L’intérêt porté sur la miniaturisation des systèmes par la communauté scientifique est grand, que ce soit pour des raisons de mobilité, d’économie d’énergie ou d’innovation technologique. L’objectif de cette thèse est de déterminer les caractéristiques physiques et structurales des couches minces et des nanofils d’oxydes métalliques synthétisés par la méthode électrochimique. La première partie de cette thèse est consacrée à l’oxyde de bismuth en phase delta. Les couches minces élaborés par électrochimie sont de très bonne qualité cristalline, et seul la phase delta- Bi2O3 est présente. Le caractère nano structuré des couches minces est mis en évidence par les expériences de microscopie électronique en transmission (MET) et participe à la stabilisation de cette phase à température ambiante. Les mesures de conductivité réalisées par spectroscopie d’impédance complexe montrent un comportement différent selon la nature du substrat utilisé. Nous observons une excellente conductivité électrique des dépôts réalisés sur les substrats en argent doré (4·10-3 S·cm-1), alors que les dépôts obtenus sur l’inox montre un comportement très résistif (10-7 S·cm-1). La seconde partie de cette étude concerne l’oxyde de zinc. Les conditions d’élaboration par électrochimie influence les propriétés structurales et physiques des couches minces obtenues. Les différents traitements thermiques réalisés sur les couches minces de ZnO ont permis d’améliorer la qualité optique des couches et de modifier la structure du ZnO par incorporation d’azote lors de recuit dans l’ammoniaque. La dernière partie est consacrée à la synthèse et à la caractérisation de nanofils de ZnO élaborés par la méthode « template ». Cette méthode nous a permis de confiner la croissance par électrochimie dans des pores de différents diamètres. Les observations réalisés par MET et MET en Haute Résolution montrent que les nanofils obtenus sont monocristallins et de bonne qualité. Les propriétés d’émission observées en PL sont très proches des propriétés d’émission des couches minces / The growing interest towards micro and nano devices has improved in the recent years. This interest arises from the need of mobility devices, energy savings or technologic innovation. The aim of the present work is to determine structural and physical properties of electrodeposited metallic oxide thin film and nanowires. The first part of this work will treat the case of bismuth oxide in delta phase. Electrodeposition method is used to stabilized the delta phase at room temperature, structure studies revealed a good cristallinity of the films and the high purity of the deposit. The stability of delta-Bi2O3 at room temperature is probably due to the nanostructuration of the deposit which had been observed in TEM experiments. The electrical behaviour of the film different from the substrate used to perform electrodeposition. We observed an excellent electrical conductivity (4·10-3 S·cm-1) from samples deposited on gilded silver, while low conductivity of the film is observed when deposit on stainless steel (10-7 S·cm-1). The second part of this work deal with zinc oxide thin film electrodeposited from aqueous solution. The experimental conditions used to perform electrodeposition have been found to influence structural and physical properties of the electrodeposited ZnO. Thermal treatment applied to electrodeposited ZnO improve the crystal quality and annealing under NH3 atmosphere at 400°C induced the formation of Zn:N bonds in the deposit. The last part of this report is related to the fabrication of ZnO nanowires using template method. This method has allowed us to restrict the growth of the ZnO into Nanopores. Observations made using TEM and HR-TEM, shows that electrodeposited nanowires are of a good crystal quality and monocrystalline. PL experiments have revealed that the emission is very close to the emission observed for the ZnO thin film

A teoria do limite de similaridade é uma teoria central para o entendimento da estruturação das comunidades ecológicas, e prevê que a coexistência de duas espécies de forma estável somente é possível caso exista um limite de semelhança entre elas. Nesse sentido, é esperado que ocorra partilha de recursos entre espécies simpátricas aparentadas como Podocnemis unifilis e Podocnemis expansa, dois quelônios amplamente distribuídos e de grande importância econômica e cultural na região amazônica. Assim, o objetivo deste estudo foi determinar os padrões de consumo de duas espécies simpátricas de quelônios, P. unifilis e P. expansa, além de verificar possíveis interações tróficas que se estabeleçam entre elas, considerando suas possíveis variações sexuais, no rio Javaés, Estado do Tocantins, Brasil. Desta forma, foram feitas análises dos conteúdos estomacais e análises isotópicas das unhas de indivíduos dessas espécies visando a determinação de suas amplitudes e sobreposições de nicho alimentar e isotópico. As sobreposições de nicho alimentar foram comparadas às sobreposições de comunidade idealizadas sem competição, por meio de modelos nulos. As sobreposições de nicho isotópico foram calculadas através de elipses bayesianas. As espécies apresentaram baixos valores de amplitude de nicho independente da medida. Entretanto, apresentaram alta sobreposição de nicho alimentar e nenhuma sobreposição de nicho isotópico. Amplitudes foram sempre reduzidas e sobreposições sempre elevadas entre os sexos. As diferenças entre as sobreposições de nicho das espécies medidas a partir das duas metodologias se relacionaram a importância de outras dimensões além da alimentar para o nicho isotópico. Os padrões de uso de recursos observados indicam que competição por alimento não está sendo relevante para a coocorrência das espécies no sistema estudado, possivelmente devido à altas disponibilidades dos recursos alimentares utilizados por P. unifilis e P. expansa. / The limiting similarity theory is a central theory for the comprehension of the structure of ecological communities, and predicts that the stable coexistence of two species is possible only if there is a limit of similarity between them. Therefore, it is expected to occur resource partitioning among sympatric related species as Podocnemis unifilis and Podocnemis expansa, two freshwater turtles widely distributed and of great economic and cultural importance in the Amazon region. The objective of this study was to determine the consumption patterns of two sympatric species of freshwater turtles, P. unifilis and P. expansa, and to identify possible trophic interactions to be established between them, considering its possible sexual variations, in the Javaés River, State of Tocantins, Brazil. Thus, were made analyzes of stomach content and isotopic analyzes of claws from individuals of these species in order to determine their amplitudes and dietary overlaps of food niche and isotopic niche. The food niche overlaps were compared with overlaps of idealized communities without competition, through null models. The isotopic niche overlaps were calculated using bayesian ellipses. The species had low niche amplitude values independent of the measure. However, the species showed high overlap of food niche and no isotopic niche overlap. Amplitudes were always reduced and overlap always high between the sexes. Differences between the niche overlaps of the species measures due the two methodologies were related to the importance of other dimensions beyond that represented by feeding to the isotopic niche. The observed patterns of resources usage indicate that competition for food is not being relevant to the co-occurrence of these species in the system studied, possibly due to the high availability of food resources used by P. unifilis and P. expansa.

No description available.

Les hydrocarbures aromatiques polycycliques (HAP), sont des molécules toxiques, voire cancérigènes principalement issues de la combustion incomplète de matière carbonée. De nombreux outils ont été développés afin d’identifier leurs origines et leur devenir. Cependant, ces derniers ne permettent pas toujours de parvenir à une identification précise des sources d’émissions. Une méthode prenant en compte les variations des rapports isotopiques δ 13C et δ 2H dans 16 composés a été développée et comparée à celle des ratios moléculaires. Le développement du protocole a consisté en la préparation puis la validation d’une méthode d’extraction sélective par type de matrice (eau/sédiment) et d’une méthode de purification permettant d’obtenir pour chaque molécule une résolution adaptée à leur analyse isotopique. Cette méthode a été appliquée sur divers produits de combustion franciliens ainsi que sur des échantillons de dépôts atmosphériques, d’eau et de sédiments de rivière. La mesure du δ13C et du δ2H a permis de confirmer la présence de sources locales et de caractériser les variations saisonnières de ratios. L’originalité de ce travail de recherche réside dans l’utilisation du δ2H spécifique à chaque molécule et non sur un mélange de composés. Les résultats permettent d’envisager de nouvelles perspectives sur l’utilisation des mesures isotopiques. Cette thèse représente un premier élément de réponse sur la problématique de l’emploi d’outils de traçage de molécules dans des environnements complexes. / Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a group of toxic and carcinogenic organic compounds formed by petrogenic and incomplete pyrolytic processes. Although emission reductions were observed over the past 20 years, PAH contamination is still an environmental concern as these compounds are the main contaminants in the Seine watershed. Many tools were developed to identify their origins and fate. However, these methods do not always allow accurate identification of emission sources. A method integrating the variations of the isotopic ratios of δ13C and δ2H among 16 compounds was developed and compared to those of the molecular diagnostic ratio techniques. The development of the protocol consisted of the preparation and the validation of a selective extraction method by matrix type (water / sediment) and a purification step to obtain for each molecule, a resolution adapted to its isotopic analysis. That method applied to various combustion products in the Ile-de-France region, such as samples of atmospheric deposition, water and river sediments. The measurement of δ13C and δ2H signatures confirmed the presence of local sources and helped to characterize the seasonal variations of the ratios. The originality of this research work is the use of δ2H on individual PAH instead of bulk compounds. The results allow considering new perspectives for the use of isotopic measurements.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Harvard University, 1999. / Adviser: Philip Kuhn. Includes bibliographical references.

The ever advance of CMOS digital circuit process leads tothe trend of digitizing an analog signal and performing digitalsignal processing as early as possible in a signal processingsystem, which in turn leads to an increasing requirement onanalog- to-digital converter (ADC). A wireless transceiver is asuch kind of signal processing system. Conventionaltransceivers manipulate (filter, amplify and mix) the signalmostly in analog domain. Since analog filters are difficult todesign onchip, the system integration level is low. Moderntransceivers shift many of these tasks to digital domain, wherethe filtering and channel selection can be realized moreaccurately and more compactly. However the price for the highintegration level is the critical requirement on the ADC,because the simplified analog part sends not only the weaksignal but also the unwanted strong neighboring channel to theADC. In order to digitize the needed signal in the presence ofstrong disturbances, a high dynamic-range and high-speed ADC isneeded. Sigma Delta ADCs are promising candidates for A/D conversionin modern wireless transceivers. They are naturally suitablefor high-resolution narrow-band A/D conversions. With thedevelopment of processing and design techniques, sigma deltaADCs are expanding their applications to moderate-band area,such as wireless communication baseband processing. Currentlymobile communication systems are migrating from 2G to 3G. In 2Gsystems the baseband width is in the order of hundred kHz,while in 3G systems the baseband width is in the order of MHz.To face the challenge of designing a high resolution sigmadelta ADC with large bandwidth, a multi-bit internal quantizeris often used. In this thesis special design considerations onmulti-bit sigma delta modulators are discussed. The biggestdrawback of multi-bit sigma delta modulators isthe need of anextra circuit to attenuate or compensate the internal multi-bitDAC non-linearity. This thesis provides a comprehensiveanalysis of the solution which combines a multi-bit quantizerwith a 1-bit DAC in a sigma delta modulator. The theoreticalanalysis result is verified by measurement results. Anothertopic addressed in the thesis is how to reduce the multi-bitquantizer complexity. It is shown that by using a semiuniformquantizer, the quantizer can reduce its complexity by one-bityet still maintain the same modulator dynamic range. Theperformance of the semi-uniform quantizer is also verified bymeasurement results.

Low intrinsic transistor gain in nanometer CMOS technologies imposes implementation difficulties of switched-capacitor (SC) circuits based on a conventional OTA used in delta-sigma ADCs. Zero-crossing-based circuits (ZCBCs) have been proposed as replacements for conventional OTAs in SC circuits, but the efficiency of existing ZCBC-based delta-sigma ADCs trails that of state-of-art conventional delta-sigma ADCs. The dynamic comparator-based OTA (DCBOTA) is a novel circuit block that performs an equivalent operation of a conventional OTA in a SC circuit by repeatedly detecting the input (Vg) sign and applying output current pulses to move Vg toward zero. The current pulse amplitude, set to the maximum at the beginning of a charge transfer phase, is decremented each time Vg crosses zero. Once Vg crosses zero at the minimum current pulse amplitude, the operation above ceases. The discrete-time nature of Vg comparison and current pulse injection in the DCBOTA allows use of a dynamic regenerative comparator, which is fast and scaling friendly, instead of the slow scaling-unfriendly open-loop zero-crossing detector used in ZCBCs. A small final Vg step size is required for high settling accuracy, but it can result in a long settling time. Analysis reveals that the DCBOTA settling time is minimized with a current pulse scaling factor of 3.59 for any final Vg step size. The comparator and switch noise affects the settling DCBOTA settling accuracy. The relationship between the minimum Vg step size, comparator noise, and switch noise for a given input-referred noise is shown. The DCBOTA consists of a dynamic regenerative comparator, control logic, and current pulse driver. The comparator evaluates the Vg sign when enabled by the control logic. The control logic enables and resets the comparator, and controls the current pulse amplitude. The current pulse driver applies either a positive or negative output current pulse when triggered by the comparator output. A 1-1-1-1 MASH delta-sigma ADC using DCBOTAs fabricated in a 65-nm CMOS technology achieved 70.4 dB of peak SNDR over a 2.5-MHz bandwidth dissipating 3.89 mW of power from a 1.2-V supply. Measurements show linear ADC power scaling over sampling frequencies provided by the dynamic operation of the DCBOTAs.

The temperature differential of chilled water is an important factor used for evaluating the performance of a chilled water system. A low delta-T may increase the pumping energy consumption and increase the chiller energy consumption. The system studied in this thesis is the chilled water system at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW Airport). This system has the problem of low delta-T under low cooling loads. When the chilled water flow is much lower than the design conditions at low cooling loads, it may lead to the laminar flow of the chilled water in the cooling coils. The main objective of this thesis is to explain the heat transfer performance of the cooling coils under low cooling loads. The water side and air side heat transfer coefficients at different water and air flow rates are calculated. The coefficients are used to analyze the heat transfer performance of the cooling coils at conditions ranging from very low loads to design conditions. The effectiveness-number of transfer units (NTU) method is utilized to analyze the cooling coil performance under different flow conditions, which also helps to obtain the cooling coil chilled water temperature differential under full load and partial load conditions. When the water flow rate drops to 1ft/s, laminar flow occurs; this further decreases the heat transfer rate on the water side. However, the cooling coil effectiveness increases with the drop of water flow rate, which compensates for the influence of the heat transfer performance under laminar flow conditions. Consequently, the delta-T in the cooling coil decreases in the transitional flow regime but increases in the laminar flow regime. Results of this thesis show that the laminar flow for the chilled water at low flow rate is not the main cause of the low delta-T syndrome in the chilled water system. Possible causes for the piping strategy of the low delta-T syndrome existing in the chilled water system under low flow conditions are studied in this thesis: (1) use of two way control valves; and (2) improper tertiary pump piping strategy.

The aim of this master’s thesis is to implement an ADC (Analog-to-Digital Converter) foraudio applications using external components together with an FPGA (Field-ProgrammableGate Array). The focus is on making the ADC low-cost and it is desirable to achieve 16-bitresolution at 48 KS/s. Since large FPGA’s have numerous I/O-pins, there are usually someunused pins and logic available in the FPGA that can be used for other purposes. This istaken advantage of, to make the ADC as low-cost as possible.This thesis presents two solutions: (1) a - (Sigma-Delta) converter with a first order passive loop-filter and (2) a - converter with a second order active loop-filter. The solutionshave been designed on a PCB (Printed Curcuit Board) with a Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA. Bothsolutions take advantage of the LVDS (Low-Voltage-Differential-Signaling) input buffers inthe FPGA.(1) achieves a peak SNDR (Signal-to-noise-and-distortion-ratio) of 62.3 dB (ENOB (Effectivenumber of bits) 10.06 bits) and (2) achieves a peak SNDR of 80.3 dB (ENOB 13.04). (1) isvery low-cost ($0.06) but is not suitable for high-precision audio applications. (2) costs $0.53for mono audio and $0.71 for stereo audio and is comparable with the solution used today:an external ADC (PCM1807).

With today’s technology, digital signal processing plays a major role. It is used widely in many applications. Many applications require high resolution in measured data to achieve a perfect digital processing technology. The key to achieve high resolution in digital processing systems is analog-to-digital converters. In the market, there are many types ADC for different systems. Delta-sigma converters has high resolution and expected speed because it’s special structure. The signal-to-noise-and-distortion (SINAD) and total harmonic distortion (THD) are two important parameters for delta-sigma converters. The paper will describe the theory of parameters and test method.