In this thesis, a Mandarin toponym speech recognition system is developed using MFCC, LPC and HMM under Red Hat Linux 9.0. The system is based on monosyllable HMM's to select the initial toponym candidates, and its final classification result can be obtained by further pitch identification mechanisms. For speaker-dependent case, a 90% correct rate can be achieved approximately and the recognition process can be accomplished within 1.5 seconds on the average.

Electricity and power generation is an essential part of our life. However, powergeneration activities also create by-products (such as sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides,carbon monoxide, etc), which can be dangerous when released to the atmosphere.Sensors, as part of the control system, play very vital role for the fluegas cleaning processes in power plants. This thesis concerns the development ofSilicon Carbide Field Effect Transistor (SiC-FET) gas sensors as sensors for sulfurcontaining gases (SO2 and H2S) used as part of the environmental control systemin power plants. The works includes sensor deposition and assembly, sensinglayer characterization, operation mode development, performance testing of thesensors in a gas mixing rig in the laboratory and field test in a desulfurization pilotunit, and both experimental and theoretical studies on the detection mechanismof the sensors. The sensor response to SO2 was very small and saturated quickly. SO2 is a verystable gas and therefore reaction with other species requires a large energy input.SO2 mostly reacts with the catalyst through physisorption, which results in lowresponse level. Another problem was that once it finally reacted with oxygen andadsorbed on the surface of the catalyst in form of a sulfate compound, it is desorbedwith difficulty. Therefore, the sensor signal saturated after a certain timeof exposure to SO2. Different gate materials were tested in static operation (Pt,Ir, Au), but the saturation phenomena occurred in all three cases. Dynamic sensoroperation using temperature cycling and multivariate data analysis could mitigatethis problem. Pt-gate sensors were operated at several different temperatures in acyclic fashion. One of the applied temperatures was chosen to be very high for ashort time to serve as cleaning step. This method was also termed the virtual multisensor method because the data generated could represent the data from multiplesensors in static operation at different temperatures. Then, several features of thesignal, such as mean value and slope, were extracted and processed with multivariatedata analysis. Linear Discrimination Analysis (LDA) was chosen since itiiiallows controlled data analysis. It was shown that it was possible to quantify SO2with a 2-step LDA. The background was identified in the first step and SO2 wasquantified in the second step. Pt sensors in dynamic operation and 2-step LDAevaluation has also demonstrated promising results for SO2 measurement in thelaboratory as well as in a desulfurization pilot unit. For a commercial sensor, algorithmhave to be developed to enable on-line measurement in real time. It was observed that Ir-gate sensors at 350oC were very sensitive to H2S. The responseobtained by Ir sensors to H2S was almost five times larger than that of Ptsensors, which might be due to the higher oxygen coverage of Ir. Moreover, Irsensors were also more stable with less drift during the operation as a result ofhigher thermal stability. However, the recovery time for Ir sensors was very long,due to the high desorption energy. Overall, the Ir sensors performed well whentested for a leak detection application (presence of oxygen and dry environment).The geothermal application, where heat is extracted from the earth, requires thesensor to be operated in humid condition in the absence (or very low concentration)of oxygen, and this poses a problem. Temperature cycle operation and smartdata evaluation might also be an option for future development. Along with the sensor performance testing, a study on the detection mechanismwas also performed for SO2 sensor, both experimentally and theoretically. The experimentincluded the study of the species formed on the surface of the catalystwith DRIFT (diffuse reflectance infrared frourier transform) spectroscopy and theanalysis of the residual gas with mass spectroscopy. Explanatory investigation ofthe surface reactions was performed using quantum-chemical calculations. Theoreticalcalculations of the infrared (IR) vibration spectra was employed to supportthe identification of peaks in the DRIFT measurement. Based on the study on theresidual gas analysis and quantum-chemical calculations, a reaction mechanismfor the SO2 molecule adsorption on the sensor surface was suggested.

Le transport routier est responsable de la production de la majeure partie des oxydes d’azote (NOx) émis dans l’atmosphère. La majorité de cette pollution est donc concentrée dans des zones très urbanisées. L’exposition permanente aux gaz d’échappement a des conséquences graves pour la santé humaine et pour cela, des normes d’émission de plus en plus strictes sont mises en place. Les technologies post-Traitement embarquées dans les pots d’échappement sont de plus en plus complexes et nécessitent un control continu de la composition gazeuse. Les conditions sérères de ce milieu requièrent le développement de capteurs de gaz robustes et de longue durée de vie. Dans ce travail, nous présentons la procédure de fabrication et la caractérisation d’un capteur électrochimique à trois électrodes pouvant satisfaire les exigences d’une application industrielle dans le domaine automobile. La technologie de sérigraphie utilisée a l’avantage d’être facilement transférable dans l’industrie pour une production de masse bas cout.Le principe de fonctionnement du capteur est basé sur la polarisation galvanostatique de l’électrode sensible permettant une détection sélective de NO2 sans interférence avec d’autres gaz comme CO et NO. De plus, afin d’augmenter la stabilité du capteur, de diminuer les temps de réponse et de recouvrement, un nouveau matériau d’électrode composite à base d’or a été développé.Enfin, la réduction électrochimique de l’oxygène sur l’or et sur des électrodes composite a été étudiée, afin de proposer un mécanisme de détection de NO2 / Road transport is one of the main sources of NOx emitted into the atmosphere. The majority of this pollution is concentrated in urbanized areas. The permanent exposure to the exhaust gases has serious consequences for human health and for that, emission standards become more stringent. The modern technologies present in automotive need the continuous control of the exhaust composition. The variations of temperature, composition of exhaust gas, vibrations and other factors require long life robust control systems. In this work, we present the procedure of fabrication and characterization of an electrochemical sensor with three electrodes that can fulfill the demands of industrial applications in automotive industry. Manufacturing by screen-Printing technology allows producing low-Cost sensor with high reproducibility in industrial process.The principle of our sensor is based on galvanostatic polarization of a gold sensing electrode allowing the selective detection of NO2 without interference to other gases such as CO and NO. In order to increase stability, and to decrease the response and recovery time of the sensor, a new Au composite sensitive electrode was developed. The electrochemical reduction of oxygen on gold and gold-Based electrodes was then studied, to propose a detailed mechanism of NO2 detection.