caches as well as main memory. The heavy load placed...
The lower Columbia River (LCR) riparian zone is rich in habitat diversity. However, the natural beauty and species diversity along the river have increasingly become affected by human activity. This study quantifies the areal extent and degree of wetlands change and associated causes along the LCR over the past 44...
The variegated aqueous chemistries of metal cations are applied to the design and synthesis of non-toxic solution precursors suitable for additive printing of large-area oxide electronics. Polycondensation behaviors of aqueous Al+3 and PO4 +3 are manipulated in the deposition of atomically smooth amorphous aluminum oxide phosphate (AlPO) dielectric films. AlPO...
Retention of engineering students is a problem for many universities, especially during the first year. The problem of introducing students to engineering while increasing retention rates has recently been addressed by many different universities. Implementing novel lab structures, adjusting the lecture to incorporate more effective teaching techniques, and using orientation...
General purpose computer systems have seen increased performance potential through the parallel processing capabilities of multicore processors. Yet this potential performance can only be attained through parallel applications, thus forcing software developers to rethink how everyday applications are designed. The most readily form of Thread Level Parallelism (TLP) within any...
This work focusses on the modeling and the development of efficient coupled simulation techniques for MEMS based RF oscillators. High-level models for MEMS based varactors have been discussed and their accuracy issues are identified, based on comparisons with numerical simulations. A faster simulation approach based on the time-domain shooting method...